Sunday, December 13, 2009
New Ideas?
I found an interesting notion in poem 18 that can easily be related to what we question on Friday about him glorifying Americans. What we didn’t notice was, does he have an opinion on war? And while I read I noticed that poem 18 like I said above is about how Whitman, being an American and idolizing these people, what he thinks of war? Does he talk about it in any of his poems? Yes.
“ Vivas to those who have fail’d!
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And to all generals that lost engagements! and all overcome heroes!
And the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known. ”
Here we see a clear statement of war. The odd thing about this is, like we’ve analyzed already he exalted the American people. With this in mind, we would think that he would talk only of the Americans and their past history: all the wars, the battles, skirmishes, their victories, and finally their vital independence. But he doesn’t, he does the complete opposite, “ And the numberless unkown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known.” Here he is equalizing both the unknown soldiers, which can give the implication of the opposing soldiers, and the “greatest soldiers known” which implies the glorious ones. Taking all these things into account, I was puzzled when I read the first line of the stanza Whitman writes, “Vivas to those who have fail’d!” I didn’t know what to think anymore, because not so long ago we had established that he was elevating everyone from the rest, but still if he had this mentality than why would he celebrate the failure of those who failed? Might he have been degrading the Americans self-centered egos once again? After evaluating a couple of pieces of Whitman and seeing an Anti-American trend, could he really be against them?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Chapters 6, 7, and 8
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Just Brilliant
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Chapters 3-5 Of Candide
We are introduced to a peculiar character named James, the Anabaptist. James is an altruistic character and I noticed again, that Voltaire attacks the altruistic, optimistic people in this world. He does this because James tries to save a very “excited sailor who struck him a violent blow”(Voltaire 32)and the sailor lost his balance and almost fell overboard, James being the altruistic hero turns and saves the helpless sailor, when all of a sudden he slips and falls into the sea. The very selfish sailor doesn’t bother helping James who a few seconds earlier had saved his poor life. Voltaire again is targeting the Church, specifically Christian morals, the uselessness of being kind to everyone. He also criticizes the altruist, James, who doesn’t offer any good to society; in turn he is a victim of his own altruism.
Flaubertness
By the way Mr. Tangen, did Flaubert only write in free indirect style?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Smooth Like Flaubert
The New Beginning
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A Satirical Voltaire
As I began to read Voltaire's Candide I noticed something that caught my attention and I thought of it to be rather odd. Voltaire is actually satirizing most if not all characters and their personal traits. For example the name of the barony, "Thunder-ten-tronckh" although many people might have not taken it this way, I surely found it to be even mocking. Voltaire's word choice is questionable, one can say these words are childish because of the alliteration in between hyphens. He also undermines the families nobility, the very pride that one feels for their family name, their legacy. We see once again the use of mockery towards the characters when Pangloss, the castle's tutor, teaches a rather strange profession “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology” we are given another example of Voltaire's childish word choice.
Another interesting demonstration of satire in which we see over and over in Candide is the inevitable display of going against the orthodox lifestyle or beliefs. For example we see early in the book that Voltaire ignores the aristocracy belief in natural superiority at birth when the baron's sister refuses to marry Candide's father because he only possessed 71 quarterings while she had 72. Again Voltaire illustrates the complete ignorance of Voltaire towards what was known as orthodox, in other words, he goes against what most people saw normal and just. In those times woman weren't given the decision to marry whom they wanted, they were told who would be their partner in matrimony.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Five Steps To Being the Best Student
2. Put a needle on your teachers chair so he congradulates you for being an outstanding student.
3. Bye yourself absolutely nothing of the materials required for the class.
4. Occasionally skip class and go to the snack shop.
5. Don't study for the test and sit next to a lazy classmate so you can copy from him!
If you follow these few steps, you'll surely be at the top of your class!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hyprocritical Beings
If you keep reading the same section another example comes that better illustrates the hypocrocy, "Someone else's child is dead, or his wife...'It's the lot of a human being.' But when one's own dies, immediatly it is, 'Alas! Poor me!" (26) This is a perfect example of someone who is being a hypocrite because when his friends childrena and wife die he says, "Oh it was their destiny to die, dont worry." But when your own family members die its, "Oh my Lord! Why me!"
I think that this is what Epictetus is trying to convey to us readers, that we sometimes judge way too quickly without thinking about what that person is goeing through, “Never criticize a man until you have walked a thousand miles in his moccasins."
Be The Best You
"Wich do you want more, money or a self-respecting and trustworthy friend?"(24)
I think that this question opened up many new ideas that I had not yet thought of before. The entire manual up until now has been a dialogue between Epectitus to another man, and all along they've talked about luxories and talks about slaves and their wife and children, "Did your child die?" one example, "Did your wife die?" second example, "My land was taken" (11). All of these illustrating the frustrations that any rich white man could have had many years ago.
I Have Given It Back...So It Goes?
The Handbook of Epictetus also has a way of dealing with unfortunate experiences. Although both of these two didactic pieces of writings have completely different principles and different paths in which each one wants to take the reader, they have a diverse look on the same topic. As I was reading Epictetus I came across a very noteworthy suggestion, "Never say about anything, 'I have lost it,' but instead, 'I have given it back'"(Section 11) Although both of these are not implying the same connotation of when some one dies, because in Slaughterhouse-Five when they say "So it goes" it means that it doesnt effect them much, and in the Handbook of Epicectus when an unfortunate event occurs they are told to say, "I have given it back" which in reality has some meaning to it. If we think about it, "given it back" makes a lot more sense then the Tralfamadore outlook on these happenings because they just shrug and dont appreciate that person, in Epictetus they are noting the death of that person but are saying that gave him back to the person who gave me it in the first place. He then goes on to clarify that we dont need to care about how the "giver" (Section 11) asked for it back. We need to act like it wasn't ours to keep in the first place and that we should use the example of "travelers at an inn" (Section 11) they are staying in that room, but they need to keep in mind that the room isn't theirs and they need to respect the rightful owner.
In my opinion, I agree more with the Handbook of Epictetus because when they say this phrase may seem harsh and depressive they are actually acknowledging the truth behind what really happens when we as Christian die which is we are given back to God.
Always Consult Nature
As I was reading Epictetus I stumbled across a rather odd notion. He begins by stating that before you engage in any sort of action be aware of what that action is before you do it. He says most people already have an idea of how they want to participate in this action and are usually disappointed that their goal wasn't accomplished in the manner desired. He uses the example of when we are going to take a bath,have clear in your mind what kind of bath your craving for, some people "splash" and there are some who "jostle" (Section 4). He continues and goes about describing to us how we should approach these situations so that we aren't disheartened if what we had planned isn't fullfilled, "And you will undertake the action more securely if from the start you say of it, 'I want to take a bath and to keep my choices in accord with nature'" (Section 4). I found this philosophy of life quite awkward and some can say dissatisfying because if we from childhood are taught this mentality of having an excuse for your failures well then there isn't much sense for pursuing our goals is there? If you continue reading along a bit further you would then understand my point in the previous sentences, (Section 8). In doing this, I am in complete disagreement with Epicetus because I believe in striving for an outcome, I believe that all of us should want something in life that should seem attainable and we should always be allowed the natural right of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Monday, September 7, 2009
Migretticizing Slaughterhouse-Five
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the thing I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."(S.F. page 60)
This may or may not have impacted the reader when they read it, but if you were actually paying attention to the reading, then you would know that this prayer signifies the "disease" that Billy witholds.
But if we actually begin to realize Slaughterhouse-Five is sending an allegorical or subminal message to all of us that our destiny is impervious to any sort of alteration that any of us may or may not want to implicate on it. For example if we one day decide to drastically change our future by killing somebody, your actually fullfilling your destiny because thats ultimately what your destiny beheld. In other words, any sort of modification that you might try to instill on your destiny is actually performing and executing that destiny that your trying to avoid. And I implore you to do otherwise and begin realizing that each one of us has his or her destiny planned out.
We may start coming to hasty assumptions that Billy is a senile man because he, as Kurt Vonnegut describes it "could not change were the past, the present, and the future."(S.F. page 60) We need to stop being so hardheaded and realize that we ourselves are "lab rats" in Vonneguts philosophy.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Enclosed In The Past
I found this anecdote quite flabbergasting, "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die." Its "silly" for people to mourn their peers death. I wanted to comment on this because I found it ironic that Billy actually encouraged this ideal "when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug." (pg. 27) In my opinion, Vonnegut is trying to illustrate how the Tralmafafores try to dehumanize humans by exempting the "right" to mourn a loved one.
I might have found a glimpse of Billy having a moment of agnorisis, when he realizes what being unstuck meant, "He first came unstuck in time in 1944...The Tralmafadores didn't have anything to do with his coming unstuck. They were simply able to give me insights into what was really going on." Evidently, Billy was ambigious to what was really occuring before he met the Tralmafaorians, and they englightened him on what was really happening everytime he was transported from one event to the other.
Monday, August 31, 2009
An Ambigious Mind
Kurt Vonnegut's entailing beginning to a novel is ambigious in the way that he leaves his readers in a state of;apprehension towards what might happen throughout his novel. Something I found fascinating about the book is that Vonnegut leaves little or no room for forseeing what might occur in his mind blogging adventure. I'm thrilled to see what occurs when an old war veteran and his freind (Bernard V. O'Hare) are set to relive all their horrific memories in what is Slaugther House-Five.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Terza Rima
My soul is the one of whom hell take,
but never knowing my one and true mate.
Ready as my heart is at stake
I'm sure of when, ill come to my fateful end
and ill surely know who is true and who is fake.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Irony In The Twilight Zone?
Both of the survivors keep searching the destroyed town. The man grabs a dress off a manikin in a store and gives it to the woman, as an act of reconciliation towards the woman. The woman then takes the dress and goes inside a Recruiting Office to change, while inside she sees pictures of war propaganda. This is a crucial scene in the episode because the women has some sort of insignia on the back right side of her suit, and in one of the war propaganda pictures the slogan states, "The Enemy Meets Our Troops." And the enemies are those soldiers who have that same symbol sowed on their uniforms. The women finds out that her so called "companion" is on the opposing force in the war, and shoots at the man. The man is surprised by this and walks away in awe and disgust. A few days later the woman comes back in regret, the man consoles the woman and they walk away together in harmony. The poetic justice is seen again, in the same manner.
Another way that poetic justice is displayed here is the fact that both people work together, keeping in mind that their enemies in the war. They manage to overcome that disagreement and instead begin solving the problem at hand, which evidently is the extinction of mankind.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
AIM...Corrupting Our Punctuation!!!!!!
Hey.
Frederick says:
Hey.
Frederick says:
What's up?
Eugene says:
Nothing much, just came back from dinner.
Frederick says:
Oh really? Where did you go?
Eugene says:
To an Italian restaurant. It was delicious!
Frederick says:
That's awesome! I just got home from a dreadful basketball game, we got crushed!
Eugene says:
Well, I'm sure you guys will do better later on. The season just started, right?
Frederick says:
Yes, but we were supposed to win, so that we could start the season on the right foot.
Eugene says:
I'm sure you guys will end up winning.
Eugene says:
It's all about the positive attitude!
Frederick says:
Thank you, Eugene! We need that positive attitude on our team!
Eugene says:
We sure do! Hey, I have to go sleep. It's getting pretty late, and I want to be completely awake for Mr. Tangen's class tomorrow. Bye!
Frederick says:
Wow! You completely read my mind, I was also going to get a goodnights rest for tomorrows fun and exciting class, Mr. Tangen's! Goodnight and don't let the bed bugs bite!
A New Way Of Spamming? Blogging.
Blogs, in my opinion are the only time that you wont be criticized or graded on your punctuation or structure(wink wink Mr. Tangen). Another very interesting thing that I read in the article was that bloggers may tend to drift off their topic and begin to click on links. They may begin discussing the Elements that make up an Atomic Cell and by the time they realized their on Wikipedia reading about Napoleans conquest of Europe. All these factors make up what is essentially a blog, a writing corner (if you will) that allows you to be true to who you are, let nothing hold you back.