Blogging Around: Nonie and Jordan

The first blog I commented on was Nonie's which discussed the interplay between nature and technology. Our discussions in class always negatively connoted technology but her blog post made me take an equally cynical stance of nature. It also made me imagine the similarities between two concepts that normally seem at war with one another.

Nonie


I like the dialectic between nature and technology. Often I have imagined these as opposites but in the scenario of the Matrix I can see how they can play off each other.

It is sort of like when people want what they cannot have. In nature they are pine for technology and security. When surrounded by technology they pine for nature and freedom. 

Also, ultimately technology has become so advanced and intertwined that it is a huge network. Nature is also a huge network where each individual thing relies on the other in a huge complicated system.  

The introduction of the idea of human nature is also interesting. It is a pretty abstract concept and in a scenario of the Matrix I think that the individual's decision is tentative. However, I think the factors that influence human decision making are things like technology and nature around us.

In my personal experience I have not spent as much time in nature as I wish I could have but I could easily understand how I could be lulled by it the same way as technology. I do agree that this is a scary notion because it means that our every decision is so easy influenced.



The second blog that I commented on was Jordan's which discussed a dialectic between truth and ignorance and how once cannot exist without the other. It raised a lot of questions in my mind both on the personal level and on the global level that I found intriguing.

Jordan

I think the question of what pill we would take is a question that pops into the mind of anyone who has every seen that famous scene. I really do not know what I would choose. Willingly I would want to choose the blue pill and forgot everything. But then I truly would feel that there would be a gnawing feeling at me. I know that your're "supposed" to forget everything but I just know that subconsciously my willful ignorance would eat away at me.

This brings us to an odd idea. If there is a truth is there really anyway to ignore it? I mean you are living within the lie that is the Matrix. Once, you break away from that how could you go back. I just think that humans are not perfect enough so that they can adapt into lies. 

By this I mean though humans lie every single day. It is (hopefully) still an action that is forced, not something that comes out involuntarily. So, as long as we still seek truth then that prevents us from living an ignorant life.

This also poses the possibility though that we advance to the point where lying to others and more importantly ourselves become so natural that we can embrace something like the Matrix...willfully.

Dialectics: Logic and Faith

The intersect between these two ideas of logic and faith is in interesting one that occurs within The Matrix. Following Neo's experience it is obvious to see that there is the big lie that exists within the world of the movie. Even before meeting Morphius, Neo knows that something is wrong with the world. However, I cannot tell if it is some sort of logical reasoning that leads to Neo to this conclusion or just a hunch based on faith. Either way though both logical reasoning and faith play important roles in Neo's journey.

It seems to me that both elements of logic and faith, though sometimes polar concepts, are used to understand the Matrix. Let us take the "jump scene" for one. Neo stands at the edge of a building about to hurl himself off trying to reach another building. He has just seen Morphius accomplish the same exact jump. However, twenty some years of his existence has told him up until this point that a jump like that would kill him. At the same time Neo has faith in Morphius...Now you would think that being the chosen one and all that Neo would make the jump. Yet, he doesn't. Now though, when you think about that logically it makes more sense. After all, no one makes their first jump.

So we have now established that there are rules that govern the Matrix. Also that there are ways to systematically break these rules. We know this because even though movie is a post-modern film, it uses a modern frame, so there has to be a way for our hero to succeed in the end. Now, let us talk about the end. In climactic battle against Agent Smith, Neo's faith in himself is what allows him to become "The One." He believed that the Matrix was a system governed by logic and rules but his faith in himself is what allowed him to break this system (and also to the extent that no one before ever could).

Now, what does this all mean for us? Using The Matrix as a model it seems that logic and faith are two different ways to approach a foreign idea. It seems to me however that they use two different frames of thinking (if anyone can remember that discussion we had from our first semester). Yet, at the same time I said at the beginning of this blog that I felt that there was a strong intercept between logic and faith. This being when you can approach an idea using both. Neo manages to accomplish this and in doing so gains some wicked powers in the Matrix. So that poses the question, what can we accomplish?

Metacognition: Fragments

I was a sculptor. One of those super new day type of sculptors. I took fragments of information, art, and ideas and fused them together to form a single entity. An artist has free range for his art, only limited by parameters of his own mind. I thought I did a pretty good job all in all.

Consciousness is a difficult concept to grasp and to form new conclusions about it is even harder. I faced my first hurdle before my project even began. I wanted the additional challenge of addressing something for my project that we did not cover as much in class but I really did not know where to start. My thought process was to start at the surface and to work my way down into deeper more complicated ideas. I found the three instances in Jane Eyre where she directly addresses consciousness: the red room scene, the scene with the veil, and the scene in the hearth. Based around these I tried to extract some sort of claim to try and shape my project.

I wanted to see how Jane's process and growth through out the book was influenced by her world around her. I also wanted to see what effect she had to the world around her. Consciousness shapes our world, and vise versa. I thought this was a good thought and I could definitely see how Jane's experiences would relate.

The main challenge that I got to was finding a way to create the flow in my project. I had all these awesome examples and expressions of consciousness but I really had no way to blend it all together. Narrated through by my thoughts I was able to become the driving force in my mash up. Reflecting back on it now I really wished I had another day because artists know that their art is never truly done. In the same fashion our class discussion of modernism and postmodernism made me think of new ideas to incorporate into my project on consciousness.

Our consciousness is impacted by our own personal tilt on the world. Our perspective and the writing style in books influences our thoughts incredibly. My final take away from the project is that there are a limitless number of way to approach any single idea. Even something vague or simple at first glance could end up becoming something much more deep and meaningful.

Metacognition: Netflix and "God Complexes"

Story writing was and is an interesting experience. My raging case of narcissism is fueled perfectly by the creation of a fictional world with characters because it feeds into my "God Complex". During the early steps of story writing process I really enjoyed this idea of creating these characters completely under my control where I control their pasts, presents, and futures. However, I did run into some problems.

I learned that I really did not have as much control as I thought. I mean, yes, I made the characters but their growth seemed to be their own. My main character is torn because he has had to undergo drastic physical changes and also psychological changes in his role but then I arrived at a point where I really did not know what was going on...I stared at the page and confronted my character and I found myself completely dumbfounded.

It is a cliche thought to have a "conversation" with my main character but in a sense I dived into his world and  tried to see how his thinking process and metacognition worked. I've never actually talked to God but I bet that God's just as struck with wonder by his creations as I was when I was writing my story. My little "God Complex" hindered me but I managed to re-simplify my process of thinking for my story. To help this process I actually straight up spent the day watching Netflix. For English class purposes of course. I examined some of my favorite characters including Adrian Monk, Malcolm Reynolds, and Sherlock Holmes. These characters had some of the most flawed attributes attached to them but still managed to succeed. This is the same sort of thing that I wanted for my character. I wanted him to prove something to himself and to grow and I think his growth aided my growth. 

When I create a masterpiece that surpasses Joss Whedon or J.J. Abrams I know I'll probably attribute a lot of my success to my first story, Window. 

Change of Mind: Comprehension and Appreciation

This past quarter in English has been full of fairly new things to me like the process of story writing, and books like Heart of Darkness and Jane Eyre. It has brought further development for me in my comprehension and appreciation of art and I think that is one of the lessons that I am most grateful for and one that is rather important.

I never really read short stories before because I thought they were for kids because they were all short. I thought that true character development and a worthwhile plot were impossible in a short story. I was wrong.  Our class analysis of Cathedral brought this specifically to my attention. Every choice and word is intentional within a short story and is used to magnify the message. It is condensed and revised to make very acute points. However, this being said I also learned that good pieces of writing take good readers to understand. What I mean by this is that a middle schooler could probably read and comprehend Cathedral at the basic level however all the elements of irony, sadness, and the meticulous writing choices would be lost on them. Heck, it was lost on me the first time I read it! It would be like watching a movie with the volume all the way down. The pictures would probably help you piece together whats going on but you would lose out on a great deal of the experience.

 Another lesson I have learned from English this quarter actually applies to film and other forms of art. Once has been the movie that we have been watching and discussing in class the last few days and I honestly love some of the choices made in the movie. Mr. Allen phrased it perfectly when he said that the movie could have copped out and made a lot of "easy" decisions like having the characters kiss but chose not to as a means to prove that it is something more. I respect this a lot; though I don't think that cliches are the devil I do think that there are good ways to allude to things without the overkill. The portrayal of love in the movie was unique and original which is honestly something I hope I can one day reach in my own work whether it be a short story or something else. Yet, I'll always pay homage back to my high school English class where I was taught not to make the easy decisions.

Transitioning to the literature; there is even more growth for me as a learner here. Heart of Darkness particularly was an interesting book for me because it was unlike anything I had ever read before. Not only was it a difficult book to read, but its difficulty to read was an intentionally used tool to amplify elements of the plots. I thought that was pretty darn unheard of and was just like astonished by it. 

This quarter has opened a lot of doors for me in my mind but not just opened them. Its basically blown them wide open and thrown me into a vat full of new experiences. My ultimate goal is to be able to draw from the art that we have discussed and analyzed and learned and then to be able to use it to create something just as awesome. In hopes that one day somewhere maybe some class will be discussing a book or movie or poem of mine.

An Inconvenient Truth: Inconvenient Truths...

Like the title declares this blog post is about inconvenient truths with an emphasis on the inconvenient parts. Particularly I would like to talk about it in a historical context. Like Mr. Allen pointed out today topics like the discussion of Vietnam were rather taboo in society at one point. I think this is dumb. Now, that being said I feel I now must dissect this further and examine this idea of historical taboos and inconvenient truths.

With controversial matters like our military engagement in Vietnam I understand that talking about it often leads to conflict between people with opposing perceptions of the situation but I also feel that not talking about it creates even deeper problems. If we had continued to shun the events of Vietnam then we would never have been able to learn from them and would be doomed to repeat similar horrific incidents again. Perhaps, just maybe, if we were lucky, if we had learned more about public opinion and progressed with it after Vietnam we could have had different political reactions to situations like Afghanistan or Iraq. I would continue to ramble here but I digress as this blog is to focus on inconvenient truths and I think that is what Heart of Darkness is in all honesty; a big inconvenient trip into a dark jungle. It reveals aspects of humanity that are so primitive that we think we have evolved past them but in actuality all it really takes is a change of scenery to make some shocking revelations. So in many cases like Vietnam or the imperialist actions in the Congo I would suppose humanity as a whole would like to just forget about it and move on but by doing that we create internal justifications that allow for horrendous events like this to reoccur.

Now to get to my formalized opinions, I think that embracing the inconvenience is the only way to learn because the truth will set you free and all that good stuff. But every cliche has some truth to back it up and I think this one does as well. There are many reasons to avoid talking about uncomfortable things whether it be because it would cause conflict or admits guilt or something like that but by talking about them we learn from them. This is the main reason I think movies like Zero Dark Thirty are just incredible because it takes a dark moment of history and captures it, accurately or not, it still preserves that so that we will never forget. Of course, in the case of 9/11 there isn't much of a divide in opinions about it but it still acts as an example of why remembrance is so important. My final thoughts as I am wrapping up this blog trail back to the last words of Kurtz about the horror. I think that relates in many ways to the idea of inconvenient truths because Kurtz is one example of a person forced to face the truth and doing so changes him. This change is something that I think we should embrace on a global level to raise awareness of issues, remember history, and most importantly learn from it.

Blogging Around: In the Heads of Poets

The first blog that I examined was Minho's blog about his poetic process. I realized that we had many similar challenges in our creative process. Minho used excellent tools to overcome this like transparency and detail which I believe in the end made his poem even better.

Minho, I really like what you said about utilizing clarity in poetry. I thin one of the biggest misconceptions I had prior to our study poetry was that poems were like puzzles and that the goal was to "de-code" them. I now realize that they are a form creative expression and like you said they use fresh language as their vehicle. Yet, I also see that there are many hindrances that could stunt clarity in a poem. Like you said there are many emotional narratives to pursue within the setting of any single poem but you utilized detail to reveal the beauty within the language. I like that. In my own poem I felt bogged down by possibilities as well but after about the third wave of corrections I could tell my language use in the poem was much more original and much stronger. In fact the previous mistakes that I had made actually helped to me strengthen my final draft of the poem even more. I think this is probably because when you can identify the parts of your poem that need work it is much easier to fix. I, and I assume much of the class, had the problem that at the beginning of the assignment it was hard to start at any good point because our knowledge of poetry was so abstract. As we all ventured through the creative process I think we realized that sometimes the power behind a poem lies in the transparency not the obscurity much like you did. Good blog post bud and I enjoyed your poem too.

The second blog that I examined was Aaron's blog about his misconceptions of poetry as well as his dealings with the process of writing it. Specifically, I related at several points to walls that Aaron hit and also realizations that he made.

Aaron, I too felt like the start of the poetry unit was a tad overwhelming and unfamiliar. Afterall, I don't think too many teenagers have much experience in poetry...or even expressing their voice for that matter. But, through out the struggles of the poetic process my views on poetry drastically changed. I too gained a deeper appreciation for the art and realized that my poem was a chance for a creative outlet not just a another good grade. I also think that it was very honest of you to admit the motives behind your first attempt at poetry. I too at first wanted to write a poem that masqueraded at Mr. Allen's scholarly-musical-philosophical level but realizing that I couldn't was a huge step for me in writing my poem. Just like you I started writing for myself and that opened up a lot of doors for me. I think that during the creative process of anything everyone makes the realization that their notions up until that point were completely wrong. I think its how you continue from that point on that decides whether you are a success or a failure. I really do think your poem was a success bud; so give yourself a pat on the back.