The main thing I’ve gained from this class is more questions—a deeper understanding yes—but also a profound perspective switch.
A sample of some questions I have yet to answer:
What should be archived? What is a book? How do I get out of Babel’s library? What is to be ‘trusted?’ What does trusted even mean? What does anything mean?
I will say, for sure, that I have a new appreciation when it comes to books as an artifact (and artifacts in general). I think this story will give an adequate example of what I learned in this class.
I was going through my grandpa’s safe with my mom the other day, and found my great-grandma’s stamp collection book. Now this is a hefty and thick book, and you want to know my first reaction, BECAUSE of THIS CLASS? It was to read its life story. I flipped through the dusty pages (which coated my fingers btw) to discover some interesting things. 1.) Some stamp spots had glue residue, indicating there were stamps there at one point (I told my mom, and she was like :how did you know that? I felt like Sherlock Holmes in that moment). 2.) I also gathered that most of the stamps collected were from the US, Australia, and Austria. 3.) Some of the stamps are from the early 1800s. 4.) There were also countries that no longer exist in the world today. This made me wonder when the book was from. One piece of writing told me all I needed to know. 4.5) It referred to the ‘Great War,’ not World War I or World War II, which means it was published after World War I and before World War II. My mom was yet again amazed by my detective skills (which I learned from this class). Those were just some of the things I noticed, but before this class I would’ve thought it was just ‘cool’ and moved on. But I didn’t, and it made me appreciate the book even more, and gave me so much more joy/curiosity than previous me would’ve gotten out of it.
I also now have so much more curiosity in terms of the digital world that I didn’t before. This class was like opening my eyes underwater, and being able to see Atlantis with 20/20 vision.
I honestly learned everything…that’s all I can really say—is just everything—which is why I say Existential Questioning because how do you even explain everything? You can’t, so you just sit with it. Anyways, so sad this class is coming to an end. I’ve never been so upset for a class to end.
post-book!! class me>>>>>>>>pre-book!! class me
How great to see you looking for the biography of your great grandfather’s stamp collection–what a wonderful learning experience! Thank you for sharing that with us and all of the aspects of this final reflection. You have been an avid member of our learning community–asking questions with eagerness and sincerity every single class meeting. I am grateful for your participation and hope I will get to have you in another class in the future.