Liveblogging Shopping Period

10:16 am
It turns out that The Idea of Self, a Classics class, is a CAP course. Not that freshmen can’t be as intellectually stimulating as classmates as upperclassmen, but I’m a little wary of this course being a kind of kiddie pool. The book list initially intrigued me—no, I’ll be honest, I needed something to shop this period. But nonetheless, the book list consisted of classical and medieval works I’d like to be able to casually refer to in cocktail conversation. But apparently we don’t even finish most of the works. Coming from the school of close reading, I’m hesitant to to take something that might turn out to be Great Books: Reader’s Digest Edition. What would James Joyce say? Or Donna Tartt? Or Mary Kay? Then again, between the Indy, Writing Fellows, and Barack, I may need the breathing room.

9:30 am
I expected the Introduction to Principles of Economics to be a beatitude on the wonders of American ingenuity, cobalt tinted by Powerpoint, projected through Japanese hardware. Thank God for globalization, right? Instead it was dry, dry like… Salomon during a dull lecture. LED projectors can cast a certain excited energy over a room, as high resolution images play across the screen, tickling our imagination. I wanted to be wowed by the obvious fruits of the American economy. But I’m not sure I can stomach a high school-style, wet erase-markered course. Especially given my political misgivings about the subject matter (read: Greg Mankiw). I may not be able to put up with ECON0110 if there’s no eye candy to sweeten the capitalism.