Motivation

While yesterday's class wasn't as enlightening as I'd hoped it would be, it did reignite one of my motivators: frustration. I call it frustration as it's not truly anger. It's more like a wildfire lapping at whatever is in the general area. And there is this general area of vagueness that I rage at when it comes to media. It's the same feeling I get when I want back the time I wasted on a bad movie or video game. Why did I give my time to that? I could have done something else. This vagueness comes from people who don't truly understand the subject they are talking about. Like Hostile Dimensions with its strange plot and waste of potential. Or a book that has a neat concept but wastes it to explore roads too frequently traveled. For me, it's this frustration at a class that taught me something I already understood. The issue stems from teachers who don't have a clear grasp on what they're trying to teach you or lack the tools to do it. I've often wondered why great authors don't teach but it's likely they don't know how to explain it. In college I found teachers with a wealth of knowledge. It often felt as if they were condensing their vast experience into a semester. Something that pales in comparison to what they experienced and how they came to be who they are. For example, my Chinese history teacher told us about her encounter with a scorpion while she was in Taiwan. One popped out from under her refrigerator. She stopped, grabbed her Chinese dictionary, and shouted the word for "scorpion" as she slamed the book on the critter. That's a woman who doesn't just know the knowledge of ancient history, but was part of the changing world. She was a witness to history. Yesterday's class teacher felt like she knew the subject for a week before she taught it. And that infuriates me. This lack of depth into the subject. The lack of digging into her subject. She gave one example from one book. She should have three, minimum. If I rant any more I'll lose my focus so I'll end it for now. I rage against a writing world that's a mile wide and a centimeter deep.