Strata

I just changed the name of my blog.

I hope that it doesn't confuse my few readers to the point of losing them.

I hope that it does put my blog on an earlier page when I search it on Google.

Yes, I search my blog on Google. Don't make fun. You know it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened.

A silver lining is a nice image, but it wasn't exactly the most original title, and it's not totally accurate to my blog. My posts aren't daily reports of how I look on the bright side. "Today, Melanie tripped over her feet and fell on her face. Then she smiled because she could see the flowers better from the ground." No.

Without completely changing little bloggy's identity, I tried to think of something that could have silver linings. Clouds have silver linings, and stratus is a type of cloud, and "Silver-Lined Stratus" does not sound terrible. But why stop there? Stratum sounds like stratus, and that basically means "layers." In ecology, strata are layers of vegetation. In society, they're layers or levels of social class. Geology - layers of rock. Biology - layers of tissue. You understand? "Strata" can be used in so many different contexts.

One thing I've found most interesting to blog about is different perspectives. When I read The Poisonwood Bible, I always kept in mind which of the narrators was speaking and how her perspective affected the readers' perception of the discussed event. Now, I'm in the midst of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and I'm always thinking of how the students Nafisi teaches see this literature differently than I, an American student. For instance, Nafisi's students connected with Lolita. They knew she was a prisoner and victim of Humbert, but they also understood that she could not leave him. After her mother's death, Humbert was the only person Lolita could associate as any sort of family. The revolution in Iran was oppressive, the students' Humbert, but Iran was their home, where their families and culture were rooted.

And the whole time I just thought Humbert was a slimy creep and that was it! I was baffled by the amount of time Lolita stuck around that guy. See how eye-opening it can be to explore others' perspectives?

So that's why I like "strata." I love to explore other people's perspectives, especially when they contrast with my own. I love observing that different individuals feel differently about things like a piece of literature, a story that everyone reads in the same words the same way (with the exception of translations). Then, identifying what factors have influenced these people's varying perspectives is rewarding, for it allows me to better understand their views. "Strata" is an applicable term in linguistics, biology, geology, sociology, and ecology, so why not make it applicable to my blog, too? Instead of looking at layers of rocks or social classes, I'm looking at strata of outlooks.