Blog 9

Something I found so incredibly magnetic about Galen Strawson’s “I am not a story,” is how much it differs from Julie Beck’s “Life Stories.” Mostly, because I resonated so strongly with Beck’s piece. I find that I’m the type of person that, when encountering an opinion that differs from my own, I am drawn to exploring it and am always open to considering other angles on a subject, rather than being quick to dismiss it as invalid. I felt this kind of fascination throughout Strawson’s entire piece tonight. As Strawson begins his essay stating similar points as Beck (in hindsight I see he did this to set up his readers for his contrasting opinion) I remember thinking “yes! I agree!” which quickly shifted to “oh… oh… wow! This is different!” as he introduces his argument from the opposing viewpoint. As I dove deeper into his argument I was consistently intrigued to come across so many moments that I naturally disagreed with. In fact, there were many points in the text (as shown throughout the portions of my annotations I chose to publish) where I noted; “I’ve never thought of it this way!” Furthermore, I was especially interested to read the moments in reading where it is implied that there is a connection between those who do not live in self-narration to those who live in the moment and conversely, those who do live in self narration and those who fail to live in the moment. I believe the reason I was particularly drawn to this because I am one of those individuals who fail to live in the moment, and I in fact, am a “self-narrator.” And it so happens that learning to “live in the moment” is something I have set as a goal of mine because It is something I fail so miserably at achieving.