2012년 3월 28일 수요일
A work of literature that has inspired me
On e day,after 8 hours of tiring school time, I picked up the thickest book on my book shelf to go to sleep - it said "The Brave New World"on its cover. After 5 minutes, I confronted with a fantasy world in which babies were "hatched". Immediately, I knew that this was the wrong book - I would not be able to fall a sleep reading this book.
Though I was very tired, too tired even to open my eyes, I decided to explore the new world a little more because I wanted to visualize the possibly future society in my head (I should admit that one of the other reasons why I continued with the reading was that the author described the female protagonist in a very sensual manner).
The Brave New World portrays a sharp contrast between the world that is highly structured and mechanized - the expected-to-be a future society - and the world in which humans live their lives without much technology - the contemporary society. The latter community is called the "barbarian society" for in the eyes of the brave new world inhabitants, they - people living outside the scope of technological influence - were just savages.
Aldous Huxley, the author of the book, makes the readers question, however, whether the brave new world is really an advanced society. He throws a cynical question about whether the joy and the happiness that people from the brave new world enjoy are REAL pleasures. Huxley himself insinuates his answer later in the scene where the female protagonist from the brave new world gets puzzled when she was asked whether she was happy. All the joy and contentment felt through artificial medicines were fake. Nobody in the brave new world was truly happy.
The book introduces one of the key memes that should be conveyed onto the next generation. Understanding of the very virtue of "humanity" - what it means to be a human - is what makes people happy. With the advent of more advanced technologies, humankind might forget how lucky they are to be humans. I sincerely hope my grandsons and daughters to actually "feel" and understand the authentic values of humankind
Though I was very tired, too tired even to open my eyes, I decided to explore the new world a little more because I wanted to visualize the possibly future society in my head (I should admit that one of the other reasons why I continued with the reading was that the author described the female protagonist in a very sensual manner).
The Brave New World portrays a sharp contrast between the world that is highly structured and mechanized - the expected-to-be a future society - and the world in which humans live their lives without much technology - the contemporary society. The latter community is called the "barbarian society" for in the eyes of the brave new world inhabitants, they - people living outside the scope of technological influence - were just savages.
Aldous Huxley, the author of the book, makes the readers question, however, whether the brave new world is really an advanced society. He throws a cynical question about whether the joy and the happiness that people from the brave new world enjoy are REAL pleasures. Huxley himself insinuates his answer later in the scene where the female protagonist from the brave new world gets puzzled when she was asked whether she was happy. All the joy and contentment felt through artificial medicines were fake. Nobody in the brave new world was truly happy.
The book introduces one of the key memes that should be conveyed onto the next generation. Understanding of the very virtue of "humanity" - what it means to be a human - is what makes people happy. With the advent of more advanced technologies, humankind might forget how lucky they are to be humans. I sincerely hope my grandsons and daughters to actually "feel" and understand the authentic values of humankind
2012년 3월 21일 수요일
What I am Self-studying about~!!
I am studying for the AP Statistics Quiz scheduled in the 4th period (very next period)
Sorry.... for sacrificing this precious English writing class for my self-study time....
Yet, I finished my poem assignment!!
I include some images that describe either AP Statistics class itself or my feelings toward the class
Sorry.... for sacrificing this precious English writing class for my self-study time....
Yet, I finished my poem assignment!!
I include some images that describe either AP Statistics class itself or my feelings toward the class
Poem Assignment
A Girl
-Ezra Pound
The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast -
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.
Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.
---------------------------------------
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound is an American poet who set standards for early modernist poems in the early 20th century. He pioneered imagism; he used vivid and tight language to describe an unadorned image of things he saw.
As Pound tried to convey a vivid and lucid picture through his poem, his works include many musical and verbal qualities both in the verses of his poem and in the mood. The rhythmicity is the very reason why I like Pound's poem and the poet himself.
Among all his poems, "A Girl" has special meaning for me in that this poem was the first encounter with Pound. The thrill I felt when I read through the poem, especially the line "And all this is folly to the world", I would not forget throughout my life.
The image I included is the first scenery I thought of after reading this poem.
2012년 3월 12일 월요일
THBT people having common value system is an invitation to tyranny !!
Imagine a world where people have same value system, a "robot" world in which people think the same, act the same, and move the same. True, it would be HORRIBLE. That is what is happening in the reality, however. With a distorted fancy name of "globalization" or "cultural/industrial development", humankind is losing variety. Distinct customs and traditions are dying and all the same value system is taking place.
It is especially the less developed countries that are losing their identities. For example, as investors from the U.S. and other advanced countries came into the Brazilian market, the formerly-existed 450 tribes lost their tradition and were unilaterally assimilated to the Western culture. They no longer speak their own language, nor do they go hunting or fishing to eat; they speak English and go to McDonalds. This situation is prevalent in other parts of the globe too. Millions of minorities - natives and Indian tribes - have lost their culture and are being culturally "colonized" by Western countries - especially the U.S.
All people learning English, wearing New-Yorker style suits, and eating in McDonalds is not a far future. Some experts say that within this millenium, we will find U.S. everywhere on Earth. The unification or standardization of all cultures is an imminent threat.
Why is it a threat? If you asked the question, pity you... you are a victim of westernization as well. Let me explain to you then why world with sameness is an invitation to TYRANNY.
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