Chapters 3 and 4 Qu0tes

Chapter 3

1. "In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another." Pages 41-42. One of the main motifs of the book; alcohol, is constantly present at these parties.

2. "They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key." Page 43. Nick is narrating in his judgmental way about how these Englishman at the party were trying to sell bonds or insurance or automobiles. Stating at how the rich Americans at the party were 'easy money'.

3. "... representing the staid nobility of the country- side—East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety." Page 46. Here Nick makes a referral to East vs. West, how East egg seems to be more

4. "The two girls and Jordan leaned together confidentially. ‘Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.’" Page 45. Here's the start of some gossip between Nick, Jordan, and a few others concerning Gatsby's past. Gatsby's past is unknown to his multitude of guests and seems to be quite the topic.

5."It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself..." Page 49. In this text, Nick is thinking of Gatsby's smile and determining how it felt when looking at his smile, he was completely mesmerized by it for a second.

Chapter 4

1. ‘Good morning, old sport. You’re having lunch with me today and I thought we’d ride up together.’ Page 62.

Shots

Following the man as he walks along the line of privates. Somewhat low angle with a medium shot.

 Close-up on the two characters at an eye level angle sorta.

 Long shot with a view of everybody, camera follows the man until he reaches the far left. Eye level angle.

 Low angle and a medium close up

 

 Big close-up of the man's face.

Big close-up and a somewhat over shoulder shot

Another big closeup with an over shoulder view. Eye level angle

Ma Veray Furst Memoray

The text being analyzed is the poem First Memory by Louise Glück, a poem possibly about some of the memories the author had as a child.

The first big idea would have to be revenge, that's what drives the thought in this poem. The word wounded could be in service of this idea of revenge. He's been 'wounded' and wants revenge for the wrong-doing. At the end of this idea there is repetition of a certain phrase: 'For what he was - for what I was:'. Although the 'he' and the 'I' are in juxtaposition to each other. The colon forms the transition to the next big idea.

The two most important words of this second big idea are most likely pain and loved. The pain was connected to the fact that he wasn't loved, or rather that's what he thought the pain was. The word loved is repeated, although with contrasting context 'I was not loved. It meant I loved.' The author starts the first idea and second idea the same by saying 'Long ago' and 'From the beginning of time'. Both of these statements are a reference to his past.

This poem portrays a memory and strong emotion through the author's use of repetition and punctuation.

Mr V

ACT I

PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

Chorus

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, (5)
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth (10)
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt? +End of idea
O, pardon! {since a crooked figure may (15)
Attest in little place a million;} -1 thing stands for many
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies, (20
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance; (25)
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years (30)
Into an hour-glass@!: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
Exit

The Big Idea: We're Not Worthy
-In the chorus the speaker says we will have to use our imaginations to make the story come to life.
Ideas in service:
-'I wish' lines 1-4
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene

-Henry V = War lines 5-8
'fire sword famine (listing) = death

Not the people nor the space to do justice lines 8-14

Line 15-32


English Renaissance
-Aristocracy
-Nobility
-Notaries and scribes
-Merchant class
-Yoeman

In the English Renaissance, the Renaissance that filtered down the furthest of any of the other countries in Europe,

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab Baby

The aspect of this advertisement that attracts the viewers attention is the image itself. The Saab 9-7X SUV takes up the majority of the advertisements space, you can't avoid not looking at it. In addition to that the vehicle is shiny, clean, and looks nice. It looks powerful too. The first sentence in the statement is bold and large, grabbing your attention even more. 'An SUV with altitude', through subtlety the message makes the viewer think that this vehicle is superior to others, the higher you are the better. What develops desire is the words used in the bottom paragraph. They give the audience a small insight on the history of how Saab was founded by 16 aircraft engineers. Some people viewing this ad may think that they themselves would think it's awesome to have a vehicle influenced by aircrafts. The very last two sentences of this advertisement brings the audience/viewer into the ad itself by addressing the audience. 'After all, once you've built jets, you don't build just another SUV. Enjoy your flight.' By addressing them you then make the audience think it's all about them, which it might be.

Within this advertisement is a few propaganda tools and rhetorical devices. There's a great amount of repetition within the advertisement that's used. The company constantly refers to the fact that it's an SUV and that the car was built by Saab. There's also the repeated reference to aspects of flight where the ad mentions 'altitude', 'aircraft engineers', 'jets', and 'flight'. There's the Saab company logo clearly printed in the top along with their slogan 'Born From Jets' as well. They make use of jargon slightly by using fancy terms like '300-hp Displacement on Demand V8 engine' and using sentences that make it seem all the better like 'optimizes fuel efficiency without sacrificing performance'.

The big idea of this advertisement is the influence that flying and altitude has on the company Saab and their 9-7X SUVs. In service of the big idea; their most powerful sentence in large and bold letters 'An SUV with altitude'. The company really tries to emphasize the way the SUV embraces the company's history and the fact that they're car designs are superior by having more altitude. They state that 'Saab was founded by 16 aircraft engineers and their spirit lives on'. They're still embracing their history and using it in their cars. They've built a powerful new SUV

The targeted audience for this advertisement would be the North American market and it's buyers and sellers. The bottom left of the advertisement shows a tiny Saab Automobile USA sign and the price given is in dollars as well.

Paper Reflection

The big idea of my paper was to express how graffiti is cool. I constantly tried to refer to statement that graffiti is cool and how the aspects of it that I introduced in the paper were also really cool. By doing so I was sticking to the main and central message of my paper. I had the basic layout of a proper essay; my introduction, body paragraphs, and then lastly my conclusion. I had hooks for my introduction and my conclusion but only one or two of my body paragraphs had hooks. My body paragraphs also didn't follow much of the needed format of what body paragraphs need: hook, introduction, thesis statement, etc. Overall, I believe my essay on how and why graffiti is cool was a success. I personally liked the various topics I chose to discuss and the different forms of media I used. I believe my grammar and spelling were almost top-notch too.

Porto and Sherry Sandeman, 1931

Adverts

AIDA - Attracted attention by the repeated amount of Coca Colas. It says 'Continuous Quality Is Quality You Trust', this would go with develop interest. It says Coca-Cola and then it says Coke (Develop desire). The bottom left says 'Ask for it either way... Both trade-marks mean the same thing.' (Move to Action)

 

 

GRAFFITI

Graffiti

My mama always said graffiti was like a box a chocolates, never know what you’re gonna get. Over the years, some people have viewed graffiti as a cool art form that adds life to the drab greys of a city. One of the coolest aspects of graffiti as an art form is the fact that every single piece is unique. There’s always a piece of graffiti out there that is newer and different to the last one. It’s an art form that is constantly changing. There are various well-known artists who are praised by many for their works such as Banksy and Seen. They are seen as some of the coolest and most influential graffiti artists. There have even been artists who use various other methods to create street art; one using tiles and some using knitting. Graffiti is a vast and powerful art form. Although graffiti had to start from somewhere.

Urban graffiti all started back in New York in the late 1960s with a man who called himself Taki 183. This was his tagging name that he would quickly write around the city, in a way making himself known. Tagging is the term used for a graffiti artist’s unique signature. Tags are to be done quickly with marker or spray paint and are basically saying ‘I’m here’ or ‘I was here’. Taki 183 had first begun using a marker of the sorts to put up his tag wherever he was; he even started the trend of putting up your own tag on and in subway trains. Through doing this Taki 183 became extremely well known throughout the city, although nobody knew he was. The youths of New York at the time had realized how infamous and notorious they could become by putting their own tags on subway trains and all over the city. The idea caught on like wildfire. Their goal was to go become as well known as possible and be in as many places as possible. In this image there’s still a remnant of Taki 183’s tags from the 60s. Over time you can even see that other people have put up their own tags or their own memos. It’s a cool way for these people to leave something of themselves behind. Something so tiny and simple yet so significant spread one of the coolest forms of art known today.

Permanent markers were used in the beginning but as tagging grew, people turned to using spray paint. Spray paint enabled the tag to grow in size and expand in color. It wasn’t enough for people to have their tag scrawled all over the place because now everyone was doing it. Spray paint creatively separated taggers from artists with color, size, style, and form. With this the tag became so much more and became something more artistic than the original tag. This new style was (and still is) called throw-up, where there are two primary colors in the tag made with an outline or made with bubble-liking and large letters. From this style it evolved into other more complicated and wild styles. For some artists it’s the only way get themselves out there.  

Graffiti is something people have taken and evolved into colorful works of art that represent identity. Classic artists can have the higher class and such gaze upon their works in a gallery or museum but graffiti artists want their ideas and works out in the open, ready for the common and lowly to see, for the delinquents and younger generation to admire, and ready for the oldies to judge right or wrong. Graffiti artists are literally pouring their creativity out into the open on a wall or forcing a message upon the people. Cath Crowley, the author of Graffiti Moon, wrote a passage about graffiti saying, “I spray the sky fast. Eyes ahead and behind. Looking for cops. Looking for anyone I don't want to be here. Paint sails and the things that kick in my head scream from can to brick. See this, see this. See me emptied onto a wall.” It’s an interesting quote that explains the thrills of graffiti. The thrill of spray painting on a wall in the dead of night hoping you don’t get caught and the thrill of how it will turn out and what people’s opinions of it will be. The passage is explained in a cool narrative way. Graffiti is cool for this reason; it’s a thrill and it’s exhilarating.  

Graffiti hasn’t always been praised and thought of as cool, many people see it as vandalism and see it as an eyesore. Although a lot of these people are the people who hold jurisdiction of the city, such as the mayor, his office, and the police force. Graffiti spreads quickly once it’s started in an area, relative to a Domino Effect, so the police try and prevent this. The mayor is the person responsible for the image and status of the city so they see graffiti as something that mars the face of their city. People of an older generation also tend to see graffiti as an eyesore to the local neighborhood area. Although there are a few exceptions like the older generation, there are graffiti artists from the older generation as well. In truth there is graffiti that can be widely agreed upon that it is vandalism. Graffiti can be defined and pictured as just somebody spraying random words and other jargon on a wall. This kind of graffiti isn’t the kind that is cool though. The graffiti that counts as cool and that matters to people who enjoy art are the works with color, effort and time, and talent. Some artists though have taken to other styles of graffiti.

Banksy is one of the most significant artists in the graffiti scene and also one of the most influential. His graffiti works are strongly based on using stencils. With his stencils he can make a detailed work that is different than the regular graffiti that is thrown up as a name or tag in color. Banksy’s works tend to have strong political messages within them. His works tend to be humorous and satirical, often a subtle commentary on politics and society. His works are seen all over the world but the majority are in England, his home country. Banksy is definitely the coolest graffiti artist of his generation at the moment. His stenciling technique is brilliant and the images he paints are what people really like. Some people enjoy seeing graffiti pieces decorating a wall. Banksy usually spray paints with black and white, rarely using color. Another cool thing about Banksy is that his works are crude and absurd, making people think along the lines of ‘How dare he’ or ‘How could somebody just put that up’. In these examples of Banksy’s works there is a man of the Queen’s Guard taking a leak. These men are usually seen as serious and committed and this just defaces their uptight demeanor, they’re capable of being misfits like the rest of society. People see this as funny and cool, his other works to portray such childishness and brilliance as well. His work Naked Man is a depiction of the classic and comical scene of a father trying to catch the young man with his daughter. All in all Banksy has an amazing and cool stenciling technique that many are trying to imitate themselves these days. 

Don Seen UA, the Godfather of Graffiti. Seen has been stated as the Godfather of graffiti but he was not the first man to start up the movement. He’s well known globally and he has his crew United Artists (UA) that is made up of other artists like his brother Mad, Pjay, Sin, and Duster. In the 70’s Seen and his crew started with spray painting New York’s subway lines, quickly gaining them reputation as a crew and individuals while the lines moved all over the city. Not only his talent but these subway lines that carried Seen’s works and were completely covered in them are what made him one of the coolest graffiti artists out there and still is. The state of his fame was and still is vast, at one point outside of NY he even tagged the Hollywood sign in LA. He’s even had some of his art and graffiti in galleries alongside works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Basquiat. Other graffiti artists have gained fame with different use of materials though.  

Grandmothers and their knitting have suddenly become cool. Graffiti has even expanded into various other forms of street art. Graffiti artists such as Invader and women who love knitting have even used other ways and forms to make street art. Invader grew up with a love for the game Space Invaders and many other 8-bit games, from that he derived what his artworks would be and what his name would be. His works all tend to focus on 8-bit video game characters from the 80s, such as Pacman and Space Invaders.  The medium he uses for his works is small, colorful, and squared tiles that make up the image of the invaders or the ghosts from Pacman. The tiles have a very strong paste on the back that allows them to be stuck anywhere throughout a city. It’s a different way to make street art and that’s what’s cool about it, it’s innovative. Women and sometimes men all over the globe have started a genius and cool new form of street art. They cover statues, street poles and lamps, rails, and various cold and metal objects with hand-knitted sweaters, socks, full on coverings. This image of the Charging Bull near Wall Street, NYC shows that it’s been completely covered in a pink and purple knitted sock by the artist Olek. There’s even been a case where Olek has crocheted an entire Mustang convertible.  

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still tag that wall. Graffiti has been seen as vandalism or as art since it’s start in the 60s but whether it is either, it will always be cool. Graffiti evolved from simple scribbles of ones own identity all over an area and then evolved into something more creative and suddenly it became a loved and hated art form. There are artists who have become big enough to influence people with their works and messages and all with the use of cans of paint. Who knows? Maybe todays top graffiti artists will be seen hundreds of years from now the way we currently see Da Vinci or Van Gogh.  

Media 4

Banksy Graffiti

Banksy is ne of the most significant artists in the graffiti scene and one of the most influential

Media 3

Graffiti Art Article
http://www.hiphop-network.com/articles/graffitiarticles/graffitiart.asp
Graffiti can be considered vandalism and ugly but there is graffiti out there that is true art.

Media 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8RS-Kgd0e0
Graffiti is something people have taken and evolved into colorful works of art that represent identity.

Media

Creating Graffiti With Yarn (Just an example of a certain change in graffiti)
Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/fashion/creating-graffiti-with-yarn.html?ref=graffiti

Graffiti has even expanded into various other forms of street art.

Graffiti Cool From The Start Body Paragraph

Urban graffiti all started back in New York in the late 1960s with a man who called himself Taki 183. This was his tagging name that he would quickly write around the city, in a way making himself known. Taki 183 had first begun using a marker of the sorts to put up his tag wherever he was, he even started the trend of putting up your own tag on and in subway trains. Through doing this Taki 183 became extremely well known throughout the city, although nobody knew he was. The youths of New York at the time had realized how infamous and notorious they could become by putting their own tags on subway trains and all over the city. The idea caught on like wildfire. Their goal was to go become as well known as possible and be in as many places as possible. In this image there’s still a remnant of Taki 183’s tags from the 60s. Something so tiny and simple yet so significant spread one of the coolest forms of art known today.

Stuff

My name is whaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttt. TEXT ON THE SIDE! Holla

Embedded Video

Tyrion and Bronn travel the Vale

Fight Club Dialogue

  TYLER
                 Lye -- the crucial ingredient.
                       (adding lye to mix)
                 Ancient peoples found their clothes
                 got cleaner if they washed them at a
                 certain spot in the river.  Why?
                 Because, human sacrifices were once
                 made on the hills above this river.
                 Year after year, bodies burnt.  Rain
                 feel.  Water seeped through the wood
                 ashes to become lye.  The lye
                 combined with the melted fat of the
                 bodies, till a thick white soapy
                 discharge crept into the river.

                             TYLER
                 The first soap was made from the
                 ashes of heroes.  Like the first
                 monkeys shot into space.

                             TYLER
                 Without sacrifice, without death, we
                 would have nothing.

                             TYLER
                 This is a chemical burn.  It will
                 hurt more than you've ever been
                 burned and you will have a scar.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 Tyler's kiss was a bonfire on the
                 back of my hand.

                             TYLER
                 Look at your hand.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 Guided meditation worked for cancer,
                 it could work for this.

     SHOT OF A GREEN MAPLE LEAF, GLISTENING WITH DEW.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 Come back to the pain.  Don't shut
                 this out.
                             JACK (V.O.)
                 I tried not to think of the words
                 "searing" or "flesh."  I imagined my
                 pain as a ball of healing white light.

     SHOT OF A FOREST, IN GENTLE SPRING RAINFALL.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 Stop it.  This is your pain -- your
                 burning hand.  It's right here.  Look
                 at it.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 I was going to my cave to find my
                 power animal.

     SHOT OF THE INSIDE OF JACK'S FROZEN ICE CAVE.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 Don't deal with this the way those
                 dead people do.  Deal with it the way
                 a living person does.

     SHOT OF INSIDE THE ICE CAVE - ON MARLA, LYING NAKED UNDER A
     FUR COAT, TURNING HER HEAD TO LOOK TOWARDS US.  RESUME:

                             JACK
                 I... I think I understand.  I think
                 I get it...

                             TYLER
                 No, what you're feeling is premature
                 enlightenment.

     SHOT OF A GREEN FOREST WITHOUT RAIN.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 This is the greatest moment of your
                 life and you're off somewhere,
                 missing it.

                             JACK
                 No, I'm not...

     SHOT OF TREES ENGULFED BY A FOREST FIRE.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 Shut up.  Our fathers were our models
                 for God.  And, if our fathers bailed,
                 what does that tell us about God?

                             JACK
                 I don't know...

     SHOT OF EMBERS POURING FROM THE HELLISH FOREST FIRE.  RESUME:

                             TYLER
                 Listen to me.  You have to consider
                 the possibility that God doesn't like
                 you, he never wanted you.  In all
                 probability, He hates you.  This is
                 not the worst thing that can happen...

                             JACK
                 It isn't... ?

                             TYLER
                 We don't need him...

                             JACK
                 We don't... ?

     SHOT OF INSIDE ICE CAVE - NAKED MARLA PULLS JACK DOWN ON TOP
     OF HER - JACK KISSES HER - CIGARETTE SMOKE COMES FROM HER
     MOUTH - JACK COUGHS.  RESUME:

                             JACK
                 ... Marla ... ?

                             TYLER
                 Fuck damnation.  Fuck redemption.  We
                 are God's unwanted children, with no
                 special place and no special
                 attention, and so be it.

                             TYLER
                 You can go to the sink and run water
                 over your hand.  Look at me.  Or you
                 can use vinegar to neutralize the
                 burn, but first you have to give up.
                 First, you have to know that someday,
                 you are going to die.  Until you know
                 that, you will be useless.

                             JACK
                 You ... you don't know what this
                 feels like, Tyler.

                             TYLER
                 Congratulations.  You're a step
                 closer to hitting bottom.

Not Cool....

 

Just... No.

Laurence Tureaud

AKA Mr. T! EPITOME OF COOL.

Marlon Brando

The Wild One Trailer

James Dean

Rebel Without A Cause Trailer

Intro and Conclusion

Introduction Paragraph:

“A martini for you this evening Mr. Bond?”

“Not today, toast please, lightly crisped, not burnt.” You don’t usually hear people saying they hate toast or think toast is gross. You don’t hear such words just because toast is something we all grew up with and we all love it. Toast is good; it’s as simple as that. There are reasons as to why toast is such a prestigious commodity; it’s quick and always around, there’s no end to the choice of toppings, and there’s the decision on how you want your toast done. By exploring the general aspects of toast there is the ability to prove why toast is good. How easy is it to make toast?

Conclusion paragraph:

Here we stand at the finale of our toast. A toast to toast some might say. Toast is good and wholesome. Toast has satisfied hungering humans since the dawn of time. Toast has nourished us when we wanted something quick to eat. We've also had the grace to embellish toast with a variety of toppings. We are even able to toast toast to our own preferred point of perfection.

Toast Is Good

You have this sudden pang of hunger in your stomach. You go where anyone would go to fulfill your needs; the kitchen. But as you look around you find nothing but bread, so you make the only thing reasonable and satisfying enough: toast. Toast is a snack food; a light amount of food eaten in a hurry or in between meals. It’s available and quick to make. Those are the very important aspects of snack foods. When it gets down to making other snacks, what can you think of? An apple, sure, or even a bag of chips, but there's nothing as wholeheartedly magnificent as toast. Toast only requires bread and a toaster; so simple a child could handle it. For those of us who are too lazy to make the effort of preparing a meal we look towards toast because it's the easy way out. Toast cannot be eaten just by itself, that’s sacrilege, so it has to have toppings.

I am currently consuming two slices of toast, made just two minutes ago. Now you can’t just eat straight up toast without having any decent toppings on it. Each of these slices of toast has different toppings on them. In the domain of toast there is the possibility of putting on a multitude of different toppings. With my two slices one topping is sweet and one is savory. On my first slice I have a fine layer of butter spread on it and then I smothered it in Lyle’s Golden Syrup. An interesting and peculiar topping it may seem to some people but it’s something I’ve grown up with. Upon the second slice of toast I have just plain peanut butter spread across the surface. Peanut butter on toast is a classic that some of us don’t get tired of. We all may see ourselves as connoisseurs of toast, having years of experience in the matter. There’s an option to toasting your toast to your own personal liking that is very important to all consumers of toast.

You want your toast to be at the most perfect toast level. What in the world would we do if we didn't have the option to change the cooking level of our toast. It would ruin some of our own preferences. Some people love their toast only slightly browned and just crunchy enough to be actually referred to as toast whereas others prefer their toast burnt and dark. With the different levels of how you like your toast done it just perfects the toast experience. Toast is delicious with melted butter on it, but try having bread with melted butter on it, doesn't seem too appealing does it? Overall, it's one of the most perfect options you could have in the world of toast, how you like it done. It's similar to how people like their steak done when the waiter asks them. Burnt to a crisp or just slightly crunchy to the bite. Toasting your toast to perfection is an art.

Synecdoche Definition

noun
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice verse,
as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning 'Clevelabd's baseball team').

In Flanders Fields Analysis

This poem follows a beat of 8 along each line until in the second stanza where at the end it has a beat of 4 with the line 'In Flanders Fields'. The poet keeps to this beat 8 for the rest of the poem until the last three verses, which follow a beat of 4. In verse 4 there is mention of larks 'still bravely singing', this line could be personification because singing is a human quality. 'Between the crosses, row on row,' could be a reference to makeshift graves used during the battle for dead soldiers. The first stanza describes the scene, a battle. The second stanza is a memory of previous days to the poet. He describes how he and his comrades are dead and how just a few days ago they were alive and well. The third stanza is the poets way of saying to the next generation 'Do what we could not'.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

DAY THREE: ANGEL TALKIES

At first, I had liked the story of Gururaj and his nightly travels to go and see the Gurkha, but then the story ended rather strangely in my opinion. Gururaj was a well-to-do editor of a paper and his bright world changes into a dark and nightly world. I thought it was interesting how he would wake up every night to go and see the Gurkha. I liked the Gurkha’s talks of the grapevine and the night watchmen who would share information with each other. It makes you wonder if such things actually happen around this country. The time where Gururaj learned of the truth behind the supposed riots had a shocking experience on him as a character. He eventually learned the truths behind the city of Kittur and it’s leaders and powerful figures. It was a sudden realization behind what Gururaj thought was a great and truthful place. In truth it was corrupt and he couldn’t take that fact. I’ve seen movies and read books that have had a similar scenario, a journalist not being allowed to publish the truth and such. It made me wonder if other newspaper firms covered up major truths such as these or if all governments hid corruption, you can see the corruption here in India of course but how about Western countries? Here in India there’s various cases of corruption on each of the different levels of government, for example if a policeman catches you they’ll want 100 rupees and they’ll leave you alone. A government official is going to jail soon for illegal mining as well. Being here for only 5 or 7 months I’ve noticed that protests are common in the streets here. I really liked the author’s scenes of the ‘nocturnal world’ that Gururaj experienced at night. He’d wake up at 2AM to go and speak to the Gurkha and learn of truths, they eventually became friends but then one night the Gurkha disappeared from his night job.

DAY TWO (CONTINUED): OUR SCHOOL

The story of Shankara and his attempts of bombing his chemistry professor’s classroom were interesting. His whole life he had been under this illusion that everybody looked down on him for being a Hoyka and a mix of Brahmin and Hoyka. He was constantly filled with this anger and he wanted to be seen as something, a moment of fame or a moment of reverence. He hated his father and his mother for being in a lower caste and having such a different caste. Right after the bomb went off, everyone was talking about the criminal. Shankara thought of himself as ‘the god of the morning’. It seemed like he was trying to prove that the lower caste was a force that should not be tolerated with lightly. I find it strange that India has this whole caste system. This story made it seem like everything’s influenced by this caste system, which it probably is. I thought Lasrado was an elaborate character to have as the ‘villain’. He’s a man seen as extremely strict and mean to students because of their constant laughing at his speech impediment. He can’t pronounce words that have the letter ‘f’ in them and instead pronounces them with the letter ‘p’.

The story carries on following a different character this time, Mr. D’Mello, and how he cares greatly for his favorite student, although he sees all other students as fools and teenagers lacking capability. He’s an extremely strict and angry man; he tends to discipline his students through violence and such. It’s slightly off how a teacher like him has a favorite student but their bond is strange. His favorite student is a boy named Girish who is intelligent but wants to do what other kids do like cricket and he doesn’t want to do the quizzes that D’Mello forces on him anymore. I think D’Mello sees an opportunity in Girish that he himself didn’t achieve as a child, the chance the go forward in life.

Day Two (AFTERNOON): LIGHTHOUSE HILL

The main character of this story, Xerox Ramakrishna, is a man who illegally sells photocopied and printed books at a low price. The people who mainly buy his copied books are students from a nearby college. I thought this was an interesting character the author chose to write about. His nickname Xerox is a suitable one because his occupation is to sell copied books. I see Xerox shops all over Bangalore and I also see people selling books on the sidewalks and such. Although some of the meno n the sidewalks are actually selling real books. I was surprised to read that the main character had been arrested twenty-one times; usually the protagonist in books is a fair and honest person. This does make it more interesting to read though and see that the main character had a rough history. I like how, when in jail, Xerox is on good terms with the policemen and jailers. He makes them laugh and entertains them with stories. I thought it was pretty gruesome and sadistic, the way that the lawyer D’Souza and the policeman Ramesh had smashed Xerox’s legs with a metal bar. Although I guess it was a major offense to sell a book titled ‘Satanic Verses’, Xerox didn’t know he was selling it.

'How do I rebel if the corporate world owns everything I think is cool?'

How do I rebel if the corporate world owns everything I think is cool? The corporate world owns everything, ranging from products such as clothing, computers, music, movies, TV stations, and radio stations too. There’s these large companies who are basically ‘merchants of cool’ that own and sell products that teens all over buy because it’s cool. Companies like Disney, Newscorp, Vivendi Universal, Time Warner, and Viacom are out there selling us cool stuff. Although what if we don’t like what’s cool and what’s popular? Or what if we hate the fact that they own it all? Some of us would want to rebel but that’s probably one of the most difficult things to do. We could possibly rebel by liking stuff that’s not owned by the corporate world to start with. There’s also the option of supporting small time companies and underground firms who aren’t as big. I personally go with some of the latest trends but at other times the latest just isn’t cool, some if it’s grotesque.

How would you rebel? One option for rebelling would be to start liking products, ideas, music artists and such that are not owned or influenced by the corporate world, although this is difficult seeing as how the corporate world has their hands on almost everything. It seems near impossible to like something that isn’t owned by them already. It’s rather tough to beat that; I would personally go along with the system and accept that fact that I am part of the corporate system. If I like the corporate world’s system and what they think is cool then I’ll stick with it. For an example on somebody hating on what’s ‘cool’; if a person were to be obsessed with the fact that Windows computers are better than Apple’s Macbooks, they would be going against what is mainstream. Although this may be true, there’s the thought fact he doesn’t like mainstream, he still likes Windows and those are mainstream too. Everything is mainstream. That man would be a hypocrite if he stated that he hates mainstream computers.

Through liking underground products you would be ignoring the large companies and their ‘cool’ factor. Small companies might support underground products and such, which is another way to rebel, ‘supporting the little man’. If miraculously everybody decided to forego there need to buy what’s cool and buy things from all the popular name brands and instead buy from smaller companies then things would fall apart for the corporate world. However the corporate world would most likely adapt to what the smaller companies are producing. Once this happens then again people would change what they like and buy, it’s like a giant loop. This rebellious process would only work for a short-term period of time.

‘The paradox of ‘cool hunting’ is that it kills what it finds.’ – Finding new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc. Multimedia companies such as Viacom, controlling MTV, send out there experts of the sorts to go ‘cool hunting’. Going out and meeting with the common day teenager and finding out what they think is cool; what they wear, what they listen to, and what they do for fun. Indeed I find myself against certain things that are mainstream these days. Such as music, even though in my personal opinion that I have no taste for some of the mainstream music, a lot of it I don’t like just because everybody else likes it. Some of it’s bad; some of it’s just too popular.

Rebelling against the corporate world is possible but it’s difficult, some people rebel just because they want to be difficult and seem different. Teenagers are all different but they’re the same too. If one teen likes something they think is completely there’s alone, then there’s most likely going to be others who like it too. You can’t keep things underground and secret, so eventually the corporate world will find out about it and then, all other teenagers find it too. Thus making it uncool. In my opinion there’s no point in rebelling because there will always be cool things and there will always be the time where those things become too drawn out and tired out because the corporate world just abuses it’s coolness too much.

DAY TWO: THE BUNDER

The beginning of this story was surprisingly grotesque in my opinion; Abbasi sticking his two fingers up his rectum and swirling them in a glass of whiskey. The glass of whiskey was intended for an official from the state Electricity Board who had come to Abbasi’s shirt making factory for tax payment. Even though the official is seen as an evil money-stealing man, nobody should have to suffer such an unhygienic prank. I found it interesting that Abbasi had closed his factory for the sake of female workers eyes. Two women had already gone blind from doing such detailed needlework on the shirts dragon designs. A money-minded person sacrificing their living due to guilt is strange, although he did eventually open up the factory again. He may have feared divine punishment for harming other people through his business but then again, it’s business and it’s money for him. Abbasi stated, after being asked why he reopened his factory, that ‘a man needs to eat, sahib.’ It’s a state and mindset of self-preservation that every person goes through. I find that the author, through the use of the story, is jabbing at India’s government and the corruption that erupts within it. He stated all the different officials and taxmen he’s had to pay off over the last four months and the list is surprisingly long and diverse. Abbasi’s friend Sunil Shetty mentioned that ‘When it comes to three things, black marketing, counterfeiting, and corruption, we (India) are the world champions. If they were included in the Olympic Games, India would always win gold, silver, and bronze in those three.’ It was smart to justify his statement with the mention of those three topics possibly being in the Olympics. I personally liked the moment where Abbasi met those four men at the tea shop. These men were the darker side of Kittur, ‘smugglers, car thieves, thugs and worse’ as Abbasi said. There was a simile used that I found pretty interesting when Abbasi was about to give the two men from the Income Tax Department a glass of whiskey. ‘The thought fell into his mind like a meteor from a purer heaven.’

DAY ONE: THE TRAIN STATION

Throughout this story I had not expected the use of certain words, especially by Indian characters. Words such 'hanky-panky' used by the owner of the Ideal Store and 'whippersnapper' used by the drunkard Thimma. When the characters use these words it gives them more of a personality that's raw and unrefined. The characters are also straightforward toward others, I guess this is a side a of Indian people I've never experienced before probably because I'm a foreigner. When reading this story I really got a vivid mental picture of an Indian person's everyday life. It was the life of a young Muslim boy and what he had to go through to make a living for himself. I was surprised that there was something less than rupee, a paisa. Another factor of the story that surprised me was the discrimination of the Muslims by the Hindus. It had given me more insight on how the two religious groups held each other in spite. The term 'you son of a bald woman' seems to be a common insult throughout the book and I found it somewhat peculiar because it was the first time I've ever heard it. When Ziauddin came back from his 4 months with his family he had developed vitiligo. I found out that vitiligo is a condition in which pigment is lost from areas of the skin and I tend to see quite a few Indian people around who have vitiligo. There are differences that I've seen between Indian culture and Western culture. When Ramana, the tea shop owner, forced Ziauddin to the ground and beat him up for the possibility of theft I had realized that such things don't happen in Western culture. Although in Western culture people could sue others and such. The other boys who worked at the shop had just stood by to the side and watched a boy just like them get beat up. In Western culture there would most likely be retaliation and even the thought of someone beating up a minor is slightly taboo. When Ziauddin was fired from his job, he eventually turned up with a job transporting canisters of milk via cart. Jobs such as working in a teashop or carting milk aren’t common in Western society. The scene where the Pathan chooses Ziauddin over the other porters by the fact that he isn’t publicly nude is interesting. The others were keeping clean whereas Zia was wallowing in his own dirt, but he had clothes on at the right time. If I were the Pathan I would have done the exact same thing. Also when Zia takes the Pathan to the first hotel choice for some extra cash shows the honesty of a young local trying to fool the foreigner. When out shopping for fruits and such here in India, the fruit sellers see a foreigner and jack up the prices. Although when my driver or my maid finds out how much we spend on these fruits it’s seen as outrageous. This is just how things are for foreigners when it comes to third world countries and finding fair proprietors is just tough.