Something New - Month Five
Sep. 20th, 2020 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitThis really does feel like a month of 'same old, same old', which is sad, because September is the start of autumn which for me is a time for looking at new things. And the whole point of new things is not to get in a rut, but with life as it is at the moment this seems rather inevitable. But it shall not grasp me in its sticky claws, for I shall fight back and slay it with my trusty sword of innovation.
I have used this month's![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
story_works Take A Leap challenge to create space for something new. I'm not yet entirely satisfied with the result (thoughts here) but I am making progress. Certainly I am cutting back on writing, so that what I do write is more satisifying to me (regardless of readership appeal), so when I wrote for ficlet_zone for their Moody Blues challenge, I was able to use an album I loved: Days of Future Passed to write a Lucas fic which I enjoyed. I could still do with more time for knitting, but there's a balance between that and playing solitaire/doing online jigsaws which I use to de-stress, and there seems to be quite a lot of that recently.
Anyway, back to what I have done. There may be a couple of things to report later this month (or maybe not) but they will have their own posts.
Otherwise, I have completed two FutureLearn courses:
Cultural Diversity & the City by the European University Institute. Half interesting, although, as the title makes clear, the emphasis is all about the city, with no indication of how that is fed into from surrounding areas, or indeed how the city depletes the surrounds of its culture and diversity.
Poetry: How to Read a Poem by the University of York. One day I will realise that these sort of courses really don't help me much. It said that by learning how to read a poem one could improve one's own poetry, which appealled. However, the level of analysis that seemed to be required to read a poem was so big that it seemed to practically destroy the poem. Apart from appreciating form and rhythm (which makes sense) there was a need to understand the poet's background (which might deepen one's understanding but if the poem doesn't draw the reader in they're unlikely to go there) and also to pick up on all the other references the poet makes, such as a poem on tulips may be referring to another poem on tulips written a couple of hundred years before. Too much of the 'you can't understand the poem if you don't know all this' rather than 'the more you learn the greater your appreciation is likely to be'.
I have now completed 50 FutureLearn courses, have learnt some things I've really enjoyed, and don't regret taking any of them, even if they'd not turned out to be particularly instructive.
I have used this month's
story_works Take A Leap challenge to create space for something new. I'm not yet entirely satisfied with the result (thoughts here) but I am making progress. Certainly I am cutting back on writing, so that what I do write is more satisifying to me (regardless of readership appeal), so when I wrote for ficlet_zone for their Moody Blues challenge, I was able to use an album I loved: Days of Future Passed to write a Lucas fic which I enjoyed. I could still do with more time for knitting, but there's a balance between that and playing solitaire/doing online jigsaws which I use to de-stress, and there seems to be quite a lot of that recently.Anyway, back to what I have done. There may be a couple of things to report later this month (or maybe not) but they will have their own posts.
Otherwise, I have completed two FutureLearn courses:
Cultural Diversity & the City by the European University Institute. Half interesting, although, as the title makes clear, the emphasis is all about the city, with no indication of how that is fed into from surrounding areas, or indeed how the city depletes the surrounds of its culture and diversity.
Poetry: How to Read a Poem by the University of York. One day I will realise that these sort of courses really don't help me much. It said that by learning how to read a poem one could improve one's own poetry, which appealled. However, the level of analysis that seemed to be required to read a poem was so big that it seemed to practically destroy the poem. Apart from appreciating form and rhythm (which makes sense) there was a need to understand the poet's background (which might deepen one's understanding but if the poem doesn't draw the reader in they're unlikely to go there) and also to pick up on all the other references the poet makes, such as a poem on tulips may be referring to another poem on tulips written a couple of hundred years before. Too much of the 'you can't understand the poem if you don't know all this' rather than 'the more you learn the greater your appreciation is likely to be'.
I have now completed 50 FutureLearn courses, have learnt some things I've really enjoyed, and don't regret taking any of them, even if they'd not turned out to be particularly instructive.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 01:02 pm (UTC)I will echo earlier sentiments of mine that I admire you so much for how you are always learning and always open to new things and your trusty sword of innovation is the sharpest I know (and the most ready at the hilt).
I wish you a very nice autumn! I look forward to what writing you do produce and photos of the crafts and all the rest.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 03:48 pm (UTC)Thank you - it's very kind of you to say so - I shall keep my sword close by!
no subject
Date: 2020-09-22 03:17 pm (UTC)I can understand your dissatisfaction with the poetry course. I'm an English major and even I don't believe all of that. Yes, I think it's good to analyze a poem and determine how and why it works, but there are several ways that you can analyze such works, not to mention different levels and degrees of analysis. It almost sounds like they're trying to combine three or four literary theories of analysis all at once, which doesn't really make sense. I think it would have been more effective if the instructor had gone through one theory for each poem and taught the analysis that way. I certainly don't agree with the idea that you have to apply every type of analysis to truly understand a poem. Writing of any kind can be understood on multiple levels, and there is more than one way of looking at a piece of writing.
I'm impressed by the number of FutureLearn courses that you've completed! That's incredible!
no subject
Date: 2020-09-22 05:03 pm (UTC)By contrast I'm now doing a course on Wordsworth, which I was a bit dubious about, and really enjoying it. Yes, we're looking at some of his poems and starting to analyse them but the two leading the course are very enthusiastic, which makes it far more fun. (I'll be posting about it next month)