Monthly Archives: February 2020

For it to be considered a “Great Work,” in my opinion, the literary piece must have a message that had its fair share of aging through time but is still considered valid today. In that case, Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man” delivers exactly that. From start to finish, Pope’s philosophical take on the relationship between man and the universe on his first epistle was a very challenging yet interesting piece to read. Various allusions and references of different contexts to God and the bible left me confused and wondering what they meant so I had to reread a line over and over again until I got the idea. In this work, Pope argues that Man “[p]erhaps acts second to some sphere unknown” (line 58). At first, the message he is trying to convey wasn’t clear to me. Reading it for the first time left me with more questions than answers. In all honesty, his use of deep English words and historical references did not make it easier for me to enjoy such a relatively wonderful piece of literature, but the poetic lines kept me engaged throughout. As an avid reader, these left me clueless, so I thought initially that he is probably just illustrating that Man is second only to and created by God because of his references to the Garden of Eden, the Angels, and the Natural Order. The second time around, however, made me realize that the message he is trying to tell his readers is that man is ignorant of his place as a piece of a bigger machine called the universe and the natural order. Philosophically, this holds value to me as it made me think about life in general and the rapid technological advancement that has been happening both in Pope’s time and in today’s society, and so I asked myself: If Man is indeed a part of a bigger picture and second only to God, then doesn’t technological advancement impede the natural order as we become enslaved to it, and thus, artificial intelligence, if made self-conscious and power-hungry, as seen in movies such as I Robot and Ex Machina, would be the new God? Mind-boggling, I know, but you can’t deny that this may be true. I don’t know about you but removing technology in this generation and the future so the Natural Order is satisfied would mean going back to the primitive era, and I don’t want to be another Mr. Flintstone.

“Bewitched,” by Ueda Akinari, is an interesting piece of literature for me because it really touches upon something much deeper than a man’s attraction to beauty, instead on how beauty, and as an extension women, are perceived by society. This is a “Great Work” because it illustrates how people thought and may still think today. The foundation of this writing is about a guy who is too weak so he listens to everything a woman says just because she’s beautiful. This is something that’s always showcased in the media as if being beautiful is a bad thing. These people are dangerous and we should be wary of them. This perception of women has existed forever or at least it seems that way. I’m not sure if this is specifically an Asian thing but in the society that I was raised in, I always heard about situations like this. The idea is that men will give up everything when a woman enters their life. Basically, you allow this lady to control everything in your life and you don’t care about anything else. They will soil your family relationships and keep a firm grip on you so she is the only one who is important. I’ve even heard my family members saying things like “he is good now but wait until he gets married and then we’ll see.” And in all honesty, I have witnessed guys that got married and then became a completely different person because of their wives but I don’t think that a women thing, I think that what happens when a weak person gets married with a controlling one. This exact same thing happens visa versa but then it is not looked at as a problem but just men being men. I don’t think this writing is bad for illustrating this perspective but instead, that’s what I think makes it interesting. I am able to connect with it more hence get a better understanding of the text as a whole.

I’d like to share my thoughts about Tartuffe by Moliere. It’s the first drama that I completely read in English. At first, I was surprised by how long it was. But as I read it, I found the story quite interesting and profound. The personality of each character is very vivid and easy to tell. For example, Dorine is brave and cheerful, she says whatever she thinks, even though her role as a maid may not allow her to do so. Orgon is autocratic at first, but he changes his mind at last. More importantly, although Moliere may exaggerate a little bit when he creates these characters, we can actually find many people similar to these characters in our real life. And I suppose this is the reason why this drama is considered as a “Great Work” —-it originates from our life but is above our life. In reality, I came across some people really like Tartuffe. Even though the people I met had no relation with religion, they did show their hypocrisy when they pretended to be sympathy and warm-hearted to give others a hand but actually only wanted to be worshiped by others and even aimed at the long-term gain after giving this generous help. The value that this text offers me involves we should be kind to others, not hypocrisy; we should argue for our own right and freedom even though we might meet some problems and we cannot only look at the appearance of superficiality of people and things, instead, we should look inside to the truth and consider other people’s opinions. One thing really interests me, and I am still trying to figure out is that why Orgon is totally attracted by Tartuffe and gives him blindly trust? I think Moliere doesn’t explain this issue very clearly. He only mentions that Orgon is captivated by the way Tartuffe “humbly bowed and kissed the floor” and “takes the gift and shares it with the poor”. But I think all these descriptions are not enough to solve this puzzle. Can merely these “kind” movements make a man gives out all his trust and even his wealth to a stranger even though his family all oppose him? I think this is not only unreasonable but also preposterous. But perhaps this is how the drama differs from the real life. The emphasis is on the argument that the drama makes and the value that it reveals, not some illogical details.

For the first of this semester’s three reading response assignments, please select one of the works we have read together thus far and compose a 300-500 word (1-2 page) response to the following simple prompt?

Do you consider this text to be a “Great Work”?

Use this question as your jumping-off point, but feel free to follow your own thought process where it leads. Your task here is not to assess the text from a literary historical perspective, but rather to offer your own informal, subjective reaction to your own reading experience. Some questions you might want to consider are: To what extent does the text offer something of value to you? Can you connect it to your own lived experience or to other texts (books, film, television) you know? What was your immediate response to the text when you first read it?

Your response should be posted to the course blog as an independent post, not as a comment attached to this post. To receive credit for this assignment, you must post your response by midnight on Sunday, March 1st.

1.  What is the narrator’s purpose in writing these “confessions”?  How do you know?

2.  For Rousseau, what is the relationship between feeling and thinking?

3.  How does Rousseau describe his childhood?  What significance can we draw from this description

4. Why do you think Rousseau chooses to include the anecdote about stealing from his employer?

5. Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?

Hi everyone! My name is Haaris Qureshi and I am currently a junior transfer student. I transferred from St. John’s University in Queens in order to pursue a BBA at Baruch. At St. John’s University I was at first an accounting student, then I switched majors to cyber security with a business minor. Now that I am at Baruch, I am a cyber security and risk management major and am starting to adjust. I am currently 20 years old and have lived my entire life in New York. I attended two different high schools in my life because I used to live in Queens but during the summer of my freshman year of high school, my family moved from Queens to Suffolk County in Long Island. The two high schools I attended were Queens Preparatory Academy on the Springfield Gardens High School campus and Farmingdale High School.

I currently live with my parents and have three dogs named Coco, Lacey, and Blue. Coco and Lacey are both golden-doodles while Blue is a Husky. My family as never really one to get pets as I never had a single pet other than maybe a fish in my entire life; then we saw theses dogs that were in need and rescued them and it was one of the most worthwhile things that we ever did! I feel like I have definitely become more responsible.

I always enjoyed writing because once I start writing, it becomes easy for m to continue writing but starting is a very hard point for me. I struggle with starting because I sometimes don’t know what direction I want my writing to go in and get in a little over my head. Other than that, I enjoy reading and I hope to be able to improve my writing and learn more about world literaure.

1. Why do you think Toyo-o continues to be involved with Manago even after he suspects that she is a demon of some sort?
2. Why do you think people (both in the 18th century, when Akinari was writing, and in our own day) are attracted to ghost stories or tales of the supernatural?
3. Does “Bewitched” have anything to teach its readers? If so, what? What is Akinari’s message in this text?
4. The text describes Manago as”bewitchingly voluptuous.” What does Akinari’s representation of Manago tell us about feminine beauty?

Hi everyone, my name is Rishi and I am a transfer student at Baruch College. I transferred from Stony Brook University and this is my first semester at Baruch. Currently. Many of you may be asking why I left Stony Brook University when it is a well-known and accredited university in New York. I left because I no longer wanted to pursue my major in Biomedical Engineering and wanted to pursue a business degree in Digital Marketing. Baruch College is a far better business school than Stony Brook so it was the best option for me to transfer. I only attended Stony Brook for one semester as a freshman.

Hi everyone, my name is Ali Zandani. I’m a sophomore at Zicklin school of business and recently transferred from laguardia community college where I was majoring in business administration. Currently, I’m pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marketing management. I’m originally from Yemen. And I know most of you don’t know where Yemen is. It’s in the Middle East. I came to the United States at the age of 11 with my whole family. And I’m really lucky that I came to the United States in 2010 because a year after I left Yemen, a revolution started and that’s when the Arab spring began. I came from a small village so New York was totally a new experience for me. I never knew what city life was like until I came to NY. And of course I came to the United States to look for a better life since the It has a lot of opportunities. I had difficulty communicating with people because of the language barrier. I went to middle school here for 2 years and another 4 years In High school. It was really fun experience as I was learning the language and adjusting my accent. It took me two to three years to learn the language and then another few years to kinda speak it fluently. Furthermore, I love listening to different types of music. I love exercising whenever I have free time because it relieves my stress and  keeps me in shape. I love communicating with different people and learn about different cultures. I also love traveling.

As of my future goals, after graduating from Baruch with a bachelor degree in business. I will be going into real estate. Doing real estate in New York is a Win Win. Also, I might be getting my masters degree in petroleum engineering. I know it is off track but I have been thinking about it. If I’m going to do petroleum engineering for my masters degree, I will try to help my country because it’s really rich in natural resources like oil and gas.