Aphorism

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything-- Plato

This aphorism holds importance in my life because its very true for me. Just as it was for Plato, music inspires my mind and imagination, and definitely brings another charm to life, one that wouldn't exist without it. I haven't always been obsessed with music, or listened to it as methodically as I do now, however going back to before would seem impossible now. I find it very interesting that even since the beginning of civilization, music has had the same appreciation that it does now.

I relate this aphorism to what Joseph Campbell says about heroes because many heroes throughout history have been musicians. Orpheus, who I will act as on Thursday, was a musician. This profession has been wont to experience tragedy in many stories in history, and though many times it is attributed to the libertine and bohemian lifestyle its practitioners lead, I believe that the role of the musician, to turn tragedy into beautiful songs, makes them the bearers of many calamities. As Orpheus sings to Hades in the underworld, he is weaving his sadness only through the power of music, and it manages to move the god of death.

Siddhartha Blog Part 4

In the chapter “The Son”, Siddhartha wants to make his son adapt to his father’s lifestyle, but not by strength, but by gently coaxing him without any type of chastising. This reminds me of Gandhi’s nonviolence campaign in India, because it is based not on action, but on persuading and making the other person see the error of their ways through their own wisdom. It does vary a little from Siddhartha, in that it is more aggressive and antagonistic than Siddhartha, since it is his own son, but even so the principle is the same; to give wisdom to the person to make them see the error of their ways. Also, it differs in that it was not effective, while Gandhi’s campaign in India was. In fact, Siddhartha’s son seemed more alienated with his father’s efforts. I guess it could also be connected to Gandhi, not in his Indian campaign, but his attempts to unify the Hindu and Muslim populations in one nation, and his failure. After India gained its independence, Muslim separatists formed Pakistan. This resembles Siddhartha’s son running away from home. Just as the Muslims were forced into one nation by the British, Siddhartha’s son was forced to live with his father. 

Erysichthon Questions

1) Why does Erysichthon cut down the tree?He cuts it down because he needs the wood, and doesn't care that the tree is sacred2) Define piety. Piety is devotion and reverence to what is holy
3) How does this term relate to Erysichthon?Erysichthon is not pious, he is the complete opposite, thinking always of worldly things and never to what's above
4) What connections can be made between this scene and this children's story?The children's story deals with sacrifice and giving, something that Erysichthon would never do, but people did for him in the story, such as his mother, who he sold into slavery to buy food.
5) Relate the events in this scene to a specific passage in Siddhartha.One thing which made me think of Siddhartha was the role that hunger played in the story. Siddhartha joins the Samanas and lives a life of asceticism voluntarily, while Erysichthon was forced to. Siddhartha did it to find peace with himself, and maybe Ceres wanted to teach him the same lesson in making him hungry. 

Google Day 3/Presentation

Goals

• Learn more about what it takes to be a journalist
• Learn more about what I would be working on
• Find universities which could interest people who want to study journalism

http://collegemediamatters.com/2012/01/30/best-journalism-schools-at-u-s-colleges-and-universities/

Useful for goal 3, where I asked myself where I wanted to study journalism.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/postgraduate/postgraduate-study/so-you-want-to-be-a-journalist-a-masters-has-never-been-more-important-7953355.html

Useful for goal 1, because it told me what I need to become a successful journalist

http://www.freelancewriting.com/articles/do-you-want-to-become-a-journalist.php

Useful for goal 2, because it explains what things people would like if they wanted to become a journalist

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/11/09/top-10-tips-for-young-aspiring-journalists/

Useful for goals 1 and 2, told me what journalists do, get paid, and a lot of other information

Evidence

I know now that to be a journalist you have to be an extrovert, and that may change a lot of things for my opinion on journalism. 

Siddhartha Reading Blog Part 3

What purpose does the bed that Kamala and Vasudeva's wife died have?
What differences are there between Kamala and Siddhartha? How do these differences reconcile or repel?
What is the purpose of the golden bird, and why did it seem interested in bringing Siddhartha back on track?
What role does Govina play in Siddhartha's journey to nirvana? Is he a positive, negative or neutral influence?
What will the secret knowledge which Siddhartha will learn at the river do to Siddhartha?
What does Siddhartha mean when he says that samsara is a game which "can only be played once, twice, or at most ten times"?
What is the role of suicide in Buddhism, and how would Siddhartha's suicidal thoughts be reflected on his doctrine? Would he still stand by these thoughts later on?
What does it really mean when Govinda doesn't cry for Siddhartha?
 How has Siddhartha's self dissapeared and is it even true?
 

Siddhartha Reading Blog Section 2

I connected the passage in which Siddhartha says "I can think, I can wait, I can fast" to the book The Savage Detectives. The reason is because his quest for knowledge reminds me of the way in which the poets starved and wrote and promulgated revolution. Their quests are quite similar, because Juan García Madero, who also lived a privileged life, left it to walk with the proletarian poets in Mexico in the 70s. 

I also connect the relationship with Kamaswami and Siddhartha with the generic kid-hating adult which has to take care of a kid but in the end the adult learns more from the kid than the kid with the adult, for example Martian Child. This movie model isn't exactly my favorite, and I admit to critique it, however I can still appreciate it in terms of trying to show the spirit of Siddhartha in terms of the people which surround him.

Reading Blog Section One

  Here are some of the questions I asked myself while reading:


          • How did the relationship between Govinda and Siddhartha emerge? Are they more than friends? How will they overcome the obstacles within the story together? Will they continue together?

          • Why does Siddhartha decide to go beyond his usual practices and search for the enlightenment in such a radical way? Is there a specific reason for this?

• Why is Govinda so attached to Siddhartha? Is he in love with him beyond a platonic relationship?
• Why was Gautama Buddha not enough for Siddhartha's thirst for knowledge?
• Why wasn't he satisfied with the Samanas?
• Does Siddhartha have special powers, and if so, how did he use them with the Samanas?
• Are Siddhartha's feelings towards Govina reciprocal? If not, how will Govinda react to this?
• Where does Siddhartha's quest for knowledge come from?  Why is he so persistent on being enlightened?

Paradoxes

 This is a math paradox that actually exists. The paradox is that though the space taken up by each individual figures is the same, the piece as a whole in different arrangements takes up less space. It is inconsistent with itself, and so it is a paradox.

 This is a paradox because of the premise that Pinnochio's nose grows when he lies. His nose would only grow if the statement wasn't true, so it would be made true if it had been a lie at the beginning. This is a paradox because it presents an invalid, unsolvable argument that is problematic because of itself.

This paradox shows a painting of a wooden box, however the structure is an impossible one. This makes it a paradox. because since the structure is impossible, yet portrayed in the painting, its very portrayal goes against common sense. The box would be impossible to represent in real life because of its physical qualities.

Confucius Analects

The analect that I chose was 4.14.

I chose analect 4.14, which states "The Master said "Do not be concerned that you lack an official position, but rather concern yourself with the means by which you might become established. Do not be concerned that no one has heard of you, but rather strive to become a person worthy of being known.""
   
 I relate this to the black metal subculture. Black metal is a musical genre that arose in the 90s, and is characterized by lo-fi production and fast tremolo picking. It also is extremely influenced by obscurity. One of the defining features of this genre is to reject the mainstream and profit, and to instead focus on making inaccessible music. This can be seen with also a defining feature of black metal, which is to make limited edition releases, as well as releasing them on strange mediums, such as cassette or vinyl. This is related because they follow their own path and actually try to not reach the mainstream or fame, instead doing it for the music.

Advertisements

This commercial uses pathos, by manipulating emotions to promote the product. It does not give much ethos, persuasion through authority, or logos, persuasion through facts.

This one uses pathos, by showing the children eating cake, supposed to stimulate emotion, and logos, telling of how cutting and shaving will be unnecessary to make the cake.

This advertisement uses pathos, by talking about how women will be attracted to the cigarette, and then you, and also by, in the description box, describing the flavours excessively.

Opinion

Women should never be treated this way, and it is outrageous how much discrimination still goes on in the world, despite all the progress we've supposedly come to. The reason I think that things like this still happen today is because of the material conditions that cause fundamentalism to rise in third world countries. Feminism is an important movement which, I think, attempts to combat discrimination. I would like to comment on what many people are saying, which basically equates religion to fundamentalism, and says that if religion didnt exist these types of things wouldnt happen. That is blatantly incorrect, and evidently there are places where religion is widely practiced where this doesn't happen. 

Persepolis: The Dowry

In this last chapter Marjane gets expelled from school for arguing and attacking a teacher. This persuades her parents to send her to Austria. Marjane is then seen leaving to the airport, and this is the last scene of the book. I made a connection by thinking of a girl I knew who went to a boarding school in Vienna in 7th grade. I remember that she was really scared of going, and didn't really want to go, but her parents for some reason were forcing her.

Persepolis: The Passport

The chapter begins in a point where Marjane is growing up. We are introduced to Taher, a sick man who becomes even more ill after a heart attack. This means that he must have open heart surgery. The difficulty of getting a passport legally makes the wife eventually have to resort to fake passports, though he did not leave on time, as his passport was delayed. I can relate this to the difficulty of getting a visa to Saudi Arabia, shallow as that reference may be. I remember that it took around 5 months to get the visa to enter the country, even though my father already lived and worked there and the company was government owned. 

Persepolis: The Sheep

In this chapter Anoosh and Marjane form a friendship. Anoosh becomes the person which Marjane looks up to and admires. I can make a connection to other mentor-student or guardian-child relationships in books. For example, in Harry Potter, the main character and Dumbledore become close "friends", but the relationship in reality is that of a companion and a child. Also, in Leon (The Professional), in which there is a girl who wants to become an assassin, there is the same type of relationship. 

Persepolis: The Veil

  The first chapter of Persepolis sets the introduction and starts leading the audience to a potential situation that can take place. It starts off by introducing the main character and what she is living through. The chapter closes by showing how the main character desires to become the last prophet of her religion.  This little girl is born in the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. She is obliged to wear a veil over her hair, and is soon separated from her friends at school. Afterwards, she starts thinking of a way to pursue her dream of becoming the last prophet. She has a holy book, and has long talks with God at night. By reading this chapter I came up with several questions, including: What is her name? When does this story take place? Why are the obligated to wear a vail? What does this vail represent? Why does she want to be a prophet when she grows up? When she 'chats' with God at night, is it her imagination or is it really God? Will this book relate to us her experiences with the religion? Due to the fact that it was a short chapter, we couldn't receive a lot of information and therefore I don't have  as many doubts about how the story begins. My last question is, what is going to come up next?

The first chapter of Persepolis takes us to Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The time period is one that is chaotic, during the Cold War. The narrator, which is the author herself, Marjane Satrapi, is raised at a very young age as a proletariat-loving revolutionary, by her parents who are the same way. She also believes that she is the last prophet of her religion. When she is forced to wear a veil over her head, she comes to dislike it. I came up with several questions, including

• What does the veil represent for the women of Iran?
• What is her connection to God?
• How does the time and place she is living in affect her childhood?
• How does her childhood compare to, say, an American girl?

Persepolis: Chapter Persepolis

I can relate the story of the man who was called a martyr to urban legends and/or mass hysteria. Usually, because of the carelessness in relating a story, or some kind of condition which has made people vulnerable to suggestion or mentally traumatized, someone will begin to say something or do something, and because of suggestion or trauma everyone will believe it. The fact that the woman had no proof that the man was a martyr and simply announced it reinforces this. The situation was, obviously, the political instability at the time. 

Reading Blog- Tablet XI

Tablet XI is one of the longer tablets. It relates the conversation between Utnapishtim and Gilgamesh. 

Gilgamesh asks Utnapishtim how he became immortal, he himself wanting to become immortal. Utnapishtim's story and the story of Noah's Ark are quite similar, with both having the command of a deity for a man to build an arc to save himself and animals from a flood. 

I have a bad feeling about characters looking for immortality. If we look towards other stories of characters defeating death, such as the Pardoner's Tale, which ends up with all characters, who attempted to cheat death, dead themselves. However, possibly there is a happy ending.

What Happens To You When You Die?

In my opinion, you simply die. I don't believe in an afterlife, simply because there is no proof of it. I believe that your body and conciousness simply stop working and disintegrate.
 

Reading Blog- Tablets VI-VII

The story of a goddess falling in love with a mortal reminds me of how King Kong falls in love with a woman, who is much weaker than him.

The sickness of Enkidu brought by the gods, and the sadness of Gilgamesh, reminds me of the death of Patroklos at the hands of the Greek gods, and the sadness of Achilles.

Reading Blog- Tablets IV and V of the Epic of Gilgamesh

I sometimes feel like Gilgamesh. When he begins the journey to slay Huwawa, he is confident, however as he progresses, with the contribution of morbid, dark dreams, he loses confidence. I sometimes accept tasks with a certainty that I can do them, but then lose confidence when I realize I may not be able to accomplish the task or when I observe things that may point to my inability to do a task.

The journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu reminds me of the journey undertaken by Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings.

The 13 winds which assault Huwawa make me think of the association of the number 13 with bad luck, evil, and pestilence.

The final attempts Huwawa made to convince Gilgamesh to spare him reminded me of the temptation which the ring gave in the Lord of the Rings before its destruction.

The use of the head of Huwawa as a trophy reminded me of Perseus, who kept Medusa's head after slaying her.