What?! No way?! You quoted that at the start without having read the quote? 🤯😍 There be some beautiful synchronicity afoot. That's made my day reading that, along with your encouraging words, the Murakami quote, and the reminder that Rothfuss still really does need to conclude those beautiful books!
I just quietly tiptoed back to your comments. I was kind of wondering why you didn’t respond to my comment. Not that you have to, but lo and behold, your reply was playing ‘hide and seek’. I found it!
I love your ramblings. And I’m jealous of your students. Hey, if that case study didn’t fly, how about share it with us? It would be fun to peek into the other half of your brain, or see how the two overlap.:)
And so right on to footnote me in your meanderings of consciousness. Got it queued up thanks to you!
Isn’t there something magnificent about prose that makes us want to write? I can go brain dead for weeks and then a single passage, something even a pairing of words, will rekindle the fire. Sometimes those words are yours!
On the subject of blackouts: I'm disastrously behind on my reading, and I'm afraid that I may be for another month or so, which means I won't be able to read most of the emails/posts I'm receiving - however, of course there are a few I simply won't miss no matter how long it takes me to circle back: yours is one of them. I think about consciousness all the time - I don't necessarily like to read about it because my own conception I find quite lovely - however, I am intrigued by Sam Harris and Annaka's conversation so may take a listen. Also, lobotomized and head-pregnated by a giant butterfly? Oh my!
So nice of you to mention my name among those you were thinking of there. But let me tell you, the whole paragraph starting with "I was reading on the train" and ending with "because that is where my mind has been all week" is just such a delight to read. Awesome prose, as always, and stream of consciousness style. We love long sentences, don't we. :)
Yes, very much so, and I feel them being channeled more and more from reading you and Bolaño. I'm really enjoying experimenting with the style. I know it's not for everyone, but it's very much for me!
“Then I realised that what I wanted to say wouldn’t have much or anything to do with Murakami’s book on running, which in itself isn’t all that much about running and instead is about writing, and baseball, and it turns out I don’t know anything about baseball, and I’m not overly fond of running,…” 😅 made me smile. I shall check out that episode you linked.
I can imagine you writing the case study for your students, slipping in extraordinary descriptions and characterization— subversively creating transformative piece of art disguised as rubric. I agree with Kimberly, I’m jealous of your students. 😉
Your rumination's made me smile Nathan, especially that last line "...and it comes from an author whose prose makes me want to write, and I don’t know if there’s anything more important to me than that right now." which has been the case on more than one occasion when I read your prose, there is always something, a line or two that lights up an idea.
Your rumination's made me smile, your students are blessed to have you!
Easter break began five days ago here Nathan, so far it has rained… a lot! But my daughter arrives on Friday which will be like sunshine no matter the weather…
Hang in there my friend! Just a few more hours to go…
Thank you Nathan, Rosie arrived yesterday evening the brightest star under a starry sky! Enjoy your break, I hope you have calm and relaxing days ahead.
The condyles of the occiput articulate on the lateral masses of atlas. I remember this stand out sentence from Anatomy Class, before I ever had a grasp of understanding it, I simply enjoyed the way the sentence slipped off my tongue. Still do. More than any other textbook education, I have always loved the deeply intense poetic nature of the descriptions of human anatomy.The real ,sounding surreal. Anyone unfamiliar with the nomenclature of the human body function and mechanics, would simply ignore that sentence as some gobbledygook, abstruse collection of meaningless words. I think the combination of who you are and what you love, will always shine in your writing. And someday you’ll look back on this time and realize how it molded and shaped your art of the word. Ever enhancing your storytelling. I found this for you;
“Unclose your mind.
You are not a prisoner.
You are a bird in flight
searching the skies for dreams.”
Haruki Murakami
I think I need to give you a little nudge just to remind you that not even Patrick Rothfuss has finished The Doors of Stone, his third and final book of his trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicles. The second book ,The Wise Man’s Fear, was released in 2011 . If your writing is any indication, how could it not be, I am sure you are an excellent teacher.
“…it’ll be easier for the students”. I’m not even your student, but I know your fiction, know your words. What could be better than making science even more interesting. Definitely more memorable.
Sorry for you, and sorry for your students, who will be missing out. I am sure you wrote a great biomed case study.
I am adding an Addendum if I may; I just finished writing this on my iPhone Notes, went back to post it and realized I never finished the end of your post. So I read the passage that I missed ,(Mircea Cărtărescu)
Shocked that I started my comment talking about the occiput, more than coincidence, and the quote that I chose to add!
Nice thoughts and ramblings, Nathan. Like you, I like to read and write, but running should be reserved only for when I’m being chased 😁
My son starts university in 5 months or so. I can only hope he has lecturers as considerate as yourself
I’m currently on holiday in Ibiza and heading home on Monday. In the week I’ve been here, I’ve come up with ideas for 3 horror stories. Most folk go on holiday to relax and enjoy the sunshine. I go to come up with ideas about monsters! I guess what I’m saying is that inspiration comes when you least expect it. Maybe that chap in the bus loop will lead you on unexpected paths. As always I look forward to whatever comes next 👍🏼
What's your son off to study? Hope he has an awesome time. Uni was totally formative for me. It helped shape me into who I am, even though I've changed a lot since.
Sounds lovely with Ibiza, plus bonus horror stories!
Nathan, I hope your enthusiasm is not dampened by the lack of imagination of the Powers That Be in your particular institution. You are in good company. Education has in many ways become impoverished--truncated for maximum efficiency--in favor of what is called "Core Curriculum" here in America. Bland. Textbook-ish and test-focused. Your students are still lucky, indeed, to experience the atmosphere of your classroom, which I'm sure feels good to them in a way they can't pinpoint exactly. They, no doubt, benefit in countless ways you will never know.
Thanks so much for the podcast link. I listened this morning and find it fascinating and timely! I will definitely enjoy Annika's work--she has recruited some amazing people (like Carlo Rovelli! Love his books so much).
The Memory exchange Brian and I recently worked on is still front of mind for me. I'm never tired of thinking about consciousness. For me, it's always tempting to see things in terms of living systems. And, as you know, there is no isolated system in the body—it all works symphonically--which makes me leap to the question: Is there a single, isolated person in the universe? I hope not! And what *is* this unfathomable Whole that we comprise? Does consciousness go "all the way down?" Is it cellular? Wonderful stuff to ponder. Thanks again!
Thanks for your thoughts, Ann 🙏. I try to form as much of a welcoming and enthusiastic environment for my students to flourish within. It's all worthwhile when even one of them relates how they have become captivated by science/biochemistry through what they are learning.
For some reason I'm reminded of that global card/ boardgame where there were some kind of prize hidden somewhere on the GLOBE... the puzzle pieces you had aquired, laid out in Digbeth 😄 Do you remember what that was called? Do they still do it?
I hope you get to deploy your creative learning challenge in due course!
A few thoughts because this piece (as yours often do) prompted several: 1. Your first paragraph made me laugh, I suppose because I've read enough Murakami (but far from every printed ounce) to be in on the joke. 2. You sound like such a dedicated teacher. I'm sorry to hear your inventive work wasn't used (how is a Google doc better for students?!) but I'm glad you're inspired to use the ideas to generate future projects. 3. I'm adding the Sam Harris interview to my list to check out because it sounds super interesting. 4. And lastly, this line captures my favorite thing that happens when reading: "...and it comes from an author whose prose makes me want to write, and I don’t know if there’s anything more important to me than that right now."
There are a lot of us in a slump for some reason. I do remember liking the mid-way point of a semester. I always front-loaded the work because so many teachers/professors tried to play catch up in the weeks before finals.
Your updates are some kind of consciousness project themselves. :) But also sorry to hear that in some ways, you are going through a difficult time.
I'd like to respond first to your footnotes:
1. Ha, I think good writing reveals itself to you as you go...
2. I think sometimes you have to write / should write. The reading is still there, waiting. You can come to it if and when it suits you. It is lovely, though, the way a kind of dialogue of all the wonderful ideas and words are created in the reading and writing of the networks here and yes, I feel guilty/behind/inadequate for not reading enough of the writers I so admire here.
3. What a gorgeous passage. I brought Cartarescu with me to America but there is a lot of chaos here (most of it enjoyable, little cousins being crazy) and so it might wait. But I am eager to get back to it when the time is right.
Re pedagogy: That's what's happening, isn't it? 'Just make it easier (for them)' also comes from a place of not understanding (dare I say incompetence?) about the way humans process knowledge and the purpose of said knowledge once it is considered (rather than merely ingested). I'm sorry for this experience at work, although it's so great to see you thinking of how you can use it moving forward, and I know you have big ideas about that. It's easy to start thinking we are the crazy ones when living in the theatre of the absurd. (I must keep reminding myself!) Anyway, we could have a loooooooong discussion about this no doubt. And maybe it is one to be had at some point, more in full I mean.
I forgot that Murakami mostly talks about baseball in there. How funny. Recently, I discovered we will be living within walking distance of Fukuoka's baseball stadium in a few months and may find my way back to this sport heaped in anecdotal metaphor. Auster also uses it in a way that is some kind of consciousness project itself, spanning his (now complete) oeuvre.
Your writing caught me in my parents' house, silent, as I woke in jet lagged joy - joy because I love the early morning when it is quiet and ripe for writing. There's snow outside! Boston is strange like this. Off to write...
Had to go and re-read my own footnotes before reading your lovely comments. ;)
RE: 2. It can be a tricky back and forth to balance. There's a nourishment and great sense of giving from supporting, as well as all the inspiration that that brings, but then there's the self-nourishment that's needed from writing. And there are only so many free hours in a week!
RE: 3. Anything that leans into Solenoid's features and themes is just bliss for me.
The weird thing is that the people running the other unit are very much on top of pedagogical research, so I'm left feeling a bit baffled. Oh well. But it's at least been a stimulating and thought-provoking experience for me.
Ahhhh Japan! How exciting. Maybe one day you'll bump into Murakami. Or maybe you can live in a perpetual state on wondering about your proximity to him and if he's ever nearby.
Nathan, your students are so very lucky to have you. Also (and I appreciate that, given everything you said, giving you more to read is just short of cruel, but...) I think you'd really enjoy a book called Why Materialism is Baloney, by Bernado Kastrup. It's about metaphysical idealism and it's the most wonderful trip. It belongs in every home, IMHO
What?! No way?! You quoted that at the start without having read the quote? 🤯😍 There be some beautiful synchronicity afoot. That's made my day reading that, along with your encouraging words, the Murakami quote, and the reminder that Rothfuss still really does need to conclude those beautiful books!
I just quietly tiptoed back to your comments. I was kind of wondering why you didn’t respond to my comment. Not that you have to, but lo and behold, your reply was playing ‘hide and seek’. I found it!
Oh, whoops!! Sorry. Thanks for spotting that. I would never not respond to a comment, especially one of yours. ☺️
“The condyles of the…”
actually became somewhat of a mantra, my sense of humor, in answer to many totally unrelated questions. A way of having fun with Anatomy/ Physiology…
Hehe, I like it. The sentence has a good flow to it. I find occiput a strangely inviting word.
It is, and I’m very glad I have one.
😊
I love your ramblings. And I’m jealous of your students. Hey, if that case study didn’t fly, how about share it with us? It would be fun to peek into the other half of your brain, or see how the two overlap.:)
And so right on to footnote me in your meanderings of consciousness. Got it queued up thanks to you!
Isn’t there something magnificent about prose that makes us want to write? I can go brain dead for weeks and then a single passage, something even a pairing of words, will rekindle the fire. Sometimes those words are yours!
Thanks Kimberly! Maybe I will share it sometime, or perhaps the newer one for revision that I'll be working on for my main unit.
Hope you enjoy the listen with Sam and Annaka, and her guests.
Totally right on finding a magical snippet of prose to rekindle the fire.
And aww, that's so lovely. Countless times I have been moved and inspired by your words, too. 🤗
On the subject of blackouts: I'm disastrously behind on my reading, and I'm afraid that I may be for another month or so, which means I won't be able to read most of the emails/posts I'm receiving - however, of course there are a few I simply won't miss no matter how long it takes me to circle back: yours is one of them. I think about consciousness all the time - I don't necessarily like to read about it because my own conception I find quite lovely - however, I am intrigued by Sam Harris and Annaka's conversation so may take a listen. Also, lobotomized and head-pregnated by a giant butterfly? Oh my!
Aw thanks Troy. Same goes for you. There are several in my inbox from you, but I will get there soon!
Are you moving at the moment? I know that was in the plans, but can't remember if somewhere was finalised.
Jo and I are house hunting, which is a mix of fun and stress, haha.
I have one hour left in Lights On. So good! Though I need to listen again to try to grasp more!
That's awesome Brian. Great to hear.
So nice of you to mention my name among those you were thinking of there. But let me tell you, the whole paragraph starting with "I was reading on the train" and ending with "because that is where my mind has been all week" is just such a delight to read. Awesome prose, as always, and stream of consciousness style. We love long sentences, don't we. :)
Yes, very much so, and I feel them being channeled more and more from reading you and Bolaño. I'm really enjoying experimenting with the style. I know it's not for everyone, but it's very much for me!
“Then I realised that what I wanted to say wouldn’t have much or anything to do with Murakami’s book on running, which in itself isn’t all that much about running and instead is about writing, and baseball, and it turns out I don’t know anything about baseball, and I’m not overly fond of running,…” 😅 made me smile. I shall check out that episode you linked.
😆
It's well worth a listen.
I can imagine you writing the case study for your students, slipping in extraordinary descriptions and characterization— subversively creating transformative piece of art disguised as rubric. I agree with Kimberly, I’m jealous of your students. 😉
Thanks, Ben. It's becoming an interesting process seeing how the different areas of my life can overlap.
So sorry I've not gotten to your latest pieces yet! I'm getting there through my inbox.
Your rumination's made me smile Nathan, especially that last line "...and it comes from an author whose prose makes me want to write, and I don’t know if there’s anything more important to me than that right now." which has been the case on more than one occasion when I read your prose, there is always something, a line or two that lights up an idea.
Your rumination's made me smile, your students are blessed to have you!
Thank you, Susie. Thank you.
As ever, I'm drowning over here. Desperate for the Easter break. Just a few more days.
Hope spring is still springing your way.
Easter break began five days ago here Nathan, so far it has rained… a lot! But my daughter arrives on Friday which will be like sunshine no matter the weather…
Hang in there my friend! Just a few more hours to go…
🤗
I made it!!
Wonderful news re: your daughter visiting. Have a lovely time.
I've got a LOT of reading to catch up on!!
Thank you Nathan, Rosie arrived yesterday evening the brightest star under a starry sky! Enjoy your break, I hope you have calm and relaxing days ahead.
The condyles of the occiput articulate on the lateral masses of atlas. I remember this stand out sentence from Anatomy Class, before I ever had a grasp of understanding it, I simply enjoyed the way the sentence slipped off my tongue. Still do. More than any other textbook education, I have always loved the deeply intense poetic nature of the descriptions of human anatomy.The real ,sounding surreal. Anyone unfamiliar with the nomenclature of the human body function and mechanics, would simply ignore that sentence as some gobbledygook, abstruse collection of meaningless words. I think the combination of who you are and what you love, will always shine in your writing. And someday you’ll look back on this time and realize how it molded and shaped your art of the word. Ever enhancing your storytelling. I found this for you;
“Unclose your mind.
You are not a prisoner.
You are a bird in flight
searching the skies for dreams.”
Haruki Murakami
I think I need to give you a little nudge just to remind you that not even Patrick Rothfuss has finished The Doors of Stone, his third and final book of his trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicles. The second book ,The Wise Man’s Fear, was released in 2011 . If your writing is any indication, how could it not be, I am sure you are an excellent teacher.
“…it’ll be easier for the students”. I’m not even your student, but I know your fiction, know your words. What could be better than making science even more interesting. Definitely more memorable.
Sorry for you, and sorry for your students, who will be missing out. I am sure you wrote a great biomed case study.
I am adding an Addendum if I may; I just finished writing this on my iPhone Notes, went back to post it and realized I never finished the end of your post. So I read the passage that I missed ,(Mircea Cărtărescu)
Shocked that I started my comment talking about the occiput, more than coincidence, and the quote that I chose to add!
Not sure how my comment didn't attach itself directly as a reply. I blame the app. 😆
Nice thoughts and ramblings, Nathan. Like you, I like to read and write, but running should be reserved only for when I’m being chased 😁
My son starts university in 5 months or so. I can only hope he has lecturers as considerate as yourself
I’m currently on holiday in Ibiza and heading home on Monday. In the week I’ve been here, I’ve come up with ideas for 3 horror stories. Most folk go on holiday to relax and enjoy the sunshine. I go to come up with ideas about monsters! I guess what I’m saying is that inspiration comes when you least expect it. Maybe that chap in the bus loop will lead you on unexpected paths. As always I look forward to whatever comes next 👍🏼
Thanks, Dan!
What's your son off to study? Hope he has an awesome time. Uni was totally formative for me. It helped shape me into who I am, even though I've changed a lot since.
Sounds lovely with Ibiza, plus bonus horror stories!
Thanks Nathan. He’s off to study Geology at Glasgow University and got his own flat through there as well, so he’s well excited 😁
Nathan, I hope your enthusiasm is not dampened by the lack of imagination of the Powers That Be in your particular institution. You are in good company. Education has in many ways become impoverished--truncated for maximum efficiency--in favor of what is called "Core Curriculum" here in America. Bland. Textbook-ish and test-focused. Your students are still lucky, indeed, to experience the atmosphere of your classroom, which I'm sure feels good to them in a way they can't pinpoint exactly. They, no doubt, benefit in countless ways you will never know.
Thanks so much for the podcast link. I listened this morning and find it fascinating and timely! I will definitely enjoy Annika's work--she has recruited some amazing people (like Carlo Rovelli! Love his books so much).
The Memory exchange Brian and I recently worked on is still front of mind for me. I'm never tired of thinking about consciousness. For me, it's always tempting to see things in terms of living systems. And, as you know, there is no isolated system in the body—it all works symphonically--which makes me leap to the question: Is there a single, isolated person in the universe? I hope not! And what *is* this unfathomable Whole that we comprise? Does consciousness go "all the way down?" Is it cellular? Wonderful stuff to ponder. Thanks again!
🤗
Thought the podcast link would appeal.
Thanks for your thoughts, Ann 🙏. I try to form as much of a welcoming and enthusiastic environment for my students to flourish within. It's all worthwhile when even one of them relates how they have become captivated by science/biochemistry through what they are learning.
For some reason I'm reminded of that global card/ boardgame where there were some kind of prize hidden somewhere on the GLOBE... the puzzle pieces you had aquired, laid out in Digbeth 😄 Do you remember what that was called? Do they still do it?
I hope you get to deploy your creative learning challenge in due course!
Hah, funny you should say that. I use those cards (Perplex City) as little intermission puzzles sometimes. There's some really good ones.
Unfortunately they ran out of money in Season 2.
Perplex City! Wow. Yeah, that's it.
A few thoughts because this piece (as yours often do) prompted several: 1. Your first paragraph made me laugh, I suppose because I've read enough Murakami (but far from every printed ounce) to be in on the joke. 2. You sound like such a dedicated teacher. I'm sorry to hear your inventive work wasn't used (how is a Google doc better for students?!) but I'm glad you're inspired to use the ideas to generate future projects. 3. I'm adding the Sam Harris interview to my list to check out because it sounds super interesting. 4. And lastly, this line captures my favorite thing that happens when reading: "...and it comes from an author whose prose makes me want to write, and I don’t know if there’s anything more important to me than that right now."
Thanks Stephanie! 🙏
Looking forward to your piece. I'm slowly starting to chip away at my inbox today.
Aren't words magical? I love when sentences or paragraphs elicit that feeling.
There are a lot of us in a slump for some reason. I do remember liking the mid-way point of a semester. I always front-loaded the work because so many teachers/professors tried to play catch up in the weeks before finals.
Now, I need to buckle and get myself in gear.
Yeah, front-loading is a good and wise strategy! Thanks, Stephanie.
Hope the slump de-slumps, if that's the case for you.
Hey Nathan,
Your updates are some kind of consciousness project themselves. :) But also sorry to hear that in some ways, you are going through a difficult time.
I'd like to respond first to your footnotes:
1. Ha, I think good writing reveals itself to you as you go...
2. I think sometimes you have to write / should write. The reading is still there, waiting. You can come to it if and when it suits you. It is lovely, though, the way a kind of dialogue of all the wonderful ideas and words are created in the reading and writing of the networks here and yes, I feel guilty/behind/inadequate for not reading enough of the writers I so admire here.
3. What a gorgeous passage. I brought Cartarescu with me to America but there is a lot of chaos here (most of it enjoyable, little cousins being crazy) and so it might wait. But I am eager to get back to it when the time is right.
Re pedagogy: That's what's happening, isn't it? 'Just make it easier (for them)' also comes from a place of not understanding (dare I say incompetence?) about the way humans process knowledge and the purpose of said knowledge once it is considered (rather than merely ingested). I'm sorry for this experience at work, although it's so great to see you thinking of how you can use it moving forward, and I know you have big ideas about that. It's easy to start thinking we are the crazy ones when living in the theatre of the absurd. (I must keep reminding myself!) Anyway, we could have a loooooooong discussion about this no doubt. And maybe it is one to be had at some point, more in full I mean.
I forgot that Murakami mostly talks about baseball in there. How funny. Recently, I discovered we will be living within walking distance of Fukuoka's baseball stadium in a few months and may find my way back to this sport heaped in anecdotal metaphor. Auster also uses it in a way that is some kind of consciousness project itself, spanning his (now complete) oeuvre.
Your writing caught me in my parents' house, silent, as I woke in jet lagged joy - joy because I love the early morning when it is quiet and ripe for writing. There's snow outside! Boston is strange like this. Off to write...
Had to go and re-read my own footnotes before reading your lovely comments. ;)
RE: 2. It can be a tricky back and forth to balance. There's a nourishment and great sense of giving from supporting, as well as all the inspiration that that brings, but then there's the self-nourishment that's needed from writing. And there are only so many free hours in a week!
RE: 3. Anything that leans into Solenoid's features and themes is just bliss for me.
The weird thing is that the people running the other unit are very much on top of pedagogical research, so I'm left feeling a bit baffled. Oh well. But it's at least been a stimulating and thought-provoking experience for me.
Ahhhh Japan! How exciting. Maybe one day you'll bump into Murakami. Or maybe you can live in a perpetual state on wondering about your proximity to him and if he's ever nearby.
Hope the jetlag isn't too bad.
That is weird about the other professors...hmmm...but yeah, sounds like you've got a good plan moving ahead.
Cartarescu for the return plane tomorrow!
Nathan, your students are so very lucky to have you. Also (and I appreciate that, given everything you said, giving you more to read is just short of cruel, but...) I think you'd really enjoy a book called Why Materialism is Baloney, by Bernado Kastrup. It's about metaphysical idealism and it's the most wonderful trip. It belongs in every home, IMHO
Thanks, Chloe! Great rec. I don't have it on my shelf, but I shall pursue it with fervour!