HOLY...

THAT MOVIE. JUST BLEW MY MIND...

Here's the thing. The whole movie, I was trying to determine what was "true" and what was not. So basically, here I am, knowing that someone is giving him the wrong information. I was trying to figure out who.

I knew from the beginning that Teddy wasn't the right guy. So I'm trying to see who told him to write "Don't believe his lies" on his picture. When that girl came into the picture, I decided "Hmm maybe this is his wife, and he doesn't realize it?"I thought if this was the case, there was someone who was just making all of it up to do their own dirty work. And eventually I was like "Or not..."

Then I decided as he was telling the Sammy story that maybe he talks about him because he has the same condition where he was only mentally faking it to block out what he doesn't want to remember. Kind of went with my "His wife is that lady" theory.

I kind of also thought that perhaps he only chose to forget whenever he was in a stressful situation. I thought the "big twist" was when he'd realize that he can actually remember everything. Then they realized his condition wasn't "faking." That was wrong, too.

So then I figured that woman killed his wife. Also wrong.

And then I decided that HE was the killer and he was just creating his own reality...

Basically I guessed different puzzle pieces of the entire picture because I was taught to see clues and not read blindly while also not believing everything that is said. The reason this movie was so awesome is because the ending gives that final puzzle piece. There really is no way to "know

the ending" because of how many different clues they give you. Just like Lenny, we had the scenes jumbled, making it difficult to recall the past events, and we were constantly given different information that could be true or possibly lies.

So until that option is given of Lenny actually creating the false reality to give him something to live for, the viewer is confused of WHAT to believe. Even then when Teddy reveals the "truth," I still kind of thought..."but is THAT really the 'truth'?" We are never actually given the entire story because we are forced to perceive it in our own way. We can believe the words Teddy gives us at the end, or choose to keep searching as Lenny does.

Technically, he could really be his wife's murderer who keeps Lenny searching in order to save his own life. There's so many possibilities that it wraps up this course perfectly: we should never believe something just because it is written down or because someone "proves" it's true. It's all about how you choose to believe and look at things.

this class has Forced me to think"freely"

This class has definitely been a most world shaping&empowering experience. It made me question the world, reality. It made me realize I had the power to see what was truly shaping my reality in order to change my reality. It introduced me to a new way of thinking my way. It made me feel catalytic as well as insignificant. I have learned in this class valuable truths that remain necessary for improving our reality and ultimately our lives. This class has Forced me to think freely.







Alden tht shit Is funny.

nothing to do with the class, but fucking hysterical

http://shitmystudentswrite.tumblr.com/

rants about how awesome this class has been

I agree with everyone has been saying,that this class has taught us a lot more than just literature and how to read it. We have learned about truth and trust and interpretation and assumption and how that applies to our lives. Even going outside the subject matter, I think we have discussed a lot of things that are applicable and usable in our lives. This is one of those classes people tell you about when they try to describe how different college is from high school. We have learned that we can, and should, question authority. We have been encouraged to take charge of our education. Just cause a teacher said it, doesn't make it true. Just because I'm a student, doesn't make my opinion count any less than a guy with a PhD. This is what every class should be like. It's a class with a badass teacher who actually cares what you think and not if you can just regurgitate what she says; with a syllabus and course material that engages and involves the students; discussions that inspire the students to apply what they have learned to more than just their final paper. And I would be saying this, and in fact have, even in Janelle never sees this post. This is that class that you will remember when you are a fully grown adult and someone asks you to think back to college.
Or maybe Janelle has brainwashed us to think like this? But let's be real, if it weren't for her and this class, we never would even consider brainwashing as a possibility.

This class

I wanted to talk about how this class has helped me. I'm the most gullible person in the world, and with the discussions we had in this class, I can finally look at things without trusting that it is "true" in any sort of way. I've learned that it just doesn't matter who says what is true, and the only thing that matters is what I decide to take from a piece. I've definitely changed thanks to this class, and it wouldn't be possible without the ideas and opinions from everyone in the course as well as J who always pushed us to see things in a different way.

Cat's Cradle

Just wanted to say that writing this paper is reminding me how much I love Cat's Cradle and Vonnegut's writing in general. It's such an intricate puzzle. One of my problems with this paper is that I could probably write an analysis of Cat's Cradle longer than the actual novel. and that is before I even touch the other novel I am connecting it to. It really embodies everything that this course is about.

Thoughts on this class

You know.. one of the things I love most about this class is that we actually get something from it beyond the texts we read. I feel as if I don't even get something from the texts in other classes (I won't mention names), and it makes me question why those unfulfilling classes should even be a class in college (or how the teacher bullshitted their way into the position). In my opinion, yes college is about becoming more intelligent, but it's also about finding yourself. and Janelle has tirelessly tried to make us think for ourselves (by paradoxically leading us mindlessly toward thinking for ourselves). It's amazing that we need to be TAUGHT how to think for ourselves. Are we really that conditioned that we just accept what we are reading/experiencing/seeing? I love that the class/Janelle have provided a paper on morals to be taken from the books. It is truly a time to reflect, as well as another opportunity to hone some writing skills! :)

pertaining to memory

While on the blog I noticed that I have chosen the same exact quote as someone else, from the novella Aura.

"You don't look at your watch again, that useless object tediously measuring time in accordance with human vanity, those little hands marking out the long hours that were invented to disguise the real passage of time, which races with a mortal and insolent swiftness no clock could ever measure."

Memeories are everything. They shape us. Locacted within time, Memories contain the very esscence of "life". Smells, sights, events, all your fondest things.Stored in an Organ in your Body? I have been trying to wrap my mind around this transcendental concept for a while now.

At first I was satisfied with the reality that memories were in fact within us. After several years I found this a little hard to swallow, among other theories, I even posed the question....Since memories were not totally of the physical world, Could memories be stored within another dimension surrounding us, accessable by our brains?

This brought me to isolate certain concepts of memory supportive of my question. Thoughts came to me concerning the fragmented nature of memories, manner of their developement, as well as, their illusive....their illusive.....thinking.....illusive what? feeling....notion.....vibe....& it hit me! Aura. Memories all have an Aura. Something, a feeling or notion, that developes within us as we participate in remembering.

After that, I began to see memories and the act of remembering as spiritual; sacred. I began to see the significance of participating in memory.

I began to view memory with great signifigance, as Tradition.

oh ernest.

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Final Paper

I've come to the conclusion that although at the top of my page it says "It's deceptively simple," this final paper is anything but that. I've been staring at my computer screen for a good 30 minutes now just reading over the words "Construct a moral for approaching life." What does that even mean? I guess I'll be thinking for a couple hours.

aura

so did felipe remind anyone else of that ridiculously dumb person in horror movies? you know, the one who doesn't see the totally obvious twist in the plot coming? I mean honestly the minute it's pointed out that aura and consuelo move at the same time, I figured it out. I guess there are a lot of complexities that come with him potentially being the general in some form...but in that case shouldn't he already know where his youth comes from, like aura does?

Aura thoughts (scattered!!)

When it comes to Fuentes using "you", I was never fully convinced that it was myself. I really tried to be sucked into it to have the effect that was supposed to happen, but the fact that he used a name with "you" made the effect different for me. I'm not Felipe, and I'm not male. idk.. Maybe my mind was just too resistant with this book.

And the concept of time absolutely fascinates me in this novella. I'm sure some others have used this quote, but for my paper I used, "You don't look at your watch again, that useless object tediously measuring time in accordance with human vanity, those little hands marking out the long hours that were invented to disguise the real passage of time, which races with a mortal and insolent swiftness no clock could ever measure. A life, a century, fifty years: you can't imagine those lying measurements any longer, you can't hold that bodiless dust within your hands."

It really calls attention to the fact that humans never fully have a grasp on the concept of time. We can try to manage it as much as we like, but isn't it amazing that our busy minds let time seem as if it is going swiftly, and when our unoccupied minds are bored or restless, the seconds drag on as if into eternity?
We can never hold on to one moment. Time is intangible as Fuentes says, yet we put a description on it, a measurement for the distance between the event and when we remember it. Time means nothing to us without memory. We can remember our smooth faces when we grow up to find lines around our mouth and eyes. Our minds recognize the change, and we classify the change as time. Its kinda hard for me to get this out. I can't exactly explain it. Does anyone know what I'm trying to say that can put it more eloquently?

I love that Fuentes makes it possible in his novella to hold a little something of the past. It gives a way to escape or to hope for such a thing to happen to us--to regain that time long ago (a memory), and to relive it again.

Aura

While reading this novela, I kept wondering "what's the point?" Like I said in class, at one point I thought Aura was a cat who could transform into a human (obviously I was wrong.) What I liked about the book is the way it kept me guessing, there were many signs of what was going on but it wasn't until the very last page that I actually got it. Surprisingly, the "you" used in the text didn't bother me, although I was kinda grossed out when I read "you stop kissing those fleshless lips, those toothless gums" (pg. 145). But anyway, I enjoyed reading this book and plan to read it again in Spanish to see if it leads me in a different direction than it did when I read it in English.

Aura

At first I did not enjoy this book very much because it made no sense to me. After discussing it in class and writing the paper on a quote, I have grown an appreciation for the book. I understand where Fuentes was going and the message he wrote into the text. What I gathered from the novel, was that Consuelo needed to exist in order for Aura to come back and Felipe needed to exist in order for General Llorente to come back. Felipe is in love with Aura, and Consuelo is in love with General Llorente so in order for them all to be together, they all need to exist. That seems obvious, but it is the way I think of it. I often have trouble formulating my thoughts into words, so maybe I can explain more of what I mean in the next class discussion.

Manipulation in Aura

Aura was one of my favorite but also least favorite books of the semester. I hated the "you" mostly because I felt as though I was being forced into actions and feelings I was uncomfortable with and didn't agree with. While I hated this I have to say it is the most powerful aspect of the book to the reader because it forces you to be drawn in and is a great manipulation tool, which we discussed in class. While the book is obviously creepy and very confusing the essence of the book is also powerful. This book creates an eerie "aura" around it just as Aura creates around herself. One of the reasons it is my favorite is because of its intense forms of exploitation. While deceiving the reader about what is reality in terms of Aura and Felipe he is also automatically pulling the reader in and manipulating them into being a part of the story, even if you don't want to be. Either way the reader ends up being much more involved in the story while at the same time being completely confused and disoriented. Mostly I enjoyed the technique of the story more than the actual story itself.

Sirens

The biggest thing I carried away from this book (which, because of its punctuality and to-the-point-ness, I liked better than any other book we've read thus far) was a direct correlation between Senora Consuelo and a character I once read about in a Greek myth course, a siren named Lorelei who lured unsuspecting fishermen to their deaths by singing a beautiful song on a rock. At least for me, I found that Consuelo and Lorelei are pretty much one in the same, luring the unsuspecting into their webs like a spider lures a fly. In the end, while Felipe wasn't necessarily killed, he was used as a pawn, sucked in by Consuelo to keep her impending death at bay under the alias of Aura.

SUM more Sean-Paul foe yo Ass!

Translation from one language to another (like Spanish to English) can dilute or even shift the author's meaning. & Translation can involve bending the language to new requirements.

Hopefully this helps to "drive it home."=idiom

"When a Frenchman, for example, says to other Frenchmen ‘The country is done for’ — which has happened, I should think, almost every day since 1930 — it is emotional talk; burning with love and fury, the speaker includes himself with his fellow-countrymen. And then, usually, he adds ‘Unless ...’ His meaning is clear; no more mistakes must be made; if his instructions are not carried out to the letter, then and only then will the country go to pieces. In short, it is a threat followed by a piece of Advice and these remarks are so much the less shocking in that they spring from a national intersubjectivity."
For Example: "Mann this country Gon blow up, unless Obama do sumthin bout this Health care."
"But on the contrary when Fanon (philosopher/critic of the gov) says of Europe that she is rushing to her doom, far from sounding the alarm he is merely setting out a diagnosis. This doctor neither claims that she is a hopeless case — miracles have been known to exist — nor does he give her the means to cure herself. He certifies that she is dying, on external evidence, founded on symptoms that he can observe."

Can you see the difference ,in function, of what is being said in the same language?
( how does the change in time effect the same statement?)

Is translation necessary?

This is kind of random, but

I've noticed that we've been throwing the word "authority" around in class a lot, and I wanted to point out the root word of "authority" is "author." Important? I have no idea. But I feel like it probably isn't a coincidence. Or is it is, it's a really cool one.

connecting AURA to the class

So by the end of this book I automatically heard Janelle's voice saying "So, why did we read this?"

I feel like the idea of being forced into the body of Felipe from the very beginning can easily be a symbol of authority manipulating a reader to believe and embody the role it wants you to take. By the end of the story, Felipe and Aura seems to have taken on the role of the General and Consuelo; there is the question, however, of whether Felipe and Aura have become these people or are they just another reflection of the two people. This could also be symbolic for an argumentative work that forces the readers to rethink their position and either take on a different idea or reinforce their previous position. Either way, the reader has changed by reading the work by experiencing the thought that both sides are possible.

I feel like overall, this story of Felipe and Aura can easily be a metaphor for a reader who is manipulated into believing something just by being presented with an idea that disguises itself as a reality.

Aura...well that was interesting...

I finished Aura by Carlos Fuentes last night, and while I guessed early on what was going to happen, I still got thrown into the book. I think it had a great deal with the use of the word "you" describing nearly everything that Felipe did. It kind of turned the reader into the character becoming a part of his movements and thoughts. It was almost as if we became the double of Felipe just as Aura was Consuelo's young double. On another note it really reminded me of the Notebook as it seems that Felipe slowly regains some comfort if not memory of the situation (memory was an important theme, and it had some awesome quotes). He finds the photos, and he is standing there with Aura, but it's Consuelo's name on the back. Maybe Felipe is the general's younger double. This is all a bit scattered, but that's kind of how the book left me. I'm excited to hear the class discussion!

Decartes

Just a little something I came across when my friend was working on a paper. 1. If I know something about the world then I know it is not possible that I am making an error. 2. I do not know it is not possible I am making an error. 3. I do not know something about the world. I doubt everything but my own existence. -Decartes I think it's very relevent to the cousre since it plays with the idea of perception and living in one's own reality. And it's cyclical to boot!

:All Black Everything

I was listening to this song and I thought it fit in with our material. This artists, like butler, uses the context or "power" of fiction/fantasy to explore reality. Fully hypothetical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71McnVwWPwU

In my Opinion this song is not about being one race, but taking race out of the picture, in order to reveal a very real perspective.

Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”

Violence; only violence itself can destroy them. The native cures himself of colonial neurosis by thrusting out the settler through force of arms. When his rage boils over, he rediscovers his lost innocence and he comes to know himself in that he himself creates his self. Far removed from his war, we consider it as a triumph of barbarism; but of its own volition it achieves, slowly but surely, the emancipation of the rebel, for bit by bit it destroys in him and around him the colonial gloom.

yo

Emily,
Yeah discussions do go all over the place, but that's because ideas can go so many different ways. and you shouldn't feel like there is nothing you can say about the readings, because you can say whatever calls to you. It could be something you think is a symbol (i mean, my question was if Butler is saying that love is a weakness.. that is nothing like what we are talking about in class, but it stood out as a potential question.) You're a smart girl, I know you will come up with something :)

You know.. the time travel that you were talking about.. I was about to answer "well the inanimate objects she brings back existed at one point, just maybe not in the form of a toothbrush, etc." but now i see what you're saying. even if rufus died, his body will still be decomposed beneath the ground 100 years later. (isn't it a theory that all matter will ALWAYS be on the earth, no matter how small?) so yeah i see what you're saying. she could have drug back a bunch of dust as his decomposed body or something lol. I think that would just get too technical for the novel though, and Butler decides to think that when a person dies, they do not exist. (which now it's really making me pissed, because if you crushed the tooth brush into powder, i bet Dana could have brought it back! it's not the same toothbrush, it's a dead toothbrush..)
well geeze emily. now you've got me thinkin about that haha