Many Meanings :)

"Something's meaning is subjective."
                                             
...If so, then wouldn't that statement also be subjective?  ...And if the statement is absolutely true, then wouldn't it defeat itself?  These were some of the things that were running through my head during class last week, aching to be voiced but with no opportunity.  Sometimes I feel that truth is being bullied and shoved into a dark closet, with no one willing to question or stand up for her.  I am no philosopher, but I am a thinking human being, a title with which I believe holds responsibility to critically examine the world around us.

Accompanying the literacy "digs" we have been performing, it is necessary to discuss the nature of the meanings that we pull from our subjects.  In class, the professor put forth the opinion that any meaning drawn is solely subject to the perciever's perception of it.  She founded this in an activity dealing with Gertrude Steiner's poetry, telling us to find the meaning and compare with a neighbor.  While explaining the activity, we were told to not worry what we wrote, because it was her personal goal as a writer to make it impossible to discern any underlying meaning. These are a couple of Steiner's direct quotes I found:

"Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?”

“A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.”

From my basic reading up on her, Steiner appears to be very interested in writing in a "stream of conciousness" and from a more artistic perspective.  Given her struggles and background, it looks like she was trying to say something through the lack of conformity in her writing, more than any of the actual writing itself.

So we sat, creatively attempting to discover the meaning to a poem to which no meaning had been given.  We compared our different stories, all different of course.  But even if this text did have an ascribed meaning, would our different interpretations of that text prove that meaning is subjective?  I would say no.  Let's step back for a second.  Imagine that your mom told you to go the grocery store tomorrow.  You wake up the next morning and find a slip of paper on the counter with the carefully scribed words, "chocolate ice cream" on it.  Now you remember that your mom is on a diet and always buys a certain type in a certain size.  So you go to the store, buy the one she wants, bring it back and all is well.  In this example, we see that the "creator" (your mom) of the "literate" object in question (the grocery list) means something absolute, and any other interpretation would hold negative consequences.  There is a right and a wrong, according to the creator's ascribed meaning.  Imagine if you came home with any other kind of ice cream.  If it was my mom, I know she'd be upset and say, "Come on, you know what I meant!"

This same principle can, and should, be applied to our literacy digs as well.  When we look at a piece of art, we must remember that the author is the one who creates the meaning, and based on that, our perception must be compared.  When we pass a speed limit sign, its meaning cannot be defined individually by the driver, but by the government.  When we see a ring on someone's finger, its meaning cannot be defined by us, but by its wearer.  The meaning is created by the observed, not the observer.

These meanings, however amorphous or mutable, are absolute. 
Our interpretations of these meanings are what is subjective.

Frog or Prince?

Our writing into the day on November 8th was inspired by the poem, Hazel tells Laverne by Kathryn Machan.  It gives an interesting twist on the classic fairytale of the princess and the frog.  In the original, the young maiden listens to the frog, kisses him, and discovers he truly is a handsome prince.  This story plays out another girl's encounter with such a frog, who, at the very inquiry of a kiss from her, accuses him of being a "little green pervert" and promptly flushes him down the toilet. 

We all laugh because we see the sad irony running beneath it and the great mistake the princess is making.  But what if we are doing that same thing?

When Jesus came to earth and took on human flesh, he chose not to come as one physically attractive or appealing.  Despite all the murals of Jesus with a glowing halo, or the stained glass window protrayals of him, on the outside he was just another ordinary looking carpenter.  The Bible says this of him, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."  This is the same Jesus "through whom and for whom all things were created," who is the "king of kings and lord of lords."  He was, in a sense, a prince in a frog's body.  In the same way that the little frog promised the girl royalty, so Jesus promised everlasting life to those that would accept him.  He doesn't promise an easy life devoid of problems, but he does offer life "to the fullest," along with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control," and on the list goes.  But the greatest promise of all is that of God's presence, that he will never leave us nor forsake us, that he will help us through all the troubles that come our way, and that we will have the privledge to spend forever with him.  Like the girl in the poem, often times we are frightened away by the froggy appearance that we immediately flush him down the toilet, not realizing the authentic truth to the promise that we flushed away with him.

Annotated Bibliography

Belk Tower at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.

This is a photograph taken of the Belk Tower in the middle of campus.  In accordance with this project, it demonstrates the communication from structure to student, as the tower represents a pen with a jar of ink and it has been denoted by the students as a place to use their freedom of speech. 

Last, First. Personal interview. Day Month. Year.

I have not yet conducted this interview, but eventually the plan is to find someone with a tattoo and ask them what it means to them.  As getting a tattoo is a permanent decision, often times people will have serious reasons for getting them, so as to remind them of something or to symbolize some important person or event. This is potentially a very interesting form of literacy that deserves some acknowledgement and a role in this project.

No Smoking Sign at Atkins Library, Charlotte. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal Photograph by author. JPEG file.

This is another photograph, but of a no smoking sign.  We will use an just one commonly seen example of symbols with a specific meaning in our culture.  Eventually, it might become a collage of different symbols, and the citation would adjust accordingly.