Category: McCoy Fall 2018

Joe Moran, author of Interdisciplinarity, introduces the importance of discipline through his writing. He examines interdisciplinary approaches by engaging with different disciplines. His portrayal of disciplines often focused on categories of knowledge– delving into history to compare systems for different disciplines. In the in class reading discussing the concept of discipline, it showed how discipline can establish power, by encompassing knowledge that others do not have.

When I think of the word discipline I think of harsh straight lines and teachers that hold rulers. I think of a dog being taught how to sit by his owner, or a family that follows a regular weekly chore chart. Sometimes when I think of discipline I even think of perfection, or at least the progression towards perfection. The word discipline is defined by Merriam Webster as control gained by enforcing obedience or order. The word itself is broad, it can exist in both large and small scales. As humans we can have many disciplines, or should I say many interdisciplinarities. It gives us the freedom to work harder on one discipline than others, and they can exist in a lot of different aspects in our lives. For example, my discipline in college is Communication and English, but I also have other disciplines that are more abstract. I am a daughter, a student, a sister, and I am also an opera singer.  Continue reading “Discipline: Opera Singer”

 

On my walk to school the other day, I saw a driveway that had been stripped to the ground, right down to the dirt. Clearly there had been something akin to asphalt there before, something to smooth the path for vehicles and said vehicles owners.

For those familiar with Geneseo, I was walking down Oak Street. For those unfamiliar, Oak Street is a short stretch of village road with beautiful oak trees stretching out across the thoroughfare. It is a residential street with plenty of well-kept old homes and I might add–although it is completely irrelevant–an abundance of cats. The property I was observing that day was one of those older, well looked after type places. I walked past this stripped driveway, lost in thought. My thoughts running along the lines of “I really need to write another blog post, but I feel like I’m drowning in my work load.” This is when I began to try and relate “The Bacchae” (per my assignment) to just about anything. Suddenly I stumbled across something:

Continue reading “Thoughts on Driveways and “The Bacchae””

Sometimes, you just need to sit yourself down and watch a predictable movie. You know, the kind where you know the ending from the very first over-dramatized opening scene in which the music swells and the slightly awkward, outcast teenage girl catches a glimpse of the high school football team’s quarterback for the first time in the halls at school.

Sometimes, it’s calming to know the pattern of a story before it is even told to you. I remember making a remark to my mom after watching reruns of Full House together that every episode was the same. Life as usual, until something went wrong between some of the characters, and the episode would end with them making amends to the tune of some happy-emotional music in the background. She laughed and said, “But we keep watching, don’t we?”  Continue reading “Order Restored”

On Friday, I attended Dr. Spencer Crew’s lecture titled “Civil Disobedience, the Underground Railroad, and Henry David Thoreau.” Dr. Crew talked about the importance of how the words chosen in his title are interconnected at a certain degree where they can co-exist. Continue reading “A Different Shade of Gray”

Students are raised to be sponges–intended to absorb the wisdom that our teachers and parents constantly preach to us. When we were in high school I was forced to take certain classes with barely any freedom to decide how my schedule would be arranged. My schedule was filled with hard deadlines for busy-work assignments, all meant to prepare me for tests that didn’t test  knowledge but memorization capabilities. Now that I’m in college, I have control over what I want to major in, what classes I’m taking within that major, where I’m living, and overall just how I wish to delegate my time. The only expectations that professors have for college students is for them to form expectations for themselves. It’s our responsibility to show up to class and make an effort to learn the content and expand our ways of thinking. I now have jurisdiction over what I want to absorb. Continue reading “Desire for Freedom”

As students and scholars studying English (and other disciplines), we are learning to embrace reflective thinking in order to analyze literary works. Additionally, we can also utilize the process of thinkING to lead a more meaningful and direct life. Throughout “Frenzy”, Vlepo is trying to find answers by utilizing this reflective system. One maintains a certain amount of control over their existence by being conscious of, and being able to critique their own thoughts and behaviors. This is certainly a valuable and dangerous skill to have, as the excessive practice of reviewing can lead to self-doubt which renders one unable to function. Ironically enough, if you are aware that this could happen to you, it makes it easier to avoid it by possessing an attitude of indifference. Regardless of the implications of adopting the idea of constant reflection, I would argue that it is beneficial.

Dionysus is quite apathetic towards people. True, he provides them with gifts and makes them happy, but the god doesn’t seem to really care about them or anything for that matter. He is seemingly detached from the world. Therefore, he is incapable of genuinely feeling and seeing the implications of his actions. This is where Vlepo comes in. Vlepo’s purpose is to observe the frenzy and report back to his Bakkhos. Undoubtedly, he takes great pride in his purpose, which is to describe what’s going on (the first step in the reflection cycle). Vlepo must be in constant suffering for a multitude of reasons. One of them being the fact that, he cannot actually engage in this ritual madness. It must be torturous to be so close to something but still on the outside of it. Additionally, almost all of his experiences and feeling are commanded by Dionysus. At will, the god can toss Vlepo’s very being into inanimate objects, animals, or people. While in these forms Vlepo has two duties: to mark the events happening from a third-party perspective and to recognize the feelings and thoughts that the host has and report that to Dionysus. One instance of this exercise is when Vlepo gets to read Sibyl, his crush’s, mind. Lo and behold, he finds out that she believes, “I feel only for my Bakkhos.” Vlepo also has the ability to evaluate and analyze experiences, but he struggles with formulating a conclusion and action plan for much of the story. As we know, he eventually goes through the full cycle by killing Bromius.

If you were to pretend that you were Vlepo, looking at your own life, what would you observe? How would you describe it? By answering these questions truthfully, one has the power to make drastic changes in their life for the better.

My Mondays and Wednesdays often begin with Dr. McCoy writing a word out on the board and asking the class to research its origins and the evolution of its meaning. Sometimes, the words are familiar to me. Other times, I am a stranger to them. One class discussion on the various names Dionysos is referred by, lead us to attempt to unpack the etymology of the word “ecstasy”, since Dionysos is often referred to as the god of ecstasy.

Staring up at the word, I thought to myself, Hey! I know this one! And I was at least partially correct in knowing that ecstasy means an overwhelming sense of joy or excitement. But, I never knew that the word originated from the Greek word ekstasis, which itself means “standing outside oneself”.

Standing outside oneself, what does that mean? How can it be accomplished? Metaphorically? Physically? Would standing outside oneself be a good thing, or a bad thing? Continue reading “Everyday Ecstasy”

Although to some people it may seem like our first day of class was years ago, it has only been one month since we’ve commenced our journey. For me, Reader & Text: Percival Everett Intertextuality was not only my first class of the semester, but my first class here at Geneseo. On the first day of class I remember not knowing what to expect, as well as trying not to have any expectations at all. Therefore, on the first day of class when Professor McCoy presented us with the picture of the suspicious pants tweet I remember having all of these thoughts flood into my head. For instance, “How is this going to relate to an English class?” and “What are suspicious pants?” As Professor McCoy presented this picture I recall her saying, “Suspicious pants is all of Percival Everett’s work in one tweet.”

I was extremely confused that day and all I wanted was figure out what Professor McCoy meant by that.  Well here I am about one month later, and I have an interpretation of what Professor McCoy was talking about. Continue reading “A Reflection on Suspicious Pants”

Our class is coming to the end of our initial reading of Percival Everett’s Frenzy. Personally, I’m really enjoying Everett’s unique style, but I bet we’ve all picked up on a certain practice of Everett’s at this point; he seems to jump from moment to moment, without any warning. Whether you’re enjoying it or not, this can come off as a bit jarring. Sometimes I find myself reading an entirely new scene without even realizing that the time period, characters, and context have all changed in the blink of an eye. What stood out to me the most as an example of this was what Dionysos experiences. He constantly subjects Vlepo to this continuous whirlwind that is time to a god. Interestingly enough, this detail may relate to another concept we’ve come across in class recently.

Continue reading “Antinovel of the Gods”