Last Post!!!!!!

Senior year is coming to an end, and there are just a few things that I need to finish before the end of the year. For my english presentation, I plan on talking about my paper and what my whole project was about. To get the class to interact, I'm going to hand out a copy of Stairway to Heaven for the students to analyze. There is a lot of speculation on the meaning of the song, so I want to see what everyone thinks. While they are trying to figure out its meaning, I figure I'll play the song in the background. After having the class share what they think, I will show them the blog that I've been working on. It will have an entry in which I did the same thing, along with a little research. As for the blog itself, I just need to finish a few entries.

weekly outlook 5/19

Having finished my paper, I can now focus on my creative project. As I have mentioned before, it will be a blog similar to my paper. On the blog, I will debate major issues such as which bands were the best in each decade, who started rock music, and other rock and roll related topics. The blog will delineate the mental selection process I went through to decide which bands I woud include in my paper. The format will be similar to my research paper; I will go in chronological order starting in the 1950's and work my way to the present. In regards to the presentation, I'm thinking of handing out a copy of the lyrics to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and having the students get in group to determine what they think is its meaning.

weekly outlook 5/12

Last week I wrote three body paragrpahs for my paper. I did the rock music of the 1950's through the 70's with Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin respectively. This week I will finish up my paper with Van Halen for the 80's and the Foo Fighters for the present decade. The 90's are still up for debate. I'm trying to decide between the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. So far I have been able to find all of my information from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website, but since more recent bands have not been inducted yet, it may be more difficult to find reputable information on them.

weekly outlook 5/5

For this week I will be altering my primary focus from working on both my blog and paper to just my paper. At this point, the paper is more important since it is due soon, so I will be holding off from working on the blog until my paper is finished. Last week I wrote the intoduction to my paper and what I thought would be my first blog post. The post will now be the first body paragrpah in my paper. This week I plan on writing a few more body paragraphs, each one being about a separate decade of rock music.

weekly outlook 4/28

For this week I plan to get started on my fourth quarter project. I will begin my research starting with the 50's and possibly the 60's and document the music of that era. In addition, I will create my blog for the final project and begin my research paper. Quantatatively, by the end of the week, I should have my blog up, my reseacrh for the rock music of at least the 50's finished, and begun my research paper. Hopefully I will get my first post up on the blog for my project.

Fourth Quarter Projection

I have come up with a general idea for what I plan to do for the fourth quarter. I've always been interested in music, rock in particular, so I have decided to do something on the evolution of rock. To do this I will listen to the music, read the lyrics, and research the bands which I believe to be the best in each decade. So far it is looking like Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Guns N Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Foo Fighters. I am taking what is in my opinion the best band (or musician) from each decade and using them as a representative for the entire decade. After finishing all of my research, I'll write a paper explaining what I have found and analyzing the material along with my own conclusions. For my presentation I plan to play a few songs from the artists that I have researched and have the students make an analysis of the music's progression while paying special attention to the lyrics, instruments, and overall product. The final product will be a series of magazine articles analyzing the music of each individual decade. I will be writing them as a columnist for Rolling Stone magazine.

This is why

Although I felt that my hypothesis as to the meaning of the title was accurate, I knew I should do some research to see what other people thought, possibly including Anthony Burgess himself. The first source I came upon said that the term was meant to mean anything queer, strange, or unusual. Other than Alex’s mannerisms and the awkward slang used throughout the novel, I couldn’t see much of a connection to the title since those three adjectives have nothing to do with the plot. Also included was a quote from Burgess from a Rolling Stone article that read, "The title of the book comes from an old London expression, which I first heard from a very old Cockney in 1945: 'He's as queer as a clockwork orange' (queer meaning mad...). I liked the phrase because of its yoking of tradition and surrealism, and I determined some day to use it." Maybe if I were British I would understand it better. This can be associated with the maddening nature of the novel and how crazy the idea of messing with free will is. Traditionally, when something is referred to as “clockwork”, it can be noted as automatic because it sticks to a schedule and is persistent. So now, “orange” is most likely something that interferes with the clockwork. The more I thought about the meaning, I began to understand what Burgess was trying to do. Since the whole novel is written in an odd vernacular, the title probably was meant to blend in with the rest of the novel and be part of the slang. As I was reading the novel, I gradually learned what each of the words meant based on how they were used in context; therefore, I would need “a clockwork orange” to be used more in context to decipher its meaning. It was used very little in the novel so I decided to consult another source. The best definition for “a clockwork orange” was “[something with] the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound by God or the Devil.” This explanation depicts Alex after his cure perfectly: he is a character with the qualities of a human being but can only act according to how his treatment allows him. Alex lost the ability to choose, although it appears as if he chooses to do good all the time. This definition must have been the translation from old London vernacular that Burgess was referring to.

Why A Clockwork Orange?

Something about A Clockwork Orange that has been spurring my curiosity for the past couple days is the meaning of the title. While I was reading the book, I wasn’t able to make any connections with the storyline and the title, other than the fact that a man in the novel was writing a book called “A Clockwork Orange”. An excerpt from the book read, “The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my swordpen”. Anthony Burgess must have added this segment for a reason, that which would explain the meaning of the title. Obviously these few lines have their similarities with the novel as a whole. “The attempt to impose upon man” refers to the doctors altering Alex’s actions through his conscience with the gruesome movies and medication. This imposing of laws and conditions would only be appropriate for a mechanical creation or something not human. So the excerpt is related to the plot of the novel, but what does it have to do with the title? I believe “clockwork” refers to change so that must deal with series of changes Alex went through over the course of the novel. “Clockwork” refers to change since people can either progress or regress as time goes on. “Orange” is the part of the title that is extremely vague. I think Burgess meant for it to mean something unnatural, but how “orange” can be connected with force and imposition is unclear. The most logical connection I came up with dealt with fire. Since fire is orange and flames are often associated with hell, maybe “A Clockwork Orange” translates to a change that is not permissible by God. The cover of the book adds evidence to this hell theory. Half of a face is depicted with the mouth screaming and flames coming out where the upper half of the face would be. The context and a major theme of the novel, free will, which I have touched upon in previous blogs, adds even more evidence that my theory is correct (or at least somewhat accurate). Free will dealt with the question of what God’s intentions were for us and whether the tampering with the free will of others is in His plan. If “A Clockwork Orange” had a synonym, I could say that it would be “An Ungodly Metamorphosis” based upon my assumptions.

A Happy Ending?

I have just finished A Clockwork Orange and it did not end the way I thought it would. At the end of the second section I thought that Alex would become an example for what the government was doing and die as a martyr or live on unhappily. The government was trying to play the role of God and tamper with the free will of people. It was turning out to end like that when three men opposed to the current sitting government came into contact with Alex and were planning to use him as an example to bring the party out of power in the next election. However, it turned out that they wanted him to kill himself so that people would see how inhumane the treatment really was and that the party was behind it. When all was said and done, Alex was cured of his inability to choose, and returned to the way he was before he was imprisoned. At the very end he decides that he has grown too old for his childish behavior and wants to find a girl to marry and live a normal life with. What now comes into question is whether Alex matured by his own free will or whether the “cure” he received in prison had any influence on him. I looked into the author’s religion to find this answer. Burgess’ faith lies somewhere between Pelagianism and Augustinianism; both are stemmed out from Catholicism. The two faiths state that God has created us, but has no influence on the way we carry out our lives. He has laid out the law for us and we can choose to follow it or reject it. If this is true, then the government has not interfered with free will since they were given the choice. One can also say that Alex had his choice before he was sent to prison, and he acted by denying God’s law and taking the life of another. However, the punishment did not fit the crime. I do not believe that the government interfered with Alex’s free will in the long run. After he was stripped of his free will, he regained his ability to choose and went back to being a thug. Nevertheless, it appears he grew out of that stage and realized that there was more to life than roaming the streets.

What is free will?

This book really has not turned out to be anything that I originally thought it would be: a tale of a young man who causes trouble and eventually learns a lesson. It has now become a question of morality. Normally I would like to avoid the topic of God and what He wants for us, but due to the nature of the novel, that has now become a major concern.

A little background should be given of the recent plot developments before I dive into this controversial question. Alex has recently been captured by the police and thrown into jail for murder. While in jail, he works with a minister and learns little tidbits about the Catholic religion. Just as it looks as if things are shaping up and he will be released soon, Alex kills another prisoner in his jail cell, and the impending light is shut off. He is given the opportunity to become a guinea pig for a new “cure” for the motives behind violence. This is where the question of God’s plan comes into action. The doctors and prison personnel educate him through association. Alex is forced to watch horrible movies of people being killed and tortured. The purpose behind this, is so that when he goes to commit the acts that he had done before, he will feel sick and not want to do it. His free will is forcibly being changed for the good of society. Alex is released from prison back into society after the “cure” is completed. By definition of Catholic doctrine, free will “has commanded [man] to obey the moral law, and has promised to reward or punish him for observance or violation of this law, made the reality of moral liberty an issue of transcendent importance”. From my interpretation, this means that God has created a moral law for man to follow, and he has the choice of whether or not he wants to follow this law. The moral liberty is that man has the choice to follow the law or not. By doing what the doctors have done in A Clockwork Orange to Alex, they have taken away that moral liberty of choice. The doctors think that God would want all of man to be good and follow the righteous side of His moral law, but they are wrong according to Catholic doctrine and my own opinion. I cringed when I was reading that Alex was being forced to act a certain way, even though the other is unacceptable in society. Another source that I found claimed that teenagers do not have the proper morality to make their own decisions, because those morals are still being developed. This is completely false. People of every age have the ability to make their own decisions. Even though teens sometimes don’t make the best decisions, they should not be rectified by a bunch of men in white lab coats. God has intended for everyone to develop their own morals, without the forcible influence of others. Tampering with morality is tampering with free will, no matter the age of the subject.

Malchicks, Chellovecks, and Ptitsas

I have just started my next book, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and I must say it is quite interesting thus far. It’s about a rebellious young boy named Alex of about fifteen years of age. He and his three friends, Pete, Georgie, and Dim, roam about a New York City set in the future about forty years ahead of its time. Alex is a power hungry person who will go at unreasonable lengths to prove to his cronies that he is in control. The four prowl the city at night causing all kinds of trouble. The most interesting thing, however, is the unusual language of the novel. Alex acts as the narrator, and speaks in somewhat of a made up, or less civilized version of English. He uses words such as viddy, chelloveck, tolchock, and gloopy. When I first started reading, it was extremely difficult to understand what was going on, and what Alex was saying. However, by about the third or fourth chapter I became hooked to the story line and was slowly beginning to understand what was being said. For example, viddy deals with seeing or vision, ptitsas refer to females, and krovvy is blood. So even though the words were foreign to my eyes until I picked up A Clockwork Orange, the context and plot allowed me to translate the words in my mind as I read. Referring to Sparknotes every once in a while, to make sure my readings were correct didn’t hurt either. I thought I should refer to an online source as well to find the meaning of these made up words, and why Burgess decided to write in such an unusual fashion. It turns out that the made up words are called nadsat. It is a combination of misconstrued Russian and American slang. While I was reading, I could tell that some of the words, such as chelloveck, were derived from a Russian type language. The reasoning behind the use of nadsat is for the reader to become more cordial with Alex and be able to think like him. Nevertheless, once you really get into the storyline, A Clockwork Orange becomes an easy read. Nadsat adds substance to the book and isn’t much of a problem to understand at all after the first few chapters.

Finished The Bluest Eye...

After just having finished The Bluest Eye, it was overly depressing to say the least. Throughout the entire novel, all Pecola wanted was a pair of blue eyes so she could feel pretty, but instead she was given numerous trials of hardship. From being made fun of, to having a dysfunctional family, having few friends, and being raped by her own father, Pecola’s life is one of misery and pain with little hope of condolence. The first bit of light that she sees is at the end of the book when she gets her blue eyes, but even then only she can see them and is not satisfied because they are not the bluest. In addition, she was forced to kill a dog unknowingly so that she would believe her eyes were blue. Since the book is written in a scattered format and seems to go nowhere and give even less hope, a few big questions went through my mind; what is the point of the novel and what is Morrison trying to say? After thinking long and hard as to the answer of these questions, I came up with the conclusion that she was trying to get away from the typical happy ending novels and show that things can’t always turn out the way we want, which is what happens in the real world. No matter how good a person someone is life may not treat them kindly. Pecola is a character who was simply born into an unjust life, with a criminal father and an “I don’t care” relationship between her parents. Nevertheless, she still tried to look on the bright side of things and make the best of her situation. With all the things that went wrong in her life, the thing that she wanted most was beauty. Other than a tale of hardship, The Bluest Eye is also a demonstration of racism in mid twentieth century America. Pecola sees how all white girls like Shirley Temple are revered for their blond hair and blue eyes, so she believes that the only way she can be pretty is to look like that. It is society’s fault that young black girls like her were not able to be comfortable in their own skin.

Since Oprah chose The Bluest Eye as a selection for her book club, I thought I would read a few reviews by the members of the book club and see how they reacted. One reader explains how “[the book] taught me to love my brothers and sisters for their humanity--not their color, religion, sexual persuasion but because we are one in the eyes of our beholder”. I believe this to be the prime focus of the novel after reading the reviews. Morrison wanted people to realize that others should be judged on their humanity, rather than what they look like. She gave examples of all different kinds of people, both black and white. There were good white people and bad white people; there were good black people and bad black people. The book showed that people can be either good or bad and it has nothing to do with their skin. The review further expresses this point by stressing that we are all human and are seen as that in the eyes of God. The reviewer believes we should judge people on merit and nothing else. Not having known why Oprah chose this for her book club, I could guess that she had similar experiences as a young black girl and wanted the public to be able to see the pain that her and many children went and still go through.

Autumn

I’m about sixty pages into my first novel at the culmination of the portion of the book called Autumn. The story is about a young black girl named Pecola Breedlove at the age of eleven. Set in 1941, the novel has a strong theme of racism, which the naïve girl does not yet comprehend. There have been three separate sections of the novel so far that do not have much relation to one another at first sight, but have a common theme. Pecola is introduced as a young girl that has been given up by her family because her parents can no longer care for her. With the new family she witnesses a mother who does nothing but complain and care little for her children. Running through a field with her two new friends Frieda and Claudia, Pecola notices that she is bleeding. After discovering that she is experiencing menstruation, Claudia tells her that she can now have a baby, but must have love to do so. In the second section, Pecola’s birth parents constantly fought to the point that their children hated them and wanted the father dead. The kids ran away and when the mother had had enough and the dad was in jail, it became time to let Pecola go for the time being. Another thing that should be noted about this section is how much the author mentions how ugly the family is and that Pecola wants blue eyes like Shirley Temple. The final section up to this point shows how the young girl has become friendly with three prostitutes who live nearby. Although many sources, like this one, say that Pecola is searching for beauty, I believe that she is really trying to find love, or even be loved. She has experienced a few different types up to this point and the driving thought right now is that she must be pretty to find love. In the article, Morrison expresses how Pecola is searching for inner beauty in a racist world that has not yet learned to accept varying colors of skin. I can see how this is evident in her prayers for blue eyes. She just wants to accepted and does not believe she can do so in her own skin. So while the sources say she wants to be pretty deep down, she unknowingly wants to experience the love of another person in accordance with self acceptance.

Superbowl Preview

With the Superbowl matchup between the Pats and G-Men just a few days away, it's time to make some predictions. The Pats come in as the obvious favorite to win the game, but don't discount the Giants just yet. Although the Patriots come in with an 18 game win streak behind them and the motivation to become the first team to go undefeated since the '72 Dolphins, the Giants are waiting patiently for the rematch from December's nailbiter. The Giants come in riding a ten game road win streak and are argueably the hottest team in the league after knocking off the Cowboys and the Packers, the NFC forerunners coming into the playoffs. This highly anticipated rematch will probably draw the biggest audience a sporting event has ever witnessed, so let the fireworks fly as the game lives up to all the hype. Look for Brady and the Pats' passing game to be a big factor in this contest with Maroney setting the pace on the ground. The Patriots may have scored 300 points more than they have given up this season, but a confident Eli Manning will more than likely have the Patriots defense on their heels. In addition, the running back tandem of Jacobs and Bradshaw will be a huge factor. Look for the Giants to come out on top of this high scoring contest with a score of 34-28.

Cloverfield (may contain spoilers)

Recently I saw Cloverfield, produced by JJ Abrams. The movie kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already seen it. Many critics out there have criticized the approach to the filming and story board by saying it was too narrow of a view on the event and left too many loose ends on the plot. I strongly disagree with these people and think the thematic approach was brilliant. The movie is filmed through a personal camcorder from the point of view of a few citizens of New York, so everything that is learned about the attack on the city is provided by these few people. Most movies these days tie up all the loose ends or leave cliche cliffhangers that provide little excitement to the audience. Cloverfield left many questions unanswered so that the viewers could come up with their own conclusions and leave more to the imagination. The movie is a standout from most action movies made these days, and I believe the film will become a pioneer for the first person camcorder approach. Two things are to note if you're going to see the film. First of all, focus on the right side of the screen in the background in the final scene at Coney Island. A "hidden" image appears which I missed when I saw it but heard about. Second, stay until the end of the credits. Nowadays, producers like to throw in a little extra twist afterwards.