Age of Iron

"Hunger, I thought: it is a hunger of the eyes that I feel, such hunger that I am loath even to blink. These seas, these mountains: I want to burn them upon my sight so deeply that, no matter where I go, they will always be before me."

I have this same feeling a lot. I love going on trips. I can't seem to stop looking out the window. In a car, train, plane, anything, you will probably find me looking out a window. There's so much, almost too much, to see. I want to capture everything that I see - I tend to take a lot of photos. Especially weird ones. Ones that have nothing to do with the trip - the subject is usually just something I want to remember. Photographs allow you to remember more clearly, but the experience is the addicitive part. Especially nature. I just can't stop looking at everything around me. I agree with this woman. She has a good way of explaining it.

Breaks....

I always have so many plans to get ahead in my work and really get a lot done over breaks...and it never happens. Ever. I plan and write lists (which my dad teases me about - saying that I'm confusing action and accomplishment) and I have motivation and goals and everything ready. I slug all of my notebooks and texts in my suitcases - ready to get something done. And then...I get on the plane or train or in the car...and it all goes to hell.

I don't do half of what I've planned, probably even less, and end up sleeping and hanging out with my parents or friends, going to the movies, reading other books not remotely related to Core or any other classes.

And now I am back where I always am - behind in my work and stressing out about midterms and papers that are happening in the way too immediate future.

Good times.

Higher Education

Higher education is a privilege, not necessarily an opportunity for everyone. I am very lucky to have the opportunity to pursue my education further, but a majority of the students at my high school did not have the opportunity to finish high school, much less think about college. I wish that were not the case. I disagree with Du Bois - I don't really believe that there is a talented tenth that deserves higher education. I think that the opportunity to further one's education to one's satisfaction should be granted to all people, regardless of whether or not they fit into the "talented tenth".

Higher education and education in general have a lot of different meanings - it could mean trade school, it could mean training for a job, it could mean completing high school, it could mean completing a master's degree, it could mean taking a community college class, it could mean anything. I think that any of these opportunities can further one's "education". A lot of the learning that we undergo is not learned in a math textbook or a classic work. Granted, this kind of education is vital and important and provides extra insight into the world around us. However, if I've learned anything from Core - it would be the mysterious ways of identity and how it is shaped by experiences and those around us. Perhaps these are the most important factors in developing our minds and feelings.

How does it feel to be a problem?

How horrible must it have been for Du Bois to recognize that he was a problem to society as a whole? His description of his reaction to the girl refusing his calling card? Why was he not impassioned and angry? Perhaps it was just that he had discovered a norm and accepted it. The ways he remembers the reactions of "the other black boys" are interesting - "their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?" (4) That whole passage is very moving -"the sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above." The passage is very bleak and depressing. The reactions of the people and their options are so hopeless.

This first chapter has really caught my interest. It has left me wondering what is to come from Du Bois....

Sputnik Sweetheart + Author

I am wondering why this man Haruki Murakami chose this particular subject matter to write about. I can't seem to be able to imagine how he connects to this plot or these characters. And it is really intriguing because the story is written in a semi-stream of consciousness way. I am always curious about how authors relate to their works....whether it's based on real life or just completely made up or has elements of someone else's life....very interesting to me.

When We Dead Awaken

I read this essay and immediately thought of what we've been learning in my Environmental Ethics class. We have been discussing ecofeminism and how oppression of the environment and women are connected. After reading many of Adrienne Rich's poems, I've begun to think that she would be an excellent candidate for an ecofeminist.

Adrienne Rich has made me wonder a lot. I wonder if we are in the age of an awakening? Would one be able to tell that we're in the process of awakening? What are we awakening to? Are only those looking back at the past aware of any awakening?


Just some questions that have been brought to mind after reading this.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

I wish that there was some sort of all-knowing, all-explaining key to these poems.

I don't really like interpreting them by myself. What if I'm interpreting them wrong? What if I'm ruining what Adrienne Rich was originally trying to say? I'm afraid that she's going to happen upon my blog and just break down because I've twisted her words so horribly. That probably won't happen, but there's always the possibility. . . .

I wish that I knew what these poems meant. Although, I suppose that the point of writing poems is for readers interpret them. But we all come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences. How can one of us be "right"? What is the right way to interpret these poems?...only Adrienne Rich knows the right way.

I wonder what she meant. That's what poems are meant to do. Make you wonder. But I don't want to wonder forever. I want there to be an ending.