“Three Things I Know Nothing About…

…but are interested in.” That was (basically) the prompt the awesome poet Erika Meitner gave to us in class today. I found that it was pretty easy for me to get to three, so I decided to keep going.

  1. How to hotwire a car
  2. How to win a bar fight
  3. The planets outside our galaxy
  4. Other “dimensions”
  5. Cars in general
  6. Prison Food
  7. Ben Affleck’s past
  8. The origin of π

Some of the things here are rather silly (case in point number 7). However, Erika did have a good point. She said even out of the top 3 I said aloud in class, that most of them had to do with pushing limits. I wish I knew exactly how she phrased it, but basically what I took from her is that I seem to be interested in things that are a little rougher, and I should explore this.

The one we mentioned the most in class, “How to win a bar fight” is something I have always wanted to find out! I think it was this clip below that inspired me.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCb2XiIs9Qs

Skip ahead 1:45 (or watch some Indy, whatever ye want) and there’s a quick sneak peak at the scene that inspired this “badass” side of me.

Looking at the rest of my list, I obviously am drawn to these kind of darker ideas. While I love to write in all different styles, I think poetry would be the best way to explore this especially weird side of mine. There is no other outlet that will allow me to be as free and wild. I think this is something I owe to myself to look into, and to use as inspiration in my poetry.

I really loved having Erika in class today, and already wish she could come back and visit us!

(Also, can I just be Indiana Jones?)

 

2 Replies to ““Three Things I Know Nothing About…”

  1. Katie,

    I’m with you on wanting to be Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, really). I’m also with you on your #5: Cars in general. This was actually the first thing I wrote down in this category. I also wrote “Geography/Directions in general” and “Sports.” All three of these are typically masculine interests, yet they seem to have passed me over.

    I’m glad Erika provided us with this exercise because it made me realize that there are a lot of things typically referred to as masculine that I have no interest in or knowledge of. What does this say about me as a man? What does it say about our cultural stereotypes (side bar: Indiana Jones, of course, is the apex of masculinity)? And how might I use poetry to explore these questions?

    Side bar #2: “Poetry” (creative writing in general) is often categorized as less masculine or feminine, even though three hundred years ago (and before and after, of course) almost all poets were men due to societal restrictions. Poetry was seen as a masculine, aristocratic, philosophical endeavor. Before this post gets too complicated I’ll leave it for you guys to further explore if you so desire. And allow me to add that gender studies and the history of poetry are two other things I know nearly nothing about!

  2. Fun fact about that sword fighting scene: originally in the script, Harrison Ford was supposed to sword fight. But that day, he was feeling really sick and kept having to run to the bathroom so in order to get the scene, they decided to let him just shoot the guy. And now we have that iconic scene because of some bowel troubles!

    As for my list of things I know nothing about: embroidery (I know how to cross stitch but embroidery is baffling to me at the moment), video editing (it seems like an incredibly useful tool now that everything is multi-media), and physics. I avoided physics throughout middle school, high school, and college. It’s an enigma to me. Although I don’t think I’ll be researching physics to include in a poem, I do want to learn more about the other two.

    Ethan, I thought it was interesting that the things you chose were activities deemed masculine. I think Katie’s list also falls under that same list too. Is it because hotwiring a car and bar fights are considered technical and aggressive activities? What does it say when we put those characteristics under the umbrella of “masculine”? If I examine my own list, it’s a mixture of things that would be considered masculine and feminine.

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