2. What does it mean to "lay waste our powers" and how does such "waste" impact the speaker? Does our modern world experience this same waste.
To "lay waste our powers" is to neglect our responsibility to take care of our earth. We have the ability, the power to controll the outcome of how we take care of our home. It is even more so true now as it was back then. We gave the technology now to make a change to save our planet, though it will take a long time now that alot of damage has been brought apon it, it must be done, and if we dont start now it will take that much longer to salvage if it can even be saved by then.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
"The End of Solitude" Reading Response
Solitude
There are three main types of solitude described in the article: religious, romantic, and modernist.
Religious Solitude
What affected religious solitude:
Calvinism- focusing the soul inward, leaving it to God
Protestantism and Printing- reading the Bible as a text; quest for divine voice became available to all.
Religious solitude describes the individuals who reflect upon their deeds, actions, and goals in life according to their religion. Since religion provides a social and moral background to follow and/or conform to, people engage in religious solitude to meditate on their behavior according solely to what the religion says, rather than what anyone else might consider right or wrong. Religious solitude is particularly important in the moral sense.
Romantic Solitude
Solitude achieved its greatest cultural salience with romantic solitude.
It became both literal and literary. The poet displaced the saint as social seer and cultural model.
It endorses the belief that the self is validated by a congruity of public appearnace and private essence.
In essence, this replaced religious solitude in that rather than reflecting upon the behavior of an individual according to one's religion, romantic solitude encouraged people to view themselves based on romantic literary works, excluding the Bible, which was once the source of self-reflection.
Modernist Solitude
Modernist Solitude is harsher and more adversarial in the sense that the soul, self-enclosed and inaccessible to others, has to be alone.
The figures of this movement were cool towards friendship, and the world was now understood as an assault on the self.
Although people in the other solitude movements only reflected upon one's self in solitude, yet engaged socially with other people to reflect further, modernist solitude encouraged total isolation.
Written By:
Susan Yang
Period 1
There are three main types of solitude described in the article: religious, romantic, and modernist.
Religious Solitude
What affected religious solitude:
Calvinism- focusing the soul inward, leaving it to God
Protestantism and Printing- reading the Bible as a text; quest for divine voice became available to all.
Religious solitude describes the individuals who reflect upon their deeds, actions, and goals in life according to their religion. Since religion provides a social and moral background to follow and/or conform to, people engage in religious solitude to meditate on their behavior according solely to what the religion says, rather than what anyone else might consider right or wrong. Religious solitude is particularly important in the moral sense.
Romantic Solitude
Solitude achieved its greatest cultural salience with romantic solitude.
It became both literal and literary. The poet displaced the saint as social seer and cultural model.
It endorses the belief that the self is validated by a congruity of public appearnace and private essence.
In essence, this replaced religious solitude in that rather than reflecting upon the behavior of an individual according to one's religion, romantic solitude encouraged people to view themselves based on romantic literary works, excluding the Bible, which was once the source of self-reflection.
Modernist Solitude
Modernist Solitude is harsher and more adversarial in the sense that the soul, self-enclosed and inaccessible to others, has to be alone.
The figures of this movement were cool towards friendship, and the world was now understood as an assault on the self.
Although people in the other solitude movements only reflected upon one's self in solitude, yet engaged socially with other people to reflect further, modernist solitude encouraged total isolation.
Written By:
Susan Yang
Period 1
Monday, October 11, 2010
Adventures of Literature by Mariah N
Literature begins at baby steps, gradually turning in to a run, then a climb. It is an adventure around the world, under the ocean and bursting out of a volcano. It is as complicated as the Egyptian hieroglyphics and as simple as “I love you”. Literature transforms your world, broadens your horizon and lets you be whom ever you can imagine your self as. It is a door to the past and a window to the future.
Literature takes you to new worlds, letting you experience things from a different point of view. For you see “I can't explain myself, … because I'm not myself you see.” (Carroll ch. 4) When I read I become someone new, literature has opened my eyes to a vast world waiting to be explored. It has taught me life lessons with out actually going through them. I am able to connect with characters that in reality I have no connection with. I am an explorer or a mistress, or the orphan praying for a family. Literature has given me eyes to see and experience things I would never be able to normally.
Literature transforms your thinking. It gives you a different out look on life. It expands your capacity to understand. “I cannot rest from travel” (Ulysses) it is a part of my when I read. I travel learning, experiencing, participating in things I would never do in reality. Literature enhances your perception of life. For me literature has been a big influence in my life, it got me through stages in life where I felt alone, secluded, and abandon. Works of literature helped numb the pain by letting me drift off into a world that was not my own, a world where the bullies in my life couldn’t reach me. Being able to leave the world you’re in and venture into a new world is what literature is all about.
Literature is a work of art made to tease the senses. It will whisk you off on a journey, or give you a new out look on life. In Karen Kingsbury’s Shades of Blue I was able to discover a new character in society today. My heart broke as I read about the guilt and Brad Cutler went through after he made mistakes many teenagers my age make. A mistake I could have made, I learned through the consequences of others that my actions do not define who I am but they do shape my future. It showed me that my life is worth something and changed my perception of teen pregnancy and those who have struggled with the decision to keep a baby or abortion.
Literature is the foundation of imagination. It allows our mind to be open to things other than our surroundings. It forces us to grow. As a teenager we are “reformed, reclaimed, still carr[ing] the marks of [our] time as a [child].” Literature is a way to express thoughts about life and morals. It builds as we grow intensifying as we age. It is a mountain we climb in school and in our own personal lives. It is an adventure for the daring and a rose for the romantic. It takes many forms, in the end a word is a word and it was written for a purpose. The meaning behind it comes from the audience and the imagination of the author.
In life we learn a lot of things, grow into the person we want to be, and set off on our own adventure but it all starts with books, poems, and tales. They spark our imagination and give us the wings to soar.
Work Cited
“How to Change a Frog Into a Prince." Library of Congress Home. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. <http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/176.html>.
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Ulysses." The Portable Poetry Home Page - Customised, Portable Collections of Poetry. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. <http://www.portablepoetry.com/poems/alfredlord_tennyson/ulysses.html>.
Carroll, Lewis. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, Carnegie Mellon. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-table.html>.
Kingsbury, Karen. Shades of Blue. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009. Print.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Society's Veiw of Children Today - Derek B.
Children today are seen as something to be portrayed through. Parents seem to want to make their children into something to be proud of, rather than just be proud of what they already are. Trying to make the child perfect, parents push him, possibly beyond limits. Honors and AP classes, more chores, more clubs, more extracurriculars, excellence, getting into a good college. But at the same time, no more freedoms are given. No more allowance, no more free time, no more things are gained by accomplishing more responsibilities. It is simply expected. It is as if children are bred for the sole purpose of pleasing their parents and making them look good.
But it is different when it is someone else's child. Then they are perfect, getting into the right college, getting this or that award. Needing to be saved. "Save the starving children!" they say when they themselves are pushing away and discouraging their own. But maybe it is not so different. Does not a country or household or person look good if he is generous and cares for the youth of the nation? Even then, children are serving to make others look good.
But it is different when it is someone else's child. Then they are perfect, getting into the right college, getting this or that award. Needing to be saved. "Save the starving children!" they say when they themselves are pushing away and discouraging their own. But maybe it is not so different. Does not a country or household or person look good if he is generous and cares for the youth of the nation? Even then, children are serving to make others look good.
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