Saturday, 3 October 2015
Monday, 28 September 2015
Saturday, 26 September 2015
In his essay This is Water, David Foster Wallace
suggests that true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be
adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic. He goes on to develop this thesis by
describing the dreary routines that many university graduates will soon become
familiar with. He brings up a significant idea which is that during this
routine of monotony we make the assumption the world is simply revolving around
us as individuals. In our day to day lives we often fail to acknowledge the fact
that every person we come in contact with is experiencing the world in a much
different way than we are and it can be hard to comprehend and take into
consideration that they have a life beyond what we see. We only come into
contact with a few seconds or minutes of their life and in this minuscule
amount of time we make full assumptions about their entire existence. Wallace
suggests that this way of viewing the world is simply our default setting and
as humans we often fall prey to the easy route it offers us. However, we have
the option to deviate from this default setting and instead be truly conscious
of our surroundings and therefore be more empathetic.
Our inquiry question for this unit is "How can
literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?". The theory
presented by Wallace relates to this question in a variety of ways. Focusing on
one aspect of the question, This is Water
brings up many ways in which we may become more empathetic in our everyday
lives. Literature equips us with the skill of being able to relate and
empathize with the experiences of others. However, this skill is wasted unless
we are also able to take the extra step following Wallace's advise and turn off
our default setting. Empathy is an essential tool in our lives and therefore it's
important to develop our ability to empathize with other people who may be experiencing
the world completely separate from our own experiences. In conclusion, while
literature may help us develop our empathy in the end it comes down to the fact
that we must make the conscious decision to be considerate of the lives and
experiences of others beyond what we are able to observe.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
What is the purpose and benefit of the study of literature?
In my opinion, we study literature because it has
implications in our everyday life whether we're aware of it or not. Literature
allows us to experience the world from a variety of viewpoints other than our
own which can allow us to become more open towards the world around us.
Literature can also improve our communication skills and greatly enhance our
vocabulary, enabling us to write in a more sophisticated manner.
What is women’s literature and what is the value in
studying it?
Women's literature is a sub-category of literature written
by female authors that is focused solely on women and their experiences. Women's
literature is about giving a voice to a group of people who once faced great
oppression and where therefore unable to communicate their stories. This genre
tends to expose deeply rooted societal issues involving women through personal
stories. It's important to study this genre as it helps us understand the
oppression that many women felt and still do feel in today's society.
Although she does not identify as a feminist writer, how
has Munro’s work contributed to gender equality?
While Munro may not identify as a feminist writer, her work
has contributed to gender equality as it often focuses on female protagonists
and the struggles they face in society. In an interview, Munro discusses how
she doesn't actually mind doing housework however, she disagrees with the fact
that it was expected of her to stay at home and clean the house. This defiance
of gender roles and unfair societal expectations often comes up in Munro's
writing therefore contributing to the idea that women should not be confined to
simple housework.
What do you enjoy most about the content of Munro’s work
and what impact has it had on you?
While reading the short stories, I found Munro's plot style
to be quite intriguing and effective. I thought it was interesting how her plots are far from linear
as this definitely made the stories more interesting to read. For example, the
short story Passion begins with the character visiting a small town and commenting
on how its changed. From this point in the story we go back to the beginning in
order to discover how it is that this character came to be in this place.
Another aspect of her style that I particularly enjoyed was that Munro didn't
feel the need to make everything a happy ending. Many authors often feel like
they must end a story with a happily ever after however, in Runaway we are left
with the foreshadowing that Clarke would end up killing Carla. The way in which
Munro embraces the true nature of the world enhances her writing and gives it
some sense of realism.
Tuesday, 21 July 2015
During my stay in Paris this summer we decided to meet up
with a friend of my brother who lived in the city. My brother had met her in
America during one of her stays in the country as a foreign exchange student.
So, after setting up as meeting place and time we set off on the metro to meet
Alex. Once we spotted her we went
through quick introductions and then began our stroll along the Champs-Élysées.
After doing some window shopping we decided that a Starbucks break was exactly
what we needed to power through the rest of the day. Now this is where it gets
a bit interesting. My family began placing their drink orders in English of
course which was fine as the barista seemed to be quite fluent. When it came
time for Alex to place her order she spoke in French to the barista. However, the
barista replied and kept speaking to her in English. After repeatedly
attempting to speak French to the barista and having him reply in English, Alex
finally asked "Do you not speak French?". The barista replied that
yes he did speak French and then it dawned on him that Alex was actually a
native French speaker, not just some tourist wannabe.
Now this is a prime example of how we code switch according
to our appraisal of a situation. The barista realized that we most likely did
not speak French and therefore he switched to the common language of English in
order to communicate with us in a more efficient manner. This ability to code
switch is highly important in today's society. We often find ourselves having
to alter our speech in accordance with who we're conversing with. However, as
seen in this case we can sometimes make mistakes when making assumptions about people.
Overall, I found it interesting how the barista was able to make assumptions in
order to be more accommodating in this scenario.
Sunday, 19 July 2015
As we began our descent I kept my eyes
glued to the landscape that was rapidly passing by. After mistaking three distant
radio towers as the Eiffel Tower, I began to grow impatient at the seemingly
never ending landing. Finally I felt the wheels meet the ground and breathed a
quick sigh of relief. I walked away from the baggage carousel with all of my
luggage and I said a quick thank you to the god of airports for keeping my bags
safe and then hopped in a cab to head to the hotel.
Now one thing they never tell you in movies or books is that sunset in Paris seems to be running a bit behind. I stepped out of my hotel and had to do a quick double take at the sky and then at my phone. My phone told me it was about 9:30 p.m. but the sky was telling me a completely different story. It was deceivingly bright out and could have been mistaken for 7:30 p.m. back home in Abu Dhabi. As I sat in a restaurant eating dinner and listening to a French man butcher Nirvana karaoke, I realized that I was beginning to fall in love with this strange city.
Now one thing they never tell you in movies or books is that sunset in Paris seems to be running a bit behind. I stepped out of my hotel and had to do a quick double take at the sky and then at my phone. My phone told me it was about 9:30 p.m. but the sky was telling me a completely different story. It was deceivingly bright out and could have been mistaken for 7:30 p.m. back home in Abu Dhabi. As I sat in a restaurant eating dinner and listening to a French man butcher Nirvana karaoke, I realized that I was beginning to fall in love with this strange city.
Thursday, 21 May 2015
When
writing about America there's a couple things you need to do to ensure your
writing is successful. First, you need to remember that America is large
country and therefore its essential that you generalize all your ideas and view
all the people as the same. Who cares that there's fifty states I mean they're
all pretty much the same anyway right? It's important to ignore the varying
cultures as there's no way you could possibly write about the culture of Hawaii
and Texas in the same article. Its better if you just treat everything as a
general "America".
If you feel
like including an image, try and find a picture of the most obese couple you
can find. It's a bonus if they're wearing unfashionable clothes and obnoxious
white sneakers.
Now you
need to highlight one of the main aspects of American culture: obesity. If you
hadn't noticed, everyone in America is obese. Everyone. If someone isn't obese yet they're definitely
on their way, gaining a pound with every bite they take from their BigMac. Ah
yes, the glorious BigMac. You need to emphasize the way in which Americans treat any
McDonald's as a shrine to God. It's good if you describe in depth the way that
those golden arches make any Americans eyes instantly light up with desire and cravings
which are never satisfied.
The Redneck
is the only type of American and any character variation besides this must be
ignored because there's no way a country as small as the United States could
have variety among the population. Now, if your story takes place anywhere
remotely southern then your character must be a redneck. When writing dialogue
for the redneck, you can never use the word "Y'all" too much. Of
course, your redneck needs something to drive on all those country back roads
so they should own at least one pickup truck, if not two. Now The Redneck
idolizes one thing above all others: freedom. If your character ever feels that
their freedom is being violated then they have the right to respond with an
argument that makes absolutely no sense. Who cares about the increasing homicide
rate? Your character deserves a gun and nothing will stop them from exercising
their Second Amendment. How can you expect your character to hunt or defend his
freedom without a gun? The Redneck is almost always uneducated but it's
important to remember that this isn't their fault. There's no way they could go
to school when they had to spend all their time working on the family farm.
However, when working on a farm all day your character tends to use a lot of
energy so it's important that they maintain a healthy and balanced diet of beer
and more beer as this will provide them the energy they need during the day.
The final
thing to remember when writing about Americans is their national pride. In
America every day is the 4th of July and if your character isn't flying the
American flag how can you be absolutely sure they're even American? They should
also sing the national anthem every day as this shows the pride and dedication
to their country. If you follow all of these tips then you should end up with a
true American.
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