https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOcJwt8XB4M

ENG 2850_KTA

September 25, 2015 Notes

Samantha Poon

 

Discussion of the journey’s through NY

A journey- an interesting way to organize a story in time and space. Reading the lives of others.

The Age of Enlightenment

17^th – 18^th Century in Europe and America

Satire – a satirical tone; expose the failings, faults of a situation, time, event, or person. Mock or make fun of a story or subject/topic.

Voltaire in Candide uses a lot of satire and hyperboles (exaggerations) within the text.

Examples: Pangloss had died twice within the text and came back to life twice

Or

When Candide killed the first man who owned Cunegonde and then the second man entered and her proceeded to kill him as well.

Enlightenment-

• After the Renaissance
• Scientific reasoning and thinking
• Challenging the law and Religion
• Secular thinking

“Cognito Ergo Sum” or “I think therefore I am”

-Rene Descartes, 1637

Class Discussion: What did Descartes mean by this?

• Individual thinking that challenged conformity
• Non hierarchal thinking (that no one ruled over the other, everyone existed equally)
• You are not someone who exists because you have a body. You exists because you have the ability to think, therefore we have the ability to understand and are capable of: self-consciousness, meaning, analyzing things around us, finding the truth, doubt, reason, etc. and all this forges our perspective.

“On life’s vast ocean diversity we sail, Reason the card, but Passion is the Gail”

-Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, 1733

Class Discussion: What is Alexander trying to say? What is a card? What is a Gail?

Alexander Pope perhaps is trying to say that life is vast like an Ocean. All our experience of life is diverse.

We each have our own moral compass– how we are raised, who we encounter, our sex, age, class, etc. all these factors affect us.

Definitions:

Gale – high forced wind

Card – old term for a sail = mechanical function to move the boat along in a certain direction.

Therefore….

Gale = Passion which is the driving force to push ourselves forward

Card = Reason, the direction in which we put ourselves in or point towards. (Our guide)

Universal Human Rights

Everyone deserved equal rights but…

18^th century – slaves & women did not count

Colonial Expansion – yet everyone wanted to rule over another country; there were genocides, war, etc. Men wanted to destroy everything that did not reflect what they wanted

Deism – the belief that there is a single creator of the world, he/she created the world and simply walked away and no longer exists.

Book Discussion:

“Would you hang out with Candide”

How did Voltaire portray Candide?

Candide Characteristics: intellectual, naïve, optimistic, innocent

-Voltaire introduces Candide as naïve with his relationship with Pangloss.

 

How is Pangloss portrayed? What do you think of Pangloss’ Philosophical thinking?

Pangloss’ philosophical thinking is very similar to that of a child. He is narrow-minded and pretty much defines a word within itself. With his thinking, he does not give any insight into life and how it came to be, therefore he is not necessarily a critical thinker. “It is what it is” (Professor Hussey’s most hated phrase)

 

“One day Cunegonde, while walking near the castle, in a little wood which they called a park, saw between the bushes, Dr.Pangloss giving a lesson in experimental natural philosophy to her mother’s chamber maid,…” (Chapter 1).

Euphemism-Pangloss had sex with the Chambermaid, caught syphilis and lost his nose.. The loss of Pangloss’ nose satirizes his philosophy because at the beginning he stated “that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all in necessarily for the best end. Observe, that the nose has been formed to bear spectacles-thus we have spectacles” (Chapter 1).

 

“Pangloss made answer in these terms: “O my dear Candide, you must remember Pacquette, that pretty wench, who waited on our noble Baroness; in her arms I tasted the pleasures of Paradise, which produced these Hell torments with which you see me devoured” (Chapter 4).

Voltaire Satirizes human’s desire for sex and their greed to satisfy their own needs. Overall this also reflects ridiculous cause and effect given the sequence of events that had just occurred within the first three chapters.

 

Mystification – Process by which dominant power and/or culture convinces something as the truth.

Example: “it serves us good that American culture is for the best”

Or

“We need to tax the rich less, because they are the ones who provide us jobs” is this true? No.

-Things that seem logical but are not really that beneficial.

 

El Dorado – can be seen as a Utopia, but what does Utopia mean?

Utopia- Greek word for “no place”

El Dorado may have seem perfect for anyone because of its carefree lifestyle and riches but for Candid it was not a Utopia, Why? Because Cunegonde is not there, but….

Towards the end of the text, we see that Candid is slowly coming to terms with the idea of being without Cunegonde.

 

The End:

At the end, although it may seem that Candide has ended up with a bad turnabout, but this is not true..Candide finally finds himself.

Throughout the novel, Candide had let circumstances, people, and fate control him, but in the end he gains control over what he can control.

Everything may not have turned out the way he had hoped but he finally gets over the idea of Pangloss’ philosophy and sees life through his own eyes and realizes that things are not just the way are just because, but that things happen because of what we choose to do.

Voltaire overall is trying to tell us to cultivate ourselves; cultivate our thinking, being true to ourselves, see our own abilities and potential and simply not to just accept things as they are.

“Excellently observed,” answered Candide; “but let us cultivate our garden” (Chapter 30).

 

The Age of Enlightenment (17^th -18^th Centuries in Europe and American)

Enlightenment: a movement of the 18^th centuries that stressed the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion (Merriam-Webster)

Insight, understanding, awareness, wisdom, education, learning and knowledge

“Cogito Ergo Sum” Or “I think therefore I am” – Rene Descartes, 1637

Why this so important?

• “Individual” thinking and not myth or religion that take over your mind
• You are not just a person but what make you a person
• “Think” mean analysis; try to find the trust and “reason”. A point of view by the experience that one have

“On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail, reason the card, but passion is the gale” –Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, 1733

• Life is like ocean because an ocean is wide and large
• Ocean can be a rocky journey, just like life
• We all experience thing differently (culture, who we met, class, race, gender and etc.)

What is a gale?

Very strong high wind. A factor to moves the boat. A boat will not move without wind. -> Life need factor to move further. We can’t live without passion or reason; we need both without we cannot move further

 

Universal Human Right

“Liberty”, everyone should have liberty because we are human but in the 17 centuries, human is only based on rich white men

Disadvantage

People who are not consider human like slave and women

Example: During colonel expeditions, they will steal, kill, take to get what they wanted. They will only kill people that are not white men

 

Scientific Methods

Enlightenment thinkers believed that the advances of science and industry heralded a new age of progress for humankind.

Sciences and mathematics

 

Deism

(Merriam- Webster) a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe

(Class) creator of the world and he just walk away from his creation

 

Candide By Voltaire

The book is full of violence and guilty, Not really reality and not realistic

Candide is a very unlucky, native (he went on the journey even if it have a lot of mishap just to find his love), innocent

His think in a circle (“ it’s because it’s”)

He allows thing to happen to him because he believe thing happen and it happen and don’t take control

 

Pangloss

• Teacher of Candide -> homeless, nose have fall off (“deformed beggar”)
• “Sufficient reason” = sex
• Pangloss’s nose fall off because he have syphilis because he is sleeping around
• He have irrational reasoning -> he believe that thing are not avoidable; “we should have neither chocolate nor cochineal”- he accept that he is dying because they have chocolate

Dominant Culture

• The dominant culture in a society is the group whose members are in the majority or who wield more power than other groups.
• What is for the best? (For the people)
  • But really is for the high class benefit

 

The land of Eldorado

• Gold and jewels
• Happy
• Utopian country – advanced scientific knowledge, no religious conflict, no court system and place no value, plentiful gold and jewels
• Candide is not happy because Cunegonde is not there

 

The Last Part

• Candide, Cunégonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, and the old woman settle into a comfortable life on the farm but
• Candide’s idea now don’t follow Pangloss’s idea
• Candide take control of his life (his garden)
• He can control thing within his control
• Thinking, active, reasoning -> garden (take care of it) understand people’s limit

1.  “What is known I strip away, I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.”Walt Whitman – Song of Myself.

I chose this quote to represent my official journey from Los Angeles, CA to Brooklyn, NY. I moved here when I was 18 to attend a private college and found myself lost in a world I didn’t belong in. Think only girls and lots of flashy engagement rings while I read books and toyed with moving in with the Amazonian women. I really had no idea how I was going to survive independently in a city so unlike the one I grew up in so in essence, I launched everybody with me into an unknown world that I have come to love.

2.  “Tell a story, so that we understand why and how this world was created, who our ancestors were and where they came from, so that we understand where we are and where we may be going.” Hasif Amini – Story.

I chose this quote to represent my job as an assistant teacher for third grade girls in a Jewish academy. As a religious environment, we always stress to the students about our background and culture, who we are and where we came from. We believe that it’s within these roots that we should follow because they will show us the right path in the future.

3. “If man lack trustworthiness, it is difficult to know what he can accomplish!” Wu Cheng’en – Journey to the West.

I chose this quote to represent Baruch because it truly embodies what it means to be a student, especially in the collegiate world. If a person has been unable to find and trust themselves at this point in their life, they will always be blinded to their greatness. What I love about CUNY schools in general is that a lot of students are much older and are actually returning for a degree after spending a few years finding themselves and deciding what their accomplishments are to be. 

Valerie Dorisca ( journey map)

Hi everyone, My name is Ekramul Islam. I just wanted to give you brief knowledge of where I came from and background of ethnicity. I was pretty much born and raised in Bangladesh. And I finished my high school back in Bangladesh until 10 grades and it was consider being board of secondary school certificate. When I was moved to the United States I never thought that I would be able to attend school or college because I did not know English at all except writing English. But I was pretty strong at mathematics and science, but it was not encourage me enough to study here. However, my aunt encouraged me to attend school and suggested me to give your best shoot to see if I was able to do it. I said to my aunt OK. Let me try, all I was studying English and writing English that helped to understand and get better on English language and eventually I finished my high school. Also my high school degree gave me confidence enough to attend at college. I stated my college back in 2010 at Bmcc and I was doing great all other subject except the English class and I always fear of English class as usual. But I still have one academic class left over to finish my bachelor and it happens to be taking the last English class as of final semester at Baruch College. I believe and love this quote, even it apply to my life “Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is always a way.” And I am looking forward learn from this class a lot of things that I can apply in future at some point.

During my first semester at Bmcc back in spring 2010. I was pretty nervous at the very beginning because I did not know if was doing OK, but I got to figure out after the midterm that I was doing great every class although I was working full-time at restaurant. At some point I felt confidence enough to finished my associate successfully. I had done my associate based on business administration. I felt that at some point of my life this quote applied to me “Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.

I stated my first semester at Baruch 2013 in spring. I was quite confused at the very beginning but I was predetermined about how much afford needs to put in order to successfully complete bachelor. Even I tried my best with every single class but there were some classes I faced very challenging and some classes very easy. I enjoyed the good and bad moment at Baruch College. Therefore, I believe that the following quote relates to my life “the True Wisdom that has the power to put an end to all kinds of suffering.” from The Heart Sutra.

 

Thanks,

Ekramul Islam

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy Yu

Bellevue Hospital –

“…form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form…” (The Heart Sutra)

My mother gave birth to me at Bellevue Hospital. I could not imagine the innocents of my face at that time. The moment that I have reached to the world not knowing what is good or evil. It seems as though the child was as pure as water.  But the quote made me think, was the child empty? Or did the child already have its own form of identity?

Vanderbilt YMCA –

“And God said, let the water bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Genesis)

This quote somehow reminded of when I first learned how to swim. I remember how I was so afraid of water, and everyone else already learned how to breathe and float on water, while I was still struggling with my float board.  But suddenly one day, I don’t know what kicked in, but somehow I had the courage to throw that board away. Then I realized I did it, I could swim, and I could even swim much better than everyone else. I felt like the happiest dolphin gliding across the pool. Ever since, I never stopped swimming, because I know no matter how deep the sea is or how big the sky is, as long as I try I will achieve it.

Baruch College –

“If man lack trustworthiness, it is difficult to know what he can accomplish!” (Journey to the West)

No matter if its school or work, if you don’t believe in your friends, team members, or coworkers, then it will be hard to get anything done. If there’s no respect and trust, there would only be continuous conflict and nothing will be done but harm to one another. In my experience, all I could say is to don’t refuse to listen to what people have to say, because it may be helpful or important.  Even if they haven’t gained your trustworthiness yet, still we should give people the chance to earn it. You might never know what that person can do, because one day they could be your lifesaver.

26 I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,
Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night, (Song of myself)

The first location on the road map of my life will always be my home. Since I am the woman of the house and I do live with my significant other it is my duty to make sure everything is kept up to standards. I love being within the confines of my walls its the best feeling, especially since Im almost never there. I wish I could spend more time at home, I would have time to develop several projects I have in mind for my living room arrangements. But when I do have the time I just want to relax, enjoy my day off with the company of the one who owns the key to my heart. When I read this line above It made me think of just sitting on my couch watching a movie like I usually do while the neighbors barbecued in the house in front of us. You could hear laughter, kids running, jumping, screaming, music playing. But still I feel at peace because I know in safe and comfortable exactly were I want to be.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (Genesis)

The second location is like my second home. If I’m not in my house then I will most likely be here. It’s the location of were I work, although my tittle is a part-time sales associate the hours I get are more like full time. On my part I give it my 150% effort while I’m on the clock so my work is more at a management level. Even if I wanted to become a full time worker I wouldn’t be able to just yet either because of all the other day to day things I’m associated I still don’t have a set schedule. I choose the quote above because I feel like it best describes what we have to do in order to survive. We have to work with what we have and make it work in other words. We are given the opportunity we just have to cease it.

23 I accept Reality and dare not question it, Materialism first and last imbuing. (Song of myself)

Last but not least my third location is the college that I am in today, Baruch college. I choose this location because it is where I am spending the third largest portion of my time at. I was originally going to choose the place where I came from as a transfer student BMCC but I haven’t been there ever since I received my diploma. Although I learned a lot from there and I left being a bigger and better person I know that my progress will only improve in this environment I am in now. I choose this quote because I accept that certain things are meant to be a certain way and I don’t question it and that’s how I feel about school. I don’t know if it’s because my mom brought me up that way, but she didn’t care what type of weather it was if I had to go i was going. And school can only benefit you, inspire your ideas and interests.