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I figured after about a week of running around in a panic with my brain on fire (evidently midterms are bad for me), I should give you all an update.
For anybody who's been wondering, I've been ridiculously busy all bloody week. About the only break I've taken since Sunday was to watch Heroes; otherwise, it was all homework and work and beating myself up for procrastinating. I do good work sometimes. Fortunately, the only midterm I have left is my Religion midterm (the test for the class I don't care about with the teacher that drives me up the wall. Long story right there). I think I did just fine with my history one today, though, which was good.
Rhetoric class is still throwing me for a loop, though, except now I think I may have some idea why. First of all, it's a small class, probably only ten or fifteen people total. About half the class is in the class right before it, Lit Theory, which taught by the same professor. They see each other a good bit, and a lot of what happens in Lit Theory subject- and theory-wise gets brought up in rhetoric. For more background, there are basically three kinds of rhetoric: technical (focusing on the words/techniques themselves), sophistic (interested in what rhetoric can do/what's possible) and philosophical (interested in finding the truth). Most of the class discussions tend to fall under philosophical category - for example, today we were discussing reaction papers (read: rhetoric idea dumps) we did, and a good number of people wrote about Nietzsche and truth. Dr. Goodman and the Lit BFFs are all rather enamoured of the idea of finding truth, and by the end of discussion today they were about the only people talking.
I think the problem is, I'm not a philosophical rhetorician; I'm a technical one. I honestly don't care about your version of the truth and whether it's relative and how to find it - I'd rather look at how you got there, your tropes and phrasing and just how one single word can affect your meaning and tone. This is why I like literary analysis - it's those exact same techniques used in a literary setting to get at an author's meaning. While a good number of papers were about Nietzsche, mine was based on the quote "I don't trust any expert who can't explain himself in simple terms" and discussed what simple terms were in terms of audience, location, constraints, and just how far the speech itself was meant to go. I'd rather tear something apart and look at the little tiny pieces to see how it works instead of trying to synthesize a new something through trial, error, and discussion. I want to know what works, how it works, and if it'll work the same way in another context.
This pretty much puts me on a different level from the professor and half the class. It also probably explains why I drop out of discussions about halfway through and just smile and nod instead. The rest of the semester could prove to be interesting indeed.
...on a completely non-rhetoric non-class related subject, I'm really starting to get tired of Derby Days. I realize the whole point of it is to raise money for Sigma Chi's philanthropy, but seriously, I am seriously tired of the whole thing. Derby Days is the only philanthropy where sororities are competing for the guys' approval. Everything just kind of hinges on how much they like us. It doesn't help that I'm bound and freaking determined to win a derby, yet I have neither the time nor supplies to do so. They tell us that the best way to earn one is to do something for City of Hope (the organization they're raising money for), but according to my sisters and my observations, the best way to win one is 1) to know a Sigma Chi personally (which I don't) and 2) to spoil him rotten for a week. This is where I'm tied between going "I'm not really that desperate for a hat" and going "no, but I really really want one ;_;" - this is to say, of course, that I can't win.
Looking at this, I realize I am likely bitter simply because I do not have a hat.
...I feel better now. |D
Either way, I'm spending an hour on a teeter totter with a Sigma Chi tonight (which is somehow also part of their philanthropy...), which could either be really fun or really awkward. Maybe I'll bring chocolate.
Kind of a long and rambly and random update, but I'm braindead and still need to study for the killer religion midterm tomorrow. Coherent thought processes are for the weak.
For anybody who's been wondering, I've been ridiculously busy all bloody week. About the only break I've taken since Sunday was to watch Heroes; otherwise, it was all homework and work and beating myself up for procrastinating. I do good work sometimes. Fortunately, the only midterm I have left is my Religion midterm (the test for the class I don't care about with the teacher that drives me up the wall. Long story right there). I think I did just fine with my history one today, though, which was good.
Rhetoric class is still throwing me for a loop, though, except now I think I may have some idea why. First of all, it's a small class, probably only ten or fifteen people total. About half the class is in the class right before it, Lit Theory, which taught by the same professor. They see each other a good bit, and a lot of what happens in Lit Theory subject- and theory-wise gets brought up in rhetoric. For more background, there are basically three kinds of rhetoric: technical (focusing on the words/techniques themselves), sophistic (interested in what rhetoric can do/what's possible) and philosophical (interested in finding the truth). Most of the class discussions tend to fall under philosophical category - for example, today we were discussing reaction papers (read: rhetoric idea dumps) we did, and a good number of people wrote about Nietzsche and truth. Dr. Goodman and the Lit BFFs are all rather enamoured of the idea of finding truth, and by the end of discussion today they were about the only people talking.
I think the problem is, I'm not a philosophical rhetorician; I'm a technical one. I honestly don't care about your version of the truth and whether it's relative and how to find it - I'd rather look at how you got there, your tropes and phrasing and just how one single word can affect your meaning and tone. This is why I like literary analysis - it's those exact same techniques used in a literary setting to get at an author's meaning. While a good number of papers were about Nietzsche, mine was based on the quote "I don't trust any expert who can't explain himself in simple terms" and discussed what simple terms were in terms of audience, location, constraints, and just how far the speech itself was meant to go. I'd rather tear something apart and look at the little tiny pieces to see how it works instead of trying to synthesize a new something through trial, error, and discussion. I want to know what works, how it works, and if it'll work the same way in another context.
This pretty much puts me on a different level from the professor and half the class. It also probably explains why I drop out of discussions about halfway through and just smile and nod instead. The rest of the semester could prove to be interesting indeed.
...on a completely non-rhetoric non-class related subject, I'm really starting to get tired of Derby Days. I realize the whole point of it is to raise money for Sigma Chi's philanthropy, but seriously, I am seriously tired of the whole thing. Derby Days is the only philanthropy where sororities are competing for the guys' approval. Everything just kind of hinges on how much they like us. It doesn't help that I'm bound and freaking determined to win a derby, yet I have neither the time nor supplies to do so. They tell us that the best way to earn one is to do something for City of Hope (the organization they're raising money for), but according to my sisters and my observations, the best way to win one is 1) to know a Sigma Chi personally (which I don't) and 2) to spoil him rotten for a week. This is where I'm tied between going "I'm not really that desperate for a hat" and going "no, but I really really want one ;_;" - this is to say, of course, that I can't win.
Looking at this, I realize I am likely bitter simply because I do not have a hat.
...I feel better now. |D
Either way, I'm spending an hour on a teeter totter with a Sigma Chi tonight (which is somehow also part of their philanthropy...), which could either be really fun or really awkward. Maybe I'll bring chocolate.
Kind of a long and rambly and random update, but I'm braindead and still need to study for the killer religion midterm tomorrow. Coherent thought processes are for the weak.
