in arts school, we were given the illusion that the individual mind, with the sufficient level of intelligence, can triumph over the brain of any sage or saint. so we could, mostly for the sake of playing devil's advocate, rebut aristotle's theories on tragedy in 3 sentences, or refute edward said's orientalism simply by pulling in psychoanalysis, a tsai ming-liang movie and an old SCMP clipping.
this is the art of studying art.
in law school, we were introduced to the idea of "authority" which, without disrespect, means you can shut the fuck up if you're not quoting the higher court or a renowned judge. end of story, son. it's not about how brilliant your words are, but from where you are uttering those words.
this is the law of studying law.
in secondary school, i managed to flunk every subject with the slightest proximity to science, so it's not surprising that statistics, charts and formulas have always been the subject matters of my worst nightmares. yet i have recently encountered geeks who approach science as fine art. i can finally understand why the scientific process can be one of creativity and originality, and why they are on cloud nine discovering a new curve that explains a certain phenomenon.
i am currently into a softcore psychology book on body language. the exciting thing is how animalistic we all are, regardless of upbringing and social status. for the purpose of mating (yes this is the word), we look for physical beauty in our preys without realizing that we are actually attracted by their outward healthiness and readiness to reproduce (for instance, the biological reason why men are forever drooling over women's long legs is that a girl's legs undergo rapid lengthening during puberty). human beings, like all animals, fall into the inevitable cycle of birth, ageing and death. we abide by the laws of the jungle. we can never triumph over mother nature.
this is the science of studying science.
the things is, how do we deal with life itself if we're so fragile?
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