Bakhtin and Jellybeans
Many moons ago, mosca interviewed me. Today I finished my answers, just as the meme is going around again. This one contains God, jellybeans, Russian philosophers, and food. mosca gives fun interviews. If you'd like questions, you know the drill.
1. What stereotypes of disabled people do you actually conform to?
I’m not sure if this counts, but I will use my disability to get out of doing things that make me uncomfortable physically-I did it a lot when I was studying piano. I say “get out of,” other people might say “weasel out of.” I try to do it as little as possible, but I still often encounter a perception gap between what people think I should be able to do and what I think would be too hard, especially when it comes to my fine motor impairment.
Also, despite the fact that I am pretty mentally capable despite my disability, I have problems with perception and directions. These are probably an undiagnosed learning/perception disability of some type, which can make me look mentally handicapped, another common stereotype for the physically disabled.
2. What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever said to a teacher/professor?
Probably when I commented that I wouldn’t have to stuff my wedding dress to add more boobs, in response to my academic advisor/old boss informing me that she had stuffed hers, back in the day.
3. What would it take to make you stop believing in God?
I’ve been pondering this one for a while. The first answer is that it would be relatively easy for my concept of God to change-I can easily see myself becoming embittered and thinking that God doesn’t actually act in our lives and just sits back and watches, after some sort of disappointment or horrific event. Knowing me, I’d end up convinced my own personal God was gone, without getting explicit about God being nonexistent. But I’d make a lousy atheist-my sense of wonder is almost inextricably tied to a sense that wonder has a source. So it might be briefer just to point at Frank Pembleton’s anger at God and say, “yeah, something like that.”
4. Name three things Bakhtin was right about.
I like the stuff about carnival. I’ve seen it used very successfully in an article by a Polish specialist. Heteroglossia and dialogism are good for talking about documentary. And I like Rabelais and the grotesque.
5. What's the weirdest thing you've eaten and liked?
I like popcorn flavored jellybeans, which I have been told makes me seriously bizarre. As far as foreign food, which is what most people think of in terms of weird and exotic, the Russian version of ketchup and French fries is a little on the strange side, but definitely edible.
Also, I am one of like, three people in the universe already excited for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi! Black Sea towns are awesome! Stalin had a dacha there! I am done abusing the exclamation point.
1. What stereotypes of disabled people do you actually conform to?
I’m not sure if this counts, but I will use my disability to get out of doing things that make me uncomfortable physically-I did it a lot when I was studying piano. I say “get out of,” other people might say “weasel out of.” I try to do it as little as possible, but I still often encounter a perception gap between what people think I should be able to do and what I think would be too hard, especially when it comes to my fine motor impairment.
Also, despite the fact that I am pretty mentally capable despite my disability, I have problems with perception and directions. These are probably an undiagnosed learning/perception disability of some type, which can make me look mentally handicapped, another common stereotype for the physically disabled.
2. What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever said to a teacher/professor?
Probably when I commented that I wouldn’t have to stuff my wedding dress to add more boobs, in response to my academic advisor/old boss informing me that she had stuffed hers, back in the day.
3. What would it take to make you stop believing in God?
I’ve been pondering this one for a while. The first answer is that it would be relatively easy for my concept of God to change-I can easily see myself becoming embittered and thinking that God doesn’t actually act in our lives and just sits back and watches, after some sort of disappointment or horrific event. Knowing me, I’d end up convinced my own personal God was gone, without getting explicit about God being nonexistent. But I’d make a lousy atheist-my sense of wonder is almost inextricably tied to a sense that wonder has a source. So it might be briefer just to point at Frank Pembleton’s anger at God and say, “yeah, something like that.”
4. Name three things Bakhtin was right about.
I like the stuff about carnival. I’ve seen it used very successfully in an article by a Polish specialist. Heteroglossia and dialogism are good for talking about documentary. And I like Rabelais and the grotesque.
5. What's the weirdest thing you've eaten and liked?
I like popcorn flavored jellybeans, which I have been told makes me seriously bizarre. As far as foreign food, which is what most people think of in terms of weird and exotic, the Russian version of ketchup and French fries is a little on the strange side, but definitely edible.
Also, I am one of like, three people in the universe already excited for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi! Black Sea towns are awesome! Stalin had a dacha there! I am done abusing the exclamation point.