You Just Don’t Understand

Since we were assigned to read the Debra Tannen book I at first was a little skeptical. But after reading it all I agreed with half of what was written and didn’t agree with the other half. The things I agreed with were the ideas about report and rapport-talk as well as parts of the idea that men express their emotions differently. But I think that a majority of the book was repetitive. It mostly focused on the differences between the genders; I would have found it more interesting if instead of repeating the difference theme they explained some of the similarities as well. That’s why I think that a lot of the book was mostly complaints and one sided. I guess that the big picture was plain to see but I would have found it more believable and understandable. I mean that of course the differences she speaks of are true but to expect me to believe that all men and women converse like that, pleeeease. What about kids and their parents or any other family member?

Fight Club

            The movie Fight Club at first to me was confusing. But after watching it a second time I finally got the idea. What I found most interesting was that Tyler was really a figment of someone’s imagination. Also it made me wonder if it was possible for someone to possibly go that long with out anybody saying anything about it? The whole idea though of giving up materialistic things was quite clear. The thing I thought that went a little to far was the whole spree of vandalism. I mean it was all for the good of destroying reliance on materialism but the damage and destruction might have gone a bit to far. I also found it hard to believe that the police couldn’t find out who all of these guys were. And the part with the bar owner who was obviously a mobster, how could he just give up so easily against a mad man who was using the psychological card to spook him into submission. In all though I found that the movie was entertaining and made a good about how people have become addicted to getting things that they don’t need.   

Elizabeth Kolbert

During the two o’clock meeting Kolbert mostly answered questions from the audience, most of which were about past experiences. But I can’t really say much becuase I was only there for about forty minutes due to classes. The two o’clock seemed more like a TV interview to me. Really I liked the one on one meeting we had better. First it was kind of informal and it was more related to our class work. During that meeting we got actual feedback on our ideas were able to find out more information on what we should do.