In this experiment, I had to convey an experience using the 4 paradigms: culture, personal, historical, and original narrative. One of the main things that I had to remember to do was try to convey this experience without allowing judgment (belief and reason). So for me, I really had to put everything down on paper first. Also I had to put down what experience I wanted to express, and what specific cultural, personal, etc, paradigms I wanted to use. Even more, I tried to take specific lessons from the several books that I have read this semester. In Jazz, Toni Morrison, employs the technique of using sensual descriptions to convey Joe’s experience with Dorcas. From her use of sensual descriptions, she took away rationality, and judgment, and caused one to use the aesthetic mode of thinking. In Ceremony, Leslie Silko used myths which clearly expressed the culture and history of her Laguna people. These myths allowed me to really understand who Tayo was, and what he was going through, without belief or reason. Another great technique that I incorporated into my experiment was using an interface to mediate the unknown, which in my case was the experience that I was conveying. This is a technique that I took from Pynchon, and the Crying of Lot 49. Last but not least, in extremely loud and incredibly close, Foer incorporated historical facts, and images, in order to convey experience.
I believe that there can be a new mode of thinking and expression, without using rationality or judgment. The authors that I mentioned previously used techniques that took away the judgment mode of thinking. By incorporating all of those techniques and all of the paradigms, one can produce an unconventional discourse, or a new mode of thinking and expression. In my project I used historical facts, personal memories, cultural interfaces, and an original narrative, in order to convey the experience of an African American woman living in the 1960’s and being in an interracial relationship. One of my methods for the “impossible task” of expressing the affect of lived experience was to use lyrics to songs. I incorporated lyrics from songs in the 1960’s all the way to current songs. These were used as cultural interfaces, to mediate the lived experience. Even more, I used personal memories, such as things that my grandmother told me, and things that I have seen, in order to express the experience. Basically my method for the “impossible task” of expressing lived experience was to incorporate all of the paradigms, use sensual descriptions, and use interfaces.
