Discussion 8

topic 1 - if you read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

• If you were to file a codex vitae, capturing all you have learned throughout your life, what would it contain? Obviously you cannot type out everything you know here on the discussion board, but you can give general categories and one or two examples of some details that would fit in each category in your codex vitae.

  For example, I have learned a great deal about playing my electric guitar over the decades. If you can master three chords: A, D, E (maybe throw in E-minor), you can play about half of the British Invasion rock songs from the 1960's (though you may need to use a capo). Also, if you have a Turbo-Overdrive pedal, you can sound like a lot of punk rock guitarists.

NOTE: these should be small items and very specific, the sorts of unique tips and tricks you have picked up along the way about hobbies, interests, daily activities, shortcuts for work or chores, small events. DO NOT GENERALIZE, so something like "I have learned that life is filled with conflicts you have to deal with." That is not teaching your reader anything they do not already know; it does not show you as a unique individual, and it will not earn many points.

This question seems to be reducing knowledge to a collection of trivia that somehow defines who we are, what our lives are. The novel makes no apologies for equating information (at least perceived information) as the keystone to life, the universe and everything. I am not asking you to agree or disagree with Google here; I am asking you to think about what you have learned (specifically what you have chosen to hearn on your own) and consider how that defines you in some ways, OR, if you'd like to flip that, how (and why) YOU have determined some information is more important than other information (to the point where you were drawn to it). And, no, "I like it" is not a well-thought-out answer here.

topic 2 - if you read A Man Called Ove

• Are you a Saab? Volvo? BMW? Scania? Something else? In your answer you need to consider what each type represents (Ove talks a good deal about the kind of person who the above cars represent). Do not limit your thinking to cars; maybe you are a surfboard (what brand? Short or long board? Why?); possibly you are a running shoe (Adidas? Nike? New Balance?...gel, pump, cross trainer? Again, what does each represent and why?).

  To add to this describe someone who fits one of the OTHER examples that you are NOT; what does that say about those people. And, yes, you could descrite two people who fit two other examples of what you are not, but no more than two others?

  For example, I am a cast-iron pan, not a teflon-coated non-stick and certainly not shiny copper. I take my time to get going, often drinking two cups of coffee in the morning before I really get to work, but once I am fired up, it is very hard to get me to cool off, to stop cooking, to stop working. My brother Russ is definitely non-stick, and my wife Pam is the elegant copper, all expensive cook books and trendy new ingredients. (from there you would expand on each with elaborate comparisons that match both personality AND each cooking utensil; why did I pick frying pans? I love to cook, and nowhere in my paper will I need to mention that; it will be obvious)

NOTE: the best examples for this topic will not involve cars; we've already read a book that sumbolized people with cars. So unless you can put a really new and unique spin on the car comparisons (and you obviously would NOT write about Swedish cars), try something different. So back to my guitar example for the other novel, would you be a Fender Jazzmaster with single coil pickups or a Les Paul with dual humbuckers? Why? What does each symbolize and how?

The fact that this is an odd question is not lost on me. It requires to think in a very different way. First, what are the implications of a Saab Vs. a Volvo Vs. a BMW? If you have read the novel, you know the book suggests a great deal about what each car suggests about its owner, so you are using the analogies the same way Ove does. And if you do stick to a car, you might even quote passages from the novel (don't forget the parenthetical citations) to show what Ove thinks each car suggests.