I’m having a bad week. Nothing seems to be going right, and I’ve had several swipes taken at my self-esteem in the last three days. However, going to the Remembrance Day service this morning reminded me how petty my problems really are, so I’m trying to spend the entire day not thinking about myself. I’m not thinking I’ll do a very good job, but it’s a project. :-)
We had a fascinating debate in my Literary Theory class yesterday - the premise was a fictional first year class where the prof had to decide whether to remove T.S. Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” and replace it with two untitled poems by a black woman author from the same time period. Both sides made some absolutely fascinating points, and although in the end the team defending “Prufrock” got my vote, I really had to think about why I was voting the way I did. Unfortunately, part of the reason I voted the way I did (and I honestly would have voted this way, regardless, but it did sort of bolster my decision) was that two members of the team against “Prufrock” were horrible debaters. Actually, they were very good orators, but they were constantly belittling the other team and making awful personal attacks. My blood pressure literally rose every time one of them opened his mouth. And when they got up to make their statements I think they honestly thought they were in the House of Commons, and they used the most condescending tones. They also never gave the other team a chance to make their statements without heckling them and shouting out things. Now, I may be naive, but I honestly thought a third year English class could carry on an intelligent, adult debate without resorting to personal, unnecessary attacks. The worst part for me was that it looked like these guys were behaving like this because that’s what they thought a debate was about, not because they honestly felt that they needed to make these comments. It was all a big joke to them, but they were actually annoying people and saying hurtful things. One of the girls on the other team actually had to ask them to be quiet so she could finish her opening statement. I think it really took away from their effectiveness as debaters - it was hard to get past their atrocious behaviour to see what they were actually saying in defense of their argument. And it was very disappointing that the other people on their team actually had terrific things to say, but they were overshadowed by these two twits. Anyway, just thought I’d share. :-)
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take me away!
