now, those first assigned readings are pretty lengthy and heavy. and i’m so tired that my eyes are turning each letter into some strange hieroglyph that probably wouldn’t even make sense to Cleopatra. so i decided to leave those nice long essays for another time and move onto to something a little nicer on the brain. and i’m glad i did. the age of the essay, by paul graham, was really interesting and has really changed my whole view on essays. unfortunately however, i think if i actually took any of this advice and wrote a proper “essay” for an assignment, i would prob fail. but, it’s interesting stuff either way.

it was interesting the way Paul explained how the way we write essays is similar to hows lawyers present an argument. even though i’ve never really watched law an order, i’ve seen enough law shows on tv to see how that makes sense. an opening statement, presenting the argument with evidence and witnesses and then delivering a closing statement. pretty much an essay word for word. also, i absolutely hate the conclusion of an essay. kinda like how Paul described, it’s pretty much just summing up the previous points but no new ones?? then whats the point of the rest of the essay? like he said, it’s just finding a way to smartly re-word the intro, and it’s often really hard to do, especially when you’ve already spent so much time smartly wording the intro itself.

my favourite part of the article was when paul tells us what a real essay is. essay literally means try. now, as i mentioned before, i wish essay we write at uni could be like this. when i was reading the stuff he was describing about a real essay, like, not starting with a thesis or definitive point to argue but rather going in with a thought or question and just exploring where it could take you, to me that kinda felt like my blog. i start to write something as a blog post and as i write i’ll realise something new or one thought will take me on a completely unintended path or thought stream. thats why half my blog posts end up so long! my mind likes to make weird connections that i don’t even realise until i’m half way through a paragraph that i had not intended in an way.  for a couple of my previous blog posts i actually had to go back and change the title or the first paragraph because the rest of the post didn’t follow it at all! but i could just be crazy. similarly, in high school i could never plan an essay, even in english, like for the final exam. like, i would write practice essays to prepare but i would never get to an essay and write out  plan and dot points on what i would say. because for me, each sentence would form the next sentence and these would often lead to new ideas that you just can’t think about in the pressure of giving yourself 5 minutes to plan an essay at the start. so when beginning an essay i was never entirely sure where it would end and often had to go back and change the introduction accordingly.

like paul said, a real essay is thinking out loud. and to me that’s pretty much what blogging is! it’s a search search for truth but is supposed to meander, not get straight to point. the random tangents we take are where the exciting stuff happens. the surprises. and these are our most valuable experiences. not only are surprises made from what we don’t know but often they contradict what we thought we knew. and that’s where we lead to new discoveries and ideas. they can’t just come from no-where. they come from the unknown or the strange and are built upon to create something great.

it was pretty good advice, that stuff towards the end. an interesting way to look at life. allow yourself to be wrong because what made you wrong could be interesting or surprising. don’t simply accept everything you have been told by society. search for the truth in what is usually a given fact but seems wrong or “off”. and then you can write an essay.

and now i know some interesting facts about vikings in the 900’s too. gotta love them vikings.