View a FREE sample

1. What does it mean for one to compose their life as an "emergent vision"?

To compose one's life as an emergent vision means that one will compose their life improvisationally, as life happens around them, rather than to create static goals and move toward them. In this way, life is compared to improvisational art, and new visions of life can be created as new situations arise.

2. According to Bateson, how do today's values for a "good life" differ from traditional values?

According to Bateson, traditional values in life were permanence and stability, but these values no longer have a place in today's constantly changing society. Just as permanence and stability were of no value to creative successes in the past, so too are they invalid in today's modern society. Instead, a continual redefinition of life is considered more valuable.

3. According to Bateson, how is life like jazz music?

In today's society, women are no longer adhering to the traditional gender roles that stifled generations of women before them. Now, women are recreating their life's goals as life happens around them, thus living improvisationally. Bateson compares this style of living to jazz music, as both take familiar material and combines it in new and unexpected ways.

(read all 60 Short Essay Questions and Answers)

This section contains 4,428 words (approx. 15 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample