There was one painting that I was interested in MoMA today.

The name is Panting, 4 by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde who was born in India. This painting made me feel calm and peaceful at first since I was a little tired of studying for the final exams. And I also started feeling depressed from this painting due to the dark colors and some objects that are blurred beyond recognition in the painting.

In the 1950s, with much of Europe in ruins after World War 2 and numerous countries facing the challenges of rebuilding during and after periods of civil unrest, artist around the globe began to look beyond traditional forms and to develop new stakes for art. And I assume that this painting represents the nature destroyed in India. The British Empire in India is the most striking example in the history of the world of the domination of a vast territory and they destroyed India’s. In this painting, there is nothing else except for a few objects which are colored by some dark colors. And those colors make me feel gloomy and the sadness of India at that time. For example, the dark, dull blue color at the center of painting looks like a bruise on their breast and the background which is colored by ocher expresses the land that is empty and useless because of the British.

This assignment is pretty fun since the story is not only interesting, but very relevant to Freud’s Family Romance. We can see that the boy whose name is Colonel Sartoris Snopes hates his father from most of the story. He calls his father as “our enemy” and says that “He aims for me to lie…again with that frantic grief and despair.” The boy also describes his father as an incompetent and ignoble person by mentioning that “the stiff back, the stiff and ruthless limp” and “If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again.” The boy does do whatever his father orders because he is quite afraid of his father’s physical force. It shows family romance as the any event which make him feel dissatisfied afford him provocation for beginning to criticize his father, in order to support his critical attitude. The knowledge which he has acquired that other parents are in some respects preferable to them. (Jensen’s ‘Gradiva’ and Other Works)

He also hates his sisters a lot. In contrast, he describes his mother as a weak and nice person. We can see that his mother cares about the boy a lot whenever he gets a hurt. This relationship among the boy and family also expresses the family romance that the boy has no hesitation in attributing to his mother as many fictitious love-affairs as he himself has competitors while his sisters are eliminated by being bastardized.

However, boy respects his father and believes that his father is brave after he escapes his family at the end of the story. And it tells a mature part of family romance that he puts effort at replacing the real father by a superior one is only an expression of his longing for the happy, vanished days when his father seemed the noblest and strongest.

I totally agree with the quotation that we are the words ; we are the music; we are the thing itself. The world is connected with people’s mixed feelings and emotions and it again makes this world. We can find this in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. This novel mingles several people and their feelings towards each other.  It makes us feel that there is another world in this novel.

They are many characters in this novel and the characters interact with each other and it makes a small world. First, Mrs. Dalloway who is a main character is confused who I am and was. It seems that her world is perfect because she has enough money that she can throw a party every day and also has a perfect husband. But she was confused who she really is because she realizes that she lives in her husband’ world, such as that everyone thinks that she is Mr. Dalloway’s wife, not Classia. And her husband, Richard Dalloway is the one whom almost all women is desired to get married to. He holds a government post, is gentle, and a quite person. However, his style of living is not quite the same as her style of living. She wants to live in a safe environment, but her deep inside desires adventures like a girl.

There is another character whose name is Septimus Warren Smith. He commits suicide at the end and has never met up with Mrs. Dalloway but Mrs. Dalloway feels something from his suicide. It seems that he just “dies” but she feels he finally reaches “freedom” from the death.

There are more people around Mrs. Dalloway and they come together and interact with each other, like Mrs. Dalloway feels that Septimus reaches a freedom from his death and finally it makes a small world.

Haein was walking to the 86st train station in the morning as same as usual. People seemed to be very busy and no one talked while walking on the street and riding in the train. They are very sensitive especially 8 o’clock in the morning. There is no yield at the train. Most of people try to find seats instead of offering their seats. This time was no exception. She hit one woman’s arm by mistake. Even though Haein said she was sorry about that, the woman was still angry. Actually she didn’t expect that the woman would say that she was fine. So she ignored whatever the woman said and kept listening to music like nothing happened.

Then, she got off the train at 42^nd street to transfer to take the N train to school. She saw one Chinese guy who played a Chinese traditional instrument while she was waiting for the N train. The Chinese instrument which is Erhu sounded very beautiful and unique. However, people didn’t seem interested in the music due to lack of sleep or personal reasons. Although the song was great, Haein felt that the music was too loud compared to other day. Presumably she was also sleepy and tired. And she found that there was one person who was enjoying the music. He is a homeless guy. The Chinese musician didn’t care that only one person was listening his music and played the Erhu with deep emotion for one audience. She felt something weird at that time but the train came so she took and went to school like nothing happened.

The biggest surprsie in the film is that the role of woman does not change, even across countries. The film Birth of a Nation shows a slave named Esther who was raped and has all of her emotions communicated through facial expressions.  She has no lines dialogue in the film. It also happened in Asia a lot in the past, or even in some rural areas today. A long time ago, men considered women as their possession and not as humans. A man chose a woman when they married and a woman had to be silent, even if their husband had affairs with other women. Polygamy is also still acceptable in some countries now. I believe women have been suppressed and unfairly discriminated against within many fields of society. For example the glass ceiling  barrier that prevents women from reaching the executive suite. I question that there are many films and histories regarding racism and freedom where men were running things. But what about women’s rights or the things that women were or are running? There are tons of unbelievable and unacceptable discrimination against women, some of which protect violence and female genital mutilation all over the world.

I was really shocked by the scene where one of the masters called Mr. Severe whips a woman and it causes the blood to run for half an hour at the time from the Douglass autobiography. I cannot even imagine this scene and believe it actually happened at that time. Birth of a Nation and Douglass’s autobiography strongly show how weak women were during that time and how cruel human beings can be as well.

I assume that the creature is more like “Blake’s Tyger”. It might seem that the Creature was born innocent, naïve and free of guilt as George said, but I have a question here : Does the Creature have any beauties in his appearance? The birth of the creature is depicted as a catastrophe from the creator in the novel. The creator of Frankenstein was disgusted with the creature and rushed out of the room. Everyone is love and blessed from their family when they are born. Even if they are abandoned by their family, they find a friend or a partner and share thoughts and feelings in their life once at least. However, because of the creature’s hideous appearance he never makes a friend and even stays away from human in his whole life. People fear the creature and we can feel the fear in Blake’s Tyger as well. Moreover, we feel sympathize with the creature because he is mistreated by society and he cannot even achieve a simple dream such as a marriage in his life. In the poem, Black asks that deity could have created fearful symmetry such as a tiger and says, “When the stars threw down their spears/ And water’d heaven with their tears/ Did he smile his work to see?/ Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” as if the creature would speak and think. The sad creature with no friend; He has always been an outcast, unwanted and alone and finishes his life by committing suicide.

Therefore, I assumes the creature is more like Blake’s Tyger!

In our hectic daily life, we start out days with social media, lists of tasks to be done by the day and talking with family on the phone while checking our email. We easily forget who we really are. We pass by so many important things that may seem trivial to others such as the nature surrounding us and the messages we receive from our parents back in Korea. The messages from our parents can be as simple as them saying “I love you” or “Hello”. I quite often go to Central Park to get away from the hectic day by reading or taking a nap. I am always impressed of the beautiful nature in this big city.

I took this picture in Central Park under a tree. I still remember when I went to Central Park for the first time. It was ironic that there was a huge park in a very complex city with soaring skyscrapers and I really loved that. Whenever I go there, the people in the park look so free and full of happiness without any distress and it makes me calm, take my mind off things and purity my spirit. The nature found in the park such as trees, grasses, small lakes and wind gives me strength and I feel alive when I am exhausted from work and study. Everything around me such as the nature and people are beautiful and sublime and I am thankful that I can feel this.

It seems like the last day on earth, where there is nothing but a destroyed landscape, bare trees, leafless branches and a few people remaining on the painting. I cannot even tell whether it is daytime or not. The view of the sand on the ground reflects the destruction of the buildings and makes us think about all the death and chaos. We can only see a few trees in the graveyard. All of the emotions we feel about the painting are despair, powerless, fear and sorrow. It shows that human beings are helpless. The only thing human can do is prey there. And it makes us feel increasingly desperate. Because it seems that there is no God who helps humans on the painting. The reflection of abbey on the window mirrors the outside landscape. Yet it seems that people are heading to the abbey without even knowing the true.

However, we assume that it may be a miracle that humans are alive there. People are gathered in the abbey, and even if they don’t know each other, they might help, share love and rely on each other later. And they will make a miracle as if they are alive in the waste land.

Overall, even though the shadow of death hung upon on the painting, we can assume that the humans on the bottom will overcome difficulties and create a better world.

We humans have a deeply curious about everything, nature around us. This curiosity is important to develop our culture and lives – Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, they are all curious characters. Because of this curiosity, we make stories, tell them and finally come up with something based on the curiosity. For example, people made the Greek and Roman mythology by looking at the stars that were scattering in the night sky, and drew imaginary lines between those stars and imagined them as beings a scorpion, crab, goat, fish, twins, the Virgin… And attached names: Aldebaran, Cassiopeia, Danu, Hamal, Orion, Southern Cross, the Plow… They also shared and told the stories that they made each other. They built some temples based on the mythology by the story, and it improved their architectural skills as well. And the tradition based in a mythical realm with the background of an epic world, is now carried on by theater, novels and film. The story that we make recently is more focused on the science stuff such as SF film. And the fantastical work of science fiction does happen in real life now. So, we can see that the form of knowledge comes from our curiosity and the idea of fiction.

Many moons ago, human made stories and told them to overcome uncertainty and fear. Following “Story” from Hasif Amin, people tell a story, so that we understand why and how this world as created, who our ancestors were and where they came from, so that we understand where we are and where we may be going. I agree with her opinion.  As I said earlier at the first paragraph, the reason why we tell stories is because of the curiosity, and might be the fear that they’ve never have an experience. Sometimes, inspirational stories such as God help human overcome fear for real as well. Overall, the reason why people make stories and tell them is not only to overcome the fear but also the curiosity that they’ve never have an experience.

Enlightenment movement happened all over the world to recover human, women and child rights. As the Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas that we read, there are obvious conflicts with the ideas in the period and their historical context. Speaking of women rights, in the seventeenth-century, among the privileged classes, men had many opportunities: for education, for service in the government or diplomacy while women solely did childbearing and childrearing, and some woman, who were even in the upper classes, had fewer opportunities for education and occupation beyond the household. Not only the opportunities, the people even thought if God had given all human reason, then women just as entitled to develop and exercise their minds as their male counterparts (p.7).

In spite of the discrimination between males and females, by the late seventeenth century women began writing novels, their books were widely read by men and women alike. The thoughts people considered women to be the male counterparts prevailed in Asia too. Yet the time women started writing books differed from~. It took place in mid-20 century in Asia. For example, there was a women who wrote a novel in the early 20 century in Korea, but her books could not be published just because the writer was woman. From this perspective, the enlightenment movement in Europe and the Americas happened very earlier than Asia.

Also, we can see the Civil war in England as the enlightenment movement. It happened in Korea and China as well after the early 20th century especially during the period of Japanese colonial. Lu xun from China and Lee, Guang Soo from Korea, who were the celebrated writers, led to the philosophy of enlightenment by publishing several books that enlightened people’s thoughts.

Like Descartes said that I am thinking, therefore I exists, the enlightenment would be continued unless people stop to think.