My Room and the Library, Norfolk Terrace,
UEA, Norwich, Day 122. The Day I Envied Cavemen
I reversed yesterday’s schedule and did abs
and ran first, then I studied for the last day before my exam. I felt more
refreshed. There is something about a day devoted to studying that makes
anything that’s not studying more interesting. Even in a subject like
literature and books I’m interested in, impressionist book The Portrait of A Lady and the modernist Heart of Darkness, hours spent imprisoned at a desk is not a
natural condition, physically speaking.
The
great cavemen—the Neanderthals and the Homo erectus, among the other gradations
of human evolution—did not sit at rocks and just widdle away making weapons for
hours upon hours on end before their exams. No, they would test their weapons
themselves! Not with paper but with sticks! They would roam their primitive
lands of wild abundance and probably figure out what worked and didn’t work—so maybe
some of the ‘tests’ happened to be fatal, but the point is, the tests tested
bravery, navigation, and instinct. For studying, I figure out what’s relevant to my
intended topics on the examination’s two essays—I use two of ten literary criticisms
to help pinpoint literary impressionism and the modernist breakdown of language
in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
But
all of this occurs at a desk. Not roaming outdoors in the wild lands of the
Fertile Crescent or of the as-yet unchartered lands of Western Europe. So as I
write this I realize that this day I envied cave men—but they’re not even cave
men! They’re the first human explorers. ‘Cavemen’ is just a term of convenience
for these nomadic peoples.
Ah,
but the cavemen did not have guitars…
Maybe
I don’t envy cavemen after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment