2008-04-17

"naked with summer in your mouth"

things i will miss about university: watching people write

seriously! i'm not really sure there are going to be a lot of opportunities to look at people's handwriting from here on in. no one writes anymore. sure, i am a letter sender and have letter sending friends, but i know them and it's not quite the same as being in a giant examination room watching the idiosyncractic ways people throw themselves into putting thoughts on a page. i really like people who hold their pens 'wrong'. i hold my pen wrong, it's nice to see other people who have refused to give in to all the people who claimed there was only one way. my dad paid me $20 when i was maybe 8 or so to write an entire page of one sentence holding my pencil between my thumb and forefinger on my right hand. i got the $20, but the incentive wasn't enough to change my habits forever. what did he expect? i am a performer, not a reformer.

there's a boy who sat in front of me during my exam this morning who's also sat near me in class a few times; he grips his pencil (only pencils, sharpened at his desk) in a fist. and he writes this way. i experimented, it is extremely taxing on your ligaments to grip with such force for so long.




so anyways. i have some things to say sort of in nostalgic retrospect of being done this degree (!!). geography and philosophy was a good combination...becoming familiar with ideas and the space where they might be applied...or something to that effect.

for me; i'm so interested in expression and identity - expression of identity. starting from what i'm going to dare to call 'first principles' and Ficte-ian pespectives on where i end and everything that's not-me starts; to the material embodiment of certain forms of identity in the landscape, e.g. ethnic identity, sexual identity...it's an incredible perspective to have gained to be able to (kiiiiiind of) start from the smallest most conceptual bits and extend outwards to what is tangible and 'real'. or at least sensational. sensations are a funny thing though because they're such a fundamental part of the smallest and largest bits.
the experience of sensational effects, expression of their affects.

i'm excited to put some time in thinking about canadian identity. notoriously undefinable - why are you canadian? there's a plurality so pervasive within the notion of a coherent canadian identity that it's even indescribable beyond saying that it is just that - a plurality. i'm especially especially especially interested in the expression of canadian identity through art. i'm going to spend some time with this now . that . i . am . done . SCHOOL!

to start, on a recommendation, i'm spending some time with al purdy.

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that's by emmanuel polanco







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