JUST IN TIME!

So the book is very confusing. But hey thanks to Socratic circle! I understood much more. Well in those chapters. I am still very confuse about the book a bit but hopefully things will clear up.

In the beginning of the novel, From what I believe, the characters figured out that protein was the secret to life. One character stated, Yeah, that’s it” (26). Finding the “secret of life” should be an exciting discovery, yet no one cares, it does not make a difference in their lives. In addition, San Lorenzo, Newt talks about a the cat’s cradle game. He stated that the “cat’s cradle is nothing but a bunch of X’s between somebody’s hands…” “…no damn cat, and no damn cradle” (114). So basically, these people believe that protein is the "secret of life."  From what we know that’s what they all believe in the novel. But there can be many solutions to the “secret of life”.

                     Based on the Socratic Circle we had, the main detail I caught onto was the meaning of a "Cat's Cradle." The book mentioned that there really isn’t any meaning to the Cat’s Cradle.  I think the novel was named Cat's Cradle because the basic theme of it was that people believe in things whether or not it's there, true or false. I think the author is trying to open the idea that every individual will believe in whatever they want. Take religion for example, we all have different beliefs. Whether our piers or friends may not follow the same beliefs we do, we will still continue to hold onto our perspectives. This is where it all goes back to reality. In life sometimes we need to "see" to "believe." Another thing is that we may know the truth or lie of something; however, we could choose to go on and continue on believing in it regardless.

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yeah

FINALLY FINISHED BRAVE NEW WORLD! YES YES YES! Anywhos. So after reading the story I was starting to pick up some similarities being compared in Brave New World, 1984, and our government. However both governments are different in so many ways. 1984 it's clear that it is a dictatorship. You're forced to believe what the government tells you to believe, do what the government tells you to do, soon and so on.  In Brave New World the government seems to be very liberal.  They view life through the scientific ways and not traditional ways. Our government is far from a dictatorship but similar in ways of the media; constantly streaming us with information about politics, new laws, etc. They are informing American citizens through the media exactly like 1984 had. Some of this information is incredibly biased and some information tries hard not to be biased. Like 1984 when they rewrote history constantly! Our government compared to Brave New World is only part of our society. Many Californians are liberal and view the new scientific way of life, not traditional ways of life, such as conservatives. California is very much liberal and are for new advancements that go against the grain, or traditional ways of living. Through Brave New World they go against the grain in multiple ways! Drugs is what makes them happy, religion is a joke and something to be mocked. So I believe that the traditional ways are being constantly destroyed and before we know it, it will be gone forever.

VEDEOH!

I found this video to be quite interesting in the sense that we as students are all exactly as the communitiy around us. We all dress about the same within the same group or styles. We converse the same and we all take the same educational classes. In a sense, we are the same in someway. However, unlike Brave New World, we all are able to think for ourselves. Our only purpose may be to contribute to the economy and live our lives out that way; on the other hand we have our own choices. We are not genetically programmed to carry out a certain machine's needs.  

One parallel that caught my attention was the point in the video where he addressed the condition of ADHD.  The fact that most people nowadays seem to have it made it so much more interesting. As a society we are constantly bored looking for the next thing to keep us occupy, whether it be technology, food, sports, or even on the harsh terms of drugs and alcohol. Just like in Brave New World, the people turn to Soma to relieve them from any boredom: "What you need is a gamme of Soma."

On another note, we are taught throughout school what is right and wrong through the eyes of the teacher. This is similar to Brave New World in a sense that they are also taught what they can and cannot do to fulfill their life purpose. But question is who is really in charge of what is right and wrong, what they can do and what they can’t?

This video was indeed an eye opener of how society is slowly starting to resemble that of Brave New World by our lack of concentration and our ability to easily be consumed by what is around us.

NEW BOOK NEW WORLD. NEW ADVENTURE TO BLOGGING OH FUN FUN FUN

After reading chapter 3 I came to realize how the government makes it so simple to cover society from gaining experiences and replace those experiences with artificial pleasures.
Infants are tempted with books and flowers and then shocked when they go to grasp them they are electrically shocked. This is a way of showing harm to what was once a pleasure and something that can be enjoyable. In a way it is like the idea of a child falling off a bed and learning the fact that they can get hurt if they go too close to the edge again. If the children are caused pain for what they wish then soon enough they will no longer find pleasure in it.

On the other hand, women are able to feel all of the symptoms of a pregnancy unnaturally. With thoughts like “my baby… the little hands, the hunger, and that unspeakable agonizing pleasure!”  Women are no longer able to experience the feelings of carrying and birthing a baby due to the new manufacturing technique in the book, so those who desire such feelings are able to consume a “pregnancy substitute.” This makes pregnancy seems as though it could just be a joke that babies are not naturally born the way they used to be.

The people in A Brave New World are encouraged to be promiscuous and frequently change partners to keep the happiness going. “Impulse arrested spills over, and the flood is feeling, the flood is passion, the flood is even madness.” Having whatever one person wants cannot stand in the way for a person to be unhappy. So either you do what you have to do to make yourself happy or u tumble down and be unhappy.

In Brave New World, people are birthed to do their jobs and nothing else. There sole purpose is to fulfill the job that they were embedded to do. They must be “obedient men,” men who enjoy fulfilling their duties rather than acting against them. This quote justifies Ford’s thoughts on how life should be. Life should be manufactured and synthetic, not real. This way no one would be able to live unhappy and everyone would be the happiest person living.

preparation to write for the Tempest

I can honestly say I did not like the book The Tempest at first because I really had no idea of what was going on. But as we got into groups and started to discuss about it I started to enjoy it a bit more. In those discussions of "The Tempest" that we had, one controversial issue has been the debate between the themes of colonialism and imperialism of the time. On the one hand, Shakespeare meant for that The Tempest is to arugue this issue of during his time. Aime Cesaire discusses the theme of imperialism in Shakespeare's work. Her rewrite titled "A Tempest"  of a comical writing style to emphasize imperialism and colonialism in Shakespeare's "The Tempest". On the other hand, others who have analzyed Shakespeare's work have come to the conclusion of a few different meanings. One example is Stepehen Greenblatt. He emphasizes his views on how imperialism affected the Native Americans. On the other hand, other critics, such as George Will, believes that this analysis of the text takes away the original meaning that the author intended to convey to the reader. These two critics have different views of Shakespeare's ideas. But who knows which one of them maybe right. There are many other views of Shakespeare. There would never be a "right" answer to everything.

2 articles

          George Will's article argued that the critics were being too frigid with literary works. Will disagreed with the critics because the critics that are performing this, is overpowering the author's original intentions of the piece's motivation of why it was written and the tone the work was composed in. He also states that all literature is political. I believe that Will's argument is to just tell us that as critics overwrites or retells the story or the literary work, it doesn't make it seem quite right. It sort of destroys the meaning of the work that the original author wrote.
         Stephen Greenblatt argued that at least on should know political and historical knowledge before actually going into a piece of literature. He talks about the "cement" that artists get stuck in, due to the closed society, "but art, the art that matters, is not cement. It is mobile, complex, elusive, disturbing. A love of literature may help to forge a community, but it is a community founded on imaginative freedom, the play of language, and scholarly honesty, and not on flag waving, boosterism, and conformity". This quote tells of how Greenblatt feels about how art should actually be and not just some type of wall with figurings on it but art should have meaning and passion to it.

article

mine wont upload!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

The Tempest - Act 2 and 3 and cultural studies.

After reading Acts 2 and 3 from the Tempest I soon came to realize the similarities between Caliban and the Natives. Caliban was a free man until Prospero came to the island. Caliban taught Prospero everything of the island and he taught him to speak and learn how to survive on the island. After all this gaining of information Prospero had the knowledge to gain control of Caliban and take over his island. It is just like when the Europeans came here and the Native Americans taught them everything there was to know of how to survive and learn their culture the Europeans felt as though they need to civilize the Native Americans to regain power.

I believe that Shakespeare is not taking a side because he shows the sympathy on both sides. He showed both sides just like how the Natives would have a different story from the Europeans. For example, although we may feel empathy for Caliban for losing his island, he does and says things such as "he used witchcraft to steal this island. He stole it from me." Although Prospero may see like a bad guy Caliban is just as bad. I'm not picking sides but it seems quite right to me. Another thing is that while Gonzalo was sleeping, Antonio and Sebastian were plotting to kill him while he was asleep. Ariel sang, "While you lie here snoring men are plotting against you." This shows that Shakespeare show both side sympathy. In addition to that Caliban somewhat signifies the stereotype of the "Others". In the postcolonialism packet the "Others" are known as those that "conform and be quiet; deny yourself, and all will be well "(234).  Caliban signifies the Others because Caliban asked Stephano to help but was pleading and begging him in a way that made Stephano feel bad for Caliban and he gave himself to Stephano in order for him to help himself. 

The video clip was really good. It helped me see their side of the story compares to the white mans story. This opened up my eyes because there has always been a one side story.  

The Tempest Act 1

So far I can see that Prospero has a very good way of constructing historical narratives to manipulate all those that are around him. For example, the way he told his daughter, Miranda, the whole story of how they got to the island he was telling a story that would meet his needs and one that would satisfy him so that way Miranda would feel bad and definitely be on his side. By doing so he is able to control the way his daughter think and felt. He also kept making her feel bad for him because the way he was telling the story made it seem as though he was being tortured. Prospero said, "Which was that he, in lieu o' th' premises Of homage and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine. Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan. With all the honors on my brother (Act 1 Scene 2)". He told her how bad of a brother his brother was and by doing so this made Miranda feel bad towards him. He was also able to control Ariel and Caliban by making them both go through a guilt trip and using enslavement towards both of them. For example, Prospero said to Ariel that he was the one that saved him from being trapped in the tree, and he said, "If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak. And peg thee in his knotty entrails till. Thou hast howled away twelve winters (Act 1 Scene 2)". By doing so he is able to use that against Ariel to make him feel bad. He was able to control and manipulate Ariel's thoughts of ever wanting to go against him. As for Caliban Prospero uses the whole " I raised you and fed you and taught you everything" kinda deal that makes him able to use that against Caliban whenever Caliban ever thinks of doing something against him. This also relates to 1984 because in that story the government were able to use the people's weaknesses against them and they can't do anything about it.

socratic circle

i can and will say that the socratic circle was very excited and fun. i liked the fact that everyone gets to let out their own opinions about what we were talking about during the session. although i can honestly say i did not say anything because a lot of people did have the same opinions as i did and that kind of shut me up. i didnt know what to say because a lot of people were just throwing out words and it gives me less time to think of what to say. but then it did not bother me much to not say much because a lot of people sort of said it for me and i did not want to repeat after the other person. i can see that a lot of us kind of had that face expression to where we were just like this isnt going anywhere because no one was really thinking of what to say but throwing out opinions that were some what unnecessary. overall i enjoyed the socratic circle because i like seeing tension in some people and thats what makes it all exciting.

 my opinion about the article "Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change" i believe that everyone has their own ways to teach history but i can and do agree with the woman that is trying to argue her opinion. trying to teach the kids a whole different way of history can be interesting because history to me sometimes do get boring with so much information and time it just gets lame and feels like everything is just repeating over and over. i can and will say i do find myself falling asleep in class sometimes and feel as though i have to cram soo much information in my head in such a short time. but then again school only lasts a few months and teachers are required to teach us what we need to learn. im sure so many teachers would rather have students like history and love for the kids to enjoy it but there is such a short amount of time to be able to make it seem enjoyable.

MAIMAII

AWESOMENESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!