Today in EWRT 1A, after editing our own/each other's essays--Victoria's of which was absolutely fabulous--we discussed Persepolis. I loved hearing what everyone had to say! Most people were very surprised at how Marjane was so sure of what she wanted. I realized that I don't even know my passions yet, which makes Marjane's personality so incredible. Then again, I may have been as confident as she when I was ten. Like Michael Franti's song, "Say Hey"
They also admired how supportive Marjane's parents are, which I noticed while reading the book, too! It was so enlightening to see that not everyone in Iran is so closed minded and extreme. So it was an enjoyable class period since I got to hear everyone's thoughts :)
Goodbye!
Angie :)
The class discussion wasn't anything special today. People just pointed out the obvious points of what we read, talking about what a sweet little girl Marjane is. The only interesting part was when the teacher explained Hegel, Descartes, and Marx. But she thought people wouldn't be interested their philosophies very much, so she only briefly went over everything. I only remember hegemony comes from Hegel and Descartes believed that reality is only a projection of the mind. Although, I kind of recall that from Myth/Folklore last year when we covered a few different philosophies.
I think Sophism refers to people who studied rhetoric in order to manipulate people. They often argued for the fun of it, or for the money. I guess lawyers could be considered sophists.
Existentialism was the most interesting. It really seemed to depress Grendel, but it makes sense. What's the point of making any decisions if nothing matters? There is nothing human or individuals have to live up to. No task that must be completed. So life is rather pointless, which could turn some people off. That's probably why religion was created. People don't want to accept that their lives are just clouds in an infinite sky. After they disappear, nothing changes. If there is nothing people need to accomplish, they can do whatever they want. I guess too much freedom can get a little overwhelming.
Why should they have to finish their essay if there is no point of getting a grade? Why put in effort into anything? Sure you could say that they should do it to get good grades to get a good degree to get a good job. But all these "good"s are notions set up by society.
Why should they have to follow society? Who needs acceptance and approval? People can do whatever the heck they want if they don't need other people to accept them.
Anyway, I did actually read a few sentences on Hegel from Wikipedia. Apparently, he had to hide his atheism to stay employed. This religion business is so ridiculous. Some people just make up some absurd teachings and say everyone has to live by the same rules. Well, that's all well and good if these rules are merely to keep a society functioning smoothly, but if they are things like, "women can't show any part of their body" or "parents should decide their children's lives for them," then people are just blind. What has the world come to? Are people so unintelligent as to not see how unhappy they are? Knowing that you're unahppy doesn't even require intelligence! Okay, so maybe it's not the fault of those in oppressed countries who continue their traditional ways of killing themselves inside. Is there really just no hope for these people?
At least Prof. Patton went a little deeper into Marx's idea of dialectical materialism. She reviewed Marx's idea of the workers overthrowing the government and synthesizing to create a new system. So she compared this to writing, where new ideas come from taking the thesis and the antithesis, then synthesizing them. I thought it was all very interesting.
You know, communism is very practical in theory, but people are just too greedy to make it work. If people hadn't evolved to want everything for themselves, then we could be living in an utopia. But of course, this isn't possible with the fight for survival still in our DNA. Man, evolution just gets in the way of peaceful living, doesn't it?
Deb.
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