Error Correction
1. Blogs live liberty for leave
leaving / depart/ allow. Live is of life and it is written in the wrong context.
2. Even son professional so
Changed by the computer to son, when really referring to so
3. pillar of slat salt
It is not slat but salt meaning what you put into your food.
4. In this pert part
It is not lively pert I am referring to, but part like of segment or piece.
5. I stop for a moment and went back stopped
I am speaking in past so I cant use stop in present within that sentence.
6. One that was cause by pain caused
It is written in present and it should be in past as the rest of the sentence.
7. emptying hid mind his
The computer changed it from his which is referring to the subject to hid of hiding.
8. dog in important in this novel is
The computer changed it for in, the correct word: is
9. against hi own race his
The computer omitted the s, it is his of he, not hi of hello
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Philosphy vs. Human Nature: Handbook part 2
The philosophical text, Handbook of Epictetus has very descriptive segments that talk about human nature, just as it is. This text reflects in many ways, how human beings are and what most of them seek to achieve in life.
In this second part of my reading, I found the following quote “Let death and exile and everything that is terrible, appear before your eyes every day, especially death; and you will never have anything contemptible in your thoughts or crave anything excessively.”(21) This segment is closely related to Slaughter House-Five. Billy saw many time what how his death would be, as well as many painful experiences that he would live in his “future” Because he know all of this things so well, he wasn’t as scared as a normal person would be, and he wasn’t also as needy as the people around him. He was an independent being, and he knew that someday it would all be over, so he didn’t wish for anything else of what he had. For me, this is the one of the secrets of life. Being able to know that the only thing you really need is your present, you will never crave for the future. And, for what do you want the future? You are never sure of the future and you never know where it will lead you. That is people should enjoy each moment as if it were the last one, so that they live life by what it is and not by what it will be.
The next citation that stood out to me was this one, “Then what place, will I have in the city? – The one you can have by preserving your own trustworthiness and self respect.”(24) Humanity is always striving for power and recognition. When they find an opportunity to become important, they will never let it pass bye. Billy Pilgrim never lost his self respect, and stood up for his beliefs, even though society scolded him for it and treated him as insane. This quote also reminded me of the novel, Clockwork Orange. In this book, the utopia that is trying to be implemented by the government, wants a perfect society without criminals. The government leaves Alex, completely defend less, destroying his self respect, so that he can be an exemplary citizen of their society. He becomes a public figure and the media is after everything he does, but he has no dignity whatsoever.
Finally, I found the following citation, “Just you consider, as a human being, what sort of thing it is; then inspect your own nature and weather you can bear it.”(29) In this segment, what I saw was clearly a deep relation with Gulliver’s Travels. Gulliver despites his own race, which is the human race, and he prefers to be a slave to horses than being at the top of human society. Gulliver can’t bear humans and he is one. In a way, he is right, because humanity can be pretty awful with each other and we have harmed the world in many ways. In a sense its better to live with horses than to live with humans.
In this second part of my reading, I found the following quote “Let death and exile and everything that is terrible, appear before your eyes every day, especially death; and you will never have anything contemptible in your thoughts or crave anything excessively.”(21) This segment is closely related to Slaughter House-Five. Billy saw many time what how his death would be, as well as many painful experiences that he would live in his “future” Because he know all of this things so well, he wasn’t as scared as a normal person would be, and he wasn’t also as needy as the people around him. He was an independent being, and he knew that someday it would all be over, so he didn’t wish for anything else of what he had. For me, this is the one of the secrets of life. Being able to know that the only thing you really need is your present, you will never crave for the future. And, for what do you want the future? You are never sure of the future and you never know where it will lead you. That is people should enjoy each moment as if it were the last one, so that they live life by what it is and not by what it will be.
The next citation that stood out to me was this one, “Then what place, will I have in the city? – The one you can have by preserving your own trustworthiness and self respect.”(24) Humanity is always striving for power and recognition. When they find an opportunity to become important, they will never let it pass bye. Billy Pilgrim never lost his self respect, and stood up for his beliefs, even though society scolded him for it and treated him as insane. This quote also reminded me of the novel, Clockwork Orange. In this book, the utopia that is trying to be implemented by the government, wants a perfect society without criminals. The government leaves Alex, completely defend less, destroying his self respect, so that he can be an exemplary citizen of their society. He becomes a public figure and the media is after everything he does, but he has no dignity whatsoever.
Finally, I found the following citation, “Just you consider, as a human being, what sort of thing it is; then inspect your own nature and weather you can bear it.”(29) In this segment, what I saw was clearly a deep relation with Gulliver’s Travels. Gulliver despites his own race, which is the human race, and he prefers to be a slave to horses than being at the top of human society. Gulliver can’t bear humans and he is one. In a way, he is right, because humanity can be pretty awful with each other and we have harmed the world in many ways. In a sense its better to live with horses than to live with humans.
Not up to us:The Handbook part 1
The handbook of Epictetus is a very interesting text. It is very different from some of the text that I have read, just because it has a philosophical basis.
In the introduction to the handbook, the translator tries to explain some of the doctrines mentioned in this book, considering their importance. The introduction talks a lot about cosmic patterns and the importance of the universe in humans and what they accomplish. In a quote within the introduction I found the following, “…required a completely detailed knowledge of all aspects of the cosmic pattern… that the universe is a perfectly organized whole.”(Introduction 4) It is very interesting to see how in ancient Greece, people had this very developed ideas about the universe and how it is essential to be able to understand the organization of the world and humanity. In Slaughter House- Five, Billy meets other species from the planet of Trafalmadore and he learns that for them time doesn’t exist. The universe and the cosmos are infinite and the aliens were right when they said this is the book.
Later on in the introduction, I also found a segment that mentioned the following, “Epictetus himself was a slave during the earlier part of his life.”(8) This made me realize that he talks so much about not harming the servants probably because he identifies himself with them. This also related to Vonnegut, in the sense that he was a prisoner of war, and he wrote Slaughter House-Five, so he could use Billy Pilgrim as a figure of what he was and how hw felt during that time of war.
In the Handbook of Epictetus itself, this philosopher speaks about slavery and the consequences of living up to the things that are not to up to us as human beings. He says that “the things that re not up to us are weak, enslaved, hindered or not our own.”(1) What he is trying to say here is that slaves, who are really not you own because they are also human beings, are not up to our decision to be treated that way by ourselves. He says that if you do this you will be miserable. This is clearly a way of criticizing society for the discrimination made over him. Because this was written so long ago, I would dare to say that Epictetus was one of the first people to revolt against indifference and injustice, by putting out into the public in literature. For me, he resembles to Martin Luther King who fought for the rights of the African-American communities in the USA.
Finally I found the following citation, “Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise, he will necessarily be a slave.”(14) In this fragment of the 14 part of the Handbook he uses blame, to express that slavery exists because the judgment of the people about what is right, is actually wrong. They are wrong because they don’t follow the nature of the universe and they don’t let it be, as they should. This relates itself a little to Gulliver’s Travels, in a way because the two different species, horses and humans, depending on their judgment had the others as slaves, when really neither of them were supposed to be servants. They were supposed to be following the natural ways of the world, which would be living together all in harmony as animals that they are. Gulliver had his own judgment and it was very different from the one hi sown species had, but it was still wrong because he was not considering what the balance of the cosmos, as Epictetus would say, would want.
In the introduction to the handbook, the translator tries to explain some of the doctrines mentioned in this book, considering their importance. The introduction talks a lot about cosmic patterns and the importance of the universe in humans and what they accomplish. In a quote within the introduction I found the following, “…required a completely detailed knowledge of all aspects of the cosmic pattern… that the universe is a perfectly organized whole.”(Introduction 4) It is very interesting to see how in ancient Greece, people had this very developed ideas about the universe and how it is essential to be able to understand the organization of the world and humanity. In Slaughter House- Five, Billy meets other species from the planet of Trafalmadore and he learns that for them time doesn’t exist. The universe and the cosmos are infinite and the aliens were right when they said this is the book.
Later on in the introduction, I also found a segment that mentioned the following, “Epictetus himself was a slave during the earlier part of his life.”(8) This made me realize that he talks so much about not harming the servants probably because he identifies himself with them. This also related to Vonnegut, in the sense that he was a prisoner of war, and he wrote Slaughter House-Five, so he could use Billy Pilgrim as a figure of what he was and how hw felt during that time of war.
In the Handbook of Epictetus itself, this philosopher speaks about slavery and the consequences of living up to the things that are not to up to us as human beings. He says that “the things that re not up to us are weak, enslaved, hindered or not our own.”(1) What he is trying to say here is that slaves, who are really not you own because they are also human beings, are not up to our decision to be treated that way by ourselves. He says that if you do this you will be miserable. This is clearly a way of criticizing society for the discrimination made over him. Because this was written so long ago, I would dare to say that Epictetus was one of the first people to revolt against indifference and injustice, by putting out into the public in literature. For me, he resembles to Martin Luther King who fought for the rights of the African-American communities in the USA.
Finally I found the following citation, “Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise, he will necessarily be a slave.”(14) In this fragment of the 14 part of the Handbook he uses blame, to express that slavery exists because the judgment of the people about what is right, is actually wrong. They are wrong because they don’t follow the nature of the universe and they don’t let it be, as they should. This relates itself a little to Gulliver’s Travels, in a way because the two different species, horses and humans, depending on their judgment had the others as slaves, when really neither of them were supposed to be servants. They were supposed to be following the natural ways of the world, which would be living together all in harmony as animals that they are. Gulliver had his own judgment and it was very different from the one hi sown species had, but it was still wrong because he was not considering what the balance of the cosmos, as Epictetus would say, would want.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Chapter 9&10
In the two final chapters of Slaughter House Five, I finally knew that what I had said at my beginning entries was true. In my personal opinion, Billy Pilgrim was very traumatized after the war and he became insane. So much indeed, that he related things he had read in science fiction by his friend Kilgore Trout, with his own life, as if he had lived them as in the books. This is the response to the questions I had posted before about Trout. His importance was the one I suspected. The science fiction was the responsible for Billy’s hallucination, and therefore the creator of the theme in the narrator’s book about Billy.
The narrator was clearly one of Billy’s companions in the war, who remembered everything and wanted to exaggerate Billy’s life to be able to make some money for his family. Finally, the intentions of Vonnegut, as the author of this novel, was to show the world, not only some cruelties of war, but their effect one people. Also he wanted to use science fiction as an innovative genre so that the next generations, such as us, would give it the importance of studying it.
As I had mentioned before, Vonnegut has certain resentment to Americans as well as he has towards Germans. In the ninth chapter, we can see how he argues that Dresden, had to take place because of the horrible events in Japan, by quoting Harry Truman: “We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.”(186)
To be able to poof that Billy was insane, Vonnegut begins to show us in the following citations, how Billy relates what he has seen with what really happened:
“… he had read it before in the veterans hospital. It was about an Earthling man and a woman who were kidnapped by extraterrestrials. They were put on display on a zoo on a planet called Zircon 212.”(201) This relates directly to Billy and Montana being displayed in the zoo of Tralfamadore with the science fiction novels.
“Another Kilgore Trout book there in the window was about a man who built a time machine …”(202) Here we can see the connection between Billy traveling in time and science fiction.
“It was a photograph of a woman and a Shetland pony. They were attempting to have sexual intercourse…”(205) In this quote Billy shows how he has related that disturbing picture with a friend at war by imagining he was the only one who had it, to be bale to make him special, and be able to remember him.
Finally I found the same text that had appeared in the beginning of the novel, which I had commented on one of my previous entries. This is a very spiritual text that also appears in a Lockhart that Montana has. It is so special to Billy that he imagines Montana wearing it so that he may remember her as someone special too. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
With this I resume my commentary on this novel. I have to say that when I began to read it, I thought that it was another baring anti war book, but now I have come to realize that I had never explored this science fiction genre, and that it isn’t as bad at all. The details surprised me, and the structure was very well written, so much, that it kept me intrigued all the way.
The narrator was clearly one of Billy’s companions in the war, who remembered everything and wanted to exaggerate Billy’s life to be able to make some money for his family. Finally, the intentions of Vonnegut, as the author of this novel, was to show the world, not only some cruelties of war, but their effect one people. Also he wanted to use science fiction as an innovative genre so that the next generations, such as us, would give it the importance of studying it.
As I had mentioned before, Vonnegut has certain resentment to Americans as well as he has towards Germans. In the ninth chapter, we can see how he argues that Dresden, had to take place because of the horrible events in Japan, by quoting Harry Truman: “We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.”(186)
To be able to poof that Billy was insane, Vonnegut begins to show us in the following citations, how Billy relates what he has seen with what really happened:
“… he had read it before in the veterans hospital. It was about an Earthling man and a woman who were kidnapped by extraterrestrials. They were put on display on a zoo on a planet called Zircon 212.”(201) This relates directly to Billy and Montana being displayed in the zoo of Tralfamadore with the science fiction novels.
“Another Kilgore Trout book there in the window was about a man who built a time machine …”(202) Here we can see the connection between Billy traveling in time and science fiction.
“It was a photograph of a woman and a Shetland pony. They were attempting to have sexual intercourse…”(205) In this quote Billy shows how he has related that disturbing picture with a friend at war by imagining he was the only one who had it, to be bale to make him special, and be able to remember him.
Finally I found the same text that had appeared in the beginning of the novel, which I had commented on one of my previous entries. This is a very spiritual text that also appears in a Lockhart that Montana has. It is so special to Billy that he imagines Montana wearing it so that he may remember her as someone special too. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
With this I resume my commentary on this novel. I have to say that when I began to read it, I thought that it was another baring anti war book, but now I have come to realize that I had never explored this science fiction genre, and that it isn’t as bad at all. The details surprised me, and the structure was very well written, so much, that it kept me intrigued all the way.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Chapter 7 & 8
Chapter seven and eight of Slaughter House-Five, do not show a lot of new topics that may actually shock the reader as some previous chapters. After reading this pages and finishing Gulliver’s Travels, I realized that both of these stories have a lot in common.
In one segment of Gulliver’s Travels, the narrator or the yahoo servant is recalls fraise that his master had told him before he left, “He told me ha had concluded that I had been dead.”(7) It is very strange to see how the master shares similar thoughts to those of Billy who thinks that he has already died many times, the same way and he has always seen it. I think that if another person thought that you already died, then it probably means that your function or purpose in life is no longer valid, and that it’s nor worth living anymore.
In Gulliver’s Travels, the reader can certainly notice the hate that the narrator feels against the Yahoo race, although he makes part of it. In this story, it is evident that the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms live in a constant battle were in the country of one race the other is discriminated and humiliated, and vice versa. In the following quote the narrator expresses his detestation against hi own race, “But at last my detestation of the Yahoo race prevailed.”(11) This can compare itself in two ways with Slaughter House-Five. First of all, when Billy lives in during World War Two, it is evident that the tone of the novel goes against the Nazis, just because the it is an antiwar book. There we can finds a lot of hate towards the Jewish race and its people. Also the Germans are seen as evil. Later on we find characters such as Campbell who is American but is part of the Nazis. This character is very similar to Gulliver because they both support their enemies and hate their own nations.
Further on, I found the following quote which related Gulliver to Billy in a very close manner, “They admired to hear me answer in their own tongue and saw by my complexion that I must be a European; but were at a loss to know what I meant by Yahoos and Houyhnhnms, and at the same time fell a laughing at my strange tone, which resembled the neighing of a horse.”(11) In this citation I could observe that Gulliver is laughed at and seen as insane in the same way that Billy is seen by society when he is old and begins to speak about Tralfamadore and time-travel. Although in their hearts they are saying the truth, it sounds so ridiculous that no one will ever believe them. Until people don’t see, they don’t believe what they are told.
Finally I read a very interesting quote in Gulliver’s Travels that made me comprehend what this story was really about, “For who can read of the virtues I have mentioned in the glorious Houyhnhnms, without being ashamed of his own vices, when he considers himself as the reasoning , governing animal of his country? (16) Here I could see that the author wants to express the constant political battles that human beings find themselves fighting in for the power. In my perspective this story uses the two races of “animals” to show how human beings are always searching for their self interests. This quote reminded me of what I learned at the beginning of seventh grade about Aristotle. He said that man is a political animal, because he is always interested in gaining more power than the rest. This can be one interpretation for this story. It may relate to the war theme that the novel, Slaughter House- Five tries to convey because this book also shows how thousands of people were killed so that the cause of some would prevail (Nazis)
I have the following questions after reading this two chapters:
What is the real importance of Kilgore Trout in this story, will he be the only person that will believe Billy about his time-traveling?
Did he have anything to do with Billy believing that he travels in time, without considering that Billy has read his science fiction novels?
In one segment of Gulliver’s Travels, the narrator or the yahoo servant is recalls fraise that his master had told him before he left, “He told me ha had concluded that I had been dead.”(7) It is very strange to see how the master shares similar thoughts to those of Billy who thinks that he has already died many times, the same way and he has always seen it. I think that if another person thought that you already died, then it probably means that your function or purpose in life is no longer valid, and that it’s nor worth living anymore.
In Gulliver’s Travels, the reader can certainly notice the hate that the narrator feels against the Yahoo race, although he makes part of it. In this story, it is evident that the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms live in a constant battle were in the country of one race the other is discriminated and humiliated, and vice versa. In the following quote the narrator expresses his detestation against hi own race, “But at last my detestation of the Yahoo race prevailed.”(11) This can compare itself in two ways with Slaughter House-Five. First of all, when Billy lives in during World War Two, it is evident that the tone of the novel goes against the Nazis, just because the it is an antiwar book. There we can finds a lot of hate towards the Jewish race and its people. Also the Germans are seen as evil. Later on we find characters such as Campbell who is American but is part of the Nazis. This character is very similar to Gulliver because they both support their enemies and hate their own nations.
Further on, I found the following quote which related Gulliver to Billy in a very close manner, “They admired to hear me answer in their own tongue and saw by my complexion that I must be a European; but were at a loss to know what I meant by Yahoos and Houyhnhnms, and at the same time fell a laughing at my strange tone, which resembled the neighing of a horse.”(11) In this citation I could observe that Gulliver is laughed at and seen as insane in the same way that Billy is seen by society when he is old and begins to speak about Tralfamadore and time-travel. Although in their hearts they are saying the truth, it sounds so ridiculous that no one will ever believe them. Until people don’t see, they don’t believe what they are told.
Finally I read a very interesting quote in Gulliver’s Travels that made me comprehend what this story was really about, “For who can read of the virtues I have mentioned in the glorious Houyhnhnms, without being ashamed of his own vices, when he considers himself as the reasoning , governing animal of his country? (16) Here I could see that the author wants to express the constant political battles that human beings find themselves fighting in for the power. In my perspective this story uses the two races of “animals” to show how human beings are always searching for their self interests. This quote reminded me of what I learned at the beginning of seventh grade about Aristotle. He said that man is a political animal, because he is always interested in gaining more power than the rest. This can be one interpretation for this story. It may relate to the war theme that the novel, Slaughter House- Five tries to convey because this book also shows how thousands of people were killed so that the cause of some would prevail (Nazis)
I have the following questions after reading this two chapters:
What is the real importance of Kilgore Trout in this story, will he be the only person that will believe Billy about his time-traveling?
Did he have anything to do with Billy believing that he travels in time, without considering that Billy has read his science fiction novels?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Chapter 6
Chapter six of Slaughter House-Five definitely gives the reader a lot of information to interpret. There are a lot of small details, which will give away very important information related to the theme of the novel.
First, Billy begins to feel things he has never perceived before and that may be connected to Tralfamador, or maybe to another dimension he hasn’t mentioned yet. The following quote was mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, regarding these strange messages. “Billy received a message carried by the radiations. He was told not to find out what the lumps were. He was advised to be content with knowing that they could work miracles for him, provided he did not insist on learning their nature.”(137) What are these radiations? Who are the responsible for creating them? Billy is surely making things up in his insanity or he has discovered another infrahuman secret.
As I recall the interview made to Kurt Vonnegut, the reporter had mentioned that in his books, Vonnegut uses profane language, and specially the word fuck. It is pretty obvious that putting curse words in a novel published so long ago, that was meant to be read in schools, could of created controversy. Still, I don’t think he was the first American author to write about sexual liberation. In the following quotation we can observe the use that the author gives to this word, when trying to define the tone of Lazzaro: “People fuck with me… and Jesus Christ are they ever fucking sorry. I laugh like hell. I don’t care if it’s a guy or a dame. If the President of the United States fucked around with me, I’d fix him good.”(138)
Not to far away from this dialogue, a topic that I had questioned in a previous entry reappeared within a different context. In one of the first chapters, Billy hears dogs barking and he sees two dogs, in two occasions that have a great difference of time between each other. In this chapter, a dog is mentioned by Lazzaro. He narrates the following situation, “You should have seen what I did to a dog one time…Son of a bitch hit me. So I got me some steak, and I got me some spring out of a clock. I cut that spring up in little pieces… they were sharp as razor blades…I stuck’em in to the steak way inside…I threw him the steak(dog)He swallowed it down in a big gulp…blood started coming out of his mouth. He started crying…I laughed and I said to him: ‘You got the right idea now. Tear your own guts out, boy. That’s me in there with all those knives.’”(139) After reading this, I was partly in shock and partly full of questions. I could say that the role of dogs in important in this novel, probably because the author is using them as a tool of symbolism. At the beginning, according to my personal interpretation, the dogs represented an evil force or the presence of fear and doubt. In this chapter, the dog is more of a victim and although it represented a threat then it became like an easy target to destroy. The dog could represent Dresden and the slaughter house that would be bombed further on, or it could a symbol for the enemies, in this case the Americans, for the Germans.
As I kept on reading I found the following metaphor, “The boots fit perfectly. Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim.”(145) Although they are really referring to the physical action of Billy putting on Cinderella’s boots, and them fitting in perfectly, makes sense to why Billy was Cinderella. But Cinderella being Billy? After thinking about it I realized that Cinderella is Billy in a way because she had this night of fantasy, in which a magical character gave her the opportunity to go somewhere she would of never have gone, but under a certain period of time. Billy also was taken by the aliens and by his time-traveling ability to places he would have never visited, and he is also depending on time to continue with his adventures.
“We are leaving for Dresden today. Don’t worry. It will never be bombed. It is an open city.”(147) This segment reminds me of the movie, Titanic. History books say that those who traveled and died in that ship said that nothing would happen because not even God would sink the Titanic. Both of these quotes sound exactly the same. Human beings can be so stubborn when reality is right in front of them. Fear blinds them and these two are the perfect examples.
Finally, I found a crucial reference to the narration of this novel. We all know that there is a veteran of the war, which is probably Vonnegut himself who writes the novel that has Billy as a main character. Then almost at the end of the sixth chapter, the following quote appears, “Somebody behind him in the boxer car said, “Oz.” that was I. that was me. The only other city I’d ever seen was Indianapolis, Indiana.”(148) This indicated that the author of the novel was including himself inside the story of Billy in Dresden, meaning that he really knew Billy once.
First, Billy begins to feel things he has never perceived before and that may be connected to Tralfamador, or maybe to another dimension he hasn’t mentioned yet. The following quote was mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, regarding these strange messages. “Billy received a message carried by the radiations. He was told not to find out what the lumps were. He was advised to be content with knowing that they could work miracles for him, provided he did not insist on learning their nature.”(137) What are these radiations? Who are the responsible for creating them? Billy is surely making things up in his insanity or he has discovered another infrahuman secret.
As I recall the interview made to Kurt Vonnegut, the reporter had mentioned that in his books, Vonnegut uses profane language, and specially the word fuck. It is pretty obvious that putting curse words in a novel published so long ago, that was meant to be read in schools, could of created controversy. Still, I don’t think he was the first American author to write about sexual liberation. In the following quotation we can observe the use that the author gives to this word, when trying to define the tone of Lazzaro: “People fuck with me… and Jesus Christ are they ever fucking sorry. I laugh like hell. I don’t care if it’s a guy or a dame. If the President of the United States fucked around with me, I’d fix him good.”(138)
Not to far away from this dialogue, a topic that I had questioned in a previous entry reappeared within a different context. In one of the first chapters, Billy hears dogs barking and he sees two dogs, in two occasions that have a great difference of time between each other. In this chapter, a dog is mentioned by Lazzaro. He narrates the following situation, “You should have seen what I did to a dog one time…Son of a bitch hit me. So I got me some steak, and I got me some spring out of a clock. I cut that spring up in little pieces… they were sharp as razor blades…I stuck’em in to the steak way inside…I threw him the steak(dog)He swallowed it down in a big gulp…blood started coming out of his mouth. He started crying…I laughed and I said to him: ‘You got the right idea now. Tear your own guts out, boy. That’s me in there with all those knives.’”(139) After reading this, I was partly in shock and partly full of questions. I could say that the role of dogs in important in this novel, probably because the author is using them as a tool of symbolism. At the beginning, according to my personal interpretation, the dogs represented an evil force or the presence of fear and doubt. In this chapter, the dog is more of a victim and although it represented a threat then it became like an easy target to destroy. The dog could represent Dresden and the slaughter house that would be bombed further on, or it could a symbol for the enemies, in this case the Americans, for the Germans.
As I kept on reading I found the following metaphor, “The boots fit perfectly. Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim.”(145) Although they are really referring to the physical action of Billy putting on Cinderella’s boots, and them fitting in perfectly, makes sense to why Billy was Cinderella. But Cinderella being Billy? After thinking about it I realized that Cinderella is Billy in a way because she had this night of fantasy, in which a magical character gave her the opportunity to go somewhere she would of never have gone, but under a certain period of time. Billy also was taken by the aliens and by his time-traveling ability to places he would have never visited, and he is also depending on time to continue with his adventures.
“We are leaving for Dresden today. Don’t worry. It will never be bombed. It is an open city.”(147) This segment reminds me of the movie, Titanic. History books say that those who traveled and died in that ship said that nothing would happen because not even God would sink the Titanic. Both of these quotes sound exactly the same. Human beings can be so stubborn when reality is right in front of them. Fear blinds them and these two are the perfect examples.
Finally, I found a crucial reference to the narration of this novel. We all know that there is a veteran of the war, which is probably Vonnegut himself who writes the novel that has Billy as a main character. Then almost at the end of the sixth chapter, the following quote appears, “Somebody behind him in the boxer car said, “Oz.” that was I. that was me. The only other city I’d ever seen was Indianapolis, Indiana.”(148) This indicated that the author of the novel was including himself inside the story of Billy in Dresden, meaning that he really knew Billy once.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Reading second part chapter 5
Before I continue with my entry about the second half of chapter five, I would like to mention some other ideas that I didn’t talk about last time. Today we finished watching the movie Peaceful Soldier in Ethics. This movie is full of clichés, but it is also a film that contains material to meditate about. In Slaughter House-Five, the Tralfamadorians always speak about the importance of living each moment simply as it comes and to focus only on it, forgetting about the past and about the future. Also the tutor of the main character teaches him to leave everything behind when living in the present, emptying hid mind, forgetting about the bad things that he has inside his head. This philosophy relates closely to the one that the Tralfamadorians have. In the following quote we can observe this similarity, “Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.”(117)
The rest of chapter five is not very interesting per say, because Billy keeps on changing the scenery very often and it is very repetitious. What I can say about Billy in what is left of the chapter is that he is very insecure about what he is doing and what he really wants in life. I never see him as a complete human being in any of the different time periods he travels to. It’s like he knows that every time he goes to another place in time he leaves a part of himself behind. That is why maybe, when I read about Billy being old in his bed, the image he is showing is very decrepit and weak. He is no longer what he used to be. Knowing that this will happen to him, due to his “ability,” obviously makes him feel very bad about himself. All of this avoids Billy to leave in the present.
Finally I wanted to make a short analysis about the cultural tendency of Vonnegut in this novel. Remembering the interview, he comments that he is proud of being a German-American, but that he has resentment against some Germans for their inhuman acts during the war. He never mentions how he feels about Americans, and as I read through this second half of chapter five I could see that the author wanted to express some cultural antipathy also, but this time towards Americans. “Campbell told what the German experience with captured American enlisted men had been. They were known everywhere to be the most self-pitting, least fraternal, and dirtiest of all prisoners of war, said Campbell.”(131) In this segment it is pretty evident that the author urges to express a certain amount of resentment about the American people and their costumes, through the monographs that Campbell sends. He is disgusted in some aspects with the American culture, and although he doesn’t want to make it that public, then he does this throughout these few pages.
The rest of chapter five is not very interesting per say, because Billy keeps on changing the scenery very often and it is very repetitious. What I can say about Billy in what is left of the chapter is that he is very insecure about what he is doing and what he really wants in life. I never see him as a complete human being in any of the different time periods he travels to. It’s like he knows that every time he goes to another place in time he leaves a part of himself behind. That is why maybe, when I read about Billy being old in his bed, the image he is showing is very decrepit and weak. He is no longer what he used to be. Knowing that this will happen to him, due to his “ability,” obviously makes him feel very bad about himself. All of this avoids Billy to leave in the present.
Finally I wanted to make a short analysis about the cultural tendency of Vonnegut in this novel. Remembering the interview, he comments that he is proud of being a German-American, but that he has resentment against some Germans for their inhuman acts during the war. He never mentions how he feels about Americans, and as I read through this second half of chapter five I could see that the author wanted to express some cultural antipathy also, but this time towards Americans. “Campbell told what the German experience with captured American enlisted men had been. They were known everywhere to be the most self-pitting, least fraternal, and dirtiest of all prisoners of war, said Campbell.”(131) In this segment it is pretty evident that the author urges to express a certain amount of resentment about the American people and their costumes, through the monographs that Campbell sends. He is disgusted in some aspects with the American culture, and although he doesn’t want to make it that public, then he does this throughout these few pages.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Reading 4
The first half of chapter five is very interesting because we begin to see the different factors that influence Billy to be the kind of person he is. We also infer why some of the elements seen on this novel relate directly to Kurt Vonnegut, after listening to an interview done to the author.
At the beginning of the chapter, the Tralfamadorians keep on emphasizing on their “live the moment” philosophy and it is very weird to see that this ideology appears everywhere, even in the structure of books. In the following citation we can observe this situation more clearly, “There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”(88) For me this is illogical because, although the “moment” theory is a valid life philosophy, you can’t write a book that shows one image of life. A book is precisely a group of images put together under a structure to teach a subject or lesson about life itself. Also, as we have been studying in class, a structure of a novel really defines the essence of the author’s interpretation and the message behind the words. These books in the alien planet of Tralfamador do not have a real purpose, but to entertain for a moment. Then as I moved on in the chapter I found the following quote, “he has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way.”(117)This is somewhat contradicting to what they want to express in their books. According to them, these books have no structure because they are based on a moment, but then they say that a moment is structured in a certain way. That “way” is letting it be, or permitting it to take its own flight, but still it is considered to be a structure. My question is: What do they really mean?
After listening to the interview done to Vonnegut, there were some topics that I thought were deeply related to the novel. First, I could definitely understand why the author criticizes Christianity in his books when mentioning characters of the Bible in a sarcastic way. The author is atheist and despites Christianity and governments that tend towards a theocracy. For him, human laws are more valuable than God’s Laws. It is evident that when Billy prefers the human condition before the rest, when he inhabits the zoo in another planet, and when he admires Adam and eve for their humanly errors. The other factor I noticed that was included in Slaughter House–Five was science fiction. Vonnegut assures in the interview that he began to write science fiction simply because he worked with technology and he decided to use it as a tool in his writing, due to the fact that his knowledge could be combined with fiction. He states that he was “unfairly categorized,” as a science fiction writer. In the story, Billy is also introduced to this genre, and the author makes an indirect attack on the media by including the following as part of Billy’s life, “Kilgore Trout became Billy’s favorite living author, and science fiction became the only sort of tales he could read.”(Vonnegut being German-American as he is, imposes a great influence over the characters he creates, specially on Billy, who shares this characteristic, as well as being a prisoner at World War Two. Sharing this makes both of them the reflection of one another, what they were and what they want to be, which relates to the theme of the novel.
Finally I wanted to include a segment of this chapter which includes most of the topics I mentioned above, showing the connection that the author makes within his books: “It was the Gospel from Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space, shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian, by the way. The visitor from outer space made a study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel.”(108)
After analyzing this quote I realized that here the author expressed his personal thoughts about science fiction, Christianity and related it directly to the extraterrestrial figures of the novel, probably referring to them as his own voice inside the novel.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Reading # 3
The fourth chapter of Slaughter House-Five, continues to show the reader that Billy is a very particular character. The story changes its time scenery various times during this segment of the book.
The chapter begins with Billy being kidnapped the nights his daughter got married. What was very particular about this kidnap was that Billy already knew that it was going to happen and he even made sure to be in the right place on the right time for the arrival of the “aliens”. The following quote appears in the fourth chapter, “Billy now shuffled down his upstairs hallway, knowing he was about to be kidnapped by a flying saucer.”(72) After reading this I asked myself: How did Billy know they were coming for him, and most precisely on that day? Then I realized that the thesis I had implanted last time is actually very close to the real situation. Billy is agonizing and he is just trying to omit the present. Also he is under the effect of substances that may affect his behavior and his mind. In the following citation we can see how this happens, “Drink me, it seemed to say…He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell.”(73) In this part of the novel, Billy drinks and this possibly affects what he sees.
There was a close connection that I found when reading the following, “Out he went, his blue and ivory feet, crushing the wet salad of the lawn”. (75) After analyzing this quote I remembered seeing it before when Billy was in World War Two, when he was freezing as a captive and his feet were also blue. These details are seen in two different time periods, meaning that probably at is all an illusion that has been created by Billy’s mind. I also found another similar example in this chapter. When Billy found himself waiting for the saucer, the narrator mentions the following, “Somewhere a big dog barked.”(76) Then when he is in World War Two, he mentions a similar thing, “Somewhere a dog barked.”(82) That a dog is mentioned in both scenarios, for me it definitely means something. In my personal opinion, this fact supports by thesis that he is actually trying to avoid his reality but as we all know, the world keeps on spinning, and he is probably seeing things in the present that he can’t avoid in his hallucinations because they are so evident.
“Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton… This law tells us that for every action there is a reaction which is equal and opposite reaction.”(80) This segment was mentioned when describing how Billy would react by coughing every time the door of the wagon was opened. This reminds of eighth grade when we learned about Newton’s laws. This law at first is a little complicated to understand, but then it all makes sense. In life when you have an adversity you react in a way that is completely the opposite to the situation. There may be feelings of anger and blame, when really it’s just a coincidence or just plain destiny. This line is deeply related to Billy too, because he is reacting to what is happening in his present with his imagination. Something is causing him pain or doubt and trying to avoid it he reacts in the opposite way as if nothing is happening, by living in the past and in the future.
The chapter begins with Billy being kidnapped the nights his daughter got married. What was very particular about this kidnap was that Billy already knew that it was going to happen and he even made sure to be in the right place on the right time for the arrival of the “aliens”. The following quote appears in the fourth chapter, “Billy now shuffled down his upstairs hallway, knowing he was about to be kidnapped by a flying saucer.”(72) After reading this I asked myself: How did Billy know they were coming for him, and most precisely on that day? Then I realized that the thesis I had implanted last time is actually very close to the real situation. Billy is agonizing and he is just trying to omit the present. Also he is under the effect of substances that may affect his behavior and his mind. In the following citation we can see how this happens, “Drink me, it seemed to say…He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell.”(73) In this part of the novel, Billy drinks and this possibly affects what he sees.
There was a close connection that I found when reading the following, “Out he went, his blue and ivory feet, crushing the wet salad of the lawn”. (75) After analyzing this quote I remembered seeing it before when Billy was in World War Two, when he was freezing as a captive and his feet were also blue. These details are seen in two different time periods, meaning that probably at is all an illusion that has been created by Billy’s mind. I also found another similar example in this chapter. When Billy found himself waiting for the saucer, the narrator mentions the following, “Somewhere a big dog barked.”(76) Then when he is in World War Two, he mentions a similar thing, “Somewhere a dog barked.”(82) That a dog is mentioned in both scenarios, for me it definitely means something. In my personal opinion, this fact supports by thesis that he is actually trying to avoid his reality but as we all know, the world keeps on spinning, and he is probably seeing things in the present that he can’t avoid in his hallucinations because they are so evident.
“Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton… This law tells us that for every action there is a reaction which is equal and opposite reaction.”(80) This segment was mentioned when describing how Billy would react by coughing every time the door of the wagon was opened. This reminds of eighth grade when we learned about Newton’s laws. This law at first is a little complicated to understand, but then it all makes sense. In life when you have an adversity you react in a way that is completely the opposite to the situation. There may be feelings of anger and blame, when really it’s just a coincidence or just plain destiny. This line is deeply related to Billy too, because he is reacting to what is happening in his present with his imagination. Something is causing him pain or doubt and trying to avoid it he reacts in the opposite way as if nothing is happening, by living in the past and in the future.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Slaughter House-Five Reading # 2
As I continued to read the third chapter of Slaughter House-Five, I stop for a moment and went back to observe some details that I didn’t understand so much at the beginning, but that began to make a lot of sense now.
I realized that what made Billy so special was his ability to travel back and forth through time living in his past and in his future, while in his present, meaning that he omitted the present of his life. For me this is very illogical because through out the different conflicts in my life I have learned one valuable lesson: “Seize the day.” Due to the fact that Billy is actually sacrificing in a way his present for distant or future memories is absurd to me. Then when I analyzed it more profoundly I considered the possibility that what Billy is doing is not traveling through time but living in his memories and dreams. This I suspected after reading the following line, “This wasn’t time travel. It had never happened, never would happen. It was the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow….The cheering went on, but its tone was altered as the hallucination gave way to time-travel.”(49). After doing a close reading to this part I could conclude that he had two types a hallucinations. One that was cause by pain that took him to the future, and another one within the future that because of a mid-life crisis, made him have visions about his past. Maybe the hallucinations that take him to the future also create images that relate to his past, but it is all in one big delusion that takes place during the present.
Again, religious topics begin to appear at the beginning of the chapter. Adam and Eve are mentioned as an image within a guy’s boots. This we can see it in the following segment, “If you look in there deeply enough, you’ll see Adam and Eve….they were naked, they were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them.”(53) Here I could observe those religious elements that I had already mentioned in my last entry. The book has this great influence of Christianity, and the author creates this antiwar novel with the purpose of criticizing religion. Religion, as I had already said, is the major cause of most wars, especially the Christian Church. It is evident who the author uses Billy to make his judgments about this organization clear to the reader. By making Billy a person who uses Old Testament characters as the perfect example of human nature and admires how they never follow God’s instructions, the author succeeds to show what a paradoxical mind Billy has, and how he has been influenced by this religious institution and society. Later on in the third chapter, I observed other details like the bullet proof bible.
After reading some more pages I found the following fragment,
I realized that what made Billy so special was his ability to travel back and forth through time living in his past and in his future, while in his present, meaning that he omitted the present of his life. For me this is very illogical because through out the different conflicts in my life I have learned one valuable lesson: “Seize the day.” Due to the fact that Billy is actually sacrificing in a way his present for distant or future memories is absurd to me. Then when I analyzed it more profoundly I considered the possibility that what Billy is doing is not traveling through time but living in his memories and dreams. This I suspected after reading the following line, “This wasn’t time travel. It had never happened, never would happen. It was the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow….The cheering went on, but its tone was altered as the hallucination gave way to time-travel.”(49). After doing a close reading to this part I could conclude that he had two types a hallucinations. One that was cause by pain that took him to the future, and another one within the future that because of a mid-life crisis, made him have visions about his past. Maybe the hallucinations that take him to the future also create images that relate to his past, but it is all in one big delusion that takes place during the present.
Again, religious topics begin to appear at the beginning of the chapter. Adam and Eve are mentioned as an image within a guy’s boots. This we can see it in the following segment, “If you look in there deeply enough, you’ll see Adam and Eve….they were naked, they were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them.”(53) Here I could observe those religious elements that I had already mentioned in my last entry. The book has this great influence of Christianity, and the author creates this antiwar novel with the purpose of criticizing religion. Religion, as I had already said, is the major cause of most wars, especially the Christian Church. It is evident who the author uses Billy to make his judgments about this organization clear to the reader. By making Billy a person who uses Old Testament characters as the perfect example of human nature and admires how they never follow God’s instructions, the author succeeds to show what a paradoxical mind Billy has, and how he has been influenced by this religious institution and society. Later on in the third chapter, I observed other details like the bullet proof bible.
After reading some more pages I found the following fragment,
“God grant me
the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
courage
to change the things I can,
and wisdom always
to tell the
difference.”(60)
As soon as I read it, a bell rang inside my head. This quote was very familiar to me and I was sure I had heard it many times. I probably read it in another text, maybe another book or just in religion class. I am almost positive that my mother read it to me along time ago trying to teach me some lesson that I probably ignored. For me, this citation is going to be significant in the novel. Maybe I will see it later on and fully understand its meaning with relation to the text. The narrator mentions that Billy applied this stanza to his life in relation to the things we could not change, which were his past, present and future. One of the reasons of why he might say that could have been connected to my theory of Billy fantasizing about his past and future within a momentary dream in his present. The time games that Billy’s mind has created, could have been provoked by a traumatic experience, which he probably had at war. This resembles once again to the author’s great criticism towards war in this novel.
Finally I would like to address the following question:
Why is Billy weeping during certain hours of the day? Is this related some way with the possible trauma he could have had during war and that is leading his mind to create these hallucinations?
the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
courage
to change the things I can,
and wisdom always
to tell the
difference.”(60)
As soon as I read it, a bell rang inside my head. This quote was very familiar to me and I was sure I had heard it many times. I probably read it in another text, maybe another book or just in religion class. I am almost positive that my mother read it to me along time ago trying to teach me some lesson that I probably ignored. For me, this citation is going to be significant in the novel. Maybe I will see it later on and fully understand its meaning with relation to the text. The narrator mentions that Billy applied this stanza to his life in relation to the things we could not change, which were his past, present and future. One of the reasons of why he might say that could have been connected to my theory of Billy fantasizing about his past and future within a momentary dream in his present. The time games that Billy’s mind has created, could have been provoked by a traumatic experience, which he probably had at war. This resembles once again to the author’s great criticism towards war in this novel.
Finally I would like to address the following question:
Why is Billy weeping during certain hours of the day? Is this related some way with the possible trauma he could have had during war and that is leading his mind to create these hallucinations?
Slaughter House-Five Reading # 1
In the first two chapters of Slaughter House- Five, I could definitely observe a much elaborated structure that was based on different time and context sequences. In the first chapter we find the narrator of the book which is writing a book about his experience in World War Two. In that first part, this narrator uses many disorganized pieces of narration that at the end unite as a whole. Billy, the character he has created in his novel probably reflects what this author wanted to be or what he wished would of happen back then.
The destruction of Dresden, in Germany, is the focus of the story, making this novel antiwar. After analyzing this, I realized that it’s not a coincidence that all great historical texts and literary works are based on wars. As we saw last year, texts such as the Bible’s Old Testament, Nijal’s Saga, The Art of War, and many more are based on different historical battles. Telling what happened during that time and then adding your own political, social or religious twist to it, convinces the reader to follow support your ideals. This relation between wars and literary pieces explains why so many books about these topics have been written. The winners of the different wars, in this case, a soldier of the American army, is convincing us throughout his story that the ideals and the actions of his country in the war are the correct ones, creating this instant prejudice against the Germans. This is the purpose of the author when writing an antiwar novel.
Call his book, the Children’s Crusades, reminds me of the great influence that the Church has in the world. The crusades, being an event hosted by the Roman Church during the middle ages makes a lot of sense when it is mentioned on a book about World wanted everybody to have a Christian foundation, and the Nazis wanted to eliminate the Jews, because they didn’t follow the German Christian traditions. These two horrid events were based on religion and specially with the purpose of giving more power to the church.
The book mentions the story of Ruth, the wife of Lot, who becomes a pillar of slat when looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah, “And Lot’s wife, of course was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that was so human.”(21-22) It is interesting how he mentions this story because he identifies himself with this selfish character by saying that he is like the pillar of slat: a human. What Rachel did was a very human like thing to do, meaning that the novel as a story with flaws has also a selfish purpose, or a reflection upon a mistake.
More connections related to the influence of religion in this novel, for example I could see this small detail that is described in the life of Billy, but that has a great influence on what the story is about. “Billy wasn’t Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on the wall.”(38) He can see that even though the author doesn’t want to show any specific religion related to the character, he still wants some credit connection to be established. He also includes the following, “…the imperishable honor acquired for themselves and the great services they rendered to Christianity.”(51) In this pert, Weary wants to compare the accomplishments of his group of friends in the war to the three musketeers. He establishes also a very significant relationship between what they did and the duties to be followed in the Christian doctrines. This shows the significance of religion in this novel.
The destruction of Dresden, in Germany, is the focus of the story, making this novel antiwar. After analyzing this, I realized that it’s not a coincidence that all great historical texts and literary works are based on wars. As we saw last year, texts such as the Bible’s Old Testament, Nijal’s Saga, The Art of War, and many more are based on different historical battles. Telling what happened during that time and then adding your own political, social or religious twist to it, convinces the reader to follow support your ideals. This relation between wars and literary pieces explains why so many books about these topics have been written. The winners of the different wars, in this case, a soldier of the American army, is convincing us throughout his story that the ideals and the actions of his country in the war are the correct ones, creating this instant prejudice against the Germans. This is the purpose of the author when writing an antiwar novel.
Call his book, the Children’s Crusades, reminds me of the great influence that the Church has in the world. The crusades, being an event hosted by the Roman Church during the middle ages makes a lot of sense when it is mentioned on a book about World wanted everybody to have a Christian foundation, and the Nazis wanted to eliminate the Jews, because they didn’t follow the German Christian traditions. These two horrid events were based on religion and specially with the purpose of giving more power to the church.
The book mentions the story of Ruth, the wife of Lot, who becomes a pillar of slat when looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah, “And Lot’s wife, of course was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that was so human.”(21-22) It is interesting how he mentions this story because he identifies himself with this selfish character by saying that he is like the pillar of slat: a human. What Rachel did was a very human like thing to do, meaning that the novel as a story with flaws has also a selfish purpose, or a reflection upon a mistake.
More connections related to the influence of religion in this novel, for example I could see this small detail that is described in the life of Billy, but that has a great influence on what the story is about. “Billy wasn’t Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on the wall.”(38) He can see that even though the author doesn’t want to show any specific religion related to the character, he still wants some credit connection to be established. He also includes the following, “…the imperishable honor acquired for themselves and the great services they rendered to Christianity.”(51) In this pert, Weary wants to compare the accomplishments of his group of friends in the war to the three musketeers. He establishes also a very significant relationship between what they did and the duties to be followed in the Christian doctrines. This shows the significance of religion in this novel.
Friday, February 8, 2008
What is a Blog?
A. The difference between a blog and a book is outrageously different. According to the review we just read, books are ideas that are organized and established within a certain structure. They have a way of being and they flow through out their content. A blog is a more disorganized system and it has a less complicated structure that may be to open for the public in some cases. A blog, being an electronic media to write and express your opinions, works rather fast and is constantly exposed before all users. Books, being more planed and structural are slower and are not out in the open for the public to comment on and interfere. Blogs live liberty for imagination and criticism, they give you the freedom to go beyond what has been written. A book holds you up between its pages. In a blog you can analyze pretty much anything that you want within the media and cyberspace. Books give margins that you can’t trespass.
B. Back in the 80’s, blogs were meant to give you certain cites and addresses that would take you to the sources you were really interested on finding when you saw that there was something special about its content included in another page. Nowadays, blogs are very personal and sometimes even son professional that in most of the cases, entering a new blog can be truly confusing. The blogers post new entries all the time and you have to be checking it constantly so that you don’t miss on anything significant. Today, people are interested more on finding links that point out other blogs. Now its not an “information source”, per say, but a world wide commentary and analysis cyber-organization. (just made it up) Blogers want to become popular within their community of blogers, and they will proceed to post revealing and controversial material in order to gain attention. Media and politicians also use blogers to gain recognition and therefore win support from the rest of the community.
C. I would read a blog to be informed of something that really interests me and that I am passionate about, in a level that I’m willing to get involved in discussions that may favor my point of view. I may also read a blog if a I want to get to know the person that wrote it or establish some social, economic, political, or educational relationships with that person and therefore to be more influential in the community. I may read a blog only because it supports one of my ideas and my commenting on it and linking my blog, more people would be interested in mine.
D. There are certainly many reasons to doubt the objectivity of a blog. As I mentioned before, many people have social, economic or political intentions when they create a blog. By doing this, they drive many attention towards themselves and gain a lot of popularity and even power. When a person posts a piece of writing, than will probably be very opinionated on a personal o political level, the blog is therefore subjective. It is based on the bloger’s criteria, with hidden intensions, which make it all about what that person thinks, and not what really is happening. Although all facts that may be posted are supposed to be objective, the perspective of each individual is in it’s essence subjective.
E. If I kept my own personal Blog I would call it “My version of happened.”
I would do this basically because I would narrate events that I have seen and I would give my opinions about them. It would all be my version, as all blogs are personal versions of subjects that may interest a group of people but commented on, in different ways.
B. Back in the 80’s, blogs were meant to give you certain cites and addresses that would take you to the sources you were really interested on finding when you saw that there was something special about its content included in another page. Nowadays, blogs are very personal and sometimes even son professional that in most of the cases, entering a new blog can be truly confusing. The blogers post new entries all the time and you have to be checking it constantly so that you don’t miss on anything significant. Today, people are interested more on finding links that point out other blogs. Now its not an “information source”, per say, but a world wide commentary and analysis cyber-organization. (just made it up) Blogers want to become popular within their community of blogers, and they will proceed to post revealing and controversial material in order to gain attention. Media and politicians also use blogers to gain recognition and therefore win support from the rest of the community.
C. I would read a blog to be informed of something that really interests me and that I am passionate about, in a level that I’m willing to get involved in discussions that may favor my point of view. I may also read a blog if a I want to get to know the person that wrote it or establish some social, economic, political, or educational relationships with that person and therefore to be more influential in the community. I may read a blog only because it supports one of my ideas and my commenting on it and linking my blog, more people would be interested in mine.
D. There are certainly many reasons to doubt the objectivity of a blog. As I mentioned before, many people have social, economic or political intentions when they create a blog. By doing this, they drive many attention towards themselves and gain a lot of popularity and even power. When a person posts a piece of writing, than will probably be very opinionated on a personal o political level, the blog is therefore subjective. It is based on the bloger’s criteria, with hidden intensions, which make it all about what that person thinks, and not what really is happening. Although all facts that may be posted are supposed to be objective, the perspective of each individual is in it’s essence subjective.
E. If I kept my own personal Blog I would call it “My version of happened.”
I would do this basically because I would narrate events that I have seen and I would give my opinions about them. It would all be my version, as all blogs are personal versions of subjects that may interest a group of people but commented on, in different ways.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
