Reality Project FTW

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Of Irony and Contradiction

Chapters O, P, and Q all include contradictory statements. This is confusing for the reader. For example, I am used to texts which EXPOSE their points literally. Only this year have I begun to notice the figurative meaning of texts and words. Who'd have known The Tempest is metaliterature!

The first antithetical statement I found was on page 135. Just five words caused such confusion in my mind.

"This sentence is a lie." 

If the sentence were true, then it would be a lie. What is the logic in that! Reality is beginning to resemble a never-ending cycle. The chapter's titled "Contradiction," and Shields has used an example which shows this.

I'm not sure comparing these fragments counts as antithesis of each other but fragment 409 and fragment 418 seem to disagree on the topic of doubt. Fragment 409 says its stupid to conduct experiments if you know the results and its silly to ask questions you know the answer to, such as rhetorical questions. On the other hand, fragment 418 says that "when we are not sure, we are alive."

Contradiction, in my opinion, "can be true and untrue at the same time." (pg. 135)

A song of irony and contradiction.

Life in a Nutshell

People have urges to share pieces of themselves. They write about their ideas, feelings, and thoughts. Sometimes, they even focus on their lives and their reality. Then they share life stories. 

Memoirs are a way to share, but I now believe these are like a realistic novel. Thoughts and feelings make the text subjective. They reject the supposed non-fiction of the text. An example is Half a Life. Darin Strauss kept recalling more and more about the incident as we moved through the text and I strongly doubt his repressed memories were resurfacing.

Essays, on the other hand, are harder to define. They are largely influenced by opinion and fact, or as Wikipedia would define them, "essays are a piece of writing often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. " As usual, Wikipedia did some messy work for me. But lets focus on the last sentence. The term short story stands out. An essay, just like a memoir, can be a short story. They can also be "observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author." I think Strauss's memoir is a recollection of his thoughts. 

How do memoirs and essays relate to postcards stories? They condense tales into a format where people don't get bored. The writer's record only the most impacting recollections of ideas. These ideas have to be most appealing in order to keep the reader in rapt attention. This is a result of living in a world where people want everything now. Oh brave new world.

The Perks of Being a TV Star

Craving Reality

As I read Chapter G, titled Blur, fragment 188 caught my attention. The person speaking says he likes "to write stuff that's only an inch from life."From this we can infer that his writing is not life, therefore, is a lie. I agree with this and it takes me back to a fragment we read in class today.

"Memory: the past rewritten in the direction of feeling." 

It makes no sense to think one can without your feelings clouding over.

And since I didn't agree with or understand the excerpts from Chapter H, I can only disagree with fragment 243. The writer says we are overwhelmed with information. True. He then writes about the real overwhelming the fictional, which I believe is false. I feel people are so unsatisfied with their lives, what they own, themselves. Most don't live in the present but, instead, embark in an insane adventure of thoughts, feelings, and dreams in search of their private utopia. 

Moving on. Chapter I contains fragments on the reality-based community. Fragment 254 seems most interesting. It says Obama won the election purely by appearing "real": using his Blackberry and playing basketball. He appealed to the masses and succeeded. This is the smartest move a politician can make. Obama portrayed himself as so real people related and became sympathetic. Sometimes, being a lie can be beneficial.

Lewis Carroll: The Pioneer of Portmanteau

First of all, I was actually too happy for my grade. I was actually unsure on whether I should have included information on words with unknown meanings that were not portmanteau, it did seem out of place. We actually discussed the term "offish" and its possible relationship to the word oafish. With context and research it actually didn't fit in. 

I was actually a little disappointed to discover it had been done many times before. I considered myself a pioneer on this topic! Guess I was wrong! Even though I do consider my point on the dichotomy an unseen one, in this world on internet and copyright everything is public. 

In terms of citations I am a little frustrated; my mistakes were avoidable! Not closing commas and paying more attention to the works cited page could have helped improve my paper.