Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Waking Life
I think that the movie "Waking Life" was alright and it brought up some interesting subjects, but I think that the way that it was made almost distracted from the main goal of the movie. All the shaking and color changing and movement in the animation of the movie may have been for a purpose, but I would have to say that they went a little too far and it kind of took away from the different concepts that they were trying to bring up in the movie. Maybe you are supposed to watch the movie a couple of times to get more out of it, but I really didn't understand half the things that were going on just because I was always looking at the background and wondering what kind of stupid changes were going to happen next, I even lost some of what they were saying before I realized what was going on just because it was so distracting.
Voice
Adam Kilwine
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 5/4/07
Voice in its Many Different Forms
How does a person really define a concept like “voice?” Sure, a person could probably look up the word voice in the dictionary and come up with some kind of answer that has to do with a person’s speaking voice, but the “concept” of voice can be shown in many different ways, shapes, or forms. Although some people may not let it surface as much as others, everyone has their own voice and they portray that voice in many different ways. It might be through some kind of visual or performing arts, it may be through writing or just the way that a person speaks in front of others, or it might just have something to do with the way that people act in everyday life. There are infinite ways in which a person can show their own form of voice, privately or out loud for all the world to hear.
In the movie “Smoke Signals” and the story “The Toughest Indian in the World,” Sherman Alexis seems to show certain types of voice through the cultural and traditional qualities that his characters seem to hold so close. In both cases the main characters seem pretty racist toward whites; not to say that that is how all Indians feel. He almost seems to play up this racist behavior a little more than it really should be. Maybe the reason he does this is that it is the way that he was raised or just some past experiences that have given him that racist attitude. Who knows, maybe that observation is very accurate for Indians like these characters. The main idea here isn’t actually where this racism is coming from, but just that it is there and through this racism that Alexis is planting in these characters he is trying to get some point across. He uses these characters and their thoughts and actions to bring out concepts and ideas and in doing so he is building up this major form of voice in his stories.
The other big idea that comes out of both “Smoke Signals” and “The Toughest Indian in the World” is just how the certain cultural and traditional differences can have a big effect on the thinking of these different characters. In both of these stories Alexis mentions the reservations that these Indians have been raised on and they seem to have had a big impact on the lives of certain characters and what is more is that he goes even further in his stories in that throughout he seems to bring up events that compare cultures like life on the reservations with life elsewhere such as in the cities for example. They may seem to be insignificant little changes, but its presence is definitely shown and just having this kind of a presence shows that there is probably some significance higher even, than anyone probably realizes. Again, however, this is just another form of voice that is coming out of these different stories. These forms of voice may not always be as evident, but it is definitely there and much of the time it can make a bigger impact on a person than things that are much more evident.
I am actually starting to see more of these little elements that can actually help me to show some kind of voice through the projects that I have been working on in my first year of architecture. It is often the smallest elements that make the biggest difference. Through the projects that architects design they can show voice through the certain shapes and forms of their buildings whether it is more linear or radial or in some kind of a grid pattern. Then they use methods such as gestalt to add smaller, deeper connections between different parts of their designs. The designs are often influenced by things like time, light, movement through the space and many other variables in order to almost tell a story. These are the kinds of things that help to show an architect’s voice.
Also, this whole idea of culture and tradition showing voice in the two Sherman Alexis stories is an idea that has a huge influence on an architect’s design. This is why buildings are often much different in different countries and even throughout the United States. This is why a building in the city is going to be much different from a building in a place like a little farm town and why something like and apartment building is so much different from something like a church. A successful design should usually have some kind of relationship to the location and the purpose that they have been made for. For example, in some of the latest projects that I have done the landscape and location of that landscape had a huge influence on the design. Architects take what information that they have and use it to their advantage, then they add a personal touch. Looking around an architecture class shows how different one persons voice can be so much different even with the exact same site and information that they are provided with.
These are just a few of the many, many ways that a person can show voice. Everyone has their own form of voice whether they are some kind of influential writer or just some average person in a low paying job trying to get by in everyday life and there is no one way that these many forms of voice can be shown.
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 5/4/07
Voice in its Many Different Forms
How does a person really define a concept like “voice?” Sure, a person could probably look up the word voice in the dictionary and come up with some kind of answer that has to do with a person’s speaking voice, but the “concept” of voice can be shown in many different ways, shapes, or forms. Although some people may not let it surface as much as others, everyone has their own voice and they portray that voice in many different ways. It might be through some kind of visual or performing arts, it may be through writing or just the way that a person speaks in front of others, or it might just have something to do with the way that people act in everyday life. There are infinite ways in which a person can show their own form of voice, privately or out loud for all the world to hear.
In the movie “Smoke Signals” and the story “The Toughest Indian in the World,” Sherman Alexis seems to show certain types of voice through the cultural and traditional qualities that his characters seem to hold so close. In both cases the main characters seem pretty racist toward whites; not to say that that is how all Indians feel. He almost seems to play up this racist behavior a little more than it really should be. Maybe the reason he does this is that it is the way that he was raised or just some past experiences that have given him that racist attitude. Who knows, maybe that observation is very accurate for Indians like these characters. The main idea here isn’t actually where this racism is coming from, but just that it is there and through this racism that Alexis is planting in these characters he is trying to get some point across. He uses these characters and their thoughts and actions to bring out concepts and ideas and in doing so he is building up this major form of voice in his stories.
The other big idea that comes out of both “Smoke Signals” and “The Toughest Indian in the World” is just how the certain cultural and traditional differences can have a big effect on the thinking of these different characters. In both of these stories Alexis mentions the reservations that these Indians have been raised on and they seem to have had a big impact on the lives of certain characters and what is more is that he goes even further in his stories in that throughout he seems to bring up events that compare cultures like life on the reservations with life elsewhere such as in the cities for example. They may seem to be insignificant little changes, but its presence is definitely shown and just having this kind of a presence shows that there is probably some significance higher even, than anyone probably realizes. Again, however, this is just another form of voice that is coming out of these different stories. These forms of voice may not always be as evident, but it is definitely there and much of the time it can make a bigger impact on a person than things that are much more evident.
I am actually starting to see more of these little elements that can actually help me to show some kind of voice through the projects that I have been working on in my first year of architecture. It is often the smallest elements that make the biggest difference. Through the projects that architects design they can show voice through the certain shapes and forms of their buildings whether it is more linear or radial or in some kind of a grid pattern. Then they use methods such as gestalt to add smaller, deeper connections between different parts of their designs. The designs are often influenced by things like time, light, movement through the space and many other variables in order to almost tell a story. These are the kinds of things that help to show an architect’s voice.
Also, this whole idea of culture and tradition showing voice in the two Sherman Alexis stories is an idea that has a huge influence on an architect’s design. This is why buildings are often much different in different countries and even throughout the United States. This is why a building in the city is going to be much different from a building in a place like a little farm town and why something like and apartment building is so much different from something like a church. A successful design should usually have some kind of relationship to the location and the purpose that they have been made for. For example, in some of the latest projects that I have done the landscape and location of that landscape had a huge influence on the design. Architects take what information that they have and use it to their advantage, then they add a personal touch. Looking around an architecture class shows how different one persons voice can be so much different even with the exact same site and information that they are provided with.
These are just a few of the many, many ways that a person can show voice. Everyone has their own form of voice whether they are some kind of influential writer or just some average person in a low paying job trying to get by in everyday life and there is no one way that these many forms of voice can be shown.
High School/College Writing
I really though that I was going to have a lot more trouble with this class just because I always thought that college writing would be a lot harder than high school writing, but its really not. I actually had this really hard english teacher throughout my years in high school and that had to be, by far, the hardest english class I had ever taken, but it really prepared me for college writing and so far I really haven't had a problem writing an essay ever since I took his classes. I couldn't believe it, the writing that I have had to do in college so far was actually a lot easier than his classes and he was a lot more strict on the way that we wrote our papers and there was probably about three times as much writing in his classes. I would have to say that that is probably the only class that really prepared me for college and it really payed off.
Voice Through Architecture
One thing that I have noticed while taking this class along with my major, Architecture is that Architecture actually shows a lot of voice. Pretty much everything that an architect does in the designing of a building, for example, shows some kind of voice. The project that I had to do for my final durring the last few weeks was to design two towers to put on a landscape of my choice and design these two towers to represent the mind and body. In doing so I designed a very light looking tall, skinny tower with a winding staircase going to the top in order to represent the mind and show that it is almost a higher power and that it has this higher purpose that the body does not. Then I created a much shorter, heavier tower that I designed to represent the body and its very different, but important purposes. Then I used things like materials and different forms and ideas in order to connect the to show that they may serve very different purposes, but that one can not survive without the other. Even looking at past projects where everyone was given the same landscape and information, projects still came out very different from each other and that just shows that people all have their own form of voice and that can be shown through architectural designes like these.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Eros Article Summary
A big part of this article goes over the different qualities and effects that Eros or love has on people. It talks about love being a desire beyond all others, but at the same time it talks about how it is also feared by all, even the gods. It brings up the idea of love being like a fire in that it can consume a person and take them over in what is almost a type of control over them. It also talks about love being an uncontrollable force that can take over anyone from wild beasts to the gods in the heavens and how ignorant people seem to be as to the power of this amazing force.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
What is Love?
Love can have many different meanings. For example, love that you have for a spouse may be a lot different than love you have for a brother or sister. Love may come in the form of a strong, lasting friendship or it may go much deeper than that as a married couple may share a more intimate kind of relationship. Maybe a person could even show love toward a pet who they have grown up with. Love can come in all different shapes and sizes even though the love between a married couple seems to be more what people think about.
Life: Dream or Reality?
Adam Kilwine
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 2/23/07
Life: Dream or Reality?
What is Life? Does life have any kind of meaning to it, or is it just some kind of meaningless accident? These are the kinds of questions that have been stumping people since time began, and although many seem to have their own ideas to what might be an answer to these questions, it is impossible to really ever understand the true meaning of it all.
One of the biggest similarities seen through all of these four pieces of writing is that the characters or the authors seem to go on some kind of journey in order to find meaning or purpose in their lives. Whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually, they all seemed to be in search of an answer to this ultimate question.
Some might wonder if this life that we are all a part of is even reality, or if it is just some kind of dream. How then, can a person really describe reality, and where does a person really find the line between what is real and what is not? Who is a person to really say that a dream is not real or even that life itself is not just one big dream. Two of the readings especially went into this idea.
In “The Circular Ruins” there is a man who comes upon certain ruins where he lays at night to sleep, and it is here that his dreams seem to almost come to life. In his dreams he actually dreams up a person in great detail and it is this person that goes off in search for meaning and it is not until the end that he actually realizes that all he really is, is a dream. From what he thought he knew, he was just an ordinary person, but in reality he was just a dream along with the world around him.
From this reading one has to think about the possibility that if the man in the story was just a dream and he had no idea, then who is to say that this life that we call reality isn’t just one big dream. Then in that case, again, what is the purpose? What is the whole point of this dream and if it is really a dream, then what is real. Many people would say that a dream can’t be considered real, so if that is true, then what is reality? Is there a reality in which the actual people that we represent are living in, or is this just one big dream that a single person, such as maybe God, is dreaming up?
This question then brings up the next reading which is a poem called “Break of Day.” In this reading the author goes deeper into the idea by looking for some kind of meaning for life. In the poem he brings mention to God and considers the effect that he may have on this so-called reality that we live in. He brings up that if God really is the creator, then what is to stop him from just ending the whole thing. What is the purpose for life?
Maybe this life is really just one big dream that he is having, but then why does it keep going? Why doesn’t the dream ever seem to end? Maybe another explanation for life would be that it is all some kind of play that God is putting on for entertainment. Maybe it is just some kind of big experiment. He may have just been experimenting with different ideas such as the change from the dinosaurs to humans, for example. Maybe it isn’t even just one god, but multiple gods in that they are actually the so called reality and this life that we seem to think is real is actually just the dreams of the gods. If people can have dreams like that in which they seem to be in control, then why couldn’t we really just be dreams created by the gods.
It seems to all come back to this question of “why?” Is there really an explanation for these mysteries? It seems to be an impossible question to answer. Even if someone were to really find the reason for life it would just bring them to the next step in the equation. If we were all created for the entertainment of the gods then what is their purpose? If it was all just one big accident such as the big bang theory then why were all these particles that caused it really floating around in space. It is a never-ending process. The only reality that there seems to be is that we are here now in some kind of life whether it be a dream or otherwise, and no one really knows how it all started or how it is going to end.
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 2/23/07
Life: Dream or Reality?
What is Life? Does life have any kind of meaning to it, or is it just some kind of meaningless accident? These are the kinds of questions that have been stumping people since time began, and although many seem to have their own ideas to what might be an answer to these questions, it is impossible to really ever understand the true meaning of it all.
One of the biggest similarities seen through all of these four pieces of writing is that the characters or the authors seem to go on some kind of journey in order to find meaning or purpose in their lives. Whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually, they all seemed to be in search of an answer to this ultimate question.
Some might wonder if this life that we are all a part of is even reality, or if it is just some kind of dream. How then, can a person really describe reality, and where does a person really find the line between what is real and what is not? Who is a person to really say that a dream is not real or even that life itself is not just one big dream. Two of the readings especially went into this idea.
In “The Circular Ruins” there is a man who comes upon certain ruins where he lays at night to sleep, and it is here that his dreams seem to almost come to life. In his dreams he actually dreams up a person in great detail and it is this person that goes off in search for meaning and it is not until the end that he actually realizes that all he really is, is a dream. From what he thought he knew, he was just an ordinary person, but in reality he was just a dream along with the world around him.
From this reading one has to think about the possibility that if the man in the story was just a dream and he had no idea, then who is to say that this life that we call reality isn’t just one big dream. Then in that case, again, what is the purpose? What is the whole point of this dream and if it is really a dream, then what is real. Many people would say that a dream can’t be considered real, so if that is true, then what is reality? Is there a reality in which the actual people that we represent are living in, or is this just one big dream that a single person, such as maybe God, is dreaming up?
This question then brings up the next reading which is a poem called “Break of Day.” In this reading the author goes deeper into the idea by looking for some kind of meaning for life. In the poem he brings mention to God and considers the effect that he may have on this so-called reality that we live in. He brings up that if God really is the creator, then what is to stop him from just ending the whole thing. What is the purpose for life?
Maybe this life is really just one big dream that he is having, but then why does it keep going? Why doesn’t the dream ever seem to end? Maybe another explanation for life would be that it is all some kind of play that God is putting on for entertainment. Maybe it is just some kind of big experiment. He may have just been experimenting with different ideas such as the change from the dinosaurs to humans, for example. Maybe it isn’t even just one god, but multiple gods in that they are actually the so called reality and this life that we seem to think is real is actually just the dreams of the gods. If people can have dreams like that in which they seem to be in control, then why couldn’t we really just be dreams created by the gods.
It seems to all come back to this question of “why?” Is there really an explanation for these mysteries? It seems to be an impossible question to answer. Even if someone were to really find the reason for life it would just bring them to the next step in the equation. If we were all created for the entertainment of the gods then what is their purpose? If it was all just one big accident such as the big bang theory then why were all these particles that caused it really floating around in space. It is a never-ending process. The only reality that there seems to be is that we are here now in some kind of life whether it be a dream or otherwise, and no one really knows how it all started or how it is going to end.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Search for Purpose
Adam Kilwine
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 1/12/07
A Journey in Search for Purpose
Although these four pieces of writing show it in very different ways, they all seem to be in search of that ultimate question. The characters in these stories all seem to be searching for some kind of purpose or meaning to their lives, whether it be through some kind of journey into the wilderness or just a journey into their minds and their ideas of the world around them. They go on some kind of quest in order to find themselves and figure out why they are here in the first place.
In the story, “Into the Wild,” a man named Chris McCandless goes off into the Alaskan wilderness in order to actually escape the pressures and expectations of society. In doing so, he challenges himself and takes a huge risk by leaving everything that he has ever known behind him in order to find himself and try to find some kind of purpose in his life. Unfortunately, he probably wasn’t well enough prepared for the journey and he did not survive long enough to make it back home. However, he did the unthinkable by surviving in these terrible conditions for longer than anyone else would even think to do and in his mind it was probably one of the best experiences of his life.
In “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain,” Wallace Stevens makes this journey for answers without actually leaving the society around him. Through his journey he almost ignores the ideas of society in order to go after his own goals and live his own unique life. In doing so he finds a kind of completeness in himself that no one else can seem to understand. Though his journey for answers may be quite a bit different than that of Chris McCandless, one idea that really seems to stand out in the two is the separation from society whether it was physically or mentally.
In the next two pieces of literature the author, Jorge Luis Borges, still seems to be in search for this ultimate question, but he brings up the idea of life actually being more of a dream. If life is a dream, however, one has to wonder why the dream continues if it could just as easily be wiped out by the creator, who Borges mentions as possibly being God.
In “Break of Day,” especially, he seems to bring up the idea of life, in general, just being one big dream. Throughout the poem he seems to be searching for some answer to the question of why we are still living this dream. It is here where he brings up the question that if God could easily wipe out all existence in an instant, then why are we still here? What is the purpose, if any, that this dream continues on? This is a question that has stumped people throughout history and is a question that seems impossible to answer.
In “The Circular Ruins,” however, it almost seems to start out in some kind of reality with the man finding the ruins where he then begins to dream up a whole other world. He soon puts time into dreaming up another person in great detail who does not seem to realize that he is, in fact, a dream. It is this person who then goes in search for some kind of meaning and finds out that he is actually some kind of phantasm in this dream world that the man has created. It makes a person start to wonder; if this person was in a dream the entire time without realizing it, what is to say that the world we are living in right now isn’t also some kind of dream that could just end at any time.
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 1/12/07
A Journey in Search for Purpose
Although these four pieces of writing show it in very different ways, they all seem to be in search of that ultimate question. The characters in these stories all seem to be searching for some kind of purpose or meaning to their lives, whether it be through some kind of journey into the wilderness or just a journey into their minds and their ideas of the world around them. They go on some kind of quest in order to find themselves and figure out why they are here in the first place.
In the story, “Into the Wild,” a man named Chris McCandless goes off into the Alaskan wilderness in order to actually escape the pressures and expectations of society. In doing so, he challenges himself and takes a huge risk by leaving everything that he has ever known behind him in order to find himself and try to find some kind of purpose in his life. Unfortunately, he probably wasn’t well enough prepared for the journey and he did not survive long enough to make it back home. However, he did the unthinkable by surviving in these terrible conditions for longer than anyone else would even think to do and in his mind it was probably one of the best experiences of his life.
In “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain,” Wallace Stevens makes this journey for answers without actually leaving the society around him. Through his journey he almost ignores the ideas of society in order to go after his own goals and live his own unique life. In doing so he finds a kind of completeness in himself that no one else can seem to understand. Though his journey for answers may be quite a bit different than that of Chris McCandless, one idea that really seems to stand out in the two is the separation from society whether it was physically or mentally.
In the next two pieces of literature the author, Jorge Luis Borges, still seems to be in search for this ultimate question, but he brings up the idea of life actually being more of a dream. If life is a dream, however, one has to wonder why the dream continues if it could just as easily be wiped out by the creator, who Borges mentions as possibly being God.
In “Break of Day,” especially, he seems to bring up the idea of life, in general, just being one big dream. Throughout the poem he seems to be searching for some answer to the question of why we are still living this dream. It is here where he brings up the question that if God could easily wipe out all existence in an instant, then why are we still here? What is the purpose, if any, that this dream continues on? This is a question that has stumped people throughout history and is a question that seems impossible to answer.
In “The Circular Ruins,” however, it almost seems to start out in some kind of reality with the man finding the ruins where he then begins to dream up a whole other world. He soon puts time into dreaming up another person in great detail who does not seem to realize that he is, in fact, a dream. It is this person who then goes in search for some kind of meaning and finds out that he is actually some kind of phantasm in this dream world that the man has created. It makes a person start to wonder; if this person was in a dream the entire time without realizing it, what is to say that the world we are living in right now isn’t also some kind of dream that could just end at any time.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Dreamworld
In the story, "Circular Ruins" and the poem, "Break of Day," the biggest link that I can find between them is this idea of life being some kind of dreamworld. In "Circular Ruins" a man fins some ruins in the jungle and when he falls asleep he dreams and manages to actually dream up a person who does not seem to that it is a dream. Then in "Break of Day" the author questions whether we, ourselves, are actually living in a dream world and tries to find a reason for it all. He mentions that god could just take it all away in a second and looks for a reason why we are still here. In both of the pieces of writing I believe that the author brings up the idea of a dreamworld in order bring up the big question of the meaning of life.
Metaphor
I looked up metaphor in the Webster's dictionary and it was described as "a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as if it were another."
Saturday, February 3, 2007
A Search for Solitude
Adam Kilwine
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 1/31/07
A Search for Solitude
Although many people throughout the world either live life within the expectations of society or surrender to these expectations at some point in their life; most, if not all people seem to take some kind of “soul-flight” in there lifetime. One person’s soul-flight may be much different from another’s, but it all seems to be an attempt to challenge themselves or break apart from the rest of the world in order to find themselves in the process. Although the story, “Into the Wild,” by Jon Krakauer and “The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain,” are two very different forms of writing by two different authors, they both seem to go into this idea of a soul-flight.
In “The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain,” Wallace Stevens seems to use this mountain in order to represent his life and how he has lived his life his own way instead of surrendering to the expectations of society. In the poem he seems to bring up his uniqueness and seems to feel a completeness in himself that most people in normal society might not understand. In this way he seems to have gone into some kind of solitary in his mind without actually removing himself from the people around him.
Chris McCandless, however, took a little different approach in the story, “Into the Wild.” He actually decided to remove himself completely from society. In doing so he traveled out into the Alaskan wilderness in order to prove to himself that he was strong enough and intelligent enough to survive on his own without any help from other people. He managed to survive for months on his own in this wilderness and by the time he started back home he seems to have had a great cense of pride and self-confidence. Unfortunately he was unable to find a way across the river that he had crossed at the beginning of his journey and wasn’t able to survive long enough to get back home. It’s true that he was probably not very well prepared for such a dangerous journey, but he lasted much longer than most people could and for that reason he deserves more credit than he has actually received.
Even Jon Krakauer, in the search for McCandless and his inspiration for this story seems to have taken a soul-flight. Although he was traveling with someone, it was like he was trying to prove something to himself through his journey and was not about to give up, no matter what obstacles he might encounter on his way.
Wallace Stevens, Chris McCandless, and Jon Krakauer were all very different people who made an effort to somehow separate themselves from society in order to find themselves and prove what they were really made of. Many people will go through life doing nothing but what society tells them to do, but it is things like this that will stick with them forever and many become much better people because of it.
Instructor: Wayne Berg
English 121-12
Due: 1/31/07
A Search for Solitude
Although many people throughout the world either live life within the expectations of society or surrender to these expectations at some point in their life; most, if not all people seem to take some kind of “soul-flight” in there lifetime. One person’s soul-flight may be much different from another’s, but it all seems to be an attempt to challenge themselves or break apart from the rest of the world in order to find themselves in the process. Although the story, “Into the Wild,” by Jon Krakauer and “The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain,” are two very different forms of writing by two different authors, they both seem to go into this idea of a soul-flight.
In “The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain,” Wallace Stevens seems to use this mountain in order to represent his life and how he has lived his life his own way instead of surrendering to the expectations of society. In the poem he seems to bring up his uniqueness and seems to feel a completeness in himself that most people in normal society might not understand. In this way he seems to have gone into some kind of solitary in his mind without actually removing himself from the people around him.
Chris McCandless, however, took a little different approach in the story, “Into the Wild.” He actually decided to remove himself completely from society. In doing so he traveled out into the Alaskan wilderness in order to prove to himself that he was strong enough and intelligent enough to survive on his own without any help from other people. He managed to survive for months on his own in this wilderness and by the time he started back home he seems to have had a great cense of pride and self-confidence. Unfortunately he was unable to find a way across the river that he had crossed at the beginning of his journey and wasn’t able to survive long enough to get back home. It’s true that he was probably not very well prepared for such a dangerous journey, but he lasted much longer than most people could and for that reason he deserves more credit than he has actually received.
Even Jon Krakauer, in the search for McCandless and his inspiration for this story seems to have taken a soul-flight. Although he was traveling with someone, it was like he was trying to prove something to himself through his journey and was not about to give up, no matter what obstacles he might encounter on his way.
Wallace Stevens, Chris McCandless, and Jon Krakauer were all very different people who made an effort to somehow separate themselves from society in order to find themselves and prove what they were really made of. Many people will go through life doing nothing but what society tells them to do, but it is things like this that will stick with them forever and many become much better people because of it.
Break of Day
This poem brings up the idea that life and everything involved may just be one big dream. From here he goes through the idea of a dream and tries to almost find some kind of purpose in this dream that we call life. He brings up that it would be very easy for god to just take it all away in an instant. If this is true, why doesn't it happen? Why are we still living in this dreamworld. In a way, I think that Wallace Stevens kind of brings this up in "The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain," in that he is kind of trying to find the reason for life or his purpose in his own life. He then finds some completeness in knowing that he has separated himself from the group and lived life for himself and not based on the expectations that influence a person's decisions throughout life.
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain
The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain
"How he had recomposed the pines, shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds"
"Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion"
I believe that in this poem Stevens is kind of using the mountain and the different aspects of the mountain to explain his own life in a way. In the first line he makes it sound like he is shifting and changing different aspects of his life to meet his own goals as he moves through a life full of other expectations from society. This then leads into the next line where he talks about this unexplained completion. To me it sounds like he feels more complete knowing that he has lived his life his way and not the way everyone else expects him to. In this he has felt this completeness that others may not understand.
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