The humdrum of school is nice because it imposes order — there are rewards, a sense of accomplishment.
At the same time, it leaves me with almost no time to enjoy things. It’s odd, but now, after working for the last two weeks, even my favorite books seem bland. At this point, it is surprising to read about other people who place so much feeling into nonworking life.
Anyway.
I believe that the key to great literature is a premonition of the extraordinary. There is a line that can’t be crossed because the opposite side is the realm of the weird, the fantastical, the shoddy sensationalistic genre of science fiction. But the border is where greatness lies, where men like Gatsby, and Dick Diver are conceived, too fantastic, idealistic, or good looking for every day life, but vividly real caricatures of our own idealism, our own lust and desires.
I spent the last 24 hours watching and bidding on one ebay item: a pair of Axiom M22ti cherry wood speakers.
This singular event precipitated passion, joy, disbelief and despair.
Passion for the wonders of music that I shall enjoy!
Joy that I outbid the stupid motherfucker by $5!
Disbelief that after a short break from the computer, I had lost by exactly the amount I had cunningly won by.
Despair that I had wasted all day with an obsession that bore no fruit.
Anyway, whatever evil that swept over me in the last day is over.
A man was shot in Kirkland House today(I live in Claverly, which is about 3 blocks away).
This was big news throughout the country for a while — even taking the #1 spot in google search trends. Having access to both Harvard mailing lists and news reports, it was immensely surprising how differently the event was characterized in the two spheres.
At Harvard, the student reaction was overwhelmingly one of concern for student safety, and for the impacts that such an event would bring to the community. The news media on the other hand, jumped on the fact that someone was shot at Harvard. Several of the sources I read(including the Huffington Post) mistakenly reported that the victim was a Harvard student. This sensationalistic confusion seems difficult to justify to me, as every official line I read from Harvard administrators, and from the Crimson, took pains to emphasize the fact that the status and id of the victim was unknown. The Huffington Post claim was especially egregious, since the Boston Globe article they linked to specifically said that the victim was not known to be a Harvard Student.
The exaggerated reporting was disturbing on another level because, overwhelming, the outside world honed in on the fact that this shooting happened at Harvard. Maybe I am really paranoid, but all the responses I read (on Reddit, on the huffington post) seemed to indicate that much of the public interest in the whole thing is due to a gleeful and slightly malicious interest in seeing if Harvard’s fallen from its pedestal of privilege. This is understandable, and not really new to me, but it’s still shocking to see how much underlying hatred random people have for the “pampered pussies” that I am apparently a part of.
A lot of political discourse in the past year, especially with regards to the 2008 election, have focused on the alienation of intellectuals from the average person’s life. But really, who’s to blame for that?
To organize my activity this summer, I am blogging!
I hope to
a) Post math problems/papers/solutions
b) Muse in a significant way about the world outside of Harvard, studying, and the Fung Wah, which occupies almost all of my energy during the school year
c) Document my trip to China with pictures and shit.
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