I Think I’m Ballin’ Cuz I Got A Blog

So at this point you, as the reader can do one of two things. You can choose to read my defence of why i haven’t posted a blog in about two weeks or you can read the real option. Both will be posted below. Enjoy.

1) Defence- I have been busy with work, studying, hockey, and other school projects that i haven’t been able to find the appropriate time to post a well constructed and thought-out blog that i feel would be worth of your time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Truth- I forgot blogs existed.

Canine Time to Dine

 

Dudes gotta eat.

Longest Hockey Game Ever..

So i posted last wednesday that i would update some posts after hockey and it is monday a full 5 days later… pretty crazy game.. we won 1-0 if you were wondering.

anyways blogs are updated now so check them out.

Peace out homies.

Betsyyyyy

Courtly love never see this coming.

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless is a text that is built off of the concept of courtly love as Miss Betsy’s main focus in this novel is men. She toys with the emotions and feelings of all of the men trying to court her which ultimate leads to her being forcefully paired off with, essentially, the wrong man.

This was an interesting read as it is written from the female perspective of the courting tradition and it is one of the first time that the reader sees a woman’s perspective on the choices she makes/is forced to make throughout a period of her life. Betsy is shown as very contrary to the “proper lady” due to this perspective. She is “thoughtless”, as demonstrated by the title, and she continually shows this trait throughout the novel. Through her thoughtlessness Betsy’s reputation becomes damaged and tainted and this degrading reputation takes away from her social status among other things.

This is the thing that really blew me away is how necessary social standards and reputation are to the condition of a woman’s life then and even now. As a man living in the 21st century i feel as though i can do and act as a like when and however i like. Now this probably sounds somewhat cocky but it is not, it is reality for everyone; however, more so men than women even still. A man can wear what he wants, say what he wants, and do what he wants and be free from too much harsh judgement. A women is free to indulge in the same things but she is quite often judged in a much more condescending and to a much higher standard than men.

Being a man i have never really been given this perspective as it is one i take for granted as a man. Until reading this novel and writing this blog i have never really considered the importance of these social standards and the importance of a reputation to a woman.

 

 

Sweet Women’s Education Music

The Prof of this class is a woman.

That should be where my blog begins and ends because evidently women are now educated and the efforts, made by writers of this period along with many from before and after, have paid off.

However for the purpose of academics, and for everyone who reads this excitement, i will continue. buttt check back for more.. i am going to hockey right now.. i will edit this when i get back… and i am back so if you are reading this then read my hockey post too if you are interested in if we won or lost.

Back to the topic..

Women owe literature a big thanks in progressing their gender towards equality. Writer’s like Defoe, a man writing for women, and Aphra Behn, a women writing for women, have had a great influence on the social status and standing of women in society. Gender discrimination is one of those things in modern society that is like racism. It is so embedded in our society it is hard to work it out even if it is unjust and in most cases unfounded biases.

A writer like Defoe in his “Academy for Women” is one of the first male writer’s progressively speculating, through writing, what an all women academy would be like for both the gender of women and society as a whole. This work was vastly ahead of its time and should not be overlooked when talking about the topic of Women’s Education. Education is an important facet of any life as education facilitates learning which creates a higher quality of life for people. Having only half, the men, educated in a society was a vast waste of the potential that exists within people as women were held up to ridiculously high standards which took away from their freedom of life. Even today some of these high standards still exist; however, as a society we have made tremendous leaps forward in progressing towards gender equality.

I would say more about Defoe’s “Academy for Women” but i am sure you all read it so i just wanted to put in my 2 cents which apparently equals about 362 words worth of writing.

Nuclear Fallout

the impressions and ideas of society during the times of Shute’s writing of “On the Beach” in regards to the nuclear situation, upon further research, appear to be one of two things: purposely simple, or incredibly naive. the video posted on Dr. Jones blog about what to do if a nuke is dropped near by instructing people to simply “duck and cover” in order to survive the bomb is laughable. Shute’s depiction of a world post-nuclear warfare is one that is interesting by extremely naive. just been looking more into the literature and things coming out of this era and it blows me away how simple it seems but i cannot seem to determine if it is like that on purpose or simply just a matter of truly how the masses felt.

 

The space for a capacity number to be put in fascinates me. this logo also strikes fear in my core but invokes a sense of complete fascination. If the mushroom cloud is a nuclear explosion’s trademark, than this logo is its not so distant relative.

Je Suis Legend.

First of all i cannot help but think about Will Smith when i hear the word “I Am Legend” forged together in a sentence and that is why my post is titled “Je Suis Legend”.

I planned on just reading the required stuff but i cranked the whole novel just to see how closely the fresh prince (will smith) followed the story. and the answer is, for those of you who haven’t read it, hardly. The book is extremely different and the movie follows a couple basic elements of the book but for the most part it is a pretty far departure from the book.

This book takes an interesting reversal on the “soul survivor” concept that i mentioned in my previous post. The soul survivor seems to be a recurring motif in these apocalyptic novels; however, Neville’s soul survivor status is altered in a unique way with the conclusion of this novel. Neville is turned into exactly what he is resting within this novel. he fights against the vampire-like beings and grows a hatred/fascination with these beings. his life becomes a struggle for survival where he must, daily, resist these things. at the end of the novel, from the confines of his prison cell, Neville catches the eye of the masses of these beings which are developing a “new society” and he sees that he is to them exactly what they were to them. He is taken from the status of Soul Survivor to a “Legend” as he was the last member of the old society as the world takes on a new image. This shows that the apocalypse for one thing, humans, means a new beginning for others, the vampire-like things. This novel felt very bleak and hopeless until the ending where Neville willing accepts his fate and even manages a laugh about the circumstances. This ending provides the reader with a positive outlook and sense of peace despite the negative outcome.
This was an interesting take on the apocalypse as society continues post human existence in a form that is derived from humans. This ending reminded me of “The Time Machine” in this aspect as humans continue to evolve; however, they do not progress, they almost seem to regress. The forms that these creatures take on, based on the movie, is a much more primitive version of a human being. Clothes tattered, facial expressions restricted, and speaking an extremely limited language. now i know the vampire-things that were originally imagined for this novel were different than those within the movie, but again the movie tainted my image of this book and it is an image i can’t seem to shake.

Sweet On the Beach Music

Wow.

Crazy story.

This is the first novel i feel fits the speculative nature that i had expected from this class.

Nevil Shute’s novel titled “On the Beach” takes a long hard look at life in the anticipation of a self-caused total human extinction due to the proposed Nuclear Fallout of WWIII.

A couple things struck me in this novel:

1) the reversal of the “soul survivor” in modern culture. in almost every story or movie written in our modern culture that has a horrific incident than there is usually a survivor, or soul survivor who defeats all odds and is miraculously saved. (see I am Legend) This story hints at the potential for this but this potential is not founded as the reader finds out the signal they had heard is simply a result of circumstances as it is caused by the blowing window sash that comes in contact with a transmitter.

this struck me because it gave me an idea of the feelings and emotions of society in this trying times. the threat of nuclear war seemed to be looming over each other every single day. in our modern society there is no such immediate threat so it is interesting to see a result of this thinking and the total despair that it creates within the human mind. Shute had a dark outlook due to the trying times he lived in; however, it is one of honour as well as none of the characters in the novel whine or complain about their circumstances.

2) the suicide pill that the government provided for everyone.

This was interesting because it is essentially a voluntary death penalty. it also seemed, to me, like a bit of a satire on governments and the situation that had unfolded in the novel. the apocalypse is brought on 100% by mankind and is driven by governmental and martial decision. (the decision to launch nukes at other countries) the suicide pill is seen as the “ideal option” to end ones life within the novel and the government is, indirectly, applauded due to the introduction of this pill as it saves people from the suffering of the Nuclear Fallout. This was somewhat laughable to me because it is like the government that caused the problem is now being appreciated due to its introduction of the suicide pill.

all in all it is a fairly dark novel in terms of the outlook it provides for human life; however, Shute leaves the reader feeling somewhat peaceful in terms of how it all goes down. The closest thing the reader has to destruction and pain is the images of the fallen cities in other countries. it is an interesting perspective on the apocalypse as it does not feel as though it is a terrible occurrence, rather a natural one that comes about at the hands of mankind itself. interesting perspective and a good read.

ps. the title “On the Beach” reminded me of footprints on a shoreline that become washed out by the rushing tide. reminded of the way society is washed out in this story as the world returns back to nature in the absence of human life just as the sand returns to nature as the footprints (humans mark on the world) washes away.

Sweet Kafka Music

This is the second thing i have read by Kafka (first being the Metamorphosis) and although i didn’t particularly enjoy the reading of the story itself, i really enjoyed the concept of it. and even the view that this story provided the reader with is an interesting one.

The end of the world is typically analyzed from the perspective of humanity or in some instances from an indifferent perspective of the narrator who takes on the voice of the planet. This story was the first one from the view of a “God” that i have encountered in my studies and i found it a really neat concept. The fact that Poseidon is anxiously awaiting the end of the world so that he can “at once travel the seas” makes the end of the world, at least in the context of this story from the perspective of the main character, seem almost like a holiday. Being a human, like i am sure most of you reading this are, the end of the world hardly seems like a holiday to any of us. The God Poseidon, in our modern society, would probably strike up images of a vicious sea God who stirs up storms and waves seemingly for the fun of it. Conversely the great and powerful God Poseidon is introduced as, “Poseidon sat at his desk, doing figures.” This is almost the anthesis to how we would normally view Poseidon. Kafka doesn’t stop there with the differences as once Poseidon is finally set loose on the sea, meaning the world has ended and humanity is extinct, it is described as, “Poseidon became bored with the sea. He let fall his trident. Silently he sat on the rocky coast and a gull, dazed by his presence, described wavering circles around his head.” This is a very bleak view upon reading it because it is disheartening that the one thing Poseidon longed for his whole life bored him and you can feel the despair and boredom he feels for that the thing he had waited for all this time didn’t nearly satisfy him. This statement becomes much bleaker once you look deeper into it because of the echo is has within human life in that it mirrors the regular life of any human who works everyday with little enjoyment in their life saving up for that one trip or event that that keeps them motivated and when they finally achieve that goal, not only is it nothing like they had imagined, it is much worse and bores them infinitely, so much so that the only thing left for them to do is to ponder their existence because everything else is gone. This is a very dark and depressing view because, like Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the story is picked up medias res and the reader is provided with no real context for the story. The only thing the reader has is the sadness and boredom and almost depression that Poseidon feels due to his inability to free himself from the ties of his job. and then seemingly out of no where the story skips ahead and the world has since ended and Poseidon is still depressed.

The most bleak part of this short story is the fact that there is no reason provided for the world ending or any explanation how. The reader is simply left to infer that is has ended because Poseidon has completed his travels around the seas as he has always dreamed of doing. This is bleak because, again being a human, i hope that the world ends with meaning and explanation, but Kafka takes out this meaning and importance by changing the focus to the perspective of a God which he uses to mirror the trials of a human life.

Dark stuff dudes.

 

Sweet Cool Stuff Music

I know this has nothing to do with the either of the ENGL courses this semester; however, neither does wrestling and i posted videos of that… so if you are on my blog and looking for something cool to check out read on… ps. found this on another blog. who knew blogging could be so productive?

Want to know how many of your friends would have died in the Titanic sinking? Or maybe how many of your friends would have survived WWI? Or which friends would have died from the Black Death plague?

Check out http://howmanyreally.com/ and crunch some numbers. coolness mixed with eye-openingness. Nice.

and that’s the bottom line.