Lecture Notes

I remember that Hahn once said:  Don't write down anything I say.  Just listen.

After my father died, a year after John, I found his notebook of his work for John's creative writing classes.  He took the class in 1983-1984.  I was nine.  My father's notebook is about two inches thick and contains every scrap of paper that had anything to do with the class.  There's a years worth of dream interpretations; poems and short stories; handouts; and extremely detailed notes of John's lectures. His handwriting is very tiny and, like my own, the letters join together making the words unintelligible.  It's going to take me a while to decode what he wrote.  But the following I have managed to work out.

Lecture 1-31-83
Abstract---divorced from physical reality
[a happy face]
All look at same world, but all see it differently

Ignorance is the grease of civilization
most people want an easy life and use the "grease" to alleviate problems---never say what they're thinking

Life is not a popularity game---people who communicate [unknown] aren't very popular with others
Popularity is the name of non-communication---being vague

The truth hurts---lies don't
Telling the truth is a full time job

People talk like newspapers and TV/parrot media jargon and cliches

If you are not reacting to emotions, you are not a human being