Discussion
Beyond Words: More Words
I feel like my best writing (and thinking) revolves around words, not images, not moving type, just two-dimensional words on a page. Am I on a slowly sinking ship? Am I bound to be banished to the forest with a pickax and some seeds? Will my students cyber-punch me until they can scrounge up a more techno-savvy teacher? Although I'm only 34, my mind's elasticity seems rigid in terms of digital intake and output, my words on the page all the more naked for their lack of movement and sizzle. I am Cinderella without the makeover, watching my step-sisters sash and swish in their new gowns, jealous but somehow consoled by the little animated bluebirds flitting on my shoulder. Where do my words belong?
Comments
Jean-Paul Gressieux
on Oct 11 2011
at 09:58
A life in letters
Leah,
Your thoughts really resonate for me, and I'm sure for many others who will read them. I have a good friend here in the Bay Area who is completing a masters program in teaching, and discovering what it means to be a classroom teacher in this "digital" world. She just shared some news of two upcoming projects, one involving the use of digital cameras in the classroom 9and presumably outside), and one based on organic gardening. I enjoyed reading about the contrast between the two, but both will take quite a bit of mental elasticity, although only one, seemingly, carries a possibility of cyber-punches. One of the things I like most about my friend is that we choose to communicate primarily through letters, because we both value them highly, and we both love opening an envelope and reading each other's character, etched in words that flow across pages with creases and folds in them.
I would say in response that your words belong to you--what could be better?
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