Freakin' S'Park, Man

All Park students (communications students) at my school are required to take a class called S'Park: Igniting Your Future in Communications, which is inconveniently on a Wednesday night. Because of the class, I missed a lecture that Stephen Greenblatt, the author of The Swerve, gave at our school. So now I'm  R E A L L Y   C O N F U S E D.

Stephen Greenblatt casually posing with his book, The Swerve. 

Hi Connie <3

Instead, I watched a video interview between Greenblatt and Connie Martinson, in which they discussed his book, The Swerve. The book is about Lucretius's poem, De rerum natura, or On the Nature of Things. From the video I got a very brief overview on the actual content of Lucretius's poem and the purpose of Greenblatt's book, and more of a history lesson on how some guy found the poem when he was book hunting in a monastery in Germany.


Anyway, here's what I got from the videos:

1. Lucretius said that "the world consists of an...infinite number of invisible, unbreakable...paritcles which the Greeks called atoms."
2. Sex is not bad, but you must have a relationship in order to have it (not really how it works now, but whatever...)
3. You should not be afraid of death. It has nothing to do with you; you'll live and die like everyone on this planet.
4. Don't expect infinite pleasures or infinite pain. You are limited.

My face after watching the videos. 

5. Understand that you are mortal.
6. You should experience the light and wonder that you exist.

·    I really wish I didn't have class that day, because I would have gotten so much more out of Stephen Greenblatt's speech than those videos. That's why I'm having such a hard time blogging right now...I'm not really sure what I just watched... I'm sure this will become clearer in class once we discuss it. 

It's ya boi Lucretius!!! #hollah

Yeah...