k i d s 2

* * *
I had never seen Finding Neverland before. I was skeptical about doing such, but after seeing it I was totally amazed. Of course the cinematography was amazing and beyond that, the story itself was beautiful.
What I took from it was the concept of imagination through all ages.
A common misconception is to have freedom of the mind and body you must be a child. Maybe this is why the phrase "if only i was young again.." is so popular. All adults yearn for that sense of wonder that they had as children. We go to the theater, the movies, concerts, read fiction novel and fantasy all in the pursuit of being transported out of the ordinary.
But here in this movie we see Sir James Matthew Barrie being able to live an adult life whilst still exercising his imagination. He carries both off successfully. To me, not only was this a beautifully told story about the writing of Peterpan or the drama of two struggling family, but also an example of working the imagination and adventure of such into an everyday adult life.
it is important to remember that as adults the need to take imagining to the next level is always present. We don't need to look back on childhood with sorrow that we can never go back. Adults have the unique power to look forward into their lives and approach wonder in a new and informed way. Adults have a broader range of references to pull from and a very wide range of outlets for said creativity of imagination and enchantment. Writing, playwriting, works of art, and storytelling are all ways in which adults can use their ideas purposefully.
This is why looking back on childhood longingly is done in vain. As adults imagination can and should be a part of our lives, and for a lot of us here even necessary. The ability to push our thoughts into amazing creations for the sharing with others is a gift one earns through growing up and still not letting go of the wonder in the world.
Aprillllll

*
Because I missed class last week, I cannot comment about the events that happened in class. However, I can comment on "Peter Pan".
Peter Pan is a character that all children and adults can or could relate to. We all fear or feared growing up. We also dislike the idea of too much responsibility. I am very guilty of both!
What I have trouble understanding is how we as humans have the capacity to fear these things. The concept of change is a basic part of living. The more a person experiences something, the more they become desensitized to it, right? Things always change. So how have we not become desensitized to change?
Elan

*

everything unknown is potential death

*
I understand that the unknown and change can lead to death (literally or figuratively), however I do not believe that is the answer to my question.
People do not become bothered about the change that is life. We are desensitized to things coming to be. Life is just as common as death. So, why do we fear the change that is death? Why are we not desensitized to it?
Elan

* * *

k i d s 1

Ivana Baquero in Pan's Labyrinth

* * *
When deciding what to talk about in regards to Through the looking glass I originally came up with an idea then shot them down. Considering all other things my mind kept wondering back to the original. Existentialism. i decided that it makes an interesting topic in analyizing Through the looking glass. The reason why i choose Existentialism is because all the characters seem to work independantly of the other characters. Each character that she meets has their own theories and way of thinking that Alice must adapt to. I guess the way I am looking at this is the fairy tale version of existentialism. Imagine a world where every living creature really has the power to go about living just as they please and that world is the one Through the Looking Glass. The difference between Carroll's (Dodgson's) two worlds of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is that in Wonderland the world which at first looks chaotic later unfolds into a world working under a odd but very particular systems of priciples...not to mention laws of the queen (the one who keeps screaming "off with her head"). Yet, then in the world behind the mirror in the reading for this week, every person and creature is working under their own personal law. Although the book starts off centered around th chess game which would seem like an overriding god-like system which rules all the creature we soon find that principles change which each person she meets.
There are many examples of this in the text. The biggest red flag of this i caught in the text is when Alice is with Humpty Dumpty. They are arguing about words and poems and the reading comes upon these lines:
"When i use a word" Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "It means just what i choose it to mean-neither more nor less."
"the question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master-that's all."

This seems to referrence a higher power yet clearly HUmpty Dumpty is claiming he has the power to determine the words he uses....which seems to be saying he has the power to determine all things in his life.

Another example from the text that supports Existentialism is the fact the Alice has the power to be turned into a queen. For me, when i read Carroll text his portail of power issues are direct when he writes the queen and king scenes. Therefore, my interpritation is that the royalty figures in his lands act as what would be god-like characters. So when Alice is turned into a queen is spoke to me as her empowerment to act freely as the god of her own life. She made the rules in her own social order that went againt the red queen's soical order when she cut into the pudding because it was Alice's right to choose. That is a type of Existentialst action. She is acting independant of all others and showing her free will.

Of course there are other examples such as the queen telling Alice she has the right to believe impossible things or even when the unicorn tells Alice that they can decide to belive in one another. I thought these examples would make good discussion topics in terms of Extentialism.
April

*
While also providing a brief history in photography, chapter four of Men in Wonderland, provides a great deal of background information on Lewis Carroll and his photography.
As we all should know by now, Lewis Carroll had a very large interest in girls. They were the focus of his writing and his photography. The article did discuss one very interesting point. The unique way Carroll gives and takes away power and control from adults to the girls in his work. Throughout both tales of Alice’s adventures there is this constant struggle for control. At times the authority figures have all the power, but never for long. In many cases it is Alice who hold the control over a situation. Most of these situations Alice is in the presence of an “adult”. It is odd that a grown man like Carroll would give a seven and a half year old girl so much control. Most grown-ups would tend to take control away from such a young girl.
The same characteristics seem to show themselves in Carroll portraits. Once again Carroll gives the girls in his portraits control. They posed themselves in very adult positions. I just wrote, “posed themselves”, but we do not know if they posed themselves. Carroll may be the reason they posed in these ways. The three photographs shown in the chapter show a sort of dualism that is strange. The photographs show little girls presenting themselves in adult ways. To be perfectly honest, the images do not rest well with me.
Elan

*
Lewis Carroll is a master of the english language. His style of writing finds a balance between simplicity and lucidity. His wordplay is clever and refreshing, and whenever poor, apparently intentional. Really, this story is compelled by language and much less focus is placed on description. The world through the looking glass is primarily a world of dissimilar logic and the visual aspects of the world seem to come second. There were, in my opinion only two sections in which the visual element took precedence…

1. “The prettiest are always further” she said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off, as with flushed cheeks and dripping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her place , and began to arrange her newfound treasures.
2. Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through the Looking-Glass, this was the one that she always remembered most clearly. Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene back again, as if it had been only yesterday – the mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight – the setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her – the horse quietly moving about, with the reins hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass at her feet – and the black shadows of the forest behind- all this she took in like a picture, as, with one hand shading her eyes, she leant against a tree, witching the strange pair, and listening, in a half dream, to the melancholy music of the song.
Robbie

* * *

m i k h a i l - b u l g a k o v

Mikhail Bulgakov was born to Russian parents in Kiev, Ukraine, the oldest son of a professor at a theological seminary. The Bulgakov sons enlisted in the White Army, and in post-Civil War Russia, ended up in Paris, save for Mikhail. Mikhail, who enlisted as a field doctor, ended up in the Caucasus, where he eventually began working as a journalist. Despite his relatively favoured status under the Soviet rule of Joseph Stalin, Bulgakov was prevented from either emigrating or visiting his brothers in the West. Some details of his biography are unclear as Bulgakov was quite secretive about his past life and swore his wives to secrecy about it. In 1913 Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa. At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered with the Red Cross. In 1916, he graduated from the Medical School of Kiev University and then served in the White Army. He was briefly forcibly mobilized by the Ukrainian Nationalist Army. In 1919 he decided to leave medicine to pursue his love of literature. In 1921, he moved with Tatiana to Moscow where he began his career as a writer. Three years later, divorced from his first wife, he married Lyubov' Belozerskaya. He published a number of works through the early and mid 1920s, but by 1927 his career began to suffer from criticism that he was too anti-Soviet. By 1929 his career was ruined and none of his works were published due to censorship. In 1931, Bulgakov married for the third time, to Yelena Shilovskaya, who would prove to be inspiration for the character Margarita from his most famous novel, and settled with her at Patriarch's Ponds. During the last decade of his life, Bulgakov continued to work on The Master and Margarita, wrote plays, critical works, stories, and made several translations and dramatisations of novels, but these were unpublished. Bulgakov never supported the Soviet power, and mocked it in many of his works. Therefore, most of them were consigned to his desk drawer for several decades. In 1930 he wrote a letter to Stalin requesting permission to emigrate if the Soviet Union could not find use for him as a satirist and received a personal phone call from Stalin himself, denying him that. Stalin had enjoyed Bulgakov's work, The Days of the Turbins and found work for him at a small Moscow theatre, and then the Moscow Art Theatre. In his autobiography and in many biographies, it is stated that Bulgakov wrote the letter out of desperation and mental anguish, never actually intending to post it. The refusal of the authorities to let him work in the theatre and his desire to see his family living abroad, whom he had not seen for many years, led him to seek drastic measures. Despite his new work, the projects he worked on at the theatre were unsuccessful and he was stressed and unhappy. He also worked briefly at the Bolshoi Theatre as a librettist, but left after his works were not produced. Bulgakov died from an inherited kidney disorder in 1940 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

(from wikipedia)

o c c u l t

* * *
The thing i most enjoyed about The Master and Margarita was Bulgakov's talent for description to convey, both indirectly and directly, specific moods, personas, atmospheres, etc. Bulgakov, from what i gather, is a highly illustrative and visceral writer.
Kevin

*
I was doing some research, and found that the names of the characters mean other things.
example: bezdomnity ((the poet)) means "homeless".
i think that is so beautiful!
April

*
Homeless: In early versions of the novel, Bulgakov called his poet Bezrodny ('pastless' or 'familyless'). Many 'proletarian' writers adopted such pen-names, the most famous being Alexei Peshkov, who called himself Maxim Gorky (gorky meaning 'bitter'). Others called themselves Golodny ('Hungry'), Besposhchadny ('Merciless'), Pribludny ('stray'). Worthy of special note here is the poet Efim Pridvorov, who called himself Demian Bedny ('Poor'), author of violent anti-religious poems. It may have been the reading of Bedny that originally sparked Bulgakov to write "The Master and Margarita". In his "Journal" of 1925 (the so-called 'Confiscated Journal' which turned up in the files of the KGB and was published in 1990), Bulgakov noted: 'Jesus Christ is presented as a scoudrel and swindler... There is no name for this crime.'
Robbie

*
I really enjoy this reading a lot. I read chapter1 and 3. Even though these are parts of the story, it makes me keep thinking and bring me curiosity about strange man. I am wondering that he is a fortuneteller, real evil or he is just an angle. I wonder who he really is and what he is. I have been thinking that if I know my future and I have only one day to live what I would do.
How about you guys?
JooYoung

*
An unexpected stranger sits next to you at a bar. He begins asking you about your religious beliefs. He also states that he was at one point in time in the presence of Jesus. You are a little drunk and this stranger is good for a laugh, so you hear him out. But, the conversation keeps becoming weirder and weirder. The stranger now asks you if you believe in the devil. Of course, you don’t. He states he can prove the existence of the devil. He whips out a tape measure. The stranger measures you and begins to think out loud. Following the measurements, he tells you that you are going to die. Not only does he tell you your going to die, but he gives random details about your death. Ok, that was the last straw. What was a good laugh is now just annoying and you have better places to be. You pay your tab and leave the bar.
If you had left a bar after experiencing these events, would you have felt any different about these events then Berlioz did before his death?

Oh, btw, if I ever own a black cat, I am calling him Behemoth. That cat rocked my face off!!!

Elan

*
I have a teacher who talks in third person. Mr. Sanford says science is the new occult because as much as he tries to demystify it we still fear it and worship it. Mr. Sanford says thank you very much.
Brenda

*

Yeah dude, Behemoth rules. Beez for short.

the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) has twelve degrees of hierarchic status. The top five (according to wikipedia) are united under the category of "The Hermit Triad" and are ordered and described as follows:

VIII°-Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati
-Epopt of the Illuminati
-Masturbatory or autosexual magical techniques taught

IX°—Initiate of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis
-Heterosexual magical techniques were taught

X°—Rex Summus Sanctissimus

XI°—Initiate of the Eleventh Degree (This degree is technical, and has no relation to the general plan of the Order)
-Anal intercourse techniques as sexual and magical

XII°—Frater Superior, and Outer Head of the Order

Robbie

*
There are many fortunetellers in Korea. Many people in Korea believe what fortunetellers say. When people have important event or something, they ask about their future to fortuneteller. Somehow many of their predictions become true and they make a good hit of the people's past. I think this is occult.
JooYoung

* * *

t i m e - t r a v e l

f o r e s t - d w e l l i n g

Andrei Tarkovsky Solyaris (1972)

* * *
MUSCI

Any of at least 10,000 species of small, spore-bearing land plants (division Bryophyta) distributed throughout the world except in salt water. Valvate mosses constitute the subclass Andreaeidae, and peat mosses compose the subclass Sphagnidae. The large subclass Bryidae constitutes most species of mosses, but the subclass Polytrichidae also has some important members. Other, smaller subclasses are represented by only a few species.
Mosses are commonly found in moist, shady locations and are best known for those species that carpet woodland and forest floors. Mosses may range in size from microscopic forms to plants more than 1 m (40 inches) long. They differ primarily in the structure and specialization of their sporangia (spore cases). The stemlike and leaflike structures of moss plants constitute the gametophytic (sexual) generation. The sporophytic (asexual) generation develops from the gametophyte and usually consists of a raised stalk, or seta, which terminates in the sporangium. The sporangium remains dependent on the gametophyte, to varying degrees, for water and nutrients. Mosses reproduce by branching and fragmentation, by regeneration from tiny pieces of leaves or stems, and by the production of spores. The spore, under favourable conditions, germinates and grows into a branching, green thread (protonema). Ultimately, the gametophyte grows from an apical cell of the protonema.
Mosses break down exposed substrata, releasing nutrients for the use of more complex plants that succeed them. They aid in soil-erosion control by providing surface cover and absorbing water, and they are important in the nutrient and water economy of some vegetation types. Economically important species are those in the genus Sphagnum that form peat.
Many small plants bearing the name moss are in fact not mosses. The “moss” found on the north side of trees is the green alga Pleurococcus; Irish moss is a red alga. Beard lichen (beard moss), Iceland moss, oak moss, and reindeer moss are lichens. Spanish moss is a common name for both a lichen and an air plant of the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae). Club moss is an evergreen herb of the family Lycopodiaceae.
Mosses existed as early as the Permian period (286 to 245 million years ago), and more than 100 species were present during the Tertiary period (66.4 to 1.6 million years ago). Muscites, Protosphagnum, Palaeohypnum, and other fossil mosses are similar in structure to modern genera.
Kevin

*
in Cynicism: the twilight of false consciousness the idea of self preservation being on the same level as self destruction was addressed.
Would this be a true statement in the fact that all matters of looking inward are on the same level? Or would this be false because self preservation has to so with inter acing in a world that is cynical and self destructive anyway?...there for everything would be on that level. In this case there would be no levels at all...just one static existence.
April

*
Of all the things we read this week, I found "A School For Fools" to be the most interesting and useful to our assignment. I is uncommon to see a short story in a book, then later find the same story line revisited later on and from a slightly different perspective.
I also enjoyed how the stories just seemed to be the author telling what could be considered a minor incident in a person's life. "The Locale" is a wonderful example of this. The story seemed to have no point. that is what I enjoy about some of these stories. So many stories seem to have some point or agenda that must be reached. It is fun to just have a piece of narative that just goes nowhere. It seems to mirror most of the stories we tell our friends and family in our life. Most stories we tell the people around us have no point. They are just something fun to talk about.
Elan

*
A School for Fools reminded me of Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology, a book of postmortem epitaphs of the people who lived in his town. In the epitaphs and Sokolov's short stories the character's lives interact and entangle with one another and it makes me wonder if these stories are about social responsibility or lack of it. The feelings of love in the characters is in the form of a crush, and lust, and dream/thought of marriage, but the love is never reciprocated to the character that is in love/lust. Except possibly with the guy working on his chemistry thesis. Something sparked in his head and he was able to see his wife's relative in a new way, or the most obvious way.
Brenda

*
amorphophallus titanum
Robbie

*
I enjoyed “A School for Fools”. This story is divided by short stories. These stories are not deeply related each other, but the characters of the stories appeared in the other story. I feel that there is not enough interaction between the characters in the each story. I found that there is not much conversation in the story. It shows our live in the present day society. They do not much care about each other, and they do what they have to do. They did not pay attention on other people. It seems to satirize out society which we are living.
JooYoung

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< s o m e - m o r e - m a n d a t o r y - e v e n t s >

OCTOBER
THURSDAY | 11/1 | 8 pm
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, violin

SIBELIUS - Violin Concerto
BRUCKNER - Symphony No. 4 (Romantic)

ALL WHO HAVE NOT ATTENDED Lair of the Minotaur MUST attend this concert. Tickets are 10 $ 1 hour before at the box office or you may buy one online at cso.org to get one for sure.
All ages-no excuses.

e n c h a n t m e n t

* * *
While I'm reading"Struwwelpeter" by Hoffman, one thought hit my mind. Even though most of tairy fales are for the children, many of those endings are tragedy. I think they are too cruel to read for childred, especially Hoffman's fairy tale. Hvae anyone thought that many of fairy tales are cruel for children?
JooYoung

*
Actually, I thought most of these stories were too gentle, and that what happens to these children in the stories is far more positive than the consequences of reality. Shock-headed Peter for instance. Now, he's obviously a metaphor for a type of person that actually exists, and quite prevelantly, otherwise the story wouldn't sell. I'm sure that at some point in our educational careers, we've all become familiar with "the smelly kid", or the kid who never takes a shower, or the kid with "B.O". Not only does this guy have Hoffman telling him he's naughty and deserves punishment, he's also got the ridicule of everyone at school. Because of his heavy stench, the girls wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole, they plug their noses when they pass him by, and are disgusted by all of his attempts at any sort of romance. If his person should come up in conversation with friends, the girls will try to feign pity, but the truth of their detestation always seeps through the blinds of taught compassion, and together they'll all laugh heartily. The boys, on the other hand foster an emotion stronger than hatred, they are indifferent to his very existence. Therefore, they use him for utilitarian purposes only. If money is needed, they steal. If power is desired they beat him. For self-confidence, they ridicule. And worst of all, for a sense of magnanimity, they help him. And so he manipulated into believing that friendship is possible for him, and because of this, when the inevitable betrayal occurs, he is pummeled to an even darker pit of self-revulsion. The truth of the matter is that those he had thought were his friends will steal more from him and beat him all the more ruthlessly, just for having the gall to imagine that anyone would stoop so low as to associate themselves with such an ugly excuse for a human being. And so they mock him in all his success, and laugh at him in his humiliation. The way this life is ended is dependent upon whether he chooses servitude, revenge, or instant death.
Robert

*
A selfish stepmother who cares only about her vanity, another selfish stepmother who has her husband wiped and only cares about her own survival and seven stupid brothers; these are the blights of our hero and heroines.
All of these stories convey a positive message in the end. They just use a very twisted means to reach this positive message. I do not believe that these stories could be written today and be thought of in the same regard. Our society is far too uptight to accept such a dark fairy tale. The sad reality of it all is that these events happen all the time in our world. Parents are constantly abandoning their children in order to get what they want out of life. Siblings are constantly making sacrifices for benefit of loved ones. I would like to know how the brothers reacted, besides their initial reaction, to what their sister did for them. I have a sinking feeling that they are too dumb to realize what she went through. I am willing to bet that the brothers did not have a true appreciation for what their sister did for them.
The positive message I mentioned earlier may not be that apparent to some people. Children of well-adjusted families may only see these tales a random and sorted turn of events. But for the children of dysfunctional families, these tales may be a ray of light. Hansel and Gretel and Snow Drop show that if one can out wit or endure that presence that is tearing the family apart one can eventually find happiness. The little sister’s journey to save here brothers shows how a ripped apart family can be reunited and happy.
Using the story as a direct example, one can see how a dysfunctional family can eventually function, but if one uses these stories slightly more loosely the stories can apply to anyone’s life. This does bring up a series of questions. Who is your stepmother that does not want you to outshine her? How do you kill her? Who is your stepmother that would throw you out into the woods? How do you kill her? Who are your brothers that need a type of help that only you can provide? What are you willing to lose in the process?
Elan

*

Response to The Snow Queen:
To take any of Anderson's fairytales at face value is a grave mistake. Anderson writes symbolically, metaphorically, and philosophically. To get right down to it these seven stories make up a life journey and it's afterlife. Throughout all of Anderson's tales he writes specifically to embody core truths in the world and of human nature. If ask to supply proof for such a lofty statement, I would certainly bring up his story of the Princess and the Pea. In the last sentance of this fairytale he writes: "Now this is a true story." Either Anderson was insane and believed a princess would feel a pea under 20 feather beds or else he was getting at a somewhat different and philosophical point. Here he suggests the idea of range of truth. That truth does not have to be soley factual. The truth Anderson is getting at is the idea of the truth of essance. His stories are not factual yet they enboody the essance and the nature of the world and how it works. A real princess would not feel a pea, yet she would be as much of ungrateful guest as the character is in the story. ((And so on))
Having said this: there are many points that could be made about the symbolizm through stories one through six. Such worldly truths of the deceiving old woman, and the tricky robbers are rich with meaning in the tale. However i want to discuss the more metaphoric ideas presented in story seven. Kay being frozen in the world of the snow queen is reminiscent of Dante's The Divine Comedy. Obvious connections can be made of the hell like state being not in fire but in ice. Kay being found only in the seventh story mimics the coldest and worst circle of hell being the seventh level. If this connection is made then Gerda acts as a kind of Beatrice for Kay. she is the embodiment of Christ and warmth which is needed to navigate through Heaven. In turn, it is Gerda who is the only one who brings Kay back to warmth and christ.
Something more to think about here is the notion of eternity. Kay himself cannot find the word eternity in his icy hellish state. Yet with Gerda they instantly find eternity. Here it obviously states that only with warmth and religion that one can seek an eternal state of happiness.
April

*

Hoffman's Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures are morality tales for children. They all a cautionary tale of listen to your parents or behave yourself otherwise some peril will befall you. The rhyming makes them especially suited to children because it makes the poems easier to remember. Hoffman's stories are comparable to horror films. Most horror films are morality tales for teenagers that show teenagers if they have sex or do drugs they will die. Both make the consequences of rebellious actions memorable or shocking, so that children and teenagers will will think before they disobey conservative societal rules or parents. The stories often reveal the anxieties or fears of society.
Brenda

* * *

d e a t h - c y n i c i s m

Link for Sloterdijk article.
Link for Freud Dream Psychology (Ch IV-Dream Analysis)-listen.

* * *
igmund Freud’s writing on dream analysis is an interesting stint into the twists and turns of the human mind. It is a bizarre concept that we do not fully understand the depths of our minds, yet we are in our minds twenty-four hours a day. In this piece of writing Freud shows several accounts of patients seeking his help with understanding their dreams. In every case the patient is not even close to understanding what their dream means.
A woman who dreams she cannot make dinner, but actually wants to keep her friend thin and unattractive. Another woman who dreams of the death of a boy, but she actually wants to rekindle a past relationship. A third woman who also dreams of the death of a child, but in this dream it is the longing to have had a stillbirth. A doctor dreams of being called to the tax commission’s office, but all he truly wants is to be thought of as a high paid doctor. The examples of the mind’s twists and turns continue. I will stop listing them to prevent you from being too bored. All of these examples show how the mind can so greatly alter one’s concepts in a dream.
Through reading all of this, a single question comes into my mind. How predictable are human minds? A science exists to interpret and decipher how the mind functions and thinks. Science is based on a frequency of patterns. Therefore, the mind must work in patterns. We like to believe that we are all unique in the way we think, however we are so very predictable. It saddens me to realize this. But, there is hope for the art world with this realization. If people think so similarly and respond to stimuli in the same manner, then developing a style of art that will be liked by the masses should not be that difficult. All people do think the same, do they not?
Elan

*
Dear Freud,
I hope you are doing well. I just finished reading your dream analysis chapter. You've created a lovely package of the wishfulfillment as dream via any means necessary as explanation. Including yourself as explanation. Sometimes it even seems that the world revolves around you and your theories and others, even your freinds, "wish that [you] should appear in the wrong."
Freud, please stop this nonsense before someone starts believing in your theories. You have the arrogant ego and perfect reasoning of a designer. Please quit the fuck psychology.
Yours Truly,
Malinda K. Bobkins

*
uck you malinda. i just had a dream about kicking your ass, and guess what? freud was right.

p. slaughterdick

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s t u d y - i n - f o r e i g n - l a n d s

Applications for different programs in Germany:
here

< s o m e - m a n d a t o r y - e v e n t s >

OCTOBER:
Monday | 10/22 | 9 pm
LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR (USA) / WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (USA)
Empty Bottle,1035 N. Western Ave.
21+, free!

v o i d s - b o i l s - f e v e r

Antonin Artaud
* * *
Boris @ The Empty Bottle
I have a few things to say about the Boris show this past Sunday, which was part of the larger Adventures in Modern Music Festival hosted by The Wire Magazine. Boris played last in an eclectic three band line up, which I believe is fairly typical of the festival, which tends to emphasize the diversity of contemporary experimental music. Boris played the longest set of the evening in addition to an applause enduced encore. The performance was an extremely visceral experience, the music was incredilbly loud and piercing (to the point of physical sensation, my ears rang for two days after the show) in addition to constanly fluctuating light environments, which increased exponentially everytime the entire stage was enveloped by an exhalation from the smoke machine. Boris's sound was hard to place, metal is the first reference which comes to mind, not just because of the music, but in addition to the band's persona and theatrical armatures which partly owes itself greatly to hair metal bands of the 80's and early 90's (long hair, head banging, piles of amplifiers, double neck guitar, smoke etc.). However, the sound was anything but retrograde. The music encapsulated an eclectic variety of sounds ranging from post-rock soundscapes to kraut rock's driving rhythm and repetition to sludgy metal. The sound was partially infused by the guest guitarist Michio Kurihara of Ghost, who gave the performance a psychedelic rock tinge.
The music seemed strangely familiar and nostalgic and at the same time extremely fresh. To be blunt, it was like a misinterpretation of several American musical genres, but in the end becoming an entidy all unto its own. Anyways, when the drummer climbed atop his drum set and then proceeded to plung into the audience for an epic crowd surf, I knew my night was finally complete.
Kevin
*
When Kant wrote about the Dynamical Sublime, he was fortelling the existance of Boris!
Kant, like many philosophers, belived that music was the ultimate artform. Because of this, I feel that music would have an easier ability to be sublime. I also feel that Boris' music is sublime. It hits you like a wall of sound. The sound ingulfs you. For that moment in time all the thoughts in your head clear. The only thing you are concerned with is that one moment in time and the sounds that are washing over you like a tidal wave. In my opinion, Boris' music is a wonderful example of the Dynamical Sublime.
NOW IF I COULD JUST FIND A DAMN STORE IN THIS TOWN THAT SELLS THEIR ALBUMS!
Elan
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Where to buy BORIS:

Reckless Records
3161 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60657
phone: 773-404-5080
Monday - Saturday: 10am - 10pm
Sunday: 10am - 8pm

1532 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
phone: 773-235-3727
Monday - Saturday: 10am - 10pm
Sunday: 10am - 8pm

26 E. Madison
Chicago, IL 60602
phone: 312-795-0878
Monday - Sunday: 10am - 7pm

Ika
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In “The Theater and the Plague”, Antonin Artaud talked about similarities between the theater and the plague. He thought that the theater gives the evil influence upon human minds same as the plague does. The theater makes people to get the perverse possibilities of the mind because of the theaters’ fictitious. Without contact, people can get the contagion by the theater which kills the people’s mind without destroying external of human body. I agree with his idea that theater could destroy the humans mind. In these days, we are incessantly exposed to Medias such as theaters, movies, internet, and music which sometimes make us mindless. Especially, young people, they just mimic what they saw in the move without responsibility and guilty. A few years ago in Korea, there were two teenagers who saw the movie together. In the move, there was the scene of murder. They thought that the scene from the move was great, so they killed the friend who they didn’t like. They bathed their hands in blood without guilty. At the same day, they arrested. When they killed their friend, they were mindless. They just did what they saw in the move. As we can see from the instance, people are destroyed by Medias unconsciously. The media is not only giving us many benefits, but it also brings harmful influences on humans mind.
JooYoung
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Did the author Antonin Artaud actually write this chapter, “The Theatre and it’s Double” to promote theatre? When reading the chapter I thought it was odd to compare the plague to the theatre, but Atraud does it and even cites St. Augustine. Honestly though what really makes me think he is promoting theatre is because he writes so passionately about theatre citing Ford’s “’Tis a Pity She’s a Whore”. Also the last paragraph, which is really the last sentence and the longest one in the world, leads me to believe he is actually promoting theatre in a perverse way to bring morality back to theatre because he obviously sees the power of theatre on the masses, why not utilize it.
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On Boris: Drone City Baby!
I really enjoyed the second opening act. Their music was soft at times and would only be appreciated and appropriate in a David Lynch film in some weird trashy club or log cabin juke joint (I’m not sure if such a thing exists outside a Lynch film). They might also be appropriate in a Kids in the Hall episode. One of the singers looked like a character in Kids in the Hall and every gesture he made was overdone, like he was mocking himself, he looked like a child actor who was trying to act and thus every mouth opening and gesture was obnoxiously overdone. The had an odd stage presence. There was a saxophonist on stage who played the tiniest saxophone ever and wore a plaid suit and most of the time he was just standing on stage kind of swaying. However he seemed to feel so awkward up there that I was anticipating before the end of the set he would do something kind of crazy….like maybe have a spasm and jump offstage or just sort of wig out and start doing the robot. That didn’t happen though. The guitarist for the second opening band was also the guitarist for Boris.
When I saw that people had actually brought ear plugs and started wearing them when Boris came on stage I was afraid I was going to get ear raped and was not looking forward to it. But the way Boris came on stage: They had a song that sounded like it was theirs playing really loud, then they came on stage, had some smoke billow, and then they just stood there waiting for the song to end. When I saw that they were just standing there with instruments listing like us to their own song I was thinking ‘Oh no, this is the experimental part. We’re just going to stand here looking at them, listening to pre-recorded music, and they’re just going to stand on stage looking like a band staring at us and listening to us talk over their recording. It’s the ultimate fuck you experience to give to people who talk obnoxiously loud and through complete sets on behalf of bands everywhere.” I was relieved when they started playing. They were really awesome. They were really loud. The guitarist who was in both bands was really amazing. He made both bands sound very Zen-like. Boris was kind drone like. Their songs were really loud and that’s it or really soft and that’s it. It wasn’t like for example the Pixies who mix it up a bit…it’s soft it’s loud, it’s fast, it’s slow. Those changes in music do a great job of keeping a listeners attention. With Boris I guess the music was loud and Zen-like in a way because the listener had to keep themselves focused and in the moment. And Boris used a gong.
Brenda
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Both Kevin and Elan's Boris Descriptions are right on. I just want to add to the psychedelic aspect Kevin mentioned. I think the psychedelic sound came from the guitarists because both bands he was in had that flavor. And with both bands I thought I could pick up hints of early Smashing Pumpkins songs. I could just be a weirdo though.
Brenda
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Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting
Response
From what I can gather, the alienation effect, according to Brecht, is an artistic technique used to represent a familiar concept in an unfamiliar way. By doing this the psychological mechanism that allows people to identify with the subject matter at hand is incapacitated, and the audience is forced to experience the work as a detached observer. It was Brecht's idea that one's identification with a subject was a function of the subconscious mind and that once identification occurred, any thought incited by the work of art, arose automatically and without conscious consideration. Brecht didn't want automatic responses, he wanted people to think. He needed a method he could use to prohibit the mind from going into auto-pilot, and he discovered this method in traditional chinese theater practices. In these practices he found many specific techniques used for the sole purpose of obstructing empathetic identification with the subject on stage. Some of these included violation of "the fourth wall", a separation on the actor's part between his body and his awareness, so that his body was acting while his mind was conscious of it (in contrast with the inverse approach used in traditional western theater in which the mind becomes one with the part being played and the body instinctually follows suit). The latter technique thus enables the audience to identify not with the character, but with the actor, who is observing the character he himself is playing.
Robert
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s o u n d - a n d - s a d i s m

BORIS
* * *
Let me first begin by stating that I am glad to be discussing Kittler again. Last time I approached his writing from the wrong perspective. The second day of class truly helped me learn how to read Kittler’s writing. In this latest excerpt from Kittler’s book “Gramophone”, Kittler discusses the early evolution of recording equipment, the practical applications of the equipment and the recording produced. Kittler begins this section mentioning the fictitious use of recording equipment in the treatment of the insane and how Bram Stoker was quite on the ball when it came to the application of current technologies in his time. From this point Kittler then discusses the actual application of the phonograph in psychology. This part was particularly interesting to me. I always knew that the words that came out of one’s mouth aided the psychologist in discovering how to treat the patient. However, I did not know that the way the words came out of the mouth meant so much as well. A nuance so easily captured by the phonograph. This is just another instance where the progression of technology makes life easier on humanity, in this case the patient and the psychologist. Moving onward, Kittler then states the next logical use for machines that can record sound, music. The only reason music had not been recorded yet was because Edison had not built his phonograph to record music, just the sound of one’s voice. To me it is strange that music was not the first thing someone attempted to record. People are obsessed with music. Many philosophers consider music to be the highest form of art. Even in Kafka’s story about the singing mouse it is illustrated how much music means to a community. Edison designing the phonograph to record voice instead of music says a great deal about who is was. Kittler goes on for a lengthy amount of time writing about several governments’ use of recording equipment. This is a trend we have all seen before.
Elan
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I feel like there should be a series of Venn diagrams to illustrate the relationship of patients and analysts, to memory, writing, and recording via gramophone. This is my real question: this book was copywritten in 1986. Why no mention of Steve Albini or noise pollution? Everyone knows Albini's sound. He produced Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Nirvana's Inutero. Albini's production methods are unique. He records the whole band playing together instead of recording each instrument separately. Also, instead of miccing each instrument he places the mics in separate places all around the room. As a result the recordings sound full like a wall of sound and the vocals are low and kind of gritty. Also, I would like to note that throughout this whole text on gramophone innovations and recording technology there is no mention of noise pollution, which exists in recordable audio form. Noise pollution is not glorified piping or 'an expression of life' instead it is an unnecessary and obnoxious annoyance. For example the sound a garbage truck makes when backing up is noise pollution. One other note, I think is illustrated in Kittler's gramophone, functionality and innovation become art once exploited. I think the emergence of Germany's Central Broadcasting Bureau after WWI illustrates this note.
Brenda
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d o l l s

Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (Ophelia), 2001

* * *
Suppose I blame you as the evil principle that has a hostile effect on my coffee?
In “The Sandman” Nathanial is dillusional in his letters and later in his behavior at the university after he purchases the telescope from Coppolla. Nathanial believes and sees only what he wants to see. With Clara, claiming her as not the sharpest pencil in the box, in his second letter to Lothaire because she obviously wrote intelligently not because she can, but because Lothaire had lectured to her and she regurgitated his thoughts. Nathanial also ‘thrusting Clara from him, cried: 'Oh, inanimate, accursed automaton!', which clearly doesn’t relate to her cheerful and childlike disposition. Ironically, Nathanial believes Olympia to be of sound mind and to be absolutely radiant even though he can feel her coldness. Nathanial is in a very manic state when he falls in love with Olympia and beleives her stiffness and silence to be adoration. He seems to put all of his desires into her and then see them come out of her. But Spalanzani reveals after Olympia is stolen that the eyes were stolen from him. When were his eyes taken? As a child? Is that why he sees Clara in a different nature than she actually is before he gets the telescope. Or are Nathanials eyes stolen when he buys the telescope? Coppolla does call the telescopes and spectacles pretty eyes.
Brenda

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To fully understand “On the Marionette Theater” the reader must keep in mind the philosophies of German Romanticism. From what I have learned the German Romantics primarily grappled with the rift between reason and feeling. The lack of harmony between the world of logic and the world of beauty haunted thinkers such as Kleist, Kant, Goethe, and Hölderlin. Each writer tried to present ideas, which correlated or responded to this problem. Rich characters, complex situational examples, and poetic metaphors are some ways these writers communicated their thoughts. Although all the thinkers in this movement dealt with the same issues each had their own multifaceted take on it.
In terms of Kleist; the rift manifested in the story dealing with actions between humans and other things in the world. Talking about pure forms, such as God, puppets, animals, and art, we see the differences humans have and the problems that surface because of this. Animals and puppets have the harmony with the world because they act subconsciously (or in the case of puppets with no thought at all). God and art have this harmony with the world because they have surpassed the rift (of feeling and reason) onto a whole new level of enlightened harmony.
What is trying to be illustrated in this story is the analysis of action in relationship to reasoning of humans. Actions are flawed by all people Kleist is saying; yet there is still hope to at some point reach another level of harmony. Human kind should not try to go back into the state of unreasoning but to rise above their current state. With further work will lead people to again marry science and art.
In other works of German Romanticism the idea that the pursuit of mending the rift is what drive art. This might be difficult to think about in terms of just this story “On the Marionette Theater” but certainly a interesting idea to consider for artists in general. Also in relationship to the topic of dolls from this class one might consider what role the child has whilst playing with a doll and how that might correspond as acting like a certain god. Also consider how dolls are portrayed in art. What do they symbolize for you? Then relate your answer in terms of a German Romantic and see what you find.
((---April))

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The Uncanny
Freud's essay on the uncanny is an attempt at uncovering the origin of what makes us feel disturbed, whether the stimulus be found in fiction or reality. he gives many examples from literature of instances that give the reader a sense of unease that's difficult to place. One example he uses is from a story called "the sandman" in which a boy is told that there is a man who invades children's rooms during the night and that if he finds that they haven't fallen asleep, pours sand into their eyes, which irritates the eyes so much that they pop right out of their sockets. The sandman then takes the eyes back to his home, the half-moon, and feeds them to his own owl beaked children. To Freud, this has an archetypal significance in that he believes that the eyes are associated with male genitals, and the loss of the eyes to castration. Here, Freud postulates that many instances of the "uncanny" emotion are derived from events in a story or real life, which remind one of an infantile emotion that had been repressed but has now resurfaced in a disguised form.
Other incidents that may conjure this eerie feeling are times when one encounters the same thing many times in a row and feels this too strange to be mere coincidence. For example, that jim carey movie (i haven't seen it but assume he sees "the number 23" everywhere). Another phenomenon that induces this feeling is what one of Freud's patient's termed the "omnipotent thought" in which one thinks something or wishes something to occur and it does. This circumstance is decidedly removed from self-fulfilling prophecies, paradoxical intents etc. in that the event wished for or thought of is completely remote from the thinker himself and is, according to all presumed logic, entirely out of his control. Synchronicity is the ultimate example of this phenomenon. Also mentioned are the ideas of inanimate objects coming to life, ghosts, and the rising of the dead. Freud also discusses how, in fiction, the affect of the uncanny will not arise unless it is set in a world which the reader takes to be more realistic than fantastic, and that this is the reason why, usually, fairy tales are not disturbing but endearing.
Robert

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I wonder what systems of logic and reasoning convinced Freud that the fear of losing one's eyes is actually a fear of losing one's penis. That is not my real question. I was just curious about that strange concept.
However, I do agree that a fear of losing one's eyes can be a misplaced fear of something else. At a young age Nathanial lost his father. Which is a very tramatic experiance that can create serious, long lasting problems in a person's life. Treating Nathanial like a real human and not a character in a story for a second, could Nathanial's love for an elaborately made doll be a way of running from pain? If he falls in love with an inanimate object, he would propably not need to fear losing another loved one. Could his love for Olympia be an attempt to not let the pain of his past happen twice in his life? If that is the case, how ironic that Nathanial lost Olympia to the same man who possibly killed his father.
Elan

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Although taking place almost 200 years apart the similarities between E.T.A. Hoffman’s “Der Sandmann” and David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” are, in a word, uncanny. Sorry, I had to say it, however, both of these works do indeed provoke very similar responses and feelings from those who experience them. A certain unsettling atmosphere pervades both the short story and television series creating, not exactly a feeling of horror, but something more bizarre and mysterious, something Freud would liken to the uncanny. Both stories mix reality with a concoction of the normal with the paranormal, the real with the imaginary, until the reader is disoriented and uncertain of really what to believe and what to not. Hoffman and Lynch achieve this pervasive quality by employing fairly similar tactics and I will now go on to point out a few of the similarities, also as a guide I will use Freud’s “The Uncanny” and the notion of the “Heimlich” to draw comparisons between the two. First, and possibly most fundamental, these are both works of fiction, and operate under Freud’s pretense for the uncanny within the fiction, in that they are not fantastical, but believable as reality and in turn keep the reader uncertain as to what to believe as real and what to believe as fantastical. Also, both situations can be equated to, what Freud believes uncanny to be a derivative of, Heimlich or more specifically Heimlich in reference to the home, or something intimate and friendly. David Lynch chooses Twin Peaks a quaint, small town in the state of Washington, a town most would consider charming, comfortable, and possibly even a good place to raise a family. However, the town reveals it’s true yearnings with the death of Laura Palmer and many dealings, which were once repressed, become exposed. This could easily be likened to Freud’s usage of Schelling’s definition of unheimlich as “something that ought to have remained secret and hidden, but has come to light.” (4) In “Der Sandmann” this could be likened to Nathaniel’s repressed memory of discovering Coppelius to be the Sandman who penetrates the Heimlich of Nathaniel’s home and possibly even his mind at the same time.
Freud’s attribution of the uncanny to individuals is also of great importance in both works of fiction. Freud states, after Nathaniel’s discovery of Coppelius as the Sandman, “Hoffman already leaves in doubt whether what we are witnessing is tee first delirium of the panic stricken boy, or a succession of events which are to be regarded in the story as being real.” (6) I would go on further to say that I believe viewings of Coppelius to signal Nathaniel’s mental collapse, and possibly even as a representation of Nathaniel’s inner demons. In “Twin Peaks” this can be likened to the mysterious character of “Bob” who is eventually blamed for the murder of Laura Palmer, and believed to be a spirit who latches on to individuals and a personification of pure evil. “Bob” is eventually discovered to be Leland Palmer, Laura’s father, who in much the same fashion as Nathaniel is overcome by feelings of pure insanity and is transformed into “Bob”. However the audience is never certain if “Bob” is Leland or indeed a vagrant evil spirit. Interestingly enough when Bob murders Laura he leaves a note at the scene of the crime, “Fire walk with me” which could be likened to the end of the “The Sandman” when Nathaniel attempts to throw Clara off the Steeple of Town Hall, while proclaiming “Circle of Fire’spin round’ spin round!” before leaping to his death. These sudden bouts of madness are indeed one of the most similar aspects of both stories and although both are eventually somewhat resolved an uncertainty remains as to the cause and the source, whether the men are indeed mad or inhabited by demons.
Within both the stories there are also instances of animism, or the attribution of a soul to non-human qualities, but operate in very different senses. In Hoffman’s work this lies within Ophelia an automaton Nathaniel believes to be an actual woman. In Twin Peaks, animism is attributed to a piece of wood, a woman called the Log lady yields, and is believed to be prophetic. The uncertainty lies in the fact that log does predict things correctly although cryptically and vague, is the woman a surrogate for the log’s prophetic animistic nature or is the log a surrogate for the woman’s mystical powers?
Kevin

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f r a n z - k a f k a

13 years-old Franz Kafka liked crepes with lemon jam.


Here is another parable by Kafka. In this case the ordinary object transformed is the door.

BEFORE THE LAW

Before the Law stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country and asks for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot grant admittance at this time. The man thinks it over and then asks if he will be allowed in later. "It is possible," says the doorkeeper, "but not at the moment."
Since the gate stands open, as usual, and the doorkeeper steps to one side, the man stoops to peer through the gateway into the interior. Observing that, the doorkeeper laughs and says: "If you are so drawn to it, just try to go in despite me. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the weakest of the doorkeepers. From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the previous one. The third doorkeeper is already so terrible that even I cannot bear to gaze at him."
These are difficulties the man from the country has not expected; the Law, he thinks, should be accessible to everyone at all times, but as he takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, his big sharp nose and long, thin, black Tartar beard, he decides that it is better to wait until he gets permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at one side of the door.
There the man sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be admitted, and wearies the doorkeeper by his persistance. The doorkeeper frequently has little interviews with him, asking him questions about his home and many other things, but the questions are put indifferently, as great lords put them, and always finish with the statement that he cannot be let in yet. The man, who has furnished himself with many things for his journey, sacrifices all he has, however valuable, to bribe the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper accepts everything, but always with the remark: "I am only accepting this so you are sure that you have done everything you can."
During these many years the man fixes his attention almost continuously on the doorkeeper. He forgets the other doorkeepers, and this first one seems to him the sole obstacle preventing access to the Law. He curses his bad luck, in his early years boldly and loudly; later, as he grows old, he only grumbles to himself. He becomes childish, and since in his yearlong contemplation of the doorkeeper he has come to know even the fleas in his fur collar, he begs the fleas as well to help him and to change the doorkeeper's mind. In time his eyesight begins to fail, and he does not know if the world is really getting darker or his eyes are failing him. Yet in his darkness he is now aware of a radiance that glows inextinguishably from the gateway of the Law.
Now he has not very long to live. Before he dies, all his experiences in these long years gather themselves in his mind to one point, a question he has not yet asked the doorkeeper. He waves him nearer, since he can no longer raise his stiffening body. The doorkeeper has to bend low toward him, for the distance between them has altered much to the man's disadvantage.
"What do you want to know now?" asks the doorkeeper; "you are insatiable."
"Everyone strives to reach the Law," says the man, "so how is it that for all these many years no one but myself has ever came for admittance?" The doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end, and, to let his failing senses catch the words, roars in his ear:

"No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made just for you. And now I am going to shut it."

* * *
The obvious themes of Franz Kafka’s In The Penal Colony are justice and morality with some commentary on judicial systems and government structures. We can decipher the subject of the story right away and it seems quite obvious, yet as the story continues the text reveals just how complicated the subjects really are.
Kafka lays out the situation in the beginning of the story with straightforward dialogue between the traveler and the officer. The officer explains the lack of judicial process (i.e. the ability to defend ones self, due process). He also explains the severe process of the death penalty. This huge injustice is evident with little to no pondering. Moral acting and being humane are, of course, not followed here and right away the readers heart goes out for the condemned man. However, as the story continues, ideas are presented for the reader to consider. Kafka addresses many angles of this situation. The officer tells of the commandant’s wrong doing towards him. The twisting of words and only seeking the answer he wants out of a situation, as accused by the officer, suggests a injustice against an injustice. Although at this point the reader understands the officer to be the evil presence of the story, one can recognize the theme of corrupt government against the officer here.
Things only grow more complicated as one is left to ponder the notion of one government over throwing another. While all who consider this story would side with the new commandant’s efforts to get rid of this inhumane act, the people who support the old system having to go into hiding seems less than fair.
As the story unfolds in its entirety, with the officer putting himself in the hands of the system he carried out for so long, new ideas about morality and justice surface. With this act by the officer the reader can see that he was not some evildoer for evil’s sake. One really knows by the end that he honestly thought he was carrying out what was right. The officer followed his code of ethics even to his own demise, which in his terms is the ultimate state of justice. So a new question is posed: since the officer carried out his judicial system to his own demise, doesn’t the make him moral in some right?
But what did it mean that the machine broke during his sentencing? This may be one of the most complex of all idea in this story. The machine ended up slaughtering him before he could reach the epiphany before death. What does this say about the law coming full circle? The idea of self-destruction and ultimate justice come to mind while trying to answer these questions.
There is only about one thing Kafka does make extremely clear: the idea in this story are going to take much class discussion and extreme internal pondering to be fully developed and considered.
((This is excluding the light aspect of the story. there are so many things one can talk about in relations to this story!))
April

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What is it about some villians that make our hearts go out to them? We've seen it time and time again in literature, television shows and movies. We know that what the villian wants to occur is wrong, but his emotions and feelings towards this event are so moving that we cannot help but sympathize with him. What makes a bad person? Does his belief that the end justifies them means make him a bad person despite having such a good heart?
Elan

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While I was reading this story, I found the one thing that Kafka didn't name any of characters in this story. Is there any reason that he did not name?
JooYoung

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Does the light in the story add to the enlightning and almost religious expirience (as described by the officer) of the apparatus?

The condemned man cannot block the light from his eyes as everyone else does in the story he is the only one to have to expirience the full sun and he is the only one in the position to be enlightened through torture. But it doesn't play out that way the whole system changes. Instead the Condemned is saved, the apperatus falls apart, and the Officer is murdered instead of enlightened. What is the significance of these transformations?
Brenda

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Brenda, these two questions are exactly the kind I want posted on this blog. This is precisely what we will try to answer in class. What does blinding light mean? It is also good to seek and underline very time Kafka describes any kind of bodily gesture in the story. You will be surprised.
Ika

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e n l i g h t m e n t - a n d - m a c h i n i c - s e l f / a n a l y s i s

Presenters post responses the rest of the class posts one question (or more) each for class discussion.

* * *
Although finding the introduction to Kittler’s book Gramophone, Film, Typewriter to be a bit of a rant, I was able to surmise that Kittler had two main topics of discussion in his introduction. The first shows the evolution of media and its three components: image, sound and text. The other is the earlier use of these three media components in history, some uses being more absurd then others.
Throughout the entire introduction I found one reoccurring theme to be interesting and comical. This theme is the idea that the advancement of media will be humanities undoing. Kittler discusses two instances where man is set back by the evolution of media. He states that the enhancement of storage media will be the end of the minds ability and desire to retain knowledge. Speaking for myself, I find it easier to retain and expand upon a larger vocabulary then continually look up words on an online dictionary. The other instance is the typewriter's unavoidable ability to ruin the artistic value of a piece of writing. Haven’t all of us been moved by a piece that was written after the typewriters creation?
The finial section of Kettler’s introduction that I find amusing is the quote from Nietzsche. Nietzsche states, “Are these (typewriters) humans or perhaps only thinking, writing, and speaking machines?” To answer this question we must first figure out what a machine is? Merriam-Webster defines a machine as, “an assemblage of parts that transmit forces, motion, and energy one to another in a predetermined manner.” Humans fit that description. From a very base standpoint, a typewriter can be mistaken for a human. We are both machines that respond to input and subsequently create an output. However, that alone does not mean we are equal to a typewriter. Kittler makes a point at the end of the introduction that a computer, the offspring of a typewriter, will never be able to do what a human can do.
Elan Jurado

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Question about Walter Benjamin
What is the influence of the "Mechanical Reproduction" on the art?
JooYoung Bae

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The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin is a dated essay. He is writing this essay from a much earlier point of view and comparing everything to everything. The man cannot stop spewing out analogies in this essay, he’s writing this as if it were really important and he really needs to drive some arguments home, but at the same time because he goes into such detail with his arguments, I can’t get the big picture. The essay is about more than what the title alludes.

Art in the age of reproduction means more people are exposed to art; more people are familiar with art. Art is more accessible and more people have the ability to study art and for art to inspire them or for art to allow them to escape their daily lives. The reproduction of art also means there is no longer an art capitol of the world. You don’t need to be in a certain locale to learn a specific type of art because everything is more convenient and more easily transmittable.
I think even though Benjamin put in every possible argument and its reasoning and its other possibilities and a lot of analogies, there might have been a few contradicting possibilities he didn’t come up with and granted this may be because of his time period and the conception of one man.
One man who believed in balance and happy little trees whose work and lifestyle contradicted Benjamin’s arguments, that man’s name was Bob Ross.

Bob Ross is a painter in front of a live audience being filmed. Ross’s works contradict because they would be authentic and have authority and have a place in time and history, yet at the same time because the image of his painting is being viewed by the masses it has the potential to become exploitable. His painting would also have aura, yet be detached, so maybe the aura is balanced? Ross as an actor is both a stage actor presenting his artistic performance directly to a live audience and a film actor represented to the camera in a certain way and lacking aura. He is an illusion and an escape from reality, yet has a real life pace his audience can see everything. He’s almost perfectly balanced and a good contradiction for Benjamin’s arguments because he is a traditional happy little tree painter that has little impact.
Brenda Bramel

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What is substructure?
A.

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p o s t - e u l o g i e s - a s - co m m e n t s - h e r e

* * *
The Eulogy For Elan Jurado's Funeral
"If Elan could have his say at this time, we would not be having this service. He would not want us to sit around and talk about his life. Elan would consider this service a waste of the little time we have in our own lives. He would rather have us move forward than focus on the past.
But, this service is not for Elan! It is for those of us who know him and care about him. A funeral is for family and friends. It is a way to remember the strengths, virtues and art of those we loved and admired. Hopefully by remembering these qualities, we can better our own lives and the lives of others.
Because this service is for all of us, I am not going to give a eulogy that would attempt to sum up all my feeling and yours in one thought. That would be unfair to all of you. I would like to invite anyone up to the podium who would like to share their remembrances of Elan's life, art and humanity. all I ask is that you speak from the heart."
(At this point in the funeral, family and friends that wished to speak would say whatever came to their minds. Hopefully they could not hold back and the experience would be therapeutic.)
-Elan Jurado

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Thank you all for coming today. I have enjoyed being part of your lives, you made me feel loved and I appreciate that and I cherish our memories together. Before I go further I just want to remind you to plan to remember me every January 23rd, and you know it’s January 23rd because it’s blistering cold outside, and plan to remember me every Thursday because everything important happens on a Thursday, it’s like kittens, it just works out that way. I still want to be engaged with everyone. I want to encourage you, watch movies with you, solve mosaic mysteries with you, go ballooning with you, make music with you, go to burnt down Disney Land with you, enjoy holidays with you and be a part of your life. There will be brochures handed out at the end of the ceremony with instructions on how to actively remember me and create new memories of you and me together and portraits of me, not to display, but to talk to in order to create new and active memories. However, I am not opposed to the idea of surrogates. Please feel free to rename an item in your home as Brenda and address it as if it were me and carry it around and talk to it as if it were me. It’s important that you all actively remember me because I no longer have the ability to actively remember our lives together. Instead I have a limited amount of beautiful memories. All of you here today will have the ability to create an infinite number of new memories to share with each other at my next ceremony same time, same place, same day, next year.
At this time, in an orderly fashion, please feel free to step up to the casket and say good bye to my old body and remember to pick up your Creating Active Memories with Me brochure. Once again thank you all for coming today. I appreciate all the love, forgiveness, acceptance, and affectionate tolerance you have all given me and will give me in the future.
One other note: whatever you choose to actively remember me with needs to be hugged about once a week.
Brenda Bramel

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April Noga
Eulogy
It is sad she is gone, though all her life April was a dying breed. She was a girl who held on to what she believed in, no matter where the modern world headed for the future. She valued the things most insisted obsolete and a waste of time. All the things that were dearest in her heart had nothing to do with making money. And she found a way to really embrace those things in life; the prospect of a thick envelope stuffed with mail art, rolling green hills that held no factories or houses, the old forests, the beauty of the darkroom, the clicking of a sturdy typewriter.
April valued those small moments in life where all of time seems to slow just a little and if you play close attention the details seem like a lovely, vivid dream. Some things might include the tale end of a morning breeze where the chill seems to sink into your bones, the patterns and rhymes in which shadows dance along bumpy cement, the short seconds of dead air between songs on the radio, and a held glance with a stranger. She derived inspiration for her art though those things. Somehow she never forgot to embrace the little and random joys of life all throughout her own.

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< n o t e s - o n - p r a x e s >

Each seminar session will contain student presentations on assigned text.
The presentations will be done through praxes*: example(s) chosen by student to aid the understanding and discussion of the readings. The object of praxes can be a literary text, dance, architecture, situation, anything really (I encourage praxes outside boring conventional art examples**).

*PRAXES SHOULD CONSIDER BOTH THE TEXT AND OBJECT OF PRAXES --the object you choose as practical context should test the strength/weakness of theory/critique assigned by choosing something that complements what author considers (it should complement beyond mere illustration- by opposition, binary, allegory, etc.; praxes should demonstrate creative theorizing through connecting disciplines).

**Example:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Hunters in the Snow (January)
Oil on panel, 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, Austria

Sufficient praxes:
This painting as a painting.

Strong praxes:
This painting as a prop in Tarkovski's Solyaris.