Thoughts about "Inkspots"

While reading Cantwell’s “Inkspots,” I was reminded of a tutoring session I had last semester. I was helping a student with a classification paper, and he had chosen the thesis that basically you could tell what kind of music people listened to by way they look. The paper had the stereotypes of people who listen to Emo music wear black clothing, and those that listen to country wear cowboy boots, and rockers wore Metallica t-shirts and jeans. I laughed to myself because no one would know what kind of music I listen to by the way I look. After we finished, I asked him by the way I looked, could he tell what music I listened to? He was silent for some time, then answered “Country?” I looked at my clothing, and I didn’t have anything on that would put me in his category of someone who listens to country music. Cantwell writes, “Human traits are never fixed, never unchanging, anymore than itself; they are variable, dynamic, elusive, transient, resourceful.” This experience reminded me that human beings are more complex than we think they are.

-Colleen Murphy