Squidmek

I remember, as if it were just days ago, deciding whether or not I should take the honors senior seminar. I'd heard of the work load, and the concept of an honors exam scared the hell out of me. After the first few classes, though, I was very happy I had joined. The amount of reading was really something but, more, I was excited about the multiple mediums we were exploring--viusal art, film, music, etc.

But when we began the blogs, I was suspect. My nature is not that of "computer guy." I often do things accidentally to the computer, and my wife has to fix the them and then she yells at me for messing with it. Given that, like many others, I was horrified when we were informed that we would building web pages too. Didn't seem like something I could do, and not to mention--my god, more to do.

And then I began to become really taken with the blogs. My own afforded me the opportunity to think about about ways in which dreams informed art that I was experiencing outside of class. This, above all, has been the most valuable thing taken from this class--and I'd imagine that was Prof. Tougaw's intention. I'm constantly on the lookout for dream in songs (as in right now, as I listen to the new Wilco record that talks about dreaming a few times) and films, and especially in fiction. The blogs have given me a forum--whether or not someone's listening--to think about how dreams work whenever I come across them. I found myself jotting down things like "the dream in that short story," and not actually thinking about what it means for the story until blogging about it. It's been so useful, and in some ways addictive.

And of course there's the great experience of reading other blogs. Reading different perspectives on the work under discussion always added to my own understanding. Also, getting a sense of someone more intimately (though in most cases anonymously), I believe, really helped the class become more cohesive and ultimately a richer one. I have to say, one of the most valuable aspects of the blogs was to have Prof. Tougaw share his with us. It demonstrated his level of investment in the topic of dreaming, and of his investment in us as his students. It really created a trusting environment, one that allowed for open discussion. In the end--despite the work load--I will miss the class. It has proven, by far, to be my most memorable, useful, enjoyable and rewarding experience at Queens. One that would not have been the same without this blog project.