Uncertainty, this book rocks

 






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Principles of Uncertainty

  Sophia Starkey   Dr. Ellis EN 346D  19 March 2023 Principles of Uncertainty Response             The idiosyncratic inner monologue that Maira Kalaman presents is exceptionally relatable and incredibly touching. She constantly is in a tug of war with Time and what anything means if it all disappears one day. She recollects “the realization that (you/me) going to die and the attending DISBELIF- is not that the central premise of everything? It stops me dead in my tracks a dozen times a day. Do you think I remain frozen? No. I spring into action. I find meaningful distraction” (46). I, too, have had the inevitable dread about the deeper meaning of everything I am doing and how my worries and anxieties are nonsense because they cannot change a thing. Her mention of meaningful distraction is so prevalent in finding meaning and purpose. I, too, can appreciate the beauty and elegance of fruit platters or sitting in a ...
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Comedy and Social Justice

 Humor can create a sense of intimacy for the subjects that we have deemed taboo. We see it with how we approach sex, mental health, and social justice. The conversations necessary to promote and educate ourselves on these topics have been deemed uncomfortable and inappropriate to the point that many of us would prefer to ignore the issues altogether. However, humor allows us to bridge the gap between, as Gurba put it, "the intersection of horror and humor." It is not the only way to discuss such topics, of course, but it is a meaningful way to approach them for those who would otherwise avoid them because of their serious nature.  When it comes to joking about serious matters, the line is drawn with experience. A person who has never been sexually assaulted can only go so far as to joke about something like sexual assault until it becomes offensive because it  begins to isolate them from their audience and make light of a situation they don't know intimately. For example...
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Philosophers' Theories on Humor

      I disagree with Plato's theories on humor, and I think Irby's writing provides significant support to prove Plato is wrong. Plato believes laughter is something to be avoided, as it comes from a lose of control and a place of malice. According to Plato,  we laugh at vice, or self-ignorance, of people who are powerless (10). I argue that we laugh at vice or self-ignorance in our selves, and that this source of laughter is only a percentage of the things we find humorous. Irby shows this first hand, presenting the less admirable and desirable aspects of herself and personality and making jokes of her own experiences. We laugh at her work, not because we think of ourselves as better than her, but rather because we can relate to her, and are laughing at her ability to make relatable parts of the human experience into something fun and humorous. In this way, we repute Hobbes' superiority theory of laughter, that we laugh as a sudden expression of glory in feeli...
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