20130615

and psychic distance


let me tell you first about one of the preciously insignificant bits of knowledge i have learned from the past two weeks in class. this thing about writing (applies to other life matters too) called The Psychic Distance.
it is some sort of concept or element that is good to take note of when doing creative non-fiction, telling a story, writing a letter, and expressing feelings.

an example is this; say, a girl calls her bestfriend to talk about an encounter with her crush;
sample A (without PD) :: "hello, besty-friendy! ohmygod you wouldnt believe what happened! ashphsshhhdfgspssdsgghh !!!! he was so fcking arcdhbwjaeoou and i was like; arrdssshpffsdshhhd ohmygod gurl i swear it was like, sdadsdfdawedew!!!"
sample B (with PD) :: "hello, Gracia! you wouldn't believe what happened today! i was walking in the corridor, and my crush was there at the corner, looking at me! he had a knife in his hand and there was a resentful look on his face! i was so touched! i hope we meet again! ok i have to go now, see you!"

can you see it now? it's a wonderful thing, isn't it?
according to an online dictionary, Psychic Distance is;
the degree of emotional detachment maintained toward a person, group of people, event, etc.

psychic distance is applied when you are telling something whose emotional and trivial aspects are somehow different to what you have at the moment. when you talk about an embarrassing experience, if, say, it happened just a couple of minutes ago, chances are you'll be discussing it with a friend whilst blushing and giggling and acting all stupid and cutesy. but when you talk about it like, after a week or month or day of psychological separation (or "Psychic Distance"), you'll be able to narrate the embarrassing account on a more comprehensive way. you can control the tones, embellish the tale's atmosphere, and give the listener a convenient story to ponder upon/react to.

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now, proceeding to my diary-entry here in boxuniverse (don't expect anything.),
i will do a little dropdown bullet-ed list of somehow  important matters that occurred this week.
* i have found one notable angel among the miserable army of frog-faced freshmen in our college department
* teacher says a couple of students shall be practice-teaching in University of Makati, the dorm-y housing is already provided. i am excited (want to be part of it)
* we have a subject called Creative Writing. i was very disappointed at this at first because the teacher literally didn't know what she's supposed to do. luckily she was replaced by a less dumb one. we were asked to make an anecdote/narrative last Tuesday and the teacher accused me of too much" meta-discourse" (i had to Google it! wtf) and exaggerated usage of flowery words (i was doing ikebana shit! lol), etc. regardless, i am still better than most of us. at least i was trying to hit the "Creative". some didn't even come close to "writing".
(* Metadiscourse is a term that is used in philosophy to denote a discussion about a discussion (and so on), as opposed to a simple discussion about a given topic.
The term metadiscourse is also used in writing to describe a word or phrase that comments on what is in the sentence, usually as an introductory adverbial clause. It is any phrase that is included within a clause or sentence that goes beyond the subject itself, often to examine the purpose of the sentence or a response from the author. Metadiscourse includes phrases such as "frankly," "after all," "on the other hand," "to our surprise," and so on. -- Wikipedia.)
* i am so torn between liking and hating school.
* i am so torn between liking and hating my haircut. (i realize earlier this afternoon it quite looks like my friend's daddy's haircut. suddenly i think it's cool.)
* i am totally keeping this smug i-hate-you-all look on my face whenever on hallways, corridors, grounds, etc. it is important for people to know who to not mess up with;
* my notebook in Creative Writing. i designed this just a while ago;

* i have read Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. it is a genius book by a genius novelist.
* i saw American Beauty. it is a perfect film. the ending sequence (and sudden Beatle music!) struck my heart right to its core.
* "I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday." -- Lester. protagonist of American Beauty.
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wow.
i really thought i am gonna write lots of things now but my mind is currently an empty hard drive. (and i should do my thesis! fuck.)
goodbye now.