Response to My Name is Khan "from the epiglottis"

I just rewatched My Name is Khan and now that I have the movie fresh in my mind I want to respond to it. The first feeling that comes to my mind is of how powerful and emotional this movie is. Rizwan was the perfect protagonist. What made him so perfect as a protagonist in a movie like this, that has a powerful message against racism and prejudice, was his disability, Asperger's Syndrome. Many injustices were done to Rizwan throughout his life, from the time when he was bullied in school ,while in India, by the other kids to the time when he was agressively searched by the San Francisco International Airport security. These injustices were greatly amplified to us as the viewers because of the fact that he could not express his emotions, he couldn't even cry. The fact that we know that he is innocent and defenseless makes what happens to him feel even worse because he can't defend himself.

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.

harry potter

Harry Potter was a really good movie. They are making all the previous movies make sense in some aspects. They are showing why Harry Potter is the chosen one and what The Dark Lord has been searching for. Their was a part in the movie where they tell a story about three brothers that have to cross a river and they use magic to make a bridge. Death comes and is angry that they trick him, but death gives them each a wish. The last brother asks for a cloak which will make him invisible to death and before he dies he gives it to his son. Me and my roommate believe that Harry Potter is a descendant from the very first three wizards because the third brother gives his son before he dies and Harry Potter's father gives him the cloak, that was Harry Potter father's cloak.

Hero named Khan

In every hero story there in a power that makes the hero different than anyone else and the hero also has a weak point, an Achilles heel, to try to stop him from completing his goal. In the move my name is Khan. Rizwan Khan suffered from Asperger's syndrome. Many people would believe that this is Khan weak point, but I believe this and his intelligent are his powers that makes him different from everyone else. He is made innocent to people who know him because of the Asperger's syndrome and his intelligent helps him get by in his journey making him able to complete tasks and to survive throughout the obstacles he faces. I believe his weakness is that his Muslim because 9/11 made the U.S hate people who look like Muslims and Muslims. He is made to be an enemy to some people who will not be willing to understand the differences between people who are the terrorist and the people who are persecuted just because of their looks.

iDracula difference from Dracula

So I just got done reading iDracula and I found a lot of differences in this story from Bram Stoker's Dracula we read from the beginning of the semester. In iDracula I did not even know who Dracula was in the story. The story did not have anything written about Dracula unless someone such as Mina, Harker, Lucy, or Van Helsing was talking about him. This story gave great information about the feelings of the four characters recently stated and gave me great images to imagine that Stoker's Dracula did not. In iDracula pretty much for the characters: Mina is the hero of the story, Harker is the victim, Van Helsing is love struck for Mina, Lucy is a slut, and Dracula is no where to be found.

Discussion Questions

In response to Ryan's question (#4)

This is not your ordinary book you just come along, it is much more comprehensive. Just when you think you have it figured out, the story finds another way to twist itself. One of the many ways this novel speaks to you is through imagery and visualization. There are numerous pictures, and pages with just one sentences on them which gave that sentence much more impact and made you really think about it. The pictures in book weren't ordinary pictures, they were pictures that made you stop and think and try to find away to connect it to the reading. I think this is Foer's way of making us discover and find out our own way through the novel, just as Oskar is too.

The language of the text is very simple, but extremely complex, Oskar's intelligence level is much higher than your average 9 year old, making it confusing and hard to read his narration without questioning it. Oskar is extremely repetitive, repeating phrase and words that resonate with us. The writing style in the book helps us discover the book by for the first 100 or so pages we are still left in the dark about a lot of things, we never really know who is talking and have to piece together the pages. Once again i think this is one of Foer's ways of helping us to discover the book. He doesn't want us to just read through the pages effortlessly, but to have a journey and discover things along the way, just as Oskar is having his journey through Manhattan.

Throughout the book, Oskar is never one to say it bluntly, he will say it about never 100% straight forward. We have to assume a lot of things or use or imagination to fill in where he leaves us. We are forced to fill in all gaps or confused spots, with our imagination and ideas of what we think is going on. And they are constantly changing. I will admit that this book is one of my favorite read! Not being a huge reading fan myself, i found it very entertaining and captivating. I constantly had my mind thinking and never left me with a dull moment.

Interconnectivity

I just wanted to write a little bit about interconnectivity; after spending some time thinking about it I realized how much interconnectivity is a huge theme in the book. For example, Oskar is already connected to thousands of people through his experience of his father's death on. He is further connected to other people as he searches for the meaning his father's key by talking to everyone who has the last name Black. What is interesting is that Foer further connects all the people who have the last name Black. Everyone who Oskar visits comes to see Hamlet. There Oskar describes all the Blacks that he sees out in the audience. Everything there is connected through Oskar even though they don't realize it. In another example, when Oskar's father is telling the story about the Sixth Borough, he says a sentence that had a lot of themes of connectivity. "The words traveled the yo-yo, the doll, the diary, the necklace, the quilt, the clothesline, the birthday present, the harp, the tea bag, the tennis racket, the hem of the skirt he one day should have pulled from her body." All of the items that he described are all what connects the boy and the girl. In addition, each item doesn't directly belong to either the girl or the boy. For example, the guilt belonged to his great-uncle. In this way, Foer connects not only the boy and the girl, but everyone whose items listed. Foer uses connectivity throughout the whole entire novel. Most notably is the structure of the novel. He uses different perspectives so that to the reader, everything seems very disconnected. However, as the reader continues to read, we realize that everything is starting to connect with each other, until finally at the end, everything is connected and makes sense. I think what Foer is trying to portray here is that everyone in the world is connected to one another; it's just whether we believe that we are connected or not. Someone on the street might be connected to me because we went to the same school. Some may argue that we aren't connected because we have had no physical interaction; however, Foer believes that even the smallest action can connect two people.

Response to Ryan's Question #4

To respond to Question 4 from Ryan's email. Some of the techniques that Foer uses are the items that Oskar finds and uses to answer questions about his father. One of these items was the key Oskar found. A key holds an infinite amount of posible directions for the story to go. A key is something that everyone can relate to because everyone has keys. A key can change the course of the story completely. Also the use of the name or word "black". The same clues that Foer describes Oskar finding are our clues aswell. When Oskar speaks in the novel he is seeing and describing what we are reading about. The different items give us an insight into the novel and possible outcomes. Foer also uses the technique of multiple points of view. Unlike other stories that only tell a story from one point of view, Foer tells the story from various different characters; Oskar, his grandmother and his grandfather. This technique becomes very useful in putting all the pieces of the story together to make sence in the end.

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.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

In the beginning of the book Oskar seems somewhat immature and makes the most random comments. As the story moves on we find out that his father has died which is a horrible and tragic thing to happen to a young boy like Oskar. All of his actions begin to make sense and we understand why he acts the way he does. Him and his father were extremely close and it only makes sense for him to be completely devastated. Oskar has so many questions about his dad after he dies but he can no longer ask his dad. He sets out on his own adventure to get answers to all the questions he has.

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.

Response to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Pgs. 1-125

I have to admit that I thought the beginning of this book was very strange, especially when Oskar said, " Another good thing is that I could train my anus to talk when I farted. If I wanted to be extremely hilarious, I'd train it to say, " Wasn't me!" " This line was in the very first paragraph of the book and seemed very strange to me until I started to see that it was a little kid talking, a very intelligent little kid who knows a lot of random information. The reason why Oskar spoke in this manner in the beginning made a lot more sense to me as I read on and found out that his father died a potentially terrible death during the terrorist attacks to the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2010 in New York.

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.

Interesting Article

I found this article about a group of student who did an technology experiment similar to ours. Theirs was more extensive though.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/10/53_lincoln_high_school_student.html

Kevin Driscoll's talk

I went to the talk given by Kevin Driscoll last night and it was quite interesting. What I found really interesting was all the different types of culture people research. He talked about participatory culture and how it is how the population as a whole participates in certain areas of life that turns them into popculture. If everyone were to sit down every night and watch the same show we would all be participating and therefore that show would become part of the popular culture at that time. He also talked about how much online journals cost for a years subscription. I was in shock that they cost so much, over $10,000 is a lot of money. That is where the concept of open access comes in. It is a way to access material on the Internet without having to pay for it. I think that all journals and materials should be accessible to anyone without a price or at least a cheaper price. The talk as a whole was great and he packed a lot of information into the short amount of time we had.

My Technologyless Weekend Was Great

I met Professor Jha at the Casa Loma room for Kevin Driscoll's presentation about open access and Prya asked me how my weekend without technology was and I told her it was great because I have not accustomed myself to living a wired life. My weekend was great. Nothing really changed about it. I don't like to text so I don't have texting by choice. I also don't like to hear music all the time so I don't own an I Pod or other type of MP3. I do use email and facebook but I never really have a burning urge to use them very often. I like to live a very simple life. Today's current technologies are very complex and often very useful. However, I find things like texting, I Pods, super high tech cell phones, and other similar gadgets of leisure to be unecessary time wasters and life destroyers because they are making humans, a social and adventurous creature, very impersonal and anti-social as well as lazy and unproductive. I know that my views may be a little extreme for some people but I may have exagerated a bit. I know that there are other views out there. Maybe you love texting and I Pods and all those things so talk about it. It won't hurt my feelings if you disagree with me. Just give your opinion.

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.

about pizarnik and horror

I highly doubt that Pizarnik wrote "the Bloody Countess" to express her fear of her own lesbianism. I also doubt that people watch and read horror to quell their "internal tortures." Perhaps she was like all other people who go into a horror film today. We go and see scary movies because we are fascinated with death. Nobody goes to see SAW or Hostel just to help themselves feel better about themselves. It is the same thing with Friday the 13th, we all know people are going to die, but we are curious as to how. Even those who shield their eyes at the death scenes eventually peek out from between their fingers. This comes back to a fascination with death. Perhaps Pizarnik was just fascinated with what the countess did and decided to document it. Just something to think about...not everything has to have an exceedingly deep meaning.

The Bloody Countess totally freaked me out and the fact that it is real makes is even scarier! I think that Elizabeth Bathory was lost and confused with who she was. She had no idea who she was or who she wanted to be. She hid behind this evil creature that she has created. She feels like she is being internally tortured by not knowing who she is and to help her feel better she tortures others. Someone always feels better when they see someone else going through the same or greater pain that they are enduring. I think that watching the girls get tortured was her escape from her internal torture. There was a movie made in 2008 called Bathory and it made over 3 million dollars at the box office, maybe all the movie goers are trying to escape their internal tortures too.

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.

Jacob Calvillo's comment

I will be posting a comment regarding "the bloody countess." Has anyone seen the movie Stay Alive? It was a crap movie, but it had an okay way of telling the tale of Elizabeth Bathory. Why do you think that they chose her tale to use as the base of the movie?

The Bloody Countess Reflection

I have to say that after reading The Bloody Countess I will think twice before judging a pretty girl before and after getting to know her. From the reading it seemed that Erzebet Bathory looked like a beautiful girl who couldn't hurt a fly, in the public eye. This can be observed by the fact that Ferenez Nadasdy, a courageous soldier, married her and never discovered or wasn't smart enough to find out the truth of his marriege to a monster. However, this made me think a little bit of how Bathory was able to pull this off. When Bathory is finally caught and punished for her horrible acts of murder and torture she says that it was her right as part of the nobility to perform such acts on people. Throughout her years of torturing and murdering she never felt any regret or repentance because she always saw it as her right to be able to commit such acts.

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

After reading "The Bloody Countess", I am amazed at the similarities in the views towards women and sexuality it shares with Dracula.

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.

quote by John Lennon

"It's the fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love hate, all that-- it's all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and it's plain sailing. everything is unknown--then you're ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?"
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.