Michael Dean

• exaptation : when a trait arises through evolution, but then is later co-opted for a different use. For example, the tongue evolved for eating, but later become fundamental for speech. The word is about surveying what exists and questions what new combinations are possible.

• nickelodeon : the name of a theatre in 1888, and by 1909 it meant “motion p

Good example of motif:

“On one side, we had the recipe fundamentalists, like my aunt who wouldn’t dare swap out walnuts for pecans, lest she commit a culinary sin worthy of excommunication.“

In a single example, there are three words that all point to the same religious metaphor: fundamentalist, sin, excommunication. Motif speaks to how strong your m

Impressions on the standup comics and crowds in Midtown for the East Village.

• Midtown: Long-Island like, sports and sex jokes, louder, more stereotypically New York, Mitch Hedburg, played into racial stereotypes, comfortable, comedy as a hobby, beer culture.

• East Village: nuanced, less obvious punchlines, more believable personal stories, drug/marij

This Sontag quote maps onto my essay framework of voice (sight, sound, spirit):

“What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.”

• See more: imagery, concision, motif;

• Hear more: rhythm, reputation, rhyme;

• Feel more: tone, perspective, subtext.

Literally doesn’t just mean “not figuratively,” but it means “of the text.” When you say literally, what you’re actually saying is: “regardless of what is spoken or done, we should refer to what is put down in writing at the source.”

The word “hyper-garbage” came up in a writing workshop today. The Internet is full of trash, don’t contribute to it! This is part of a very common (and often vocal) debate: quantity vs. quality. The first error is to think you have to pick a side. You can—and should—do both. The pressure from expecting a masterpiece is real, and so to combat that,

Israel strikes Iran. A compulsion to doom scroll, but watching myself as I do it. There’s worry, but also a scanning for both clarity and novelty. The main problem is that the same factoids are being repeated over and over; it’s quite hard to obtain new and developing information. What’s happened in the last 30 minutes? It’s a weird paradox; you ob

Escape chronos through perception. Found myself getting stressed over a tight schedule (here by 11am! here by 2pm! here by 7pm!). Time can easily keep you in your head, in a realm of abstractions. But aesthetic observation puts you back in the body. It’s a frame shifter. As long as you have a decent plan, you can trust it and get out of your head.

Recently, I've been paying extra attention to topic sentences too, which are kind of like an extended version of a paragraph title. During one of the live sessions I wrote, "Clear topic sentences for insane paragraphs." A clear topic sentence helps frame the sentences ahead, and links the whole unit to the larger point of an essay.