Questions Before Class < Questions After Class

Class today left me with more questions than I had walked in with. The overall understanding I came in with from the readings was that nothing is original because you base it off past thoughts, ideas works. Contextual meaning is almost as open as looking at a piece of art. The physical content it self sets the stage but it is then open to personal interpretation. It is the “sign” and we bring in all our ourselves and our thoughts into the understanding of the work. There are metaphors that are culturally shared, but they can always be looked into further. Social settings matter. However something I had not thought out was my personal use of metaphors.

At the end of class when we were trying to think of a metaphor that did not include the idea of winning and losing… I couldn’t think of one. I can decided whether this is because I personally am competitive or if my upbringing has afforded me this understanding of the world. I definitely think it was something to do with being American. Even when we were discussing the metaphor “time is money”, the class couldn’t think of anything else to parallel time to. I don’t mean to get all Broadway on you but… “how about love” (from RENT, get it?). Really though, today’s class left me questioning how many American norms I accept as worldly ones.