Monday, March 7, 2011

Captured Thought: Connections to Humanities

Throughout these last two weeks, I've been reading "Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age" by Clay Shirky as a LitCircle book. As a group we have to read and have to turn in a writing response. Looking back at my previous two writing responses, I realize a strange connection between the novel and Humanities.

So far in Humanities we have been discussing as a class about organizing principle, adjacent possible and challenging the status quo. And of course we read other books, short stories, and poems about all these elements but they still aren't enough to fully understand what they mean. However, my LitCircle books provides an excellent source of really capturing the the true meaning of these themes. The author provides clear, straightforward, current examples of what is going on in the world and connecting it to either organizing principle, adjacent possible, or challenging the status quo.

And not only does Shirky connect his book to Humanities, but he also connects it to current events (that aren't mentioned in his book). For example, in Chapter 2, he talks about Korea and importing American beef and how the Korean citizens were protesting against it with the means of blogging, websites, violent demonstrations. As I was reading this chapter, it kept reminding me of Egypt and what is current going on in that country.

As a result, I think that choosing this novel is very beneficial when it comes to clearly understanding and applying topics that are discussed during class.

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