I know that Oedipus the King was our first ever text for Arts One and that today was the day of our final exam, but it would be selfish of me to not share this amazing discovery. As I was listening to one of my favorite songs, Demons by the Imagine Dragons, I realized how it almost seems like the entire song is narrating the life of Oedipus. I’d love to explain how I they relate to one another, but then the song is as self-explanatory as it gets. So,…read more
Subjectively speaking, describing Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli’s comic rendition of Paul Auster’s City of Glass as interesting is quite rather an understatement. One of the many things that caught my attention is the unusual use of transitions between panels. In reference to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, Blood in the Gutter, there are two peculiar transitions used in City of Glass that may be considered as orthodox in the context mainstream comics. Such panel transitions are what McCloud refers to as moment-to-moment and non-sequitur type of transitions. Moment-to-moment transitions are…read more
Being raised by a strictly Christian mother, and growing up and staying thirteen years in the same Catholic school has undeniably taken a toll on the development of my morality. The very country I live in, the Philippines, is greatly influenced by the Christian faith in almost every sociopolitical aspect of the society. However, the mere fact that the Bible has become the uncontested rule book of our country does not necessarily prevent crime from happening. High levels of crime rate and drug trade/use has continued over the years (we’ll…read more
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” said the founding fathers of the United States. For the past 241 years Americans have pondered on these words, and many would say that this phrase has become the cradle of the American Dream. However, it is difficult to give an accurate description of the American Dream for it is not something that can simply…read more
Disclaimer: This blog post is essentially an extension of my essay (haha). Some nights I just can’t help looking up at the moon, admiring it and all its beauty, and thinking to myself, “what in the world was Galileo thinking as he looked into the exact same moon in front of me.” I believe that Galileo’s greatest asset was not his intelligence, but his courage and audacity. It was through his courage did he dare to question centuries of teachings and knowledge. He firmly believed that through enough evidence and…read more
Darwin believes that creatures, including us humans, adapt and evolve accordingly to the changes in our surroundings. Natural Selection as Darwin calls it, is every living creature’s struggle towards survival in this world. Taking this concept and applying it in a more contemporary setting such as a high school classroom, we see an ecosystem where societal trends govern the lifestyle of children. Mainstream media manufactures a definition of acceptable, ostracizing children that deviate from the norm, branding them as “weird” and “unacceptable,” leading these children to be bullied. Thus people…read more
One of Blake’s poems that really caught my attention was The Little Black Boy. The title in itself already gives away the theme of the poem: racism. I mean seriously, who titles their poem, or any piece of literature for that matter, “The Little (insert color) Boy” without tackling racial issues. It’s not even surprising that the title emphasized on the word black, because history can not attest to the fact that the black race is one of the most persecuted of all races. I say this, not with a racist…read more
Hola amigos! I don’t actually know how to speak Spanish, I’m only trying to act cool 🙁 . Although I am from the Philippines and we were once colonized by the Spanish, so I know a handful of words. Being half Chinese and half Filipino meant I was raised in a multicultural environment, and it has allowed me to be more open towards diversity. People always ask me why I travelled all the way to Canada to study in a country that is unfamiliar to me. I usually answer by…read more