February 25, 2004

As bad as a wench...

You know, it's very bad when I want to curse loudly and vulgarly. I really don't appreciate the situation into which I have been placed by a combination of AP tests and the HNRS program.

So, the HNRS 1023 homework is on Arte/Scienza, or the infamous left-brain/right-brain business. So I've done most of the homework, and that is good because that means I will get a good grade. However, the freaking book is retarded. It's made me stupider for reading it.

This chapter, supposedly about striking a balance between art and science, is really about building up the right brained, artsy side. He quotes Lord Kenneth Clark (known as Papa Kenny to those in my European History class), "It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well." Lord Clark, as an art historian is clearly going to be slightly biased about these things. So we go on...

Then the author starts talking about "mind mapping," which is essentially an "artistic" way of brainstorming. It's basically what I do in my head before I start writing things down on paper. On paper. Gelb goes through this whole explanation about how mind mapping is a creative experience designed to allow your thoughts to progress as freely and naturally as possible. Here are the seven rules for mind-mapping:


  1. Begin your mind map with a symbol or a picture (representing your topic) in the center of the page.
  2. Write down key words.
  3. Connect the key words with lines radiating from your central image.
  4. Print your key words. Printing is easier to read and remember than writing.
  5. Print one key word per line.
  6. Print your key words on the lines and make the length of the word the same as the line it is on.
  7. Use colors, pictures, dimension, and codes for greater association and emphasis.

Those are the seven rules (to be followed in order) for the creative and free-thinking project of mind mapping. Apparently, it takes someone with a dominant left brain to recognize the contradicton here. The author sure didn't pick up on it. He then goes on to give an example of a mind map, with pictures of the picture at every step.

Apparently, I do not have enough sfumato or I would be able to hold this contradiction inside my head without question. Or, at least, that's what I understood from the lesson on sfumato.

Having sufficiently calmed my need to curse, I present the following:
Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn.

Now I feel better.

Posted by Gallagher at February 25, 2004 09:45 PM