Tuesday, 4 classes, the longest day. Dave walked out the door at 10:30, earbuds on his ears playing songs from his “liked list” as usual. Sunny day, 12 minutes of walking at normal speed to the station, 8 if he walks fast, 15 if he walks slow. Where’s the promised Spring anyway? Isn’t it supposed to be warmer in March? Dave twitched his coat a bit, attempted to cover up a little tighter in the chilly wind. Ahh, at least the sun is bright. Dave’s favorite thing to do when he was a child was lying on the balcony in warm sunlight, watching the cotton candy-like clouds in the blue sky changing their shapes and moving to different directions slowly, freely. It’s as if someone was drawing on a blue canvas, live, a majestic show for those who were willing to watch.But those days were gone.Dave glanced at the Seth Low park as he was walking by, some people were dancing, some were playing chess, mommies and babies were chasing each other. Kid’s laughters can cure everything, he once read, he agreed. Everything was so peaceful and pleasant to watch. What was it though? Lives! Vivacious lives! It’s so good to be young, it’s so good to be alive.

Dave walked into the Bay Parkway N train station, which had become much more crowded since the nearby stations were closed for renovation in January.  There were many people standing on the platform, Dave was glad. He knew if you see nobody was waiting on the platform, that could only mean the last train has just left. He was right. The next train did come in less than 2 minutes. Ahhh, 45 minutes of nap time, 35 if the train goes fast, 1 hour or more if the train goes crazy. “The next stop is 23rd street” is Dave’s alarm. And there he sat down and slept in.

Annnnnd the train went crazy.

Dave stepped out the train, “liked list” was still playing. 7 minutes of walking to the Vertical building, 6 if he walks fast, twel…. and he saw Ding. “So you are on the same train! Hahaha!”Ding said. “Yeah! Listen, I have to go to the class quick, I am already late. I will catch you later okay?”Dave couldn’t wait to get away. “No, man. Stay with me, be calm. I will buy you coffee.”Ding said. And Dave just ran off. ” I will call you later!” He yelled.

In Freud’s Family Romance, part of Freud’s idea is: a child would learn everything from his/her parents and want to be exactly like his/her parents at the child’s early years, but would come back to criticize the parents later after he/she gets to know more other parents.

Isn’t this the way we learn everything?

In my opinion, a child would learn everything from his/her closest guardian/caretaker/food provider, because that’s the most convenient and accessible way to learn anything at all. So before the child gets to access to different ideas and opinions, it is not surprising that the child would hold on to his ONLY opinion of many things, which he/she copied from his/her guardian. But as the child grows, he would be exposed to many other ideas inevitably. That’s when the child realizes there’s more than one way to see things. And it is also at that moment, the child begins to doubt his/her previous learned ideas. Therefore, conflicts are started. The child is forced to contemplate the correctness of the different ideas and make decisions on choosing one to follow. I believe this is called critical thinking. In the process of evaluating different ideas and opinions, the child also starts to form his/her individuality.

So the connection between individuality and conflicts would be: you have to go through conflicts to find individuality.

An example would be:

Mom and dad are right! (before getting to know other opinions)

Mom and dad are right?(get to know other opinions and start to doubt)

Mom and dad are right. (after assessing different opinions and make his/her decision)

Dave Cen

In Discourse on the logic of language, it says that the slave owners should try to keep their slaves from communicating with each others, so that they can’t plot against the slave owners together. This idea is also shown in Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.” 

Johnson O’Connor once said, “Words are the instruments of thought by which men and women grasp the thoughts of others, and with which they do most of their thinking.” Frederick Douglass learned how to read and write by himself through variegated endeavors, and that certainly gave him the power to strive for what he wanted.

The very same idea was manifested in China thousand years ago too. The first emperor in China, YingZheng, burned numerous books, buried hundred of scholars alive after he conquered all the lands in order to create a united, big China. The idea was “if you can control their languages, you can control their thoughts .” Unfortunately, it worked, many people were enslaved, and we have the Great Wall built. Many died building it. This strategy is so effective that China is still using it thousand years later. Government censorship has been an interesting topic in China for many years. Now I think of it, it’s kind of funny for me to talk about this in my father tongue.

I’m responding to this clip: It’s Alive! – Frankenstein (2/8) Movie CLIP (1931) HD.

The clip begins with Frankenstein asking his “audiences” to examine the lifelessness of his experimental subject as if he’s a grand magician that is going to pull a rabbit out of an empty hat. Then with a nod of one of his audiences’ head, and a roaring of the thunder, Frankenstein begins to perform his operation frenetically with his assistant. And after observing the fingers and hand movements of his “masterpiece,” Frankenstein begins to exclaim “IT’S ALIVE” in ecstasy several times and ends the clip with the line “NOW I KNOW HOW IT FEELS LIKE TO BE GOD!!!”

The settings: The roaring of the thunder and the flickering of the light throughout the clip certainly have added some dramatic elements to the scene. Just like in many other movies, thunder and lightning usually serve as forebodings of some catastrophes. In the book, we have “dreary night,” “the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out.” We can conclude that the setting in the clip is faithful to the text, which is gloomy and gruesome.

The audiences and the assistant: There are 3 audiences and one assistant in the clip, but we have only Frankenstein in his lab in the text! Which is quite a big difference. This change though, will be used to support an even bigger alternation between the clip and the book–the attitude of Frankenstein towards his creation

Frankenstein’s attitude: In the clip, Frankenstein feels pretty good about his “masterpiece.” In fact, he is proud of it. He feels so good about it that he has to invite some audiences into his laboratory to witness the operation. Yes, of course, what he has succeeded in doing is quite remarkable even in 2016, so it’s very understandable that he says: “NOW I KNOW HOW IT FEELS LIKE TO BE GOD.” In the text though, Frankenstein holds a very different attitude towards his work: 1. he works alone in his laboratory 2.he is a little bit scared of his own creation 3. he is a little disgusted by his own creation. Frankenstein is so agitated by his own work that he has to leave the laboratory to avoid looking at it again after seeing it moves for the first time, and stays away from it for the rest of the night. I think we can conclude that Frankenstein deems it as a “masterpiece” in the clip, and sees it as a failure in the text.

This book actually reminds me of a Japanese animation series that I watched when I was young. I didn’t watch a lot of cartoons but this series is my favorite. And here are the corresponding clips that I have thought of:

So in short, these two boys live in a world where alchemy is a real thing. Their mother died, they tried to get their mom back by using alchemy even when everybody in their world knows it is forbidden to create living organisms with alchemy. But of course, they do it anyway. And this is what they get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEkfe2SIc-M

By Fanliang(Dave) Cen

Descartes proved the existence of God and the human soul on part 4 of his Discourse on the Method. I would like to accentuate some ideas that I got from reading it:1. one’s mere act of thinking proves one’s own existence, that is, the existence of one’s soul ; 2. “god” is what he uses to represent perfection  3. he thinks his ability to think of his own imperfection, and the ability to think of something that is more perfect than he is,  have to come from something that is more perfect than he is 4. he tries to find the truth by doubting everything first  5. existence is part of perfection 6. he values “reasoning,” and believe that we should only believe our reasoning

I think the idea of Cogito Ergo Sum is quite edifying. I remember when I was young, I had this thought:  How do we know we are not controlled by a giant computer, and everything that we do is preprogrammed? Descartes thinks that ” If I am thinking, therefore I exist.” There could be some variations of this, that can prove this to be true: base on “If I am thinking, therefore I exist,” If I am not thinking, then my existence is in question; on the contrary, if I exist, then I can choose to think or not to think; If I don’t exist, then I can’t be thinking. It’s complex.

As for the existence of god, I do have a few questions in mind after reading this piece. Suppose we are created by a perfect being, “god,” if “god” is so perfect, why did it have to create us? If “god” is perfect, shouldn’t all of its creations be perfect too?

I am so confused.

But at least I know I exist.

Fanliang Cen

I was taught that it’s not polite to talk about myself too much in front of other people, Walt Whitman, obviously had another idea about this.

The title of this poem is extremely misleading because the author writes this poem as if he’s “everything.” He represents, contains and is connected to everything. So essentially he’s celebrating everything throughout this 52-sections- long poem. He’s right, what’s not worth celebrating anyway?

“Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!”(24-5,6) Out of 52 sections, I like this sentence the most.  Somehow I saw “The Scream” by Edvard Munch in my head when I read this. Eleven years of Chinese schooling taught me to be humble, modest, and respectful. Teachers wanted us to be obedient and comply with the rules.( Now that I think of this, it’s quite reasonable because when you have 60 kids in one class, things could get really messy.) Countless examinations and tests numbed our interests for every subject. We are tamed, indifferent, and cynical.  “Go to school, get a good grade, try to graduate ASAP and get a good job. Then buy a house, get a car, marry a good girl and start your own family” is my parents’ plan for me. I loathe every single bit of it. I don’t want to get sucked in this vicious circle and I am working on finding a way out of it.

BMCC was the first college that I attended. I spent one semester there then got transferred to Baruch. I had just changed my major even though I had already taken some intermediate accounting class. I was so lost. People say accounting is a really solid major that will get you a job. I didn’t know what I really want so I went for it. After a year of studying I realized it’s not for me, nope, absolutely not. So I followed my heart, and changed it to finance. And now I am happy and resplendent like the noonday sun just like Raj in the BigBangTheory.

Fanliang Cen