ENG 2150 Gimme Shelter: the spaces we live in

The area of Manhattan that I would like to write my final paper on is the Upper East Side.  The Upper East Side stretches from 59th Street to 96th Street and between Central Park and the East River.  The reason why I would like to write about the Upper East Side is because I live in the Baruch dorms which is right on the boarder of the Upper East Side.  I have experienced the area multiple times by walking around and seeing the neighborhood. As I was doing some research I have concluded that what I would like to talk about is how, in the past, the Upper East Side was thought of as an area where only wealthy white people lived.  I would also like to add how the neighborhood is now and how it has evolved over the years.  Using the sources discussed in class, I believe that I will have no problem finding the information to support my thesis.  If any of you have anything to add or mention, please do, I’m all ears.

I actually did not mind reading this piece of work.  Personally, I thought that it was a hard read but somehow I understood it better than the other readings we had to read.  I felt like I fully grasped Georg Simmel’s main points and that I could see where he was coming from.  One of the quotes from Simmel’s piece that I would like to give my own opinion and experience to is when he says that “in less advanced cultures production was for the customer who ordered the product so that the producer and the purchaser knew one another.  The modern city, however, is supplied almost exclusively by production for the market, that is, for entirely unknown purchasers who never appear in the actual field of vision of the producers themselves.” Coming from Long Island, I do see the difference in the relationship between the producer and the purchaser.  Back home there is a pizzaeria in which all of the employees know personal information about my family and I.  I can tell that in New York City that there is a different feeling in which I do not feel personable to the producers.

Another quote from Simmel’s piece that I would like to talk about is when he says that “The modern mind has become more and more a calculating one…transforming the world into an arithmetical problem and of fixing every one of its parts in a mathematical formula.”  Personally, I want to major in mathematics so this quote immediately caught my attention.  I believe that what he is saying is true.  Every day I am faced with calculating something.  I calculate the positives and negatives of the solutions of problems.  For example, I calculate the pros and cons of coming to school early everyday.  The cons is that I wake up earlier, I do not have time for a nice breakfast, and I am bored sitting outside of the room.  The pros is that I get to eat a nice breakfast, I get to do the homework that I did not get to do the night before, and I have ample time to get to class if there is a problem with my train.  I calculate how much time I need to spend studying in each class to get an A, what is the proper path I need to take to achieve my major, what’s the best food place I should go to for lunch, and many more.  I could definitely relate to what Simmel was saying in both of these quotes.

Emotional, Soft, Memories
Turning it down low
Bobbling your head very slow
Feeling the beat
It’s getting hard to see
Closing my eyes
Thinking, “Was he putting on a disguise”
This song got me thinking
Should I still see him
It’s just so Emotional, Soft, Memories

The song’s almost over
The music is going lower
Still thinking hard
This song is killing me
I don’t love him
Just have strong feelings for him
Just got a phone call, “He is back with her”
The song is over

EMOTIONAL, SOFT, MEMORIES

Shanae’ Moore

When I first heard about this assignment I was not really sure what I wanted to compare to “The Stream of Consciousness” by William James.  At first I thought about finding a picture or a piece of artwork that represented “The Stream of Consciousness.”  I realized that what I really wanted to use was a short story or a poem.  As I was surfing the internet I stumbled on this poem by Shanae’ Moore that really caught my attention.  The poem titled “Emotional, Soft, Memories” captures what William James describes as “The Stream of Consciousness.”  The state of consciousness is like a stream.  We have infinite thoughts that are always in a constant state of change.  We also have different feelings and emotions attatched to these thoughts.

The poem opens by talking about how this girl is constantly thinking about this guy.  She cannot get the thought of this guy out of her head.  Not only does she sense her surroundings, but she feels them as well.  The song that is played reminds her of him to the point that the song is unbearable to listen to.  She is wrapped up in a myriad of emotions and is in perpetual thought.  This brings up the concetps of the subjective and the objective.  The noise and the music that she is listening to is objective because it can be proven by fact.  The feelings that she is having when she is listening to the song is subjective because that is her own feelings toward the song that no one else can feel.  Someone else might listen to the same song and have a completely different feeling towards it.