“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

I chose this video because I found the plot of the Frankenstein a little bit confusing. Therefore; the video clears up many things. Also, I could better imagine the story because of cartoon like scenes.

I will focus on the beginning part of the video which explains how Frankenstein came to create that monster like creature. And how the desire for the knowledge is not always right thing. In fact, we always consider knowledge as something good but is the desire for knowledge always good ? I guess the answer lies in the what kind of knowledge we look for.

I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

As a 17-year old teenage boy Victor went to Geneva to study at the university. After he attends a lecture in chemistry by a professor Waldman. This lecture, along with a subsequent meeting with the professor, convinces Victor to pursue his studies in the sciences.

Victor started his studies with enthusiasm and, ignoring his social. Fascinated by the mystery of the creation of life, he begins to study how the human body is built and how it falls apart. After several years of tireless work, he masters all that his professors have to teach him, and he goes one step further: discovering the secret of life.

He decides to begin the construction of a creature, envisioning the creation of a new race of wonderful beings.  Victor completes his creation. But when he brings it to life, its awful appearance horrifies him.

Those 3,4 and 5 chapters represents a theme of dangeours knowledge. As in this case, willingness to discover something such as creation of human life or life in general that lies beside the scope of the human abilities. As we all know human creature is not something we can built from parts. Therefore, the symbolic act of pursuing knowledge. Not only Frankenstein symbolized that.

Also, Robert Walton attempts to excel previous human explorations by trying to reach the North Pole.

We can see how their thirst for knowledge can bring them to places they were looking. But their desires end up as dangerous and unwanted. The strive for such knowledge drives one to his grave, and brings the other to realization of what could happen if he does not stop.

I believe there is kind of forbidden knowledge that if we pursuit it it is not going to end well for us.

“Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity.”

Aphra Behn wrote the novel Oroonoko in 1688 and based it on her trip to what many researchers believe is Surinam.

Behn makes it clear in the beginning of the novel that she is “an eye-witness,”. She states that she is writing about true events and throughout the novel, she gives many details.

 

I chose this video because it contains not only summary of the plot but also, talks about the author and details on each character from the story in very understanding way. By not only talking but also presenting photos that help me better understand the plot.

 

In sum, Oroonoko is the story about a man who falls in love with an exceptional woman, Imoinda. However, their happiness does not last long. Mainly, because Oroonoko’s grandfather, the king, desires Imoinda for himself. Despite the fact that Oroonoko and Imoinda are married, the King forces her to become part of his Otan. Imoinda refuses to submit to his desires. King pretends to put Imoinda to death, when he has actually sold her into slavery.

Tricked into slavry by English sea captain, Oroonoko went to Surinam. There, his true identity is discovered and he is promised his freedom. He discovers Imoinda, now named Clemene and the reunited lovers finally live as husband and wife.

Soon after Imoinda conceives a child, Oroonoko begins to suspect further treachery on the part of the English . The uprising does not succeed and Oroonoko is betrayed by the Deputy Governor Byam.

Burning with a desire for revenge, Oroonoko decides to kill Imoinda and their unborn child, before killing Byam and then himself. Once again, his plan fails and having killed his beloved wife, his strength leaves him. At the end, he is brutally killed by Byam’s associate.

 

I would like to focus on the very last part of the novel which is Revolt in Surinam and mainly the act of killing his loved one. For me very tragic moment for both lovers when they realized that their life as a slaved with baby coming will be more difficult to get freedom.

He makes a plan to kill her first, take his revenge on Byam, and then kill himself. Taking Imoinda with him into the woods, he tells her “of the necessity of dying,” explains the impossibility of escape, and then reveals his plan. Being a dutiful, loving wife, she falls at his feet in gratitude for arranging such an honorable way for her spirit to return home. He draws his knife while

“tears trickle down his cheeks,” and he gives to her the “fatal stroke, first cutting her throat, and then severing her smiling face from that delicate body” (72).

I can understand the difficulty of being enslaved however; killing someone actually two people do not justify that decision. Of course, that plan was not the first option but came out after trying other options. But again, it does not justify killing .

Of course, I look at this piece from Christian perspective also, not being of course a slave therefore; it is harder to understand. For me there is no justification of taking someone else’s life.

 

Lu Xun the author of the “New Year Sacrifice “is regarded as one of the modern China’s most prominent and influential writers. His work promoted radical change through criticism of old-fashioned cultural values and repressive social customs.

Lu Xun’s “The New Year Sacrifice” touches the topic of feudal oppression that women suffered in the dark societal reality of China after the establishment of the new republic in 1911.

XiangLin’s Wife is a typical traditional Chinese woman. She is hardworking, kind, and strong, but feudal standards and traditional gender discrimination oppress and destroy her with a series of tragedies. These tragedies come from the moral control of feudalism towards women and finally lead to XiangLin’s Wife’s death. As the narrator says

“…none had changed so much as she had. Her hair, streaked with grey five years before, was now completely white, making her appear much older than one around forty. Her sallow, dark tinged face that looked as if it had carved out of wood was fearfully wasted and had lost the grief-stricken expression it had borne before.” P.170

She fits strongly into the category of traditional women she works from the early morning until the late night not really talking to much. We can see that from reading this

“…she worked from morning till night as if she found resting irksome, and proved strong enough to do the work of a man.”p.155

 

While I was reading it, I was thinking that this is not right. How people can treat someone that bad. In fact only because as in this case she was a window. Mainly, how she was treated and different attitudes toward her. The narrator says

“ my uncle frowned at this, and my aunt knew that he disapproved of taking on a widow.” P175.

For me, it seems so surreal because how thing such as being a widow is the reason to be rejected from work. According to me, people that should be ashamed are those like uncle from the novel.

 

Secondly, the story shows that women were unimportant in Chinese society not even called by their real names but rather as the character from the book she was called but her husband’s name.

“ Everybody called her Xianglin’s Wife and no one asked her own name, but since she had been introduced by someone from Wei Village as a neighbour, her surname was presumably also Wei.” P.175

 

What shocked me the most is that after all, the feudalistic society disregard the mother-in-law to sell Xiang Lin Sao and force her to remarry. And yet the same feudalistic ethics criticizes her remarriage. That is so absurd for me.

 

“One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.”

The surreal idea of transferring human being into a bug seems to me so repellent. While trying to make a sense of it I will focus on the Gregor’s family reaction to it. I use the 4.00 to 7.06 minutes of the video.

The video itself shows animated summary  of the Kafka’s story. Which I really like because it helps me better imagine the story.

Metamorphosis by Kafka deals with absurd and irrational event of Gregor’s waking up to discover he has turned into a giant insect, and since it is physically impossible- it takes on supernatural significance.

Gregor behaves completely as a bug and hangs on the ceiling. His sister removed all the furniture from his room but their mother was not happy because that meant Gregor is not going to change again. However, his family do not turn back on him. Even the father, who shows the least sympathy of the family members toward Gregor and even attacks him twice, never suggests that they kill him or force him out of the house. Instead, he implicitly shows compassion for Gregor by allowing the family to care for him.

But in fact the change make significant psychological distance between Gregor and his family. He is completely separated from his family and humanity. He can’t communicate with his family. And rather kept lock in his room.

In my culture we often tend to say that if something bad happen to someone it means that he or she deserves his fate. However, there are no indicators that Gregor deserve to be punish. His family rather has good relations with him. On the contrary, he was a goos son and brother, taking a job he dislikes so that he can provide for them and planning to pay for his sister to study music at the conservatory. Therefore, they consider it as random event as any other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I would prefer not to.”

“Bartleby the Scrivener” is one of Melville’s most famous stories. The story is about the Lawyer, a well-established man of sixty working on Wall Street, who hires a copyist—seemingly no different from any other copyist. But Bartleby is different.

“At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famish- ing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light.”

One day, the Lawyer has a small document he needs examined. He calls Bartleby in to do the job, but Bartleby responds: “I would prefer not to.” This answer amazes the Lawyer, who has a “natural expectancy of instant compliance.” He is so amazed by this response, and the calm way Bartleby says it, that he cannot even bring himself to scold Bartleby. Instead, he calls in Nippers to examine the document instead.

Since then for whatever he is asked to do he responds “I would prefer not to”.

I feel like Melville’s touches the problem of rising middle-class job dissatisfaction and depression, as well as realizing the future significance of Wall Street to American life. Nowadays, many of us are so unhappy with our job because of we might be underemployed or because that is not the job we dream of. We might wish but in fact there are very few Bartelbys in the world now who could respond to their Boses by saying “I would prefer not to”.

The video that I picked shows the scene in which Bartleby refuses to do what he is asked to do by saying “I would prefer not to”. While his coworkers show amazement and resentment, he still insists on not doing that.

 

“Song of Myself”

 

I chose the video based on verse 26 because it reminds me about very important thing in our life as is listening. Nowadays, we always in a rush, always busy and always on a run. That is why we tend to forget about simply thing as listening. Listening to others and listening to our own inner voice.  

The video that I chose is the part of the interesting experiment that was conducted in Alabama. For 2 years, filmmaker Jennifer Grandall went throughout the Southern state, inviting people to look into a camera and share a part of their lives through the words of Whitman.  The document presents ordinary people in their usual surroundings such as at their houses, at their jobs or in their favourite spots that they feel most comfortable.  

Verse 26 was read by Tim who hosts the program called “Swap Shop on WCRL Classic Hits 95.3 in Oneonta”. People call and say they need this or that or ask of certain services. In this case, Tim read the verse 26 live, alongside with the conversation he has with his callers.  

As the filmmaker points out in fact there is a lot texture in all these calls. Things like people’s voices, sounds of the quality of the phone line they were using as well as in the type of the skills they have it or the things they want to sell or buy. All of these things certainly connect to the words of Whitman. As Tim listens to all those people in the same way Whitman hears the surrounding. 

In the verse 26, Whitman writes… 

Now I will do nothing but listen, 

To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.  

I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals,  

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,  

Talkative young ones to those that like them, the loud laugh of work-people at their meals,  

The angry base of disjointed friendship, the faint tones of the sick, 

The judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips pronouncing a death-sentence,  

The heave’e’yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves, the refrain of the anchor-lifters,  

The ring of alarm-bells, the cry of fire, the whirr of swift-streak- 
         ing engines and hose-carts with premonitory tinkles and color’d lights,  

The steam-whistle, the solid roll of the train of approaching cars, 

The slow march play’d at the head of the association marching two and two,  

(They go to guard some corpse, the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.)  

I hear the violoncello, (’tis the young man’s heart’s complaint,) 

I hear the key’d cornet, it glides quickly in through my ears, 

It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast. 

I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera, 

Ah this indeed is music—this suits me. 

A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me, 

The orbic flex of his mouth is pouring and filling me full. 

I hear the train’d soprano (what work with hers is this?) 

The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies, 

It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess’d them,  

It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lick’d by the indolent waves,  

I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath, 

Steep’d amid honey’d morphine, my windpipe throttled in fakes of death,  

At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles, 

And that we call Being. 

 

In this section Whitman stops to fully absorb what he hears around him. Things such as sounds of voices, city or the fire. Moreover, everything blends together as he said “all sounds running together”. 

By the end, he compares it to experience of hearing a “grand opera”. He deeply feels it.

Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes tells the story of the man who strongly insists on finding adventure everywhere. Mainly inspired by book of chivalry that talks about a semi-historical adventure story. These stories so inspire Don Quixote that he decides to become a knight-errant named Don Quixote de La Mancha and riding through the country on his old horse, Rocinante. The book is best known from not forgettable stories such as mistaking windmills for giants, flocks of sheep for attacking armies, puppet shows for real life. Together with his squire.  

Out of all the short videos that I have encountered online I found one that really interested me. Mainly because of its form.  I like the way the author presents the story of Don Quixote in a similar way to comic book. In addition, he talks through the story. It helps me better imagine the character that the Miguel De Cervantes created although, I have not read the actual book I feel like I get some insights of what the book is about.   

The video in about 8 minutes sums part one and two but as the author admits that the only abridged story there is much more beside the plot.  

Starting from 3rd minute he started to analyze the story as being a satire. Meaning it contains irony, exaggeration and humor. What intrigued me was the fact that he distinguishes two competing satires in the same story. 

On one side we have a story of Don Quixote and his adventures and the as the author explain super story on the top of it. It is almost as the Don Quixote is not a satire by itself but the satire of the books of chivalry. Don Quixote is rather satirizing chivalric romances.

“Critical guide to King Lear” 

As we all know, Shakespeare’s King Lear is undoubtly Great Work. It has been read for hundreds of years until 21st century and clearly it will be still read by next generations. Therefore, many might wonder what make King Lear so special? Some of the answers we can get in the video titled “Critical guide to King Lear” in which few speakers emphasize the important issues such as the relations parent and daughter, conflict or death which are clearly very relevant even nowadays.  

I like that the short video because of many aspects such as personal opinions of professors, summary of the plot as well as the short scenes from actual movie based on the book. Further, thanks to that video I can better imagine the atmosphere of the play and feelings of the characters. Which is very helpful in understanding the significance of the King Lear.  

The video presents the transformation of the main character, King Lear from being a harsh man who prioritizes the appearance of love over actual devotion to being a gentle man in the reunion scene with Cordelia.  

What I really find helpful in this video is the way they present certain scenes from the King Lear and explaining them in the way that was more appealing to me.