Sunday, December 12, 2010
Response to My Name is Khan "from the epiglottis"
In this movie, Rizwan also plays the role of the voice of reason. From the time he was taught by his Ammi that there were only two people in the world, good people and bad people, he lived by this code and he never changed throughout the movie. By doing this he embodies what is good. The fact that he marries Mandira out of pure love regardless of her religion is proof that he lived by this code. I think that Rizwan's character is the ideal character to posses as fellow human beings, always, but espacially after terrible harm has been done to us like when 9/11 occured. By being able to control ourselves and our emotions during a time of pain, we could be able to think clearly and not blame innocents as it happened with Rizwan's sister in law while she was walking and was thrown to the ground by an idiot who stupedly believed she was a terrorist or with Sam's death by the hands of a bunch of racist bullies. To say the least, I really enjoyed this movie, again.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
harry potter
Hero named Khan
Sunday, November 14, 2010
iDracula difference from Dracula
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Discussion Questions
Interconnectivity
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Response to Ryan's Question #4
The relationship formed between the author and the reader is very close. The author uses the catastrophy of September 11th as the main reason of the main character's problem or his pain. Just like Oskar lost his father many readers can relate in the fact that many other people died on that day, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and many other family members and friends. And even those of us who didn't lose anyone close to us because of September 11th still feel a strong connection to it because we live in the U.S and probably remember exactly where we were and what we were doing at that very moment in time because of the great shock that even though the U.S is considered by many as the most powerful country in the world, we are vulnerable. In a way, Foer's use of September 11th can also count as another technique because it helps the reader relate to the main character's problem.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The novel becomes more interesting when other characters begin to chime in with their own chapters. Oskar's grandfather talks about how he left his wife and Oskars grandmother talks about everything going on in her life. Oskar's mom is also devastated by her husbands death but she has a friend, Ron, who helps her through it. Oskar does not like Ron being around the house and he feels like his mother is not sad and has already moved on. It makes sense that Oskar decides to go on this journey to figure out what the key goes to because he doesn't like being at home with his mom and Ron. He also deeply wants his mom to care where he is going and to ask when he will be back. Oskar is hurt by his mother's lack of questions but we learn that she has found out what he was going to do and she knows exactly where he is going and who he is going with. Oskar just wants another father figure in his life who he can share all of his random facts with and share his inventions with. He meets many people along the way but none of them can replace his father.
I thought it was really interesting that Oskar never let his mom hear the messages or pick up the phone when his father called the last time. He was trying to protect his mom by never sharing the messages with her but at the same time it could have given her some closure. He told her that he was safe and was walking home just to not scare her or Oskar. I can't even imagine being in this situation but I think that Oskar truly wanted to protect his mother and maybe he wanted his fathers last few words to be shared in between just them. I think that Oskar didn't want to pick up the phone because he didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to have to say good bye to his father, his best friend, and no one could blame him for that.
At the very end of the story when Oskar is talking about how his father would have done everything backwards, I think that was Oskar's way of accepting that his father is gone but he will always be with him. The last pages of the book are pictures of a man falling of a building. It is like a flip book but the pages go backwards. The first page start with a man midair and as the pages go on the man ascends instead of falling. This is really interesting, its showing that thought horrible and tragic events can happen there is always a way to get back up and keep trudging along. This book was very good and I loved how it doesn't make much sense throughout the whole book but at the very end everything ties together.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Response to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Pgs. 1-125
The death of his father was a very traumatizing blow to young Oskar because it seems like he was closer to his father than to anyone else around him. It was his father who taught him most if not all the random information that he knows and Oskar also saw his father as his role model because of the way he planned his life based on what his father taught him. This was evident when his father died and all of a sudden Oskar no longer wanted to continue on the family jewelry business as well as doubting his religious views of atheism.
The loss of his father left young Oskar with many questions that he needed or felt he needed to find the answers to which is why he starts going from door to door asking people if they recognized a key he had found that belonged to his father or if they knew his father at all. Oskar describes his emotions as feeling as if he was in "outer space, but not in a good way." He feels very alone because he believes that everyone has moved on with their lives and forgotten about his father. This feeling is amplified when Ron, his mom's "friend" appears and he wonders if his mother has started sleeping with him and forgotten about his dad. However, we can't rely on Oskar's depictions as facts because he is telling everything from his point of view and his poin of view may not necessarily be the absolute truth. I also think that Oskar may just want attention because like I proved before, Oskar feels like he is alone in outer space as he described in his own words.
This book became very interesting fast when the point of views from other family members started to show up. In the second chapter Oskar's grandpa, Thomas starts with a letter to his unborn son, also known as Oskar's father. It seems as if he were giving an explanation as to the reason why he abandoned his wife and child before his child was born. He aims his words to Oskar's father because he is the one who he seems to feel he abandoned and not necessarily his wife with whom he seemed to have a frustrating relationship with. And after this Oskar's grandmother starts telling her side of the story as her husband did in his letter to his unborn son. Oskar's grandmother writes her response to Oskar. I still don't understand why it is that she wrote this to Oskar but I hope I find out as I read on.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Interesting Article
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Kevin Driscoll's talk
Monday, October 18, 2010
My Technologyless Weekend Was Great
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Images for the Goblin Market
I searched Google images for The Goblin Market and I found these two images to have extremely contrasting images of the goblins. The first images takes the text in a literal sense, and makes the goblins appear as rodents. The second image creates the goblins as creepy, unearthly creatures.
The poem depicts the goblins as rodents to make them seem atrocious and fearsome. However in the image that depicts the goblins as rodents is less frightening than the image that shows the goblins as actual goblins. Not that I know what goblins would actually look like, but this image gives a depiction that I would associate as goblins.
I just find it interesting that the image with the rodent goblins is far less creepy than the image with the goblins that are much more alien.
The image of Laura is almost exactly the same in both images. She has rosy cheeks, pale skin, and long golden hair that the goblins are holding. However, her situation in each image could be seen differently. In the first image she is given some space and looks comfortable, whereas in the second image she is enclosed by the goblins with very little room to move.
I feel as though the second image is a much better depiction of the poem. The goblins look like monsters that are enticing an innocent girl, and the whole image is much creepier than the first. I just find it odd that the first image takes the imagery of the poem literally by making the goblins appear as rodents, and as a result the image looks less creepy.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
about pizarnik and horror
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Joseph Silva: I've posted this youtube video to show a little history of Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, so you can see a little bit of history from the bloody countess. Elizabeth tricked a lot of the villages around her castle, but the villagers can not do anything about it. This video shows her history of her servants and her killings.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Jacob Calvillo's comment
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Bloody Countess Reflection
Another important aspect of the reading that I noticed was of the enormous gap between the nobility and the peasants. Erzebet tortured, mutilated and killed hundreds and hundreds of innocent young women peasants and just because they were peasants nobody, not even the proper authorities did anything to stop the murders. It wasn't until Erzebet went after the "blue" blooded young women that something was finally done. This shows that the peasants were literally seen as animals in the 1600's in Eastern Europe. The nobility were able to get away with murder. However, it also shows the weakness of the nobility in its ability to control its own kind. Erzebet also murdered nobility but in a way also got away with it because all they did was put her in house arrest for the rest of her life. The nobility was afraid that the punishing of one branch of nobility would weaken the entire nobility as a group and therefore were afraid to do anything about the mass murdering.
The Bloody Countess
Throughout the piece, there are numerous occasions of heavy sexual descriptions, as well as many of the violent behaviors of Countess Bathory being ways of her receiving pleasures that are similar to sex. After reading Dracula and seeing how women with rampant sexual appetites were viewed as demonic, I can't help but notice the same sort of feelings being insinuated in "The Bloody Countess".
I looked up some more information on this story. I even googled some images. I found one painting/drawing on the first page of my search that I thought related really well to what I was talking about above. Unfortunately, I can't post it on here because it depicts two woman with no clothes.
In the picture, the Countess is shown in her all white dress, and a veil covers her face. Behind her are two women and a skeleton each with three figures clad in all black. One has the face of a raven (I believe), and the other in the shape of some other grotesque monster. To me, the picture shows these women dancing in a very riskay manner with these dark beings. These dark beings are demons, and by showing the voluptuous women dancing with these demons the artist is depicting how being filled with such carnal desires is demonic.
If you wish to see the picture yourself, its pretty easy to find. Just go to google images and type in "the bloody countess". On the first page, there are two different times this picture appears so you can't miss it.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
quote by John Lennon
John Lennon
I think that this quote relates closely to Dracula. It was the fear that sent everyone in the novel into a frenzy, trying to protect one another by fixing everyday problems hoping that would take the fear away. The first half of the novel, most of the characters were in denial that a creature was the thing causing all of this chaos. As soon as they accepted that it was something unknown that was killing people, they took immediate action. Dracula, himself, accepted the unknown. He accepted that he was the unknown and after that he had a breeze killing people and doing his thing. He wasn't afraid of the unknown world that he doesn't live in but rather intrudes in. He conquered the fear and accomplished what he wished to do.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Holly Fowler's comment
Monday, September 13, 2010
"Otherness" in Dracula
"You are clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold;but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear,and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you think that there are things which you cannot understand and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? Bu there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men's eyes,because they know-or think they know-some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all;and if it explain not,then it says there is nothing to explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs,which think themselves new; and whichn are yet but the old, which pretend to be young-like the fine ladies at the opera. I suppose now you do not believe in corporeal transference. No? Nor in materilization. No? Nor in astral bodies. No? Nor in the reading of thought. No? Nor in hypnotism-"
Van Helsing is trying to get Dr. Seward to look beyond what he already knows to see what actually is. He is trying to have Dr. Seward embrace something that is different and out of his world. And when I say his world I mean what he knows to be the world. For example, Ive grown up in Southern California all my life. I know that there is more to the world than this, but I "KNOW" Southern California. Living in Southern California up until September 11th,2001; my friends and I had never heard the word "terrorist" or "terrorism". Until Dr. Seward encountered un-dead lucy, he would have never had to think twice about any evil spirits or demons such as the Count.
The bolded section: "Ah, it is the fault of our science.." shows, to me anyways, that it is the fault OUR of society that puts an "other" into the position of "the other". I'd rather discuss this bit in class because I'd like to be able to, well, discuss it with it everyone.
(sorry for any mispellings or grammatical errors...did not use WORD)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Irish vs Chinese
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Jesse Luersen's Comment
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
an interesting poem
http://infocult.typepad.com/dracula/2009/05/for-the-dead-travel-fast.html
Colter Rios comment
Alyssa Good's comment
I will be commenting on the “Harper Weekly: Journal of Civilization” post. This cartoon illustrates the struggle of African Americans and Irishmen. These two races were greatly discriminated against, and this cartoon portrays the fact that they were treated equally at the bottom of the social chain. This cartoon was made many years ago because of an immigration issue. At present, there is still an immigration issue, and other races are being put down on the same scale. I can personally consider this illustration to be a part of The Other because I have never been the immigrant or the race that was/is discriminated against. I can sympathize toward these people, but I cannot truly understand how they felt about the situation because of not having experience with immigrating or being a part of the minority.
Emily Ramirez's Comment
During Bush's reign as president, he emphasized the racist idea that anyone who was not white and came from the Middle East was most likely a terrorist or friends with a terrorist. After the events of September 11, 2001, terror made its home within the United States, entering the hearts of millions of residents of the nation. Bush took advantage of this and began his campaign of fighting the supposed "War on Terrorism". Both he and his cabinet skillfully manipulated the minds of many citizens to believe that being afraid was the correct thing and that the best way to take care of this was to essentially be racist and give up personal freedoms. An example of this being the Patriot Act which was signed less than a month after the 9/11 attacks. Sly as a snake and cunning as a wolf, Bush stripped freedoms from many and wrongfully accused many of being illegal or terrorist while emphasizing phrase, "Be Afraid! Because Paranoia is PATRIOTIC".
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Luis Gutierrez's Comment
Thoughts on "America's History of Fear" by Nicholas Kristof
So, in the interest of having some conversation about this, I'm attaching some pictures I found on the internet while searching for "immigrant" "fear" and later, "Irish" "Black". Please respond to one of these images in a few sentences
Fear of immigrants was widespread in the United States. In this cartoon, published five years after the Haymarket Square riot and one year before the Homestead Strike, illustrator Grant Hamilton placed a judge scolding Uncle Sam: "If Immigration was properly Restricted you would no longer be troubled with Anarchy, Socialism, the Mafia and such kindred evils!" From New York Harbor behind them comes a horde of arriving immigrants labeled "German socialist," "Russian anarchist," "Polish vagabond," "Italian brigand," "English convict," and "Irish pauper." (http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=3599)