Category: Uncategorized

The meaning of New Year is distorted in China in Lu Xu’s age when people believe in ghosts, but they do not understand the real mysterious meaning of soul. They were just afraid of ghosts would take the personal fortune from them. The most important thing they asked for is their self-interests. It is bitter for me to see that the lives of humans were meaningless to others, when they ask for fortunes by the name of sacrifice. The death of a human was thought to be evil if it happened at the time of New Year; in other words, people should be blamed if they died then.

When the dehumanization becomes the customs, it is a world full of walking corpses. Few people care and console Xianglin’s wife for her loss of her husband son; they set themselves aside and look her as a crazy widow. As a woman lost all of her dependencies and lovers, if there were any help and understanding, the life for her should not be that misery. The treatments towards Xianglin’s wife is much similar towards and animals for sacrifice. What is the difference between human and animal here? The tragedy of Xianglin’s wife is the tragedy of we human being.

 

0:00-2:08

“Some of the Beauties which indeed are finely shaped, as almost all are, and who have pretty Features, are very charming and novel, for they have all that is called beauty, except the Color, which is a reddish Yellow or after a new Oiling, which they often use to themselves, they are of the color of a new Brick, but smooth, soft and sleek.”

“I have named the highest Degree of Love; for sure, great Souls are most capable of that passion.”

What does color mean to us? Why do we always judge others from their appearance? What is love? What it the deep of slavery?

The book OROONOKO represents the content regarding values of beauty, love, honor, and reveals the slavery issues. I was inspired many times by the pure idea when soaking myself into the book. It is so beautiful when Oroonoko and Imoinda keep their dignity and humanity when facing the forces and custom. They believe reasoning, justice, liberty, freedom and the feeling of love. The combination of Romance and Realism make the book a great adventure. At the same time, as the author Aphra Behn mentions at the beginning that “Though I shall omit, for Brevity’s sake, a thousand little Accidents of his Life, which, however pleasant to us, where History was scared, a World where he finds Diversions for every Minute, new and strange”, the deep issues under the surface is complicated, which we as human still fight to solve like the pursuit of freedom and happiness.

“No Age or Wrinkles should incline him to change, for her Soul would be always fine, and always young; and he should have an eternal Idea in his Mind of the Charms she now bore, and should look into his Heart for that Idea, when he could find it no longer in her Face.”

I understand how hard it is in reality to find and maintain the purity of our humanity in a world with invisible corruption. It is easy to become rigid for the public.  I was persuaded to believe the life should be boring and compromise by the name of Grown-up. Being like Oroonoko, there should be courage, deep belief and pure honor.

1:39:49-1:43:20

“Be calm! I entreat you to hear me, before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend for it.”                                                               – VOLUME II, CHAPTER II

In the first part of this book, I do not see many direct descriptions of this “monster”, which is more like an imagination lives in Frankenstein’s fears. Finally, the “monster” met Frankenstein and beg him to listen to his story before destroying him.

When I listened to his arguments and story, and I tried to understand his feelings and inner mind, I both happily and pitifully found out that how pure and lovely this creature is. I do not see a monster at all.

Without love and guidance, his journey began with darkness and confusion; he seeks light and happiness as we all human do. However, his experience is determined to be more challenging and heart-broken. Nobody tells him how to see, hear and feel this world; nobody accepts him, loves him or teaches him. How easy it is for him to be lost and depraved! But, he does not set aside and let the fate destroys himself.

Due to his inhuman appearance, he was treated as a devil by his creator and all the people except a blind old man and a little girl. Despite all of the despair and unfairness, he still appreciates sincerely the view of happiness of this cottage family. So limited the pleasure is that he enjoys much.

“Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.” “I would remain in my hovel, watching, and endeavouring to discover the motives which influenced their actions.” What I see is his pure curiosity towards this world and eagerness for love and understanding. My dear “monster”, you do nothing wrong; you are a guiltless child in my eyes. Please accept and love yourself no matter how the world see you; please keep your warmth and compassion; please explore who you are in your deep heart and embrace it.

All the family members and Gregor Sama himself think the transformation happens instantaneously as an accident; however, there is always underlying risks causing this transformation that Gregor was exhausted of his dreary work, but he has to work because so many family members depend on his income.

Money seems to the most important and only concern in this family including Gregor himself.  Gregor is more regarded as an instrument rather than a beloved family member. I am wondering without this physical transformation, would everything keep going as usual? Would all the family members live in peace with themselves? I am afraid the answer is no. “What a demanding job I’ve chosen!” “This getting up early makes a man quite idiotic. A man must have his sleep.” He began psychological transformation much earlier than the physical transformation. This physical transformation is an undeniable time for all the people in his family to break their living patterns and force Gregor to stop his actions. I think if we are against our true will, the physical world would undoubtedly make us experience disasters whether through sickness, transformation or any other kind of accidents.

“Still, who knows whether that mightn’t be really good for me.” I am so sad to read this sentence. Gregor has already expressed his true feelings towards this job, which he thinks is meaningless and exhausting; but he must persuade himself to believe there is possibly a good reason for him to keep doing it. He could not allow himself to be fully genuine to himself due to too many standards and pressures from the world out of him.

2:04 – 5:15

In this video, Professor Bernstein provides introductions and guidance about reading Bartleby. What really interests me is that she poses a series of questions that readers may not be conscious of during reading, which are not only about the characters’ characteristics but also about readers themselves’ thinking process. For example, “Do you feeling frustrated when reading this story? “”What expectation do you have when entering into stories?” “what sort of message the story is conveying?”

I agree with her idea that the writer Herman Melville questioned people’s ability to really know anyone else. In Bartleby, few people have interests to understand Bartleby, like the narrator; most of them have never tried to know more about Bartleby’s inner world. The presupposition of knowing anyone else is the motivation to know about him/her; however, individuals are too busy to spend their time on others. Everybody is controlled by some kind of powers to work unconsciously. Even for people like the narrator who has interests and tries to know Bartleby, it is sad that Bartleby does not want to say anything about himself and the reason behind his “I preferred not to.” In reality, when people who are willing to tell his or her stories and when listeners have interests in the stories, there is still a gap between speakers and listeners due to many causes like empathy capability, personal experience and so on. Actually, I did not have the feeling of frustration when reading this story like the professor raised. I allow my incompetence, and I accept that human is mysterious.

This video also provides an important logic that readers should apprehend this story, from different perspectives and various standpoints, setting aside biases and presupposed views. The narrator thought himself is mercy and kind enough, but what is real intent behind his action? Is it based on the pure ethnic or other benefit-cost analysis? Does Bartleby behave so because of his firm stand of fear of change? All the questions or assumptions, I believe nobody could have a certain answer including the characters themselves.

The plot is kind of absurd; however, it is a miniature of the modern world. Everyone is restrained is this or that domination, none truly enjoys freedom from his or her bottle of heart. Maybe the happiest moment for Bartleby is when he died and he could finally do something he prefers to do.

The development in this great work is magnificent and intense; however, this song is super relaxing and light, I chose it mainly because I enjoy its rhythm and melody the first time I heard it.

This song is compromised iconic scenes in Don Quixote. The symbols in Don Quixote, like the horse, windmills and books, could be references in both Chivalrous ages, the 20th century when the song was written, or today.

“He is wild but he is mellow; he is strong but he is weak; he is cruel but he is gentle; he is wise but he is meek.” The lyrics show how controversial Don Quixote is. He embraces so many characteristics, and I think he is a real human with beliefs in honor and love. I highly admire idealist who has the pure sense of calling and extraordinary courage especially in this materialism modern society that we are more focusing on the benefits and costs. Idealism makes Don Quixote happy, and it is the reason for him to live.

It is after all the weird behaviors of Don Quixote, ups and downs of plots that we readers came back to ponder who is Don Quixote in our mind. This is not a tragedy but a comic, when Don Quixote fights with the windmill, I believe he has a sense of fulfillment, which is the reason Don Quixote lives for. This comic in some way I view it as a tragedy since Don Quixote he denied all his deeds and chivalry before his death.

0:48 – End

 

The reciter is a good performer when she was asked to read the poem using different tones, like anger or depression. Without questioning, she performs quite real. Lastly and finally, she was told ” let’s do honest. Just be you.”

After seconds of interval, she represented the poem applying her own feeling and understanding. It is not easier than performing under certain commands, I guess. Those seconds maybe like Whitman said, “give me a little time beyond my cuffed head and slumbers and dreams and gaping”.

“I discover myself on a verge mistake of the usual mistake.” During the dark moments, it is easy to get lost and scared; it is the feeling of getting down and down without the hope of raising. It is effortless to work harder, and painfully to look the self.

Just stop! Forgive yourself. The moment we collapse is the moment we rebuild. The moment we rebuild, I hope it is the moment we could be closer to self. If not, we are bound to experience more collapses. And we will finally regain courage, happiness and love for life as you recognize, accept and appreciate self as a masterpiece. If not, please believe it will come; please treat self mercifully.

The body was stunned in the world of thing; then, I need to separate myself to find myself back and regain the harmony in the heart. Let’s look beyond the body through the soul, and then talk to self and connect to self. It is an adventure and life-long topic to discover ourselves, especially when we are not independent enough to confront the world filled with noisy voices and judgments. It is extremely confusing when you are eager to be yourself when you are not familiar with yourself.

“The whirling and whirling is elemental within me”, the last sentence of verse 37, which I appreciate, illuminate the essence of life. The whirling and whirling is elemental within humans, and we have left proofs in the history.

0:50-3:35

“The most difficult thing in the play is to make Cordelia saying ‘nothing’ makes sense,” says the director Sam Mendes, “since something would be much easier to tell him she loves him.” He adds that “Lear had not heard the word ‘no’ for 20 years.” Sam indicates the confusion the audience may have. The actor who portrays Cordelia gives her interpretation that Cordelia knew how great Lear was once and that had disappeared as he became more dictatorial. Cordelia firmly believed the right thing is not to flatter her father and she was not going to play the game.

As a collection of commentaries, across fragments of performance on the stage, this video impresses me with plentiful different perspectives towards the great work of King Lear. The actors and actress portray vivid images based on their comprehension and imagination of the characters; as a result, they are likely to feel their own characters’ feelings on the stage. Through listening to their different feelings, luckily, I learned to explore the inner activities of Lear, Cordelia, Goneril, Regan, Edmund and so on, which persuades me to feel why Goneril and Regan hate their father, and how the relationship is like between Lear and Regan; I think the performers are good readers and interpreters of Shakespeare.

Meanwhile, these commentaries stimulate me to think that it is not just a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of the complexity of humanity and love. In this Shakespeare’s tragedy, everyone was tragic concerning not only about their endings but also about their growing processes.

The intensive conflicts make King Lear thrilling, magnifying the darkness. Honestly, it is not easy to keep sound wisdom all the time especially there is dictatorship; instead, people are likely to be fooled by the appearance, and the process of knowing the truth comes to be sorrow, as it was for King Lear.