We didn’t end up going over chapter 5 of Carr’s “The Shallows”, wrong chapter posted on the syllabus. We’ll never know if I could have contributed anything to the class discussion. I am not sure the way my brain works lines up well with this class. O’Malley throws out lots of deep, thought provoking questions, questions I can’t just spit out an answer too. The way I think about things is to process them, test them out in my own head.

I like to use metaphors a lot in my everyday speech. I like poetry, I like how the words sound, and I like the way those sounds make me feel. If someone spoke like Shakespeare in everyday conversations I would think they were crazy, and I would get annoyed real fast. There is a place for using words more than just to say what we mean though. I would rather speak closer to “courtly speech” than the opposite end of the spectrum, I guess something like Orwell’s “1984” Newspeak.  I am a feelings based person, how I feel is how I am. I can’t always explain how I feel using plain words. If I am not doing well, it’s not just because I am not doing well, it could be because I am frustrated or anxious, ungood just doesn’t do it for me. I like having a large vocabulary and being able to pick out words because of how closely they come to what I mean to say.

The question “Why is slavery bad?” was asked by O’Malley in class. Apparently it has to do with the fact that we have two selves, the self that will do what is necessary, like a job or homework, and the deep down self that has opinions and thoughts that no one can command. Most people now would agree that slavery is bad, even though there are still humans who subject other humans to slavery, but what lead those who opposed slavery to question how things had always been? A lot of early people who spoke out against slavery still owned slaves. There was a war about it and lots of arguments, did people just start being like, “you know, maybe this isn’t right? Did slave owners suddenly wake up with a conscience? It was probably like a lot of other events in history, it started with a small group or an individual and it spread. In order for it to spread it had to be a good idea, although bad ideas spread too. My brain is going in circles, I don’t know why it happened.

I hate speculating, and hypothetical questions. I like research and gaining knowledge in an area and then developing an opinion. I don’t like spending time on questions that don’t have answers. I also don’t like arguing for the sake of arguing.

I like words though.