My mind is swimming again, as it does nearly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday about this time. One day, in the not-too-distant future, my mind is simply going to implode. It will barely be noticeable: there will be a little click and a snap and the sparkle in my eyes will glaze over and fade. I'll go limp, maybe, or maybe I'll just sit there, staring dumbly into nothing for the rest of my natural life.

I love asking questions about the world and why people are the way they are, it's what I do best. But this class is going to be the end of me. If not for the perpetual encircling of that elusive Ultimate Truth that no one can ever quite grasp, then for the small number of people I want to ritually beat over the head with a crowbar because they just. make. no. sense. They race off on tangents with the air of someone who knows exactly what she's saying and has spent a lot of time and energy constructing a point, but when you listen to the words, no, the absolute shit spilling from their lips you want to stand up on your desk and yell ARE YOU MAD??? YOU ARE MAKING ME LOOK BAD JUST SITTING NEAR YOU! LET GO OF THE STEREOTYPE BEFORE I KILL YOU.

We are here to learn how to think. Not how to act... certainly not how to act like an ass..

Anyway this is a sampling of my notes from today, as they generally look... only imagine them scribbled all over the margins and everywhere they shouldn't be...

(theatre) catharsis- pregation of pity and fear (Aristotle's metaphor)
(medical) catharsis- cleansing

"Theatre: the enema of the art world." -Casey

"What's fun about it? I mean I think frisbee is fun, but I'm not majoring in it... Of course, if they offered it... I mean they don't even offer a frisbee minor here, what the hell are these people doing?" -Casey

-variety** (I'm so excited I looped a theory to an original point!)
-causes change
-entertaining/message
-fulfilling?
-ego... sense of power (over emotions of audience).. facade... escapism

"So... basically we think theatre's a personality disorder" -Casey

-"cathartic experience"

"*HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY WHAT YOU DO?*

keep going to individual reasons... need beyond that

communal experience-- feel audience
connection onstage.. is that what Shivani means?

"Art has a humanizing aspect... a culture of drones just wouldn't be exciting" -Christina

way to way overdo the scratching your head metaphor..

*WHY ASK WHY??*
the more you ask, the closer you come to figuring out... yourself? the WORLD?

ink :: graphite