Showing posts with label terry pratchett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terry pratchett. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2015

opt zile fără terry pratchett - normal, eclipsă de soare...




Friday, March 13, 2015

and a normal friday 13 it is




Thursday, March 12, 2015

Monday, January 19, 2015

monday curse



Saturday, July 5, 2014

you're not alone on saturdays either




Wednesday, January 8, 2014

resurse storytelling: labyrintheme - the 'story and narrative' module



The Story and narrative module in the labyrinth theatre course/workshop for educators working in and with museums - an output of Labyrintheme, a LLP/Grundtvig Multilateral Project (2011-2012).



Labyrintheme curriculum
Story and narrative theory-focused session

Lucian Branea

1. Introduction
1.1.      Background
The rationale of the inclusion of such a module is to introduce trainees to the importance of story and narrative, as well as to some structural elements common to fairy tales and myths around the world deemed essential to effective narratives.




1.2.      Objectives
The module’s objective is to offer a brief theoretical background to developing a narrative. By the end of this module, trainees should have a grasp regarding the importance of storytelling and basic knowledge regarding some technical aspects of storytelling and narrative.

2. Pre-requisites
2.1.      Required competences of  trainer/s
The trainer should be knowledgeable of narrative / storytelling theory and practice, derived either from a literature studies or a performing arts studies background. Background in creative writing practice helps :)
2.2.      Required competences of trainees
Trainees need no specific competence, skill or background, except curiosity and openness towards the subject matter of the module.
2.3.      Required logistics
No specific logistics is required, the module is delivered within the training course space.
2.4.      Duration and timing
The duration of the session is 2-3 hours, with appropriate breaks, provisionally positioned in the morning of Day 4.


3. Module program and content
3.1.   Actual content

a. Lecture (max. 30 minutes)
In Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad, witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick have to travel from their native mountainous Ramtop to the distant lowlands of Genua to fulfil an apparently easy task. You have to admit: how hard can it be to ensure that a particular servant girl does not marry a prince? However, since this happens on Discworld (which travels through space on the back of four elephants who in turn stand on the shell of the Great A’Tuin, the sky turtle), things are not so simple as they appear. And this is because Discworld runs on magic, and magic is indissolubly linked to Narrative Causality, the power of story. On Discworld servant girls have to marry the prince; wolves have to eat grandmothers; and it is impossible for the third and youngest son of any king, upon embarking on a particular quest, not to succeed.
In Terry Pratchett’s words,  
[…] stories are important.
People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.
Stories exist independent of their players. If you know that, knowledge is power.
Stories, great flapping ribbons of shaped space-time, have been blowing and uncoiling around the universe since the beginning of time. And they have evolved. The weakest have died and the strongest have survived and they have grown fat on the retelling… stories, twisting and blowing through the darkness.
And their very existence overlays a faint but insistent pattern on the chaos that is history. Stories etch grooves deep enough for people to follow in the same way that water follows certain paths down a mountainside. And every time fresh actors tread the path of the story, the groove runs deeper.
This is called the theory of narrative causality and it means that a story, once started, takes a shape. It picks up all the vibrations of all the other workings of that story that have ever been.
This is why history keeps on repeating all the time. […]
Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats. Or, if you prefer to think of it like this: stories are a parasitical life form, warping lives in the service only of the story itself.

Even more, on Discworld, the narrative imperative is reified into narrativium.
Narrativium is not an element in the accepted sense. It is an attribute of every other element, thus turning them into, in an occult sense, molecules. Iron contains not just iron, but also the story of iron, the history of iron, the part of iron that ensures that it will continue to be iron, and has an iron-like job to do and is not, for example, cheese. Without narrativium, the cosmos has no story, no purpose, no destination.

If the descriptions above remind you of memes, the cultural analogues to genes first described by Richard Dawkins, you are indeed on the right track. And you’d better be, because on Roundworld (that is, obviously, Earth) the story is at least as important as it is on Discworld. In all human cultures, from very early infancy, each and every bit of socializing and of learning is achieved through stories. Children hear stories even before they are able to recognize any words at all, and by the age of three most of them are already set to make up their own stories about their immediate environment. And things continue like this, year after year, story after story, until they grow older and some of them get ashamed of referring to ‘stories’ anymore, preferring to call their made-up stories ‘alternative scenarios.’ However, they’re still using stories, narratives, to shape and communicate their experiences, no matter how they call them.  
Now, even if most of us were able to make-up our own stories by the age of three, only a fraction of us are really successful when telling jokes at parties. A much smaller fraction is able to make careers as stand-up comedians, novelists or movie-makers. And an even much smaller fraction is eventually so successful with storytelling so as to get rich and internationally famous (this arithmetic does not apply to politicians, a distinct category of storytellers!). As a consequence, in order to alter such statistics, some of us become teachers of literature, or even (if we’re really over-structured) narratologists, while some hold creative writing or screenwriting workshops, training others to unlock their potential in a) writing stories (movie scripts included), that b) grab their readers or audience from the first moment and don’t let them go back to their mundane world until the story is over. This second outcome is a tricky business indeed, because stories passed on to other people have to interest them, to make them care, and consequently to make them learn something about the world and, in the process, about themselves.  
Due to a variety of cultural and economic factors and stakes, the most energy to develop such advice for the novice storyteller emerged from within the movie-making sector. Aspiring storytellers might have occasionally heard about Syd Field and Robert McKee, or Catherine Ann Jones, or John Truby, or Linda Aronson, or Blake Snyder for that matter, because such screenwriters and story consultants in the movie-making industry put their advice on paper claiming that the things they recount about making a story ‘work’ are relevant and applicable to writers of all kinds, including short story writers, novelists, but also journalists, memoirists, and other non-fiction writers.
This module chose to present to you a model developed on some structural elements than can be found in myths, fairy tales, and even dreams across the world: Joseph Campbell’s The Hero's Journey refers to a basic pattern found in a substantial number of narratives in Eastern and Western cultures alike. This identifiable pattern was first fully described in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Slightly more than four decades later, Christopher Vogler, a Walt Disney Company development executive, compiled a 7-page company memo based on Campbell's work, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, that circulated extensively around Hollywood. Vogler's memo was later developed into TheWriter's Journey. Mythic Structure For Writers, with a first edition in 1997 (and a third printed in 2007 as the latest edition at the moment of writing this).
Please mind (again!) that this is only a model of a variety of models, which you might find useful or not, within or outside the Labyrintheme training course’s scope, and as such it is the personal option of the author of the present module. Such an option is primarily based on the fact that each story worth its existence recounts a protagonist’s journey, be it outward or inward, in the end of which the hero is changed forever. Or until a next journey, of course…:>

Christopher Vogler’s The Hero’s Journey

[the names of the stages of the Hero’s Journey as dubbed by Vogler are in Bold; only some of them correspond to Campbell’s terminology]
1.   The heroes are shown (more or less extensively) in their ‘home environment’, the Ordinary World, where they mind their own daily businesses, until
2.   one day the Ordinary World is shaken in one way or another and the heroes are presented with a Call to Adventure, a way out of their familiar environments and their routine;
3.   at first, the heroes are reluctant, from a variety of reasons, to respond to the challenge, and a Refusal of the Call is tabled;
4.   however, a Meeting with the Mentor helps heroes to rise to the challenge and embark on their quest.
5.   Leaving the Ordinary World and effectively entering a non-ordinary, unfamiliar world, the heroes are Crossing the First Threshold,
6.   entering a stage during which they encounter Tests, as well as sort out Allies and Enemies.
7.   The heroes and their allies are furthermore preparing for the major challenge of their journey, that is for the Approach to the Inmost Cave,
8.   a stage in which they are subjected to an Ordeal, confronting their most terrible fear or death,
9.   which they survive and consequently get their Reward.
10. The Road Back now begins, as the heroes must (or choose to) return to the Ordinary World, to bring back the Reward and implement lessons learned during the journey;
11. however, perils along the journey are far from over: the heroes have one more dangerous meeting with death and undergo a final purging and purification, a Resurrection, before re-entering the Ordinary World.
12. Finally, heroes Return with the Elixir, in the form of an artefact and/or specific wisdom; they are forever changed by the experience, and the Ordinary World is expected to change too, in some minor or major form.

Archetypes
Mentors, Allies, the Heroes themselves and many others are character types. Myths and fairy tales throughout the world tend to share a series of recurring character types, symbols and relationships. Carl Gustav Jung first suggested that a collective unconscious may exist, to the same extent as there is an individual unconscious. And since a series of such character types consistently occur at both levels, across vast cultural spaces, Jung used the term archetype to account for such patterns of personality as a shared heritage of humanity.
Christopher Vogler describes, in his The Writer’s Journey, eight archetypes as “the most common and useful” for the storyteller, acknowledging there are many more, but introducing just “the most basic patterns, from which all others are shaped to fit the needs of specific stories and genres.” As Vogler’s Journey, the following list of archetypes is just a proposal; you are obviously welcome to find others that do not seem to be particular variations of the ones below.
However, before examining a list of possible patterns, please note two more important things about archetypes. First, while they look like character types, they may very well be roles or functions performed temporarily, in various stages of the story, by various characters, including the hero her/himself. Second, if you think that all humans are complex (like I do!), you might as well look at all archetypes as facets of the hero’s personality, acquired or gaining prominence in various stages of her/his journey.
 
Hero. The term comes from the Greek ρως (heros) and literally means protector, defender. As such, the hero is a central protagonist that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice for the common/greater good. Its psychological function is to represent what Freud called the ego, the part of personality that considers itself distinct. Its dramatic functions (because the Hero has several) are: to facilitate audience identification; to display learning/growth; to act, in control of own fate; to confront literal or symbolic death; to sacrifice herself/himself. In any story, the hero is the one who learns/grows the most.
Mentor. Most often a positive figure, the Mentors teach, inspire and protect heroes. Its psychological function is to represent the Self, the aspect of one’s personality connected with the world, therefore the wiser and nobler part of it. Its dramatic function is supporting the heroes through teaching/training, but also offering them gifts that will be of help at some point through the journey.
Threshold Guardian. A guard at each gateway to a new world encountered along the journey, the Threshold Guardian is there to keep the unworthy from entering. Its psychological function is to represent the ordinary obstacles in the everyday world, but ultimately our internal demons: fears, self-limitations, dependencies. Its dramatic function is to test the hero at various checkpoints along the journey.
Herald. The Herald issues challenges, announcing imminent change. Therefore, its psychological function is signalling the need for change. By issuing challenges, the Herald’s dramatic function is to motivate the Hero.
Shapeshifter. Shapeshifters are characters continuously change appearance or mood, with their loyalty and sincerity always questionable. Their psychological function is to express the energy of animus and anima in Carl Gustav Jung’s terminology: the male element in the female unconscious, and the female element in the male unconscious, respectively. Consequently, their dramatic function is to bring suspense into a story.
Shadow. The Shadow archetype represents the energy of one’s dark side. Its psychological function is therefore to represent the power of repressed feelings, not so much neuroses (as in the case of the Threshold Guardian), but psychoses threatening to destroy oneself. Its dramatic function is to challenge the hero, posturing as a worthy opponent.
Ally. A companion, conscience or even comic relief, the Ally is an archetype whose psychological function is to represent positive unexpressed or unused parts of one’s personality that should be brought occasionally to action. Its dramatic function is to support, and occasionally challenge, the hero.
Trickster. A catalyst character, it embodies de desire for change. Its psychological functions are to cut egos down to size, bringing everybody taking themselves too seriously down to earth, as well as facilitating change or transformation. Its dramatic function is therefore that of comic relief.

Summing up
Defining story or, for the purpose of this brief, storytelling can consume whole libraries. There’s no easy way out of this, so I’ll just refer you to a TED Talk in February 2012: Andrew Stanton - The clues to a great story. Says Stanton:
Storytelling -- is joke telling. It's knowing your punchline, your ending, knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.
For the other 19 minutes of Stanton’s TED Talk, check http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story.html. Then read or watch stories whenever you can to make up your own definition for ‘story’ :)  

b. Practical activities:
* reconfigure your choice of a story [with yourself as the protagonist in a museum setting] as a ‘hero’s journey’
* design a brief ‘hero’s journey’ whose hero is a museum artefact of your choice


3.2. Resources used
Material resources needed: flipchart, paper, pens/pencils, personal objects of participants.

Bibliography
Cristopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: MythicStructure for Writers - Michael Wiese Productions, 2007 (3rd edition)
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad – Corgi Books, 1992
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, TheScience of Discworld II: The Globe – Ebury Press, 2003
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, TheScience of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch – Ebury Press, 2005

Only indirectly referred to in this brief, but essential for aspiring storytellers:
    If you feel over-analytical :) and wish to update your knowledge of narrative to an academic level, go to
David Herman, Basic Elements of Narrative – Wiley-Blackwell, 2009


3.3. Glossary
Archetype. an inherited idea or mode of thought in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung that is derived from the experience of the race and is present in the unconscious of the individual (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archetype). The term derives from the Latin noun archetypum, the latinisation of the Greek noun ρχέτυπον (archetupon) and adjective ρχέτυπος (archetupos) – a compound of ρχή (arche = origin) and τύπος (tupos = pattern, model, type).
Meme. An idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme). Alteration of mimeme, from Greek μίμησις (mimesis = imitation). First coined by Richard Dawkins in The SelfishGene (1976). 


4. Concluding session
The concluding session should discuss trainees’ opinions on what makes a good story and what makes a well told story




Monday, November 4, 2013

raising steam

apare joi



Și dacă aveți chef să v-o comandați, ați putea la fel de bine s-o faceți de-aici


Thursday, September 12, 2013

cum am descoperit cetățenia europeană


As every student of exploration knows, the prize goes not to the explorer who first sets foot upon the virgin soil but to the one who gets that foot home first. If it is still attached to his leg, this is a bonus.
zice naratorul, în Jingo, a lui Terry Pratchett.

În primăvara anului 2000 aveam de ajuns la Bruxelles, pentru o scurtă sesiune de formare la Comisia Europeană. Mi-am inventat, peste noapte, un loc de muncă stabil și, cu toate hărtiile în regulă, mi-am obținut o viză Schengen pe trei luni cu intrări multiple. Am ajuns la Bruxelles, mi-am văzut de treabă cîteva zile, apoi m-am întors în țară. Nu m-am mai întors în spațiul Schengen în următoarele trei luni.
În toamna aceluiași an, mi-a mai apărut o oportunitate - tot în Bruxelles, tot la Comisie. M-am întors la ambasada Belgiei, am solicitat o nouă viză pe trei luni cu intrări multiple, iar cînd mi-am ridicat pașaportul mă aștepta o surpriză: mi se acordase, fără să cer, o viză pe șase luni. Ei, viza asta am mai exploatat-o un pic - cu ea am ajuns și la un congres în Paris și la un curs în Barcelona
În primăvara anului următor, am luat iar drumul ambasadei Belgiei. De data asta, am cerut viză pe șase luni și mi-au oferit una pe un an de zile. Yeeeee :)
Încă un an mai tîrziu, aveam de ajuns la o întîlnire de proiect în Edinburgh, deci aveam nevoie de o viză britanică. Deși aveam mai toate actele în regulă (cu excepția invitației pe hîrtie a scoțienilor, care fusese trimisă în România cu niște porumbei foarte-foarte bătrîni, deci a fost nevoie și de un fax trimis direct la ambasada din București), deși, de-acum, pașaportul meu avea ceva vize Schengen (celor trei de mai sus li se mai adăugase o alta, de doar o lună, obținută de la ambasada Spaniei, intercalată între două vize 'belgiene'), deși, între timp, mi se mai acordase și o viză britanică pe șase luni cu intrări multiple, n-am reușit să-l conving pe funcționarul de la ambasada Marii Britanii că am motive foarte serioase să mă duc în și, mai ales, să mă întorc din țara lui. Nu, nu mi-a respins cererea de viză - mi-a fixat un interviu detaliat la o dată mult după încheierea întîlnirii mele de proiect de trei zile. N-am mai ajuns niciodată în Edinburgh sau oriunde în Scoția :(

O să întrebați: ce legătură are, frate, povestea asta cu cetățenia europeană ? O să răspund: cum ce legătură are ?! Făcîndu-mă că ignor detaliul că, dacă aș fi fost cetățean european, n-aș fi avut nevoie de viză, aș zice: i-aș fi reclamat, și pe ei și pe șefii lor, șefilor șefilor lor, de nu s-ar fi văzut ! Din cauza acelui (cred) vice-consul am ratat o întîlnire de proiect importantă într-un proiect european, am ratat o pondere mai importantă în elaborarea unui produs final (care, mă rog, acum nu mai e de găsit nicăieri online), am pierdut o cotă de vreo 15-20% din totalul bugetului pe care-l avea alocată organizația pe care o reprezentam, n-am văzut Edinburgh și nici vreo bucățică de Scoția într-un moment bun... pfuaaai, cîte am ratat...:(

Iubesc foarte tare Marea Britanie. Aș putea vorbi/scrie volume întregi despre Marea Britanie, Anglia, Țara Galilor (în Scoția n-am ajuns, remember? nici în Irlanda de Nord), despre cum numai pe acest grup zgribulit de insule hiper-ploioase puteau să se nască Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Nick Hornby, Guy Ritchie, cetățenii de la Pink Floyd și mulți mulți alții, despre inestimabila valoare culturală a petrecerii unor nopți de vineri sau de sîmbătă în centrul oricărui oraș britanic, despre (probabil) singurul loc de pe Pămînt unde fetele îți arată că te simpatizează foarte tare incapacitîndu-ți unul din brațe prin aplicarea unui pumn bine plasat în umăr - și tot așa... Atunci cînd ating solul britanic mă procopsesc cu un flux de serotonină. Sau dopamină. Sau ambele. Cînd ajung la punctul de frontieră din aeroport sînt atît de voios și degajat că nici-unui (sub?)ofițer de la controlul pașapoartelor (ok, am și un pașaport cu un număr șmecher) nu i-ar trece prin cap să mă întoarcă din drum. Dar, teoretic, de la un punct de frontieră din Marea Britanie, poți fi întors din drum. Cu atît mai mult cu cît, de o bucată de vreme încoace, tabloidele britanice se dau de ceasul morții să prevestească invadarea iminentă a insulelor britanice de către trebăluitorii români și bulgari din 2014. Da, știu că s-au mai liniștit în ultima perioadă, dar asta ar putea fi doar deoarece cititorii lor au fost plecați, peste vară, în Bulgaria și România, țări cu bere la 40p. Dar acum, că începe să plouă și pe-aici, cititorii de tabloid britanic se întorc la ploaia britanică, mult mai drăguță (!), deci discuțiile despre invadarea iminentă a insulelor britanice s-ar putea relua cît de curînd. 

Sper că nimeni n-o să interpreteze cele de mai sus ca fiind politically incorrect. Fix acum șase zile aveam exact această discuție în Sozopol, Bulgaria, cu doi britanici, un el dramaturg și o ea producător de teatru și film (la berea aia de 40p) și nici nu s-a pus problema de așa ceva... 
Cu atît mai mult cu cît eu nu voiam decît să vă redirecționez către niște subiecte mai puțin abstracte decît par, și anume libera circulație a persoanelor și libera circulație a forței de muncă, niscaiva libertăți fundamentale în Uniunea Europeană. Căci, vorba lui Terry Pratchett, din citatul cu care începe acest text: nu e suficient să descoperi ceva, orice, mai trebuie să mai afle și alții, de la tine, ce anume ai descoperit, că doar n-o să te creadă doar așaa, pe cuvînt. Ceea ce vă și doresc în continuare, boieri dumneavoastră...:)     


Acest text are o capsă atașată ca pentru concursul Blogger European, organizat de către Reprezentanța Comisiei Europene în România și Blogal Initiative. Regulamentul campaniei: aici. Nu trebuie să faceți nimic special pe chestia asta, nu v-aș face eu așa ceva. Doar vă rog să vă asigurați că sînteți cetățeni europeni sadea (informați ȘI responsabili) - nu de alta, dar 2013 este Anul european al cetăţenilor


Sunday, September 8, 2013

opt


Opt este cel mai important număr pe Discworld. Discworld este o lume fabuloasă inventată de Terry Pratchett. Drept care recitesc (a patra oară) Night Watch, prima carte din seria Discworld pe care am pus mîna, pentru prima oară, exact acum opt ani.




Pare greu de crezut :) dar m-am ferit, o vreme, de Terry Pratchett. Ceva mai devreme, descoperisem un autor pe nume Tom Holt - iar atunci cînd m-am interesat de ce nu e mai cunoscut și vîndut (cel puțin, în afara Marii Britanii), mi s-a comunicat că locul lui în nișa respectivă e ocupat de Terry Pratchett. La momentul respectiv, Pratchett era best-selling contemporary British author (J.K.Rowling publicase doar trei cărți din seria Harry Potter și era, încă, off the charts), drept care, o intuiție (nesănătoasă, în acest caz!) mi-a dictat să-l evit - din acest motiv :)
'Soarta' a făcut ca, pînă la urmă, să-i cumpăr prima carte chiar în București (în 2005 locuiam în Bruxelles), în Diverta din Plaza România. Am 'tras' Night Watch, care e un pic mai 'serioasă' decît alte volume din seria Discworld - dar, probabil, tocmai această spectaculoasă combinație de fantasy, satiră și un comic care răzbate din absolut fiecare paragraf, în contextul unei cărți 'mai serioase' [tematic], mi-a confirmat, din primele pagini, că Terry Pratchett este un scriitor 'adevărat' și [teribil de] 'important'. 


'Mai serioase' [tematic] ? Din Night Watch afli tot ceea ce ți-ai dorit să afli, dar n-ai îndrăznit să întrebi despre modul în care protestele se transformă în revolte (nici-o legătură cu Piața Universității, zău!?), care-i treaba cu revoluțiile și, ca bonus, aproape totul despre călătoria în timp (tema mea absolut favorită, dintotdeauna - sau, cel puțin, de cînd am început să fac greșeli pe care să le doresc corectate cîndva!).  
Au trecut [autocenzurat] mulți ani de cînd am semnat, ultima oară, o cronică literară sau chiar o recenzie de carte, deci n-o să mă dau în stambă chiar acum :) Și, în nici-un caz, nu sînt pregătit să pledez pentru Night Watch ca fiind un culoar privilegiat de imersiune în Discworld. Așa cum explicam pe Quora acum ceva vreme, răspunzînd la întrebarea 'Which is Terry Pratchett's best book?',
I think that with major literature things don't quite work like that, with questions aiming at getting a Top 5 or Top 10. With any great author, it's not only that different people get different things from any Pratchett book, but even yourself might find something (different) in each and every book, and different things at different moments / states of mind, for that matter.       
Cu siguranță contează de care carte a lui Pratchett te apuci întîia și-ntîia oară - dar, pentru fiecare, aceasta este, tot cu siguranță, diferită: în funcție de formație, de gusturi literare, de starea de moment etc. etc. Ceea ce este important, deci, aș zice că este să te apuci odată :) Este adevărat, există o mică problemă: Pratchett este tradus, în română, sporadic și, inevitabil, imperfect - deoarece [și aici mă refer strict la seria Discworld] poți găsi cîte un [intraductibil] joc de cuvinte aproape în fiecare paragraf, deci e mult preferabil să-l citești în engleză. Dar chiar dacă îl citești în română [și, aici, mă refer NU numai la seria Discworld] găsești în Terry Pratchett tot ce n-ai învățat la școală - și NU numai la orele de literatură ! Aaa, n-ai timp de citit sau de învățat chestii noi referitoare la modul în care funcționează Roundworld (aproape logic, lumea din jurul nostru!) - atunci pasează-l copiilor tăi: de pe la 14 ani știu nu numai suficiente altele, dar și suficientă engleză ca s-o facă :) A promova examinarea lumii din jurul nostru prin niște lentile care nu distorsionează, în diverse grade, what is really there, nu prea e o preocupare proeminentă a sistemului educațional [public] contemporan din România sau de aiurea. Însă doar și o scurtă plimbare pe Discworld poate face mici minuni, din acest punct de vedere - iar efectul este cumulativ, crede-mă :) 

Citește-l, deci, pe Terry Pratchett, căci merită fiecare rînd - și ai putea începe, la fel de bine, scotocind pe-aici...




Friday, August 30, 2013

que quora quora


Cu (de-acum) doi ani în urmă mi-am făcut curaj să solicit o invitație pe Quora - și am primit una prompt, courtesy of comanescu.ro. Pentru că m-am logat cu Facebook, m-am pomenit urmărind din prima circa 70 de persoane și, în 24 de ore, am strîns și de primii 7 followers (acum am 255!). Recomandarea lui Iulian a a venit la pachet cu direcționarea către subiecte ca memetics, web 2.0 și NGOs - dar primul cuvînt pe care l-am căutat pe Quora a fost Pratchett. Am ajuns pe-aici, unde am și votat, prompt, un răspuns de la Aisling Ryan.

Care a fost primul topic pe care l-ați căutat pe Quora, imediat după ce v-ați validat contul ? Ați căutat răspunsul la o urgență practică, cu efecte imediate asupra sănătății voastre sau a computerului vostru? Sau ați investigat the meaning of life (sau, după caz, liff) ?