Tools That Change the Way We Think

Modern technology has done two things for the human race.  For half of us, it has made us lazy minds.  We remember what we need to, and everything else is thought of of being online as easy access information, so that we do not need to know everything.  For these people, the days of Trivial Pursuit are over, as it is extremely easy to just google something, or to go to wikipedia for it.  It is truly unfortunate that society has made the internet work as their mind while they put little effort into anything, and promptly forget what they look up.  The other half of our species uses the internet as a great tool that allows us to do many things that we either could not do, or did not have the time to do before 1995.  I, personally, have learned countless things that I could not have done without the internet.  I have learned much that I would not have been able to, watched much that I would have not been able to and read much that I have not been able to.  In the past six hours, I have researched slavic mythology and learned about Koscheli, learned about the silent film star Lilian Gish and about a Kamban folk story.  I have been able to read many things that I was not able to find readily, or that I did not want to go search for, such as The Metamorphosis and a couple other novelettes (although I prefer physical books, so I tend to read those more).  It has also helped me watch many things that would have been impossible to watch otherwise.  I have been watching foreign television, like comedy from England and Der Segund Mit Der Maus from Germany, that would never have been shown here unless they were huge like Monty Python or Doctor Who and made it to BBC America.  Also, today I watched the film Roundhay Garden Seen, which is the first video ever taken, originally 2.3 seconds, now only 1.66 seconds, and recorded at a rate of twelve frames per second.  The only surviving copy of this is in a museum, and I would have never been able to see it without the internet.  In the past six months, I have researched culture, science, math and many other aspects of the human experience from germanic culture and language to the witch of agnasi, and I would have never been able to learn about all of this in my current situation with my current time constraints without the internet.

THOUGHTS ON HAMLET (IN PROGRESS)

The only person who I have really changed my mind about in the play so far is Hamlet, and I feel that it is due to an actual change in himself.  Hamlet went from being completely sane in the beginning to becoming the tenth song on Talking Heads: 77 in act three.  I guess his obsession with avenging his father caught up with him, and drove him crazy.  This is a common thing in literature (obsession driving people crazy), and is seen in The Portrait of Dorian Grey and The Lord of the Rings.  Shakespeare was using this to show that obsession really can drive people crazy.

Silas Marner by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

1. Silas Marner is about a weaver who moves into the town of Raveloe, where he is an outcast, because of his early life in a large city.  He is distant from the peasants around him, as their culture is unlike the one he came from.  He becomes more and more distant from them, but makes more and more money from them, due to his knowledge from the city, and his monopoly in weaving. He loves his small fortune, and counts it in his free time.  One night, the town squire’s son steals the money to pay off a debt, and vanishes.  Marner’s loss of money causes him to mourn, as it is his one love in the world, but his poorness brings the villagers closer to him.  A while later, a young child comes to Marner’s house, which is Goldfry’s (the squire’s other son’s) daughter, but this remains unknown to most, as Goldfry’s marriage is secret.  Molly, the mother, is found dead, so Silas adopts the child.  16 years later, Silas has shifted his love of money and the material world to the love of Eppie, the adopted girl, and people in general.  He spends a lot of time with his friend Dolly, who’s son, Aaron is a suitor for Eppie.  One day Silas’s money is found in his dried well with the body of Goldfry’s brother, and, though Silas is happy, he does not care about the money nearly as much as 16 years prior.  Goldfry confesses to being Eppie’s parent, and asks to adopt her, but Eppie decides to stay with Silas, because, despite being poorer than Goldfry, Silas cared about her.  Eppie and Aaron marry, and Silas and Eppie are truly happier than anybody else in the story, because, despite being poor, they have good relations and happiness because of it.
2. The theme of the novel is that true happiness comes from relationships and honesty, not materials and deceit.  
3. Eliot’s tone is different in the first and second half of the book.  The first half, marked by Silas’s life without Eppie, is rather sad and secluded, shown by Silas’s prejudices when guessing who stole his money.  In the second half of the book, the tone is easy going, and uplifting, as shown by Silas’s talks with Dolly, about his life in the city, and his talks with Eppie, about happiness and marriage.
4. Ethos is used heavily through the novel, due to common references to god and religion, as the people are very superstitious and god-fearing.  Foreshadowing occurs when the money is found, as it foreshadows that Goldfry will confess his past to his wife, Eppie and Silas.  Symbolism is used in the novel to show that Eppie was the replacement to gold in Silas’s life, as shown by her gold hair.  Irony is used, as when Silas cures Mrs Oates, he becomes more of an outcast to the town.  Flashback is used in the novel to show Silas’s life before he moved to Raveloe.  The narration being in third person, omniscient allows for many things, such as dramatic irony in the fact that we know how Silas thinks, and how Goldfry thinks, causing us to know about Eppie’s origin before Silas does.  Pathos is used and evoked by Silas’s backstory to get us to feel for him.  The reoccurring ailments caused by Silas’s work symbolizes that the past haunts him.  Metaphor is used in the novel in comparing Silas to a spider, showing his reclusiveness, and the “web” he created to guard his money.  Parallel structure is also used in the novel, by building up Silas’s story and Goldfry’s story to have a more meaningful ending.

1. Direct characterization was used in the novel to discuss Silas and Eppie.  Silas was is shown as an old man, looking much older than his age at 55, with grey hair, and Eppie is constantly noted as being beautiful with large eyes.  Indirect characterization is used to discuss Silas and Goldfry.  This is used on Silas in the opening chapter of the book, with his interactions with the people of the city, so that we become sympathetic towards him.  With Goldfry, it is used to show that his has many problems, most of which have come from him trying to keep up his reputation.
2. When Eliot focused on characters like Eppie, Dolly and Aaron, her words had more positive connotations, but when she focused on Goldfry and other rich people, she used a much more negatively connotated vocabulary.  With Silas, the connotations of the words started out as sad and negative, growing to very positive at the end of the novel.
3. Silas is a dynamic, round character.  The novel solely focuses on his change from a sad recluse, to a happy family man.  This change is dynamic, is it not?  He is round, because his thoughts and wishes are very complex, as if they weren't, it would not take so long to change his ways.
4. Yes, I felt that I met a person by the end of this novel, because his change I have seen in myself over the past couple of years, making him more believable.  As a child, I was very into material things like toys and money, but now, although I still enjoy material things, knowledge and people mean infinitely more to me. 

Guten Abend Ophelia (Dear Ophelia) (Vocab 8)

        Ophelia, I am very disheartened to hear about your conundrum.   Your family is full of saboteurs to your heart, and hopefully their views will be ephemeral.   It is an abomination that they abased your views in such a rancorous manner.  Your family should think twice before making up their minds in such a precipitous, brusque and churlish manner.  Take heed though, before you abdicate their thoughts on your love life, be sure to think about your true feelings for this prince.

Literarische Fiktion und Empathie (Literary Fiction and Empathy)

        Literary fiction really helps us to deal with those around us on an enlightened level, because it is not about plot, but about characters.  Take Hamlet, for instance.  Much time in the play is devoted to his character development, as shown by his 6 soliloquies.  We see just about as much action as we see him contemplating his future actions, and all of his actions are connected to his thoughts.  This shows us how our views and thoughts lead to action, and how we can deal with people who we suspect to have certain feelings.

Wortschatz Sieben (Vocabulary Seven)

 On arrival in the port of New York, Bianca  immediately created a schism. She announced, "Hey look guys! I have the keys to a yacht!". Most of us eschewedfrom asking where she got the keys to a yacht, so we boarded the boat on our way to Lithuania. Lisa was being garrulous because of her nervousness on being on the high seas, and was quickly sent to the brig for her blabbering. We could hear her harangue through the night and realized it would be no good to keep her locked away, so we let her out for the remainder of our voyage. On the trip, we noticed Daniel had a heavy 
interdependence on each part of his classy wardrobe, and in exchange we decided to lock a suit away to get on his nerves. I wouldn't say his foul mood was capricious and we soon relinquished his prized outfit so he would stop complaining. Land was in sight sooner than we expected. the journey through Lithuania was surprisingly quiet. It lacked loquaciousness I would have expected from our group. oddly though, one night we found Daniel had wandered off due to cabin fever and was neigh to be found. After a while we found Daniel around a campfire with many strange figures. Daniel's interest in Germanic paganism was ephemeral to say the least. Their chants ricochetedoff the surrounding trees as there was a plethora of pagans. "Daniel, stop your pagan shenanigans." Said Ashley as she approached the fire. Everyone thought this situation was wonky and decided promptly to leave. However we haven't decided where. "Egypt has a nice ring to it." stated Daniel as He used his observations of paganism and his own religious beliefs and juxtaposedthem 

together in a long, sesquipedelian talk on the way to his car. Our experience with Egypt was inchoate, but we headed off ebulliently none the less.

Was Ich Sagen Wollte, War (What I Meant To Say Was)

    Thesis 2.0:
Chaucer portrays medieval life in an accurate, humorous way to his readers through his characterization, his writing style, and his choice of setting.

Grün Eier und Hamlet (Green Eggs and Hamlet)

 a) What do you know about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane"? 
        Prince Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, and is essentially Simba from The Lion King.  The Lion King is really just a (G-rated and happy) retelling of Hamlet, so the two characters are very much alike, although Prince Hamlet does not overcome his grief over his father's death, and after the death of his mother and love interest (who do not die in The Lion King, but do in Hamlet), Hamlet ends up killing his uncle Claudius (who killed his father King Hamlet), but dies soon after, becoming the last character to die.
 b) What do you know about Shakespeare?  
        Shakespeare was a renaissance era play write from England.  He is seen a England's great author, and is viewed almost as England's great philosopher, as England is one of the few European countries without a famous philosopher.  He was from Stratford upon Avon, and he wrote plays for the 13-sided Globe theater in England.  He is best known today for his tragedies, like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and McBeth (my favorite of the tragedies), but he is not as well known for his hilarious, ironic comedies like Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.  Everyone teaches the tragedies, which I understand the merit in, but I feel that a teacher could get much farther with their teachings if they started with the comedies, as the readers would start out liking Shakespeare, and be more willing to learn once the tragedies are reached.  He also wrote historic plays, but many of these have staunch biases, as he did not want to upset Queen Elizabeth and her heritage. 
c) Why do so many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare"?
        I started to explain this in the previous question.  It is because Shakespeare is not taught as a great play write, but as the writer of horrifically sad plays.  To make his work more popular, students should start by learning his comedies, which are very good, and then venture into the tragedies  Another problem with learning Shakespeare, is that the first play that everybody reads is Romeo and Juliet, which is not a good play to start with, as it is about two whiny, lustful teenagers, who have no concept of love, just lust.  Their young age leads to irrational behavior, and  caused me to look back on the play as a story of irrational people doing idiotic things.  I feel that we should start off learning Shakespeare not with Romeo and Juliet, but instead with McBeth, as McBeth teaches learners of a world that is not usually discussed in the classroom- the world of Northern Europe.  Throughout our schooling, we learn about the seven most advanced ancient cultures, and we sample the world in history, and English, but rarely do teachers delve deeply, if at all, into the vibrant European cultures, which I feel would be beneficial for American Education, as most Americans have more European blood than any other, yet know nothing about their exceedingly interesting heritage.  All aspects of history are very interesting, but I feel that European culture is forgotten.  McBeth's heavy dealings with European politics, European Mythology, and European culture overall make it an ideal way to hit two birds with one stone: learning about European Culture, and learning Shakespeare.  I also feel that it will be more interesting to younger readers, due to more action and dealings with the supernatural, but at the same time, it would be better for them, as they do not see the extremely erratic, almost seditious actions of two lustful adolescents.  The language, or everybody's whining about the language that Shakespeare writes in makes it much more difficult for the students to understand it.
d) What can we do to make studying this play an amazing experience we'll never forget?
        To make this learning experience unforgettable, we must fully immerse each other into the material, and make it seem like it is the most interesting thing in my life.  This is what I do with almost everything I learn about, and it makes me love learning, as well as making the material much more memorable.  

IF I JUST HAD MORE TIME

I feel that I could have done better in studying for the mid term if I had memorized the word lists.  I feel that I knew the words, and could use them accurately, but when I got to the test, I did not remember the specific words that were on the list, so memorizing the lists themselves would be helpful.  I also should have looked at my notes on writing a good thesis before the test, and I should have expected that an essay would be on the test.

Literature Analysis #2

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

1) This book is a retelling of the ancient germanic and celtic epic stories of the legendary King Arthur of Camelot.  The story is broken into four parts.  The first part, The Sword and the Stone, is about the young king, before he knew he was destined for power.  He is taught about the world by the backwards living wizard, Merlin, who teaches him about the world in order to prepare him for ruling.  Merlin teaches about how ants and humans are the only animals who have war, and war should be avoided, unless it prevents more war.  A sense of a fantastical medieval Europe is set up in this book to  give a sense of the plot.  The second book, The Queen of Air and Darkness (originally The Witch in the Wood), is the story of England’s war with Orkney, but on a deeper level, it is where Arthur completely understands that war is bad, and that he should protect his people.  Morgause, the queen of the Orkneys causes many fights and problems, as she is lustful and beautiful, and tries to manipulate men, although she is married to the king of Orkney, Lot.  This book ends with Arthur defeating Lot, holding Lot off of taking Britain for himself, and Morgause seducing Arthur and becoming pregnant. The absent minded Merlin then remembers to tell Arthur that Morgause is his half sister, and that their illegitimate, in bread child, Mordred, will eventually overthrow Arthur.  In the third book, The Ill-Made Knight, we are introduced to Lancelot, an upcoming knight who is ugly and has low self esteem.  He longed to be part of Arthur’s round table, and eventually joined it, as well as starting a love affair with Arthur’s new wife, Guinevere.  Lancelot travels around, helping people accidentally, without much enthusiasm.  He eventually saves a woman named Elaine.  Elaine seduces Lancelot by intoxicating him, and letting him think that she is Guinevere.  Elaine gives birth to his son, Galahad, who eventually joins the round table.  Elaine commits suicide when she realizes that Lancelot will not return to her.  Lancelot then cures a man, which is a miracle, that he should not have been able to commit, as he is not a virgin.  In the fourth and final book, The Candle in the Wind, Mordred and his brothers go to Camelot to accuse Lancelot and Guinevere of having an affair.  They catch the two together, despite many warnings to Lancelot to not affiliate with her.  Arthur is forced to banish Lancelot and hang Guinevere, in accordance to his laws.  Lancelot saves Guinevere, and Arthur and his knights fight Mordred for rule of England.  All the nights, and Mordred die in the battle.  Arthur dies later from a wound.  His remains are sent to float to Avalon, where he might be reincarnated and return to England to rule.

2) The theme of the novel is that people should justly treat their power, even in times of strife, as even though Arthur dealt with much trouble in his life, he was able to rule to the best of his abilities, and respect the people who betrayed him.  

3) White’s tone changes throughout the novel.  In the first book, a tone of wonderment with the world, and a youthful respect for knowledge, but while being shadowed by fear of the unknown is very prevalent, as shown by Arthur’s education from Merlin, especially when Merlin teaches about the lack of war in the animal kingdom.  In the next two books, an adventurous tone is shown, by White’s description of Lancelot’s travels, but a tone of arrival is also given, in instances where Arthur begins to truly understand Merlins teachings from the first book.  In the last book, a sense of decline is sensed, as the state of Arthur’s court crumbles, due to the acts of Mordred (such as when he reports on Lancelot and Guinevere’s love affair, banishing two of Arthurs best friends, and one of his best knights).

4) Foreshadowing is used a lot, as Merlin knows the future and can hint a things to come, such as Mordred’s evilness.  Logos is commonly used when White uses Merlin to connect twentieth century Europe with the medieval times, like when Merlin references Adolf Hitler.  Symbolism is often used often, for instance with the round table, which symbolizes Arthurs’s want for justice, as the shape makes it difficult to rank the knights with seats.  Anecdotes are often shown through Merlin to make the reader understand his teachings, like the anecdotes about the animals, like the fish, that teach the reader and Arthur.  White uses foil between Arthur and Lancelot, to express Arthur’s traits.  Self-fulfilling prophecy is used with the story of Mordred.  Bathos is used in the last book to get readers to understand and accept the demise of Arthur.  Dionysian imitatio was used in the writing process, as White wanted to make the book accessible to modern audiences, and connect it with the evils of the day to make it more interesting to readers, as seen by the modern style writing, and the references to the world wars.  Show not tell is used in the first book quite often to let readers completely understand the setting, one example is when the forest and Arthur’s run through it was explained.  Pathos is often used, in order to get us to feel for Arthur, like when we figure out that Arthur was seduced into incest with Morgause.  Defamiliarization is used in Merlin’s talks by making animals seem more than how we see them.  

Characterization:

1) White uses direct and indirect characterization for every character, in the first book alone, direct characterization is used to describe Kay’s physique, with his muscles, setting him up to be a brute like character with a low IQ, while Merlin’s characterization from the mystical clothes he is wearing, giving readers a sense of education, which is lasting to some extent, as Merlin is smart, but absent minded.  Indirect characterization is used on every character, for example Sir Ector’s actions and dialogue make him seem like a “good o’l boy.”  This characterization is again used on Merlin to show that he is a bit absent minded.

2) White’s syntax and diction does not change much when focusing on different characters, besides the use of more negatively connotated words, like evil, when describing evil characters.

3) Arthur is a dynamic, round character, as he shifts from being a young, curious youth to being an old, brave, and over all great leader for England.  His experiences and actions throughout the book get us to completely connect with him as a person, making the end of the book much more meaningful. 

4) After reading the book, like I stated above, I felt like I not only met a person, but that I saw his whole life flash before me.  This was shown in the context at the end, where I felt genuinely sorry for his demise throughout the last book.  

The Comparison's Tale

        The individual tales that Chaucer included in The Canterbury Tales are remarkably diverse.  They range from the humble lives of the poor, to the fast lives of the rich and the low lives of the lower and middle classes.  Through these stories, and their diversity, Chaucer is able to teach us about medieval England on a much more personable level.  Despite all the differences, we learn from the similarities.  Carl Sagan pointed out that, despite all of the diversity we see in our species, and all of life on our planet, we are extremely similar.  Our similarities out weigh our differences by so much, that if we ever cam in contact with other life forms, they would see us as very similar to each other, as they have not had the chance over the past 4.6 billion years of evolution on this planet to see the differences between us.  In our species alone, every culture has songs, dances, beliefs, knowledge, customs, some sort of pancake, some sort of sandwich, and many other characteristics.  If we narrow this down to the next level towards medieval England, we come to the indo-european cultures, especially the main four in Europe: the Germans, the Slavs, the Romantics and the Celtics.  Each of these cultures believes in an over world that is connected to earth.  The Slavs, Germans and Celts thought this to be a giant tree, while the Romans thought this to be a mountain.  All of these cultures have the same pantheon, just with different names for their gods.  For example Wōden, Jupiter, Odin, Donar, Perun, and Dagda are all the same god, just with different names in different sub-cultures.   Besides gods, the mythologies of the customs have very similar stories, their languages are very similar, and their customs and rituals are very much a like (christianity was not mentioned, as it is by no means part of these cultures,  as it arose from the indo-iranian cultures).  Finally, down to the personal level that we see in the book, each of the medieval characters are alike.  All fall prey to wants and urges, which leads to much lust, gluttony, and others of the seven deadly sins to be seen in the stories.  Another thing Chaucer does throughout all the stories is that he pokes fun at each group.  For the rich people, especially with religious officials, Chaucer shows that they are not the great people that they make themselves out to be.  With the poor, Chaucer pokes fun at their lives and interests in making them talk about lewd topics, such as fornication, prostitution, fecal topics, and trickery.  With the middle classes, Chaucer pokes fun at how serious they are about work, that is not truly important in the long run.