One hundred

How nice, the hundredth post on the hundredth year for Taiwan. This is wicked! I like this idea of online blogs because I get to play with the setting, the songs, and the gadgets. I know you like the cat. Personally, I believe this is more like an essay assignment. The topics are pretty isolated from our life, generally speaking. I cannot connect to my life after the first few months. On some of them, such as dark side, I get to write a lot because I got into a fight with a friend at that time, so I know how it felt. However, I think this is a great habit to have. Blogging is one of the coolest thing people around the world are doing now and it is pretty cool for us to do that as well. However, I think it will be much cooler if we get to write about stuff that we feel for, even if its tangential or even unrelated to school.

Final Exam

I felt pretty under prepared as I missed quite a few classes during the APs and I don't think I can really get those questions involving literary terms correct. I felt really confident about questions on A Rose for Emily. That thrilling story really interests me and I read carefully. Therefore, I believe I am most confident on that part. Like I mentioned earlier, I am really anxious about those questions on literary terms. Many of those, I just can't decide which choices are better, usually stuck with 2 answers. The test was easier than I expected, although it is not entirely easy. The literary terms questions are less difficult than I expected. For most of them, I can get down to 2 choices or the answer. I am really grateful most of the multiple choice questions are on A Rose for Emily. As for the essay, I find it a bit difficult as I don't really know what to write about. However, it doesn't seem that bad after I finish it. Now, I can only hope for the best.

Group work

I cannot help myself by agreeing to the fact that I cannot work with everyone I know. There are always people that I find hard to work with. Before long, I gave up and tend to just accept work and do what others tell me to because working with those jerks just gives me too much work. However, after attending to multiple MUN conferences, I realize the coordination is exactly what we are expected to learn from group work. I used to prefer working alone, but no longer. I like working with people now, not because I can ditch all my work and leave it up to other people, but it will lessen the pressure on one guy. Furthermore, group works are usually more decent than those individual projects. Take a look at our handmaid's tale project, then look at my self project. The exciting quality is entirely different. The combination of different ideas makes the project itself better. Now I think I contribute a lot to my groups and I will assume leadership roles when its necessary. Group work is really important. When we depart for jobs, we don't work together. Cooperation is human's greatest advantage over other animals. As individual, we cannot accomplish anything by ourselves. We can't make a pencil, not a eraser, definitely not a pen, not to mention about laptops and cellphones. Thus, group work is very essential to our future.

Language use

Like how new clothes are designed and new technologies are invented, new words are made. Why? Because people like it. There is this saying : " Science and Technology begins with humanity". Why do we invent stuff? Because we are lazy. Robots serve us good, feed us fat, and do all the jobs for us. Now, back to words. Why do we make new words? We despise old, long, nonsensical and boring words. Sometimes, there are words that just takes for ever to write/type. When chatting, typing out the entire string takes quite some time and is inefficient. Therefore, words like lol (laugh out loud) , rofl  (rollin on the floor laughing), lmao (laughing my ass off) etc, are created. Same with gaming, we shorten words into gg (good game), gj (good job), and mia (missing in action). Not only that, long string of words usually drags and loses its power in communication. Like how Danny put it, bromance. Such word, when you take it apart, its romance with brothers. Now if you think about it, whenever teachers are yelling at you for speaking to the guy next to you, you need to say Its Romance with my Brothers. How lame can that be? But if you shout out its BROMANCE. You might even get teachers shocked. Short words are always more powerful. Its easier to communicate and therefore, its why we make it and like it.  Simply, we are lazy.

Independent Reading Project Reflection

For the very first time, I actually jot down notes when reading through the book. I jot down several details before I take them as unimportant to the flow of the story. I don't feel comfortable saying I put 100% effort into this project as I do, in one way or the other, took the relatively easier track during many decisions of this project. However, I do believe I payed decent amount of effort into this. I searched up how to fold envelope to make it more sincere. Also, to make it look old, I took hours in preparing the paper. I took a cup of coffee residual(dust) and rub it on the paper. The moisture makes the paper wet, so I have to use a hair dryer to dry it up. I then crumble it, leave it alone for a while. I continually repeat this process for like 20 times to make it blurry, old, yet still intact. Although my project looks relatively carelessly done and pretty un-aesthetically pleasing, I payed much effort and I believe it raises the value by a lot. I think I can make it better by making an even bigger map with more details. That might help increasing the validity of the map as back at that time, they don't just use A4 paper. They take bigger papers to jot down those stuff.

Archetype

Archetypes is the fancy word for cliche plots. In the start, it always good guys beating up evil guys. However, this soon get so predictable that audiences lose interest. There, an evil super guy (namely evil 2) appears. The evil 2 will beat up good guy and then leave the good guy to die on his own. But, the good guy manages to survive through ridiculous means. The good guy will train super hard. On the second encounter, good guy still kind of loses to the evil 2. However,  there must be this miracle that happens, such as super emotional boost, some golden armor that falls from the sky, inner power explodes etc. Then good guy evolves into good 2. Good 2 then beats evil 2 easily. And this ability of whatever this new power may be called will continue to make good 2 life easy. Then evil 3 comes along and the cycle goes on. For example, Digimon guys keep evolving the fight stronger and stronger monsters. They start with pathetic baby form, evolves to champion or some kind of form like that, beat up bad guys, meet new bad guys, get beaten up, evolve further. It also happens so that they meet the right level of bad guys at the right time. This is the same for all other anime, stories and cartoons. This is the cliche, like the cliche of the cliche plot. This plot usually involves little variation. Many only involve different characters, different names, and different looks.

Contemporary

Contemporary arts are those that mixes and intertwines all the art forms existed before. First, there is the Rationalists, spread just when the Enlightenment was sweeping across Europe. This form of art is focusing entirely on details and logic or science. Novels revolve around scientific discoveries. Then, the romanticism came along. It brought more sentimental feelings to audiences. Those works usually involve a hero, character that goes to jungle or something like that. A sub branch of ideas known as transcendentalism appears. This idea states that everything is of divinity. Then Civil War came along. The huge tragedy forces everyone to realize the harsh reality.  Artists and writers develop works on daily events and refuse to go anything beyond it. No feelings do they insert into their works. Later, people rejected the cliche ideas and developed the modernism, which is fresh and new and beyond the scope of anything made before. Later, post modernism came along to extend the scope further. After that, comes to our newest idea, contemporary.

Reflect on Your Project

Our project is a success, at least in my eyes tho. Like all other groups, we kind of procrastinated. The APs and everything slows us down, but on that saturday, we managed to get all written work and many pictures printed out. We send it all to Danny, who is pretty much the dictator of our group, but thanks to him that things worked out quite smoothly. On several occasions, we have some arguments that Tim called us kid fights but, things eventually does settle. Danny also went out for us and got us materials needed the next day. We spent the entire sunday afternoon on the bulletin board. After seeing James, Alyson and Judy posted theirs, we decide to dominate and take over rest of the bulletin. I did pretty much the entire design of our project including the rose. However, big credits should be given to Tim for his awesome pictures and his baby fetish.   Danny have great ideas with the glow sticks. However, the blue ones didn't came out as expected, much to our disappointment.  Some funny stuff happened, like when Tim tried to break and light up a glowstick, he spilled the liquid, which I thought it was saliva,  into my eye. We also got yelled at Carol for staying. Nevertheless, we finished it as the first one, the best one, and the only group WITHOUT GIRLS!!!! BOYS DOMINATION!!! Huge thanks to Danny and Tim, both who worked their best to make this project such a great success.

A Horror Story

A Rose for Emily is a horror story. A horror story is a piece of work that involves excessive suspense and sometimes even morbid themes such as murder, supernatural haunting, and death. Scary stories are those that simply projects vivid imagery of something morbid, like monsters or the moment the character is about to get killed. Although usually horror stories share similar themes, the actual attribute of those two kinds of story is in truth, fundamentally very different. Horror stories doesn't aim to project vivid imagery but they wish to create suspense and cause a psychological impact on the readers. The very goals are different. In movies, however, both kinds are pretty much coexisting. Those scary/horror movies suggests a scary morbid image (scary novel attribute) and usually involves long and strong sense of suspense(horror novel attribute)  through music most of the time. Other stories usually provokes similar themes with different ways. Many horror stories apply innovative ways of introducing suspense, including vivid description of an epiphany kind of moment, suggest a list of things that all share something morbid in common. The later is the one applied into A Rose for Emily, Homer's disappearance, the purchase of rat poison and the unbearable odor from the house all suggest something unpleasant.

Homer's End

I believe I watched too much The Simpsons that I have placed the image of Homer with THE Homer. He has all kinds of crazy things happened to him, so I am not surprised at how things went for him. The suspense gave us a sense of misfortune. When I heard of the rat poison,  I knew somebody is going to be killed. The missing of Homer contributes to the intense omen. Her fear of missing the chance to have a relationship with Homer motivates her to kill him with poison. The real creepy part revealed in the end is that she embraces the dead body even when she is old. She want to enjoy the company lifelong. That obsession gives me goosebumps. How would you ever want to love a dead man? That is ridiculously insane. Honestly, Homer is a pretty sad character. He is great man yet he is killed in such a despicable way. He has been poisoned with RAT poison!!!. RAT!!! HOW SAD. Unrequited love can be mold into epics like Romeo and Juliet, but can also be made into sad murder like A Rose For Emily.

Nobel Speech

Faulkner, during his Nobel Prize awarding speech, mentioned that young writers should work on topics that is "the old universal truths…love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” That makes absolute perfect sense. Although these six themes are cliche, great works and lasting arts are only created with those topics. In the ultimate awesome Shakespearian novel, "Romeo and Juliet", covered all 6 of them. The love between Romeo and Juliet, the honor of the families, the pity of their death, the pride in their love, the compassion towards each other, and the sacrifice they made for their family. All those can also be seen faintly in "A Rose for Emily". Love with Homer, Pride of his father, Pity of Emily's misfortune, Honor of her family, Compassion toward Homer, and Sacrifice of her everything to him. It is evident that Faulkner is consistent in his ideas along the entire way in his literature career.

Eccentric or Crazy?

In "A Rose for Emily", the weird girl we read about is crazy.  We refer to people that's not acting normal but holds high position or attain great wealth as eccentric out of respect. However, since Emily is no longer a aristocratic girl, she doesn't deserve that respect. Honestly, why would anyone sleep with a dead man...especially when he is poisoned by one himself/herself? The obsession with Homer simply show that she is crazy. As story progress ( in chronological way), town folks only take Emily as a crazier and crazier person as things are revealed. She refuse to acknowledge her father is dead. She ignore all laws (wonder why didn't she get sent to prison). And then she bought poison, adding to her eccentricity already known to others. Finally, after she die, the revelation of her murder of Homer makes she a crazy person. Yes, rich people deserve more respect. They are more educated, and they contribute more to the society, thus should be better respected than serfs that barely changes anything in the community. However,  when one loses that status, such privilege should no longer apply. They will not be worthy of be denoted with extra respect from local folks.

The N word

Many awesome literature have been banned or edited in order to lessen the offense by some racial discriminating languages used such as the N word. Although I am not a literature guy, I find it offensive for governments and publishers to edit those arts in order to fit their standard. If those racial activists can not take it, might as well as not purchase it. Art is not created to please everyone. You can't say such art used too much red (bloody) lets ban this artist. Its just not how the way we treat art. In fact, I find it absurd for anyone to take insults from books. Those books were created to picture the time in the story. Sorry, but the sad fact is that not everyone back in those days know about equality and talk in such great manner that those people who are complaining do. Such ideas of banning works that contains the n word is ridiculous. By editing, not only the work of the author is no longer kept to its completeness, but also the description and projection of the era is no longer complete. To sum up, no literature should be banned or edited because of its racial contents and those who find it offensive should just suck it up and be a man/woman.

Retreat

In the story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, the main character decides to leave the society. People retreat from society to gain inner peace. Thats why there are mission retreats and stuff. The world itself is chaotic. It is known to be chaotic to provide so much little wonders, happy and sad alike, to people. after experiencing extreme events such as winning the lottery, losing a close friend and other stuff, we need peace.  People will withdraw themselves to rest and then continue on. Without these peaceful moments, one may be too pressure like an over- stretched spring, ending up crazy or some sort. This is only normal to retreat oneself from the society. However, it will deteriorate if one indulge in it too much. This became something addicting, some sort of drug. And thats where normality ends and problems begin. These people will soon become recluses or other crazy people, such as serial killers. In the end, this is a pleasure that should be used once in a while. Overdose and Underdose makes one....different, the good or bad will not be for me to decide.

Free Write

I don't know is this just me but it seems like the world is getting more and more rigid as we develop. The very introduction of civilization begin human's limitation. The realistic goals of making money throws us into a box and limit us. Many teachers, governments encourage students to pursue something that really interests them, and yet, those adults create a world that forces us to work for things we don't truly desire. I have a friend who wants to be artists but he have to get a second major simply to make sure stable income. Another guy is really interested in history and literature but those won't support his living. The world adults create builds became a cage for the unlimited potential of kids. Yes, creative people sometimes take chances and succeed. But how many people are discouraged because of the risk? How many attempted and failed, ending up starving in the streets?  For any discerning eye, this world is corrupted. Sentimentality is been stripped from many people because its unrealistic to have them in the 'adult' world. Parents pressure kids to pursue stuff that may not lay in the best interest of kids. Sometimes, I wonder if Western parents are the same as those strict binding Asian parents, who believe they are always right and will make the best choice of their kids. The fact that we have to get into good college, get into good company, earn good salary, live, and die in a coffin became a routine procedure now. In conclusion, our world is corrupted.

I Hate Poetry

I hate poetry. As simple as the phrase may seem, the abundance of reasons why I hate it is, to a degree, scary. To mention why I hate poetry, I have to trace all the way back to when I was a kid. I used to love poetry, back when I was still a kid. I allow imagination to run wild and allow my thoughts project themselves onto my paper, with vivid description and clip arts. Though it may not be the greatest deepest and most awesome poem ever written, it surely portrays my feelings and thoughts well. Now, you might wonder, why would I hate it when I loved it so much? Its like a break up, a divorce. It came as fast as lighting and as shocking as ...umm..earthquake? Anyway, since elementary, my English teacher hates me, or at least, hates whatever I wrote. The rigid regulations for poems discourages me. When I grow up, I realize why. I am just too good at poetry and my English teachers were just jealous. The interaction between poets and readers just never seem sufficient. One idea may be important to the poet but rather trivial to most readers. The randomness, longness (and sometimes shortness), deepness(find those meanings trivial) simply doesn't interest me. As an un-sentimal person anyone may know, the attempt to appeal to my emotions just won't work. The more I try to embrace poem, the more I feel betrayed. In the end, as many of you may know: I HATE POEM.

Horror

What do we pour so stories are scary? Readers are bored so they need something more.  Something abstract yet something so real. Something unusual, more like obscene.  What do we want? Blood and gore. We want opened chest and spilled guts mess. We crave for those just by impulse. This is where vivid imagery comes in. The details of such disgusting scenes excite us.

There is something interesting about us. We want to know, and crave to know. The absence of knowledge or the introduction of incomprehensible objects tend to arouse fear, tension and hatred. In literature, the art in manipulating this fear is known as suspense. Suspense make people suspect, and speculate what's going to happen. The insecurity of this kind is the fear we see in literature.

Humans are different from wild animals for many reasons. Among them, there is imagination that entertains us, educates us, and fill our life with more meaningful abstractions. Imagination works really well when constrained, but when its unleashed, it goes wild. To base imagination out of something we do not know entirely can be catastrophic to our mental peace. Fear of the unknown projects what we are scared the most. Such speculation is how horror movies, stories, music work.

A Journey

The mentioning of ocean and mermaids can be referenced to the notorious Sirens. Those seductive females make men fall and sunk their ships. In Greek Mythology, Sirens are 3 infamous dangerous bird-women (and sometimes depicted as mermaids in other works) that sang. Their songs make men lose conscious and they sunk their ship, thereby drowning the people on board. In some way, they crush what men keeps. Those ladies in the room completely obliterate confidence of Prufrock. Prufrock did not follow the Mr. Mike McCool's character loop/cycle model. He start out good and go bad bad bad bad ...blah.  Its definitely not an happy ending.  We start out with a man we do not know. Through the depiction and realization of his thoughts, we know him better at the end of the story. The story goes downhill the entire time. The story started out with him walking upstairs and by the end of the story, we end with him giving up and walking back down. We see how he lost confidence in the story through self questioning and paranoia thinking. He experience pure loss in the story. The harsh truth is this is a journey of never-ending pain. There is no happy state.

Prufrock Revisited

As society develops, we learn. Many times in history has romantic and good intentions of mankind been abused. Many attempts of heroic acts failed. We, humans, learn, and we are unwilling to fail again. People turn more cynical and pragmatic. Thus, we are becoming more spiritually empty. Prufrock, this nervous dude that is having problem when it comes to woman, is said to be spiritually empty. He is empty when he is incapable to going up to those ladies that he might hold affection towards. Say, he doesn't have guts, so he is empty. Get it, no guts, so its empty inside??? HAHAHAHA (ok, did I just laughed at my joke?...) Soon, girls like those flashy guys with a lot of that bling bling. At this point, heroes HAVE TO be rich (ex. Batman). The commonly known heroic acts no longer appease those capricious ladies.  Definitely, romance in modern life is more to the bling bling than to the pumping heart. Can't generalize all romance are like that, but there is this trend. Surely, Prufrock who failed to go into the room is seen as un-heroic and un-romantic. The self questioning is anti-hero. Such anti-romanticism is growing as modernism expands.

Anti-hero

This sentimental friend of mine agrees to most if not all of  THIS -> “The hero is today running up against a hard world that is in no way responsive to the spiritual need.” Modern society has become a “stagnation of inauthentic lives and living . . . that evokes nothing of our spiritual life, our potentialities, or even our physical courage.” He strongly believes that its the spiritual life that makes life count (or something like that, anyway he is anti- non-sentimentalists). Enough of him showing up in my blog (I SAID ENOUGH!) It is true that such comfortable lives we have created stripped our keen spiritual senses away. We no longer feel challenged toward difficulties, we avoid them. We no longer live harmonious with the nature because we think its barbaric. Simply, the introduction of technology into our lives make us numb. This is not an age for heroes. We just don't appreciate them for what they do. Our society has changed from a romantic sentimental crowd into cynical hard-nosed population. Spider man is one of the best examples to demonstrate this. People who are gifted, doing stuff out of their own free will, is seen as mandatory duty by the public, even decide to criticize those heroic acts. People blame Spiderman for not arriving on time, not saving others successfully, not doing what they think he should have done. People no longer appreciate the existence of heroes. They demand them, condemn them and seen them as their job. Those would have been heroes in another era lives simple and plain just like others in this apathetic community.

What's His Problem?

J.Alfred Prufrock has a problem. His problem is that of a common one that shared by many many males around the world (possibly females as well, but to express my thoughts objectively, I cannot gesticulate what the opposite sex thinks). We males, not including the pimps, are shy when it comes to matters dealing with females, especially with those we feel affection towards. "Do I dare?" In the Love Song, Alfred continually repeat this phrase. His uncertainty of woman's attitude toward him makes got him into deep hesitation. He is vain, but probably not when he is alone. BUT, he is vain, when it comes to making appearance in front of females. He is afraid that the girls will notice his hair is getting thin (Commerical Break: Tired of hair getting thinner and thinner each day? This new XXX shampoo stimulates your head and make it grow hair back! Makes you young again! Call us NOW and buy one get one free!!) He is scared that they will notice his arms are getting thin (EAT MORE ALFRED!). He is worried of his impression on women which is absolutely normal. So is been shy a problem? That's for you to decide. (IF U SAY YES, go to whoever you like now and propose to him/her NOW!)

Poetry’s Social Function

“I think it is important that every people should have its own poetry, not simply for those who enjoy poetry . . . but because it actually makes a difference to the society as a whole, and that means to people who do not enjoy poetry… Unless people go on producing great authors, and especially great poets, their language will deteriorate, their culture will deteriorate and perhaps become absorbed in a stronger one.”- T.S. Eliot. I find myself ambivalent toward this statement. I strongly object the first part of the statement, which basically states that EVERYONE has to do poetry even if you don't like it. Anyone can write poems. Not everyone can be poets, but poets can be anyone from anywhere. For those that can't, they simply can't enjoy it. As a rationalist, I just don't find any interest in literature and poem. Trying to force such piece of art on people who can't appreciate is only a waste and trying to force such piece of art out of people who can't create depreciate the overall value of poem. After all, its unique quality, elegant composition, and most importantly, rarity, glorifies poem. However, I wholeheartedly agree with Eliot's second statement. Without poem, such elegance sprinkled on the dull literature we know today, our language will only start to crumble and fall apart. People tend to get lazy. Long words are shorten, expression are abbreviated, simple words become symbols. Without poetry (for composers to write it and for others to share it), the very backbone of literature will crumble. Like Eliot predicted, the next thing you know, such language no longer exist.

War and Economics

In the beginning of 20th century, wars happened. The world war 1 kicked off the unfortunate series of disasterous events that happened one after another. The black thursday, the world war 2 and many more happened after this. The world was like a spoiled child before this. The world is so used to the comfortable lives that nobody was ready for those events. The introduction of photography forced people to take note of the harsh reality in the front line. The public was so indulged in past glory and prosperity that they caught expectedly and unready by the Great Depression. Till 21st century, wars still go on. Humans, one of the most belligerent species on the planet, continually raise wars against each other. The Iraq war, the Jasmine rebellion, the Rebellion against Gadaffi and much more happened in less than 15 years of 21st century. Economy crashed once again. The international depression and the unbearable inflation made everyone panic just like the Great Depression. The exposure to world greatest natural disasters also happen in less than 10 years in 21st centruy. Haiti, Sichuan, Japan, Bali and India all experience merciless backfires of nature. The industrialism in the past put too much strain on our Earth and countries one by one fall victim of the Earth vengeance. Humans, defeated again and again, but got back to their feet. I guess in the future, people will label this period Neo-Renaissance, or new-rebirth.

NO Ideas but in Things

Poet write elegant poems. They made it so lofty, about love, about friendship, about fear, about betrayal. And yet those poems seems distant to normal people. Those literature freaks surely do love these but these topics does not resonant with common public readers. So, to get closer to the readers, making them share the feelings the poets felt (the intention of art from ex ex ex (ex, lost count) article), poets resort to make poems, a past exclusive thing, open to the public. Poems no longer need to stay on abstract grand topics. Anyone, even non-poets, gets to write about computer, camera, calculator, pencil, notebook, calculus homework (just naming stuff next to me here).  Now, is the limitation a good thing or a bad thing? I certainly like the idea of limitation. Poems sounds elegant, looks elegant, and supposedly means elegant. However, if people write about stains in the kitchen sink (cough*), the last isn't true. The last bit of elegance is stripped off by the varying and less important subject matter. The core of poems, which I take as elegance, is been stripped of. And thus, I believe the limitation on the subject matter is crucial and necessary for the birth of a good poem.

Historical Influence

There was this question, rather interesting, showed up in a pop quiz/test/some time during class that I do not remember. The most important thing is, is there any literature unaffected by the time its written, and its a NO. Definitely, there are absolutely NO literature that is completely independent of its time. During the start of America, there is excess optimism, followed by some low tide known as the Civil War. Later again, there is optimism, best associated with the American Dream. However, the low tide hits again. Another war, and with the introduction of photographs, more grievance were brought behind the line. Why do people change ideals? simply because its outdated. Its no longer a fit for the time. Optimism isn't suited for bad times and vice versa. Its like you don't put sour milk into cocoa or put cocoa beans with mold all over it in milk. (Ok, I understand this metaphor is a fail, but as long as you get it, its fine)The American Dream is torn by violence, hunger, fury and more. It shattered into pieces. Like my ex-ex- article, arts reflect what artists thought, and events alter those thoughts. So these events indirectly influence those works.

Social Influences – Entertainment

Entertainment, from my point of view, is something that humans invented to hinder mankind development. Think about it, its a waste of human resource as a whole. People waste time to produce it, and people waste time in it. Think about facebook! How many employees are playing farmville or whatever the public obsession lays during office hours? How much time did kids spend on movies, facebook and computer games instead of schoolwork? (Such idea suggested by our school not from personal point of view :D) Not to mention how many smart computer genius that could have improvise the google search engine, enhance wikipedia articles and more instead of designing and planning all those unnecessary follies or how much money and resources  (BILLIONS $_$) can be invested in humanitarian aid, finding alternative energies, increase food production instead of mere movie making. Since 1930s, mankind has become more distracted and less focused. This overall hinders our development. The introduction of Xbox 360, Xbox Kinect, Wii, PlayStation 3, are all distractions for us. We could have been productive, but we decided not to and indulge ourselves in such useless stuff. Humans are doomed to delay our progress and eventually stop evolving, simply because the invasion of entertainment into our lives has stripped away our potential to improve.

Make it New!

Erza Pound once said, "Make it new! Art is an joyous thing!". Art is suppose to be HAPPY! Art is something that is created from the inner soul. Art is something artists used to release their feelings. Art is something that reflects what the artist have in heart. When happy, they share joy. When sad, they share pain. Its a way to communicate. Its a style. It is always joyous to have someone to share your feelings, good or bad alike. Like a caterpillar, there are people who innovates their style. Soon others follow. When cameras were invented, some artists took a sharp turn into abstract art, where its something in mind that cameras can't take a picture of. Epic artists like Picasso, took note of this style and drew many paintings with symbols. It gives a new meaning to the artwork and defines it better as a whole.  Like the Guernica, it has a deeper meaning than realism arts. The eye of light bulb is more than what it appears. It symbolizes the enlightenment. The introduction to the abstraction of art allows artists to pour in more emotion freely without the restriction of been realistic, and thus, allow more creativity in art.

Modernism

After romanticism and realism, a new branch sprout during the 20th century. They, unlike realists, believe in heroes. And yet, unlike romanticist, they reject ideal ones. They only believe in those flawed heroes that shows their true grace under harsh circumstances or pressure. The most distinct characteristic of modernism is the rejection of ideals resulting from the loss of faith in the American Dream. Some famous artist in this belief are Picasso. He drew disfigured humans like both eyes on one side of the face. This belief works more to how the mind works toward simple things than to the actual subject matter. For literature, there is this new disjoint timeline where story follows a random pattern, much like how one recalls an event. For most cases, the works of this belief does not appeal to our normal senses on the first sight. These works tend to confuse us and only and truly show their meaning after some deep long thought. The central idea of this modernism is individual expression. Government, society are all seen as oppressive stuff against expression. In my opinion, this is just another form of realism, or ultra-realism. Something that is beyond natural yet try to show the optimist and despair of the world.

The American Dream

There are 3 parts of this dream. They are dream of the plenty this land can provide,  a time of unstoppable progress, and the prosperity of individuals. People belief everything in this land is plentiful, new and beautiful. They believe this land holds infinite promises for them.  At the time, people are experiencing a leap in mankind progress. This leads people to think life is always getting better and new era is always more prosperous than the old one. They also believe every individual will ultimately succeed and reach their goal, the ultimate triumph of individual. These 3 together combines into this unbelievably optimistic view they share, a fantasy, a dream. When World War 1 comes along, this dream is shattered. When realism showed, it lightens up the real world, enlightening the people and tell them that the world is never perfect. New ideas start to emerge. Traditions, literature, art all took a sharp turn and take a new direction. This is the new view, the shattering of The American Dream.

Better Things?

“Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.” Technology no doubt brought us convenience. We get to communicate faster through telephones, emails, instant messages and even Facebook. We get to travel faster by cars, bikes, high speed rails, and airplanes. However, are we going in the direction we want? Machine guns kill people in streaks, about 300 combo made every time (skilled user that is). Nuclear bombs made mankind suffer from radioactive exposure. So does the nuclear power plants explosion in Japan. People mutate, and I strongly doubt that is where our past want our future to lie. People use to live simple. Now we need to worry all the backfiring of nature from our "progress".  Global warming, climate change, air, water, soil pollution, animal extinction.  While we enjoy the good side, we suffer from the impacts. Using technology sure takes us faster from places to places, but, is the destination the place we want? That is the question we should think about.

On Impulse...

Ok, so here at my home is blogging time. So we know that I am not the most logical person so don't take this seriously. I don’t mean to any of this blog watchers but to some particular impulsive people in the world, so don’t spend too much time on this blog (I strong doubt anyone would). The problem is, sometimes, people gets way too impulsive than they should on the web, which is fine, but, if you want to put it on the web, think again first. So it use to bite me but it doesn’t bother me anymore, the fact that internet surfers, their derogatory critiques, their personal offense, and their racist comments, and their harassing threats were thrown on the cyberspace to show how active, gain attention, bash others they are. This is seriously without fail. You will always see news of people bringing charge against another for some stuff on the internet from time to time.That’s what people do, they don’t think before they act (HA, impulse!!). Some people also don’t think before they made half the globe their enemies, which brings me to my next point. HI, on youtube, we do not criticize an entire race in a 2:52 rant. Every 10 minutes I will be, ok, maybe not 10 minutes, let’s say every half an hour, some guy in my messenger list discussed this girl that railed against asians with me about 1 and a half week ago. Somewhere on the cyberspace, a cloud of attention gathered on this girl who said “Oh! Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong! Oh!!!”. Are you freaking kidding me? Posting a rant of this sort on the web. So, been the guy who is sitting in front of the computer writing this post, I kinda just think this is an well demonstrated impulsive behavior. (5 min later), Same thing, 5 minutes later, I still think this is an impulsive behavior, no way can an elite female like her do such a thing (drunk? Maybe..) I mean, I know, the impulse thing is a great motive, it pulls people to do things, but, we have to know impulsive behaviors usually lures people to do more negative things than positive things. I have been tempted to eat food a lot before I think and get so stuffed that I could barely walk. I understand how people are usually unable to stop this kind of natural boost in motive. However, I got a bit, a bit skinnier because of suppressing this impulse of eating. So, Thanks for reading, even though its only intended for privates eye only but this blog thing just won’t do that.

Romantics vs. Realist

Romantics, are those sentimental weirdos. Realist? oh, they are just the opposite weirdos, the rational weirdos. Romantics, are lunatics, that believe in unicorns, pegasus, treasure at the end of the rainbow, rabbits(or unknown creature like wabbits in some extreme cases). Realist are those other group of people taking everything so serious. They believe in the way world works but not any real soul value. No opinion. Robots.  Lets make this easy. Romantics believe in Superman, Howard, Batman.  Realist believes in Mike McCool. Sounds fair enough? To avoid a too good depiction of the world, realist portray lower class level work, such as but not limited to selling gum at the train station. The romantics use to depict crazy war man-machine hybrids that glorifies war and massacre all enemies. However, realist, showing the real scene, let people know people are dying.

Think about...

• How and when did American writers and poets respond to the Civil War?
After realizing the cruelty and evilness of war, people created realism, which is much more real (as suggested by the name) in contrast to romanticism, which always depicts a beautiful world. They also created naturalism, explanation provided below.
 
• What are the basic characteristics of realism?
Realism is one that depicts the world. It is more optimistic than Dark Romanticism but more pessimistic than Romanticism. It shows a true course in the world, rejecting both extremes. The production of this kind tend to focus on the lower of the society level. It stresses the struggles of those people. Writers avoid elegant language but uses everyday language instead.
 
• What did the naturalist writers believe?
The Naturalists writers believe that everything is from the nature. Human behaviors tend to be inherited and all those destiny thing is pre-decided. Humans have no say over their destiny.

You've come a long way baby

In the story " A pair of silk stockings " written by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Sommers gets 15 bucks a day. She invest those money in luxuries that were never available to her, such as going to theater, getting a pair of really good socks/stockings and visiting a fancy restaurant.  Her intriguing expression and curious demeanor shows us how new those stuff were to her. She looked around a lot and try to make the most out of her trip to the theater. She was also awkwardly shy when visiting the restaurant. Mrs. Sommers at this point finally understand the luxury and freedom never was available. Unlike Mrs. Sommers, Offred is relatively unfortunate. She wasn't even allowed to get lotion. The overall idea was miserable and the fact that she is in under control is beyond what we can bear. At this point in time, women have just as much freedom (maybe much more referencing to previous posts). In my opinion, its impossible to reverse this idea back, as many men betrayed their own sex and support the feminist in their movement to get more and more rights.

A reprieve

BOREDOM, is a punishment to all mankinds. For some reason, students are subjected to these kind of punishment more. People hates been bored. It is a fact. As students, we have piles of homework yet to be done when we get back home. We have parents that keep on blabbering about our scores. There are scary teachers that keeps on torturing us in class. There are terrible instructors that make boring and soporific lectures. To get out of this endless cycle, people resort to seek pleasure of life through different means. Sometimes, reading a manga, watching a show helps a lot. Other times, people go for talking to friends. It may also be people singing along with music (creation of karoke). For me, to get rid of this burden, I just laugh through everything. It just pulls the entire crazy heavy burden off my shoulder for a while before I put it back on.

A change of heart

People in the romantic era used to believe in super romantic yet unrealistic stuff. They believe in guys going out and beat the crap out of the bad guys and save the hot chick. Basically, they believe in Superman and Batman (not Spiderman cause he sucks). As time pass by, they realize the hard truth that those guys never can exist. There is not going to be any guy as fit as Bruce Wayne, as rich as Bruce Wayne, and as lavish as Bruce Wayne (wasting loads of money of really cool gadgets). There is nobody that can fly like Superman (thats about all he can do). They realize life sucks and you die. There is no more to it. Nothing is there to be fantasize about. The real depiction of wars made everyone realize wars arent happy and victorious. People get killed. Brothers stab each other. Dads head shot sons. Sons snipe dads. The establishment of realism brings everyone back to the real world, where not everything is so well and great. In fact, its more negative than positive.

I EXIST!

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

This quote by Stephen Crane suggests how human is an insignificant existence. The very fact that one is given birth to this world doesn't change anything. Its what they do afterward that matters. Old American value were every guy has a destiny and glorious future (something like that) and it is only yet to be fulfilled. The world owes Americans loads and all Americans need to do is wait for the world to do their job. After Civil War, they realize how small human life is. It only takes one bullet (if the guy is accurate enough) to take a life. People die so easily. Never has anyone cherish life so much. In the end, they found out lives are insignificant yet precious. It is up to the person to explore and create stuff that contributes to the world, not the opposite. Stephen Crane is simply telling us stop thinking world owes us, it doesn't.

Power

So, power, as we know, is cool. Everyone wants it. Everyone loves it. Everyone desires it. But think about it, those in power, are they REALLY in power? They may have the most executive power but, do they think what they really think? Yes, they give the orders, but can they give out orders that they want? Usually, the most powerful people are the wives or seducing girls around the potentate. They majorly influence the decision of guy. They cannot order it directly but through the guy, they can achieve everything the guy has + 1 (the guy himself).  Although the order of power in Handmaid's Tale is Commander > Wives > Marthas > Handmaids, exceptions like Offred gets some sort of secretive seducing power over the Commander. Wives are the same, except in Offred's case, Handmaid > Wives > Commander. So, this also proves one point, no matter how society is structured...female has an upper hand even if they seem oppressed.

Slant Truth

Slant is just stuff that not tilted, not straight.  So, you may ask, what is slant truth? This is a very very mystifying subject of discussion. It usually takes a semester of college course to understand this but I will make it painlessly short (This is quite some serious lies ...). Slant truth is a truth that is not straight (evidently). That is, to not tell the truth directly. BEWARE, this is not lies. Its more like not telling the entire truth. Much like peeling an onion, you do it layer by layer, revealing a bit at each time. On many, I mean many many many occasions, truth are painful.  It hurts. But it is always advised to do it slowly and split up the pain. Think about jumping from Taipei 101, it hurts less if u have a slide that allow you to slide all the way down than free falling all the way down. For my sense, I agree with that slant truth idea. Slant truth is really awesome! You get to NOT lie and hide the motive. AH HA, you get to LIE but not LIE. Doesn't that sounds awesome?

Pessimism

Alright, Emily Dickinson is wierd. She holds this unreasonable sad point of view to the world. She is always toying with topics of grand sadness, death, loneliness... It is utterly irrational. Personally, I believe she has NO right, absolutely NO right to publish or share her opinion about society and all other relation crap because she is a recluse. HOW and WHY should anyone in the society admire and get educated by a recluse? WHY!!!Its not like society forced her to exile or anything, she chose to be a recluse herself (wierdo, just saying ). On a more serious note, she wrote stuff in a really emotionally distorted way, but those at basis are still what she experienced, isolation, loneliness and death (of her friends).  Comparing to the Handmaid's tale, Ms. Atwood is very imaginative (and umm...lets keep that as sexually active). Atwood is more like eager to get oppressed or something, because female are enjoying a greater advantage in modern society than males!!! I don't know and do not want to know in depth what Atwood gone through.

Spec or Scifi?

Definitely Speculative fiction. There is no laser shot guns, no plasma railguns, no void dimension projector, no super lightspeed jets. There is no any cool tech. gadgets in the story. THIS IS A FAILING SCIFI (if it is intended so..) This is more like a story of the present that exists in a parallel universe. Honestly, this novel is a bit too pessimistic. How can US fall into some stupid state of destruction and take over by theologists...How can the rest of the world fall...At least not Taiwan...there is me here!!! (I am just trying to be stupid here...) How cliche can it be to put spies in communities? You use satellites! You hack into everyone's webcam! You use everyone's cellphone to project sonar and monitor everyone!! (stole it from Dark Knight) Basically, it is an epic fail Science fiction. However, since we don't really want to fail any books (maybe because we want to encourage more authors), we put it into the speculative fiction category.

The Soul

If I were to write this entry 6 month ago, I am pretty sure I would say logic. However, I confidently say it is the subconscious part of logic, commonly known as emotions, that decides who becomes your friend. It is not entirely imagination when the spark between eye contacts shows in some stupid TV shows. Sometimes, when u see someone, he or she just give you the feeling(sparks??) that you two should be friends. Its not about the appearance, its about the attitude, the feeling that he may be a good companion along the way.  You may see some common interest between you two. The punks would like to hang out with people sharing the same tattoo taste, similar hard rock music taste.  The nerds hang out with people with glasses and speak 1s and 0s. Its always like that. The likes attract likes. The real part about friends and a well maintained relationship, is not one where one is benefiting from another. They just stick together without any logical explanation or in a more direct way, thinking about how to "use" or "manipulate" the other.

Real or Romantic

Walt Whitman, a surely old, odd guy, wrote about US in a really fashionably and unreasonably content tone. He talked about how cool and awesome (not...) the laborers are when they are doing their job (absolutely painful and nothing to be happy about) in his I hear America Singing. He never talk about the real feeling and all the pain. I doubt everytime fisherman goes out fishes a lot of fish upon return. In capitalist country, it is all about money. And all those cool guys he mentioned , the laborers, sucked at earning money. They work super hard and get super less. Like if any one would be happy for that. And then the real happy guys are the rich brain people, like Benjamin Franklin or something. They get fat and do nothing and get hell lot of money in their pockets. People get fired often. They worry, they frown, they don't smile. That is the truth, and Walt Whitman is A LIAR!! And now? still, laborers don't really laugh. They only do that in the commercial Ba-Li-Da B or something like that. It is stupid. And also, the rich people, business people in suits that sits in air conditioning rooms, are the people with money flooding into their pockets. No laborers are THAT happy, walt whitman....

Work Song

The song is more like an anthem of some communist or dictatorial country. In United States, the country and government encourages acts in promoting the unique part of their identity. However, this is more like a description of a glorious world where everyone act in a joyful manner.  All of them are working for the great happiness. It is really similar to the idea of communist where everyone work for the sake of work, not for themselves. If this song were to be written for the modern United States of America, it would have much less passion. It would be computer programmers, Wall Street financial experts, NBA basketball players and careers like that. There is less the feeling of union as time progresses and United States evolved. As for Taiwan, a country that blindly follow the footstep of the USA, has basically the same trend, except instead of NBA, we have people selling gum at the train station and other kind of traditional food. However, this kind of song still holds for modern china, parts of china where there is ship-making industry. The joyful attitude is unrealistic but idealistic in their society, which bases on a better motive than us capitalist, common welfare over selfish prosperity.

Ode

I really don't know what to write now. I chose to write an ode to SAT. well, it is intended to be sarcastic, as SAT is, in real life,  the mutual and mortal enemy of high school students. So far, I get that it is evil, and nasty. It is really difficult, for most of us....genius excluded. It has 10 sections and usually 1 is experimental section. There are 3 categories, math, reading, writing. Each of them have 3 sections. It takes 4 hours to finish the test. It takes several months to prepare for the test. It is a really time consuming test.  It is also super important. It is really like the ticket and gate to college. Without SAT, we can't go to college (good ones i mean...). SAT is the acronym for Scholastic Assessment Tests or Scholastic Aptitude Test.  It is designed by collegeboard, an evil corporation that have a whole gang of teachers thinking about questions that can ruin a student's future.  And there is ETS, Educational Testing Service, another group that distribute this evil product into the market and made every student suffer. Basically, this is an extreme evilness of educational world. I plan to write it in a sarcastic manner. This might change but I think this is the overall idea.

Oppression

In The Handmaid's Tale, females are been oppressed, stripped away of the rights we now take for granted.  They do not have right to do anything but getting pregnant. They are even stripped away of their individuality, having names of their master and constantly changing. Comparing to modern US, the situation is almost the opposite. Men are to woman's disposal in a sense. In business, male directors allow females to get a better job and females help their own gender. Thus, making female the minority of the economy structure yet the elite section of it. For the first time the minority is not the oppressed group but the opposite. However, before "equality" is promoted around the world, African Americans in US, Indians under UK, Taiwan under Japan and many more small minorities are been oppressed by their respective government or majority. None can vote. Many of them suffer prejudice, and given less salary for the same job. Most of them usually fail to live a prosperous life. Under MODERN China and North Korea however, everyone, or the actual majority is been oppressed by just ONE guy. Just about everyone is in the danger of been removed from existence at every minute. Any rebellious acts are usually punished with death, a very awesome tool to control people.

Holiday Reality

If my dream, plan, hope, fantasy, or whatever you like to call it for the holiday is the description of heaven, then my reality would be hell. Basically, absolutely nothing I predicted happened. I went to this Xiemen place instead of Japan. It wasn't very bad but it is like hell compare to Japan. Furthermore, because we traveled the whole break, I didn't get to visit some aunts and uncles for red envelopes. The rest of break is filled of nothing but boredom. Didn't watch movie, didn't play ball, didn't do nothing. All I did is stare in the space thinking and doing nothing at all. BUT, through this, I realized many things that I never thought about, understand many truth that may be once hidden or concealed from me. (OK, that sounds a bit too deep...) I caught this stupid fever right when I return and got really sick. I skipped the practice test because of this ridiculous sickness. Glad that there is no homework for the break. Awesome. I get to sleep like 80% of the day.  So again, like I said, dream is always WAYYYYYYY above reality, and when things happen, people feel the free fall to the ground. Stress is accumulating even when I am thinking or even typing like now. I surely do hope I don't hit hard on the reality for the rest of the year, especially when I hold great expectations.

Holiday Plans

What would I want to do in my holiday break? Hmmm....I would like to go to Japan. I heard the skiing part is awesome there and the stores there are amazing. The railway there claim to be better than our High Speed Railway. Also, I absolutely want to go there because there is  SNOW!! Snow is one of the most memorable part of my life in Canada. I missed it for years. It going to be so awesome if I can go there. I also want to hang out with friends during the break. Movies and UMC sports time sounds fun. I actually prefer UMC more because I am certain that I will gain a few kilograms during the break. For some reason, Chinese people eat A LOT during the Chinese New Year. It is REALLY a LOT.  If I can, I want to skip the SAT practice test planned by the school (STOP STRIPPING OUR BREAK!!)  However, it is not possible. The school planned it on the very last day of our break, which basically mean we have school one day earlier!!! THIS IS MADNESS. Everything else should be fine. I wonder how much of this fantasy will take place in real life.

Justice?

Justice is been morally right/ clever/ whatever conscience agrees. Basically, it is what the angel on the right shoulders say.  The harp, halo dude in white robe somehow always agree with all other angels in the world..establishing the sense of justice. I was going to say Mayella Ewell is just (imagining a hot girl here....) earlier today, before I watch the real movie (she blinds my eye...NO!!!!....she is unfit for Tom, absolutely horrible looking~ once again proves last entry Film vs. Print). So basically...umm...nobody other than Atticus recieved justice. Atticus defended Tom (angel way). Jury..sigh* is horrible....destroying everything... been racist(devil way), and inflict direct damage to Tom. Tom ends up miserable without doing anything, so he is not getting justice at all. Mayella and Bob Ewell, definitely did not receive any just. Mayella lied and gain advantage (not just!!!) and Bob destroys another negro and can enjoy his daughter (this is so~~ wrong!!!). Basically, I will call this book a place where God is absolutely absent (eintein theory).

Film v Print

Movies are way different from books. Movies are animated, and they are cooler than books. Movies provide concrete imagery and actions. There is a good side and a bad side to this. The good side is movies condense a scene that may take several pages in book to describe. The instant imagery gives the audience the idea of the work. This prevents misinterpretation from the story. However, by creating concrete image, it solidifies the characters and scenes, preventing any deviation to the plot explored by the readers. This disables the readers from imagining. Books usually earn more credit and is more popular because people can imagine them and twist them to their ideal interpretation. However,  with movies, the image may disappoint the audience by been different to what they thought. With movies, though, can allow audiences to picture what the director/author wants with rigid facts and details that may not be able to be mentioned in the story. After all, it is impossible for a book to describe everything in the scene. In short, books leaves the picturing to the readers, while the movie directors assume this task.

American Poetry Today

Poetry, to some crazy literature guys and some nerds future bosses, is an expression, a demonstration of their feeling. To them, poetry is a kind of art, masterpiece that can only be appreciated by people with passion (more exactly nerdiness, I have passion for games and Facebook yet I fail to appreciate poetry...zzz) In fact, I detest poetry. They cause me great pain for showing up in SAT I... However, my hatred is directed solely to the very original poem itself, not its side product. The new modern poem hidden in our society nowadays is commonly known as rap. Raps not only use rhymes like poems, but also use sounds to fill the syllable gaps, like the most common, yayaya, yo yo yo , YEAH!!! Like I said, the original poems are useless in my life. I am a math guy, science guy, and slightly barely art guy, NOT LITERATURE GUY!!!! But, rap is now an indispensable part of my life. The fast beat allows me to think better. (I think with beats, so faster means I think faster!! ) For other people now, poetry only mean marks and points for English students and "expression" for some literature weirdos (oops..scratch that) elites.

Letter to the World

Emily Dickinson wrote “This is my letter to the World/that never wrote to me.” This shows she is a very egocentric person. She believe getting a response is an absolutely necessary thing for the world to do. (ok, I need to admit I am like that sometimes). Also, from the tone, it seems like she has complaints of the world. She doesn't like how something turns out. We can also assume that she is a recluse, lonely women, as the world, she say, doesn't pay too much attention to her. It may be the world fail to recognize her in the way she do to herself, so she believe the world is in debt to her and need to respond to her. The failure in doing so makes her feel excluded and dispatched from the rest of the world, which is a sad thing. It is true that her talent is really covered up until 70 years after her death. It may also mean the feeling she have when all her friends leave her, leaving the world, dying. This statement has several different tones possible to be interpreted. The most serious and common way is through the pessimistic and sad way.  Many believe it is because all her friends, the people that compose the world she knows, dies one by one, and by losing them, she can no longer get response from those people.

Boot Soles

From my point of view, “If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.” simply means the person has been under strenuous criticism and endless complaints. So, it is like a female A telling male B, if I ever leave, its because you throw my dignity on the floor, step on it, and throw it out the window (its like gum so some must stick on his shoe!!!). LOOK AT YOUR SHOE FOR WHY I LEAVE!!!! That's basically everything. Well, there are of course more ideas and interpretion, but, psshh, they are just not as cool as mine. One may be husband murdered wife from stepping?? (ahh...last sentence of the wife...). Mr. McCool said it might be some guy is leaving and might just die somewhere else, returning to Earth and got step on. He makes people feel like he is honest and sincere (probably not, all literature guys are sly and evil and.......(shhhh....)). When I see it, I am angry!!! This guy is so pessimistic with Mr.McCool's interpretation.  This is an act of war against optimistic guys like ME!!! This guy also pisses me off because in my definition, he is a really getting bullied without using swear words and make himself sound so smart. It is really annoying.

Sound effects in The Raven

Poe used many sound effects, including but not limited to, onomatopoeia, alliteration and rhyme. He used a very obvious rhyme, the -ore rhyme. Lenore, Nevermore, more, shore, etc. Just about every sentence ends with ore. He also uses other rhymes like tapping, rapping, or December, ember. Also, he used alliteration in his poem, such as weak and weary, flirt and flutter, stopped or stayed, etc. Finally, he used onomatopoeia, such as tapping, muttered, fluttered, etc. to express the actual sound in the scene.  The unique combination of those makes the Raven sound more like a song than like a poem. There are a even distribution of internal rhymes and the most frequent end rhyme ore. When read aloud, this make the reader want to continue as it is pretty interesting to do so. It makes reading a rhyme as interesting as singing a song (Disclaimer: This statement does not involve any personal preference or more exactly, I don't feel this way).  The sounds also contribute to the reader's mind projection of the scene. Unlike movies, books/poems does not give rigid detail to everything. Thus, the scene is up to the readers to elaborate, and the sound effects, especially onomatopoeia, suggests a more complete scene for the readers to imagine.

Symbol of the Raven

Talking about raven, we should make sure everyone knows what kind of weird animal it is.  It is a huge black bird resembling a crow, but much much much larger in size. Raven can have many meanings over a huge range. In some culture, it is highly praised as the messenger of God. In others, they are feared as embodiment of evil. Of course, "metropolitist"(a name I made up, definitely no  need to look it up) like me, despise them as a good-for-nothing pest bird. Poe uses the raven in a really cool way. So the guy in the story go with the holy definition while the overall atmosphere contributes to the evil bird image. Part of this entry question is why do you think Poe used raven instead of a chicken, owl or parrot. Simply for the coolness I would say. If a chicken flies in, I'll just roast it and start eating, not talking for sure. Owl is too cute to give the cool evil look (just look at that super cute Harry Potter's owl~~ white and fluffy!!!) Parrot, hmm, it is pretty distracting to have such a colorful bird for a cool dark story like this. If its a parrot, the nevermore seems weak(parrot KNOWS how to talk). Furthermore, petting him is cooler than talking to him.

Ugly Reality

Well, I feel like everyone have the right to know things. I do not see how this can hurt the kids. I can not and will not state if this can apply to other kids of the same age, but both Jem and Scout are mature enough to realize the reality. The cruel reality of racism should be explained to the kids before the wrong side implant a deep image that ruins the rest of the kid's life up. I believe that kids can realize those stuff at a rather small age. As long as they can communicate and think at the level of that of Jem or Scout, then they can no matter how old they are. In fact, I believe they should participate as soon as possible. There is this problem about the gap of harsh reality and cheerful wonderland in modern education. Once a kid realize the truth of the world, darkness and evilness, the wonderland no longer exist. This causes excess stress on kids. It should be said that everyone should understand the truth from the start, not giving them shock of the truth all of the sudden.

Licked

We were licked a hundred years before we start. I believe he meant that the case is bound to lose. The long rooted racist idea in the community already predestined the conclusion of the trial. However, he also believe it is his duty to protect justice impartially and morally right to help Tom in his case. He believe he would regret if he doesn't stand up. If I were a lawyer...hmm...maybe provide some sort of proof of some white blood in Tom (assuming he does) and kind of reduce the racist atmosphere(I know I am a terrible lawyer, I am definitely going to fail this case). Also, I will also provide analysis of Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell's past deeds. If deemed necessary, the collection of sexual harassment evidence must be presented and provide contradiction if I can find any. I believe with that kind of biased jury, the only evidence that will decide that Tom's guilt is the testimony of Mayella and Bob Ewell. I believe that would be the only thing that the jury will entertain.

I DARE YOU

Oh, I have been dared to do a lot of stupid stuff. Absolutely not surprising to anyone who knows me as I am pretty easy to pick on and a great target of fun.  The most recent and funniest one was that I was dared to dance belly dance in front of the girls (OMG... that is terrible...I mean it...). Well, I did it really only for the purpose of entertainment. And since I played the truth or dare game, it is only fair that I do my part.  If I say that I did it to impress the girls, (*shrug) ...it failed. For entertainment, everyone had fun. I kind of laugh at myself as well but it was no big deal. The result is simple, everyone laughed, my name got worse (never got any better anyways). Sigh* There is really not much to say about it. However, the point is the fun. Like Mr. McCool said, dare is really for the fun and is a really good hook to taunt others later on. This is really cool and fun and interesting.  We trade our pride to enjoy of free comedy that our friends play. Together, everyone gives up a bit of that self dignity and we all get a really good laughter. 

Welcome back!!!

During the break, I did not do anything exceptional. However, unlike how I live through my holiday before, I actively play ball with others, and pretty frequently. As usual, I watched a movie, MEGAMIND with my friends. The whole movie was awesome. That minion is adorable. A drama fish queen is absolutely original and fun. Not to mention the coolness of the watch, shape shifter!! The big blue baldy is certainly interesting. Absolutely fabulous storyline. Also, unlike the normal me, I went to KTV to celebrate someone's birthday! It is kind of depressing though as I really can't sing. Otherwise, I stick to my nerdy routine, wake up , eat, work , math-ing, american lit- ing, and SAT - ing.  Standard procedures and absolutely true! I really find this topic much less to discuss as I really fail to do a lot of things during the break. Oh wait, we also went to this indoor arcade place and we had fun. As an anime freak, it is only normal that I play the anime karoke. It was cool.  I was feeling really good about the christmas dance that I decide to challenge the dancing machine. However, with my really slow reaction,  I pretty much failed the whole song. Later we get into this car driving + shooting game and spent A LOT OF MONEY on it. It was very interesting as well. Now that's really the end.