Arts One Blog

Still Falling Apart

Posted by in Uncategorized

While reading the Crucible, I was reminded of the scene where Ezinma leads folks to her iyi-uwa (a stone that the ogbanje used as a link between worlds so they could “die and return again to torment [their] mother[s]” (Achebe 81)). Since my belief system does not involve ogbanje, I felt while reading that Ezinma was leading her parents and the medicine man on. Just as the people in the Crucible bowed to external pressures when confessing and convicting others, Ezinma leads them to her iyi-uwa and admits to being an ogbanje only because that is…read more

0

Marlow’s Inconclusive Experiences

Posted by in Uncategorized

Two things have struck me when reading Heart of Darkness: (1) how much I’ve enjoyed it (maybe just because I can actually remember where my quotes are), and (2) how little I feel like I understand it. Having discussed it a year ago in English, I felt like I knew this book well enough – a slow moving and pointlessly despondent novel with colourful imagery that my teacher couldn’t let go of. Although a second reading has enhanced my opinion, I also feel a lot more confused by what I’ve…read more

0

Fanon and More

Posted by in Uncategorized

As a preface to this blog post, I fully empathize with how the lecture was opened yesterday. I also feel a little weird writing about “black” issues, because I don’t feel I have the experience or knowledge to talk about them in a way that is appropriate. I can’t remember where, but de Beauvoir mentions that men can’t write about women’s issues because they are both observers and party to the issues, and as a white woman I feel like I might be in a similar situation, even if it’s…read more

0

Jane Austen, take 2

Posted by in Uncategorized

As a preface to this blog post, I must confess that I (tried to) read Jane Austen before, in the form of Pride and Prejudice, and made it through what I found to be 60 excruciatingly dull pages before falling asleep and giving up. I found the slow plot and the intricate details of socialite life to be exhausting. Considering that Austen, and Pride and Prejudice specifically, have long been favorites of my mother, I was excited (and wary) to give her (Austen, not my mother) a second chance. Interestingly…read more

0

Hacking vs. Freud (sort of)

Posted by in Uncategorized

I really enjoyed the ideas relating to action under description, especially as they relate to understandings of memory and potential revisiting of memory. One thing that I disagreed with in Freud’s text, and which bothered and confused me, was his analogy of memory and the mind being like an ancient Roman city (p. 31-33). I found it frustrating simply because he assumed “it is rather the rule than the exception for the past to be preserved in mental life” (Freud 35). When he introduced the analogy, I actually thought that…read more

0

Nietzsche

Posted by in Uncategorized

Reading this text reminded me a lot of the beginning of first term – a deceptively small book filled with unfamiliar phrases laid out in a seemingly order-less fashion. In any case, I feel nervous writing this blog post, because I’m not sure if I really understand most of this text, let alone have opinions about it. However, after the lecture today, I feel much less unprepared to write. In the interest of not appearing as confused as I actually am, I’m going to talk about some of the aphorisms that…read more

0

Modern Technology & The Production of ‘History’

Posted by in Uncategorized

For the most part in this text, I was either confused because I didn’t understand Trouillot’s phrasing or I felt I really didn’t know anything about the historical events he was using as examples for his argument. In any case, something I thought about a lot when reading this text was about the effects that social media could have on the portrayal and recording of current events. Trouillot focuses a lot on the role of the teller of history (whether they be narrating or chronicling the events). I wondered whether…read more

0

Delayed Reactions – The Tempest & Repitition Compulsion

Posted by in Uncategorized

OK, maybe its just me, but I always have a delayed reaction to things that the rest of world finds obvious. If someone tells a joke that is the least bit subtle, I’m the kid laughing 3 minutes after the punch line because “OMG, I just got it – that is hilarious”. So it shouldn’t be surprising that it is only now, after almost 8 weeks, that I start to notice the Repitition Compulsion theme as we were reading the book. The connection was made in the lecture that there are Platonic…read more

0

Ismene the Ignored

Posted by in Uncategorized

I found Ismene to be the most relatable of the characters. She initially doesn’t support Antigone, valuing the laws dictated by Kreon over the duty, which Antigone feels, to her family and to the gods. However, she later changes her mind and begs Antigone to let her help. As discussed in the lecture, Antigone and Kreon are both right and both wrong. Because there is no right answer between them, it is difficult for Ismene to decide what to do. This is how I would feel in such a situation…read more

0

Plato’s Republic: Book V

Posted by in Uncategorized

In reading Book V and in lecture yesterday, I  was fascinated by the ideas around family structure. The better part of this Book is spent describing exactly how the relations between men, women, and children would be governed in kallipolis. The ruler would be given the power to determine who the best people to breed would be, and, what I found most interesting, would lie to the people in saying that the matches were determined by lottery. Also, the children that are born from less desirable unions would be exposed, without the…read more

2

Spam prevention powered by Akismet