Life and Death

After reading the seventh poem that Whitman wrote I thought about a very common thought nowadays which is the idea of seizing the day. This means enjoying everything about life, all about it. At the beginning of this poem he states, “Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?”(Poem 7) This clearly states the idea of enjoying every second of our lives since we are so lucky of experiencing one.

After a very positive first line, we read, “I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it”. (Poem 7) Here we hear again the idea that when you die you do on to the next life which is so much better than this one. But I was captivated by the last part of this line, “and I know it”. Here the author is saying that he has experienced it, death. I thought about this for a couple of seconds and could not find an answer to this. What exactly does Whitman mean with this?

Same Style

In the final parts of A Simple Soul we see the continuation of Flaubert’s style, the same style he has used the entire book. In chapter five we see a great example of description of all the things in the scene. “In the middle stood a little frame containing relics; at the corners were two little orange-trees, and all along the edge were silver candlesticks, porcelain vases containing sun-flowers, lilies, peonies, and tufts of hydrangeas”.(Chapter V) As you can see from this part, the author describe everything carefully to give us good picture of what is going on. Besides this, Flaubert talks about the church again in this same paragraph, “The clergy appeared in the yard”. (Chapter V) This shows how he continues the same style throughout the whole book.

Ready To Stop

In Chapter 5 of The Crying of Lot 49 we see how Oedipa begins to find clues of what is going on. This chapter reminded me of many movies and how the protagonist follows somebody that he believes will lead him to the solution. In this case Oedipa follows the man how got the letters, “She tailed him all the way back down the littered, shifty, loud length of the Market and over on First Street to the trans bay bus terminal, where he bought a ticket for Oakland. So did Oedipa”. (Pg106) She is now very much into the mystery she must solve. Her own questions must be answered for her to be finally in peace. Pynchon is making her restless, because she is getting nowhere with her investigation of the mystery she must solve. After all she has been through Oedipa is very tired of it, “Yet she wanted it all to be a fantasy”. (Pg 107) At the end of the day, she just wants it all out of her head.

Clues Come Together

Oedipa has now begun to go further into a problem which started as a slight disturbance. She has now gone to Yoyodyne, and takes a tour of the place. She gets lost and finds herself with Stanley Koteks. He is drawing a symbol like the one Oedipa saw in the bathroom in The Scope. Now she begins to make connections with the things that have been going on lately.

Sometimes this happens to me, I make connections of things I see to things a saw previously to make conclusions. If I, on an afternoon, I ask a friend what they are going to do that afternoon and they don’t respond, and then that same afternoon I see my friend with my ex-girlfriend I will know that he didn’t want to tell me what he was doing that afternoon. This would be because he was going out with my ex and didn’t want to make the moment awkward. This is the moment Oedipa is experimenting; it’s a small type of agnorisis.

Now we have to ask ourselves where will this lead Oedipa?

Symbols

In Chapter 3 of The Crying of Lot 49 we see an episode when Oedipa finds an interesting thing in the bathroom. She finds a symbol and some message, “Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through Waste only, Box 7391, L. A.” (Pg 38)

In many novels, especially mystery novels, we constantly see the main characters find clues of what they want in symbols. If we take The Da Vinci Code for example we see hoe the protagonist is always finding new symbols that mean something important for him to achieve his quest. Each time he finds one something big is scrambled in the message transmitted by it. Here in this part of the book, Oedipa has just come across this symbol, and message, that don’t mean anything to her. She isn’t even looking for something. So this symbol must be a start to her problems, or start for her solutions.

A Favor To Gain One

Sometimes we do something good, a favor to others, and it seems we are doing it just for good but there really is a reason behind it. I happen to do this at times, like when I need money I do some random favors to my mom and dad, and when the time is right I ask for the money and because of the chores I did I get it.

The same is happening in The Selfish Gene where animals live in packs or herds so they have greater chance of surviving. The book says “A fish who swims obliquely behind another fish may gain a hydrodynamic advantage from the turbulence created from the fish in front. This could be partly why fish school”. (pg 167) So here we see that fish are selfish because they actually swim in schools to gain hydrodynamic advantages over the predators. We see the same desire of survival from all animals. That’s why when the book mentions “You scratch my back, Ill scratch yours” I realized why that saying is one that show selfishness. “You scratch my back” as in do me a favor, and I will also give you a favor.

Nature Balances Things Out

Natural Selection

In Chapter 5 of this scientific book, The Selfish Gene, I found a very interesting explanation of natural selection. The book says “In the population sitting at the other stable state, ´resident wins, intruder retreats´, natural selection would favour individuals who strove to be residents.”(Pg 79) Here the author refers to “resident” as the organism who is living in a certain terrain, and the “intruder” is the organism trying to find territory. He also explains to us that if the organisms didn’t respect this rule, then their survival chances would be less. He says that the rule lets them be unharmed because there are no fights over territory, the intruder runs away. But this intruder will never become a resident, because all the territory will have a resident of its own. This is when natural selection acts, giving the resident the advantage. This means the worst for the invader, it will perish for the simple reason that it will never have its own territory. He will always run away and never win, he will eventually die.

A Plan To Follow

Planning ahead is something I usually do, specially when I am trying to plan a party or a nice thing to do with my friends. When I plan things I think about all the different alternatives I have and the ways the outcome can be different. As the book The Selfish Gene says “You set up a model in your head, not of everything in the world, but of the restricted set of entities which you think may be relevant”. (Pg 59) This is exactly what happens when I think ahead, I plan.

When you are planning something and see everything that can go wrong, you try to change it. In your mind you may be able to change it but when its time to actually act, it may no go as you thought it would. The text says something very closely related to this “In either case it is unlikely that somewhere laid out in your brain is an actual spatial model of the events you are imagining”. (Pg 59) Its as if you try to influence the outcome but its impossible to influence it the way you really wanted to. This happens sometimes when you want something to be perfect and you cant achieve it; your brain planning wasn’t good enough because it is “unlikely that somewhere laid out in your brain is an actual spatial model of the events you are imagining”. It is still a normal thing to plan ahead, I do it all the time, and it never goes the way I thought it would.

Evolution

A couple of weeks ago in science class our teacher began to talk about evolution and mutation. She said that when organisms changed to fit inside their environment or to gain an advantage over other species, that was evolution. She also said that those species who were able to evolve into superior beings than the others would undergo natural selection. This is the process by which the strongest and most capable species survives.

In the book The Selfish Gene we see how the author states “Evolution is the process by which some genes become more numerous and others less numerous in the gene pool”. (Pg 45) Here I realized that the definition given here was a lot more professional that the one our science teacher told us about. I still know that the explanation she gave was easier to understand, but this one is more complete. I read this quote again and saw that it said “genes become more numerous and others less numerous” meaning some of them, the stronger ones are selected to continue thanks to Natural Selection. Here I saw how it was all related.

A New Point Of View

Candide and Cacambo have arrived to a strange place. They are in a place where “The roads are crowded, or rather adorned, with carriages, magnificent in appearance and material, drawn by huge red sheep…” (Pg 74). They have arrived to a great place where children are wearing and playing with gold.

They assume the children playing with gold are from the royal family. This is a great example of stereotype, just because the children have gold nuggets they are from the royal family. OK, if I were with them I would assume the same they have. We then see Candide, with a tone of being completely astonished, say “The children of the Kings of this country must be well brought up, if they are taught to despise gold and precious stones.” (Pg 75) We now see how Candide, representing our modern society (in that time European society), cant believe a thing like gold is being thrown away. He is in disbelief with what he is seeing. They are use too believing that gold is precious wile the people they are seeing might see gold in a different perspective. Candide is just surprised to see that some people don’t think the same he does.

American Long Names

As I kept reading Candide I began to look for a part in which they made fun of something. I chapter 13 I found a clear example of this. It said “upon the governor, Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. (Pg 58) Here we can see how Voltaire is making fun of the important people in America who had extraordinary long names like Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte Blanco better known as Simon Bolivar or in this case “Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza”. If we look back at the quotation we may see that it also states “a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. It tells us that all the names he has show the importance he has; even better, it tells us that the pride he has of himself is showed by the many names he has. We can see why Voltaire would make fun of those arrogant American governors.

Lucky People

After reading chapter 6 of Candide I encountered a character, a sailor who had very good luck for a while. He was a villain, by first hitting the Anabaptist, but being helped by luck “The force of his blow upset the sailors balance, and fell head first overboard; but, in falling, he was caught on a piece of the broken mast, and hung dangling over the ships side.”(Candide pg 32) This is his first event of many that show the good luck he has.

Later there is an earthquake in Lisbon which killed many people, giving the sailor a chance to get new things. “The sailor straight into the midst of the debris and risked his life searching for money. Having found some, he ran off with it to get drunk;” (Candide pg 33) He first was saved by a broken mast, and right after that an earthquake uncovered riches, from the people who died, and he got them.

In the other hand, the Anabaptist who saved the sailor and then died was a good person and anyways died. That’s why we say “Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people.” This is the exact opposite of what should happen. This is irony, a perfect example of it.

We Must Know Better

Sometimes we say things that we think are true but we are actually speculating. In the Handbook of Epictetus we are told that “Someone takes a bath quickly; do not say that he does it badly”. (Epictetus Section 45) this interesting because it describes how we can do things quickly and correctly, which is something we are told don’t match. I often hear people telling me “you couldn’t have done your best in that little time”, and in fact I did.

Another thing, similar to the one I just mentioned, about people who judge others out of speculation is the way they want to correct you. They think the way they are doing something is the correct way and your way is wrong. “For example, at a banquet do not say how a person ought to eat, but eat as a person ought to”. (Epictetus Section 46) I completely agree with this statement and sometimes have done this. In my family (my mothers side) I am the oldest of my cousins and constantly have to “eat as a person ought to” or set the example. I don’t tell my cousins what to do, I just do the right thing, expecting them to learn and do what is supposed to in the future. We must all set the example at some point in our lives and I think it is necessary for us to do so.

Our Judgment Counts

As I kept reading the Handbook of Epictetus I saw the same things I had seen in the previous sections. This is all about judgment and how it is the one guilty for everything. In the fifth sections it says “What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about things.”(Epictetus Section 5) This meaning that we don’t get angry at bad grades but at our judgment of bad grades, we judging them by saying they are bad.

In the sections I recently read I saw again that judgment is guilty of we being insulted. In section 20 it tells us “Remember that what is insulting is not the person who abuses you or hits you, but the judgment about them that they are insulting.”(Epictetus Section 20) Here it is repeating what it said before but in a different way and a different context. Here we are told that we aren’t being insulted by a person but by our judgment of that person being insulting that is insulting.

This is true because we decide what insults us, in other words we decide if we want to let ourselves be insulted or not. So what is really insulting is our decision to let the person insult us.

Our Real Desire

The Handbook of Epictetus, which I began to read, was interesting a different ways. This handbook started straight, no introductions, no nothing. It first talks about what you can control and what you can’t control and then it talks about desires. In section two of this handbook it states “Remember, what a desire proposes is that you gain what you desire,” (Epictetus Section 2). This might sound obvious but it made me think a lot. I had never seen desires so clearly, because its real purpose is to be met, not just to be a desire.

After talking about desires it talks about aversion and says “what an aversion proposes is that you not fall into what you are adverse to” (Epictetus Section 2). This states the opposite of what a desire is. But then some question came into my mind such as what if a desire is not met, or if something you are averse to happens? The handbook took no time answering “Someone who fails to obtain what he desires is unfortunate, while someone who falls into what he is averse to has met misfortune” (Epictetus Section 2). There is a big difference between those two words. The first one “unfortunate” is kind of like unlucky, while “misfortune” is closer to being cursed.

Here we are seeing how people who search for happiness, what they want, and can’t get it are unlucky in a way. But the ones who don’t want something to happen do them and it does, they are in a way cursed. Of course that those who say that they are averse to things they can’t control fall to them often. So they must, and we must set our desires with things we can control, as well as the things we are averse to.

No Real Names

In Chapter 10 of Slaughterhouse Five we find out that Vonnegut and Billy Pilgrim were in the same place at once. Vonnegut says, “Now Billy and the rest were being marched into the ruins by their guards. I was there. O'Hare was there.”(Chapter 10)So when at the begging of the book Vonnegut states he won’t say real names, “I've changed all the names.”(Chapter 1) he was talking about Billy, as well as O’Hare. Before I thought O’Hare was the actual name, but since I read the last pages and his named appeared I remembered that Vonnegut had changed all the names. Also if Billy Pilgrim and Vonnegut where together in Dresden, it might mean Billy Pilgrim is just a man who’s story was written by Vonnegut, not necessarilly a friend, or even Vonnegut himself.

Not Reacting When Necessary

Billy Pilgrim is now a victim to a plane crash. “He knew he was going to crash,” (Chapter 7) but he did nothing to prevent it. It says this, “but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so.”(Chapter 7) Why would someone who is about to suffer a plane crash and knows it not react to it? If I were about to plane crash I would definitely do something, no matter if I made a fool of myself. I prefer to live than to make a fool of myself. A question we could ask ourselves is if Billy knew he would survive. If he did it would make his reaction a little more understandable, but we don’t know he did.

What I believe made him do this was the information given to him by the Tralfamadorians. “Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.”(Chapter 7)If he had this in his head it would explain why he didn’t react. “We are machines, why bother?” That’s maybe a typical reaction of a human being if he were told he is a machine, besides of course saying, “you are nuts, I’m not a machine.” When the plane finally crashes he survives, so he didn’t pay for not reacting against the the plane crash.

Moments We Must Enjoy

While reading the fifth chapter of Slaughterhouse Five I found it very interesting how the Tralfamadorians begin to teach or at least explain Billy what they read. “There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects.” (Chapter 5) Basically what I understand is that they really just want to see moment, just an instant, and a particularly small picture drawn by the writer. “What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.'”(Chapter 5) They are actually reading to feel something, because “many marvelous moments” put together at once generate a feeling. Also a key way to find out what they mean is not just a moment but a feeling is that there is “no beginning, no middle, no end” so basically they already had it, still have it, and will always have it. Billy would not understand the books of the Tralfamadorians not only because of how their written but also because of its deep meaning. In other words the book must have a moral for him or any human to understand. This would be because Tralfamadorians enjoy the plain moments when they feel life, and live it by those precious moments, the ones drawn in their books. While Billy is searching to learn something, or reach a goal.

To Have A Place

After reading the next part of Slaughterhouse Five I began to think a lot. Interestingly enough I began to think of Billy as someone who can’t find a place where he fits, or a place where he is comfortable in. That’s why the plaque on his office has so much meaning to it, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” (Chapter 3, pg. 60) When it says “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change” it shows how Billy has to “live” with the fact that he changes time periods with no control. It’s like what I said before that he doesn’t fit in the places he is in, so he has to live with that.

We must take into consideration what is said in the plaque. I thought about how we could all apply this into our live, by accepting who we are and then changing what we want to do. This is also something Billy has to understand to fit in where he is in the moment.

Time Travelling Problems

Billy Pilgrim is having a problem, he is changing and moving around the different parts of his life without being able to control it. I found it very interesting how in the middle of the war he begins to loose it, he starts to move chronologically from his birth all the way to his older years. This reminds me of the movie called The Butterfly Effect where the main character also has time changes and re-lives parts of his life when he was a little boy. By going back to his childhood moments he is able to change the present he lives in. Here we can see how Billy can go back in time but unlike the movie I saw, he can also see what may be the future.

Another thing very interesting that happens here is that he is stuck in the middle of the war while he has these time changes. You might say he’s trying to escape the war by going to another part of his life. Again, in the movie I mentioned before, the character can control when he moves back in time, so If he is in a situation he doesn’t like, he escapes by time travelling. This may be the case in this book, even though Billy isn’t able to escape the situation.

The Next Part

The assignment for today may have two different ways of being answered: one of them is saying how the rest of the Devine Comedy would be, basing ourselves with the Inferno. The other way is writing of how we think the way back out, or even the rest of the Inferno would be. I will choose the first option.

I think that next Dante would begin a transition in his life. He would learn from what he saw in the Inferno to generate progress from his experiences. “O reader, do not ask of me how I grew faint and frozen then – I cannot write it: all words would fall far short of what it was.”(Inferno, Canto XXXVI, 22) Here we can see how he did have many experiences. So many he asks us, the reader, not to ask ourselves what he did. He is showing us how he doesn’t know why he turned into a person with no hope, “faint and frozen”. I think that in the continuing parts of the Devine Comedy Dante will leave that behind, use it as a chance to learn, gain experience. he will probably change his way of life, knowing what awaits him after life. Having in the back of his mind that if he sins there will be grave punishment.

A Perfect World

In the world that I was born in,
men roamed all, and peace went
above all, and they made no sin.

People co existed and no rules were bent,
respect was a principle for all men,
so no money was wrongly spent.

Honesty was enforced always when
needed, and jealousy was not allowed,
that’s how a perfect world was then.

All of those rules were forcefully followed,
and even though they weren’t the best,
all bad feelings had to be swallowed.

Poetic Justice

This episode could be describes as poetic justice. This would be true because these two beings have been lonely and in war with each other for many years. So they both in a way hate each other but at the same time need each other. For them to end up together is poetic justice because from being lonely and in war, now they are together, with company, and in peace with each other. Its a drastic change but it was predictable, and at the end it happened.

Chatting Correctly!

Derrick says: How you doing?
Joshua says: Not much, Im working on my blog.
Derrick says: Wow that is so cool!
Joshua says: Well I am a little tired of writting about random topics int it.
Derrick says: Then create a new blog about a more intresting topic.
Joshua says: Thanks man that is the best idea ever!
Derrick says: Your welcome, but what topic will you choose to write of?
Joshua says: I dont know, give me an idea.
Joshua says: Hello, are you still there?
Derrick says: Yeah, I was just thinking of a cool topic like literature.
Joshua says: Thats it man, see you tomorrow.
Derrick says: Ok.

Blogs

This excerpt tells me a lot about blogs, of how they have evolved to become a great part of our world today. “Today there are, by one count, more than 100 million blogs in the world, with about 15 million of them active.” (Sarah Boxer from New York Review of Books) I can see now why lots of newspapers have begun to use blogs as part of their network, because many people prefer looking at these blogs than buying a news paper. There are so many blogs that, as said in the article, “There are political blogs, confessional blogs, gossip blogs, sex blogs, mommy blogs, science blogs, soldier blogs, gadget blogs, fiction blogs, video blogs, photo blogs, and cartoon blogs, to name a few.” (Sarah Boxer from New York Review of Books). In my opinion blogs are becoming very effective thanks to the progress of our technology. Maybe in the future blogs will dominate all news sources in the world.