I will not say that I am any huge fan of tattoos. I think that some of them are neat and the idea of tattooing as an art is intriguing, but I am not any huge fan of them.
That being said, I do have a tattoo. It is of a raven, a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe. So, when I say that I am a huge fan of Poe, I do mean that I love his work enough to put it evermore on my skin.
What does this have to do with Humanities 2? Well, Hume 2 is "Poetry & Literature" and the due date of our first poetry paper is swiftly approaching. We're to choose a poem from the book, then the whole class reads it and discusses it in class in addition to each person writing a paper on their chosen poem.
This creates quite the dilemma for me. The book, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, does house some very excellent pieces of Poe's work. All which I've read, many times over and which most people have read too. Now, I suppose there's nothing wrong with discussing "The Raven" or "Annabel Lee" one more time. These poems are famous for a reason, but it's what is expected of me. It would also not be much of a challenge to write a paper on any of these poems. I have read them so many times, discussed them in so many venues, that the words would just come flowing out of me.
This ease is not why I came to Shimer. I want to be challenged in a way I rarely was in high school. I want to be provoked to think beyond my comfort zone. I want to understand something that frustrated me the first time I read it.
So, I will not be doing a Poe poem. I still haven't settled on one for my paper yet, but it will be something I have to work at understanding. Something that offers a challenge.
On a side note, if you're into Shakespeare's sonnets, here are two rhymes that help me remember which are which: 'Sonnet 130 does her dirty' and 'Sonnet 116 tells you what true love means".
Playing: Many hours of Mass Effect 2
Classes today: Natural Sciences 2, Social Sciences 2, Humanities 2
