Processing Progress - Pilot
The topic? Intersubjectivity. The research? A work in progress?
As I think about and narrow my topic, I've been putting the majority of my focus onto determining how my topic will function as a project. I love the idea of intersubjectivity, it is an affinity that I have tried to stress throughout my blog posts up to this point. I feel that human relationships are at the heart of existence. Now I'm certainly not trying to be extravagant--after all, I am somewhat of a solitary creature myself. This being said, humans are (on a whole) social beings. We seek love. We seek friendship. Even our wars speak to an existence rife with interaction.
And what, pray, is interaction? Certainly there are many forms of interactions. There are those of passion and of coercion. Of affection and of spite. I want to look at the motives behind, and the function of, human interaction. Most specifically, I find myself consistently in an unnerved awe of the other--or more exactly, I suppose, of "otherness". Again I query: why must there be a you only insofar as there is a uniquely separate me? Why is there an us only given a them? Or is there an us that exists independently? Do we define things this way because of physical borders--clothing, flesh, the empty space that pervades the room between you and me.
What's more, people in different areas approach intersubjectivity in drastically different ways. My father is from New York, and hence I have spent much time in the city. Now, its not that the people are mean. In fact they are rather nice till you infringe upon their personal bubbles--the issue is that said bubble is a couple avenues in diameter. In all seriousness, New Yorkers can be incredibly aimiable. In fact, if you are on good terms with one, he or she will probably treat you like family. Most New Yorkers, however, do not feel an obligation to be nice for no reason. I suppose you must earn their courtesy. Compare this attitude to our very own "Seattle nice". Now I had never heard this term until a year or two ago, but in retrospect, its somewhat fitting. We've all done it: "Oh yeah, how have you been? Let's get coffee sometime." We say these things to our "fair weather friends" with little to no intent of actually getting coffee. The entire statement is ultimately a formality. This mode of interaction is distinctly different than what one would encounter in, for example, New York.
When I approach you on the street, what goes through your mind?
...who is she?
...what does she want?
...is she trying to sell me something?
Why, if we are truly such social creatures, do we have a noticeable aversion to interacting with strangers? Stranger. Is today's friend not yesterday's stranger? Stranger would seem to be the ultimate of otherness. We define and reduce someone to an abstract that defines him or her solely by his or her lack of a prior relationship with you. You are defining your current interaction by virtue of this "non-relationship".
Why do we seek to perpetuate the image of the other as an abstract rather than the other as simply a person we do not yet know? Does everyone do this? Does everyone do this to the same extent? If not, why not--and to what end?
As I think about and narrow my topic, I've been putting the majority of my focus onto determining how my topic will function as a project. I love the idea of intersubjectivity, it is an affinity that I have tried to stress throughout my blog posts up to this point. I feel that human relationships are at the heart of existence. Now I'm certainly not trying to be extravagant--after all, I am somewhat of a solitary creature myself. This being said, humans are (on a whole) social beings. We seek love. We seek friendship. Even our wars speak to an existence rife with interaction.
And what, pray, is interaction? Certainly there are many forms of interactions. There are those of passion and of coercion. Of affection and of spite. I want to look at the motives behind, and the function of, human interaction. Most specifically, I find myself consistently in an unnerved awe of the other--or more exactly, I suppose, of "otherness". Again I query: why must there be a you only insofar as there is a uniquely separate me? Why is there an us only given a them? Or is there an us that exists independently? Do we define things this way because of physical borders--clothing, flesh, the empty space that pervades the room between you and me.
What's more, people in different areas approach intersubjectivity in drastically different ways. My father is from New York, and hence I have spent much time in the city. Now, its not that the people are mean. In fact they are rather nice till you infringe upon their personal bubbles--the issue is that said bubble is a couple avenues in diameter. In all seriousness, New Yorkers can be incredibly aimiable. In fact, if you are on good terms with one, he or she will probably treat you like family. Most New Yorkers, however, do not feel an obligation to be nice for no reason. I suppose you must earn their courtesy. Compare this attitude to our very own "Seattle nice". Now I had never heard this term until a year or two ago, but in retrospect, its somewhat fitting. We've all done it: "Oh yeah, how have you been? Let's get coffee sometime." We say these things to our "fair weather friends" with little to no intent of actually getting coffee. The entire statement is ultimately a formality. This mode of interaction is distinctly different than what one would encounter in, for example, New York.
When I approach you on the street, what goes through your mind?
...who is she?
...what does she want?
...is she trying to sell me something?
Why, if we are truly such social creatures, do we have a noticeable aversion to interacting with strangers? Stranger. Is today's friend not yesterday's stranger? Stranger would seem to be the ultimate of otherness. We define and reduce someone to an abstract that defines him or her solely by his or her lack of a prior relationship with you. You are defining your current interaction by virtue of this "non-relationship".
Why do we seek to perpetuate the image of the other as an abstract rather than the other as simply a person we do not yet know? Does everyone do this? Does everyone do this to the same extent? If not, why not--and to what end?
posted by Catherine at
10:46 AM
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