Earlier quoted context omitted.
I genuinely think that the vast majority of English teachers have had experiences like this. It's what made them become English teachers. Then, with all the best intent in the world, they try to explain to their students "Look, you don't get this, this fat book is transcendent if you can just sit with it and understand it! I, too, used to think that English class was just stupid words that they force you to read, but…
- “Blah blah blah blah skeleton, blah blah blah blah mitochondria! Make sense?” - “No!”
I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
281–290 of 360 posts
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#282> Why this word, this scene, this character, and not some other one? The "why this not that , even when it looks like that would do just fine" style of differential analysis is an exquisitely powerful analytical tool. Asking this question is probably the single most powerful method I know of to generate deep thought, in absolutely any aspect of life. If you haven't tried it... go for it! (Sample question: why'd I cho…
I agree with your sentiment about ranking -- the gamification of art is pointless -- but I'd go even further: often you won't agree with yourself from the past about a book or movie! Sometimes you just need to be in the mood for a work you previously considered average to really hit you. Other times you revisit music that felt really powerful in your youth, but hearing it again only evokes a mild nostalgia and a feel…
THANK YOU! This is why I hate security questions that ask for my “favorite” whatever. That’s going to change! My favorite movie, or supervillain or whatever is going to change - hopefully - within a couple years if good artists are out there making good art. So why the hell would I answer that question the same 5 years from now as I would today?!
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Then afterwards just give them a calculator. If problems were properly designed the students shouldn't even need calculators. In math the specific numerical value of a result is far less important than how it relates to the inputs. Raw calculation doesn't develop the intuition of when one operation is more appropriate than another.
Absolutely not. Properly designed problems involve numbers that simulate the real world (Benford’s law). Specifically choosing numbers that are easier to compute mentally or by hand would lead students to doubt themselves whenever they encounter something difficult to compute, so you can consider that either cheating or giving them undue psychological stress.
In math they shouldn't be computing at all, they should just be performing symbolic manipulations.
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#284[flagged]
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#285> this is an illusion. The ideas are not already good. They need to be thickened.
I think this is a good candidate to hang on the wall, or perhaps for a tattoo.
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
^^ this. I was never an art person and then one day I felt like I was just punched in the face when it hit me. It's not like "I like this, it's interesting", it's like " Oh. That."
the punched in the face expression is strange here. I get it but I also presume that you have never been punched in the face much like you never connected (that's the word you are looking for, also a boxing term) with art.
I presume you think having been punched in the face makes you special. I have too. It doesn't.
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#287The anecdote about the garden of earthly delights is going to be relatable even for art students. I've met art teachers that ended up "trapped" in Madrid by the Prado Museum: A green, American future Ph.D student that was heading to Greece to specialize in old greek art. But instead of flying straight there, they stopped at Madrid to see the Prado, and were never able to leave. Changed their direction immediately, an…
Totally. The right way to approach an art gallery is definitely just to walk round until something hits you. Most astonishing time that happened to me was a wall-sized Rothko that just floored me, in a way I never would have expected a slab of color to. Dali’s La Gare de Perpignan stopped me in my tracks too. Rarely been as stunned by more famous works as when I got blindsided by something that leapt out and said ‘lo…
Possibly the best thing about Washington D.C. is that the National Gallery of Art (along with, I think, all the Smithsonian) is free. This means you just take a casual stroll through without any of the pressure of having spent a sizable sum like you might to visit a place like the Art Institute in Chicago. In Chicago a visit is an event, you need to see the Seurat, the Grant Wood, etc. You've spent money and you need make it count.
In D.C. you can literally walk in, go look at the big Joan Mitchell for 10 minutes and continue on your day. Or you can wander through a room you've never been interested in and find something and then go to lunch. Without the commitment to get everything done, you are suddenly free.
Good libraries (edit: even mediocre libraries) also have this quality.
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#288> Why this word, this scene, this character, and not some other one? The "why this not that , even when it looks like that would do just fine" style of differential analysis is an exquisitely powerful analytical tool. Asking this question is probably the single most powerful method I know of to generate deep thought, in absolutely any aspect of life. If you haven't tried it... go for it! (Sample question: why'd I cho…
> Why this word
Because an AI company made their LLM "roll a dice" that was loaded in a specific way to choose that word, so they could claim ownership of your document later.
:sigh:
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#289Engaging article to read. I very much like the "the shape of a thing" bit:
There is an additional essence that is necessary to turn something from the shape of a thing into the actual thing, and the difference between having and lacking that essence is the difference between a corpse and a person.
But read the whole article, it's worth it.
Which of them will drive people so mad they’ll major in the humanities?
Absolute gold.
Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
#290The anecdote about the garden of earthly delights is going to be relatable even for art students. I've met art teachers that ended up "trapped" in Madrid by the Prado Museum: A green, American future Ph.D student that was heading to Greece to specialize in old greek art. But instead of flying straight there, they stopped at Madrid to see the Prado, and were never able to leave. Changed their direction immediately, an…
But let’s not pretend that the plastic and painterly arts are so much more self-evidently “thick” than literature is. Despite their immediacy, these arts have their own conventions, motifs, and demands that must be understood to “find the treasure in the dark cave.”
I have tried to convince someone I know that an art museum merits more than a one-minute-per-painting, four minutes-max-per-room, pretty/not-pretty approach. She still does not understand why I linger over books or works of art, and I have not the wherewithal to lead her through the techniques, the conventions, or the history that makes this worthwhile for me.