After reading Chinua Achebe's critical review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, my initial impression of Achebe wasn't very good. His review seemed almost like a personal attack on Conrad and it (in my opinion) clouded his review.
However, after reading Things Fall Apart and learning a little more about Achebe's personal history, I have come away with a much different opinion of Achebe. What Achebe was unable to do in his critical review (shed light on "the other" convincingly) he has marvelously been able to do in Things Fall Apart. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe is able to paint a portrait of a complex society and interweave a storyline that definitively shows what life for "the other" is like. It takes a different view of "the other" and allows you to see the other side of the coin per se.
What I'm left with, after reading these two stories, is much deeper understanding of colonialism and how it affected "the other" no matter which side you look at. My opinion of Achebe has definitely changed and I am a better person for having taken the time to read and analyze his work.
Thanks for "making" me read this Julie. It's been a great study.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
ENGL373 - Should We Read "Heart of Darkness"?
Heart of Darkness is one of those stories that can be interpreted in an almost infinite number of ways. Depending on your world view, your race, your religion, and even your sex, you will most likely take something away from "Heart of Darkness" that's different from your peers. Most people that have read it can agree on some very simple tenets of the story: 1) it is a story about a riverboat captain named Marlow, who got a job with a Belgian merchant company to sail a steamship up and down the Congo; 2) Marlow gets to the Congo and tells his “story.” After that, it is almost all up for individual interpretation.
First, a little background. The author, Joseph Conrad, was himself a steamboat captain who arguably had a great deal of personal experience and involvement in much of what Heart of Darkness deals with. Heart of Darkness was written during the height of European colonialism of Africa which is a huge moral argument, in and of itself. Was it wrong for the Europeans to treat Africa and its native inhabitants the way they did? Was the European attitude towards the Africans racist? Was Conrad a racist? These are only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg.
Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness in a manner that insulates him from direct involvement. That is, he is narrating the story, via Marlow, who is narrating the story to a group of sailors sitting on a boat. Knowing about Conrad’s personal experience and close relationship to his subject matter gives rise to the first question, which is, is Marlow really Conrad? Subsequently, if Marlow is Conrad, then is Conrad a racist? Is the story (as Marlow relates it) a racist story about the conquest and destruction of the African continent? Were the events that occurred in the story a reflection of then current European attitudes of race and religion, or those of flat out racists? It goes on and on.
You see, we haven’t even gotten to the controversial figure named Kurtz yet and we’re already swimming in questions without conclusive answers. Kurtz himself brings with him an entirely new set of questions that the reader must grapple with. Is Kurtz evil? Did he do what he did because he was insane? Power crazed? Assimilated? Was Kurtz a racist? A womanizer? On and on we go.
We will never really know what Conrad was thinking or what he really meant when he wrote Heart of Darkness. Should we read Heart of Darkness? The answer, in my humble opinion, is an unequivocal yes. It is the investigation and analyzing of stories that gives us a broader understanding of our own humanity. Without introspection, we can never grow and evolve into something better than what we once were. If you read it, you will most likely be changed…and that’s a good thing!
FA331 - Class Notes
Technology in Science
1) Spreading
2) Changing our ideas of Humanity / Universe
3) Being challenged by critics
4) Increasingly being used by artists
3 new ways artists are using technology
1) Use new technology like old technology
2) Deconstruction
3) Become scientists themselves
Duplication - reproduce the results
What is a masterpiece?
1990's was the beginning of the digital revolution
Computer Art --> Multimedia Art --> Digital Art --> New Meda Art
1945 - First digital computer (ENIAC)
1961 - Docuverse
1964 - Internet
1968 - Mouse / Keyboard
1969 - Arpanet
1970's - Satellites/Broadcasting/Internet used in art
1970/80's - Virtual objects
1990's - Technology --> Museum
Why did museums take so long to display digital art?
1) Spreading
2) Changing our ideas of Humanity / Universe
3) Being challenged by critics
4) Increasingly being used by artists
3 new ways artists are using technology
1) Use new technology like old technology
2) Deconstruction
3) Become scientists themselves
Duplication - reproduce the results
What is a masterpiece?
1990's was the beginning of the digital revolution
Computer Art --> Multimedia Art --> Digital Art --> New Meda Art
1945 - First digital computer (ENIAC)
1961 - Docuverse
1964 - Internet
1968 - Mouse / Keyboard
1969 - Arpanet
1970's - Satellites/Broadcasting/Internet used in art
1970/80's - Virtual objects
1990's - Technology --> Museum
Why did museums take so long to display digital art?
- Aura of original
- Masterpiece
- Scarcity = Value
- Own a web experience?
FA331 - Examples of Postmodernism
Art Appropriation
Philip Guston - Couple in Bed (1977)
Feminism
New Media
Postminimalism
Richard Serra - Tilted Arc (1981)
Deconstruction
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown Artist
Richard Prince - Untitled (Cowboy) (1984)
Dada
Sophie Taeuber-Arp - Head (1919)
George Grosz - Remember Uncle August, The Unhappy Inventor (1919)
Pop Art
Richard Hamilton - The Solomon R. Guggenheim (1966)
Richard Hamilton - Picasso's Meninas (1973)
Fluxus
Erik Dietman - The Unwell Saw (1961)
Daniel Spoerri - Daniel Isac Spoerri-Feinstein (1977)
Conceptual
Josepch Kosuth - Clock (One and Five) (1965)
Marcel Broodthaers - Museum-Museum (1972)
Semiotics
John Heartfield - Hurrah, The Butter is All Gone! (1935)
Philip Guston - Couple in Bed (1977)
Feminism
Kiki Smith - Untitle from White Mammals (1998)
Imogen Cunningham - Self Portrait (1974)
Gender Issues
Nan Goldinn - Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC (1991)
Martin Wong - Big Heat (1988)
Jodi (1995)
John Klima - Earth (2001)
Eva Hesse - Addendum (1967)
Richard Serra - Tilted Arc (1981)
Deconstruction
Unknown
Unknown
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
HUM450 - Torture - Jean Amery
Jean Amery describes in great detail the mental and physical scars that haunt long after he was tortured by the Germans. Amery was a Belgian who was in a progagandist resistance movement against the Nazi's. He was caught and beaten by Germans. He didn't know anything and subsequently didn't (and couldn't) give them any substantial information. He was then sent to Breendonk, which was an interrogation facility. His hands were tied behind his back and he was lifted by a chain (breaking his shoulders at the joint). After that, he was beaten with a bullwhip until unconciousness.
A great majority of the passage details Amery's ideas of torture, what it means, and what it's like. He talks of why people torture, who handles torture the best, why people crack under torture (and why other's don't) as well as visits the metaphysical aspects of torture. He recounts several other interpretations and comes to the conclusion that in the end, torture is what torture is and that it kills a person even if they are still living.
Avery eventually committed suicide.
A great majority of the passage details Amery's ideas of torture, what it means, and what it's like. He talks of why people torture, who handles torture the best, why people crack under torture (and why other's don't) as well as visits the metaphysical aspects of torture. He recounts several other interpretations and comes to the conclusion that in the end, torture is what torture is and that it kills a person even if they are still living.
Avery eventually committed suicide.
HUM450 - Voices - Charlotte Delbo
In this accounting, Charlotte tells of her? account in Ausschwitz as a Jew. She speaks of how terribly cold it was and how brutal life was in the concentration camp. Of special note is how she detailed how incredibly cold it was and how they had to stand outside the barracks during roll call in the morning. She recounts how one lady lost her galoshes and how all of the other women were helping her find it because without it, it meant certain death. Also, she writes about a Gypsy woman who would show up for roll call with her dead baby. The unnamed Gypsy woman was later killed when a policewoman tried to take the baby away. The baby was thrown in the trash and the woman was put into a collection of bodies to be burned.
Another story Delbo tells is that of a Jewish boy (14?) who recounts how he and his father escaped being deported to Ausschwitz. His mother was sent there. The boy and his father joined a resistance group in France, fighting the Germans. He was later captured and sent to Ausschwitz, where he spent his days there looking for his mother. After the camp was liberated, he returned home to Paris where he met back up with his father.
They never found out what happened to his mother.
Another story Delbo tells is that of a Jewish boy (14?) who recounts how he and his father escaped being deported to Ausschwitz. His mother was sent there. The boy and his father joined a resistance group in France, fighting the Germans. He was later captured and sent to Ausschwitz, where he spent his days there looking for his mother. After the camp was liberated, he returned home to Paris where he met back up with his father.
They never found out what happened to his mother.
HUM450 - Days of Nightmare - Jozef Zelkowicz
Jozef Zelkowicz recounts events in the Litzmannstadt ghetto where the Germans have decreed that all children under 10 years old and all adults over 65 would have to be "resettled. The Jewish Resettlement commission, which is comprised of elder Jews gave a speech to the Jews and explained what the decree was and how they had no options. They were being ordered to give up 20,000 Jews for "resettlement" and knowing what that really meant, they explained the difficult choices they had. Through his sobbing, he explained that it was decided that it might be better if they did the choosing of the Jews instead of the Germans since maybe they could save the healthy and give up the poor. In the end, it was a dilemma that had no good solution.
Zelkowicz then details the mood and details of how the Jewish people in the ghetto were reacting to the news and how sad (wailing tears) everyone was to know that this was going to happen. He describes how the Jewish police would come and take people, but would empathize a bit. However, when the Germans came, they were extremely brutish in their methods.
Finally, after the children, the sick, and the elderly were taken away, he describes how completely empty and aged everyone became. Those that didn't try to kill themselves were so horribly scarred that they felt as if they were living in a kind of hell.
Zelkowicz then details the mood and details of how the Jewish people in the ghetto were reacting to the news and how sad (wailing tears) everyone was to know that this was going to happen. He describes how the Jewish police would come and take people, but would empathize a bit. However, when the Germans came, they were extremely brutish in their methods.
Finally, after the children, the sick, and the elderly were taken away, he describes how completely empty and aged everyone became. Those that didn't try to kill themselves were so horribly scarred that they felt as if they were living in a kind of hell.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
ENGL373 - Evalutating "Are Humans One Race or Many?"
In his essay, "Are Humans One Race or Many?", Alfred Russel Wallace investigates the issue of whether or not mankind is a singular race or many races (as the title duly suggests). Wallace postulates that early mankind does indeed share a singular past ancestry, up to a certain point. He asserts that mankind developed different traits early in our development based on the surroundings he found himself in to best survive that environment. However, as mankind grew smarter and became more and more social, their ability to communicate, empathize, and even think about the future gave rise to communities whereby the collective good outweighed the individual. This, in turn, led to humans being able to divide labor amongst many individuals, care for the sick, and plan ahead. It was at this juncture in early human development that humans were able to bypass the concept of natural selection and separate themselves from the rest of animal kingdom.
Wallace goes on to further qualify his opinion by stating that this ability of mankind to rise above natural selection via man's intelligence has lead to the more modern variations of humankind in existence today. That is to say that the more organized and intelligent species of man have not only been rise above natural selection, but have also been able to stand out and dominate other humans evens though we are the same species. To prove his point he gives examples of how in warmer climate regions, humans aren't necessarily required to evolve their intelligence, because their surroundings and natural selection have afforded them a genetic predisposition to their environment, making life comfortable for them. There is no reason to evolve because they are naturally suited to their environment.
However, species of mankind that wandered outside of their comfort zone were forced to adapt and use their brains to survive. Wallace points out that all species of northern origins are smarter than those of southern origins simply because they've had to use their brains to survive and this has led to their greater capacity for intelligence. This, he concludes is why northern species of humans are always more dominant than their southern counterparts, simply because they are smarter.
In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates this very same mentality throughout the story. For example, while Marlow was fixing the steamboat, he compliments his fireman with the following, "And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind leg (pg 36)." This quote, finely illustrates the European attitude that those not of their "kind" were savages. They were thought of as smarter than animals, but just barely, and that they were only capable of doing what came naturally (animal instinct?) or what they were trained to do, as Conrad eluded to when he said it reminded him of watching a trained dog performing a trick.
Wallace goes on to further qualify his opinion by stating that this ability of mankind to rise above natural selection via man's intelligence has lead to the more modern variations of humankind in existence today. That is to say that the more organized and intelligent species of man have not only been rise above natural selection, but have also been able to stand out and dominate other humans evens though we are the same species. To prove his point he gives examples of how in warmer climate regions, humans aren't necessarily required to evolve their intelligence, because their surroundings and natural selection have afforded them a genetic predisposition to their environment, making life comfortable for them. There is no reason to evolve because they are naturally suited to their environment.
However, species of mankind that wandered outside of their comfort zone were forced to adapt and use their brains to survive. Wallace points out that all species of northern origins are smarter than those of southern origins simply because they've had to use their brains to survive and this has led to their greater capacity for intelligence. This, he concludes is why northern species of humans are always more dominant than their southern counterparts, simply because they are smarter.
In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates this very same mentality throughout the story. For example, while Marlow was fixing the steamboat, he compliments his fireman with the following, "And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind leg (pg 36)." This quote, finely illustrates the European attitude that those not of their "kind" were savages. They were thought of as smarter than animals, but just barely, and that they were only capable of doing what came naturally (animal instinct?) or what they were trained to do, as Conrad eluded to when he said it reminded him of watching a trained dog performing a trick.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
HUM450 - Diary of the Great Deportation - Abraham Lewin
Lewin details in a diary (journal?) the day by day details of what life was life in Warsaw after the Germans moved all of the Jews into the ghetto. The Germans, with the aid of police officers squeezed out the Jews in Warsaw, block by block. The Germans used many methods to convince people to give themselves up in addition to allowing (at first) some Jews to work in shops for the Germans. As more and more buildings and streets were cleared out, German companies moved in and hired Jews for slave labor.
Everyday, food got scarcer and the brutality of the Germans got worse. So many people were killed and deported that those who were left behind were forced to either starve to death, give themselves up in the hopes of somehow surviving the deportation, or killing themselves. Many, including Lewin lost family members (children, parents, siblings) along the way and the uncertainty and guilt drove many to madness.
Perhaps of greatest interest to me was how devious the Germans really were. They convinced some Jews to act as policemen to help in rounding up fellow Jews, only to eventually kill them too, after all of the others had been rounded up. Also of interest was the letters from family members and friends talking about how life wasn't so bad where they had been deported to (Treblinka?). This was of course, something the Germans made the Jews do (write letters back home) before killing them to make others believe that they weren't being harmed.
Crazy.
Everyday, food got scarcer and the brutality of the Germans got worse. So many people were killed and deported that those who were left behind were forced to either starve to death, give themselves up in the hopes of somehow surviving the deportation, or killing themselves. Many, including Lewin lost family members (children, parents, siblings) along the way and the uncertainty and guilt drove many to madness.
Perhaps of greatest interest to me was how devious the Germans really were. They convinced some Jews to act as policemen to help in rounding up fellow Jews, only to eventually kill them too, after all of the others had been rounded up. Also of interest was the letters from family members and friends talking about how life wasn't so bad where they had been deported to (Treblinka?). This was of course, something the Germans made the Jews do (write letters back home) before killing them to make others believe that they weren't being harmed.
Crazy.
HUM450 - Conversations with a Dead Man - Jacques Furmanski
Furmanski relates his experience in a concentration camp whereby everyone has resigned themselves to dying. He describes the feeling of hopelessness everyone feels since it's not a matter of how or if you will die, but when. Their lack of hope often creates a feeling of apathy and most people can only wait helplessly like lambs being led to the slaughter.
HUM450 - But Lidice Is in Europe - Frantisek R. Kraus
Kraus, a Jewish journalist from Prague, describes a period of time whereby he is interned in a Jewish ghetto in Czekoslovakia. While on his way to the ghetto, he describes seeing a poster that SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich was murdered by Jews. To set an example, the Germans intend to raise the town of Lidice, as it was believed to house the Jews who killed him.
Subsequently, Kraus (among 30 men) are rounded up the guards and ordered to grab digging tools and get onto a truck. He details the trip and describes the destination, a town called Lidice a scene right out of Dante's Inferno. Everything is on fire and there are bodies lying around everywhere. He and the work crew are ordered to dig a trench and do so for 36 hours straight, being given a single piece of black bread the whole time. After they get the trench dug, they are ordered to remove the shoes, identification, and anything of value, while watching his best friend Langendorf get beaten by Seidl, a German SS officer.
After this, they are ordered back onto the truck and taken back to the ghetto where they are allowed to return to their barracks and immediately fall asleep.
Subsequently, Kraus (among 30 men) are rounded up the guards and ordered to grab digging tools and get onto a truck. He details the trip and describes the destination, a town called Lidice a scene right out of Dante's Inferno. Everything is on fire and there are bodies lying around everywhere. He and the work crew are ordered to dig a trench and do so for 36 hours straight, being given a single piece of black bread the whole time. After they get the trench dug, they are ordered to remove the shoes, identification, and anything of value, while watching his best friend Langendorf get beaten by Seidl, a German SS officer.
After this, they are ordered back onto the truck and taken back to the ghetto where they are allowed to return to their barracks and immediately fall asleep.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
