Can a snowflake understand a fire? And other mindfuck Questions.

[mrhappyface]

When i was once in high school honors english, our teacher basically told us about the supposed mindfuck questions in College Lit and in some literary techniques. One of the ones i remeber were "Why Wednesday?". But another on i heard of was "Can a snowflake understand a fire?" I don't really understand what it means, but can you tell me?

 

[Julianking93]

0_o

what?

I don't get the question.

How does an inanimate object comprehend anything?

 

[Biosophilogical]

Wait. What? Is this meant to be some exercise in philosophy? To me it just sounds like they are asking if two things, opposite in nature, can truly empathise with each other (like, can someone who is completely benevolent ever truly understand someone evil). Well that is my interpretation of the question, though chances are I am horribly, terrible wrong.

 

[Bladecatcher]

Yea, the actual scientific answer is, of course, no. But obviously your teacher wanted you to write a pretentious, modern essay in which you use a lot of big words, restate the question, tell the audience why it is a good question, and then not give a definitive answer. But you used big words, so that must mean you'r smart.

Honestly, I hate modern writers.

 

[Space Spoons]

I think it's another one of those "tree falls in a forest" questions. Like do bees think, or something like that.

 

[somekindarobot]

My answers:

1. Why not Wednesday? It's as good as any other day?

2. Assuming a snowflake had the ability to comprehend anything, it would probably fully understand fire if the snowflake fell into one. Understand it as bright, hot, and melting and killing it.

There. I win philosophy. That means I get, like, a paradox cookie, right?

 

[iPatrick]

It's hard to understand much when you're melting.

 

[archvile93]

Yea, the actual scientific answer is, of course, no. But obviously your teacher wanted you to write a pretentious, modern essay in which you use a lot of big words, restate the question, tell the audience why it is a good question, and then not give a definitive answer. But you used big words, so that must mean you'r smart.

Honestly, I hate modern writers.

I hate philosophy majors. Would it have killed them to learn something useful?

 

[CuddlyCombine]

Yea, the actual scientific answer is, of course, no. But obviously your teacher wanted you to write a pretentious, modern essay in which you use a lot of big words, restate the question, tell the audience why it is a good question, and then not give a definitive answer. But you used big words, so that must mean you'r smart.

Honestly, I hate modern writers.

You do realize the immense hypocrisy in your words, right? You're taking a simple explanation and converting into an overly-expositional piece. Unnecessary.

Anyway, as has been stated before, yes, it's a philosophical question. Answer it creatively and you should fare well.

 

[AC Medina]

Can a snowflake understand a fire?

...

Can a person understand death?

 

[mrhappyface]

Ever watch Bladerunner? The questions reminded me a lot of the Voight-Kompff Tests.

 

[Spiner909]

My answers:

1. Why not Wednesday? It's as good as any other day?

2. Assuming a snowflake had the ability to comprehend anything, it would probably fully understand fire if the snowflake fell into one. Understand it as bright, hot, and melting and killing it.

There. I win philosophy. That means I get, like, a paradox cookie, right?

Yes, but cookies do not exist in this form of universe.

 

[Xojins]

Can a snowflake understand a fire?

...

Can a person understand death?

To be more precise, can a person understand that which kills it?

 

[ParadoxBG]

My answers:

1. Why not Wednesday? It's as good as any other day?

2. Assuming a snowflake had the ability to comprehend anything, it would probably fully understand fire if the snowflake fell into one. Understand it as bright, hot, and melting and killing it.

There. I win philosophy. That means I get, like, a paradox cookie, right?

Yes. Here is your cookie.

It used to be mine.

OT: Weeeell, I read somewhere once that crystalline structurs re the closest inanimatehings to being alive, so maybe XD. Of course, that also assumes that the fire itself is probably anthropomorphic as well, since knowing about something and understanding it are not quite the same thing.

 

[orangeapples]

Does the river understand the ocean?

do rocks at the top of the mountain think they are better than the rock at the foot of the mountain?

do waves think they can be created in a puddle?


These are questions much like the ones your teacher has asked that ask you to be creative.
No, a snowflake does not think, so it does not understand fire.
But
If a snowflake could think, would it understand fire? no, because by the time it becomes close enough to recognize fire it becomes rain.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

Can the cold intricate lace of a snowflake know the impassioned chaos of dancing flame?
Doesn't really mean anything except what you make of it, which is fine. It does make you ponder the opposing sides of nature's beauty.

Or, in Escapist terms, could Halo ever understand Half-Life?

 

[300lb. Samoan]

You do realize the immense hypocrisy in your words, right? You're taking a simple explanation and converting into an overly-expositional piece. Unnecessary.

HA! Well played!
So the question is, can an idiot recognize genius?

 

[SimSquid92]

Ever watch Bladerunner? The questions reminded me a lot of the Voight-Kompff Tests.

"My mother? Let me tell you something about my mother..."
But yeah, just something to make your head hurt?

 

[kotorfan04]

So basically this is a: Can we understand our polar oppiste type question? I would say no. After all we would have to comprehend an anti us, something which our mere exposure to would obliterate and since we can't read (We are after all a FUCKING SNOWFLAKE) We would be unable to learn about it third hand, especially since anyone who got close to the fire melted, so sadly they were unable to write about it, or write yes, or just fuck it because honestly if you can string togather enough BS your teacher will go for it, they are kind of retarded like that.