A Poem: The Music of Life

In Walt Whitman´s Leaves of Grass, he talks about America. He says that the country is made up of a lot of people from every culture and the diversity that there is. Whitman continues talking about the potential that every person has for poetic expression, and that America is an enormous poem. However, I couldn´t see how regular people have potential for poems, and what essence Whitman can see on them.

Reading the 14th poem of Leaves of Grass, Whitman adds to his thought by saying, “What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easier, is Me; Me going on for my chances, spending for vast returns; Adoring myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me; Not asking the sky to come down to my good will; Scattering it freely forever.” (Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman. 250-254) This first call my attention, because Whitman doesn´t take his time to answer of even put a question mark on the question he starts the paragraph with. Also, he capitalizes the word “Me”, and he answers his own question with the “Me”, therefore since the first line he is making an emphasis in the Me.

Reading, I understood that everyone cares a lot about themselves, and everything they do has a reason that feed their ego. Therefore, this self confident person is the poetic side of each individual. Their passion they have for themselves is what makes them make an effort every single day, and that’s the poem. A poem doesn´t have to be written, because it is made out of the feelings and a thought of the author, so just by having those emotions, a poem is made.

Cliche, Make My Life Easier

When I started to take my french classes I started to notice how hard it is to explain the simple things in our lives. In Walt Whitman's poem Leaves of Grass he states the same by saying, "A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;/How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he." (Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. 6.92). I mean, how can you explain to a child what is water without using any scientific terms?

Anyways, I really understood Whitman in this part of the poem, but it was his use of words that made me get the hang of him faster. Using the "stuff" (93) and "I guess"(94) break the ice that the name Walt Whitman and a poem creates. A poem tends to be a very complex text that requires a lot of close reading and analysis to understand, but the words he used make a poem fun. Also, he is doing what he is saying, by choosing simple words to talk about a simple matter, and trying to express a simple literal feeling.

However, I see most of the word choice as a cliche, since the word or expression has been over used. Nevertheless, I recognize that by the time that Whitman wrote the poem, the words weren't misused yet. Whitman was able to pull of expressions that were interesting enough to be instilled in a great number of people, and still be easy enough to use in the daily life and common language.

HOW TO GET WHITMAN'S STYLE

This master of style, breaks the roads of literature, wearing bright colors on the shoes and hats, but calming the neon with some simple shirts. He starts the look with bright ideas that come from his head and introduces. Later, calm the colors with some pastel colors, and use designs that everyone can wear and understand at all times. Finish the look, with more powerful colors in the high heel shoes, but remember it must make a smooth transition with a big statement.

Felicite, Relay on Yourself

Felicite, Flaubert’s character in A Simple Soul, is a very timid girl, living a life as monotony as her. Nevertheless, this character knows what love is and had a experience, though it didn’t go that well, and attaches to things that make her feel secure and won’t let her down, such as her religion and Loulou.

After some chapters in the book, Loulou is a parrot that was left behind in the moving of some neighbors. Gustave introduces Loulou starting by his name, “He was called Loulou. His body was green, his head blue, the tips of his wings were pink and his breast was golden.” His description about this character stands out, first of all because the author invests an entire paragraph on his physical description. Also, he had mentioned before he came from America, therefore, the reader can assume the description of the bird, and yet the author takes the time to do it.
“Loulou” is the repetition of “lou” twice, representing how the parrot would imitate Felicite, that both souls are leftovers from others, and that the parrot is mirroring Felicite. “The breast is golden” represents the golden heart the animal had since the beginning, and explains why this parrot meant so much to the servant girl. Also, Flaubert says “his head blue”, as well as he said that at Felicite’s deathbed blue smoke came out. The author is using blue to demonstrate the tranquility of the animal, and how he transferred it to the girl, leaving her only with that at the end of her days.

Felicite didn’t love herself or the live she was living. Therefore, she tended to rely on things that made her feel secure and promised never to leave, such as the religion. By the time Loulou arrives, starts looking like her: with his commitment to the job and the people they work for, the heart and mind they own, and how they were never wanted by anyone and were left behind. At the end Felicite starts to relay in the bird, and since then she starts living, because she started to relay on herself.

Chesse as your Weapon

Felicite is the character that Flaubert uses to narrate his story of this poor servant’s life. She is a very timid person that only takes care of her job without getting into her mistresses’ business and she is recognized and envied for her work ethic.
However, reading the book, the reader gets the impression that Flaubert doesn’t even like this girl, since she lacks character and a strong personality. We can deduce this from the style that he uses to refer to her and how he rushes listing her description without giving her much importance. In the first chapter Flaubert writes, “She arose at daybreak, in order to attend mass, and she worked without interruption until night; then, when dinner was over, the dishes cleared away and the door securely locked, she would bury the log under the ashes and fall asleep in front of the hearth with a rosary in her hand.” (A Simple Soul. Gustave Flaubert). To describe this girl, Gustave lists all her daily routine, in a fast and simple way. With this he is making emphasis in the monotony in her life, and how insignificant her work is, but yet she puts all her effort to it. Also, he adds a “rosary” when she falls asleep, to demonstrate that this girl only bares her life thanks to the religion she is faithfully following, and it is the only thing that she feels comfortable sleeping and resting with.
For this unlikeness towards the servant, I was impressed to see why the author added a scene were Felicite is a hero in her life. Gustave, mentions the family’s trip to the country, were the kids, Virginia and Paul mess with a bull and how “Felicite continued to back before the bull,
blinding him with dirt, while she shouted to them to make haste.” (A Simple Soul. Gustave Flaubert). In this scene Felicite saved the life of the family she worked for. However, it is an outbreak since Gustave made an emphasis to this moment, by inverting an entire paragraph. Nevertheless, the turning point that supports the idea that Felicite is a girl that lost a great part of her soul, is that she wasn’t happy about saving this three life’s. Felicite, only smiled but didn’t really care, because she is torturing herself every single moment and no longer lets herself feel joy or be proud of herself.

Felicite is a very insipid girl, and yet the author is able to use her, and make a strong statement about the monotony and miserable life’s of many. With the use of his style, he can pull of the statement, even though he is using a very common and simple character. Also, with his use of words we can deduce many hidden ideas that make the reader understand Flaubert.

In My Case

For me there are two types of writing: the literature writing and the simple essay writing. The easy writing is a job that can be done at any time with no inspiration, as a line of facts grabbed together by words. But in the case of literature writing, there are a lot of complications.

I am not a child that is unknown to words. In my case, most of the walls in my house are filled with books and all the members of my family are known for knowing a lot. Also literature and art, hasn’t been an unknown filed in my house and education. Every vacation we learn about the customs, art, and literature from the place, and since our last summers have been around Greece, Italy, England, Spain and France, our time was filled with information rather than shopping.
However, I am intimidated by literature, and this ends up being my struggle for writing.
Unlike my family, grabbing a book wasn’t my idea of fun. However, I have been influenced my customs, and slowly introduced literature in my life. When it comes to reading, it is amazing when I understand otherwise; I hate it, but that doesn’t tend to happen. I love the way authors are able to not only gather those ideas, but also write them in a “Page is it flat and undensified” (The Sentence is a Lonely Place” Gary Lutz). However, I must admit that this amazement has grown into a huge intimidation.

When you are forced or expected to write something good of your own, I get stuck. I haven’t bee able to write with a constant style, making my writing inconsistent. Also, there are a lot of thoughts in my head that contradict and connect in a way that is very hard to explain. Therefore, I end up having the “temptation for the writer to get out of one sentence as soon as possible” (Lutz) and rushing through thoughts. This is what has made my writing a very lonely place.

However, once in my life I was really inspired. This Wednesday night I was so tired, that I can’t even remember writing what I wrote. I believe the Sara that is not scared of writing, wrote that night, but I have certainly haven’t had the chance to take her out again.

I don’t know what is wrong with me, and I really don’t want to talk about it. I just hope to find my own style and get things straight. But most of all, I want that excellent writer to come back.

Not Again

What do books, stories, songs, films, music, and everything the human being does, have in common? The four lettered word, LOVE. To be honest, I can’t believe the amount of issues and things we have to say because of love. Also, how is possible that people don’t get tired of it? Songs can loose popularity and new ideas can come, but its guaranteed that no matter the time period, love will always invade our mind. And when I talk about love, I’m also including the absences of love, all the kinds of love, and just everything related to it.

I was relieved with The Crying of Lot 49 because it had laughed and used disgusting love in the first chapters. It was horrible the intercourse between Metzger and Oedipa, and very bitter and funny the way Nefastis had proposed her sexual intercourse to her while watching a Chinese program.
I know that the book is not an exception when talking about love, but at least it is not romantic and it doesn’t cry for any love repair.

Nevertheless, I was destroyed in page 91 when Thomas Psychon had to ruin the anti-romance environment by saying one single deep phrase of love. As a reader, I noticed that Thomas lost track of the rhythm he had used throughout the book, but at least he gave the line to a random tourist instead of a principal character.
Here it goes, a bomb, a flub, a great slice of cheese: “The pin I’m wearing means I’m a member of the IA. That’s Inamorati Anonymous. An inamorato is somebody in love. That’s the worst addiction of all.” (The Crying of Lot 49. Pg.91)

Reader, throwing that phrase after 90 pages of a great book is bad idea #1. Don’t do it, and contact me if you find anything that frees me for a moment about love.

Getting the Hang

After class discussion, I was reading being aware of the paranoid moments. I didn’t expect to understand more the satire in the book, and be able to enjoy more Thomas’s dark humor. Having clear what is a joke and what is not, as a reader you can enjoy more the unbelievable scenes there are, and how the characters worry about everything. In the moment the reader gets the hang of it, it’s a complete joke, and you can relax and enjoy the most hilarious story.

It was when I read, “ ‘Yes,” lied Oedipa, to see where it would take them.” (The Crying of Lot 49. Pg.67) That I noticed how the author uses an enormous amount of details that have nothing to do with the plot. “ Nobody paid any attention to them: the air conditioning hummed on, IBM typewriters chiggered away, swivel chairs squeaked, fat reference manuals were slammed shut, rattling blueprints folded and refolded, while high overhead the long silent fluorescent bulbs glared merrily; all with Yoyodyne was normal.” (69) Demonstrates how the scared characters look at everything in a suspicious way even though everything is normal.

This writing technique can be transferred to film by taking shots of a great deal of normal thoughts, followed with a suspicious facial expression or silence from the characters. In the movie, Burn After Reading, a lot of the plot is similar to the book, since the movie is based on a small problem, and every character assumes is a governmental topic secret issue. Again, in the movie normal movements are taken as a persecution by the characters, so the film focuses a lot in normal scenarios.

Having the hang of The Crying of Lot 49 I can tell future readers to take this book as a joke. Enjoy it instead of looking a meaning for everything. In my case, I’m understanding it more by imagining everything as a movie that focuses in normal things.

Falling into Place

Talking about paranoia in class, we said that we get something into our heads and we try to fit everything into place according to what we think. But what happens if we can modify what we think, and then everything will fall into place?
There is a book about contemporary philosophy called The Secret, that has grown so much that they have several documentaries. Part of what the book suggests is to desire what you want so bad, that eventually everything will fall into place. Nevertheless, is this technique functional because we are paranoiac and make everything fall into place, or does the World really modify to please us?

I have the same feeling when people talk about fortunetellers and horoscopes, and say that they really work. However, in the movie of Queen Elizabeth, is shown how she consulted Dr.Dee, an astrologist that could predict the path of the future. Even though, she was insecure of the future because of the present, I believe she gathered a lot of strength from what Dr.Dee told her, and with her strength she was able to make everything fall into place.

Finally, no matter if it is a silly paranoia or accuracy of what he hear, listening to something that gets into our heads, will happen our will find our strength to make it happen. Now start thinking of what you want.

The Princess Secret

When I was reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, I thought it was very interesting how he used Cinderella in his book, to represent Billy. However, in The Crying of Lot 49, I was impressed to see that Thomas Pychon uses Rapunzel.

Oedipa thinks of herself as “Rapunzel-like role of a pensive girl somehow, magically, prisoner among to say hey, let down your hair.” (The Crying of Lot 49.pg10) In the case of Pychon, I think he just uses Rapunzel to laugh about the shallow Californians, and the characters in Hollywood. Later on, in chapter 3, Oedipa thinks she is going to “Bring to an end her encapsulation in her tower, then that night’s infidelity with Metzger would logically be the starting point for it; logically.” (31) It is very interesting to see how the author is able to join the chapters with Rapunzel, but my guess is that Oedipa will grow and change, and so will Rapunzel. However, I keep on thinking that Rapunzel is Oedipa’s paranoid feeling towards the mystery of Pierce. In that case, I don’t expect Rapunzel to change, and probably the princess will be the one to gather the book together.

I had some curiosity and went on and read the Brother Grimm’s story about Rapunzel (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/rapunzel.html). I thought it was very similar to the Bible, where Abraham and his wife are struggling to have a baby, and when they do, they must scarify him. I can’t think of a reason why Thomas Pychon would use this part of the story as food for a satire, but I’m guessing that he is using the fairy tale as a joke.

Harder than Counting the Sand Grains in a Beach

One of us, Tomas Pynchon or me, is mentally ill. If it’s me, I’m going crazy and have lost my ability to understand text, but if he is the crazy one, and what he wrote is completely incomprehensible. And I’m pretty sure that my understandment is not an issue.

Reading the first chapter of The Crying of Lot 49, I understood some strange comments that I imagine they are supposed to be jokes, like the fondue or the KCUF, but rather than that, I’m blank. However, I have some information floating around in my head, like a blurry dream, but I can’t put the pieces together. I have no idea how to organize them or make up a sentence with them, so I prefer to list them, and you decide how to paste them together. Here they go:

- Oedipa is getting a promotion.
- She is trying to get drunk.
- A very rich man was murdered a long time ago, and they found his will that gave everything to Oedipa.
- Oedipa doesn’t know if she is mentally well.
- This happens in California.
- There is a radio station called the KCUF.
-The doctor, Dr.Hilarious, calls very early.
-A lawyer, wants to runaway anywhere with Oedipa.

I guess I could make up a weird story that can attach all of the clues together, but I’m not in the mood for starting up the creative part of my brain or trying to fool my teacher. Then you figure it out, and incase you are thinking, “Well, that is easy to figure out”, it’s not. When you read the chapter there is a lot of things going on with unfinished ideas, I made all the dirty work for you, so don’t take all the credit.

However, before I give up on the text I have something to tell Mr.Psychon, what were you thinking? And, if you get your ideas and jokes clearer you will make my life so much easier. Consider an easier second chapter. Thank you.

Oh! And for Dr.Hilarious and Roseman, help the situation, but Roseman, don't try to run away with Oedipa. What kind of lawyer and friend are you?

The Battle of Sexes Diagram

Selfish Gene Keyterms

-Selfishness-- Any gene that acts in such a way to increase it's own survival chances in the gene pool at the expense of others.

-Alturism--Any gene that acts in such a way to decrease it's own survival chances in the gene pool at the expense of others.

-Survival Machine--Container created by a replicator.

-Replicator-- Molecule that can repeat itself.

-P.I.-- PARENTAL INVESTMENT- How a parent invests on the offspring.

-E.S.S.-- EVOLUTIONARY STABLE STRATEGY- A ratio of sexes that is perfect for a balance in evolution.

Controlling the World with our Hands

Every “survival machine” has its own characteristic that no others have. For example birds can fly, frogs have a huge tongue while dolphins can run in very fast speeds. The special characteristic that every species have has helped for the survival of the type of animal. However many people ask me, what is the characteristic of humans that have made us survive so much time, and has made us evolve so much?

The most common answer is that he where gifted with intelligence. For some extent it is true, but we can’t ignore the fact that we only use seven percent of our brain, or something. Still, we have achieved a lot with that 7% but yet it is not the physical feature that highlights us, and being smart probably won’t get us alive from a confrontation with a lion. In addition, I want to reject that idea because I am talking about a physical feature that differentiates us from the rest of the animals, and there are a lot of tests that proof that primates can have a lot of intelligence.
You might be thinking, ‘No, we don’t have fur, a big yaw, a lot of speed or breath under water.’ Because the feature I am talking about is so small and seems so insignificant that you will probably be disappointed it.
Take one of your hands, and open it. Now get your thumb and press it with any of the other four fingers in your hand. There you go, that is our superb physical feature.
The movement you just did, is the movement only humans can do. No, primates can’t do it because the hand-shaped extremity they have is in their feet and their thumb can’t be pressed against the rest of the fingers. Thanks to that movement, human beings were able to grab and manipulate things. With this they started to make tools, started to build civilization, start agriculture, and so on until we arrive to the present. I know it is not a feature that directly helps us in a naked animal against animal fight, but it is a feature of civilization, that eventually contributes to our survival.

This thought came up, when I read about the whales and they’re “Exceedingly loud ‘song.’” (The Selfish Gene. Pg. 53) I had no idea that whales were able to sing so loud that they could be heard throughout the world. Richard Dawkins mentions “an astronaut on Mars” (pg.53) so I thought it would be very interesting to investigate the whales voice strength and be able copy it. Later on we could try to travel and the speed of their sound and arrive to any place in the universe.

In chapter 3: Immortal Coils, Dawkins states that all survival machines have the same constitution of DNA. Nevertheless, it is interesting that humans grew a feature of civilization rather than one used for survival, if we come from the same roots and live in the same world. Looking in the mirror, our body is full of mysteries and we are capable of handling a lot of work, but we never recognize that out secret key is in the palm of our hands.

Thank You Very Much Richard

I have grown the habit to break down the techniques that authors use, when I like a piece of writing. Fortunately, I didn’t make an exception with Richard Dawkins and his book, The Selfish Gene. One of my greatest obstacles when I’m writing is making sure that the reader doesn’t get bored. I find it fascinating how Dawkins could write an entire book on biology and behavior, without being a school textbook, and catching the readers attention at all times.

His main trick is probably that he talks in first person, and constantly comes back to the reader talking to them. After pages on biology Richard wrote: “To be strict, this book should be called not The Selfish Cistron nor The Selfish Chromosome, but The slightly selfish big bit of chromosome and the even more selfish little bit of chromosome. To say the least this is not a catchy title so, defining a gene as a little bit of choromosome which potentially lasts for many generations, I call the book The Selfish Gene.” (Pg.33) Look at the way he manages to be completely honest, and puts some spark to the theme. Also, while reading, I am not reading. The truth is I am having a conversation with Richard Dawkins and I am finding slowly his humorous and relaxed personality.

I must admit that having to read so much for homework sounded very boring at first. But the truth is, by the time that I finished the first page, I was enjoying my chit chat with Richard about biology and evolution, and the truth is I don’t understand or care about most of what he says, but I still enjoy every single comment. The book has given me some knowledge, made me connect to other themes and gave me the sense of talking to the author, but above all, The Selfish Gene gave me a need to know Richard Dawkins personally, because he sounds like an incredible person.

Another Six Word

-William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.-

Yes but No

The Selfish Gene is the first book I read that talks about science and so clearly, and I can feel Richard Dawkins talking to me. I enjoyed reading the first chapter and his explanation of the book, though I had no idea about half of the things he said. Anyways, there are many interesting and completely diverse points he talks about that called my attention, but what I really liked came up in page ten.

I have found the combination between religion and science very difficult. Nevertheless, last year my school principal came in and had interesting similarities between both of them. In that moment we were studying the Bible, so he pointed out that probably the world wasn’t created in seven days, but it did follow the order that nature would expect. Since then, I have a part of my brain connecting science and religion.
That part of my brain was used when I read, “A human foetus, with no more human feelings than an amoeba, enjoys a reverence and legal protection far in excess of those granted to an adult chimpanzee.” (The Selfish Gene. Pg.10). I know that Richard is not trying to make any points about abortion or anything, but what he wrote makes my opinion about abortion. I am a woman and have my maternal senses in a healthy state, but I ask myself, how much love can you grow for a premature being that you haven’t met.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of controversy about this theme, but I found other statements in the book that agree with me. “Killing people outside of war is the most seriously-regarded crime ordinarily committed.” (Pg.10), states Richard and it is true. Killing innocent and guilty people, is best received in our society, than taking the life from a non-thinking being for their own benefit. However, Dawkins states that fetus have rights and privileges over anything else, because they are from our own specie. This statement applies to those who oppose me against abortion, but they aren’t consistent about it when it comes to war.

In every species there must be some traditions used for killing and taking your life on behalf of the rest. However, in our case, we are still mixing our animal and rational side when it comes to thinking. For our animal side, we understand that killing is necessary, but it the case of right and a mature way of living, no one should die unnaturally. Having this confusion we have mixed ourselves up, so for my part I decided to take the nature’s side, but I do recognize that we can’t label any way of thinking “wrong”.

Memoirs

-Pop the bubble.

-The vision. Then vises. TV.

-The Mantis is a head eater<0>

-The unwritten words haven't been written.-

-I don't want to die, yet.-
-Yet, I don't want to die.-

A Second Chance

It’s half way of the book and Voltaire stopped criticizing everything. We saw that in every stop that Candide made, there was something pathetic to talk and laugh about. In Westphalia it was the absurd leaders, the auto-da-fé and countless other comments that talk in behalf of Voltaire. We have clear what the French writer didn’t want, but what did he want? El Dorado.

Since the moment that the rulers didn’t accept the precious stones that Candide and Cacambo offered, I understood what El Dorado was going to be. This place is a utopia. Every garden was perfect and there were servants willing to make the two travelers, Candide and Cacambo, comfortable. Religion is something personal that each person decides to manifest, while science is very important and a lot of time is dedicated to it. “Court cases in fact, were unknown.”(Pg.82) and therefore there were no prisons. “All men are free” (Pg.83) in El Dorado.

However, when Candide said, “It is quite true, my good fellow, that the house were I was born won’t bear comparison with the mansion of this country; but still I shall never be happy without Lady Cunégonde, and I dare say you have some mistress or other in Europe.” (Pg.82). Having said this, we understand how Candide was able to grow from his past and live in a perfect land. When he ditched his homeland, he forgot everyone and the people and elements that had followed him during his journey, without letting him grow. Also, he forgot the motto that he had lived for, “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” And met Martin that gave him a new perspective of life.
Nevertheless, Candide clearly says that he won’t be perfect without his love, even though she is one of those elements that pull Candide down. This idea of a utopia without love reminded me on the perfect city that Aldous Huxley describes in his book Brave New World. In both El Dorado and the civilization of Brave New World, for a perfect world love cannot exist because it brings too much problems and sadness. This idea not only shows that humans are passionate beings, but also there can be a perfect world but that doesn’t mean that we arrived a state of complete happiness or a place that demonstrates our best performance. However, if there is a perfect place with no love and creativity is limited, then what is the point of living?

I was also surprised that Voltaire used El Dorado as his place for a utopia. Looking at the moment when the author wrote the book, I believe Voltaire saw despair in Europe, and couldn’t imagine a perfect world there. That is why he chose the new land for his creativity. Also, by choosing this setting, he was probably trying to tell the world: you made your mess here, try not to ruin the new land too.

Evolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-LIVqjSvRk&feature=related

Let Go and Learn

A common questioned that people that are used to fortune in their life, might ask themselves a lot is: if my luck changes, will I be able to survive? Loosing everything you have or starting with nothing and eventually having a lot, are the cases that clarify to people, what is important and what is not. If you start from scratch and slowly start gaining more and more, you might tend to compare with the way you used to live and accept that what you have now is not crucial. In the other case, if you used to have a lot and somehow end up with nothing, you must look back take the knowledge and values you have and let go of the rest. However, what disappoints me the most, are those who don’t let go of their past or don’t learn from it.

In the case of Candide, he had to let go of his plentiful life and learn to live with nothing. Since the beginning we can see how hard it was for him to let go and become humble, by the way he thought everyone was at his service and how coward he was. Later on, I lost this impression when he was reunited with Pangloss, since his tutor could guide him more and managed to close his mouth. Nevertheless, I think that bringing an element from his luxurious life won’t let him adapt well to what he is forced to be. In addition, with Cunégonde back in the scene, I fear he will make an effort in bringing back his life rather than learning and adapting to the harsh life.
I feared that the same happened to the old lady. When telling her story we could see how she lost everything and she had to go through tragedy after tragedy. However, after she was rescued by the man, that later on she would find out he was her teacher, the lady was in a tolerable state and he complimented her saying, “He had never seen anyone so beautiful” (Pg. 53). Comparing how the old lady in the present, and how she was after being rescued, made me think that something even more radical than the change of her entire life had to happen, for her to grow like that. I thought that maybe, because this person from her past life came in, also made her change her objective, and instead of living the present she tried to copy her past into her future.
With both of this stories I remember the movie, Gone with the Wind. The protagonist Scarlet O’Hara lost everything she had during the war. During those moments she pulled herself back together, gained strength and started working and leading people to grow back the fertile land she once ruled over. However, there was Rhett Butter that had more luck than her during the war and he was constantly in the scene looking after Scarlet as much as he could. Later on Scarlet grows back into the spoiled rich girl she used to be and learned nothing from her experience, forcing Rhett to leave her completely alone.

There are moments in life were a person has to learn to live in different circumstances and have to let go from their past. Having a person or an element from the luxuries they used to have, might be an obstacle for them to learn to live in the present. No matter if that person ends up in bad or good circumstances, that intrusion might spoil all their learning.

Elements of Satire Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The reception Candide and Cacambo met with from the Jesuits of Paraguay

“ Candide had brought from Cadiz the type of servant often found on the Spanish coasts as well as in the colonies. He was a quarter Spaniard of half-breed Argentine stock, and had been successively chorister, verger, sailor, monk, commercial traveler, soldier, and footman.”(Pg.61)

Hyperbole- Amount of professions the servant had been.
Irony- He is a servant, why does he know and have been through so much?
Absurdity- The racial mixture of Cacambo.
Targeted- The racial mixture there is in America.

"The reverend fathers own the whole lot, and the people own nothing: that's what I call a masterpiece of reason and justice." (Pg. 62)

Hyperbole- People own nothing.
Irony- A servant agrees that he shouldn't own or have a say in anything.
Absurdity- The comment came out of the wild.
Targeted- Monarchy

I Caught You Voltaire

In The Old Woman’s Story I got confused when I read it. The first time, I felt weird because she tells her story with no detail and everything seems like a run-on sentence, it is a problem after a problem. However, somehow, without her talking about the dreadful emotions she felt in the moment, I felt a lot of pity for her and it was a strategy. Therefore, I decided to spy for something Voltaire used to be able to pull off a feeling of pity for her without taking loads of moments describing her sorrows.
Voltaire used a technique that is usually one used for persuading. The French author used contrast in his story, to highlight the bad. Therefore, he started using a word or a phrase that brought up the enthusiasm of the reader. Then in the same sentence, he told something tragic that brought that enthusiasm down in a very harsh way, leaving the reader with a sense of frustration and understanding the lady’s sorrows.
One of the cases were this is found was in page 51, when Voltaire wrote, “ It is wonderful how quickly these gentlemen can strip people; but what surprised me more was that they put their fingers into a place where we woman normally admit nothing but a syringe-tube.” First of all, notice the tone that the lady talks. She is not aggravated and in any moment does she describe the pain she went through, but yet you get the idea of pain. Notice how the sentence starts: “It is wonderful” raising all the hopes to the reader, but then there is a hard fall when he contrasts it with “how quickly these gentlemen can strip people.” After the semicolon we can see the same technique contrasting “surprise” with the harm that the pirates do to her.

As I mentioned before, I had seen this contrast used when persuading. I remember last year, when we learned that to persuade someone we must start by proposing something we know that the other person will reject immediately without a second thought. Later, we propose what we really want though we know that the other person doesn’t agree much. In that moment the person we are trying to persuade will compare the first awful proposal with what we really want, and will think that by giving in to the second proposal he will only scarify something little.
In the case of Voltaire’s technique, instead of drowning himself in tragic words, he made a drastic change in our emotions, to persuade us that what happened to the old lady was dramatic.

Looking at History

It is fascinating to see how humans try to find a reason for everything. Now a days we have science and philosophy that help us find proved reasons for most of what happens. I also enjoy watching how we build on the others discoveries, to slowly build a ladder that will finally take us to the answer we were all looking for. Also, there are cases, like the light bulb, were we find what we were searching for but we have no idea how we arrived to it. However, if you are the person to build the first step of the ladder, and you are the one to start from scratch, it is most likely that you will make a mistake or assume something that will prejudice others.

In the case of Candide, “Dr.Pangloss and his pupil, Candide, were arrested as well, one for speaking and the other for listening with an air of approval.” (pg.36) because people were trying to find out why the earthquake had stroke them.
Apart from being a stupid, it does represent moments of our history that have built a lot of suffering, basing their reason on a mistake. In the case of science we lost Galileo for having a different theory that was in fact right. But what shocks me the most, is that Voltaire wrote Candide way before the Second World War. However, the exact same scene of the misfortune of Candide and Pangloss was repeated in the war. We saw how they were arrested for doing the most innocent, normal and unthreatening thing possible, and somehow they were the cause of the earthquake. In the other hand, decades later after we understood the stupidity of what the two characters had to go through, we killed thousands of people because of their religious belief. For me, it is more absurd that we repeat our history over and over again without gaining from our mistakes, than the actual arrest of Candide and Pangloss.


With the auto-da-fé Voltaire showed a very strong point about assumptions that can end in the killing of innocent people. However, I can build to his idea saying that it is extremely important that we are careful with the methods we use to achieve something we want, and even more careful if it involves others. Adding to that will we ever learn from our history? In my first Social Studies class the teacher said, “We study and understand history to prevent from repeating our errors.” Unfortunately that hasn’t been our case. When will we start changing?

Facing Reality

Candide, Pangloss and the sailor were the only survivors of the shipwreck and all three of them lived after the earthquake. For men who have survived such disasters, and see chaos around them, you expect them to value more their lives and notice that life does run out of time, so you must carpe diem (seize the day).
However, I was impressed with Candide since I thought he would be the drunk one looking for prostitutes, maybe his behavior was guided by Pangloss. But it was the sailor the one I felt pity for. I can’t obviously expect much from someone “who had the means of drowning the honest Anabaptist” (pg.33) or that drowned James. After such actions, the man had no feelings and went around the ruined city drinking and looking for girls, filling him with guilt.

When Pangloss tried to lend a helping hand with his morality, he replied, “ I am a sailor and was born in Batavia. I have had to trample on the crucifix four times in various trips I’ve been to Japan. I’m not the man for your Universal Reason!” (Pg. 34)
That statement made me think, of what a good sailor this man used to be and made me wonder how he arrived to that situation.
In philosophy we are reading Jean Paul Sartre and this is the perfect example of what the French philosopher warns. He states that without discipline and effort, the hero can become a lazy person, and a lazy person can become a hero. Unfortunately, this sailor probably fits in the case of the hero that became a lazy person. Most of all it probably isn’t the regret of loosing his past life that hurt him so much, but more the frustration of not being able to change things.

I also recalled to Sartre’s philosophy when Candide said, “The Day of Judgment has come.” (pg.33) during the earthquake. According to Jean Paul, the religious people are able to hold themselves in bad times, because they search for strength in God. Probably Candide is one of those people, and I envy him for having that strength source and for not having to face reality at all times. Maybe, this side of Candide is what has made him move forward and not get stuck at every problem he has.

Elements of Satire

Candide Chapter 3
Elements of Satire

Hyperbole- Bugles, fifes, oboes, drums, and salvoes of artillery produced such a harmony as Hell itself could not rival.
Irony- Trembled like a philosopher.
Absurdity- It was now no more than a smoking ruin, for the Bulgars had burned it to the ground in accordance with the terms of international law.
Targeted- Kings.

A boy

In most biographies, childhood has the best memories. No matter the circumstances, everything is magical and people around you feed the magic and try to hide you from the truth.

This half man with a growing identity lives in Wonder world, until he grows. Though the memory of those years will always remain in the person and he will open the memory for strength and regret, for those years instilled most of the values and lessons you will use in life. However, most of us can’t let go of that world and we waste most of our lives chasing an idea of a beautiful life that was actually a mix between discovery and lies.
But what we don’t recognize, is the fortune we have for growing out of this stage. Imagine that we had stayed. No, even better. Don’t imagine anything, just ask Candide how is to live as a child in a grown up world and body.

Peter Pan is amazingly happy and in a perfect state, though everything is wrong. He was abandoned heart broken, went to jail, had to fight though with no ideology and was completely alone. And yet, he has the luxury to live without an opinion, be selfish, arrogant, naïve and interested for money, elegance and name. Is this even a characteristic of a child? I don’t think so. They are rather the characteristics of an idiot, because at least a child learns, has feelings and remains loyal to himself and to the people he loves.

In other words, we are not talking about a child. No, we are talking about something even less. Someone without an identity, but this figure is not growing one, learning and is too cruel to be innocent and naïve. So what are we handling? Is it a monarch? Is it an animal? Or is it the combination of both with the bond of an idiot? Wait. Are we talking about Candide?

Versailles Photo Gallery

Leaders

Versailles has a very interesting photo gallery in the room dedicated to heroic paintings. For every painting, there is a black and white picture that tries to demonstrate how does the war really looks in the scene painted. The contrast between both representations shows us how grew out of the idea that war is heroic and learned that it is tragic. However, I did notice some similarities about both points of views about war, or they just took the position and the rifle because they had to? Warriors fight for an ideology, murderers fight for nothing. Candide.
There was one picture that really impressed me because there was a German and an American soldier pictured together fighting. When I saw the picture, I thought that they didn’t have any problem or issue against each other, and yet they had to fight. Also, do these kids even share the same ideology as they are expected?
The leaders of both sides are shown resting watching the war. They are coward. And in the case, that any of this figures have to move a finger or live through one night of struggle the Chihuahuas would “Perish with cold and hunger” (Candide. Voltaire. Pg.22).
And the funniest part about all the Candides that have patched our history is that they really think that people like them. For example, I recognize Napoleon for trying to persuade the people and at least he pretended to be completely in their side. However, other fancy Thunder-ten-tronckh that believe that people “We’ll pay your share, and what’s more we shall not allow a man like you to go short on money.” (Candide. Voltaire. Pg.23). We expect that a well educated and emotional sensible person will decline the offer with humbleness, and responding “ ‘You are quite right,” (Candide. Voltaire. Pg. 23).
What would we do with our heroes?

Epictetus Opened Letter

Dear Epictetus,

I have read the poem, The Road not Taken by Robert Frost on my own. I had to do some close reading on my own in order to notice the key elements, though I have to admit that it is a very tricky poem and probably I fell into the trap.

Robert writes about choosing a path but not being satisfied with it and later wondering about how the other is. But isn’t this a little bit obvious?
If you have to choose one of very similar choices you look at the strengths and the weaknesses of both, and yet both of them seem pretty good. With this struggle you choose any one of them. As you walk the road, the strengths of the other road begin to appear filling your rational and emotional part of your brain, giving you no space to enjoy and notice the road you are walking.
As you decide that the other road was better, you change. After taking some steps, you are able to compare both of them, because you have the experience of both roads. As you compare, you notice that both roads have pretty much the same strengths, but you find more faults in the one you are walking because you can detect more in what you are seeing, than the ones you were able to safe in your memory.
Then you come to one of these conclusions: 1) You find out that you didn’t live and detect the first road well, because you didn’t investigate it well, so you want to go back. 2) Your find more faults in the second road, because what you are living has an advantage over your memory, so you want to return to the first road.

Finally, it doesn’t matter what you like or dislike or the road you prefer. Your decision is based on the road you choose first. Also, it would be a turning point if you add a second person that takes the road you left out. In this case, you would be playing with pride, jealousy and more curiosity than before.

But then Epictetus, how do we know what we want? What constrains are there to maintain a neutral position?

Thank you for the attention,

SARA

Love Reality

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of those books that try to make you realize that most of what we do is pathetic, especially when we don’t use our heart and love. War demonstrates best what Kurt wants to say and talks about a relationship love. However, ending the book, I want to focus in the women and the love between two people of the separate sexes, since we see a similar pattern in this branch as in the rest of the departments Kurt talked about.

Billy, Kilgore or Kurt (however you want to call him) had a sense of love different from the typical romantic cheesy love, probably because of the estrogen he had the chance to meet. Like every man, Billy had to decide between the ladies in disposition for him, but each one had their defects and strengths.
The first women Billy had the chance to look at didn’t demonstrate him any love, but more sight pleasure. In this case the number one was the “Dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony.” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five). And to complete Billy’s wrong image of women, he saw the naked girls in the slaughterhouse by mistake, sharing their body sight but not their love. For this reason we can forgive Billy for making mistakes with the real women in his life, he didn’t have a good impression of them since the beginning.

Bachlorette number one: Valencia Merble. This lady is “the daughter of the owner of the Ilium School of Optometry.” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five) so in her favor she is rich. If you choose her, you will have to feed her appetite that has her “as big as a house” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five) and will have to sleep with this lady and have her “snoring like a bandsaw” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five) for the rest of the night.
“Billy didn't want to marry ugly Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease.” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five). But why would Billy want to reject such an offer? And Valencia has a bonus, with her Billy can get a wonderful daughter, Barbara. This girl is known for loving her father and taking care of him since she thought, “her father was senile” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five), and known for her delicate temper.

Billy, it’s all right if you didn’t love the idea of Valencia, we have other ladies in line. Bachlorette number two, is next in line is, the “Movie star named Montana Wildhack.” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five). If you choose this first class lady, you will have the fortune to take her to space in a Trafalmadorian honeymoon. Not only will she give you a son, but also “In time, Montana came to love and trust Billy Pilgrim. He did not touch her until she made it clear that she wanted him to.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-five). Nevertheless, Billy, don’t be too hasty by choosing her. If you pick her, you run the risk of not seeing her in a long time or she might probably be only an illusion to you.

Yes, it is a hard decision for you Billy. All of the choices are very appealing but it is time to choose, between these two great love offers. But take your time Billy, no matter who you choose you will have a complete love life, don’t you worry.

Nothing is for Sure

“Would you like to know the future?” I ask my sister. “No.” “Would you like to know the future, mom?” “No,” she answers and adds, “the only thing that is for sure, sweetie, is: we are all going to die.”

I agree with her. No matter how great the future is we are all end alone six feet under or dancing with the wind. I think that from all of us, Billy Pilgrim is the one that understands this more. That’s why I pity him.

There is nothing more delicious than being surrounded with the people you love, listening how the wind moves the leaves from their place and the birds singing with the breath of nature. But there is nothing more awful than being surrounded with the people you love, listening how the wind moves the leaves from their place and the birds singing with the breath of nature, if you know that it is all going to end with the coming of bombs and tears are coming. This is what took Billy Pilgrims joy. He wasn’t able to love and enjoy the small moments of his life, nor he could experience feelings that color and shade life. All this was extracted from him and Billy Pilgrim became one insignificant body in a world of six million souls.

Billy could play with the clock. He saw the horrors in the beginning of the century and the same sight in the middle of it. No matter how much time had passed “ He was expecting World War Three at any time.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five, pg.57) He wasn’t worried about catching up in the new advances, luxuries and history of the future, because only two things are for sure: humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

Although Pilgrim is the perfect character to make a difference in the world, and bring people together for a better future and become the next influential person, he gave up. He understood from the beginning the people would become cold hearted and preferred to live without feelings than having them and learning to manage sufferement and happiness. Also, they decided to replace love for pleasure, and so did he, skipping the time, effort and commitment to grow a relationship, he preferred to watch “…a dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five.pg.40) Billy Pilgrim gave up on people because only three things are for sure: pleasure replaced love, humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

But, why didn’t Billy Pilgrim change and stand out from the crowd? Why didn’t he break the cycle and quit the flow? Well, “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present and the future.” (Kurt Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse-Five, pg.60). Billy knew that for the rest of history humans would repeat the same mistake and his own destiny was already written. So, why take the effort to change if only four things are for sure: our future is already written and there is nothing to do, pleasure replaced love, humans will always be monsters killing their own race, and we are all going to die.

“Billy was not moved to protest the bombing of North Vietnam, did not shudder about the hideous things he himself had seen bombing do. He was simply having lunch with the Lions Club, of which he was past president now.” (Kurt Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse- Five, pg.60) This demonstrates the person that Billy became. He is a demonstration of the attitude and the mind that humans have build. He is the image of what he have become.

Death

You know it is going to happen to you, to me, to everyone. No exeptions. Since your first years of experience you see it happen, leaves fall down, the butterfly sits cold and your fingernails turn white. Death visits other doors, taking your most precious souls, while others bring the same fate to themselves, and you wonder why? If you have the misfortune to be one of the last left you think you learned how to manage it, if its you own or another persons. However, no you don’t get it, you have no idea and you’ll never have one.

Tuesdays with Morrie was one of the first books I ever liked for being able to traduce my thoughts into words, and I remember clearly the professor once said: “Everyone knows they’re going to die,” he said again, “but nobody believes it. If we did we would do things differently.” (Mitch Albon. Tuesdays with Morrie. Pg.81)

Billy Pilgrim said in his death day to a crowd: “It is high time I was dead,” he says. “Many years ago,” he said, “a certain man promised to have me killed. He is an old man now, living not far from here. He has read all the publicity associated with my appearance in your fair city. He is insane. Tonight he will keep his promise.” (Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five. pg.142). It is interesting to see how Billy thinks he knows it all and has his own death planned out. And yes, it grows some real hate and stress to see someone confident about death, something nobody knows about. But does he? He has seen the way thousands have died and he is all alone, so does he really know what he is saying? Or is it just a drama and showoff to the crowd?

No, no and no. Im sure, Billy Pilgrim was showing of. Jesus new he was going to die even before he has born, and yet he sweated blood, so no. Billy or wasn’t conscious that he was going to die or he was just acting.

Who is Billy?

I finally understood who is Billy. During the book I was suspicious of Billy and all the weird things that happened to him but now I get it, and many questions have been answered.

“Billy glanced dully at the coats of his neighbors. Their coats all had brass buttons or tinsel or piping or numbers or stripes or eagles or moons or stars dangling from them. They were soldiers’ coats, Billy was the only one who had a coat from a dead civilian. So it goes.” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. pg.82) cleared my mind. Billy is not a person, he is the representation of the characters. I understood it because when I read the passage, I understood that the soldiers were actually dead civilians. In other words, the men were dressed as soldiers but actually they were Billy, an agonizing person walking towards death with a coat that belongs to the underworld.

Having this on my mind know, I made the connection with the scene when the prisoners were on their way to the concentration camp during the train.
“Nearly everybody, seemingly, had an atrocity story of something Billy Pilgrim had done to him in sleep. Everybody told Billy Pilgrim to keep the hell away.
So Billy Pilgrim had to sleep standing up, or not asleep at all. And food had stopped coming in through the ventilators, and the days and nights were colder all the time.” (Kurt Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg.79) In this scene Billy pilgrim was represents the mortified prisoners that couldn’t sleep and didn’t fit anywhere finding themselves far from home.
The same Billy is demonstrated in pg.80 when Kurt writes about the last words of Weary: “Who killed me?” he would ask.
And everybody knew the answer, which was this: “Billy Pilgrim.” Again, Billy didn’t kill Weary, he was only there to represent the despair he had to carry around that got him tire, out of the Three Musketeers and die.

So, who is Billy Pilgrim? This person is the compilation of all the real story of the characters in the scenes. He is how Kurt Vonnecut sees war, love, horrors, lies, despair, hate, and revenge. He is how Kurt Vonnecut sees humans.

Tutoring

“Kids, think about your public?” I continuously hear in class. “Every single article you have read, every text has a specific purpose.” “Would you write the same way to an adult than to a K-4 child?”

Yes, I know. It’s a pretty boring idea to here over and over in every single class, at least twice a week. However, I must recognize it is a pretty good advice, though it’s not that easy to apply it and yet sound natural. Like now, I’m sitting trying to write the most honest, natural and practical piece I’ve written, and yet I can hear my teacher saying, “Sara…you should consider proofreading this. Remember proof reading is the most important part of writing.” But yet I’m not going to change. This is my first attempt to write a contemporary piece, and I will use Kurt Vonnecut’s first chapter of “Slaughterhouse-Five” as my tutor.

My first lesson: know how to arrive to the public. Kurt used a relaxed tone throughout the chapter saying “So it goes” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg. 6, 9, 21, 22) five times, “Mr. So-and-So” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg 7) once, and starting countless paragraphs with the word “So” as we see in page 9, 13, 15 and 22. Later, the reader had to pass through several pages of text and ideas from other authors on the serious matter of “Children’s Crusades” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg. 15.) So my tutor used the contrast between the words and the matter to leave the massage instilled in the reader for a pretty long time.

Second Lesson: play with the reader so he breaks the rule of order. I have no idea whatsoever how Vonnecut was able to pull this off, but he did. First, he gave us small insights of the future and when he arrived to the moment when the scene actually happened, Kurt repeated the scene as if he hadn’t said a word about it. For example, in the beginning he wrote: “ And I’m reminded, too, of the song that goes:
My name is Yon Yonson,
I work in Wisconsin,
I work in a lumbermill there.
The people I meet when I walk down the street,
They say, “What’s your name?”
And I say,
“My name us Yon Yonson,
I work in Wisconsin…”(Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg.3) Later, in page 7, out of the wild the sentence comes reminding us of the song, saying, “My name is Yon Yonson, I work in Wisconsin, I work in the lumbermill there.” These fascinating games Kurt plays with the reader catch the attention, especially when he does many similar moves like this one.

Finally, what really impressed me is that I couldn’t resist the temptation of skipping the entire book until the last page, after reading, “This is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt. It begins like this:
Listen:
Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
It ends like this:
Poo-tee-weet?” (Kurt Vonnecut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Pg. 22) And the bittersweet part is…it does end like that.

“Yes Mr. Vonnecut, Slaughterhouse-Five chapter one. I think I achieved today’s goal.” I say.

“Well, what is the goal, Sara?” He says.

“For contemporary writing breaking the rules is a luxury, and feel free to play with the reader, as long as you highlight the importance of the theme with contrast.” I reply.

“Bravo. Now you may go to chapter two.” He responds.

The Two Faces of a Coin

During the reading, we can see how Dante is divided into the student that followed Virgil and the Dante that is narrating.

Analyzing, I found out that Dante that narrates, has had integrity through the entire trek. For example, we can see he grows nervous and speechless in the forest when he said, “Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was, that savage forest, dense and difficult, which even in recall renews my fear: so bitter-death is hardly more severe!” (Inferno, Canto I, 4-7). At the same time, we can notice the same insecurity at the end of hell, when in Canto XXXIV lines 22-27 he said, “O reader, do not ask of me how I grew faint and frozen then- I cannot write it: all words would fall short of what it was. I did not die, and I was not alive; think for yourself, if you have any wit, what I became, deprived of life and death.” We can notice that when he first says, “so bitter-death is hardly more severe!” he repeats himself later talking about the state between “life and death” explaining he “did not die, and I was not alive.” Dante kept this side of him very stabilized and with the same ideas and thoughts, because when he was writing the narration he was no longer in his journey. This solid character gives the reader a look into future, so we can see what Dante finally turned into.

However, the student shows us more the personal changes in Dante through the book. One of Dante’s most significant grows was in recognizing the importance of being good, and every time he became less flexible with sinners. “Francesca, your afflictions move me to tears of sorrow and of pity.” (Canto V, 116-117) he said in the second circle to an unfaithful soul, but “O unenlightened creatures” (Canto VII, 70) was his response when he saw the avaricious in the seventh circle. I believe with this clue we can take an educated guess to what the Inferno would be like if it wouldn’t have stopped in the Treacherous.

Knowing the character Dante will turn into, and the pace and stream he is growing into, I have the adequate constrains to believe that prolonging the Inferno would mean that humans and souls have turned into a rotten race. If there are souls that should go under Lucifer, they have to be so poor that even though they have to suffer like any other, and yet their sweat wouldn’t melt down Dante but actually strength in it. I can’t think of a crime that would make Minos tell a soul to go to the circle under Lucifer, though I would make that circle the home of the souls that feed themselves from the pain of others, or the people that only spoke lies.

Maybe after all the centuries after Dante there have been sins that would deserve such punishment, and that would mean that the people have turned into a sour race, but it will also be a green light for others to change.

Whiteland

With rules
We maintain order
And never keep the fools.

It's your dreams we clone
And perfection lies
In this zone.

After the border
Chaos is grown
But under our cover
Tranquility is in reorder.

Time to Change?

The video Two of the Twilight Zone, has some important symbols and meanings that relate to other pieces such as Dante’s Inferno. I will try to identify some of the relationships in order to understand the poetic justice.

I can relate the video with some symbols of Dante’s Inferno. For example, during the last circles, Dante sees that the people aren’t burning in hell, but stuck in ice. In this case, the ice represents the cold and hard hearts the treacherous had. In contrast, during Two, the scenario is a very lonely one just like the characters hearts. Nevertheless, there are other symbols that are the opposite, such as the dress. I understood the dress as a peace symbol, or a get away from that lonely heart. Meanwhile, in the Inferno no matter how much pain you have you must continue forever, with no exceptions. In the Inferno, the rules are much more strict, so we can see that the characters that caused pain will live with agonization eternally, while in the video the characters had the chance to change and the poetic justice ended up as a positive consequence.

Superman and Lucky Charm Conversation

Luckycharm
Hey there.

Superman
Hi dude. What is up?

Luckycharm
Nothing very interesting, what about you?

Superman
Not much, I am reading Inferno by Dante.

Luckycharm
Oh, I read that last year. It is pretty long, but enjoy it.

Superman
Yeah, well I am already in the circle of the avaricious.

Luckycharm
Ah, you are almost half way there, good luck.

Superman
Hey Ethan is having a party next Tuesday, do you want to come?

Luckycharm
Yes, sure. But I have to convince my mom to let me go, since she is really pissed off by the problem with Andrea.

Superman
Yeah try to convince her, but what problem with Andrea?

Luckycharm
You don’t know what happened?

Superman
I have no idea.

Luckycharm
Well, she gave me the answers for the AP exam, and my mom found out.

Superman
Oh, you are in trouble dude.

Luckycharm
Yeah, I know.

Superman
Well that sucks, but I have to get on reading. So, we will talk tomorrow.

Luckycharm
Ok, and thank you again for the invitation.

Superman
Bye.

Luckycharm
Bye.

Flying Bill of Knowledge

The surface is full. The oceans have drowned a great deal of surface and land has sheltered the rest. Animals have over weighted the world, and the plants have made Earth one of the only green panoramas in the universe. There is no more space for anything else, and seeing to believe, is not a very useful thought. The modern world has adapted to the crowded world, so decided to make things inform of light, simple, weightless, fast and pure. Words have no material but a meaning, information in reachable but there’s no way of grabbing it, and music can be saved in the air with no need of instruments. This is our new way of living, a completely light and efficient way, were everyone is welcomed and can move and do whatever they want with little effort.

Literature has arrived to a point were it has mixed with the new way of living, and the product has turned into blogs, posts and other cyber works. With this new structure, we haven’t lost any essence, since we have written the same as we would have written in books. In the other hand, we have gained a lot since there is space for errors and the public is a larger one from anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, I must admit that just how there is pollution in the world, there is pollution in our light books or blogs. Like Sarah Boxer explained in her review of blogs, most people write any shallow and simple or stupid because, "They don't care if they leave you in the dust. They're not responsible for your education.” Fortunately, there are a lot of human trees that feed upon the pollution in our air, and explode the simple and creative language of smiles and clichés and rumors.

The new idea of blogs remembers me an advertisement of the Citibank. The poster had a bill folded in shape plane, and said that money can fly and move with no interests or luggage, and you can take it anywhere. Well, I believe that blogs are the same. I don’t need space, or pay any interests, they follow me anywhere I go and they carry themselves, just like a flying bill of knowledge.