i just dug up the first essay i wrote at undergraduate level in the first term of my first year... week 5 of the course, maybe? so funny. it opens:Hurricane2k9 wrote:
I sometimes feel like that's the phase I'm going through right now (the whole eagerness to write well thing). In high school I always felt like I had to follow a very strict formula for writing, with no real room for my own expression. It was basically "state this, state that, prove it." The papers I wrote in high school would have probably bored anyone to death, and it didn't help that most of the time I really didn't want to write those papers.
Whereas now for instance, I wrote a paper for my moral issues class talking about the war on drugs, and while I don't think it's anything special I did get an A on it. I wrote it in a much more casual-yet-assertive voice than I would have written my high school papers in. Improving my writing is something I definitely want to do though... I should take some courses on it tbh.
The role and influence of art within society has been a popular topic of philosophical discourse since the early classical musings of Plato and Socrates. It is a discourse that has evolved alongside the society that it is inextricably sourced from; and the arguments map not only our sociological relationship with ‘art’, as an abstract and externalized element of our lives, but our own internal social struggles and divisions that we societally project onto our commodified creativity. Building on empiricist Enlightenment theories on ‘taste’ and ‘beauty’ by the likes of Hume and Kant, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu seeks to form a unifying theory that bridges the philosophical gaps between classificatory objectivism and relativism, marrying his ideas with the dominant Marxist discourses of the 20th century. His theory, then, posits that our modern, materialist and capitalistic society has transformed art into commodity- in turn sociologically reinforcing the inescapable base divisions of class and power with superstructural cultural conceptions of ‘taste’. Bourdieu’s work in Distinction also seeks to find a universal sociological theory that creates a balance between two major French 20th century schools of thought: subjectivist Sartrean existentialism and objectivist structuralism – thus attempting to establish common classifications whilst admitting the inescapable subjectivity of the classifier him/herself - and it is this consideration of the ‘entire’ that makes his work so intriguing and valuable. In this essay I will attempt to delineate the main principles of Bourdieu’s argument, and to explore them: primarily through visual art, where the greatest single-value acquisitions of cultural production are made, and secondarily in literature, where a tradition has long ingrained a separate system of symbolic capital.
i'm seriously trying to continue this but i'm way too tiredjustice wrote:
Yes Gooners you have, in fact when I think of Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire, I think of your testicles instead of chestnuts.Gooners wrote:
Justice why thank you, have i ever told you I love you? (for sentimental reasons).justice wrote:
Oh Gooners, There Will Never Be Another You.
Last paper I wrote. Got an A.In Li-Young Lee's poem, I Ask My Mother to Sing, the element of water is used as the driving force and symbol of life. Through the metaphor of water Lee represents the influence and emotion of the matriarchs in his family.
Water is a primary building block of life. Every living organism requires it. Civilizations throughout human history have worshiped it and treated it with the lofty reverence it deserves. It plays a part in rituals as diverse as Christian baptism and the superstitions of sailors. We drink it, we bathe in it, we play in it. Water is a powerful force. It is such an integral part of our being that we would not survive for more than a handful of days without it.
Lee has used the water element to describe his relationship with the women in his life. They are of such paramount importance to him that he begins his poem with “She begins, and my grandmother joins her,” to indicate their dominance in his life. He clearly feels that they are the base upon which his family, and to a larger extent, his entire life, rests. His father has passed and the women in his life have filled the role of mentor. If his father were alive, he “would play his accordion and sway like a boat” and it is this metaphor that is being used to emphasize how important the mother and grandmother were to the father, as well.
How is the boat behaving? That is something entirely dependent on the body of water in which it drifts. A calm sea provides smooth sailing and a rather enjoyable experience, while a trip through the eye of a hurricane would not. A boat on land has no purpose. It is inextricably linked to the water upon which it floats. In the context of metaphor, it is emphasizing the foundational basic role that women play in the life of the men they co-exist with. A harmonious relationship between man and wife, or son and mother, could be likened to the peaceful swaying of a boat. It is in this way that Lee describes his familial relationship and let's the reader understand the cardinal role that women play in his family life.
In the poem, water also acts as a metaphor for describing the circle of life. Water begins in the clouds, falls down to earth, forms into pools, which flow into lakes, streams and the ocean. It then evaporates, reforms in the clouds and repeats the process. Along the way, we borrow from it, but it is never ours to keep. When we die it is returned to the earth and the cycle moves on. This is described by the lines “how the waterlilies fill with rain until they overturn, spilling water into water, then rock back, and fill with more.” The mother and grandmother sing, and the son finds comfort in the words and their voice. He is taken on an emotional journey with them – in comfort, nostalgia, perseverance, and tears. They represent his inner circle of life.
The women in Lee's life take the role of story teller and are also the familial foundation. His mother and grandmother begin their song of a past that they have left behind when they moved to America. They sing of Kuen Ming Lake and the Stone Boat of the Summer Palace in Peking (Beijing), and create imagery of their history. Within the song, water is used as a cleansing device in both a literal and figurative manner. The picnickers are driven away by the rainfall and we're left with a clear scene of natural beauty and the image of the waterlilies, showing a literal cleansing by rainwater. Lee loves the way it's sung, so it appears to have some sort of emotional cleansing effect on him as well – taking him back to another time and place that he can imagine through the women who mean so much to him.
In conclusion, the presence of water and the feminine influence are closely tied through literal and metaphorical imagery. Lee's life is profoundly affected by the matriarchs of his family, especially in the absence of his father. He finds comfort in the stories of his ancestry in their song, and their presence in his life is as essential as water to any life form.
lol... it's funny because it's not necessarily poorly written but just screams "LOOK AT ME, I'M SMART"Uzique wrote:
i just dug up the first essay i wrote at undergraduate level in the first term of my first year... week 5 of the course, maybe? so funny. it opens:Hurricane2k9 wrote:
I sometimes feel like that's the phase I'm going through right now (the whole eagerness to write well thing). In high school I always felt like I had to follow a very strict formula for writing, with no real room for my own expression. It was basically "state this, state that, prove it." The papers I wrote in high school would have probably bored anyone to death, and it didn't help that most of the time I really didn't want to write those papers.
Whereas now for instance, I wrote a paper for my moral issues class talking about the war on drugs, and while I don't think it's anything special I did get an A on it. I wrote it in a much more casual-yet-assertive voice than I would have written my high school papers in. Improving my writing is something I definitely want to do though... I should take some courses on it tbh.The role and influence of art within society has been a popular topic of philosophical discourse since the early classical musings of Plato and Socrates. It is a discourse that has evolved alongside the society that it is inextricably sourced from; and the arguments map not only our sociological relationship with ‘art’, as an abstract and externalized element of our lives, but our own internal social struggles and divisions that we societally project onto our commodified creativity. Building on empiricist Enlightenment theories on ‘taste’ and ‘beauty’ by the likes of Hume and Kant, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu seeks to form a unifying theory that bridges the philosophical gaps between classificatory objectivism and relativism, marrying his ideas with the dominant Marxist discourses of the 20th century. His theory, then, posits that our modern, materialist and capitalistic society has transformed art into commodity- in turn sociologically reinforcing the inescapable base divisions of class and power with superstructural cultural conceptions of ‘taste’. Bourdieu’s work in Distinction also seeks to find a universal sociological theory that creates a balance between two major French 20th century schools of thought: subjectivist Sartrean existentialism and objectivist structuralism – thus attempting to establish common classifications whilst admitting the inescapable subjectivity of the classifier him/herself - and it is this consideration of the ‘entire’ that makes his work so intriguing and valuable. In this essay I will attempt to delineate the main principles of Bourdieu’s argument, and to explore them: primarily through visual art, where the greatest single-value acquisitions of cultural production are made, and secondarily in literature, where a tradition has long ingrained a separate system of symbolic capital.
Tell him to get a manual job, or just go straight to management - either way he should do fine.JohnG@lt wrote:
Here, see for yourself.
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb13 … AG0089.jpg
There is nine pages of this crap.
Dilbert_X wrote:
Tell him to get a manual job, or just go straight to management - either way he should do fine.JohnG@lt wrote:
Here, see for yourself.
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb13 … AG0089.jpg
There is nine pages of this crap.
PS Do you mean 'there are nine pages of this crap'?
Hurricane2k9 wrote:
Uzique, what do you wanna be in life? In terms of a job, career, what have you.
He should review music and publish it.Hurricane2k9 wrote:
Uzique, what do you wanna be in life? In terms of a job, career, what have you.
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2010-12-18 20:57:03)
I got my mom a cookbook she wanted and a new spice rack. Getting my stepdad a '1000 beers to try before you die' book as well as some craft beers. Getting my gf's mom a book on tea and a bamboo tea set thingie. Getting her dad two books.Macbeth wrote:
So I got both my nieces $100 gift cards to one of those build a bear stores.
When it comes to christmas I only get things for the children. The adults can get themselves their own shit.
I really feel for you guys coming out of school in this economy.Hurricane2k9 wrote:
I still have no idea what I wanna be. I have some general ideas... part of me wants to just go with my current plan and major in MIS or Supply Chain Management and end up earning a comfortable upper-middle-class salary. But I'd die knowing I didn't really do much for humanity.
