Augmented Realities

I've decided I'm going to drop English 335 for fall quarter.

When it comes down to it, it really wasn't that hard of a decision and it says a lot to me that it was such an easy decision to make. I don't need the course other than as another elective with Tony, and while I like Tony and I like what he has to offer, I keep returning to this question of what am I really getting out of it?

What benefits do I receive by taking this class? More explorations into postmodernism, poststructuralism and all these other post-philosophies through literature?

English 335. From what I understand of it from talking to Tony, it's part 3 in a series started with Nanotexts. Bookending itself with The Invention of Morel. But if there's one thing I've picked up from classes with Tony, it's that it doesn't end. Sure, you might move on. You might take a break and explore some other realm of thought, but it's circular. Everything returns. Everything crosses back on itself.

It's the natural rhythm of things. For every up, there is a down. They are inseparable.

Doing that independent study project with Tony, I learned some things. I also learned there's a lot that I don't know and have quite a bit to explore. But what I'm getting at is this question of how necessary is Tony to this: as a professor, as a friend, as a mentor, as a resource.

These are baby steps at best, but I think it's time I walked on my own. I have the tools and knowledge at my disposal to try to figure this out on my own. The class would be fun, but really, I'll be "in" it whether I'm there or not. I know half the people signed up (you know who you are) and in fact will be living with one of them next year.

This summer I started an autodidactic project wherein I plan on exploring the nature of messengers, messages and communication through this postmodern lens. It's one of the reasons I froze my Facebook account for the summer. And so far it's been just as engaging and interesting to me as any of the classes I've taken with Tony. I'm asking questions and looking for answers, deconstructing and tearing apart the very words I use to talk about this.

I'm going my own direction with this, and by that I mean that I'm moving forward in these thoughts. I don't know if it's necessarily the "right" direction, but I could ask the same thing of Nanotexts, of Parasites or of Augmented Realities. Because really, the only difference between those courses and this is that we relied on Tony for direction and have been trusting that it's right. It might be. He does have a few years seniority on all of us in this, but so what? Tony himself has said that his cult-leading days are behind him and on the last day of class spring quarter Alex said something to the effect of

"Tony doesn't need followers. He doesn't want them."

Consider this me losing the training wheels. I'll be around. I'll keep exploring and thinking. But I'm striking out on my own. If I think I need help, I know where I can turn, but until such time I'm taking this into my own hands.

Widdershin Writings Episode IV: A New Quarter

I've returned from spring break, freshly exhausted from a great start to racing season for crew and have now started classes.

I only technically have two classes, Chem 121 and Anth 365 (Peoples of Latin America), but am working on an independent study project with Tony that has turned into a kind of case study into what I can best describe as the ontological and socio-political effects music has on culture and literature/art. Like any study experience with Tony though, I'm sure there are many levels beyond this that I'll only start to see once I've been working with and analyzing the texts provided for a few weeks.

Which is, to say, expect more than a few posts with postmodern philosophical influences over the next few months.

I like this idea of independent study because it lends itself to that self-taught experience that makes learning far more valuable than your usual class experience. In that I am helping to create this course of study and have an active role in choosing the texts and directions it will go, it becomes a far more personalized curriculum.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should go out and make their own independent study plans with one of their professors, I myself only resorted to this option after realizing a schedule of three classes on top of my athletics, youth mentoring and club activities would not be conducive towards any kind of sane or healthy living for a full quarter.

I've realized too that in choosing this independent study though, I've pushed myself one step closer to becoming Kai. It was after all, her sitting through the second Nanotexts course last year during her own independent study with Tony that we became acquainted. Perhaps this means I'm transitioning to a new role in this hierarchy of the plurk/English environment Tony has introduced us to. Maybe somewhere amongst this group of thirty or so new Parasites is the next Ace.

And so the evolution and perpetuation continues.

Autodidactism

The best way I could describe any class I've had with Tony Prichard would be to call it encouraged autodidactism. You get the most out of it if you use the class not as an end, but as a starting point.

Autodidact, from the Greek meaning self-taught.

After watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox last week, I plurked about Tony's methods and was promptly asked if I was a TA. I was quick to correct Halfdome and say that I wasn't, but I can fully understand where he could get that idea. Whether I mean to or not, I have a way of stating my opinions with a kind of force that comes across as either knowledgeable or arrogant depending on whether or not I actually know what I'm talking about.

I'm an autodidact of patterns and connections. Gestault -- whom I've brought up previously -- would be my chosen school of psychology. I observe. I watch. I see. I listen. There will always be a part of my consciousness paying attention and squirreling information away for future comparison.

You say 2. They say 2. I can usually figure out together you're making 4.

Now that I'm actually thinking about it, this probably explains why I love film noir so much, but I digress.

Parasites, much like it's predecessor, Nanotexts, and I'm sure the majority of the other English classes Tony has taught where a majority of the course work takes place outside of the formal classroom setting, lends itself especially well to the autodidactic.

http://www.plurk.com/p/3mr7ne

Assignments like our blog posts and thought experiments with rather loosely defined prompts offer themselves towards the kind of self-induced exploration of ideas that most traditional midterm-and-research-paper English classes fail at providing for.

@nanotext mentioned the idea of multiplex consciousness in an offhand plurk back in December while I was enrolled in the GLBT Literature course. It was an example of his thoughts of the moment, that fleeting experience of multiplicity as many windows opened not only through into this digital world of plurk and wave and blogs, but also into the mind. Nanotext has multiplex consciousness.

Like one of those thought parasites, this small idea infected me and remained nearby, a postulation on the sense of identity tickling me as the Fool developed.

So when we came to our thought experiment, it seemed only natural that my exploration would be into multiplexity and how it relates to this parasite of the mind. Some of the best reading I've done for this class has not come from the assigned texts, but the supplementary books I have found within Tony's library and online and drawing the lines that I saw connecting them.

But at the same time, there exists a danger in this. Distraction and interruption. Diversion. It's a fickle balancing act between staying focused at the task -- in this case readings -- at hand and those supplementary articles that we devour alongside them.

I can tell already you see where I'm going with this. The word is on your lips. With all his talk of eating and shared tables, Serres has trained you well in identifying these parasites.