"Metaphors We Live By" Part 2 & 3

Similar to many of my peers in this class, I have similarly fallen behind in posting my blog posts. I have kept up with the reading, but it seems everyday I am more and more focused on completing the portfolio and final writing project for this class. Metaphors we live by and Pilgrim at Tinker creek are both great reads, without a doubt, but 18 credits and a capstone class seem to finally be taking their effects on me.

There is one quote from Metaphors we live by that recently stuck out to me while I was reading that I would like to highlight: “We are constantly performing rituals, from casual rituals, like making the morning coffee by the same sequence of steps each day and watching the eleven o’clock news straight to the end…” (233). I thought this quote came particularly true when it comes to my writing style. I like to write during the same time, whether that’s in the morning or night, day after day much like the making of the coffee. I don’t know if this hurts or helps me in the long run, but I do know it’s my style. Now for the reason I bring this up: when tackling my writing project I have found I can only write so much in one setting. Whether that’s two or three pages of pure text, I struggle writing over 2000-3000 words in one day while staying in a good-mood. It’s not that I can’t, but I have found my writing starts to suffer when I push myself to write un-godly amounts in one day’s sitting.

This leads me back to my original point; I have been focusing so much of my writing on the project and other vital projects for other classes that I have had to take time away from these blog posts. Which is not my desire, but an important lesson on workload had been learned.

I hope to be able to find time to read and blog about Pilgrim at Tinker creek, but seeing how classes seem to be only intensifying it will be quite difficult. If I am not able to find the extra time I will be more than happy to read the book over summer while I am working. The hard part right now is trying not to invest too much time into my final project while investing enough time so I can earn a good grade for the course and produce a powerful piece that I can use in the future.

"Metaphors We Live By" Part 1

I use to think a metaphor simply referred to the obvious deeper meaning of a word or phrase, such as feeling blue, a rollercoaster of emotions or the stench of failure. These basic phrases are used widely across the English language to help better describe topics that aren’t necessarily logical but do help a speaker illustrate their point more accurately. The book Metaphors We Live By fundamentally shifted my basic understanding of metaphors as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson masterfully demonstrate how nearly every part of our English language revolves around metaphors.

I found this fascinating as I read thorough the first half of this book and thought I knew everything I needed to know to properly use metaphors and the like while writing. I soon found this not true, these two show us that metaphors can actually be seen working and playing out in nearly every corner of the English language. This point is fascinating, because it shows how truly unique our language is, however I would not know if all or any other languages are based in metaphors like the English language?

This would be interesting to further research to see if other languages are rooted in metaphors such as English. In ways one could argue that all human language, as long as it is sight based such as English, would need to have metaphors jam-packed in every corner of the language such as Lakoff and Johnson are suggesting about the English language. If all language could be bound in metaphors than this would be a profound step in creating a “universal” language. In fact, if lines could be drawn between all our own languages than we could be able to find some sort of way to communicate with extraterrestrials if we were able to find them someday in the future. Which really would define a language as “universal” if it covered and was used by multiple planets’ creatures.

Obviously, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson did not mean to have their book Metaphors We Live By used in the same conversation with otherworldly life forces, but if some similarities can be sourced in multiple human languages why could we not source the same information from other “sight-based” languages used by aliens? Lets be honest, most languages on this planet might as well be alien to any one-language user.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Part 3

“Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?” (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig).

This book was an interesting read. I found some parts more enjoyable than others, some parts not so much. But, this above text reflected what I did enjoy about the piece. I liked how the book discussed things in terms of time and the reflection back on it. Time is such an interesting subject because it is a human construct and perception of something our minds cant truly grasp.

Our leading scientist suggest that time is our minds attempt at normalizing the world around us. Without time we would be unable to properly coordinate our day-to-day lives without any way to logically think about the subject of time. We must base our world in some rhythmic cycle, because everything our reality presents us is based in patterns and rhythms. Such as the turning of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the tides coming and going, the annual monsoons, the transformation of the moons reflected picture, everything in our world is based on cycles. So it makes sense we construct a cycle such as time to help chart our day-to-day recycling lives.

Scientist believe the purest root of “time” is the flash bang the started our universe. What we perceive as “time” is the actual expansion of the universe into possibly emptiness. This is fascinating that the human mind rationalized this irrational experience into a tangible tool. We base our lives off time, without this pattern in our lives nothing but chaos would persist. Time is the fundamental building block in every human’s life, however it’s individual perception of itself is changed over longer durations of time.

In other words, I remember as a child reaching the age of 10 and thinking that that duration was long. However when I reached 20 I felt the duration from 10 to 20 felt shorter than the duration from 0 to 10. Additionally, an individual year between the age of nine and 10 felt much longer than the age between 22 and 23. This is also fascinating, as we, a biotic system adapted well from evolution has created a rationalization that is born into every baby child about this expansion into nothingness.

This book brings up fascinating topics that make me look deeper into thing I generally have taken for granted my entire life. This is what I like about this book. Time is really at the base of everything, this will interesting to keep in mind as I encounter new things in life.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Part 2

“A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.” (98)

I found this quote particularly interesting as I can relate to what is being said here. Throughout life I have encountered multiple instances where studying something or learning something has helped me gain a deeper connection to what I conceive as reality. I think this quote shows what “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is really pushing i.e., without this forged connection between the world and us humans we really wouldn’t amount to much.

As a kid, I can remember different camping trips with my parents where I “forged” new connections with the world. I experienced building and starting a fire, cooking food over said fire, fighting off mosquitos, hiding food from bears and staying warm on cool summer nights. All these experiences helped me better understand the world around us. I realize this is not nearly the same as motorcycle maintenance in terms of a logical system, but the same connections seemed to be built in my experiences as in the book.

On the other side of the spectrum, I worked for a “high-end” landscaping company where I learned different. In terms of the actual landscaping I learned the “philosophy” of landscaping is not so cheerful as it sounds after the first month or so of working. The concept of spending all day to make one house look nice to only come back next week to do the exact same thing slowly beat my enthusiasm for the job into the pavement. This deep connection to the earth that I had been forging for the past month made me hate my life. On top of that, I had a horrible boss who had the good intentions of making us all work like grunts. I watched his entire workforce grind to a halt as his inability to run a smooth operation became embarrassingly apparent. This, while being a “system of rational”, shows how although a system may “function entirely in accordance with the laws of reason” it does not have to be entirely productive or “rational”.  

There are multiple cases in everyone’s life where they interact or observe a system, such as mentioned in the novel “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” working within their reality. These systems combine into our universal realty; I think this is a fascinating notion brought up in this novel.  

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

I had first heard about Robert M. Pirsig’s novel “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” when my dad brought it up in a conversation back in High School. I never really thought much of it, never really knew what it was about. I find it ironic that I’m reading this novel my senior year for my writing capstone class. As I began to read the book this week I soon found immense imagery and deep counterintuitive meaning peppered throughout:  

“You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.”

This kind of flipped alternate perspective on life really interested me. This made me think back to all the road trips I had taken in my life, especially when I was younger. Sitting in the back of the car, trying not to die of boredom, time seemed to stretch on forever and ever. I agree with Pirsig that sitting inside a box that is a car completely shuts off the inside people from the outside. I have always noticed how much more thrilling riding a go-cart or even just riding a bike was when compared to driving or riding in a car. This novel does a good job of capturing that basic difference. Somehow when the wind is unblocked from pelting the face, a euphoric sense seems to arise in many humans.

As I continue reading Pirsig’s novel I keep coming across instances where I can look back on life and in ways parallel my life with my father. This will be a fascinating read as I know I will be able to gain a lot from the novel in terms of different past personal experiences.