Time is Qualitative and Quantitative

One of the five themes of existentialism is time. It states that "lived time" cannot be measured the same way as clock times can be. Words like "almost" or "soon" are all interpreted differently by many people, thus contributing to the idea that everybody has a different perception of time.
Children in long car rides often ask, "Are we there yet?". The parent's response of "not yet" to the parent just means "a little while longer" while children interpret that to mean "not at this moment but ask again after we have been driving for another 1 minute". Since every child is bored, time seems to pass by ever so slowly, since they are not actually living.
Another very relatable example is the one minute before writing in in-class essay. Everybody always claims, "This is the longest minute ever!" even though scientifically speaking, each minute occupies the same amount of time. It's all about perception of what is going on at that specific moment and how people decide to actually utilize that time for actually living. So even though we are "fundamentally time-bound beings", we are not actually bounded by time. If anything, I think we are always doing activities that escape the constancy of time. Time can pass by very quickly or slowly and rarely ever seems to be passing by in a sustained manner. "Time flies by when you're having fun". Thus, time seems to have a direct correlation with living. Actually living.


Shrek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vUBsTJYK28

Sweet Ophelia

"Sweet Ophelia"- Zella Day

One of my all-time favorite songs is "Sweet Ophelia" by Zella Day. I never really understood it before reading Hamlet, but it all makes sense now! This song is about the loss of innocence, just like Ophelia's innocence was lost over the course of the play.

Lyrics (in short):
Believe me now, you're too young girl
Cherry pie and your gold curls
Growin' up like a grapevine
Wrapped around you in due time
Sweet Ophelia!
When young blood escapes
Vows that break go up, up away
Singing like it's a full moon
Careless now that he has you
Turns you on to the right songs
Promises that you're hooked on

The song begins to talk about how Ophelia is very young and innocent, but she gradually grows up and matures "like a grapevine". This could relate to our time motif and how it plays a role in the development of the plot over time, since so much happens in such a short period. Even watching Hamlet the movie, we can see Ophelia's change, as she was once a very jubilant character who takes on a more melancholy appearance. The "vows" mentions could also be Ophelia and Hamlet's vows of love to each other, as they once did proclaim their love for each other, that are broken off after Hamlet claims "I loved you not" (Act 3).
Then, the song and story-line progress to Ophelia singing her songs about Hamlet's old promises to love her in her crazed madness. The song that alludes to the Saint Valentine custom could be Ophelia woefully mourning as she drawls, "How should I your true love know from another one?" She was "hooked on" to the promises of Hamlet's affection, until they were broken, just as she was. Finally, the song then dies out, just like Ophelia did.

:)

:|

The Power of Omnisciencey

We all know that an omniscient narrator is the "all-knowing" person who reveals bits and pieces of every character's inner thoughts. But even though this narrator is supposed to disclose the entire situation form everybody's point of view, is it possible for this speaker to be biased and give the audience a skewed perception of the whole story? Can omniscient narrators have an opinion? It is a assumption that the 3rd person omniscient point of view gives us little bias as possible so that we as the readers can make an assumption for ourselves, but after some research, I realize that much of great literature uses a biased narrator, sometimes referred to as polyphony.

A Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin came up with this concept that the narrator does not simply just show different points of view, but selects certain thoughts and opinions to reveal his own beliefs. This was shown widely in the classic works of writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who purposefully developed his characters unevenly when using the omniscient point of view.

While most people may not have heard of those works, another great contemporary example is none other than Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Even in our class analyses we found that the narrator described characters like Sir William Bradshaw and Miss Kilman in a very critical and disapproving manner.
Despite being used in many great works, it is difficult to say how effective an "unreliable" omniscient narrator can be. Should we even trust the ideas of such a storyteller whose background we don't even know? It's difficult to tell, though it has shown up in pop culture many times.

Shows like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars both have an all-knowing character who slowly reveals the secrets and truths behind everyone in the community. How nice it must be to be able to have so much information and power to manipulate as you please.  >:)

A Measure of Analysis

Experiencing the Past, Bicycling, and by Cycling

On page 72 of the second book of Maus, Spiegelman contributes to the idea of Vladek constantly reliving his past in a cycle. In the first panel of the page, Vladek and another guy are working. However, Vladek is the only one out of the two who is holding a cylindrical tube as a car wheels by. These circular objects represent the constant loop that Vladek is experiencing as he loops in and out of his past and present. In fact, in panel three, the scene loops back to the present with Vladek talking about the present. He likens the past cremation pits to the current swimming pools. As he talks about the “train after train”- which is a repetitive, looping phrase- the scene cycles back to the past. The next two panels are formed out of a similar structure. There is, on top, a phrase and then the image with a text box inside of it. As the reader, we must jump from Vladek’s narration outside of the picture back into the picture to read the scene that is being described in the past. Once again, this contributes to the idea of Vladek constantly reliving his past horrific experiences as he drifts in and out of reality. This is even a sign of his PTSD, as one of the symptoms include “reliving or experiencing the trauma” (anxietybc.com). Unfortunately for Vladek, he is stuck in this never-ending loop of his past because it is molten in him just as strongly as burning of the bodies.

Mice run in hamster wheels. They always continue running and passing time, but they never go anywhere. They just have to keep staying in the same place all the time while reliving their little cycle. 

Like Vladek the Maus.

Maus is Inhuman(e)

Often when I read a book, I imagine what it would be like to be the characters and live in their time. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, I would imagine being Gatsby and living in an extravagant house trying to find Daisy. Or I would imagine being Myrtle and fleeing Wilson only to get ripped open by a car. It's morbid, but I can still imagine it. Usually these scenes can come easily to me. Nick and Jordan conversing at a party comes naturally to me. Gatsby's death was a bit more difficult because he was unaware of what exactly was happening to him. In the end though, I could still picture being in his place. However in Maus, I can barely imagine any of it. It might be the pictures the idea that everybody is an animal, but the events in the book are all so unimaginable. Of course this is a real story based off of real people and places and events, but just having characters like Vladek portrayed as mice, I can't even imagine the scenarios he describes himself being in. I'm unable to even conjure up the idea of a Nazi officer throwing my hat away and shooting me as I race to get it. It might be because I've already seen the comic picture and can't un-see the animal characters, or it's just too inhumane of an act to possibly even imagine. It really gives in to the idea that during this time, unspeakable and unbelievable things occurred. Seeing as how Animal Farm turned out, everything is in utter chaos when everybody turns into animals. The pigs in Animal Farm, parallel to the cats in Maus have created a vicious jungle. 

I can only see Art as he is on the top, not the bottom.

Heyyy Nacirema

Americans are strange. We have weird habits and are very hypocritical. In fact, we always judge other people for taking part in activities that are out of “our norm”. I searched up “cultural traditions around the world” on Google and every search result talked about “bizarre” or “weird” customs. Using these words to describe such traditions seems sort of disrespectful. Usually these words are connoted negatively and associate with oddities that might be in a circus, not a traditional custom. Why do these things have to be "weird" as opposed to being admirable or cool? Plus, who are we to judge these people for doing “strange” things? Americans gather in a city every December 31^st to count while people in Denmark throw utensils at their neighbors’ doors. We have no right to say that one thing is weird when we do some pretty strange things ourselves. After all, for 364 days a year, all children are told to not take candy from strangers. But suddenly, if it is October 31^st and you know how to say “trick-or-treat”, your parents encourage you to roam the streets at night going up to strangers’ houses. We can’t say that this is perfectly normal and that finger amputations in the Dani tribe to express grief at funerals are “bizarre”. Horace Miner, the writer of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” has already deemed that Americans express “the extremes to which human behavior can go”. It is believed that there is no way for anybody else to be more eccentric than us. Who else would keep “magical materials… for certain ills, and… real or imagined maladies”?

The only search results that came up had to be associated with something "weird" or "bizarre".

Finger cutting to express grief is normal.

Tongue piercing to show religious devotion is normal.

Not being able to use the bathroom for 3 days after marriage is normal.

The "Content"ious Book (hopefully in the style of David Foster Wallace)

Reading is such an enjoyable hobby. Those hours spent snuggled up reading magical stories and engaging in the lives of heroes. You can travel anywhere in those stories, and often times, they are much better than reality. Just the sight of books shelf after shelf in the library can make toes curl.

Because of how much paper is used.

Just imagine how many books are in your local library. There are about 18,000. Think about how many pages there are in 18,000 books. There are a lot. Assuming that there are approximately 250 pages in the average book[i], that would make about 4,500,000 sheets of paper per library. The average tree produces around 8,333 sheets of paper. So basically, a lot of trees are cut down to make books. When lots of trees are cut down, another woodland animal loses its home and dies. Think about all the squirrels whose dreams you’re crushing. Literally. [ii]

With new technological advances these days, there are many more ways to still be able to read a variety of literature without having to keep killing trees. About 85% of American households own computers. Guess what computers can do- access the Internet. Hence, if you can go on the Internet, you could always check out E-books online or read books in PDF files. There are many more ways to access a wider range of literature without the use of books. Instead, books and such can be recycled to be made into paper that people can reuse over and over. Paper production could diminish drastically, reducing the need to deforest the world. Because at the rate that we’re going through forests at, soon there won’t be enough land for us to even live on to read books. Would you compromise books for your life? Yes, of course.

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[i] Most childrens stories are 20 pages long but young adult novels like Twilight are 500 to 800 pages long, which is about 500 to 800 pages too many. I mean, the whole series itself is 2458 pages long and over 120 million books were produced. That’s over 294,960,000,000 total pages of book produced for this series alone, which in my opinion is a waste of paper.

[ii] Althought, I wouldn’t really mind having the forest from Twilight cut down. It might actually be more beneficial to the world.

We don't need this.

But we do need this.

The [two] Hours [of film]

“Leonard, always the years between us, always the years, always the love, always the hours”

The Hours was definitely a very emotional and impressive work of film. Actually, before I even knew that we were going to watch this movie in class, I had heard of this movie and read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia and everything. However, even that was still not enough to prepare me what was to come. I knew that Richard was Laura’s son and that he was going to die, but actually watching the scene was so difficult to bear. The creators of this movie, which is actually based off the book The Hours, stayed true to Mrs. Dalloway despite some differences in the story. All the characters’ personalities and symbols are still present, but just in different places.  For instance, Clarissa is actually partners with Sally rather than Richard, but she still enjoys parties. Also, when she visits Movie Richard, she takes the characteristic of Book Richard by separating the flowers she brings him between the white ones and the red ones. Plus, while there is no Septimus in the movie, his presence still thrives in the movie, as Richard is sort of crazy with voices in his head that lead to his suicide out of a window. The theme of time was still overwhelming in the movie from the very beginning to the very end. At the beginning, the clocks and alarms chiming bring all three characters away from their dreams and snap them back to reality. Near the end, there is a clock when Virginia and Laura go to bed, sort of like their death bed, perhaps? Also, just something I thought was absolutely clever in the film is that when Virginia talks to Leonard, she says that “the poet must die” and Richard is a poet and so is she. Also, Movie Richard jumped out of a window, and the first time Virginia tried to kill herself, she jumped out of a window. So basically, Virginia Woolf is Book Septimus and Movie Richard. People are such geniuses in creating literature! I can’t even.

Another connection between Virginia Woolf and Richard: They are both sitting and next to windows #twins

Ebbing Elizabeth

"Who is that lovely girl? And suddenly he realised that it was his Elizabeth, and he had not recognised her, she looking so lovely in her pink frock!... Richard and Elizabeth were rather glad it was over, but Richard was proud of his daughter. And he had not meant to tell her, but he could not help telling her. He had looked at her, he said, and he had wondered, Who is that lovely girl? and it was his daughter! That did make her happy. But her poor dog was howling." (Woolf 194)

To ebb-(of an emotion or quality) gradually lessen or reduce

The true Elizabeth is ebbing. Her desire to assume a profession is receding like a wave. In this passage, her father is shown dousing away her unique qualities until she is nothing left but a “lovely girl” like her mother. On page 136, Elizabeth decides that she “would become a doctor, a farmer, possibly go into Parliament”. These aspirations are what make her different from Clarissa, which Miss Kilman likes about her. However, at the end of the book, all Richard acknowledges about Elizabeth is her aesthetics. Elizabeth loves her father very much, and is “devoted” to him; having him be proud of her for anything makes her feel so happy that she would probably attempt to look her best more often to gain his approval more, never mind studying to become a doctor. Elizabeth’s dog, symbolic of her inner intelligent self, howls and is shut up, not to be shown to the rest of society. The old, innocent Elizabeth who wore pure white dresses is now replaced by this girl who wears pink frocks “well above the ankles” with her hair “done in the fashionable way” (169). Surely, at this time in history, females like this won’t be wishing to have day jobs. Clarissa doesn’t work, though unattractive women like Miss Kilman do. Elizabeth is seemingly doomed to be like the former. Just when it seems like she’s about to make it out of the water, Elizabeth’s individuality ebbs back, as her ocean of a mother consumes her.

Septimus & Shakespeare & Sordidity

“Here he opened Shakespeare once more. That boy’s business of the intoxication of language- Antony and Cleopatra- had shriveled utterly. How Shakespeare loathed humanity- the putting on of clothes, the getting of children, the sordidity of the mouth and the belly! This was now revealed to Septimus; the message hidden in the beauty of words. The secret signal which one generation passes, under disguise, to the next is loathing, hatred, despair.” (Woolf 88)

This passage helps the readers truly experience the change that Septimus had gone through due to the war. His current analysis of Shakespeare makes him hate it, as his views on life become more pessimistic and bitter. The “secret signal” described is like the codes that he hallucinates now, as on page 21. With his PTSD, Septimus applies his wartime codes that he had received to his current life events. The “message hidden in the beauty of words” is what his life used to be like. Pre-war, he was a charming young man in a promising world, which is the beauty of words. However, after going to the war, Septimus finally finds the hidden message that discloses the reality of human nature and what the world is actually like. Cold and cruel.

I also think it’s strange how he uses the word “sordidity”, even though it is not a real word. However, sordid is a word and means “to be dishonest or dirty”. It’s symbolic of how Septimus is immersed in his own world that he built off an established environment. He is living off his own creations, like his vision of Evans and codes that are taken out of the context of the past.

On a less dramatic scale, I sort of feel the same way as Septimus- kind of, not really, but a little bit. In freshman year, when we first began reading Shakespeare, I was really excited because his works are universal, and I thought it would be so cool to be reading such high level of literature like the older students. The more analysis (or hidden messages) our class covered about the book, the more depressing the work seemed to be. Like Septimus, I soon developed a more dark perspective on life and society. Needless to say, Romeo and Juliet did not seem like such a cute love story, after all.

Septimus is absorbed in his past and the war.

Tone is Like Identity

Why do Alexander, Tan, Alexie, and Angelou use different tones in their pieces? Alexander’s tone is bitter, as she describes herself as “fractured” and “a mass of faults”. Tan sounds desperate as she recounts her “terrible disappointment” of a Christmas. Alexie uses humor to talk about his childhood as a “goofy reservation mixed drink”. Angelou is very anticipatory in her illustration of the “near-sacred quiet” during the boxing match. Ultimately, each author’s choice of tone is to support the purpose of the piece. Alexander’s bitterness is used to show the thoughts of a conflicted woman who is having an identity crisis. She expresses all of her harsh self-judgments to show just how troubled and confused she is about herself and her background. Tan’s desperation echoes the anxiety her teenage self must have felt during this specific event. It shows how embarrassed one little girl became solely because she was ashamed of her own culture and just wanted to fit in. Alexie’s humor masks all the pain he felt all the times when his father became obliviously drunk and when he left the family. He is hurt by his father’s actions, but he still wants to accurately portray the sort of meaningful relationship they did have. Angelou’s anticipation exemplifies the raw tension everybody in her piece felt. This event was clearly a significant event to all who were there, as its outcome would determine everybody’s status and fate in the world. All of these pieces have one thing in common: the characters are confused about their identities. However, there are many ways that this message is portrayed through to maintain another underlying purpose. The authors’ tone is just like their identities, all are different but in the end, everyone is trying to say the same thing.

Analyzing Amy's Ashamedness

I had just finished reading Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks”, and I must say- it is basically my life. I can definitely relate to Tan’s teenage life because I am a teenager, and I am an ABC (American Born Chinese) with parents from Asia. The tofu and squid that she oh-so-eloquently described as “stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges” and “bicycle tires” (Tan 95) are common dishes in my household, so I don’t think of them as described. However, Tan’s description is only depicting how outsiders like Robert and his family would see them. As a result, it is quite interesting how quick Tan is to criticize “all [her] favorite foods” like this (95). Having grown up eating these foods, she must have never really thought about them in this manner until she wanted to think and be like Americans.

Unlike Tan, I never really grew up ashamed of my culture. My family still maintains many traditional customs, and I never think twice about letting people see them. I think a part of the reason why Tan wanted to be “the same as Americans girls” is the environment she grew up in. Oakland, California in the 1960s (when Tan was 14 years old) had a 2.1% Asian population, and Troy, Michigan in the 2010s (when I was 14 years old) had a 13.3% Asian population. Conclusively, growing up in areas with different Asian population densities plays a role in ethnicity acceptance. I became more accepting of my culture, as it was more prevalent in the environment I lived in, unlike Tan's. But at least Tan eventually embraces her Chinese heritage. It's better than her letting go of it all. Kudos to her mother for instilling this sense of pride in her.

This is supposed to look like bicycle tires.

Enabling Disabled Mannequins

The mannequin business is really tricky. After watching the Pro Infirmis video, I began to question why stores don’t just use a variety of mannequins in their shops. After all, a Cambridge University study found that “women prefer brands whose advertising reflects their own identities” (Amed, Imran). If this is the case, retailers should just begin making their mannequins more varied and different. However, I soon found out that there are mass-producing mannequin factories. Although each mannequin is hand-crafted through a series of processes, they are all shaped by the same molds. Having a mold restricts the variety of figures mannequins can be modeled after. So the reason why mannequins all look whole, perfect, and the same is not because retailers truly want to discriminate people with disabilities from being commercialized, but because it would take more time and effort. It’s true that molds could be created to have different body shapes (i.e. curved torso or missing limbs) but that will still limit the options for body shapes that mannequins could have. Consumers would be seeing the same disabled figures, and still not be able to experience the whole scope of disabled peoples’ physique. We even saw in the video that the artist crafted the new mannequins from already-made mannequins kind rather than from new molds. If some stores truly care about incorporating disabled people in their advertising, they could create different molds or alter their current mannequins to have them look different. As of now, all flawed mannequins with missing parts and damages are thrown out, but if enough people are concerned about this topic, this could change. 

Resources: 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25319920 

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/03/the-fashion-industry-still-has-an-image-problem.html

As you can see, the mannequins all look the same because they are made from the same molds. This is a look inside the mannequin factory.