A Different Take On Shakespeare

 We are always being told in class that every single person has a different perception of what we are reading. This is why several people are asked to read the same passages over and over, to know their personal perceptions. We often ask ourselves, how do we create these perceptions? And the answer is: it come from how you can relate to what’s happening, your life experiences. And for us (the people in class) experiences like he ones referred to in Hamlet are ones we lack and only hear from in TV and the news. But not everyone is like this.

 We all know there are people out there who have taken the life of another human being, but we never think of them as redeeming people or even educated. These are the persons who can really relate to Hamlet’s situation and most of the characters situations. When this person read lines like:

O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;

It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t ,

A brother’s murder! Pray can I not

(Act 3 SC 3)

they read it as people who have felt this kind of guilt, people who have killed and know there is no going back but still wish with all their might that they could un-do the un-doable. Quite different from hearing a school girl, who’s closest experience to a murder is watching CSI in the comfort of her home, read it.

 Personally, I was surprised when the radio interview began and they said that top security prisoners where performing Hamlet a Shakespeare play written in Elizabethan English. I thought there was no way they were pulling that of. But I was happily surprised when not only were they capable of doing a good performance but they also gave it a sentimental feeling that not even the best actors is capable of giving. A feeling given only by personal experience. 

Disagreeng with Frederich Nietzsche

I am in disagreement with what Nietzsche is saying. In no part of this play is Hamlet in a “Dionysian” state. He is not reluctant to take action, after gaining knowledge just because his actions wont change anything in the eternal nature of things. Quite the contrary, when Hamlet learns that it was his uncle who killed his father he is decided to avenge his father even though killing his uncle wont bring him back.

Agreeing with Samuel Johnson

 I agree with Johnson, if I were to choose one single word to describe Hamlet it would be “variety”.  Throughout this whole play we encounter numerous different situations, we go from Hamlets feigned madness to Ophelia’s heart touching tenderness to Laertes’s agony over his father’s death.  As the audience we may find ourselves confused with the play because of how this situations sometimes contradict themselves, such as when Hamlet decides to kill Claudius but keeps finding excuses as not to do it.  It is this array of different situations which made Hamlet  the most renowned drama of all times. 

What Just Happened?

 Loosing a loved one is never easy.  It can be someone as close as a mom or a dad and maybe even someone we admire, like an artist. No matter who it is it will always hit close to our hearts.  As we finish this book we encounter the last thing we ever thought, at least me, that would down one of our persevering character, illness.

 After battling carnivorous assassins, hunger and cold for so long I actually expected that if the father was to be taken die he would die in a fight, maybe even a bloodbath, while protecting his son. The expected heroic death didn’t happen, he doesn’t die in a memorable fight, but he did try to do all he could to keep protecting his son even though he had to leave him. McCarthy tells us: ”No I’m not. Keep the gun with you at all times.”(Pg145) The father is clearly trying to do his everything to ensure that the little boy will stay alive and keep going south where supposed hope awaits him. The little boy tells him “I want to be with you”(pg145) again making it very clear that he would rather die than be left alone in the wasteland that has become Earth.

 His father dies and the little boy’s options have been narrowed down to almost none. He has nowhere to go and no one to turn to, so he stays sitting by his dad’s dead body for 3 days. When he finally decides to go back to the road, even though if its just to do something, he encounters a man. This man has supposedly been tracking the boy and his son and now invites him to join his family. The little boy is convinced that this stranger is one of “the good guys” and leaves with him.

 We are left with the doubt of what will happen to the little boy and who is this “good guy”. Questions that will probably never be answerd.

A Little Spark for all of Humanity

What is a fire? Is it just light? Is it just warmth?

With this post I want to go back to something we discussed in class, and it all goes back to the symbol of fire. Going all the way back to Greek mythology, fire made part of the God’s knowledge that they wanted to keep from the humans. But, the titan Prometheus stole it from Zeus and gave it to the humans, getting terribly punished by Zeus for his misdeed.

 In history, the caveman were people who lived in cage and in very animalistic ways. Cavemen is the colloquial name for Neanderthal. This primitive forms of people were very strong and quite aggressive. But, they still discovered fire. Nobody really knows how they did it, even thou there are a lot of theories, we only know that the first recordings o fire is in the caveman's time and that it's after this fire recording that the caveman began to present considerable evolution in their animal like manner.

 From Greek Mythology to thousand year old men, fire reached the literary arts. particularly, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a book were the whole world has turned to ash a father and his son remain walking the Earth looking for a way of survival. Every night this father and his son light a fire in order too fight the cold and stay alive. If, for some reason, they failed to light a fire in a very cold night, they would probably die. For them, the fire is a symbol of hope and survival they are very lucky to have.

A Mothers Love?

 Throughout the whole book we get to know the dad and his son, and how they: survive, eat and generally survive.  But, most of all, we see the love the dad has for the boy that he is willing to do right about anything for him. Even die.  But, where is the mom? This is the incessant question we keep asking ourselves.

 Conventionally, people expect the mom to be the person who is willing to give her all for the child. This is why we automatically speculate she had a terrible fate and probably died, making her unable to accompany her son in the fight for survival. We believe this until McCarthy tells us: “I should have done it a long time ago. When there were three bullets in the gun instead of two.”(28) In this passage McCarthy is revealing to us the wife’s real wishes, not the idea we had of her, of self-destruction she had. Unhappy with the life they were leading she refused to keep on, not even for her son. McCarthy continues: “I was stupid. We’ve been over all of this.”(28) As we keep our voyage through the wife’s thoughts we understand they had considered ending with own life’s before, but they were unable to do it and now she feels as if the was dragged into a life she would’ve never wished for herself.

  We discussed in class that this book is an allegory, in which objects, persons and actions represent ideas outside of the story. I think that he mom actually represents the opposite of an idea coming from outside the text. The mom’s character defies the idea of a mother’s love that we all have engraved in our minds.

Register Excercise

For each of the following excerpts identify the register (familiar, informal, formal, ceremonial). Circle four words that helped you reach your conclusion.

1-INFORMAL

His sir sorry for not attending your class last week but I was very sick. I arrived today from a trip I was for the puente. I wanted to let you know that all my blogs are completed until last week. Furthermore I will talk to you tomorrow for anything else i am missing. Please take a look at them so you can grade them.
thanks

      2- FORMAL

And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people. The cause of securing our country is not complete, but tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history. Whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people or the struggle for equality for all our citizens, our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place

     3- FAMILIAR

OMG! I love lit. Holy mole, I want to be a poet, yo. green light

   

44- FORMAL

In Brooklyn days, I wanted to be Carlos Ortiz, lightweight champion

of the world from Ponce, Puerto Rico. I gazed at the radiance
of the black and white television till it spoke to me in tongues,
a boy spellbound by the grainy spirits who stalked each other in the ring.

     5- INFORMAL

5. I pointed out that his force had overthrown the government that issued visas. But, in this kind of a stalemate, the guy with the gun wins. And that was Ayman.

Eventually, he came up with a solution. I would give him a ride to his hometown, Zawarah, and the visa requirement would disappear. I gritted my teeth and told him to jump in.

That incident points to a fear that many Americans have of the Libyan rebels. Are they just goons who will create their own tyranny or chaos?

Particularly after we embraced Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, only to see him engulfed by corruption, it’s fair to ask whether the Libyan rebels will do any better. The uncertainties are real. But, after my recent visit to Libya, I’m guardedly optimistic.

And alone we walk

I think we can all agree that there is no worse feeling than that feeling of loneliness. That feeling we all get when we are little and think nobody in this world, not even our parents, can understand us and, therefore, we stand alone in this big world. Of course we get over this quite easily, after all, we are only children. But, what if this was actually true? Literally true?  

In this book we encounter the story of father and son who walk alone. Literally alone. The Earth is deserted, for some yet to be discovered reason. Earth appears to have been through some kind of nuclear war due to the way it is described as a barren and completely desolate place. This father has to take care of a boy who wasn’t even born before Earth suffered such devastation with the meager supplies he has been able to scrape together throughout the years and those they are lucky enough to come by when they encounter destroyed shops or even houses.

When reading this book we notice that, something has happened that destroyed everything that covered the Earth’s surface and the little survivors around are trying to make due with what ever they can find within the debris. But, most importantly, we notice that this characters move around as if some people are following them. We can also understand that this people are dangerous due to who the father is always so careful as not to leave any races of their existence and, also, he carries a gun at hand all the time with the conviction of someone who knows he will need to use it at a moments notice

Order vs. Craziness

In a book, there is nothing like the order it has or the way it follows events. Every book follows a certain chain of events, they can be jumbled up or in chronological order. Then again, the book can jump from present to past, to more recent past and so on. We can observe this variation in the following of events when we compare the books: “Coming Through Slaughter “ by Michael Ondaatje and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In “The Great Gatsby” the author sticks to a way of writing were the events go in chronological order throughout most of the book, except for the occasional flashback.  We can observe this when Fitzgerald tells us: “It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody.”(148) In this passage, Fitzgerald is forewarning his readers that the character in question will tell a story from his past. But, in the book “Coming Through Slaughter “ the book, much like its main character, is written in disaster. This book maintains no particular order, it comes and goes jumping from past to present. You never really know who is the speaker or who’s memory is being replayed. In other words, this book is as crazy written as the personality of Buddy Bolden.

Big House = Big Bucks

 Throughout this whole book we begin to understand what an important role money and status plays in the society. At the beginning Nick states about his family that:” we have a tradition that we’re descendants from the Duke of Bucceluh.”(3). Nicks family originates from a Duke, giving them relevance and importance inside society. He continues: ”but the actual founder of my line was my grandfathers brother who came here in fifty-one.”(3). Nicks family prefer to lie about their actual founder who was probably a nobody and say they come from a Duke which gives them status inside society. We can observe this same type of behavior in Gatsby, who hasn’t had money his whole life. Gatsby likes to tell people that he was an “Oxford man.”(49) This self-given status made Gatsby seem like a well-educated man whose parents could pay for his college education perfectly well. Gatsby has his own way of showing that he has money and status and that is his house and the parties he throws in it. Gatsby perceives his gigantic house as a symbol of his richness. When he and Daisy reunite after so many years, at Nick’s house, Gatsby says: ”I want you and Daisy to come over, I want to show her around.”(89) Gatsby wants Daisy to see how much he has accomplished since they last met by showing her his house because his house is huge, like a mansion, and for him it is a symbol of richness, his richness.

Town News

In Coming Through Slaughter, Buddy Bolden is the person in charge off choosing the information that will go in “The Cricket”, town magazine. Buddy published all the information he could find and from every source he could. Ondaatje tells us: “The Cricket” studied broken marriages, gossip about certain jazzmen, and a servant’s memoirs told everyone a certain politician spent twenty minutes every morning deciding what shirt to wear”. This sentence tells us that the sort of news Buddy Bolden was interested in was news about things that could go wrong with someone’s if or career. Ondaatje writes:” The Cricket” contained excessive reference to death”. The news Bolden chose were essentially dark or sad, reflecting his fears of what could happen to him. Ondaatje continues: “The possibilities were terrifying to Bolden and he hunted out examples obsessively as if building a wall”. Bolden used the connection to the news that “The Cricket” gave him as a way to recollect more and more ways that everything could go, therefore, feeding his fears more and more with every article.

Revelations

Fizgerald tells us “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eludes us then, but that’s no matter –to-morrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther… And one fine morning---- “ (180).  in this sentence Fitzgerald tells us that when Gatsby saw the green light he didn’t just see a regular green light, like any person would, but he saw the promise of an exciting future with Daisy, a future he has been waiting for ever since he left her side and year by year this future has been fading before his eyes. With the second sentence  Fitzgerald is saying that even though what we want always seems to be beyond our grasp, every day is a new day and we wake up with more strength to try even harder. This last sentence is not a very clear, but with its abrupt ending we can deduce that Fitzgerald is telling us that one day there will be nothing left or we will be dead. With the second and third sentence we can deduce that Fitzgerald is telling us that we have to fight harder everyday because one day there may be nothing left to fight for.

Finding Buddy Bolden

"He was the best and the loudest and the most loved jazzman of his time, but never professional in the brain. Unconcerned with the crack of the lip he threw out and held immense notes, could reach a force on the first note that attacked the ear..." pg.14

 In this passage we can understand that the way Buddy Bolden played and at the same time enjoyed his music like an amateur ,instead of a payed musician, reached the hearts of the public making him "the most loved jazzman of his time". But, it can also be interpreted as if he wasn't a very easy-to-work-with person because when things began to get serious he wouldn't take on a very professional attitude towards them. In the second sentence, the author goes back to the previously stated point about Buddy being unprofessional when he says that Buddy wouldn't care about hurting himself as long as he reached the desired note.