{"id":915,"date":"2008-11-25T13:48:47","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T17:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/?p=915"},"modified":"2008-11-25T13:48:47","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T17:48:47","slug":"textual-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/2008\/11\/25\/textual-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Textual Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

A conversation between two strangers will usually begin with an attempt to establish a general understanding between the two of them. This usually begins with a broad topic, which is why such a common initial subject is the weather: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNice day out isn\u2019t it?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYeah, it\u2019s gorgeous out.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>While the subject of the conversation is concerned with the weather, what the two of them are actually doing is establishing is a common ground; a shared experience. The importance of the establishment of a shared experience can not be underestimated (no matter how broad or superficial the actual conversation), because it is the first step toward empathy. While it is not necessarily a reflection of deeply felt emotions, it is a way of saying \u201cyou are not alone in your feelings, I feel the same way you do.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These shared experiences aren\u2019t even always vocalized, a smile or a wink or a wave, any sort of reciprocated action is an acknowledgement of some shared experience; even if only that moment. <\/span><\/p>\n

When was the last time you were walking across campus and you weren\u2019t sure how to interact with a former acquaintance? Chances are you\u2019ve thought: \u201cshould I stop and talk to them, should I just smile, should I acknowledge them at all, should I just ignore them\u2014I don\u2019t want it to be awkward?\u201d The reason that there is such an apprehension in these situations is a sort of fear of rejection; a fear that the action will not be reciprocated and you find out that the other person doesn\u2019t feel the same way about you (the snub).<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever had an experience that you particularly found hilarious, but when you describe it to others their reaction is much less than what you expected? You generally will resort to qualifying the story by saying something like \u201cYou had to be there.\u201d Why? \u2013And why are standup comedians funnier in person? Why do we go Why do TV shows have laugh tracks\u2014do you not know what\u2019s supposed to be funny?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Where am I going with this? Well\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think that this human need for empathy is the basis for all literature (as well as many other endeavors). \u201cWe Feel Fine\u201d takes a much more direct approach, linking people on the internet through emotions, which essentially makes it an \u201cEmpathy-Networking Site.\u201d The reason that we are interested in reading about how other people feel is because we\u2019ve all felt that way at one time or another. <\/span><\/p>\n

This has a lot to do with our ability to see ourselves in electrical sockets and two dots above a line (as McCloud depicts in Understanding Comics). With the more avant-garde pieces we\u2019ve looked at throughout this course, I think it\u2019s been a lot more difficult to find the human emotional connection. While I can appreciate the artistic elements of the different pieces, I think it really comes down to the fact that the less I see of my (human) self in a piece, the less emotional connection I will feel towards it and the more apprehension I will feel towards approaching it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation between two strangers will usually begin with an attempt to establish a general understanding between the two of them. This usually begins with a broad topic, which is why such a common initial subject is the weather: \u201cNice day out isn\u2019t it?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYeah, it\u2019s gorgeous out.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0While the subject of the … Continue reading Textual Mirror<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}