Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I, Forrest

Well, call me Captain Obvious, but it never really ocurred to me just how profoundly who we are is informed by the time and place in which we live.

So, yes, I am reviewing existentialism. And that did get me thinking about the moments that defined my life. A "who am I, anyway?" review, if you will. And then I realized that all of those defining moments have a very clear east coast and 70's - present-day stamp on them. Even personal tragedies are linked to the time in which they happened. (And I didn't even get a picture with JFK, though I did meet his son once. Nice guy.) Then I thought about my ancestors from the generations I know enough about, and they have the same deal.

I have no authentic self! And, that lack is apparently a genetic flaw!

3 comments:

Chris said...

You have an authentic self. It just has a funny accent.

Heo said...

Says you, dwarf vader. Says you.

Bardiac said...

I discovered in grad school that I had no subjectivity in the ways that people were typically describing subjectivity. It caused me some angst for a bit, but since I still manage to use the first person pronoun pretty much appropriately, I decided they were wrong. Then I read people like Harraway, Butler, Moi, and was more sure.