The Last Blog of the Year

What I learned when reading my blog is that until I came to the University of Richmond, I had no outlet for my ideas and or knowledge of literature, or life in general. Over the year, the blog became a mechanism which would be used to hash out new ideas which could be used later in class or as a reference on a paper. Beyond acting as a personal tool, the blog could be utilized as a source of knowledge for many of your peers. The blog presented itself as a place of untapped potential for knowledge, and as people became more comfortable using the blog, they would release more important and insightful knowledge concerning a topic that all students are involved in.
What seemed to surprise me most in retrospective is the amount of writing we have done in the past year. Although it may amount to a lot of information, it was never at any point unbearable. The blog features the writing of individuals using a conversational tone which makes for a less stressful writing experience and also lends a more insightful look for the reader into the topic at hand.

Images

I'e started to think that the comic book or graphic novel (what ever Persepolis is considered), is the best way to see history. I listened to Marjane Satrapi in an interview and she happened to discuss some of the very issues that we discussed in class concerning art in her literature. Satrapi talked about how drawings are able to communicate so much more than words when it comes to the more distant reaches of life. There are some things you have to see to fully know. Art, no matter the form it comes in, bridges that existential, gap between what we know about something and what that something really is.
In Persepolis, the reader watchs, quite literally, as young Marjane begins to grow up. She learns about the injustices performed against her family by the Western-supported governments of Iran. Furthermore, we see that freedoms are curtailed, purges are carried out, and dreams are crushed.

Marjane Satrapi introduces us to the effects of cultural change through the eyes of a child, and what period in one's life is filled with more wonder than that of childhood? She depicts herself in the book as an extremely precocious child of Marxist parents, who educate her on the evils of the regime and stage their own rebellion at home by drinking wine and supplying their daughter with posters of Iron Maiden. It is this Western culture at home that brings the character Marji to question what happenings around her, and why she is demanded to do such menial things as wear a veil. She asks questions like Why are our neighbours missing? Why is it wrong to wear a tie?
All of the questions have solutions rooted in the cultural standards of the Middle East. Marji and her childish curiosity allow us to ask questions and find answers of the reasoning behind such deeply rooted cultural dilemmas.

David as the Christ figure

While reading this novel, I found that David was often viewed by Giovanni's as his "savior" or the person who would be there to transform his life. David recognizes why Giovanni brought him to his room, it was to "give Giovanni a new and better life", however "the burden of his salvation seemed to be on me and I could not endure it" (88, 114). This image of David as the savior seemed to recurrent through much of the novel, as in the scene following Giovanni losing his job. David was there to help pickup and rebuild many of the pieces of his shattered existence. None-the-less this viewpoint of David as the savior figure seems to shift characters after the return of Hella. After this point, the role is reversed and Giovanni, who meets his death at the blade of the guillotine, frees David's tormented soul. Giovanni's death acted as the catalyst for his sexual acceptance. Therefore, one could compare the death of Giovanni and subsequent salvation of David with the Jesus dying for the sins of men.

The metaphor for Giovanni's room

Giovanni's room serves as a metaphor for both the safe space where David and Giovanni can share their natural love for each other, as well as the severe claustrophobia that such a relationship represented at the time. The sever claustrophobia that David feels is conveyed every time that he references how the walls seem to be closing in on him. David saw the source of this claustrophobia from the lack of support concerning his sexual preference, much of which stems form the views of his father. Giovanni's Room critiques David's father and moreover, "traditional" American expectations of masculinity and femininity. Nonetheless, you can not overlook the fact that David, and if so facto, Baldwin himself have a sense of love and hatred for it. It seems much like DuBois's theory of the double consciousness. David states that he "resented being called an American (and resented resenting it) because it seemed to make nothing more than that, whatever that was; and i resented being called not an American because it seemed to make me nothing. When i read this, i couldn't help but think of double consciousness and the comparison with this. (on a side note: I'm surprised this hasn't been made a movie yet with the recent success of Brokeback Mountain (can't say I'd see it) but none-the-less, much of the story line is similar).

Caretaker: Analogy of Society and Religion

A symbol that I have noticed lies in the character of the Caretaker. This old, meticulous woman systematically studies not only the rooms in which David lives, but also the inner sanctities of his soul. In my opinion, Baldwin utilized this character to be a representation of both the societal and religion expectations that David was to meet. She initially makes it know that entire town (legitimizing David's personal paranoia) has been watching him, stating that "in a small village almost every move is made under the village's collective eye and ear" (67). The next move that this outwardly sweet and secretly torturous symbol makes is to speak of the subject that David quarrels with most, his sexuality. She does not speak of his secretive sexual tendencies with men, rather she instructs David to "go and find yourself another woman, a good woman, and get married, and have babies" (68). Following her patronizing advice concerning women, she speaks of how he should pray and make religious observances.

What appealed to me about this encounter was that although she spoke in a motherly and caring fashion, it did not have this response in David. This tirade was directed at issues that were dearest to David, and that Baldwin intended to reveal how society is imposing generic regulations on people. And if these regulations were disrupted, it became an issue of religion. It appears that if the societal pressures to conform were not powerful enough to regulate actions, religion would act as a backing, ensuring total compliance.

Confession and Shame

I believe that in order understand "Giovanni's Room", you must first comprehend the complex emotions of David. He is wrought with a sense of confusion, which as Jacques states, "is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford", and now that this sense of confusion has followed him towards adulthood, he is left to wrestle with these feelings, resulting in utter disillusionment and denial. Therefore, because he denies his innermost urges to divulge the secrets of his sexuality, he is left to convince himself that his emotions are shameful and dirty. However, these emotions are as Jaqcues puts it, his actions "will be dirty because you will be giving nothing... but you can make your time together (with Giovanni) anything but dirty... if you will not be ashamed" (57). What Jaqcues is trying to explain is that these emotions and actions are dirty only because David believes they are. He stresses the importance that David is the one who must determine whether these actions are shameful, and in turn they will not reflect shamefully if he acts with feeling, emotion, and acceptance. By ignoring and repressing such feelings, David believes that he will be free of shame, however the shame comes from denying his inner desires and not accepting the truth of his character and love.

Freud, Atheism and Religion

It is important when examining the viewpoint from Civilization and Its Discontents to keep in mind that Freud was an atheist, believing that the fantastic stories and theories of religion should be replaced by the provable facts put forth by science and art. He considered his beliefs to be more realistic than antagonistic, examining religion by viewing it as an offshoot of psychoanalysis. Freud was however, open to all religious philosophies, and interestingly enough, made note that religion, although false, is necassary in society. For example, his theory that “God is a projection of the human need for a father” is based on the idea that God is nothing more than a projection of the human mind. Freud describes that religion was created by the human mind as a form of comfort and that this need for comfort was comparable to the needs of an infant child. He claimed that people looked to God as a higher power much as a child looks to his parents for strength and guidance.

Aggression

To continue on a note that we spoke of in class, I agree that Freud makes a distinct note of the animosity between the demands of instinct and the restrictions of civilization. This makes Freud's views on man’s aggressive or destructive instincts particularly complex. In part this is because impulses of hatred, anger and aggression are, from Freud’s perspective, rooted in self-preservation. In Freud’s vision of man and society, violence is deemed as the basis of our existence on two levels; the violence in the uninhibited instinct and the violence which our culture practices against one another. What makes this esspecially interesting is how this concept plays into the possibility of achieving harmony, which as Freud states must come from an equal amount of impulsive actions of agression and restraint as seen in his analogy of fire.

Cancer = Shame = Writing

"I have cancer from the accumulation of shame I have endured in my life... from self-loathing the body turns malignant and begins to eat away at itself" (145).
Mrs. Curren battles with the pain that she endured from cancer, and in my opinion, she sees her disease as the punishment for the many attrocities taking place. Beyond this, cancer and the resulting pain acts as the catalyst motivating her writing. The shame and pain that she feels is often times what motivates her to complete the work, without which, the beauty expressed on the pages would not be possible. I find this very interesting in that this coping mechanism of writing is seen throughout much of the recent works. It seems to be a combonation of DuBois and Rich, in that Mrs. Curren not only uses writing to cope with the many emotions she faces, but is also using her writing a sort of call to action. As DuBois used writing to explain and portray the many horrors of a society, I beleive that Mrs. Curren, as motivated by her shame and pain, also depicts the horrors of a society wrought with war and death.

Burning and the Doll

J.M. Coetzee uses burnign as a motif throughout much of his novel. This may be used to detail the emosions that are running through Mrs. Curren and to help relate these emotions back to the reader. The reference that I am speaking of comes on page 124, where Coetzee actually plays two analogies into one reference.
"Do you want to know why I set my mind on burning myself? Because I thought I would burn well. Whereas these people will not burn, Bheki and the other dead. It would be like trying to burn figures of pig iron or lead. They might lose their shapeness of contour, but whne the flames subsided they would still be there, heavy as ever" (124).
In this excerpt, I beleive that the two analogies of burning and the doll come into play. Mrs. Curren believes that she would "burn well", like a doll would burn when placed in the fire, and the reason for this is because she is completely empty inside. She compares herself to the doll in that she has nothing inside of her, no strong feelings for this land. That is why she would burn so drastically different than those like Bheki who are fighting for a cause, and even after the death of burning, their cause would remain. The memory of Bheki would stand the test of time because they are not empty like Mrs. Curren or a doll, rather they, and their message are as strong as iron.

The Social Condition

Du Bois speaks about the social condition of the African Americans, recognizing that although the condition is deplorable, and is due in large to the history of their existence, "the color prejudice is not the sole cause of their social condition" (Du Bois, 152). He notes that in the social condition of the African Americans, they are discouraged in two particular ways. The first he states that "by proscription and prejudice, these same Negroes are classed with and treated like the lowest of their people, simply because they are Negroes, such policy... discourages thrift and intelligence" (Du Bois, 152). Therefore, education is the first means by which the social condition of African Americans were degraded. The second means mentioned by Du Bois is correlated witht he lack of education. Du Bois states that because of this lack of education, "it puts a direct premiumon the very things you complain of, - innefficiency and crime" (Du Bois, 152). Thus ignorance leads to crime, and the only way to alleviate this crime is by educating those performing the deeds. It is interesting to note how related the two issues are, and yet how the means of fixing this problem seem to be so obvious. Du Bois Notices that the white South and African Americans "both act as a reciprocal cause and effect, and a change in neither alone will bring the desired effect. Both must change, or neither can improve to any great extent" (Du Bois, 153).

Double-Consciousness

"It is a peculiar sensastion, this sense of double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others" (Du Bois, 5).
Du Bois is confronted with the dilemma of balancing multiple of aspects of his singular identity. By this notion, Du Bois is forced to confront many of the issues that were presented to Rich. Rich was forced to balance her identity as a woman, feminist, lesbian, and Jew. Du Bois is also pressured by the challenge of truly identifying himself of "an American, a Negro... two warring ideals in one dark body" (Du Bois, 5). Much like Rich, Du Bois see's himself in one fashion, but deals with reactions of the outside world. Rich deals with the reaction of her father whereas DuBois deals with the reactions of the large class of White Southerners. It is interesting to note how similiar the viewspoints are and how they deal with the same impending forces.
Beyond the pressures the two authors deal with, both understand that they have a specific message to convey to the world. Du Bois states that he "would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world" (Du Bois, 5). They both simply wish to be able to balance the many aspects of their identity, without being influenced by the many external forces that wish to impede them.

Knowledge and endings

Many aspects of the plot remain deliberately unresolved, contributing to Murakami's idea that true knowledge is elusive. The actual events of the story are obscured in order to gain the perceptions of the characters. It seems to be that for this reason, the ending must remain so obscure. Although such an ending seems frustrating with such ambiguity, it may actually be necassary. One of the major themes thoughout the novel concerns itself with the attainment of knowledge. This seems to be an unending quest for most. Sumire and K seem to epitomize this theme of searching for knowledge, however they go about finding it the wrong way. Sumire finds it necassary to find knowledge through impersonating and emulating other figures, whether it be Jack Kerouac or Mui. K seems to be in a similiar situation in which he doesn't actually have much direction at all, not seeking knowledge at all. We discover that Murakami sees the only true path towards finding knowledge is to look deeply and insightfully within one's self. I believe that is why Sumire disappeared. She no longer needed to use other people as her source of knowledge. She no longer needed the midnight phone calls to K for direction or the glamour of following Mui. Relating back to why the ending is so ambiguous, I believe that Murikami wished to convey the power of self interpretation onto the reader. He saw it necassary to have the reader deduce for themselves, seeking knowledge actively.

Alienation within one's Self

The two aspects of "Sputnik Sweetheart" that arose most commonly were loneliness and the the individuals inability to know themselves beyond the surface level. The three characters, but esspecially K and Sumire, try to fill this empty space with other people, or are inevitably drawn into conforming with society. Throughout the majority of the novel, K is unable to recognize his true identity. He conforms unresitingly to the external stimuli and as a result he is sucked into the masses and is unable to control conscious thinking. Sumire to falls into the same trap following her relationship with Mui. While reading the text, I isolated the lines (pg 70) where her personality changes to that of a mindless drone shifting through society. Sumire realizes her inability to read and write, she is wrapped up in trendy clothing, and intoxicated by the glamour that surrounds Mui's life. All of these components lead to Sumire's alienation within herself. She can not write anything, and therefore is unable to think. I believe that this is a major theme and focus throughout the entire novel. This sense of alienation within one's self can not be filled with glamour or relationships. Knowledge is attained only through meticulous effort and therefore can not be found with the help of another individual, but rather through intensive self reflection.

The Phenomenology of Anger

This poem, the Phenomenology of Anger , states a number of points that we overlooked the other day in class. The first issue is that Rich was speaking of the necessity of more than one person to start a movement. Also, women feel strangelled and man doesn't want to see change because he is comfortable. Another issue is that her ideas border that of Nietzsche's views of conflict. The idea is that conflict has to be bloody and must also consist of anger in order to make change. Examples of this anger int he world is seen in Line 48 when she mentions "My Lai". She speaks of wars, battlefields ,and wars were results of male activity. The most obvious point of contention is that this poem is the first one that we have read that openly declares man the enemy. She directly states this in the stanza starting on line 64
"raking his body down to the thread
of existence
burning away his lie
leaving him in a new
world; a changed
man"
This speaks directly of how inherently evil man is and how opressive of a world women are forced to live in.

The standardization of Women

Adrienne Rich notes that the standardization of women affects culture in many ways. two specific ways that I noted as interesting were the ideals of women as portrayed by male authors and the undercutting of female creativity in an attempt to conform to the standard of good writing, "trying to sound as cool as Jane Austen, as Olympian as Shakespeare" (169).

The ideals portraye by males authors is particularly dangerous to women. Women come to believe that this is the way that they must look in order to fit in society and find a fitting husband. At the time, this seemed to be the only option for women and thus the unfair ideal seen in male writing put females in a stressful position, where if the "loss of beauty" and a "loss of youth" being a "fate worse than death" (170). This standard placed on women is merely propegated by the male authors who write of such beautiful icons in their poetry or literature. However, this idea of the past, this standardization of women, continues today. Instead of ideas being propegated through literature, it is being imposed throguh the media. Television, Internet, Magazines. All of these sources make women believe that they will never meet this standard of a beautiful woman. And although today marriage is not the only option for women, the desire to be beautiful is still strong enough to justify the alteration of natural body features through plastic surgery. This overwhelming urge to meet as standard began long ago, yet continues today.

The other standard placed on women was their standard to conform to the writing styles of established male authors. Every woman saw the proper way of writing as following in the footsteps of men who have blazed a trail. However, Adrienne Rich realizes that the blind adherance to male style would be undercutting the creativity of women. There is a desire to be like the male authors because they have already layed a foundation, so therefore equality in literature meant losing identity. Rich notes that she "wanted women poets to be eqauls to men, and to be equal was still confused with sounding the same" (171). This became an issue of contention because women were expected to write by the styles of men and in doing so, they lose their sense of identity, creativity, and feminism.

Character Development In Shakespeare

There are several characters that through their actions create a catharsis in the audience. Emelia is one such character that arises in Act 5 as a strong character who is able to see through the evil facade that Iago, her husband, fools everyone with. I find it somewhat ironic that the first to recognize the evil plot of Iago is a women of low social standing, while the men who are acclaimed as being elite and of the highest echelon are the ones who were tricked most easily.

The other character development of note was that of Othello's, back to the origional character of merit. He resurfaces after the murder of Desdomena as a character that the audience can understand and respect, for Othello recognizes the foolishness and evil in his actions and while still loving the one he murdered. His suicide therefore is not a means of escaping the punishment for his murder, but as a means of retribution to Desdomena for his actions. In death, he regains some of the respect that he had lost in my eyes.

Othello's Character Flaws

Throughout most of the early acts of the play, Othello is described as an innately honest and sincere character. He is noted for being very trustworthy and being capable of seeing the good nature in all people.

What astonished me was the negative development that was occurring in Othello's character. He made a complete shift towards the opposite, trusting no one except the one man who shouldn't be trusted. He has gone from an honest and caring character to a despised, untrusting, and vile character as seen by his treatment of Desdomena.

It is through this extreme character development that the reader is able to recognize the genius, intelligence, and quick thinking of Iago. Despite the his immorality and evil driven actions, one can not be impressed by the intelligence he utilizes to trick so many, including his own wife and the general of an army. He manages to trick all of the characters into believing that he is the only trustworthy man when in fact he is the one not to be trusted. Iago performs almost impossible tasks with his manipulative wits and therefore he becomes a character that is both admired and loathed by the audience.

Allusions and Assumptions

Throughout Othello, Shakespeare leaves out actions but alludes to them or hints to the fact that they may have happened. This occurrs fairly often in the first two acts, with the eloping of Desdomena and Othello, the attraction of both Roderigo and Iago, and the offstage drunkeness of Cassio. All of these events seem to be important to the overall plot of the story, yet are for the most part unannounced by Shakespeare. It appears that it is Shakespeare's intention to make the audience think, by picking up mentioned details and placing them into the complex plot that he is building. Therefore, with a complex plot and unspoken details holding weight, the reader and/or viewer is unable to sit idly by and mindlessly enjoy Shakespearian plays, rather they must actively concentrate to fully appreciate the beauty in these works.

Iago and Evil

I found Iago's soliloquy to be a fairly profound look into the evils of his character. He uses many excuses such as suspicions that he slept with his wife, to justify his intent to kill Othello. Yet none of these excuses seem like plausible reasons to murder an apparently innocent character. One point of this soliloquy that I found to be very interesting is where Iago takes the positive attribute of the Moor having "a free and open nature, thinks men honest" and utilizes this positive attribute as an opening to hurt the Moor. Therefore because of these reasons, the reader is able to deduce that Iago is an evil character by nature, and he is not able to justify his plan to kill Othello with such weak and unsupported excuses.

My own story

Augustine reflects on his life and the many epiphanies in which he experienced. In the process of making my digital story I did not realize the true impact of some of my experiences. I learned that this lesson that had more of an impact on my life than I had previously expected. The story I chose had a monumental impact on my life yet I did not give credit to the strength of my story. My perspective has changed since the onset of this project and I now know that I do have a story to tell.

Flickr

So far my favorite part of this assignment has been the oppertunity to gather some amazing photography from Flickr. I have been so engrossed by the entire of process of choosing photos because I feel that every photo must have an immediate connect to what is being said. With this thought, I was forced to refocus my paper in a way to cooperate with the excellent photography I am pulling from the internet. At this point in the process, I feel that the hardest part will be matching these two seperate ideas and bringing them together into one.

Desire. Good vs Bad

Throughout the Confessions of Augustine, desire is inherently linked with evil and suggestive of other negative connotations. Although the desires that Augustine emphasizes are portrayed as bad, I believe that Augustine is also filled with desires of the most pure. In Confessions, desire is linked with negativity because Augustine speaks only of his desire for woman, vanity, and pleasure. It is because of his modesty and constant self imposed pressure that Augustine never speaks of his insatiable desire for knowledge or his longing for the love of God. Augustine refrains from calling these positive aspects desire, but the truth is that he longs to find truth in God, whether acting as a skeptic or not, he none the less tirelessly searches for the answers.

It is true that Augustine is filled with the insatiable desire for things unholy, but that is not to discredit the positive role of desire in the other portion of his existence. Desire acts as both a positive and negative catalyst in the life of Augustine and therefore desire is neither wholly good nor evil, but both.

"Seek what you seek, but it is not where you seek it. You seek happiness of life in the land of death, and it is not there. For how shall there be happiness of life where there is no life?"

We established that this appears to be the central dogma of this book, which truly portrays why Augustine's actions are as scrutinized as they are. Throughout Confessions, Augustine seeks pleasure and truth in the wrong places, whether they be in vanity or in superficial things such as lust (often misconstrued with love). The "happiness of life" which Augustine so treasures and struggles so strongly to attain is not in these temporal places, however, they are found only in a true union with the Lord. Augustine realizes this yet is distracted his earthly desires and urges. Through ignoring the temporal truths that he finds in satisfying his desires, he can attain to a sincere relationship with God and therefore put his woes to rest and Augustine will find the happiness of life.