To this day, the naked body is considered unnatural. With the development of social norms and standards,  civilization’s attitude toward nudity has fluctuated greatly. John Berger explains how “to be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself”. In the past and in the modern day, nudity is greatly used as a form of art, most of times it is used to represent an idea or for the viewer of the art piece to capture certain feelings. Do you agree with Berger’s distinguishment between nudity and being naked? Is there such a distinguishment nowadays? How does our society regard nudity and nakedness today?

There is much debate as to whether the system of imprisonment is better or equal to the effects of a punitive city. What are the similarities and differences between the effects of the two? Do you think there is ever a time where someone should be publicly punished or humiliated?

also food for thought, what would Foucault think of the death penalty, would he be for or against it?

At the beginning, Snow White is pure and innocent, she lives with the seven dwarves and she is virtuous. Very much like the state of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Snow White is in this state of innocent up until she eats the apple. In a biblical sense, the apple symbolizes identity, choice and freedom. When she eats the apple, one may interpret this as a loss of innocence. In this story, as well as Sleeping Beauty, both need the resurrection of men. With all this in mind, what may this say about the nature of a woman and their sexuality? Also if a child read this version of Snow White, what may they extract and learn from the journey of Snow White?

In the poem “the Little Black boy”, Blake carefully chooses the speaker as a child. I think he does this so that when the boy asks questions, it is not considered rude because the little boy is asking the question without the intention of being racist but because he is just purely curious. The child wants to know why “his soul is white… like an English child’s” and yet his skin is so dark. Later on, his mother explains how God gave him dark skin to withstand the sun’s heat and to protect him and that his skin colour is nothing but a “cloud”. After a person dies, the darkness from the skin will be removed and the person’s skin will be white like a lamb’s, and everyone will live together, innocent and white. So technically he is saying how race doesn’t really matter because in the end everyone will just end up equal in the end. Hm ok so at this point I’m thinking that the speaker thinks the only way to be pure is if you have light skin. But during this time, the white community was more advanced and developed then that of a black community. And since Blake had the mindset that humans were happier and in general better in the state of nature, doesn’t that mean that Blake believes the white man was more corrupt? But even near the end of the poem, the boy who was once black but was uplifted from the “cloud” is still submissive to a white man. So, through all of this evidence and the poem, how do you think Blake is dealing with the issue of race and where does he stand in all of this?

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Hello! My name is Sabrina and I am originally from Vancouver British Columbia.

I am very excited for this particular Arts One course in Seeking and Knowing because I think that there will be some very interesting discussions held on some of the novels we will read. I am also very excited to improve my writing skills on top of reading other people’s essays and comparing our different views and opinions on a novel.

I am looking forward to getting to know everyone in this class and facing many challenges along the way which will greatly help improve my writing skills!