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a question about an essay



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
the usage of the verb 'judge'? | set up or put up a Christmas tree?
Message Author
a question about an essay Sat Dec 15, 2007 19:29 pm  a question about an essay		  
Quote:
A Formation of Self

Before even touching the camera, I made a list of some of the photographs I would take: web covered with water, grimace reflected in the calculator screen, hand holding a tiny round mirror where just my eye is visible, cat’s striped underbelly as he jumps toward the lens, manhole covers, hand holding a translucent section of orange, pinkies partaking of a pinkie swear, midsection with jeans, hair held out sideways at arm’s length, bottom of foot, soap on face. This, I think is akin to a formation of self. Perhaps I have had the revelations even if the photos are never taken.

I already know the dual strains the biographers will talk about, strains twisting through a life. The combination is embodied here: I write joyfully, in the margin of my lab book, beside a diagram of a beaker, “Isolated it today, Beautiful wispy strands, spider webs suspended below the surface, delicate tendrils, cloudy white, lyrical, elegant DNA! This is DNA! So beautiful!”

I should have been a Renaissance man. It kills me to choose a field (to choose between the sciences and the humanities!). My mind roams, I wide-eyed, into infinite caverns and loops. I should fly! Let me devour the air, dissolve everything into my bloodstream, learn!

The elements are boundless, but, if asked to isolate them, I can see tangles around medicine and
writing. The trick will be to integrate them into a whole, and then maybe I can take the photograph. Aahh, is it already there, no? Can’t you see it? I invoke the Daedalus in me, everything that has gone into making me, hoping it will be my liberation.

Music is one such element. The experience of plying in an orchestra from the inside is an nvestigation into subjectivity. It is reminiscent of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: the more one knows the speed of a particle, the less one knows its position. Namely the position of the observer matters and affects the substance of the observation; even science is embracing embodiment. I see splashes of bright rain in violin arpeggios fading away in singed circles, a clarinet solo fades blue to black, and a flute harmony leaves us moving sideways, a pregnant silence, the trumpets interrupt with the smell of lightning. Perhaps in the audience you would sense something else. I think of rowing as meditation. Pshoow, huh, aaah; pshoow, huh, aaah. I can close my eyes and still hear it. We glide over reflected sky… and lean. And defy the request for “leadership positions,” laugh at it, because it misses the entire point, that we are integral, one organism. I hear the oars cut the water, shunk shunk; there are no leaders.

Once I heard an echo from all quarters. “Do not rush,” said the conductor, “follow the baton.” “Do not rush,” said the coach, “watch the body in front of you.” Do not rush. I write about characters’ words: how they use words, how they manipulate them, how they create their own realities; words used dangerously, flippantly, talking at cross purposes, deliberately being vague; the nature of talking, of words and realities. Perhaps mine has been a flight of fancy too. But, come on, it’s in the words, a person, a locus, somewhere in the words. It’s all words. I love the words. I should
be a writer, but I will be a doctor, and out of the philosophical tension I will create a self.

I don't understand this essay.
1)What does "self" mean ?
2)What does "pinkies ...jeans" mean ?
3)What does "isolated ... strands" mean ?

Thanks
Sympathy
You can meet me at english-test.net


Joined: 08 Dec 2007
Posts: 93
a question about an essay Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:33 am  a question about an essay		  
.
Self = the photographer-speaker's individuality

Pinkies partaking of a pinkie swear = two little fingers linked as a sign of avowal.

midsection with jeans = closeup of a person with bare midsection and wearing jeans.

Isolated it today = developed a chemically pure concentration of it (DNA) today

Beautiful wispy strands -- This is a description of the DNA.
.
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a question about an essay Mon Dec 17, 2007 15:55 pm  a question about an essay		  
Thank you very much Micawber. I have some more questions.
Quote:
A Formation of Self

Before even touching the camera, I made a list of some of the photographs I would take: web covered with water, grimace reflected in the calculator screen, hand holding a tiny round mirror where just my eye is visible, cat’s striped underbelly as he jumps toward the lens, manhole covers, hand holding a translucent section of orange, pinkies partaking of a pinkie swear, midsection with jeans, hair held out sideways at arm’s length, bottom of foot, soap on face. This, I think is akin to a formation of self. Perhaps I have had the revelations even if the photos are never taken.

I already know the dual strains the biographers will talk about, strains twisting through a life. The combination is embodied here: I write joyfully, in the margin of my lab book, beside a diagram of a beaker, “Isolated it today, Beautiful wispy strands, spider webs suspended below the surface, delicate tendrils, cloudy white, lyrical, elegant DNA! This is DNA! So beautiful!”

I should have been a Renaissance man. It kills me to choose a field (to choose between the sciences and the humanities!). My mind roams, I wide-eyed, into infinite caverns and loops. I should fly! Let me devour the air, dissolve everything into my bloodstream, learn!

The elements are boundless, but, if asked to isolate them, I can see tangles around medicine and
writing. The trick will be to integrate them into a whole, and then maybe I can take the photograph. Aahh, is it already there, no? Can’t you see it? I invoke the Daedalus in me, everything that has gone into making me, hoping it will be my liberation.

Music is one such element. The experience of plying in an orchestra from the inside is an nvestigation into subjectivity. It is reminiscent of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: the more one knows the speed of a particle, the less one knows its position. Namely the position of the observer matters and affects the substance of the observation; even science is embracing embodiment. I see splashes of bright rain in violin arpeggios fading away in singed circles, a clarinet solo fades blue to black, and a flute harmony leaves us moving sideways, a pregnant silence, the trumpets interrupt with the smell of lightning. Perhaps in the audience you would sense something else. I think of rowing as meditation. Pshoow, huh, aaah; pshoow, huh, aaah. I can close my eyes and still hear it. We glide over reflected sky… and lean. And defy the request for “leadership positions,” laugh at it, because it misses the entire point, that we are integral, one organism. I hear the oars cut the water, shunk shunk; there are no leaders.

Once I heard an echo from all quarters. “Do not rush,” said the conductor, “follow the baton.” “Do not rush,” said the coach, “watch the body in front of you.” Do not rush. I write about characters’ words: how they use words, how they manipulate them, how they create their own realities; words used dangerously, flippantly, talking at cross purposes, deliberately being vague; the nature of talking, of words and realities. Perhaps mine has been a flight of fancy too. But, come on, it’s in the words, a person, a locus, somewhere in the words. It’s all words. I love the words. I should
be a writer, but I will be a doctor, and out of the philosophical tension I will create a self.

1) What are the "dual strains" that combine to make the "combination" ? What does "writing joyfully in the margin" have to do with the strains that biographers notice ?
I don't understand that paragraph (the 2nd) and the next paragraph Very Happy. Can you explain this for me ?
2) Why does the writer mention "Daedalus" ? What is "Daedalus" ? Can you explain this paragraph ?
3) What does "plying in an orchestra" mean ? The meaning of "ply" doesn't make sense here, Am I right ?

Thanks so much.
Sympathy
You can meet me at english-test.net


Joined: 08 Dec 2007
Posts: 93
a question about an essay Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:08 am  a question about an essay		  
any one ?
Sympathy
You can meet me at english-test.net


Joined: 08 Dec 2007
Posts: 93
a question about an essay Wed Dec 19, 2007 15:03 pm  a question about an essay		  
.
1-- a scientist and a humanist; the writer apparently wants to be an author and a molecular biologist. Writing joyfully is the author part of him.

He likes learning everything; his mind roams far and wide in search of knowledge; he cannot choose a specialty.

2-- Please google 'Daedalus' and read the Greek myth and its moral.

3-- 'Plying' is a misprint for 'playing'.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber
Mister Micawber
Language Coach
Mister Micawber

Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 4641
Location: Yokohama, Japan
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the usage of the verb 'judge'? | set up or put up a Christmas tree?
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