Author Archives: Eddie Xu

https://www.pinterest.com/gundamexia450/the-odyssey-of-homer/

With an effort she feigned ignorance and responded to his joviality after all in her own distinctive way. Four years older than he, she had a more composed dignity and a mature that put his youth to shame. how could she be wanting? Obviously, Genji reflected, it is my own, dissolute behavior that has earned me her rejection. Her lofty pride at being only daughter not just of any Minister but of the greatest of them all, and of no less than a Princess, moved her to condemn his every lapse, while he on his side kept wondering why he must defer to her so and keep trying to bring her around. Such were the distances that kept them apart. (135)

Based on this passage, it focuses on Genji’s first wife, Aoi. Aoi is the daughter of Minister of the Left and married to Genji when she was 16. I chose this passage because out of women that Genji been with, Aoi is actually the first woman that reject Genji due to his immaturity and the numerous affairs that he have. With a high ranking family background and age difference with Genji, Aoi is very proud. Because of that, she distant herself from Genji.

My question about this passage is that since Aoi doesn’t like Genji that much, why doesn’t she just get a divorce or something?

https://www.pinterest.com/gundamexia450/tale-of-genji/

Duchess of Malfi is a very powerful literature that focuses more than violence and killings of a well established family. It illustrates the character of power hungry people that willing to do anything to achieve that power of pure dominance. Without a doubt, there is only one television show that comes to my mind; House of Cards featuring Kevin Spacy and Robin Wright. (THERE WILL BE SPOILER ALERTS, COMMENT AT YOUR EXTREME RISK!!!!)

As some may know, House of Card focuses on a politician named Frank Underwoods and his wife, Claire. they are like the Cardinals and Ferdinand; calm and ambitious. They desires to become the President of United States after being feeling betrayed from the President for not keeping their promise. From there, they achieve that through a dangerous road of manipulations, murders, and politics. At some points, Frank killed a disposable new reporter, Zoe Barnes, whom he had sex and controlled with by pushing her to the train track. He used her to leak out any news related to Congress, and through that, he was able gain the position of Vice President of the United States. From there, she became useless and therefore, needs to be eliminated. After all, only dead people can keep secrets forever. In season 3, Frank says to Claire, “We are survivors.” This indicates how they achieve that power by making necessary choices and want to show the world that they are not anyone’s domestic dogs, but rather than alpha hungry wolves.

I Stand Alone

A single bird of prey beyond the sky,

a pair of while gulls between riverbanks.

Hovering wind-tossed, ready to strike;

the pair, at the ease, roaming to and fro.

And the dew is also full on the grasses,

spider’s filaments still now drawn in. 

Instigations in the nature approach men’s affairs

I stand alone in thousands of sources of worry.

Based from reading this poem, the author points out his view of rise and fall of his society. In the poem, he uses and compares two different birds, a bird of prey and a pair of white gulls. From there, he differentiates that bird of prey as the end of an era while a pair of white gulls represent the era that he witness that it will come. From there, he sees how society is worrying and fear that the era is coming to the end and doesn’t want to let that happen. As for the author, he accepts it since it is a connected concept of living.

Du Fu’s poem “I Stand Alone” reminds me of a song called “Buried Alive” by a rap artist, Logic. Both the author and the artist share the view of changes in society. Here is a line of lyrics from the song:

Look around, everything changes

It feels like I’ve been buried alive.

This lyric related to the previous quote that was mentioned. While the idea between two is different, but the concept is the same. The author is alone, surrounded with frightening people because the Tang dynasty was coming to an end. As for the artist, he feels being “buried alive” as everything around him changes drastically to a point that he couldn’t recognize or accept.

Hello, everybody. My name is Eddie and I am a transfer student from Brooklyn College. My major is currently economic. My favorite book is The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts because it focuses on the struggle of Asian women in America and compares it to many Asian folktales to show valuable lessons. My interests are photography, technology, and hangout with friends. I find this section, “This is, I believe, a real danger, but I often based on misunderstanding-and in this case, it is an effect that can, and should, be avoided.”, very confusing. The author focuses on how literacy have changed through out history by the force of globalization. He brings up many perspectives from scholars and debate about them. Because of that, his opinion is all over the point and I fail to capture his thesis.