<< A Little Sass and Class | Main | Honour in Anything >>

Last semester, I made a cardboard box with my dreams inside. Then I developed a narrative methodology for generating stories and characters out of controlled randomization. I got an A. If I had drawn a picture of an elephant wearing an elephant hat, I probably could've got an A as well. It's a dream within a dream!

Lately I have spent a lot of time on the bus and the subway... hyper-navigating public transportation. By which I mean that these vehicles take me places, and I come up with stupid terminology to make my ride seem more important than anyone else's. Whilst aboard said vehicles, I have been doing a lot of reading. Reading is kind of a necessity these days, because reading is an important part of learning things and that's how you get A's when you're not making 'art' out of cardboard boxes.

Since I spend so much time ferrying myself between home and Ryerson, my Learning Station has become the plush stained seat between a passed-out Chinese businessman and two kids making out. I used to find this difficult, as questions more interesting than those in my book often arose: Will I unwillingly get pulled into this orgy of hormones beside me? Can I borrow this dude's cell phone while he's sleeping? I bet it's got Tetris.

Lately, however, I find that the subway works for learning because I can assign each major concept in my reading to someone on the subway. Foucault's logic for how Victorian society represses sexuality becomes the make-out kids. The unconscious man beside me is Gramsci's hegemony, because he represents an unflagging dedication to work despite its apparently adverse affect on his sleep schedule - the man has been effectively negotiated into consumerism! It's a bit tenuous, a little flimsy, and yet I find these people from public transportation keep showing up in my mind whenever I try to remember concepts and ideas in class. They're my signifiers, whether they like it or not.

I am still looking for someone with a metallic robot torso to embody Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto, however. Given the madcap diversity of the TTC, I probably won't have to wait long.

Posted by Chris at 05:24 PM >> Commentations (1)