Philosophy, Under the Sea
I refuse to believe that I have class tomorrow. I've treated this entire evening like I've had no obligations, and, I must say, it's been nice. Unfortunately, I realize that some time in the next eleven hours, I need to write a critique of a classmate's story for fiction writing. Something tells me that "some time" will be tomorrow morning.
I've been procrastinating more and more this year. I've always been lousy about doing things early enough to not stress about getting them done on time. But this is the first year that I've actually written papers the day that they're due. With one of my practical criticism papers, I went down to the last few minutes before it had to be emailed to my classmates for the workshop. Not good.
Anyway, the story that I have to critique was interesting. It was well written too. Extremely well written. Of course, I'm not sure that I entirely got it, but, as we say in practical criticism, the writer is dead, and it's up to the reader to create meaning. And the meaning that I created for this story was remarkably similar to that of a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. I think it's called "Ready to Wear" or "Unready to Wear." In it and my classmate's, a large part of the plot revolves around the ability to leave one's skin. Clever, of course.
In Vonnegut's, the disassociation with the body is caused by a sort of self-loathing and disconcern for the physical self, if I remember correctly. In my classmate's, the disassociation is caused by an elixir that is given to the protagonist by a philosophic lobster.
Pretty damn similar if you ask me.
I've been procrastinating more and more this year. I've always been lousy about doing things early enough to not stress about getting them done on time. But this is the first year that I've actually written papers the day that they're due. With one of my practical criticism papers, I went down to the last few minutes before it had to be emailed to my classmates for the workshop. Not good.
Anyway, the story that I have to critique was interesting. It was well written too. Extremely well written. Of course, I'm not sure that I entirely got it, but, as we say in practical criticism, the writer is dead, and it's up to the reader to create meaning. And the meaning that I created for this story was remarkably similar to that of a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. I think it's called "Ready to Wear" or "Unready to Wear." In it and my classmate's, a large part of the plot revolves around the ability to leave one's skin. Clever, of course.
In Vonnegut's, the disassociation with the body is caused by a sort of self-loathing and disconcern for the physical self, if I remember correctly. In my classmate's, the disassociation is caused by an elixir that is given to the protagonist by a philosophic lobster.
Pretty damn similar if you ask me.