Oh, Ramage

Three random rants:
1. This chapter reminded me less of poetry and more of banging my head against a wall.
2. The last sentence on page 58, which wraps onto page 59, is 74 words long!
3. Somewhere amid this chapter, I began to wonder if the reason Ramage talks so much to his dog is because P-Dog is the only one left who will listen to him.

Now that my mind is clear, let me consider Chapter Two.

I was optimistic when Ramage began the chapter with a strong, almost concrete concept of language as a base for the formation of identity through rhetoric. I understood—even related to—how we use language to sort of interpret and place someone, or to represent ourselves. I think people do this everyday and don’t really consider how they’re (according to Ramage) “understanding, forming, and preserving identity.”

I followed Ramage when he discussed identity as not a “set of traits” that defines us, but as something in motion, evolving. This made me think of the Serious People and how they might view this un-definite concept. Finding identity is like finding truth. Is it situational or singular? Evolving or absolute? I have a feeling these questions are going to haunt me every chapter for the rest of the book.

Finally, I get what a gist is and I get why it’s not a summary or an essence of something. A gist requires interpretation, is changeable, and subjective. And then, somewhere between beer ads, P-dog, and Sylvia Plath, I lost the discussion of the different dimensions of identity and became completely lost. Somebody find me?