Reasons to Like Houghton College pt. 1

I'm not going to apologize for putting this post up on Saturday morning. I will, however, apologize for the fact that my last post was the definition of mental vomit. Next time I'll try to get what's been cogitated and refine it a little.

The Middle of Nowhere

If you were once a kid who liked cartoons, the title Courage the Cowardly Dog might mean something to you. Courage was a little pink dog who lived with two old people in the (extremely) little town of Nowhere, Kansas. I bring this up because if Houghton had another name that would be fairly accurate.

Before I go on, I fully realize and admit to not having lived in a lot of small towns; I've always lived in or near cities, even when I was in Asia, so I can't say I'm an expert on them. Yes, Houghton does have Fillmore and Olean and other small towns nearby, so we're not entirely isolated. Thank you for allowing me to take that paragraph to nullify my hyperbole created in the first.

The main deal is that Houghton College, located in the town of Houghton, New York, is not the largest location out there. Outside of our cafeteria and Big Al's in the basement, the only other places to eat are a Subway and a Chinese restaurant, both within walking distance. We have a post office and an environmental centre that used to be a gas station. This is a college town in every sense of the word.

It really goes beyond being physically isolated from the rest of the world, though. Houghton College is a Christian academic institution, and that makes a world of difference. Walking around at a very warm one o' clock this morning, I took time to marvel at creation and appreciate what I have here. As I go by townhouses I don't hear music that blares or pounds, no screaming or yelling. I can (fairly) safely assume that there aren't alcohol-fueled orgies occurring in the dorms and what have you, and that I won't be drunkenly asked if someone can use my phone (I'd say no, mainly because I don't own a phone). All I could hear was the rustling of the leaves in the wind.

I'd like to attribute my penchant for peacefulness to the fact that I consider myself a pretty chilled individual, but I don't know. Maybe I'm still just trying to brush off my summertime introversion (which sounds like an oxymoron, but isn't), and this is the place to ease into that. Either way, it was a beautiful night last night, and I couldn't have enjoyed it like I did on the campus of Houghton College.

Music Monday (Ironic Because It's Wednesday)

Roughly ten minutes ago I stepped back into the relative warmth of our townhouse, having just stood in the somewhat cold to listen to what I suppose could be called a "show." Standing out there with my hands deep in my pockets I had the opportunity to be washed in the sounds of deadhorse, a band that dropped by from Pennsylvania. Suffice to say, it really got me thinking about music.

Recently I teased one of my housemates about the genre of music he enjoyed, and he retorted that rock music hits you "here" (as he motioned to his midsection). Being at an outdoor show really allowed me to experience it fully, to feel the music as it hit me here (I am motioning to my midsection). As I listened I was also struck by the fact that in spite of having a purely instrumental sound, deadhorse managed to appeal to my emotions. Did I feel more melancholy because one of their songs reminded me of another I'd heard before, or did the actual sound of the song in and of itself create that feeling in me?

With music on the mind I was almost forced to mull over the theory a friend and I had discussed as kids (and continue to talk about today). Musical trends come and go, and we managed to ascertain between the two of us that eventually there will be a return to more natural sounds, a putting off of auto-tune and distortion pedals and the like. I continue to wonder when pop music will swing its way back to a more simplified sound. Pop music having its etymology in "popular music," though the definition has most definitely changed, especially in our current age.

Lastly, since I feel these are a lot of thoughts at once, I wanted to share this one idea I had while riding home with the radio on one night. We began our trip on a jazz station, and rather than being extremely chill it was very upbeat, prompting my often quiet and confused grandmother (the one with Alzheimer's) to dance. Afterwards the radio was switched to a more contemporary top hits station, with songs such as Usher's OMG. Both songs serve the same purpose, to provide music to dance to, and for the rest of the ride I wondered if somehow the synths of today's dance music could be replaced with strings, the generated beats replaced with an actual drum kit, the singer's modulated voice replaced by three or four singers, or just one with backup.


These are a lot of thoughts about a topic I'm not even that knowledgeable about, so for that I apologize. What I've decided to stop apologizing for, however, is the lateness of these posts. I've come to the conclusion that my college schedule is the most demanding I've had thus far, and I can't always control when I'll have time to write these posts. I do, however, promise at minimum one a week, for each blog, roughly around the days they would usually update. It's not ideal, but it's just how it's going to be for now.

Putting the "Ah" in "Palahniuk"

Whenever I am reading one of Chuck Palahniuk's books and am asked who he is, I simply give them the most straightforward answer that comes to mind: "It's the guy who wrote Fight Club." For those of you who have read at least one of his novels you are probably well aware of his literary style and the methods he employs to hook readers. For those of you who aren't (but have seen the aforementioned novel turned film) just imagine verbs, nouns, and adjectives melded together to form the images of cracked ribs, bruised and bleeding lips, and black eyes. Pygmy features graphic homosexual rape, Rant features a protagonist who contracts rabies again and again via animal bites because he enjoys it. In explaining my title it would be wise to bank on the "Ah" referring to the shock and awe descriptions so often employed in his books. This is not the case.

The "Ah" I have found in "Palahniuk" instead refers to science, to the drawn out sound you make when you realize something you never knew before. To be more broad, jargon and technical terminology and the knowledge of how the world works. Fight Club explains how soap is made, as well as how projection booths work. Rant elaborates on how the rabies virus incubates and what its side-effects are, while Diary delves into the facial muscles, graphology, and the ingredients to oil-based paints. Palahniuk writes in such a way that you find yourself completely involved in the story while at the same time picking up the jargon, realizing that when someone contracts their levator labii superioris muscle they're sneering, that something has happened which disgusts them thoroughly. Wading through scenes that make us crease our foreheads and wince and maybe even faint we find ourselves growing oddly more knowledgeable, we begin to find the fact behind the fiction.


As a closing paragraph I would like to include that I believe Palahniuk's works will stand the test of time. In spite of his novels constantly featuring socially awkward protagonists, the way they seem to feature catchy, explanatory phrases ("I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct" Fight Club, "The weather today is an increasing trend towards denial" Diary), the less-than-subtle lean towards shock-and-awe literature, he writes like no one else has, and is continuing to grow as an author. Perhaps he is even the author to be placed on that pedestal labelled "Postmodern," an author for our times. An author to take the madness and confusion and violence and indecisiveness and nihilism and knead it together, a bread that alone cannot sustain, but instead explains.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

The new blog post will go up tomorrow, because I have to write an article for the newspaper that I forgot about. Maybe if you're all nice or whatever I'll put it up here for you to read.