Best of Today: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

This movie is absolutely horrible. The whole plot of the movie is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern going to England to give them the news that Hamlet has gone insane and then they end up getting killed. Along the way, they invent these stupid games that make no sense whats so ever and it just bugs me because I can't figure out what they are trying to play or how to play it.
I absolutely dread watching this movie and I believe that the movie Hamlet should be left alone. There shouldn't be any interpretations from anyone's point of view and insignifican character's should not get their own movie. By Rosencrantz and Guildenstern getting their own movie that tells the story of Hamlet from their point of view, it just confuses the audience more and adds on uneccessary detail to the plot of Hamlet. Also, by having their own movie, it makes the play Hamlet seem over done and too played out, therefore leaving the audience and fans of Hamlet very distraut and annoyed.

Best of Today: "Sympathetic Magic"

The most interesting part about this article occurs about mid-way through when Wilson brings up the idea of cave paintings. Back when the world started changing and the Homo Sapiens starting overshadowing the Homo Erectus, art began to emerge and I find it really cool that Wilson brings it up. He talks about how when our species first came into being, art emerged in the form of cave painting and various other "barbaric" forms. He explains how the people needed a way to make note of their rituals and sort of perserve their experiences. What I find most interesting about his illumination of the pre-historic art is that he uses it to make an argument. That argument is that humans have always needed a way to express themselves personally and to remember things and that's exactly how art came into being.
Wilson takes it a step further when he mentions "sympathetic magic", which is the "manipulation of symbols and images" that ultimatley influence the people and the objects they represent. One of the most famous representation of this is voodoo. Pins are stuck into dolls and this image is suppossed to represent torture and destruction to a person. Ever since the beginning of modern man, sympathetic magic has existed and it is basically what sparked art and creativity. The idea of sympathetic magic is really interesting because you could see it in many other ancient civilizations such as that of the Aztecs and Maya in their sacrifices.
I think it's really important to learn about sympathetic magic because it is the origin of symbols and images. It is where the idea of using symbols to represent something powerful was derived from, in not only literature, but in art too. I think it's fairly important to think back to these ancient examples to remind ourselves of how to properly use symbols when writing or creating works of art because it would not only help us become greater artists, but it would help us create great works of art.

Best of Today: "Hereditary Propensity"

As we continued on with the reading of Consilience in class today, we came across this idea of hereditary propensity. This idea formed by Wilson is among the many that make up the "narrative of coevolution of genes and culture". This claim that all individuals are predipositioned to learning certain things and being good at certain aspects of life is really interesting. It's basically like saying that since one person's parents were extremely skilled in math and statistics that that person inherited that skill to learn and understand it better and faster than the people around him/her. It's like inheriting your parents mental capability traits just as someone inherits their physical appearances from their parents.
Anyways, this claim of hereditary propensity that Wilson argues really stuck out to me and when we related it to the whole "blank slate" idea that we learned about last year, it made it even more interesting. John Locke and the Trancendentalists were one of the first and most famous to imbed this idea of blank slate into our heads. They were the ones who said that all human beings started off with a blank slate; meaning no predisposition or bias toward anything or anyone. They claimed that as the individual got older and started learning and adapting to life, they themselves chose what they wanted to be good at and what to believe.
Although I find the idea of being born without any predispositions really interesting, I think that what Wilson is saying make more sense. The reason for this is because of personal experience. For example, both of my parents were very good at science. To them, understanding science and applying it to day to day situations just came natural and that's where I got my talent for science. I remember when I was younger, I would be absolutley fascinated with science and I never had to try hard to actually understand the material. Because of my personal experience, I would have to agree with Wilson when he says that individuals inherit traits from their parents and that as they grow older, these traits develop more and more. To me, it just simply does not make any sense to say that we aren't predispositioned to any thoughts or any abilities.

Best of Today: Charting the Brain

In the article taken out of the book Consilience, Edward O. Wilson makes the claim that in order for human beings to successfully chart the brain and understand how it really works, we would need the collaboration of both "scientists and humanities scholars". In the midst of attacking postmodernists, he basically says that human beings stem out from science (and that's why our existence can be explained in a scientific way), but we also need to remember that it's not just about science. It's also about generalization and gathered information about humanity as a whole that helps explain our being.
This statement that we read about and discussed in class is extremely relevant in a world like today. We now live in a very confused world where over half of the population actually practice a religion and the others refuse to believe in God, claiming that science and evolution is what made us human. In a world like today where children and brought up confused about whether they should believe in God or whether they should believe in science, the claim that Wilson makes is completely relevant. The best part about Wilson making this claim is that he is offering a solution to this crisis and that is to simply believe and believe in both science and the humanities.
This cliam is basically like a summary of my own beliefs, in a weird way. Ever since I was younger I fell in love with science and have sort of used that to guide my actions and my explanation for life. I have also been agnostic for as along as i can remember and when I read what Wilson wrote in this article, I was completely shocked. I was really excited when he explained how we could be understood by these two opposite things. His idea is incredibly powerful and I believe that if everyone had an outlook like his, the world would be a better, more peaceful place.

iMedia: Atmosphere

Atmosphere- Trying to Find a Balance

This video criticizes the popular culture that we are all a part of here in the US. Through out the video, there are pictures of young girls and guys getting tattoos and piercings and doing outlandish things as a means of rebelling. In my opinion, this form of rebellion is completely ridiculous because it's not solving anything. Teens may try and get back at their parents by doing stupid things like getting a tattoo, but in the long run what does that really solve? It just makes the parents even angrier and it causes more problems. I realized as I was watching this video that for the fist time in my life it dawned on me that individuality is actually the cause of these rebellious actions. Everyone seems to think that being an individual is the greatest thing in the world, but what they don't seem to notice is that it is actually the cause of many problems. Individuality makes us selfish because everything that we do we do only for ourselves and for our benefit. Individuality makes us greedy because we are taught to accomplish things only for ourselves and once we are satisfied, only then can we actually become somewhat selfless.
If you take a look at any other country in the world, their philosophy on how life should be lead is almost the complete opposite. Everything they do revolves around their family or some type of group. They learn to forget about themselves (and therefore forget how to be selfish and greedy) and learn to do good for the greater amount of people.
The lyrics of the song are extremely impressive because they seem to bring about this problem with individuality in our country. They also show another major flaw in our culture and that is that we are superfluous in every aspect of our lives. We constantly want to out-do everyone at everything. We want to know that we are the best and the fastest people in the world and that is just not good for our health. We need to relax and realize that the world isn't going anywhere. We have plenty of time to do things and there is no need for this ferocious competition; what we need is to make peace. To relax and to take things as they come; to not overbook ourselves. The citizens of America need to know that life is not a race against time; its not about how fast we can get things done but rather how balanced our lives are. It's about balancing work with fun and solitude with socialization. Basically, it's exactly like the title of the song says, its about "trying to find a balance".

Best of the Week: Wealth

I think the most interesting observation that I noted this week in class was the about how we measure wealth. The Do You Mind question, how does one measure wealth (without the concept of money) was really interesting to talk about. I guess the only way that I thought wealth could be measured before was through how much money a person had, but the more we discussed it in class the more I realized that I was wrong. Wealth is about how much love, respect and kindness you can give to others, and more importantly how much love, respect and kindness people give to you. You know you are a wealthy person if you have a great family that respects you for what you and loves you no matter what. You know you are a wealthy person if do not do wrong to other people and if you try your absolute best to help out others and our planet.
This observation made me think about how lucky of a person I am to have such a wonderful family and such wonderful friends that are always there for me. It makes me wonder about how many people are unfortunate to have this kind of wealth in their lives and how I want to help those people.

Metacognition: Do You Mind Questions

Every time I am getting ready to answer a Do You Mind question in class, I use this sort of repetitive, routine-like thought process to get to my answer. First, I re-write the question down in the notebook so that my brain has enough time to absorb what the question actually is. Next, I brainstorm some ideas for a possible answer, and after I get a few possible simple answers, I choose the one that I am most interested in. After that, I sort of blow the answer out of proportion and make it seem really meaningful and detailed to the point where I convince myself that it is the best answer I could come up with. It sounds weird, but all of my Do You Mind questions have these crazy answers that are unique to myself and my own life experiences. They might sound made up and extremely exaggerated, but in reality the core of my answers deal with my unique experiences.
I think it's really interesting how my brain can take a simple thought and add on various layers of detail and experience without really having to think that hard about it. It's interesting how my imagination plays such an important role in my thinking process because it shows how much of a kid I am on the inside. I use my imagination and exaggerate things as if I was still a little girl and it's really cool to see how i'll always have this young, vibrant and enthusiastically playful person inside me. For the time being, I wouldn't change a thing about my thinking because if I were to do that, I wouldn't really be myself and I wouldn't get to imagine and create the beautiful thoughts that I do now.

Connection: Hamlet and The Pact

The play Hamlet has a question that is reinforced time and time again throughout the play. The question "To be or not to be", as Hamlet the main character puts it is a question that has poped up in various works of literature, one of them being The Pact by Jodi Piccoult. The Pact is a book about two young people who have known each other for their whole lives and have been in love for as long as they can remember. They spent every waking moment with each other and one day, the girl decides that she has gotten everything she wants out of life and that she wanted to kill herself. She decided that she wanted her boyfriend to be there when she did it, so that he would be the last person she saw. Whether it was on purpose or not, when the police showed up, it looked like the boyfriend shot her and she did not commit suicide.
In the play Hamlet, the main character also ends up killing himself (although it was in a more non-direct way). The two main characters of these works of literature both dealt with the question "to be or not to be" and they both chose to end their misery on earth. Both of the characters had been corrupted not only by society in general, but by the people that they loved the most. Hamlet had been forced to reconsider his being and human nature in general when his father was killed by his uncle and the girl in The Pact was corrupted by her boyfriend, who made her realize that there was nothing more to live for. The one difference between the two characters is that in the play Hamlet, Shakespeare made it obvious how much Hamlet was sufferring and the reason for his demise, whereas in the The Pact, Piccoult left out several details about the girl until the end of the book, making it a sort of mystery.
This connection is really interesting, but it involves two characters that are almost complete opposites, that end up doing the exact same thing. The decision to off themselves is very interesting because it shows how there isn't exactly one type of person that has suicidal thoughts and that even though a person may look happy on the surface, in reality, they are miserable. It's interesting because it shows how fake our world is. Both of the characters were opposite people when it came to their public and private lives and they seperated the two as if to form two different personalities for each person. By doing this, it showed that neither of them truly knew who they were and their true identity and this is the core reason why they decided to escape from this world. This reason created a sense of self loathing and uselessness that none of them could escape from.