Symbols Exercise - Responses

• The Ten Commandments is a dominant culture because they are the universal laws for morality around the world--Mangum.
  
• The Bible is a gift given to us from God. I definitely don't think it should be changed. I can understand some people not agreeing with exat words of the Bible but just let the Bible be! People still will have something bad to say about the Bible rather it stays the same or changes!--Jag2419
  
• The Conflicting Cross
  I can identify with the cross because I consider myself a christian. It is very important to be the believer itself. With that said, I see a conflict going on with some religious groups. Even though they are considered to be the dominant culture. They refer to themselves as the emergent culture since they claim the dominant culture disagrees with their belief system. Looking for an example turn on TBN on any good day. Also in some references they ight make an argument thatrefers to a reactionary culture (i.e 50's lifestyle, pryaer in public schols) which I find kind of weird considering myself being African-American. If I were a Christian living during that time period, I mostly like would not have the same opportunties as those that are Christian but of a different skin tone.--Angela Langster
  
• The cross and the bible are very important parts of this world, but they should not be publicly displayed in places like courthouses, public schools etc. People have the right not to have to see it. Why aren't other religious symbols publicly displayed?--Alexander White
  
• The bible is very important to this society because our country was based on God and his rule. The bible represents us as a country. Just like other countries they are based on their preferred religion, so are we. That's why I believe our country is so successful and wealthy because anything that starts with God always ends in VICTORY!--Jeanell Calhoun
  
• I don't think that the Ten Commandments should change b/c it provides structure...without some kind of structure comes chaos. People are naturally destructive and extremely violent and the Ten Commandments gives us a criteria to follow--Joseph Hainsworth
  
• I wouldn't change any of the symbols. The cross, Bible, and the Ten Commandments represent the belief in God, who created the Earth which we live in and us...the U.S. Flag and Pledge represent our unwavering pride in our country--which is part of the world God created.--Alice Taylor.
  
• I grew up believing and saying everthing like the pledge. People have a choice to choose whether or not they want to say or believe things...symbols were created for a reason, so we should leave it alone, but if they changed the symbols, I wouldn't lose sleep.--Soupbone4
  
• The bible could be changed a bit so that the baptist don't take everything so extreme--the commandments say thou shall ot kill! Yet if you are being attacked is it O.K to fight back?--Deleisha Jensen
  
• I don't think any of them need to be changed, so long as none of them are forced on anyone...One nation under God" may need to be changed since students are forced to recite it. I am unlike most conservatives because I am open to emergent, but not emergent myself. What culture would an open-minded person fit?--Brian Jones
  
• Cross & Bible: This symbol should not be changed because Jesus died so that we could have life..Our country was founded on the symbols of Christianity.
  U.S. Flag & Pledge: This symbol brings two reactions out of me. This first is that of freedom, liberty, and justice. My second reaction sees this symbol as restrictive symbol. People say that we are free, but are we really free. A young poet once quoted, "America is a rich man's vision, but a poor man's prison."--Edward Robinson
  
• It's good if people have only one religion so that people can share the same values and thoughts. More than one religion would make misunderstanding between people--Stephanie Sam Say Mei
  
• Growing up around the Keesler AF Base, I had many friends whose parents were in the military. When I was younger, I really did not have more respect for military personel then anyone else. After a while of growing up around all these military people, my respect for them grew...I now realize the importance of the flag and the pledge, esp., to people who are patriotic.--Jason Erbe
  
• I believe in the United States of America and wht the flag stands for: Justice, God, and the people that stand together. Because together we stand, divided we fall, no matter what ethnic background. Even though I am speaking from a dominant stand point, we must look at the emergent culture. We are a melting pot.--Kendra McDuffie
  
• Minority (Name of Song)
  I pledge allegiance to the under world, one nation under Dog, of which I stand alone...
  
  Chorus
  I want to be the minority
  I don't want need your authority
  Down with the moral majority
  I want to be the minority
  - Greenday
  
  I belong to an emergent culture, a culture of personal responsiblity. I question authority and the information an authority gives. I don't always show disrespect to authority, but I choose what information I find credible. I think for myself.
  
  (Symbols) are just things. They are not people. Symbols are opinions. I enjoy my right to find a symbold sacred, and suppor the right to deface it.--Radar
  
• Cross & Bible
  These should not be changed b/c it gives me hope and life and it is truth and God-breathed--Jillian Odgers
  
• I don't think these things should be changed, but where they're put shoud be rethought. Like the Bible, having liars swear on it in court seems stupid because they may not believe in God and don't care about his commandments...Randy

• "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your god am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me..."

What, so if my mother worshipped a different but I only worshipped (the true god) i will still be punshed & so would my children, their children and so on? This makes no sense in tht case, there would be no reason for me to lead a christian life, what happened to forgiveness.

The bible is a man written text. I'm sure a lot is lost in translation. On D day no one religion is going to be completely right. Each scripture can be taken out of context---Moonlight.

Powerhouse -- Respond Under This Post

Eudora Welty Plays Jazz with Words


Powerhouse is a riff on racism, power and signifyin(g).
This shortstory told by an unreliable/white narrator delineates cultral strata:

• Reactionary Culture
• Conservative Culture
• Emergent Culture

Billy Collins - Respond Under This Post

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Cathedral - Respond Under This Post

In addition to your regular response, answer the following question regarding Raymond Carver's short story Cathedral.

The term "epiphany," coined by James Joyce, has been used frequently in 20th century fiction to describe moments of "revelation" in a story where "everything becomes clear" to a character. The critic Malcolm Cowley defines epiphany as "that sudden reaching out of two characters through walls of inarticulateness and misunderstanding."To what extent does "Cathedral" end in an epiphany? How do you know?

Please, do not forget to use headings:

• A Title for your response "Be Creative"
• Basic Passage
• Correlation
• Difficulties

Note: I am looking for complexity in the correlation--a surprising or new angle.

Below is a sample response with headings and separate sections--your response should look like this example:

Title: Diet Coke Is The Reason

Intro to author: We, as readers, know very little about Billy Collins from the small amount of information the book entails. Billy Collins was born in 1941 in a New York City hospital he claims William Carlos Williams worked as a pediatric resident. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of California at Riverside in which he specialized in the Romantic Period. Now, he teaches at Lehman College of the City University.

Basic Passage: “and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.”

Correlation: I can definitely relate to this! I believe I am the one person out of all my friends around me who has the shortest memory. I feel like I am on the same level as my grandmother who is in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease. No, I don’t forget my name or the names of my family and friends I see often. But as it says in the passage, I believe I forget a piece of information or a memory every time I study, learn something new, or create a new memory. I believe this “forgetfulness” of mine is related to my obsessed addiction to Diet Coke. Maybe if I start taking Gingko Biloba, it’ll counteract the Nutrasweet that leads to memory loss. But all joking aside, this poem demonstrates how valuable the present moment is. The knowledge that we will forget make "now" all that more important. We must surrender to this knowledge, this loss. This poem is bittersweet. It is about bothloss and life in the guise of forgetfulness.

Difficulties: I had no problem reading or understanding this poem.

Required questions:

Identify the cause of human suffering—Tragedy

How can the tragedy be turned into a comedy?

Identify the cause of joy or happiness—comedy

Baraka - Post One-Comment under this post

A photograph of Amiri Baraka, activist, poet, (Racist?)
and the photograph that spurred Abel Meeropol to write the poem "Strange Fruit" which was later song by Billie Holiday.



Notes on "Biography"


Another look at "Strange Fruit"
Below are the lyrics to Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, 1939, written by Abel Meeropol, New Yorker, Jewish schoolteacher, American Communist:


Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop




In Walked Bud
(Listened to CD in-Class)

Audio File of "In Walked Bud"
When you go to Salon type the title of the poem in the search window.

http://www.salon.com/ent/audiofile/index.html?item=/ent/audiofile/2005/10/31/listens/index.html

Backstory on the Theolonius Monk Piece "In walked Bud " "As the musicians were packing up their instruments after the show, the police stormed the club and went after Monk. He refused to show his identification, and was forcibly arrested. A fan barred the door and challenged the officers. They tried to push him aside, but he wouldn't budge. 'Stop,' he yelled. 'You don't know what you're doing. You're mistreating the greatest pianist in the world!' At this point a nightstick came down on his head like a lightening bolt. The young fan was Monk's best friend, Bud Powell. He was dragged along with Monk, and thrown into jail after his injury was superficially treated at the hospital. After his release Powell complained of alarming headaches. He eventually checked into Bellevue Hospital, then spent three months in Creedmore Hospital. There he was treated with various psychoactive drugs and shock therapy. His artistic career had barely started, but henceforth he would be bedeviled by psychological problems. Monk was aware that Powell's intervention had saved him from a similar fate. For his ill-starred protege, he wrote 'In Walked Bud', '52nd Street Theme', and 'Broadway Theme', otherwise simply known as 'The Theme.' The numbers were intended to be Bud's property alone, and Monk never recorded them."

KINCAID "Post One" Respond under this post.

Key Points:

• Jamaica Kincaid often writes about the longing for maternal love and a childish bewilderment with the adult world.

• She seems to hold resentment toward her mother and her homeland.

• Kincaid is outspoken.

• Girl's voice only appears twice within an enormous list of "how-to's"

What is the effect of the list?

• Some of the instructions involve social mores. One big question you might tackle is whether or not you think these mores are essential.

In addition to your own correlation, please relate/synthesize the following into a paragraph of at least 50 words:

1) Kincaid's unforgiving rage at both her mother and homeland
and
2) "Everything passes through the self"

"big two-hearted river"

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born in a small suburb of chicago in 1899. he was born to a controlling mother that he sometimes reffered to as the "bitch". he started of working as a repoter, and later on ended up working as a medic in world war 1. As an author his writing style was sharp, to the point, and deceptively simple, which can be attributed to his time as a reporter. He is most known for his novel "old man and the sea". Late in his life he became depressed, and eventually commited suicide in 1961.

passage.
"Nick's heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling. He turned and looked down the stream. It stretched away,pebbly-bottomed with shallows and big boulders and a deep pool as it curvedaway around the foot of a bluff."

Correlation
this passage is descibing a trout as it fled from a king-fisher. up to this point nick had being watching the trout as it resited the fast flow of the current. resistance being an important theme in the story, had been abandoned by the trout at the sight of the bird. this coincides with a bad feeling arising in the narrator as it brings back "all the old feeling". I can relate to this passage and the narrator. In my own desire to keep faults in the back of my mind to avoid any feelings of sadness or frustration, I attempt to stay busy to remain preoccupied. the things i do to remain busy symbolize my resistance. offcourse the slightest reminder of my faults and short-comings represent the king-fisher, and the abandonment of my resistance, which leads to the feeling of sadness and frustration.

tragedy: the past.

comedy: the river, and the way it offers an escape.

how can the tragedy be turned into a comedy? by dealing with the past if possible, and getting rid of the need to escape.