TOOLS THAT CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK

Technology is the future. There is no doubt that technology will always provide us with an abundance of information that was not previously there for our ancestors. That being said, we could either take this to our advantage, or we can let these tools make us lazier when it comes to brainpower. How long will it be when our kids are far too lazy to even memorize their home phone numbers; so that if their battery dies on their cell phone, they could be stranded? Our brains are being hijacked by electrical equipment every day in some way given that you're not Amish. Memorizing street names will soon be useless, because we have satellites to take care of all of that for us through using our GPS. I predict the future generations to be pretty lazy. Technology will soon be solving all of our problems, and technology might some day be a problem unless it is utilized effectively to increase knowledge instead of prolong our learning. It would be cool to witness, but I would not be shocked if my grandchildren were competing academically with other kids who have had bio-mechanical modifications done to their brain in order to function at a higher level without effort. I know it sounds nerdy and Sci-Fi, but that is where we're headed, and I can't wait to see what we come up with next.

VOCABULARY LIST 9

• Aficionado: an ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast.
• He was a cigar aficionado who collected all of the world's finest cigars and enclosed them within glass casing. 
• Browbeat: to intimidate by overbearing looks or words; bully.
• I found it unfair how the older kid could browbeat the littler ones.
• Commensurate: having the same measure; of equal extent or duration; proportionate; adequate.
• You will receive wages that are commensurate to your workload. 
• Diaphanous: very sheer and light; almost completely transparent or translucent; delicately hazy.
• Her bright, yellow shirt was so diaphanous that you could see her skin underneath it.
• Emolument: profit, salary, or fees from office or employment; compensation for services.
• Tips are emolument in addition to wages.
• Foray: a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder.
• Quite some time ago, pirates were known to make forays on ships containing precious cargo.
• Genre: a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like.
• Some people's favorite genre of music is country, but I can't stand it personally.
• Homily: a sermon, usually on a Biblical topic and usually of a nondoctrinal nature; an inspirational saying or cliché.
• The motivational speaker gave not a lecture but a homily to the delinquent students in order to help them get their lives back on track.
• Immure: to enclose within walls.
• The prisoner was immured within the walls of the jail cell as consequence for his transgressions.
• Insouciant: free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant.
• That guy is so insouciant that if the world were to end tomorrow, he would still carry on with his day as if it were like any other without a care in the world.
• Matrix: something that constitutes the place or point from which something else originates, takes form, or develops.
• Game developers create a matrix in order to develop and originate new ideas for their product. 
• Obsequies: a funeral rite or ceremony.
• The obsequies of my Aunt took place in the town in which she was raised.
• Panache: a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair.
• Some people display great panache when they overuse flagrant hand motions while speaking.
• Persona: the characters in a play, novel, etc.
• Shakespeare created a complex persona when writing Hamlet.
• Philippic: any speech or discourse of bitter denunciation.
• After losing the big game, the infuriated coach denounced his players with an aggressive philippic that greatly discouraged yet motivated them to do better at the same time.
• Prurient: having a restless desire or longing.
• All her life, the young girl was prurient for love, but she never found it.
• Sacrosanct: extremely sacred or inviolable; not to be entered or trespassed upon.
• In the Biblical era, God's altar was so sacrosanct that if it touched the floor, those who caused the error were killed.
• Systemic: of or pertaining to a system.
• The systemic team of producers worked like a well-oiled machine when they were together.
• Tendentious: having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose.
• After seeing much repetition of his favorite theme throughout most of his writing, the tendentious author began to bore his readers.
• Vicissitude: a change or variation occurring in the course of something.
• After experiencing almost every type of vicissitude in war, General Robert E. Lee surrendered and made peace with the Union.

THOUGHTS ON HAMLET

Rarely are we able to share what we as students think about a certain character, but based on my reading of Hamlet from Act I to Act III, I have a decent understanding of Prince Hamlet's state of mind.  While the other characters in the play declare Hamlet to be mentally unstable and ill, they are not incorrect.  In fact, after suffering the death of someone so dear, it is only natural to face the insanity that follows intense sorrow.  Instead, though, Hamlet also faces the insanity of seeing his father's ghost and meditating upon murdering his Uncle (not to mention his mom sleeping with his uncle).  Keeping all of this in mind, is it even proper to question the state of mind that Hamlet faces?  Yet he still presses forward and attempts to apply reason to his actions.  It's a good thing that Hamlet is a play, because this incredibly round character deserves a round of applause once he's done.

After slaying Polonius, I can only predict Ophelia's response coming up soon, which is not going to be too good to put it lightly.  Hamlet's mother is freaked out, and it's only a matter of time before King Claudius discovers the death of his right-hand man.  Hamlet might be shipped off to England for school, or he might not as punishment.  Either way, we shall see what happens next.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE...

Remembering from Friday when Dr. Preston called on me in front of the class to give him a few lines from the soliloquy, I was ready to prove to him that I had it memorized in full by the deadline, which was today.  Since he was not here today, and since I also do not wish to recite the whole soliloquy in class and in front of a large audience, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and have my dad record my recital in the living room.  Note that no cheat codes were used, and my dad along with some classmates who I had proven myself to can vouch for me.  With that being said, feel free to click the link below to watch my video!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I THINK OF ACT III

I thought about a few things while reading Act III of Hamlet, but namely, revenge as a whole stands out to me the most.  There are a couple types of revenge that I've accumulated in my mind throughout my life.  There is a passive revenge where one schemes against another in order to point out their error or debase them privately or in a social manner, and there is an aggressive revenge usually falling out with some sort of face-to-face conflict.  In Act III, we see Hamlet doing a little bit of the two.  He first devises a plot to weed out Claudius's guilt through the plays, but then, as he was about to take revenge upon his uncle and slay him, he found him praying and noted that his uncle may not go to Heaven following his death.

I also think about guilt and suicide when studying Act III.  The guilt comes from Claudius, who refers to the common allusion to the Biblical parable of Cain and Abel when confronting his sin against his brother, but he finds himself unable to sincerely ask God for forgiveness, because of what he has gained through his sins, making him a much rounder character.  Also, the suicide part comes in when Hamlet gives the famous soliloquy "to be or not to be."  He philosophically states mankind's cowardice of taking their own lives simply because of the unknowns that lie ahead after death, and because of this, he also powers through his own personal conflicts that must be resolved before his own death.

LITERATURE ANALYSIS 3

Siddhartha: Herman Hesse

PLOT:

- The story's exposition begins with Siddhartha and his best friend Govinda who study under the Brahmins to find their Selves.  They both leave their lives to join the ascetics and become Samanas, but then everything changes after journeying to see Gotama, the Illustrious One (the Buddha).  The plot's inciting incident occurs when Govinda and Siddhartha part ways.  Govinda, who needed structure and teachings to find his way, left to study under the Buddha, while Siddhartha chose to learn through experience, because he believed that wisdom could not be taught, unlike knowledge.  Siddhartha traveled across a river where he met a ferryman who becomes relevant at the end of the plot.  He journeys to Kamala, a courtesan, who teaches him the art of love once he had been fully introduced and indulged into his new life called Samsara, which meant worldliness or suffering.  After becoming disgusted with his life as a gambling merchant, he parted with Kamala and unexpectedly left her a child.  Siddhartha found himself back at the river where he once crossed to make a new life, and he attempted suicide but only found Om, the peace that he had been looking for.  He met Govinda and learned from the experience, but they parted ways once again.  Being reborn again at the river, he became a ferryman and studied under Vasudeva, the wise ferryman from before.  He learned to listen to the river and found the unity of all things.  This all changed once Kamala was found dying by snake venom by their ferry.  After her death, Siddhartha took care of his son that was with her, but his son was mischievous and ran away which caused him great grief.  Although he had learned to love through his son, he also found himself back in Samsara where he longed for his son, until he learned to let go and listen to the river once again.  Vasudeva helped him achieve Nirvana once more before he left a holy man.  Siddhartha became known as a holy man himself and was visited for the last time by Govinda.  They talked for a while, and Siddhartha enlightened Govinda.  Siddhartha found the secret.

THEME:

- There are many themes to discuss in this short novel, but one major theme would be unity.  At the end of the novel, Siddhartha tries to explain to Govinda how everything is one.  Being a Buddhist myself, I understand these sayings, and although they are vague, they are true.  In Siddhartha, every chain of event revolved in a spiral that could move both forward and backward.  For example, Siddhartha left his father in grief as a boy just as Siddhartha's son ran away and caused him much grief.  Also, Siddhartha was reborn a new man twice in the story, and both times through the crossing of the river.  One could call it the repetition of history or once could call it reincarnation, but Siddhartha's life was influenced by both his past, his present, and his expected future, which unites the reality of all essences of time.  Everything is related.

TONE:

- Hesse writes the piece masterfully using a very profound and insightful tone.  Extremely profound phrases are found within the small piece of literature.  Sayings like "Words do not express thoughts very well" or "Thoughts are matured feelings" or "One must find the source within one's Self, one must possess it" all give the reader something to think about.  I probably spent more time thinking about the book than I actually did reading it.  Wisdom simply flows through each word.

10 LITERARY ELEMENTS:

Here it goes... I used the Bantam Books edition of Siddhartha translated by Hilda Rosner.

1.) Direct Characterization: "Siddhartha - strong, supple-limbed, greeting her with complete grace (pg. 4)."

2.) Rhetorical Question: "But where was this Self, this innermost? (pg. 6)"

3.) Indirect Characterization: "A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self (pg. 35)."

4.) Simile: "...and the sickle-shaped moon floating like a boat in the blue (pg. 45)."

5.) Metaphor: "... when you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water.  It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal.  Siddhartha does nothing... but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through the water... he is drawn and lets himself fall (pg. 60)."

6.)  Symbolization: Kamala's songbird symbolized Siddhartha (pg. 82). "He took it out, threw it away on the road, and at the same moment he was horrified and his heart ached as if he had thrown away with this dead bird all that was good and of value in himself."

7.) Parallelism: "How I hated myself, thwarted, poisoned, and tortured myself, made myself old and ugly (pg. 97)."

8.) Irony: Siddhartha caused his father grief, and his son in the future causes him much grief.

9.) Foreshadow:  When the Buddha, Gotama, was about to die, it was foreshadowed that something bad would happen to a main character in the plot, namely, Kamala.

10.) Personification: The river was personified.  "You have heard it laugh... but you have not heard everything (pg. 134)."

CHARACTERIZATION

1.)-Direct Characterization: Siddhartha was directly characterized at the beginning of the novel as strong and supple-limbed, and Kamala was directly characterized as a beautiful mistress.

- Indirect Characterization:  Govinda was indirectly characterized by his friendliness and loyalty and word choice when around Siddhartha, and Gotama was indirectly characterized with the way he walked and the presence he emitted.

- Hesse used both direct and indirect characterization for just about every character in order to create a more lasting effect on his readers whenever his characters changed or acted or died.

2.)-Hesse's syntax and diction stayed the same throughout the novel.  Nothing in particular could change his word choice; his style is very distinguished from other authors.  He always wrote with simplicity while utilizing fair vocabulary and complex sentence structuring with great organization.

3.)-Siddhartha is about as round a character can get.  Siddhartha is similar to myself in a sense.  He is constantly thinking through everything, trying to better understand the purpose of his Self and the reason for life, why everything could possibly happen the way they do.  He thinks of this while going through many different phases of life, from the Brahmin's son to the Samana to the merchant, to the gambler, to the lover, to the ferryman, to the holy man.  What a life he has lived.

4.)- At one point, I felt like I identified with Siddhartha to a point where I placed myself into the story as Siddhartha as I read, which impacted me even further.  I legitimately feel as though I had met myself within another time frame and setting, yet I am at the very beginning of his journey.  "At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever."  To be honest, I just chose a random quotation from the story since they are all so profound.  Although this quote is from the exposition of the story, and it does not portray the final ounces of wisdom that Siddhartha had received, it showed how he was himself and no other.  It's funny how when we find ourselves feeling truly alone in the world, our true colors show.  This is when we identify ourselves as thinkers, doers, pretenders, seekers, destroyers, etc...  To be firmly yourself is to be true to yourself, and no matter how badly Siddhartha's path altered, his Self remained true until his goals turned into illusion and his mindset turned into expansion.

GROUP PROJECT

I was in Lesther Valenzuela's group for this project.  I apologize for not being able to make it to class for the presentations.

WHAT I LEARNED AND HOW I LEARNED IT

During Dr. Preston's absence I learned quite a few things.  I read Act 2 of Hamlet, and I was able to further myself on the story-line of that, but while conversing with my colleagues in class, our every-day conversations gave me further insight to Hamlet as a character.  In fact, I found Hamlet to be so related to the teens in the modern world that a conversation about Homecoming even provoked some thought.  Aside from the story-line of the play that everyone's currently reading, the lesson that stood out to me the most was one from Nik Koyama.  It is always insightful and unexpected when learning from one of our peers.  During his presentation, he clearly demonstrated a key element of teenage life: that we all have many great things in our lives, but one negative event or thought or action could change our positive energy into negative energy.  I saw the passion that Nik presented to us, and I saw a future motivational speaker in him.  Since his presentation related to teenage life, his talk also applied to Hamlet.  I heard once from Calvin Terrell that "hurt people, hurt people."  Because of the pain that Hamlet has been suffering through from his father's death, he chooses to take this negative energy and convert it into revenge.  As a hurt person, he chooses to hurt others, and this is seen every week in high school where some smoldering teenager takes their anger out on the others around them, whether that be on social media or face to face.  Lastly, I finally connected the dots on the whole "Open Source Learning" thing.  It took me long enough, but Nik said that he is currently undergoing the process of creating a network of sources or "helpers."  With these connections, new doors open up for him, because he is creating an open source, where everyone who is willing and able to help is invited.  An Open Source is kind of like a power outlet that anyone can plug into.  I understand now why Dr. Preston utilizes the internet, because it gives all of us access to connect with one another.  With the internet, we can all create sources in which we can learn from and guide each other.  It may not fully make sense to you, but it does now for me.  I learned all of this through reading alone, conversing with colleagues, listening to Nik's presentation, and thinking, which I tend to do a lot.

VOCABULARY LIST 8

• Abase: to reduce or lower, as in rank, office, reputation, or estimation; humble; degrade.
• Abdicate:  to renounce or relinquish a throne, right, power, claim, responsibility, or the like, especially in a formal manner.
• Abomination:  anything abominable; anything greatly disliked or abhorred.
• Brusque: abrupt in manner; blunt; rough.
• Saboteur:  a person who commits or practices sabotage.
• Debauchery: excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance;  seduction from duty, allegiance, or virtue.
• Proliferate:  to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.
• Anachronism:  something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.
• Nomenclature:  the names or terms comprising a set or system.
• Expurgate:  to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.
• Bellicose:  inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious.
• Gauche:  lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless.
• Rapacious:  given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed; greedy.
• Paradox:  a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
• Conundrum: anything that puzzles.
• Anomaly: an odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality, etc; an incongruity or inconsistency.   
• Ephemeral:  lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.
• Rancorous:  showing malicious resentfulness or hostility; spiteful.
• Churlish:  like a churl; boorish; rude; peasant-like.
• Precipitous:  of the nature of or characterized by precipices (steepness).

Hamlet is quite the unique character.  In fact, he is something of an anomaly for displaying so many split-personalities that is often actually seen in today's society.  Already thinking of the incest of his new parentage as an abomination, Hamlet's level of disgust over his uncle Claudius quickly proliferates into something much more rancorous after the discovery of his father's murder.  After seeing the name of the thrown abased from a Hyperion to a Satyr and seeing the gauche, new king glut himself in his own debaucheries, Hamlet's precipitous state of mind declines into an even further conundrum, where he promises the ghost of his father to avenge his death.  Whether his vengeance take place in the form of abdicating his uncle from the thrown or expurgating his sins, Hamlet turns into a bellicose and almost churlish saboteur in the kingdom.  He visits his love, Ophelia, in a brusque manner which only sets things on a more dramatic scale, since the nomenclature of the hierarchy of the kingdom would have it that her father is the adviser to the king himself.  Not to mention that throughout the play, Hamlet displays ephemeral mood-swings that trouble the others around him, especially since the ghost of King Hamlet has haunted his son with ringing paradoxes of his death.  With King Claudius serving as a metaphorical anachronism as a king, it will be interesting to see how Hamlet deals with the situation.

DEAR OPHELIA

Dear Ophelia,

You, as the female presence of your family, should not let the male authorities abase your love for another.  In fact, your father and brother should be known as saboteurs of true love.  If your odd position does not compare to the love you have for this prince, then simply go out with him, but if you don't love him, then don't try for him.  It is all so simple.  Do not make it harder than it needs to be.

LITERARY FICTION AND EMPATHY

If you were to meet me an hour ago and ask me if reading fiction matters, I would have chuckled to myself with a nonchalant attitude and replied with, "No," but an online article titled "For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov" by Pam Belluck changed my opinion.  Now, my opinion was not influenced by their entitlement (we've already been through this), but once the psychological science departments got involved with a little experimentation, the article grabbed my attention.

Due to these new scientific findings, it is now thought to be recommended to read some literary fiction before any type of social interactions.  Although the reading time won't necessarily make you any less awkward to be around, it can improve ones understandings of body language and character in the real world.  The fact that literary fiction forces its readers to imagine the characters that are described in every novel and base an opinion of those characters through chains of events makes this style of reading ultimately more culturally insightful than other forms of literature.

Hamlet, for example, contains various soliloquies where readers must imagine the mood, the tone, the plot, etc. from a speech that contains very little detail and a ton of indirection.  If you were to read a soliloquy from Hamlet then converse with a friend about their problems, studies have shown that you would show much more empathy and mindfulness of body language than you would have if you did not read before engaging in conversation, meaning that a little bit of literary fiction could make you the psychiatrist of the family -- maybe not that far.

I had always told myself that it would take scientific proof for me to want to read more often, and, of course, science had to go there.  From the words of novelist Louise Erdrich, "This is why I love science."

GREEN EGGS AND HAMLET

A.) I have no idea what Hamlet is about, but I'm sure I'm about to find out soon enough.

B.) I know enough about Shakespeare to know that he wrote Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, and he's fond of iambic pentameter, but that's it.

C.)  I feel as though students not only frown to Shakespeare, but they frown to any piece of literature that requires thought and brainpower to simply understand what in the world is going on in the story.  Shakespeare isn't exactly separate from other olden authors, and I'm sure you can ask any high school student if they'd rather read Essays of Michel de Montaigne or Hamlet, and most (if not all) would respond with Hamlet.

D.)  We could always act out the play and get ourselves on Broadway, or not.  Either way, it'll be something different.

I like how we can incorporate a Dr. Seuss allusion into Hamlet.  The theme of "don't knock it until you try it" is fairly accurate when discussing upcoming assignments on Shakespeare.

IF I JUST HAD MORE TIME

What's your take on midterm examinations?  I, unlike most students, am indifferent to cumulative-based testing, because it does help to retain the knowledge one has gained over a certain time-span, but my most recent midterm in my AP English Literature and Composition class caught me by surprise.  With the given that Dr. Preston takes advantage of the freedom of concocting his vocabulary tests in whichever fashion he feels, I should have known to better prepare myself.  If only I had a little more time, I would have been a master at vocabulary, and I would have been able to incorporate them into an impromptu essay.  Plus, I strictly remember Dr. Preston hinting that "we should be able to use these words in a sentence," but given my naive nature, I entrusted him to make the midterm a little easier than it was.  For the future, it would be helpful for me to train myself to not only recognize the big words when I see them written down, but to also utilize the new vocabulary in my everyday language.  The next time I'm asked to recite vocabulary words and definitions from memory, I'd hopefully be able to remember the words that I was asked to learn in the first place...

THE COMPARISONS TALE

In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's tone re-occurs to be satirical.  In the miller's tale, a carpenter was tricked into some crazy scheme by a man who was sleeping with his wife.  Chaucer used adultery to ironically satire the sin of lying.  This theme and tone were seen in the physician's tale, where a judge talked badly about a knight's daughter, which forced the knight to murder his daughter since nothing was proven, and his reputation was damaged.  By believing the lie that was spread by a character within their respective tales, the carpenter and the knight both suffered something great while goofy yet depressing outcomes became of the other characters who participated.

TALE OF A CANTERBURY TALE

THE PHYSICIAN:

Summary:

There was a maiden named Virginia who was born to a knight named Virginius.  Virginia was extremely beautiful and was coveted by the judge of the town named Apius.  Apius plotted to get Virginia for himself by claiming in the court of justice that Virginia belonged to him and not Virginius.  Since Virginius could not do anything, he killed his daughter out of love, and the town imprisoned Apius and hung his partner.

1.)   Chaucer described the maiden's beauty by referring to how nature had painted her the way she is.

(Refer to Eli Esparza, Miranda Nillo, Danny Luu, and Lesther Valenzuela's blogs for the rest of the indirect characterizations.)

2.)  Chaucer's purpose in telling this tale lies at the end with the statement, "Forsake sin or for sin you'll be forsaken."  With the faulty errors of our ways serving as the theme of this tale, Chaucer clearly writes a story of a man who pays for his sins, which sends the message to his readers that sin will always find you out.