Comments for 30C: Major Works of European Literature

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Kiara Justine

Kiara Justine — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:30:52 +0000

ps. I think the comments on youtube wrap up the reactions to the piece quite nicely.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Kiara Justine

Kiara Justine — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:28:49 +0000

I am currently taking a Music Appreciation class and in it we began studying a avant garde performance artist and composer named John Cage.

In John Cage’s work 4′33” the composer stands in front of a completely equipped orchestra, and for an enitire four min minuets and thirty-three seconds, he does absolutely nothing. Not one single note is played, however the musicians turn pages and the conductor even wipes his brow at one point. Although some have dubbed this a completely contentless piece, others have given it critical acclaim for its meditative quality and challenging ideas. Cage wanted his audience to focus on silence, rather than music, which creates both tension and extreme focus in the concert hall.

I think this relates to ee cummings “grasshopper” for its bizarre nature and its ability to push boundaries.

If you like to experience it for yourself, here is the link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E

-Kiara

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Kelsey Pullen

Kelsey Pullen — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:24:08 +0000

#3 I always thought a strange example of something like the Green Wall was the rules of the Mormon faith, in which if you are not Mormon you are not allowed inside the temple, no matter what. I knew a man who married a Mormon girl and his own mother was not permitted to go to the wedding. Although I’m sure they have these rules for ‘religious purposes’, I think they are just segregating themselves as to not be affected by outside culture. Personally, I do not agree with this philosophy, as I think you can only learn and become a better person from being exposed to other cultures. A culture should only feel threatened by another if the other’s is strong enough to make you see the flaws in your own.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Cristina Ybarra

Cristina Ybarra — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:34:46 +0000

In my opinion, The Panther represents mankind’s unnatural place in the world. In a literal sense, the panther is a wild animal that in a living in a very unnatural place. It has been taken out of its natural habitat for so long that it cannot remember a world without bars. The brief moments of any connection with the outside world are so incredibly short lived that the panther is soon brought back to reality and its current state of entrapment. In my opinion, the panther can also be a representation of mankind’s current state with nature. We have isolated ourselves from our natural environment by building cities, hunting animals, cutting down forests and polluting oceans. Zoos are like mankind’s attempt at controlling wildlife and nature by recreating natural environments in an extremely unnatural way. Like the panther, we are behind bars, except our bars are composed of cement buildings and automobiles. We have separated ourselves from our natural environment and most people cannot even dream of a world without our technological advancements. Much like the panther’s brief glimpses of the life it once lived, the bright lights of a gas-guzzling Hummer shroud our brief glimpses of returning to a healthy relationship with nature.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Patrick Schaeper

Patrick Schaeper — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:38:54 +0000

This is a response to Question #2
Personally, I feel that the biggest and most divisive Green Walls in today’s world reside in our own minds. I think people tend to have so many prejudices, whether they mean to or not, that they simply cannot connect with people of different cultures. Most of the time, the people are not even trying to be prejudiced or stereotypical; it is just the culture and society that they are brought up in. There are so many things that can sway a person and make them prejudiced: family, social pressures and many others. Of course there are things other than our mind that create gaps in the social continuity, but ultimately it is up to all of us to make up our own decision, with our own mind. So in the end, if we dont allow outside influences to affect our thought,then we will have no Green Wall. However, with the media of today, that is a task that is close to impossible. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with so many things trying to tell us how to think that it is just not possible to block them all out and not have any of them influence you. So, in the end, people today prevent themselves from connecting to other cultures because of their prejudices, which are brought about by their surroundings.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Alice Shapiro

Alice Shapiro — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:20:58 +0000

Response to question 1:

I believe that Vonnegut’s presentation of time in Slaughterhouse-five is extremely effective. It gives an enormous insight into the mixed up way that Billy Pilgrim sees the world. His becoming ‘unstuck’ in time is an obvious result from the trauma he indured during the war. This shows how he is slowly losing his mind because he can no longer tell what is reality and was it in his mind. He believes that everything that he sees in his head is real.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Natalie Banuelos

Natalie Banuelos — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 07:13:31 +0000

In response to Question 1

I find Vonnegut’s presentation of time in Slaughterhouse-five very effective. The novel doesn’t have a chronological order, or any order for that matter, which is exactly what makes this structure so effective. Its apparant that Vonnegut is trying to present a conception of time that is very much unlike our own and very much like the Tralfamadorians. According to them, time is just a moment that can be viewed or re-lived at any time; it does not just come and go to be lost forever to be lost in the past– and this is exactly how his protagonist Billy lives. His life jumps to different times and places without any order, or warning to where he’s headed next.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Julia G. Spohn

Julia G. Spohn — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:33:51 +0000

In response to prompt 4, I believe that an example of art that has been criticize as all form but no content is rap music. People often do not consider rap as music because the vocalists often speak the words and do not sing them. However, rap is often very dramatic, and it reminds me a lot of plays. In plays, singing doesn’t usually take place, but the audience still gets a sense of drama in the way in which the actors pronunciate and act out their lines. Rappers are basically actors, creating drama in their lyrics by putting emphasis on certain words and pronunciations. Also, the music behind the lyrics, or the rythms behind the lyrics, is often very original. In this sense, rap is definitely music, just a different form of it.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Amy Kennedy

Amy Kennedy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:30:06 +0000

One thing i like about Vonnegut is his very simple writting style and the very matter-of-fact way he talks about the war. It reminds me of my father who was in vietnam. He is now trying to get money from the VA and he had to write a letter abut his experiences during the war. He let me read it and the way it was written was almost exactly like vonnegut. I think that this simplistic writting style is a way of disassociating from the trama that they had to witness.

Comment on Forum Response, Final Week by Emily Chao

Emily Chao — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:22:46 +0000

Question 5: Rilke’s Panther

I found this short poem very similar to the shyness of human nature. The bars which hold the panther in its cage represents someone held behind the confines of the world, but in reality there is nothing really beyond the “bars.” Living in the small, cramped place the panther cannot use its power and rage that’s hidden inside of him. This self-control is similar to the timidness of people when set in one place. Embarasment or humility sets in when one is forced into limited situations. Finally, the last stanza shows a break from the norm. Something different emerges and “pluges into the heart and is gone.” Perhaps this intervention signifies the spirit of the panther that wants freedom and it plunges into the heart to fill him with that conviction. I feel connected to this poem in that it explains or reveals the reason for loniless and seclusion.