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Does anyone have any Lexap--I mean, magic mushrooms?

I aplogize, but this post will primarily be a "parasitism" upon others' words; it would be otherwise too difficult to describe my thoughts when all I have been doing this weekend is reading. (but hey, the 2nd snippet is about Super Mario...mario!!)

"It is of immediate relevance to what I have been asking about Wittgenstein's view of language, and indicates one general and important limitation in my account, to notice that in moving, in Part II of the Investigations, to "figurative" or "secondary" senses of a word (which Wittgenstein explicitly says are not "metaphorical senses", cf. Investigations, p. 216), Wittgenstein is moving more concentratedly to regions of a word's use which cannot be assured or explained by an appeal to its ordinary language games (in this, these uses are like metaphorical ones). Such uses have consequences in the kind of understanding and communication they make possible. I want to say: It is such shades of sense, intimations of meaning, which allow certain kinds of subtlety or delicacy of communication; the connection is intimate, but fragile. Persons who cannot use words, or gestures, in these ways with you may yet be in your world, but perhaps not of your flesh" (The Claim of Reason, 189).


It may seem shocking, but this next article speaks to what we're discussing in my class on Seeing Differently. At least, as far as art is concerned.

"Mario has no back-story. His experience is our experience; when he jumps over a turtle, we are dictating his story through our input, directly controlling his character and narrative. If you wanted Mario to be a depressive, suicidal maniac, you can run into the first Goomba over and over again, until the game ends. It wouldn’t go against the Story of Mario – instead, the ageless adventure would be the parable of wasted potential. Mario didn’t dictate who he was, beyond his iconic design..
But if Mario suddenly spoke about his ideas, or the situations he was facing, we could only hope that he would be easy to relate to; that he would have a mythic, universal, human heroism. If Mario told you he was courageous,
or if he spoke of his great need to kill Goombas, then his suicides would be absurd, or simply boring.
Thankfully Mario stays silent in his platform games, save for a few whoopees when he jumps more than once or falls a great distance. Whether it be Link, or The Prince, or the hero of GTA 3, we can become these giants because of what they do not say."

(Find the article here; issue #4)

Now I just need to figure out how to incorperate these 2 topics into one honors thesis. It would legitimate my wanting to play video games all day. :\

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