Kenneth Burke writes:

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

The Philosophy of Literary Form 110-111

This was the paragraph shown during the first lesson of the academic discourse skills (don't ask me what is it) module. And we were asked 3 questions to think through.

1) What did you think about when you first read the paragraph?
2) what do you think Kenneth Burke is trying to convey?
3) Is there another hidden meaning to it?

Somehow or rather I related it to life. Was rather impressed with myself for inferring the metaphor that way haha. And eventhough it's wrong, it still set me thinking. Purpose. Roles. Contribution. Friends. Family. Legacy. Hmm... I'm too lazy to share here. Just posting this up, so that one day when I read my archives, maybe I'd stumble upon this and reflect on it....

Oh, I had sleep paralysis again a few days ago. I don't like it. Hope it never comes back.