Paper 4 Freewrite

On validity of research materials:
"I write and read fiction because all writing has aspects of fiction, including non-fiction. Only fiction identifies itself as such. Fiction is true and honest. Savvy?"

On self-censorship and sauciness:
"I don't live in a prison without walls. I put myself in my own cell or I step entirely out of the cell. F*ck censorship. Hard."

We were discussing the "panopticon" in class the other day, I found it fascinating. It was thought up by Foucault (Discipline and Punish). It is a progressive form of prison. There is an octagonal "cell" with zero walls. But at each point of the octagon stands a tower with a gun mounted on it. The tower may or may not be occupied by a guard at any given time. The prisoners don't know. All the towers, none of the towers, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of the towers may or may not be occupied. And they won't even try to escape out of fear for of being shot dead. Saucy.

I find the panopticon to represent a symbolism of the self-censorship that goes along with blogging bloggish blogs. If we have a professional life, which most of do, then we need to be sort of careful of what we put on our personal blog due to fear of being shot dead, um, I mean, of having it read by our higher-ups and firing us. Unless you're like me and don't really care if you get fired from your current job. Censorship isn't worth seven and change an hour… but yes, to many people that is important.

So censor yourself if you want to stay in bidness! Obey the conventions, generalizations, and norms of your employers or educators and sacrifice your self-expression! It's just an overheard utterance anyways!

Or um, ya know, find the happy medium.

Ps. B&N, don't fire me. Oh, and UNLV, I was just kidding!