quote:

Apohenia implies teleology becuase the paranoid believes that there is a conspiracy

I think you are turning a weak link into a strong link here. Paranoia may imply teleology and paranoia may involve apophenia, but that does not mean that apophenia implies teleology.

I expect the person reading the essay won't care though. They will probably have 100's of 1,000 word essays to read.

quote:

Originally posted by Kradlum:

quote:

Apohenia implies teleology becuase the paranoid believes that there is a conspiracy

I think you are turning a weak link into a strong link here. Paranoia may imply teleology and paranoia may involve apophenia, but that does not mean that apophenia implies teleology.

I expect the person reading the essay won't care though. They will probably have 100's of 1,000 word essays to read.

You are right. I could go in and expand that argument, but I don't think I need to for this. It's an overview of PR, not my dissertation. I suspect they are looking for interesting ideas and a voice as well as how an author picks apart another's text rather than my delving into Cartesian fallacy vis a vis teleology and St. Anselm, and bringing in Foucault's Pendulum and the like all to strengthen the one argument.

quote:

Originally posted by robotoverlord:
Fair enough. Just trying to be helpful.

One question though: what exactly do you mean by the stuff I've quoted below? Not sure I follow you.

quote:

Moreover, I do not think Bill was name tossing when he brought in French existentialists and the like in said debate. He was having a dig at the very paper I'm writing, and that, in itself, suggests to me the idea of teleology discussed by metaphor of the footage was certainly in the back of his head if only in an ironic way.

Oh, I mean that I believe he knew that what he was implying in the forum sections would cause literary critics or obsessed fans with their own apohenia to look at "the maker" and the conspiracy to hide the maker as an analogue for design in the universe with a purpose.

I am saying that, becuase he had Anarchia get into structuralism, he felt that people necessarily impose their own templates on art.

I believe he suggests that such interpretations are their own kind of apohenia and what we are left is the artifact of the book and the moments within.

If you take the whole "plot" of the novel, it never adds up to any sort of real conspiracy or teleology. Nora is doing her business becuase she is compelled to. It's being head becuase of routine security measures. No one hiding it really cares about the forum people or the footage as such beyond the fact that it might trace back to Nora. There isn't any grand vision for her film, there isn't any great plot behind her father's desire to protect her.

There is no conspiracy, there is no moment beyond being submerged in the moment.

I disagree that there is no grand vision for Nora's film; the fact no one can know what it is until she feels she's finished in no way means that a vision doesn't exist. Which is why anyone wanting to associate her and her situation with the creation of the real world and/or the entities behind it aren't completely nutso.

Also, if you mean to apply to an MFA program I'd think learning more about literary terms, like "passive" vs. "active" voice might be important.

I do like the ideas in your paper Uber and I think you might want to consider in it how, in the case of paranoia, meaning and knowledge may very well be the same thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Infinity_Circuit:
I disagree that there is no grand vision for Nora's film; the fact no one can know what it is until she feels she's finished in no way means that a vision doesn't exist. Which is why anyone wanting to associate her and her situation with the creation of the real world and/or the entities behind it aren't completely nutso.

Also, if you mean to apply to an MFA program I'd think learning more about literary terms, like "passive" vs. "active" voice might be important.

I do like the ideas in your paper Uber and I think you might want to consider in it how, in the case of paranoia, meaning and knowledge may very well be the same thing.

Ahem...

I know what passive and active mean. I wanted to learn from Justy whether there was any added meaning to the term in academic writing and for him to point out where I was doing it becuase I always read over my own mistakes and do not see them.

For example, I read over the LonelyGRILL thing half a dozen times and did not spot it until Arkan drew me a fuckin picture.

At any rate, I have found myself sliding into passive voice unwittingly of late. I do not know why. looking back at older papers, it wasn't much there. I do not typically do it in my prose. I think it may have to do with this last novel I wrote in first person with several young, uncertain characters qualifying their remarks.

If anyone spies more passive that I did not excise, please let me know.

I will give you a hat made of nano-paper that plays Raiders of the Lost Ark on a constant loop, and infinite circuit, if you will.

Sorry Uber, that was rude of me.

And I'd love a Raiders of the Lost Ark hat, thank you.

It's alright. I am burnt out from the last novel and personal statements and PR essays and all the other shit that goes into a single app.

Apps are ridiculous, now, for one school, I have to pay to fill out a form on another financial aid site. Not just FAFSa, they want you to sign up and pay for this other one as well. I would think, "Hey, that must be a fake college," but it's Columbia University in New York.

These application on their own average about 75 dollars, then 20 for GRE scores, then the transcript fees at your school, and now this.

Plus, the applications are contradictory and Byzanitine. It is little wonder academia is the maze of self-reference and cliques that it is.

I hope that in Obama's education plan he gets to straightening some of this bullshit out. True, they are not major issues, but they are emblematic of the major issues that seem to plague universities.

Our system of colleges needs to address their growing functional obsolescence or they will find themselves competing not only with foreign schools but with online universities.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
I had to write an essay for a Columbia application.

Do you mean Columbia, the movie production company?
Have you got the job?

Columbia University (in New York), is one of the places UberDog is applying.

quote:

Originally posted by Maas Biolabs CEO:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
I had to write an essay for a Columbia application.

Do you mean Columbia, the movie production company?
Have you got the job?

I wish it were that easy to land a gig at a production company.

Dear Mr. Producer,

Here is an essay about why you should let me write your movies for lots of money...