https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8-6lAsuwFuOaTA5MkZYTWtfSHRWUmdQRThQZGNmUE1HQUFz/view?usp=sharing
Monday, September 28, 2015
Sunday, September 27, 2015
This is Water - David Foster Wallace
Task:
In his essay 'This is Water' David Foster Wallace suggests that true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic.
In his essay 'This is Water' David Foster Wallace suggests that true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic.
- How does he develop this thesis? What examples or evidence does he use? How does this theory extend or relate to our inquiry question? -How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?
In his piece of writing, 'This is Water', Wallace introduces his essay with the idea of fish questioning: "What the hell is water?", in order to provide creative stimuli for the readers. Wallace wants his readers to register the supposed simplicity that lies within the question ; how absurd it sounds once said out loud. More importantly he strived for readers to question what has brought us to this state of devaluing extremely relevant questions on the major components of our everyday life. His aim , however, is to raise consciousness on the actual complexity and depth within the concept of something as common as water. Using this rather simple example, he hints towards the bigger picture ; our lives.
Wallace emphasises that his essay doesn't concern itself with the questioning of what comes after death, rather what happens before. He develops his thesis of "true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic." in various ways. Pointing out that he's not the "wise old fish" which stands for someone who is an expert in their profession and more or less provides all the answers ; Wallace takes away that responsibility and the expectations the audience would have as they read his essay. He merely suggests his ideas and interpretations on how we could live our lives differently. Here, Wallace questions the validity of what people have to be doing by the age of 30 to 50 and how it leads us to interact differently with our environment. By being adjusted, Wallace means to say that one can mentally adjust themselves to any particular situation and chose to approach it with a different mind set. An example would be the mentioned one of being in the super market , starved and exhausted after a long hard day at work. Normally the individual would easily be irritated and start forming negative thoughts towards everyone and everything around them, shunning some for being loud and others for choosing to be in traffic at the same time. Here, Wallace explores one of the most common experiences that an adult may go through in their working career ; he challenges the concept of thinking negatively without questioning its origin. Perhaps every one around you could be just as annoyed by you and everyone or every thing else. People chose to let out their steam caused by self pity by producing even more negative thoughts towards everyone, without giving them any credit and possibly thinking of a valid reason as to why they behave as such. To try and become more aware of the people and their personal struggles around us, is to become more conscious and thus ; sympathetic in the sense that we begin to feel for those people and come up with reasonable circumstances that have lead them to the same location or situation as us.
The whole idea/purpose of the essay is to inflict within the readers a new way of thinking. It doesn't force, threaten or try to factually bombard us. It merely opens up into Wallace's creative mind, widening our understanding of the world and its possibilities.The readers are brought in touch with an uncommon but more the brilliant way of viewing ourselves and everything around us. His essay answers the inquiry question by enabling readers to develop emotional intelligence ; read people's emotions and interpret them positively. To adopt a more critical way of thinking and perhaps question many other concepts. Lastly, Wallace's essay brings attention to our ability to take control of our emotions in a variety of situations that we can not control or avoid. He suggests that it is better to manipulate ones own thoughts through adjustment and consciousness to make the best of every situation.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Alice Munro - Literature reflection
Literature is a relevant aspect of people who wish to be educated in the language department. It can not be avoided as it frames and builds the base of any language. Through stories, songs, tales, novels, poems, letters etc, we have created more sophisticated ways to use language. It is an extremely diverse field of an infinite amount of sources that record humanity; our experiences in many different forms, imaginary stories to tell, inspirational inventions to keep track of etc. The benefit of mastering Literature is to be acutely aware of a language's core. One can't study a language without its literal aspects and expect to fully comprehend its depth and components. In essence, Literature is what brings you closer to a language by being able to identify the strategy that lies behind a well written novel, let alone being able to recognise one. It is a skill that allows you to analyse people and their body language, understanding their feelings and emotions and being able to predict certain events.
Women's literature, quite literally, is Literature that centrals around women and their experiences within the "male dominated world." Many ponder on the fact that there is no "mens literature". This is simply because men are largely to be found to be dominant characters in every piece of literature ; also to be found in women's literature. Women's literature can vary greatly , ranging from very focused pieces that directly address the issue of sexism in different areas , but can also be found in a story were those issues are subtly hidden beneath the ordinary lives of the characters , or expressed through a theme . It not only serves to raise consciousness on women being oppressed, ignored, left behind and degraded in every possible way. In reality, what most women and female authors want , is to simply star as a main character in a novel or poem. They wish to create their own world wherein they can express themselves without the biased male influence holding them back. Of course many pieces will have bias within them due to the absence of a male character , yet this type of behaviour is clearly evident within many pieces written primarily by males. It is important for people to be familiar with women's literature and pick up on the differences of writing style ; on how women prioritise female characters, describe events and experiences differently. This is of substance as it provides insight into all possible ways in which literature can be expressed, since it is assumed that everyone is familiar with many literature pieces that've been written by male authors.
Alice munro ; famous for her condensed but exquisite short stories, doesn't identify as a feminist writer but has, without a doubt, contributed to the gender equality issue within Literature. Her stories tend to target women of all kinds and their exposure to the world , as viewed by Munro. What is interesting to pick up on is the fact that the majority of her male characters serve as the villains of the story that seem to carry all the fault there is to have in the world on their shoulders. She displays this with discreet remarks here and there, subtle changes in the story and sometimes very straight forward. Her work provides a voice to many silenced women from many generations and the brilliance lies within the simplicity of those stories that somehow manage to capture the heart of every reader that can relate. She has mastered the skill to turn ordinary life experiences into radiant pieces of work that enhance the beauty that can be found in every so ordinary seeming life. Her themes and values exhibited through her stories were relatively significant during the 1950s till the 1990s as that is where the second wave of feminism took place , a more organised and strategic female force that demanded equality in every aspect there was. Society's expectations of how a woman should behave were shunned and munro's stories reinforced those needs.
I mostly enjoyed the way in which Munro managed to notice the beauty that lies behind every persons struggle in life, whether it be a man or a woman's and express that through characters that appear to have existed forever, their characteristics so common they might as well be real. That, to me, was her key to success. It has definitely expanded my taste in literature as I generally don't enjoy short stories, let alone the ones that capture ordinary activities. Many of those often made me cringe at their pathetic attempt to turn those stories into something worth my while , but Munro actually captured the core of every one of her stories, creating master pieces.
Women's literature, quite literally, is Literature that centrals around women and their experiences within the "male dominated world." Many ponder on the fact that there is no "mens literature". This is simply because men are largely to be found to be dominant characters in every piece of literature ; also to be found in women's literature. Women's literature can vary greatly , ranging from very focused pieces that directly address the issue of sexism in different areas , but can also be found in a story were those issues are subtly hidden beneath the ordinary lives of the characters , or expressed through a theme . It not only serves to raise consciousness on women being oppressed, ignored, left behind and degraded in every possible way. In reality, what most women and female authors want , is to simply star as a main character in a novel or poem. They wish to create their own world wherein they can express themselves without the biased male influence holding them back. Of course many pieces will have bias within them due to the absence of a male character , yet this type of behaviour is clearly evident within many pieces written primarily by males. It is important for people to be familiar with women's literature and pick up on the differences of writing style ; on how women prioritise female characters, describe events and experiences differently. This is of substance as it provides insight into all possible ways in which literature can be expressed, since it is assumed that everyone is familiar with many literature pieces that've been written by male authors.
Alice munro ; famous for her condensed but exquisite short stories, doesn't identify as a feminist writer but has, without a doubt, contributed to the gender equality issue within Literature. Her stories tend to target women of all kinds and their exposure to the world , as viewed by Munro. What is interesting to pick up on is the fact that the majority of her male characters serve as the villains of the story that seem to carry all the fault there is to have in the world on their shoulders. She displays this with discreet remarks here and there, subtle changes in the story and sometimes very straight forward. Her work provides a voice to many silenced women from many generations and the brilliance lies within the simplicity of those stories that somehow manage to capture the heart of every reader that can relate. She has mastered the skill to turn ordinary life experiences into radiant pieces of work that enhance the beauty that can be found in every so ordinary seeming life. Her themes and values exhibited through her stories were relatively significant during the 1950s till the 1990s as that is where the second wave of feminism took place , a more organised and strategic female force that demanded equality in every aspect there was. Society's expectations of how a woman should behave were shunned and munro's stories reinforced those needs.
I mostly enjoyed the way in which Munro managed to notice the beauty that lies behind every persons struggle in life, whether it be a man or a woman's and express that through characters that appear to have existed forever, their characteristics so common they might as well be real. That, to me, was her key to success. It has definitely expanded my taste in literature as I generally don't enjoy short stories, let alone the ones that capture ordinary activities. Many of those often made me cringe at their pathetic attempt to turn those stories into something worth my while , but Munro actually captured the core of every one of her stories, creating master pieces.
Monday, September 7, 2015
I have chosen option one of our CAP activity. The task requires me to build the stages of a successful short story.
The theme: Trust
Some background information:
The following short story will concern itself with the life of a young woman, Amy, and the conflict she is faced with. The plot of the story circles around Amy having found sickening pictures of tortured people with missing limbs and in revolting conditions in her boss's office. Towards the end of the story, a turn of events will take place and present every character in a different light.Clearly she links these images with her Boss's often aggressive personality that she has to bear with in order to keep her job.
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