Sunday, May 6, 2012
Daily Journal #31
My job shadowing experience was one of the most fun things that I have done in a very, very long time. I went to the McClelland Aviation Company out at Springfield’s airport. It is a flight school and an airplane service company. We were supposed to shadow one of the flight instructors, but because he did not do much besides give lessons, we filled most of our time there with one of the linemen that worked there. The lineman’s name was A.J. and he was around 19 or 20 years old and he was a really cool person. His job was to prep the practice plane before the first flight which included fueling up the plane. He showed us how to fill it up and make sure everything was alright. After we filled up that plane, we went with him to go fill up some rich guy’s old T-28 that he flies in air shows across the country. Then it was time for their first flight lesson. It turned out that it was A.J. who would be getting trained and he was a lesson or two away from being able to go up in the plane by himself. This meant that the things they would be practicing were a little advanced. Elizabeth and I got in the plane and after everything was ready, we took off into the skies. First, he practiced very steep turns; we were turning almost completely sideways but there was enough centripetal force to keep us in our seats, and then some. Then came the best part, we heard him throttle down, and then he turned sharply up into a steep climb. Then alarms started to go off as we went slower and slower. Lucky for me, I knew that he was trying to stall the plane so he could practice how to get out of one, and the even better part was that Elizabeth did not know this and she also didn’t know that one the plane stalled, it would go into freefall before the pilot pulled out of it.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Daily Journal #29
The actual idea of Self itself is a very abstract and vague idea that Whitman proposes. While Self is in each one of us, it is also shared by everyone else, so it is not really a Self, rather a collective consciousness. Whitman breaks self down into a Trinity just like Christians do with their God; there is the spiritual self, the self-perceived self, and the actual self. The spiritual self is the part of Self represented by everyone’s abstract, unique personality and the different trends and similarities that people share across the world. The self-perception part of Self deals with how each individual person sees themselves and how they believe other people think of them as. The last and hardest to define part of Self is the Real Self. I think it is the hardest part to define from person to person because there are many different factors that affect how people perceive a person and it usually varies from how people perceive themselves. Whenever someone asks themselves “Who am I?” they are not talking about the self-perceived self because they already know how they see themselves; it is how everyone else sees them and what they are actually like. Finding out the Real Self requires one to look inward on their actions and how it might be seen by other people and also how their actions affect people around them. Since nobody is perfect and we live in a world with many other non-perfect people, the Real Self is mostly always different from the self-perceived self.
I know that, personally, the way I see myself is most likely different from how other people see me. Some of the things that I do may come across as odd to some people but as people get to know me and my sense of humor, it is easier to see why I do what I do. It is because of this that I try not to judge other people because I myself do not like to be judged.
I know that, personally, the way I see myself is most likely different from how other people see me. Some of the things that I do may come across as odd to some people but as people get to know me and my sense of humor, it is easier to see why I do what I do. It is because of this that I try not to judge other people because I myself do not like to be judged.
Reflection: "Chanting the Square Deific"
Whitman wanted to invent a style of poetry that everyone could relate to and this poem did a very good job of following that template. The only image that this poem creates is a square which is a symbol that almost anybody would recognize and know exactly what it is because it is a very common shape seen everywhere in day to day life. The main subject of the story is also about religion, which most Americans at this time were acquainted with. While not everyone would get the references to Hindu, Roman, and Greek mythology, they could still get the general message Whitman was trying to convey.
“Chanting the Square Deific” is a poem that creates a square in which each side is a part of Whitman’s signature “Self.” Each stanza outlines and identifies each side of the square. As the poem progresses, the sides are “filled in,” starting with the top and going clockwise. The sides, in order as they are presented in the poem, are God, Christ, Satan, and The Holy Spirit. Since it is a square, this order puts God and Satan on opposite sides which shows that Whitman believed that there was a “balance between good and evil, both necessary, he believed, in the lives of human beings and in all of Nature” (Oliver 5).
Although all of the sides of the square are supposed to be a part of the self, in the “Holy Spirit” stanza, the speaker of the poem claims that it is “including God, including Christ, including Satan” which shows that Whitman believed that the spirit was not only part of Self, it also included all of the other parts of Self within itself (Whitman 4). This is fairly contradictory, but so is the rest of the poem. Whitman portrays the soul as something that “contains contradictions and oxymorons “because the soul is “at once the most ethereal and most solid of the sides” (Huff 5). Although it may seem confusing, it is not altogether that different from the Christian belief that God was three separate parts (the Trinity) but also one being. In this case, Whitman portrays the Holy Spirit as the part of the “quaternity” that encompasses all of the other parts (Oliver 1). The Holy Spirit, and effect, Whitman’s characteristic “general spirit,” is “beyond the flames of hell, joyous, leaping easily above hell, Beyond Paradise, perfumed solely with mine own perfume” (Whitman 4). In effect, the soul, and ultimately, the Self, is superior to anything or place because they are each contained within Self; Self is the highest authority. This may be why Whitman is so obsessed with trying to determine Self.
Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.
Huff, Randall. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
“Chanting the Square Deific” is a poem that creates a square in which each side is a part of Whitman’s signature “Self.” Each stanza outlines and identifies each side of the square. As the poem progresses, the sides are “filled in,” starting with the top and going clockwise. The sides, in order as they are presented in the poem, are God, Christ, Satan, and The Holy Spirit. Since it is a square, this order puts God and Satan on opposite sides which shows that Whitman believed that there was a “balance between good and evil, both necessary, he believed, in the lives of human beings and in all of Nature” (Oliver 5).
Although all of the sides of the square are supposed to be a part of the self, in the “Holy Spirit” stanza, the speaker of the poem claims that it is “including God, including Christ, including Satan” which shows that Whitman believed that the spirit was not only part of Self, it also included all of the other parts of Self within itself (Whitman 4). This is fairly contradictory, but so is the rest of the poem. Whitman portrays the soul as something that “contains contradictions and oxymorons “because the soul is “at once the most ethereal and most solid of the sides” (Huff 5). Although it may seem confusing, it is not altogether that different from the Christian belief that God was three separate parts (the Trinity) but also one being. In this case, Whitman portrays the Holy Spirit as the part of the “quaternity” that encompasses all of the other parts (Oliver 1). The Holy Spirit, and effect, Whitman’s characteristic “general spirit,” is “beyond the flames of hell, joyous, leaping easily above hell, Beyond Paradise, perfumed solely with mine own perfume” (Whitman 4). In effect, the soul, and ultimately, the Self, is superior to anything or place because they are each contained within Self; Self is the highest authority. This may be why Whitman is so obsessed with trying to determine Self.
Huff, Randall. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Partner Reflection: "Arcturus is his other name"
“Arcturus is his other name” is the poem that was chosen for this reflection blog because it had to do with stars. First off, for a little bit of background information, Arcturus comes from Greek and can be translated into “Guardian of the Bear.” The star is so named because it is close to both Ursa Major (Larger Bear) and Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear). It is also the third brightest individual star in the night sky after Sirius and Canopus. This fits well into the Nature section of her collection of poems because it is something anyone can go outside and see on any given night, given that the sky is both clear enough and there is not too much light pollution to see it. Also, this poem would most definitely fit into the transcendentalist writing section because in it, Dickenson is complaining about how science is taking away the beauty of nature by classifying it and giving things scientific names.
In the beginning of the poem, it seems as if Dickenson is just complaining about how the scientists of the time were classifying everything and turning it into numbers and classification rather than what it really was. From flowers to butterflies to the sky, everything was laid out in a specific order that many transcendentalists, and evidently Dickenson, did not appreciate.
Towards the end of the poem, however, Dickenson shifted the focus from a personal disliking of science for the sake of the compromised beauty to the religious aspect of why she did not like what was happening to the world because of the scientists and their classifying. One reason that she gives is that the night sky used to be reserved for the thoughts about Heaven and now it “is mapped, and chartered too” (Dickenson 16). At the beginning of that same stanza, she states that “What once was Heaven, now is Zenith” which supports the aforestated quote because “zenith” is a scientific term that describes straight up into the sky from a person’s point of view (Dickenson 13). Dickenson despairs at the thought that the place she “proposed to go when time’s brief masquerade was done” might be changed too by the “curse” the scientists have released upon the beauty of the world (Dickenson 14, 15). She hopes that “the children there won’t be new-fashioned” because she fears that if they are like the scientists she left behind, they might “laugh at me, and stare!” (Dickenson 22 – 24).
This picture of Heaven contradicts the way that many people look at the idea of Heaven or how they visualize it in their heads. Most people see it as perfect and a place where there is only happiness and joy. Yet, in this poem, Dickenson portrays it as a place capable of ridicule and sadness for the people who are “old fashioned, naughty, everything” (Dickenson 27). One other important thing to note is that Dickenson see’s heaven and earth on the same plane, just separated by some kind of fence because in the last line, she says “over the pearly stile” which refers back to her wish that when she dies, God will take her to heaven (Dickenson 28).
In the beginning of the poem, it seems as if Dickenson is just complaining about how the scientists of the time were classifying everything and turning it into numbers and classification rather than what it really was. From flowers to butterflies to the sky, everything was laid out in a specific order that many transcendentalists, and evidently Dickenson, did not appreciate.
Towards the end of the poem, however, Dickenson shifted the focus from a personal disliking of science for the sake of the compromised beauty to the religious aspect of why she did not like what was happening to the world because of the scientists and their classifying. One reason that she gives is that the night sky used to be reserved for the thoughts about Heaven and now it “is mapped, and chartered too” (Dickenson 16). At the beginning of that same stanza, she states that “What once was Heaven, now is Zenith” which supports the aforestated quote because “zenith” is a scientific term that describes straight up into the sky from a person’s point of view (Dickenson 13). Dickenson despairs at the thought that the place she “proposed to go when time’s brief masquerade was done” might be changed too by the “curse” the scientists have released upon the beauty of the world (Dickenson 14, 15). She hopes that “the children there won’t be new-fashioned” because she fears that if they are like the scientists she left behind, they might “laugh at me, and stare!” (Dickenson 22 – 24).
This picture of Heaven contradicts the way that many people look at the idea of Heaven or how they visualize it in their heads. Most people see it as perfect and a place where there is only happiness and joy. Yet, in this poem, Dickenson portrays it as a place capable of ridicule and sadness for the people who are “old fashioned, naughty, everything” (Dickenson 27). One other important thing to note is that Dickenson see’s heaven and earth on the same plane, just separated by some kind of fence because in the last line, she says “over the pearly stile” which refers back to her wish that when she dies, God will take her to heaven (Dickenson 28).
Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Journal #30
I’ll be honest with you, the reason why I first chose this poem was simply because the fact that it had California in the name, and I dream one day of living in California, so this poem had an unfair advantage to be my favorite Whitman poem. I was happy and relieved to find out that it was also a shorter poem, compared to Song of Myself which was on par with the Iliad and Odyssey, and so I would be able to analyze it in a shorter amount of time and therefore being able to spend more time thinking about what it really means.
This poem, while being short, also holds a lot of meaning in its few lines. It is a poem that makes the reader a person looking west into the Pacific Ocean from a shore in California pondering the world beyond the range of their vision. Letting their imagination turn to the far off lands of the Asian continent and all of the different things it holds. People thought, as they do today, that mostly everything about Asia and North America are very different. Asia has had civilizations for a very long time, and America had been created not long ago, relative to the time civilizations in Asia had started. I think that this is how Whitman thinks about it because Whitman says “From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero” (Whitman 6). He also alludes to the fact that once the speaker is in Asia and then looks back home towards the East, they are “pleas’d and joyous” (Whitman 9). From there, he says at the end that he no longer knows where he started and wonders why it (where he started) has yet to be discovered. I think that this is about how people seem to want something different than what they have, and once they get it, they want what they used to have and can’t remember why they didn’t want it in the first place.
"The Walt Whitman Archive." FACING WEST FROM CALIFORNIA'S SHORES. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/43>.
This poem, while being short, also holds a lot of meaning in its few lines. It is a poem that makes the reader a person looking west into the Pacific Ocean from a shore in California pondering the world beyond the range of their vision. Letting their imagination turn to the far off lands of the Asian continent and all of the different things it holds. People thought, as they do today, that mostly everything about Asia and North America are very different. Asia has had civilizations for a very long time, and America had been created not long ago, relative to the time civilizations in Asia had started. I think that this is how Whitman thinks about it because Whitman says “From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero” (Whitman 6). He also alludes to the fact that once the speaker is in Asia and then looks back home towards the East, they are “pleas’d and joyous” (Whitman 9). From there, he says at the end that he no longer knows where he started and wonders why it (where he started) has yet to be discovered. I think that this is about how people seem to want something different than what they have, and once they get it, they want what they used to have and can’t remember why they didn’t want it in the first place.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Daily Journal #28
While death is a very common occurrence in reality, most people do not like to think about it. Some cultures throughout history have embraced it and recognized its spiritual significance. While I typed those few short sentences, hundreds, if not thousands, of people died all across the Earth. With all of the feelings and emotions that come with death, at least for the ones left behind, tend to cause people to not want to dwell on the subject; to just “cross that bridge once we get there.” Even though death can be a bad thing in many, many ways, it is also the main force that drives us to achieve great things. The feeling that we have a relatively short time to accomplish all that we want to do helps keep us focused on doing the most that we can.
Living next to a cemetery, Emily defiantly had enough time to ponder the different aspects on death and how it affects people and how people see it. I think that Emily was not afraid of death; it seems that she understood that it will happen to everybody, so there is no need to fear it or give it a mystical premise. In this poem, a person is on their deathbed with their relatives gathered around in solemn anticipation of the person’s final breath. Each breath is compared to the “heaves of a storm” in between which the people waiting grow tense, for it could be the person’s last. Then, when everything seems to be ready, a fly buzzes into the speakers view, tearing asunder the veil of peace that pervaded the scene and while the person was distracted, they died. Even though this was a scene of death, Dickinson showed little emotion towards the situation, more of a somber narration of a true story. This poem is more about the psychological aspect of death and how a simple thing like a buzzing fly could ruin the “perfect” moment right before one passes on.
Living next to a cemetery, Emily defiantly had enough time to ponder the different aspects on death and how it affects people and how people see it. I think that Emily was not afraid of death; it seems that she understood that it will happen to everybody, so there is no need to fear it or give it a mystical premise. In this poem, a person is on their deathbed with their relatives gathered around in solemn anticipation of the person’s final breath. Each breath is compared to the “heaves of a storm” in between which the people waiting grow tense, for it could be the person’s last. Then, when everything seems to be ready, a fly buzzes into the speakers view, tearing asunder the veil of peace that pervaded the scene and while the person was distracted, they died. Even though this was a scene of death, Dickinson showed little emotion towards the situation, more of a somber narration of a true story. This poem is more about the psychological aspect of death and how a simple thing like a buzzing fly could ruin the “perfect” moment right before one passes on.
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