No cookie cutters for me. They taste good no matter what.
In starting to read some of the course material for my online class I came across a small paragraph that got under my skin and enraged me. I understood it for the necessity of the course but . . .
That's just it, "for the course, for the course" is all I keep muttering to myself. I was going to write a scathing rant on the "cookie-cutter" culture we will never escape (though claim to have over-come over and over and over again). The words of Foucault, Derrida and Said were echoing in my head with an image of Nietzsche's Madman running through the market in the daytime with his lit lantern and . . .
I just let it all go. Do we have to look towards the future to understand what the ramifications are for the use of new technology by the herd? The formulas for success are just a click away. You can even find a perfect mate, learn how to sculpt the perfect body, even become a man/woman of God. I'm proud of such ingenuity put forth by my fellow man, but what would we do, if suddenly left without the formulas? It's not a new fear, in fact I feel like an unoriginal broken record. What do we do when it's all gone?
For those of you who had the pleasure of seeing the movie Up this weekend I hope the whole message of representation did not get lost. I'm not quite getting at the phenomenology of film . . . but a bit broader. Quickly, without wasting too much time on plot and hopefully not giving too much away, the main character Carl seems to have an unhealthy attachment to the things that reminded him of his late wife, Ellie. In fact, this attachment to these objects are what get him in trouble in the first place (the mailbox incident). What Carl realized during the course of the film was that those memories originated in him. They poured out of him. This theme ran and over-lapped in various sub-plots through out the entire film. After all we could examine the superficial reasons that led Russell to Carl's door step. I think the mystery and the interesting part of all of it (of life) is what happens in the "in between." The turning of an object into a symbol (whether personal or cultural). The becoming of an icon. Which definitions we choose and which objects house those definitions, when and why . . . Gah . . . . somewhere in there is where I want to be.
What do our "symbols" say about us now . . .
"Instant" messenger
"High-speed" internet
"All access"
"Unlimited" text
The idea that you aren't connected with the people you love if you don't have constant access to them . . .
All of this makes me long for where the wild things are.
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