Lots of thoughts today. I had a long day, starting with a 10am Art History class, moving on to a Japanese class, a chat with a Columbia Deaf Education professor, and ending with a Novel Writing class.
In the morning class, two interesting things came up. One was the use of the word “primitive.” Whatever the initial intentions, the word has evolved to have pejorative meanings. And, in this side of the world, is often used in conjunction with African Art and the likes of such. We were discussing how that’s really a matter of judging and bias and prejudice and a student mentioned that it could also just be a means to categorize and asked what a more appropriate word would be. The teacher suggested primary as an alternative. It’s interesting, to me, how we can easily refer to other culture’s traditions, artwork, products as primitive without noticing that we’re judging them with our word choices.
The other topic of discussion that I noted to mention was about walking through a museum. A student asked the teacher if he knew any tricks about how to view an exhibition. The teacher said that in the cases of a special exhibition (which draws a larger crowd since those are only around for a limited time) it’s a good idea to start from the end. This way you get to avoid the crowds and to look at things in a different perspective. He also advised looking at pieces which weren’t surrounded by crowds. Paying attention to what others avoided. We also talked about whether people like or dislike listening to the audio information (which is available at some museums and it gives you detailed information about the piece, mentioning it’s period and other historical facts). How do you like to visit a museum? Do you like people to tell you what the pieces mean or do you like to not know anything and just feel them?
During my novel writing class, an interesting discussion surrounded the topic of dislikable characters. Would you read a book that had a protagonist you really hated? One that was truly evil? One that was immature? Why? What makes you come back and look for more? Are you only interested in characters you can relate to? All interesting questions for an author.
I also noticed how I think about my novel all the time, unconsciously. As I was explaining my plotline and setting to another student in the class, I noticed that I was saying things that were new to me. It was as if I had figured out the purpose and the tone of the novel without realizing it. It seems I think about it even when I don’t realize it. Why else would all these ideas roll of my tongue on the spur of the moment?
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