Perceiving Differently

Before even going to my first English 203 class, I skimmed through the course syllabus to see what we would be doing throughout the semester. Right off the bat, I came across this picture. Naturally, since I was simply skimming the syllabus, I chuckled to myself and moved on. When I eventually went to class, Professor McCoyhad the image up on the projector. She had us split into groups and figure out how the pants correlate with being suspicious. My group talked about how that pants are being perceived as a face, the pockets and buttons making eyes, and the belt loops making a sort of mouth. When sharing with each group what we came up with, we learn more. Now that the whole classroom is talking about the pants instead of four to five people, there are new ideas on what is perceived by this picture. For example, somebody brought up how the crease in the middle makes it look even more shifty eyed and suspicious. Somebody else said the belt loops make it look a little bit like a face sewn shut like a horror movie. After this discussion, Professor McCoy talked to us about perception.

            Perception is simply the way your brain explains something it sees or hears to itself. It is a strange concept, because somebody may see the same thing you see, yet perceive something completely different. When somebody sees something, like a picture of pants, it is natural to just see a picture of pants. However, somebody else can see the same picture and notice that the pants might look suspicious, but how can an inanimate object be suspicious? It is because some people perceive the pants to have human-like qualities that may resemble a face. After staring at the pants for a while, I read and re-read the caption, “Suspicious pants”, and asked whether the pants are acting suspicious, or if the pants are suspicious of something. This sparked more debate in the classroom, leading me to understand why Professor McCoy put up this picture. We will be reading stories throughout most of the semester and everybody is going to perceive them differently, so when we discuss in class there are no wrong answers, as long as there is an explanation for the comment.

            In the following class days, we would again play with perception. At one point, we would go around the room and read the word “elementary” off of the board. Most of the class pronounced it elemenTREE, however a few people, including Professor McCoy pronounced it elemenTARY. This does not mean everybody else is wrong, it just means that the word can be perceived in different ways. While reading The Bacchae class, some people were struggling with reading old Greek names. Because there is nobody in the room who was around at ancient Greek times, we could say the names how we thought they would be pronounced, because we cannot know if we are right or wrong. Again, people would perceive these names slightly differently, and therefore pronounce them differently.

            In this class, we have read both Frenzy, by Percival Everett, and The Bacchae. The Bacchae is an ancient Greek play, and when we read it, we read it in play form. This means that it is not too descriptive or in depth in its dialogue, because depending how the director perceives it, he can change the style of the play. When Percival Everett was writing Frenzy, it was his interpretation of the Bacchae. He read The Bacchae, and re-wrote it, even introducing the character “Vlepo”, who can see into the minds of other characters. Now, Everett has written The Bacchae the way he perceived it, with a character that can go though minds and be perceived differently in order to help him understand other characters better. This new Bacchae, or Frenzy, is written in the form of a novel. Because of these two forms, there are now two different options for readers to choose form. Some people enjoy the plays more, because they perceive it as a movie, and act it out in their mind. Others prefer the book method, because it can be a little more descriptive, and they will perceive it more in their mind as if they were there, instead of reading it or seeing it happen. In the end, whether it is pants or an old Greek play, perception has a lot to do with what we understand, so my big lesson from this is to try and perceive whatever I read in this class in at least two different ways. This way I can see two different sides of a story, and also be able to hopefully see both sides in class debates.

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