Pumpkins for Ventilation

A cut up. It is nice, I shall do it again. I used Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes and the instructions on How To Carve a Pumpkin. Click on it for a bigger version!

Study.

Study? No. What for? Is it really worth it? Will I actually use anything of what's taught to me? No. No. Most definitely not. I'd much rather run and jump, crushing dry leafs under me feet. I'd much rather fall, scratching my knees, yet knowing it is a little price to pay, for going out to the sun and wind. Ridiculous to say, that what I learn inside four walls shall be more useful, important or strong than what I learn through laughter, sweat, tears and knee scratches to and fro. I shall never study other than the subtle pleasures of life, and who knows, maybe one day, after I've lived through the fields and falls, I shall enter and see the misspellings of what was wrote.

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PD: I actually love to study, and more than that, learning is my utmost passion, I did however, felt like writing this in quite the opposite feeling. And to be honest, I didn't like how this writing turned out. I posted it out of sheer commitment to what I once said of posting every little piece of text I wrote using OneWord, yet I don't like it, not a bit. I guess disgust for one's own work is natural sometimes. I don't know if it's the wording or just the theme itself, it might even be the mood, I just know I do not, and will not, like it.

Regarding Comparative Essays...

A comparative essay: “papers in which you compare and contrast two things: two texts, two theories, two historical figures, two scientific processes, and so on.” (Walk) And so, a comparative essay seeks to show the similarities and differences between two or more things. That or it can also seek to show how one thing looks through the lens of another, being this called lens comparison.

My essay comparing Kafka’s Letter to his father and Auster’s The Invention of Solitude shall most probably be an A-to-B essay, trying to show the similarities and differences of both of the texts in a parallel way.

I shall establish a thesis which shall “Convey the gist of my argument” (Walk) and show in which way I’m going to compare the texts, with this I should be able to contrast each of the texts in a given frame of reference.

Schedule:

November 20 – Read Kafka’s Letter to his Father.

November 25 – Outline

November 28 – First Draft.

Hearts.

Hearts poured over the open umbrellas, with each beat, each pump. A rain of hearts over the city. Blood covered the streets; blood pumped by hearts. Hearts coming down from the clouds. Clouds with hues which ranged from piquant crimson to candied light purple, from salty blue to sour red, from sweet yellow to bitter gray; hues which swirled around the sky, in a dace accompanied by the constant pitter-patter of the hearts; raining hearts coming down from the luring colors of the sky.

"Hello Amnesia! Welcome home!"

I watched Memento. A fantastic film indeed. I shall now explore how it treats the subject of memory, the way it's shown throughout the movie. First of all, the first thing we should take into account is how immediate memory works, also called working memory, this being the memory we have that lets us use and manipulate immediate information. Memento messes with this immediate memory. Theoretically, we are usually able to remember 4-6 events in our immediate data base, and so, we are only able to manipulate this limited number of memories if are to stay paying attention to a different event, in this case, the movie. As the film goes by, Memento shows us several scenes, all in a non-continuous order, and so, it is imperative to remember all of them to make sense of the movie as a whole. We can't, this is the catch in the movie. We cannot remember all of the scenes if we are to watch the movie without standing up and thinking about it calmly. This produces a very interesting effect in the audience: they won't be able to remember all of it and thus, feel an Amnesia-like sensation crumbling their minds, just like the main character in the movie. This interesting technique is the one that gives the real charm to the movie, as without it, it might be considered a pretty common, yet great, crime story. Memory plays a key role, both in the presentation of the story-line as well as in the reception of it by the audience. Hello Amnesia!

Half Sleep, Half Dead.

The Average Bureaucrat by Salvador Dali, this is the work of art I've chosen to talk about the father figure. To give a brief history about it, this work was done by Dali when his father denounced his actions and took away all of his inheritance. Dali had named a work of his "Sometimes, I spit for fun on my mother's portrait" and that was the borderline for his dad: he was rejected, spelled from his house in Spain and, as said before, disinherited. Dali's father was a notary, hence the name Bureaucrat, given to him in the painting.

The painting shows a half sleep, half dead figure who's doing nothing but staring at his own chest. He's got no ears, showing his incapability to listen to anything or anyone and there's a lovely hermit crab living in a brain-less cave. Brian-less. The characteristic desert in Dali's paintings makes an appearance as well, only giving the painting more of a dejected air than it would've had otherwise.

That's pretty much the picture. Very desolate of course, and very depressing. It shows a hatred and contempt towards someone that I'd rather never have running through  my veins. I really really love the painting, Dali being one of my favorite artists, it's hard to ignore the masterful technique in this portrait. However, I really dislike the meaning, it sends chills down my back. It might be because I really love my father and I can't picture myself on such a situation, but as of now, only the incredible brush strokes save this painting for me.