Brave New World

     Living in a consumer society I can't really help but think we are living in a Brave New World. This idea of subliminal projection Huxley talks about seems to plague every day life, maybe even influence it to the extent of controlling and manipulating it. From the time I wake up in the morning to the time I go to sleep I'm bombarded with trivial things like pop culture. Of course I buy in to it sometimes because that's what our society seems to care about most. It's in this way that I think we are being projected on. I don't see commercials about real world problems. I see commercials about celebrities and the hottest new brands and movies etc. These things appeal to our subconscious because they have nothing to do with reason and conscious decisions. They appeal to our wants and desires, and that's why it's easy for us to be controlled by them. I can like a song or a brand because I think it sounds good or looks good, but the message I am receiving about drugs or high society can be lasting. In this way they keep us dormant, and this makes us unaware about what is going on, like the soma they use in the book.
     Another point Huxley made about technology and mass communication being instruments of very effective, but potentially evil messages makes me think we are living in a world where that exists. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a television, computer, or phone. In this way people are receiving messages all day long. Some of it may be harmless, but messages can be sneaky and evil. Like the hypnopaedia in the book, messages are drilled in to our minds all the time. That's why fast food chains and big corporations develop jingles and slogans. They want us to associate the cool phrases and happy jingles with good food and a good time, not with heart problems and diabetes.
     Huxley talks a lot about politicians and communist nations. From the political aspect about candidates I can see where we might be going astray. Huxley said that candidates were merchandised, but I think it's gotten to the point where people in general are merchandised, kind of like in the book how people only cared about appearance and outward personality. There was no getting to know someone on a real basis, they only saw what the person wanted them to see. I think our pop culture and the brands and the fake nature of it all dehumanizes people. When you have the front cover of a magazine bashing on some celebrity because she gained 20 pounds you know you've got a problem.
   

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was a French teacher at Eton where he taught Eric Blair (later to become George Orwell) and he was apparently a horrible teacher.

(What's the Story) Morning Glory

I think Dickens wrote this book for all the people who have ever wanted more and dreamed of becoming something great. He wanted to examine the hardships of great expectations during a time when class structure reigned supreme. If you look at the quote on page 61 that begins, "That was a memorable day to me..." you can see that Dickens uses the symbolism of the chain links to explain how people feel bound to their fates, and also how people feel connected to other expectations. Miss Havisham uses Estella as a sort of temptation to Pip. She dangles Estella in front of Pip because she wants to taunt him with the life he can never have. Dickens also uses the moral conflicts within Pip to show how conflicted he is about what he wants to do and be. Does he want to be like the convict, or like Joe, or like Miss Havisham? Does he want to live with regrets, never have an exciting life, or be bitter about everything?

Pic of the Day #16

Lit Terms 2

• circumlocution
  
• classicism 
  
• cliche 
  
• climax
  
• colloquialism 
  
• comedy
  
• conflict
  
• connotation
  
• contrast 
  
• denotation
  
• denouement
  
  
  
• dialect 
  
• dialectics 
  
• dichotomy 
  
• diction
  
• didactic 
  
• dogmatic
  
• elegy
  
• epic
  
• epigram 
  

All That David Copperfield Kind of Crap

If by "all that David Copperfield kind of crap" Holden means all the unfortunate circumstances and happenings surrounding David Copperfield, then I guess he's a total hypocrite. That's Holden though, he sits from afar judging everyone without actually judging himself. He does it because he can't face his "inadequacies", and that is part of the reason why he gets kicked out of so many schools. He spends most of the story complaining about people and how they're all "phonies", and has this grand scenario where he will go away and live as a logger or something. The more I think about it Holden isn't very different from Pip. They both have a "tale of woe", and they both go through life trying to rid themselves of their inadequacies and reach this final destination that it turns out they don't really want anyway. Pip realizes the truth about the world, and Holden realizes that what he wanted all along was to be innocent again and not know the truth about "phonies". The difference between Pip and Holden is that even though they both have expectations about the world and people, Holden is miserably in the present with both feet stuck in reality while Pip still has his wild imagination.

Dickens style is really distinguished by his characters and their impossible situations, and the imagination that comes from that. Salinger tried to separate his characters from Dickens because he wanted them to be real characters that you would find in everyday life to parallel everything Holden hates about phonies. This made his novel seem more realistic and made Holden even more blunt and disillusioned.

AP Prep Post 1: Siddartha

1. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist of a bildungsroman. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap13_frq_eng_lit.pdf

2. What are the conflicts in Siddhartha? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) did you see in the novel?

3. What are some themes in the novel? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

http://classiclit.about.com/od/Siddhartha-H-Hesse/a/Siddhartha-Questions-For-Study-And-Discussion.htm

4. Why did Siddartha try to leave the teachings of the Samanas and Buddhists?

5. Describe Siddartha's feelings toward self-love and loving others.

http://www.csun.edu/~pjs44945/sidd.html


1. To answer this question I would need to know what prompted Siddartha to leave behind his old life and go against his parents.

2. Siddartha has many moral conflicts about giving up being a brahmin and emotional conflict over leaving his family. He also has intellectual conflict with himself about whether or not he's making the right decision

3. Some of the themes are those of self-realization and going after your dreams which relates to Siddartha going against his family and way of life. Another theme might be breaking tradition and starting on a new path.

4. I assume Siddartha wasn't happy and he finally realized that the Samanas wouldn't make him happy and he had to follow his heart. I don't know the exact reason why.

5. Siddartha feels like you need to love yourself so that you can find out who you really are and make the right choices. He also feels like loving people is important because maybe he thinks that loving others helps them love themselves.