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snowy · 03-10-2008, 09:26 AM

I tend to think in two different ways, one being a linear narrative, almost as if my life is a movie. This started after I listened to the song "I Spy" by Pulp and read a lot of books about Jarvis Cocker and his thought process. Typically, it ties up with the writer in me. In thinking in this narrative style, I often get caught up on sentences flowing through my brain and will spend some time thinking about the sentence, revising it, making it the best sentence possible. This narrative style comes in handy when I'm trying to lull my brain to sleep; it allows me to roam off into fantasyland with ease.

My second thinking style is more or less my default thinking style. It's sort of like a flowchart drawn for brainstorming purposes. You have the main thought in the center, and then branching out from it are all the possible connections. Then off of those ideas, more connections, and so on, and so on. If you think about it from a physiological perspective, it is a very real yet abstract representation of just what my brain is up to when it's thinking. My class notes often feature mentions of semi-relevant connections, or odd connections I've made between what I'm thinking about and what my brain comes up with. For instance, we were discussing a piece in my writing class many weeks ago by Mary Louise Pratt called "Art of the Contact Zone." In the paper, Pratt discusses this Andean man who wrote a letter (a letter the size of a book) to the King of Spain, and the letter partially consisted of pictures (mostly of symbols of colonial oppression), with explanations in a melange of Quecha (the man's native tongue) and Spanish. The royal court of Spain could not understand it, but 500 years later, I look at it and my brain thinks: This was the V for Vendetta of its time. It is probably a good thing the Spanish court didn't understand it.

If you mention a concept to me, my brain instantaneously comes up with all the possible connections to that concept in my memory. Sometimes this can get me off track, but other times I appreciate it.

03-10-2008, 09:26 AM	#12 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	I tend to think in two different ways, one being a linear narrative, almost as if my life is a movie. This started after I listened to the song "I Spy" by Pulp and read a lot of books about Jarvis Cocker and his thought process. Typically, it ties up with the writer in me. In thinking in this narrative style, I often get caught up on sentences flowing through my brain and will spend some time thinking about the sentence, revising it, making it the best sentence possible. This narrative style comes in handy when I'm trying to lull my brain to sleep; it allows me to roam off into fantasyland with ease. My second thinking style is more or less my default thinking style. It's sort of like a flowchart drawn for brainstorming purposes. You have the main thought in the center, and then branching out from it are all the possible connections. Then off of those ideas, more connections, and so on, and so on. If you think about it from a physiological perspective, it is a very real yet abstract representation of just what my brain is up to when it's thinking. My class notes often feature mentions of semi-relevant connections, or odd connections I've made between what I'm thinking about and what my brain comes up with. For instance, we were discussing a piece in my writing class many weeks ago by Mary Louise Pratt called "Art of the Contact Zone." In the paper, Pratt discusses this Andean man who wrote a letter (a letter the size of a book) to the King of Spain, and the letter partially consisted of pictures (mostly of symbols of colonial oppression), with explanations in a melange of Quecha (the man's native tongue) and Spanish. The royal court of Spain could not understand it, but 500 years later, I look at it and my brain thinks: This was the V for Vendetta of its time. It is probably a good thing the Spanish court didn't understand it. If you mention a concept to me, my brain instantaneously comes up with all the possible connections to that concept in my memory. Sometimes this can get me off track, but other times I appreciate it. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau