Cooooooool.

This semester, I'm taking four classes: Utopia: The Temptation of Hope, History: Italian Renaissance, Latin America: Perspectives, and this English Class. Considering that these courses cover a wide array of areas, you'd think it'd be easy to come up with common words, themes, and concepts, but it is not (or maybe I just don't get it).

I think one common word/concept between the courses would be culture. In English, culture is used to define/categorize things. As stated in the Rice book, culture asks questions and allows us to define ourselves. In history, I am studying a specific culture in a specific time period--the Renaissance. The specific questions have already been asked and I am simply reading about it. My Utopia class discusses a mystical or non-existent culture, one that individuals hope for but can never achieve. Finally, my Latin American class also describes a specific, yet present-day culture. We not only ask questions in that class, but we try to come up with answers as well. Culture can mean many things, it can talk about the past, present, or future; a real or imaginary thing; and it can ask as well as answer specific questions.

As far as other common themes, I really can't think of any that overlap all classes. Media would be a close second, but the only way it differs is the use of media, learning about media, and all the different types of media, which I learn about in this class. Another common theme might be people, which links all of my classes together, but that seems simply too obvious.

I think I might revisit this post once I fully understand what writing about cool really is.