The Last Blog

This will be the last time I blog for this class, and maybe ever in my life. (I'm not sure I may start a log called Peoples Punisher to get 10000 followers to over throw the government.) I'm not really sure what to say in this blog other than that it has been a good semester. I can't praise the teacher because of his immunity, but I will say that I have learned in this class, I have become a more interesting person. Coming into this class I was kind of interesting, and I know a little bit about the literary world, but this class really broadened my preservatives really on everything that was taught. I guess that this was all done on my own because obviously praise has to be payed to those that will accept it. More than learning about the literary world, I have learned a ton about the physical world. These two world really are intertwined and I never really understood that before this class. I know know why there is so much misunderstanding in the physical world, very few people delve into the literary world anymore deciding that seeing something is enough to understand something. This class has also taught me to be compassionate... at least to characters in books, I need have to think about there circumstance to really understand where these different characters are coming from. After writing my last blog I may become less interesting of a person, but it will take a while for this to happen, so I guess it was worth my tuition to come into this class.

Repent

To everyone in the class I hurt, or made fun of I am truly sorry. My intentions were never to attack anyones personal thoughts or feelings, rather it was to make it so the class was more enjoyable and meaniful to everyone that participated in the clas including myself. In the end I kind of feel bad, because I know that the majority of the class hates me, and it doesn't bother me that much. I know that all of you are good people and I kind of suck. So after reading this blog try to into your hearts and find a way to forgive me. One of you guys could be my boss one day (this is shown in many storys, the bully is put into his place when hye is older) so I don't want any grudge being held over my head. To everyone in the class thanks a ton for going on this roller-coaster ride with me and maybe I'll see some of you in some other classes throughout my years at MSU.

What I learned in this class and why does it matter

We were given two topic to write about for our final paper. In the end I wrote about the Brothers K, but I kind of wanted to explore the other topic as well. What have you learned in this class, and how has it changed you. In first conemptlating the idea, nothing really occured to me. I don't know I just kind of thought that it was another class where I learned some vauluable skill that I would never really utilize. In take a more retrospective look I realized that this class as taught me something far more than reading or an in depth look into the world of liturature. ( I kind of knew these ideas already, although this class did give me a greater responsibilty for both topics.) What I really learn is that it is important to make friends in a class that will, feed of you and that you can feed off of. In all honestly the main reason I liked going to class was so that Garrett could feed off each other. I don't know if I really did anything for him, maybe prompted him to speak a little more... I doubt it. What he did for me was amazing though, he made me far more clever, far more willing to make a fool of myself, and most importantaly called me out when I would say stupid things. This class just taught me that it is extremelyy important to make friends and utilizer them so the best of both people show through. This is going to help me in life, I always need people that will push me through everything. In the end I don't know if this lesson is going to change the world, but I do know this if I becone a senator Garrett will for sure be one of me advisors.

Final Paper

Ivan’s Human Condition.

The idea of God haunts Dostoevsky’s classic novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Although this book is often read as a murder mystery novel, when read this way the majesty of the story is often missed. Dostoevsky wrote the story in this style to keep a captive audience while he allowed his characters to flush out religious and societal issues, including idea of theodicy, and justify a God who allows the torture of the innocents. Throughout the novel, readers might perceive these themes, but they take center stage in book five, Pro and Contra, where Ivan talks to Alexey about theodicy, the Church, and God. The conversations between these two men divulge some of the greatest arguments against the Church and God’s “world” that have ever been conceived. Oftentimes, these arguments are falsely thought to have come from extended hours of logical thought. In fact, Ivan’s arguments do not stem from deep contemplation, but rather from his “vicious mole of nature.” Ivan, along with Dmitri and Alexey, is infected by a raging sensuality that controls his every decision. Only in Ivan, however, does this sensualism take form in argument; in the other two brothers, actions are determined by this vice. Ivan’s thought process is never fully understood unless it is seen less as logic and more as a chain of passionate thought driven by the “Karamazov curse.”

            Ivan argues against God because he is in a war with him, a war in which he searches for the answers to the world and his life story. In Ivan’s eyes, God has abandoned him from the time he was a child. “At ten years old Ivan had realized that they were living not at their own home but rather on other peoples charity, and their father a man of whom was to disgraceful to speak” (8). From a very early age, Ivan realized he was different; he never accepted the loving care others bestowed upon him. Throughout his childhood, an image of an orphan plagued Ivan, stirring in him ideas involving God’s torment on the earth. Ivan struggles to justify his unhappy fortune of a parentless childhood. "Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end... but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature ... And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears.” (222)  In God’s creation of the world Ivan, and every other tortured child, was the sacrifice that had to be made in order to ensure the success of mandkind. This is not an idea yielded by hours of contemplation, but rather a burning pain that seared in Ivan throughout his life. Ivan feels God is not a creator but rather a torturer, and God chose Ivan out of all the children in the world to spitefully target. Ivan’s pure brilliance and raw hatred allow him to conceive an argument that justifies his loathing for the world. In refusing to accept his torturous fate, Ivan began to question not only God’s creations, but also every faction that man created for the worship of God.

            To Ivan, man is the reason God has failed; man is the great implementer of torment and injustice. "I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness." In man’s creation of entities that are pure evil, he is able to justify to himself and why mankind always must struggle to suppress the desire to do evil.  Ivan formulates this idea because Ivan, along with the rest of humanity, also must try to resist the impulse to do terrible things. “ The formula all is Lawful I won’t renounce” (244). Ivan supports the theory that everything any man does is lawful because he, too wants to take advantage of this principle. Ivan is governed solely by his emotions; this allows him to validate his actions and ward off remorse. Ivan’s emotional drive forces him to rationalize his dark thoughts, but this is not enough; he must also understand why the Church exists to taint this darker side of humanity.

To Ivan, the Church seems to refute all unjustified acts. This irks Ivan because he does not adhere to a higher moral standard; instead he follows a standard he sets for himself. Since the Church counters Ivan’s view of the world and morality, he must find a way to ruin the Church in order to prove his morality is more justified than that of the bible. “We shall show them that they are weak, that they are only pitiful children… They will become timid and will look to us and huddle close to us in fear as chicks to the hen” (239-240). Ivan attempts to portray how the Church is based on power, and that its primary goal is to control all of humanity. In this, he confirms the Church is the most immoral of all entities. Ivan’s proxy preaches of how the Church would kill Jesus so they could keep the power in the hands of the Church. Jesus teaches people to take freedom, not bread, and therefore the church cannot have Jesus alive because they preach bread, not freedom (238). The Church wants to control the world in order to promote its own moral standard, but to do this the Church must enslave the world. Ivan cannot stand for this because he has to set and follow his own course; a course that will allow his sensualism to reign over every cell of his being. Ivan disproves the church’s morality in order to confirm that all humans, himself included, are the cruelest of all animals, and that anything created by humans must be equally cruel  (221).

The curse of being a Karamazov controls the entirety of Ivan’s thought process. Ivan most undergo mental gymnastics so he might find a way to prove this taint is not only bestowed upon him, but all members of humanity. He must demonstrate how even the most pure of all of humans creations are flawed. The world could have not been created by God, too much turmoil occurs on Earth. Ivan shows the world that only deep contemplation allows the justification of an inescapable inherent condition. Unfortunately, Ivan never can prove he is correct; he is not representative of the entire human population, he is only representative of himself. Ivan’s desperate validations do not validate a human condition, only a Karamazavian taint.

 

Archetypal Life

As I talked about in my last post I'm reading the novel Dune, and there a found an archetype that we didn't really ever talk about and I couldn't really find on the internet. What about the mystic group of protectors that are always trying to keep the system (whatever it may be, planet, town, culture) in balance. In Dune it is the Beni Jesorits, which have heighten sense of awareness that are almost turned into super human powers. This type of organization is almost in every story though. The Jedi, the order of the Phoenix, The elves in the LORT are some that I could think of off the top of my head. This is definitely an archetype, its everywhere I just can't find it any where. I did a little bit of research before writing this blog and did realize something as I was looking for archetypes and that is that every archetypal character is based off of some really character in the world. I mean in the list there was the beggar, the nun, the Diplomat, and all of these characters have district traits that everyone at least in western culture would know and understand. This makes me wonder do people become what they are because they fall into some archetypal category? If this is true our life is way more of a  story than I once thought, and know the stories and your place in them is a really powerful tool to possess. 

Reading is Weird

Recently I have been reading Dune. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite books that I have ever read, and I keep thinking that part of the reason that I am enjoying it so much is because I have taken this class. I know that science fiction is always based of societies vices, and thats normally why I read it. This is different though for some reason, instead of thinking about how all of the different parts of Dune relate to different things in society I am thinking of Dune as one big picture. I guess that really I'm just reading it to enjoy the book, and to get something from it that I wouldn't have had before I read it. I'm not reading it to talk about it, or to learn anything and that is really strange to me. I can't really decide if it's the highlighted plot points, or just how i think that its so similar to so many other story that I can relate it to, but really I just like it. This class has done something weird to me, I have always read in the past to get something out of a book, but now I'm just reading to read. I still get something out of the book, and really its probably what I would have understood anyways, its just that now I'm not worried about how much a book can teach me I guess its just how much I enjoy it. This has to be at least one of the major lessons that this class is suppose to teach, to read for readings sake.  Anything that is published probably has some good ideas in it, and probably is at least decently written, so I guess now I just need to start reading things and not really worry to much about what they are trying to say, or what the deeper message is. I don't know why but I think that this is going to stay with me forever, and hopefully I get everything I'm suppose to get from books now. I have no idea, I really have no idea if anything I just said is true at all, I just hope that I'm not totally off track.

Beautiful

In class the other day Professor S said that more than anything he just hopes to our papers could be beautiful. What does it mean to be beautiful though? Is it pretty structure and grammar, gorgeous ideas, or just how the paper overall presents itself. It's hard to be beautiful because supposedly beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I just said cannot be necessarily true though, if something is poorly written it obviously won't be the pretty. Its weird to think that a poem can be written in a way that seems to be poor yet can still be considered one of the most beautiful things ever written. This is why I still don't completely understand the english language or literature. It's like something that is so plain (such as the red wheel barrow) can be seen as being beautiful. It's not the last of complexity that confuses me but rather that the piece was published in the first place. I could write a poem right on. 

As I stared into the window 

Blackness

My own Face was looking back me. 

Yet that will never be published and really I wouldn't consider that worthy or "beautiful" enough to be so. I guess that there is just something that I still am really missing and that is will take multiple more english classes to understand, or maybe I will just never understand it. I will try my hardest and hopefully one day (probably without my knowledge) I will also create something that is beautiful.

Presentations.

On friday I was really impressed by the Antigone presentation. It was cool that it was the exact same story but with a modern twist. It made it extremely funny. I mean they hit it dead on by calling Creon a pimp and Ismane as a whinny little girl. This was a valuable play because they made it so every character was really easily able to be grasped. It put it in a perceptive that really anyone would understand. I kind of wonder why they don't do plays like this for kids that would never be willing to read something classic like Antigone. I think that i would make it so they would get into classic literature. I don't think that classic literature is dyeing its just transforming into new trends of characters. The plot never really changes just the outfit and names. I feel as though if this idea could be related to every kid that they wouldn't be so unwilling to read. IN fact they would realize that every TV show on is just a retelling of book, and books may become more popular.

My Sincere Apology

Alright, this blog is written to defend my self from certain persons so if it offends anyone I'm sorry just look at your fellow class mates blogs. I was bashed on by one of my fellow class mate in their blog for being "obnoxious, loud, and unintelligent" during my presentation. Then he went off to say that I'm not smart at all I'm just good at yelling at people, and that is why my point is heard rather than others. Although the second part may be true, there was a reason for my unintelligence. If I was not loud and obnoxious our debate would have probably not gotten anywhere, it would have been another group reading from note cards and having a completely pre planned speech which is okay, but would have it really been interesting to the class. By polarizing the class against a common enemy (myself) it allowed it so many much deeper thought and ideas where able to escape from the brains of my cohorts, even if it was to make me look dumb. Sometimes a lot more intelligent conversation is done by acting a foul and letting the rest of the world have an attack on you, rather than just reading from some pre planned note card and trying to act smart. So I am sorry that if i offended anyone by not letting them defeat Tim Ronan (he was too loud I couldn't talk over him.) I just decided that it was worth the sacrifice so we could have a smooth presentation what involved the entire class.

Paragraph 1 draft 1

This will be changed son but this is my first draft to my first paragraph.

   Since the beginning of humanity the question of death has tormented our species. Death is an idea that resounds across all age groups and ethnicities, so when a marketing genius decided to manipulate concept it was extremely easy for them to gain large amount of power and wealth. From this our entire civilization was formed; from the most mighty pope, to the poorest beggar, everyone was put into their place depending upon how well they, or their lineage could manipulate the concept of life after death. This order had been established for centuries when Dostoevsky started writing his classic novel the Brothers Karamazov. This idea of God, and how well people can conform to it, is shown as one of the principle of foundations of the novel, although it is never really given a stance. Instead Dostoevsky created characters with personalities of their own that would take each side of the argument, allowing the reader to decide with no implications from Dostoevsky himself. One of the principle characters for this foundational part of the book is Ivan Karamazov. During book 5 of the Brothers Karamazov “Con and Contra” Ivan makes argument that he can’t ACCEPT   the world that god has created.  Although he believes that God exists, he thinks that the fundamental bases of the church and humanity is flawed. Although Ivan makes valid arguments, they were only created in the hope that he could justify his own life. Ivan makes this magnificent argument against god not to in some way save humanity but rather because he is a Karamazov. Through a traumatic childhood, and a Karamazovian  curse Ivan has to justify why we thinks and acts the way he is, for this reason Ivan wrote the Grand inquisitor and made a stunning argument against god. 

No book is boring only people are

This blog is being written so i can revive some idea that I had about this subject from earlier in the semester. My group is doing its project on this topic so I figured I might as well think about it before we end up meeting. 

Really I'm not sure if a agree with this statement some books are just really poorly written and I feel as though that is a barrier that really effects the ability for a book to be enjoyed. I was thinking about it this weekend and being intelligence is just how well one being can convey a message to another being so if the message cannot be conveyed than really the book is of a low level of intelligence that really is not worth anyone time and really is a boring book. Rather if a book is written well which most published pieces of literature are than that said book is really probably not boring just the people that read and hate it are. 

The reason that some books are seen as being boring or stupid or suck is because often times the reader don't relate to the subject matter. This is not the fault of the authors its just that people are to lazy to really allow themselves to fall into a topic that is unfamiliar to them. This makes it so the book is alien and therefor stupid. I can think of a perfect example of this from my own life. I was given an assignment to read the secret life of bee's when i was in 9Th grade, from here on out this book resonates with the worst book ever written to me. It's not because there was anything wrong with me, but instead the book was just written  on a level that I didn't comprehend or didn't' want to try to comprehend. I mean when the girl had her period I did what any 15 year old would do, and say "this is sick man, I don't want to read this garbage." Really though this and a few other scenes are crucial to the point of the coming of age novel. 

Not only are people to lazy to try and understand what is being written, but lately our society has been lacking imagination and that is also another huge burden to the enjoyment of novels. Ever since the creation of the radio it has been easier and easier for ones imagination to be sucked out and replaced by images and sound of the imagination of another. This has really hindered the enjoyment of books. What the point of reading a story if you can't be a part of the story. For a novel to be enjoyed one has to become completely engrossed in that said novel and lately we have not been able to do that because of many different outside influences, that distract us from the majesty that is a book. I have to go and eat but my one other big argument is about people just being flat out lazy and that they would rather have their brains dead than exercise them. 

Creon Vs Antigone

In the play Antigone, it is often seen as Antigone being the hero while Creon is often shown to be a villain. This is probably because Antigone is more commonly seen as the protagonist, why is this though.  She is the main character of the play, but really is she justified. Are her actions wholly intended to bury her dead brother or are they about something more. Rather than Antigone following the rules of the world she thinks that she can play by her own rules. She thinks that that she will be able to do what she want to do unchecked, she buries her brother not so she can save his soul but rather to test the power of the new governmental regime. This is often overlooked in Antigone, but Creon is a new king, that just got out of one war with one of Antigone's brothers. If she were to some how challenge the authority of the new king she could have caused turbulence with in the community. This would have caused another uprising maybe forcing Creon out of power. Although Antigone is a woman in a power vacuum really anything can happen it would have been possible for her to take a spot on the throne. The reason that this is true is because she could have come up with another way to save her brothers soul. Instead she was too bull headed and decided to take matters into her own hands. Antigone wasn't even bold enough to take her punishment after it was dealt. This shows that she honestly didn't ever think that she was going to be punished, proving that she thought that the new king was weak. Antigone thought that there was a chance that she could over throw Creon and when she failed it was shown to the world as civil disobedience  instead of an act of war upon her own country. She is not justified in her actions because all that she was really trying to do was over throw Creon who was justifiably in a place of power.