The First Part of Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I have just finished reading the first part of Notes From Underground (by Foyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Ralph Matlaw). Suffice to say, probably one of the most challenging books I've read ever!

Consequently for this blog post, I will attempt at deciphering the Underground Man's(that is what I shall call the narrator) thoughts. 

In an effort to understand the novel, I read the Wikipedia page. I know, I know, Wikipedia is not a credible source...blah blah blah. However, the page does provide an elaborate(and quite correct) summary of the first part of the novel. 

Wikipedia, to explain the first part of the novel, splits it up into 5 categories: (1) An introduction, where the Underground Man sets up riddles and metaphors whose meanings will be developed further throughout the first part. (2) In chapters two, three and four, the Underground Man talks about man's suffering and the enjoyment of suffering. (3) Then the Underground Man moves into talking about conscious laziness in chapters five and six. (4) Next the Underground Man proposes his theories of reason, logic and rational thinking in chapters seven through nine. (5) The last two chapters(ten and eleven) are a summary and a transition into Part 2.

Densely packed with information! Only 40 pages and my mind is nowhere to be seen!

The Underground Man, "I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man. I am an unpleasant man."(1)

The first sub-part (1), is probably the most entertaining. He starts by saying he hates seeing doctors, but respects them, and how he has liver disease. What a character. Then he talks about how his age(he's only 40!) is he largest contributing factor to his spiteful manner. The Underground Man then talks about his time as a civil servant. Not to mention he hated it! His contradictory personality makes me chuckle. It's like he is a four year old stuck in a grouchy 40 year old's body. 

In the next sub-part (2), we start to discover why the Underground Man is cantankerous and spiteful. He talks about suffering and consciousness. Two topics that I thought were quite different, but apparently are quite connected according to the Underground Man. He states that he is overly conscious, which is bad, and narrow minded people are ideal. His over-consciousness makes him unable to act and lazy. 

He moves on to talk about a toothache and the positive aspects of suffering through the toothache. The people that are narrow minded with the appropriate amount of consciousness, will enjoy the suffering because they can moan to others to create awareness of their toothache. The Underground Man's reasoning is very confusing, so much so, that rereading it can cause even more confusion. 

Sub-Part (3), continues to comment on his laziness and consciousness. One important part from this sub-part, is when he says he is "an intelligent man only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything"(17). My question to you, is how can you be remotely intelligent if you haven't really accomplished anything in your life??

The next part (4), the Underground Man talks about logic and rational thinking of man. He really is keen on the idea that rational thinking is best. He also believes that man relys on order, even though he says that logic cannot explain the actions of man. I do not understand how the Underground Man can promote reason and logic, when his thoughts are codices that have yet to be thoroughly deciphered. 

The last part(FINALLY-- am I right??) summarizes the first part in attempt to set up the Apropos of Wet (AKA part two). The Underground Man admits that the last chapters might have been just babble. Nevertheless, he justifies the rambling by stating that he has been underground for 40 years, simply thinking and he wants his thoughts on paper. To set up the "Apropos of Wet" the Underground Man tells us that lately he has been remembering memories that he wants out of his mind, on paper. Honestly, I do not know why he wants to tells us about his life, other than the therapeutic aspect for himself. 

If you are like me and wondering whether the Underground Man actually proofread his thoughts before publishing them and/or if you are at all confused during this post, feel free to comment(nicely!). I really hope that the next part of the novel will be better!

Mind the spelling error -- Dostoevsky*

Achebe and Fontana

Here is the final essay for the "Lion Project". Refer to my teacher's blog (Hawkinsanity.blogspot.com) for a prompt and background on the essay.

Stereotypes and Single Stories

Stereotypes of Jewish Athletes are depicted in the article “The Return of the Jewish Athlete” By David Fontana. Likewise, the single story of African people is portrayed in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Through the triumphant despair of the protagonist, Okonkwo, Achebe seeks to dispel the stereotype and single story of Africans, which are typecaste to be savage, uncivilized, animalistic, and thus cannot function on their own. On the same note, Fontana disproves the stereotype of Jewish Athletes being horrible at sports in his article where he writes about Jewish Athletes and their success in the sports world .Fontana and Achebe write about both the preconceived characteristics and the unknown commendable traits of each group,  in order to provide a more complete picture

Directly challenging the stereotype of Africans, Achebe writes about the positive aspects of Okonkwo and his village. Achebe portrays the protagonist as a hard worker, a trait unexpected by the European imperialists, who thought of the native Africans as primordial and undeveloped. Achebe proclaims that “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit.”(Achebe, 16) Okonkwo is determined and hard working so that others can see his, “prosperity [that] was visible in his household.”(14). Inheriting nothing, Okonkwo achieves wealth and titles through his strong-minded and purposeful personality. Achebe emphasizes the  notable characteristics, such as the ones Okonkwo possesses, in order to augment the crude perception of African people.   

Achebe includes how the village of Umuofia is organized and at times very sophisticated. European colonials, who subscribe to the single story, think of African villages as uncivilized and uninhabitable. However, Achebe refutes by containing information about how the village operates. Mentioned in the novel that, “the nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. Evil Forest represented the village of Umueru, or the children of Eru, who was the eldest of the nine sons.”(Achebe, 89) The villages of Umuofia operate under a set of local, tribal rules. They even have set consequences for particular acts. Okonkwo, after accidently killing a boy, is to “flee from the clan” and “could return to the clan after seven years” (124). According to the village and the laws they have organized, if a man inadvertently kills a boy he must be exiled from the clan for seven years. By creating these laws, not only is the clan structured, but they are self-sufficiently governed.

However, no single story is completely false. Achebe highlights the unattractive features of his characters, which are more aligned with the beliefs of the Europeans. He includes the unappealing characteristics of Okonkwo and of his community, so that people are not skeptical if Achebe only provides the positive account of African people. By supporting the stereotype, Achebe is more able to effectively complete the single story. . During a week when “a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor,” (Achebe, 30) Okonkwo beats his wife aggressively. The fault that led Okonkwo to beat Ojiguo, his wife, during a sacred week is that she did not cook an afternoon meal, as the women were supposed to do.  Full of anger, “he beat her very heavily”(29) and did not stop “even for fear of a goddess.”(30) Okonkwo’s savage and impulsive nature is outlined through his repulsive action. Even though he beat his wife harshly, there is an explanation and repercussions for his action. The deed and his ruthless character did not go unnoticed.. Achebe supports the single story of Africans by characterizing Okonkwo with savage and animalistic attributes. By creating a flawed protagonist, Achebe provides a more realistic account of the single story.

Parallel to the way Achebe is completing the single story of Africa, Fontana does the same by including both the achievements and the atrophy of Jewish athletes. Fontana introduces the article, just as Achebe started his novel, by stating the positive aspects of the group and thus challenging the stereotype. Writing, “when professional basketball was organized in the 1930s and 1940s, for instance, it was widely known as "Jew ball" because of the large and important role of Jewish players,” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Fontana accentuates Jewish athletes’ successes, therefore contradicting the stereotype. He adds how “it was common to see Jewish boxers winning all of the major awards.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”)

In the same way that Achebe provides the negative, Fontana presents context that supports the single story. Fontana offers factual evidence to explain the absence of Jewish athletes, which is in support of the stereotype.  He states that “when disadvantaged urban communities and immigrant communities became home to smaller Jewish populations, the number of Jewish professional athletes fell.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Fontana believes that sports legends will come from “disadvantaged urban communities or from immigrant communities.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) However, the destitute communities that house the professional athletes, of which many were Jewish, were diminishing and consequently the amount of Jewish athletes were too.

Both authors seek to complete the single story through the losses and the triumphs. Even though the effort to inform the masses is legitimate and substantial, Achebe concludes the novel by adding the stubbornness of the Europeans who are too ignorant to learn the whole story. . The Commissioner, an imperialist from Britain who knows little about Africa other than about the abundant resources, thinks about a “book which he planned to write” (Achebe, 208) that will be about Okonkwo’s death. In an effort to show how ignorant the Commissioner is, Achebe notes that Okonkwo’s life and death would be “a reasonable paragraph” (209) in the Commissioner’s book aptly named “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (209).

By including the Commissioner’s story, Achebe notes how fragile a single story is and how quickly it can be reformed. Fontana also notices the fragility and adaptability of a stereotype through his article, “The Jewish community in the United States has been changing, and who takes the court and the field has started to change in response.”(Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Achebe and Fontana, through their works set forth a complete stereotype, ultimately trying to create a permanent set of stories to represent a group.

Chinua Achebe's Yams....oh & Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, yams, a prominent vegetable, reappear a few, times to say the least, throughout the novel.

Yams, yams, yams. What the heck is with all of these yams? In this blog post I will trace the symbolism of the yams throughout the novel(or up to Chapter 19).

I have narrowed down a few themes to which the yams connect too: wealth, power, and celebrations/gatherings. 

As far as I have read, the amount of yams and how successful your crop is controls your wealth. Okonkwo, the protagonist in the novel, gains his title and status by planting a thunderous amount of viable yams. When Okonkwo gets exiled to his "motherland", his cousins "contributed three hundred seed yams to enable thier cousin[Okonkwo] to plant a farm"(130). Basically the cousins attributed and helped Okonkwo live prosperously. This would be a great system for the United States; where we can base wealth not on the qaulity of the car you own, but on the amount and condition of yams! Instead of the Big Mac Index it would be the Big Yam Index for world wealth.
Very similar to the concept of yams correlating to wealth, they can represent power. It is often that the amount of wealth can be proportionate to the power. Also the grandeur of a yam farm represents hard work, which is perceived as a manly characteristic in this book. Might I mention, that in Things Fall Apart women get little to no recognition. It is considered mocking and is looked down upon if you are called a women, or agbala.

Every time in the novel when people are gathering at a person's obi, or house, a yam foo-foo dish is made.

Above is a picture of yam foo foo. Often accompanied by a soup, yam foo foo is a puree of yams kneaded into a dough. 

When a women would make a yam dish, it would typically mean that there was company, an event, or a ceremony going to happen. At Obierika's, a friend of Okonknwos, daughter's bride-prince ceremony, "foo-foo was pounded in a hundred wooden mortars." (113). 

For your information, the word "yam(s)" are said about 100 times in the book! Yams are the most prominent crop and  it is not a vegetable to overlook in this novel!

Ken Robinson's TED talk: "How school kills creativity"

For this blog post, we were given the task of watching a TED talk and writing thoughts we had in response to the video.

Simply, I searched ‘popular TED talks’ into Google and stumbled upon a link to a YouTube video of a TED talk called "How school kills creativity". Like any other student, I gravitated towards this video because I can use it for reasons in the future for why I don't have to go to school:  My mom would ask, "Rachael, why aren't you going to school?" and I would obviously respond, "Because my creativity is low, school is killing it" HA-HA! 

Sir Ken Robinson in this video (see below) talks passionately about how school does not promote creativity like they do mathematics or English. He says that when kids go to school they grow out of their creativity. Interesting…

He defines creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.

One statement that stuck out to me was how he said that literacy is just as important as creativity. Later, he embellishes by stating that dance is as important as math. I love how simply,but potently he articulates those comparisons.

However much I want to agree with him, I cannot. Although I feel like some schools do put you into a cookie cutter situation of his learning hierarchy that he mentioned, the education that I have received, at least at my current school, is different.

Going to a unique private school, whose main focus is to prepare you for the future in the career path that best suits and interests you, this “dance being as important as math” statement has been a large part of the education that I receive. Proudly, I am not a dancer, or a singer, or even an actor, I play sports. The community at my school has really embraced who I am and has interlaced my talents and passions into my schoolwork. At the end of the school year, every student does a big project to show what they have accomplished in English class. The student can choose whatever topic and method to portray their work that they have done, relating to a common theme. Last year, I remember creating a presentation about the sports I play to present my work. 

I feel like the high school that I go to, does a fabulous job of embracing the creativity of students. We are allowed to follow whatever passion we may have and even do it with peer support.

Robinson did bring up other points on how the academic ability of students has engulfed our view of intelligence and I would like to end on a quote by Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 

Hamlet in.....THE FUTURE

Hello people of Earth. I come to you speaking from the planet Mars.
The year is 7098;
Space travel has now become as easy as driving to the supermarket, flying cars are a thing of the past, and
time travel has finally been invented by none other than Albert Einstein himself.
Earth has a slight resemblance to the scenery of "Meet the Robinsons".

Anyways......

For this blog post, we were assigned to recreate Hamlet in another setting. As you have probably guessed already, I chose (dun, dun, duuunnn) THE FUTURE.  

My new (maybe improved, however which way you see it) cast list would be the about the same, but they would have updated, more relevant attire. I was thinking:

---------or---------

Also, instead of Denmark being the thing that Claudius rules it will be the planet of Mars(it will be called Mars INC. and it will control all items pertaining to Mars).
Baby Fortinbras would be the ruler of Neptune and would would wage war with large blocks of space junk as ammo.
Horatio and Marcellus would be the trusty soldiers of Mars. They would look like the people from the movie "Tron" and even ride around on those cool motorcycles.
Instead of Hamlet going to college in Germany, he will now be going to college on Earth.

On Mars, I would imagine that the buildings would resemble those of the futuristic ones one Earth in the movie "Meet the Robinsons".  It would be even more updated, though:

If you want my opinion, I think that this version of Hamlet  is way more exciting. Here's a sample scene from the new play.

Act 2 Scene 2: when Hamlet is confronted by Polonius --
 In this part of the scene, Hamlet appears to be just looking straight ahead, but don't be fooled, Hamlet is reading through his invisible glasses. At this point I need to mention that everybody has a pair of iGlass (the newest thing made by Apple). They are basically a hearty combination of Google Glass and an iPhone. Here is a picture:

So, Hamlet is walking(more like jumping) through the anti-gravity hallway reading a book through his iGlass.
Meanwhile, Polonious, Claudius and Gertrude are huddled around a monitor waiting for Hamlet to be on-line for IM-ing. Of course he is everyday for four hours. Polonius IMs Hamlet and they have their conversation, like normal however, they use slang relevant to the era.
I also might add that to respond back to a message, you talk out loud and the iGlass will pick it up and type it back to the recipient. Onlookers might perceive this as crazy, just like Claudius did when Hamlet first showed him how to use it. Also, this is how Hamlet says his soliloquies. They are messages to himself....

I hope you enjoyed this futuristic interpretation of Hamlet. I am signing off, back to Mars I go!

"To be or not to be" Soliloquy

For this blog post, I found two videos from YouTube that portray Hamlet's soliloquy from Act 3 Scene 1 and compare/contrast them.
Yes, this is where Shakespeare writes, "To be or not to be - that is the question"(3.1.64).
Here are the videos that I found.

and...

Please watch both of these clips, they are not as boring as you would think. I enjoyed both!

I would like to notice that both of these videos have Hamlet talking in a soft voice. It was neat that they both had that element because it made the soliloquy about death quite eerie. Also, that was most likely a choice of both directors of the scenes (and quite possibly Shakespeare and Hamlet) so it is not as obvious that Hamlet is talking to himself, but more of 'thinking aloud'.

In the second video, I like how the actor quivers his lips as if he is having a hard time saying his lines because the topic of the soliloquy is not really happy and an easy thing to say especially when being a devout Christian like Hamlet.
I also like how dramatic and up-close the camera angles are. It seems as if you are really are inside Hamlet's thoughts.

In the first video, I really like how there is a mirror. It makes the scene seem even more dark and depressing, as if he is judging himself, if he is like a weak girl or not. And, spoiler alert(not if you did what I said and watched the videos), Hamlet pulls out a sword as if he is going to kill himself right there and then! This really adds to the dramatic-ness(sorry that is not a word) of the scene and the soliloquy.

Overall, I would have to say I liked the first video the most. The props and setting of the scene make it more dramatic and real to the viewer. I also enjoy how the camera slowly zooms in on Hamlet, it just makes it a lot more interesting to watch, instead of up-close-and-personal zoomed in all the way like the first video.

Oh and for your entertainment here is the "to be or not to be" soliloquy song!

Good-bye for now!

Revision of a Paragraph in our "Short Works Essay"

For this blog post, we are asked to revise a paragraph from our "Short Works Essay". My whole essay is posted on my blog a few posts down.

My original paragraph(directly from the essay):
                  As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how progress is halted when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tried to make progress, or evolve, his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “[doesn't] get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1).  George’s mental handicap limits his ability to form advanced thoughts that could and most likely will lead to progress, and his ear radio will always ruin and diffuse his potentially intelligent comment. Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects, especially no progress, which leaves them bewildered and perplexed when the handicaps disrupt relationships. Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps, in the form of relationships to mock the fact that handicaps, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, can break down relationships. Before people could understand what will happen when there is no progress, it starts to disrupt relationships.

My Revised Paragraph:                  
                 As the story progresses, the symbols come to represent the halting of progress, particularly when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tries to make progress, or evolve, his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “[doesn't] get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1). Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects. The most obvious side effect of the handicaps is progress halting.  Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps. Vonnegut makes Harrison one of the people who notice the burden of equality and how it can halt progress. To Vonnegut, the only way to break free of equality is to ultimately break down relationships.