Beyond the Meat :: Writing Education Writer Essays

Beyond the Meat Ok then, so far you have been told that the theme paper is the meat of the main course for the meal of college writing, and in order to excel in the process of education you must master the boundaries of the five paragraph dilemma. You must know how to use the knife and fork of discovery. To know the boundaries is to know style. You have learned the technique of writing (or eating a theme paper). Congratulations to yourself! You are well on your way to enlightenment or in the very least employment! Ok then, so you are well acquainted with the boundaries of the theme and have even picked up a few interesting techniques along the way. Now you must cross over the borders... invade the undiscovered country of whatever monster (forms) lie beyond. It is easy to cross the borders, just take a step and your over; and then... what? You definitely do not want to look out of the window and describe what you see, that would be too much like that masterpiece of ambiguity "Untitled". You have nowhere to turn to so you ask your sleeping cats if they have any clue as to what lies beyond the theme (just in case there is some modicum of truth between the myth and the reality). Dada-dee, Dada-dum... Ok, so you decide that writing is about boundaries, about how a form is contained, and in themes boundaries help you to express ideas -- Right? Maybe to express ideas about what lies beyond the theme you have to cross more boundaries. Cool, you decide that you will not use pronouns; or better yet, you will interchange pronouns -- I, You, He, she, It, We, They (and sometimes "Y" and and "W") -- just randomly substitute one word for another. Meaning looses all sense of subject importance. How much MEANING do you really want to convey or understand? [INSERT METAPHOR HERE] Ok then , so you think "MEANING", Dada-dee, Dada-dum. Clarity is in the eyes of the beholders and you feel beholden to whomever said that. Words come floating into your room, they circumnavigate the breath of your understanding and settle next to your sleeping cats... Phonemes, paroles, logocentrism, signs and signifiers... RATS! Words have a connoted meaning to the reader. A random placement of the articles of language will move you outside of the borders; but into an Eitherland of gibberish.