Some things perhaps that I should explain.
Oct. 5th, 2001 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheFirst off, I'm the least likely person to have a fine grasp of the theory of relativity; for that reason alone, I do not claim to understand it fully. I do, however, feel I understand it intuitively. I don't have the language to describe it succinctly. I have to approach with circumspection, just as I would if I tried to describe the manner in which I view life.
Anyway. I didn't read my first real book of science fiction until I was 18 or 19, when Blade gave me a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land to read. Up to that point, I hadn't even seen very many sci-fi movies. I'd only seen Star Wars once. I did watch Star Trek TNS and early seasons of DS9, and had even been treated to the first season of B5 (before it lulled and seemed to be going nowhere).
I read the likes of Stephen King, Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike. I liked realistic fiction, supernatural stories but not supranatural. I listened to the black music station (97.9, WJLB), but also the new alternative station (96.3, whose call letters I should remember!). I grew up an hour south of Detroit, 45 minutes east of Ann Arbor, in a little place called Belleville. Pure Michigan country. Very rural, and very poor. Predominantly black. Most of my friends in my neighborhood were black.
But I attended predominantly white schools for the entirety of my life, and white churches since I began choosing my own denominations, when I was 12.
I took mostly creative classes. I had the equivalent of five years of math in high school, but I didn't take any physics. I only went as far as Chemistry I. I loved English, and music. But for some reason I stayed away from the hard sciences. (I think I had some trouble in Chemistry, and decided it wasn't worth... well, worth the pain of failure. Better to succeed at something else.)
At my college, you only had to take one required class, and anything required for your major. My major was a social science, but I took no hard sciences at all. I failed my sole computer science course (bad semester all around); and I struggled through all of the math classes I had.
Given all this, I can see why my friends did not believe me when I said I understood the theory of relativity. I don't blame them for their skepticism. I was/am a skeptic, too. I still don't understand dark matter, and I've read several articles on it. Things I want to know, yet cannot seem to grasp, frustrate me and makes me question the limits of my understanding.
But I'm learning, and that pleases me. Rikhei gave me a copy of Beyond Good & Evil by Nietzsche, and that has really opened my eyes. Oddly enough, it's informed my Christian beliefs for the better.
Anyway. I didn't read my first real book of science fiction until I was 18 or 19, when Blade gave me a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land to read. Up to that point, I hadn't even seen very many sci-fi movies. I'd only seen Star Wars once. I did watch Star Trek TNS and early seasons of DS9, and had even been treated to the first season of B5 (before it lulled and seemed to be going nowhere).
I read the likes of Stephen King, Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike. I liked realistic fiction, supernatural stories but not supranatural. I listened to the black music station (97.9, WJLB), but also the new alternative station (96.3, whose call letters I should remember!). I grew up an hour south of Detroit, 45 minutes east of Ann Arbor, in a little place called Belleville. Pure Michigan country. Very rural, and very poor. Predominantly black. Most of my friends in my neighborhood were black.
But I attended predominantly white schools for the entirety of my life, and white churches since I began choosing my own denominations, when I was 12.
I took mostly creative classes. I had the equivalent of five years of math in high school, but I didn't take any physics. I only went as far as Chemistry I. I loved English, and music. But for some reason I stayed away from the hard sciences. (I think I had some trouble in Chemistry, and decided it wasn't worth... well, worth the pain of failure. Better to succeed at something else.)
At my college, you only had to take one required class, and anything required for your major. My major was a social science, but I took no hard sciences at all. I failed my sole computer science course (bad semester all around); and I struggled through all of the math classes I had.
Given all this, I can see why my friends did not believe me when I said I understood the theory of relativity. I don't blame them for their skepticism. I was/am a skeptic, too. I still don't understand dark matter, and I've read several articles on it. Things I want to know, yet cannot seem to grasp, frustrate me and makes me question the limits of my understanding.
But I'm learning, and that pleases me. Rikhei gave me a copy of Beyond Good & Evil by Nietzsche, and that has really opened my eyes. Oddly enough, it's informed my Christian beliefs for the better.