Even erudite flies get smashed now and then for sounding too ‘school smart’. As one of many AU students not immersed in an academic social sphere, Jason’s ‘Fly on the Wall’ column seeks to aid and abet the success of others in his cohort. We won’t always be understood when we speak of what we are learning in school but we can rest assured that our education still has value.
His lighthearted approach to sociological philosophy stems from conducting field research at bush parties and working his day job reforesting the mountains of BC. Born in the city of Vancouver and raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley and an orchard in the Okanagan, he attained a diploma in Horticulture in the Creston Valley and then returned to school as a Sociology major. Today’s he’s an AU Master’s of Integrated Studies student who spends his spare time enjoying nature walks, snorkeling and reading whatever philosophical and sociological tracts capture his fancy.
Jason is fascinated with the micro-sociological thoughts and interactions that frame and demarcate our experience of daily life as well as the philosophical realm considering essential questions about what it is to be a human. It’s dense brush but Jason seeks answers where murkiness holds sway.
A Few Theoretical Influences: Louis Althusser, Isaac Asimov, Jean Baudrillard, Simone de Beauvoir, Aime Cesaire, Carol Clover, John Cummings, Kurt Cobain, Jacques Derrida, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, Antonio Gramsci, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Hobbes, Agnes Martin, Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Max Weber
‘Entitlement: Old as the Hills’ etc Nobody wants to be called entitled, even if it’s true. As university students we’re at risk of becoming branded with this pejorative term regardless of our age; protesting our innocence may seem of no avail. After all, only an entitled person would complain that the label was unfair! And… Read more »
As the year of the pig commences, the Fly on the Wall separates the slop from the mire in competing cosmologies. Is time a cycle or a line? Chinese astrology experts caution that anyone whose birth date is in the year of the Pig ought to be wary: “They should avoid conflicts and be prepared… Read more »
“This is a pig, oink oink.” A captivating childhood toy of mine involved pulling what looked like a teensy weedwhacker cord and being transported to a fleeting but mysterious sonic environment replete with either pig sounds, cow sounds, horse sounds or chicken sounds. The repetition of these noises was made possible by physical discs inscribed… Read more »
“What are we laughing at?” Upon entering a room full of twitters it’s an innocuous enough question. Here in the Youtube era we may not want to see the crude or unusual videos being shared, yet the cause laughter itself remains psychologically prescient. Plus, there’s also the timeless possibility that we are the butt of… Read more »
Consider the many things we or others might say if someone wrote a biography about our essence. The category of appearance, to recall a Grade 2 study we did of the panda, might be reduced to the heading we were taught to use for that report: looks. Now, we know that a look is always… Read more »
Shadows lurk like clouds across the moon as we recollect the recent memories of New Year’s festivities. Sooner or later, amidst the frolicking and laughter, the ominous questions arose, “Have you made any resolutions?” It was as though Champagne or Canada Dry bubbles froze in mid-ascent as gaiety met psycho-social inquisition. Queries regarding New Years’… Read more »
“Ok, listen up! Everyone take off their shoes and put them on the table.” Are we in a post 9/11 airport? Nope, it’s the first day of art class and the student body is being asked as one to draw their own shoe. Inspiration drains away like chlorophyll from autumn leaves with the forced return… Read more »
Last week the Fly on the Wall made the case for taking to art such as painting or drawing to expand our capacities for learning, to be able to look at your studies from a new vantage point that might bring easier understanding. This week, we explore another method. Besides expressing ourselves visually through painting… Read more »
December 25th brings the culmination of the Holiday season: the annual gift exchange. All the hard work of shopping and planning climaxes with this big moment; like a final exam we have expectations we hope to fulfil and anxieties we must allay. The idea, of course, is: You will get a sentimental feeling when you… Read more »
Deep in Amazonian South America live capybara: boxy beavers who intermittently refresh themselves by wallowing in mud. It nourishes and hydrates their skin and probably feels great. Like AU students, capybara life is about perpetual progress. This stands in notable contrast to their cousins the prairie gophers, who take the easy way out of winter… Read more »