Allende

The book The House Of The Spirits is unlike any that I have ever read. I think this is because of its genre of magical realism and the was that it is narrated with more than one person. I am not sure what to think of the magical realism. On one hand it adds magical things to a very down to earth plot which makes seems to create a feeling of "so could this really happen or not..." On the other hand it does help to give the book a sense of mystery. In most books it is easy to place the book in a set of similar story lines, such as the maiden in distress or the journey overcoming obstacles just to name two. Isabel Allende's book is able to be unlike the generic story because of the way that it includes magical and very ordinary happenings side by side throughout the entire story.

One of my favorite characters form the book is Clara. I liked her from the beginning when she spoke up in church and it was obvious that she was unlike anyone else. I think she is able to draw readers in with her supernatural powers. It is always neat when we are told by Clara what is going to happen and then we are able to read how it does happen just that way on the next page. I also admire her ability to do exactly what she wants to do, no matter what others have to say. She showed this when she went silent for years. I was very impressed with the way that she was able to keep silent even when the doctors and her mother tried so hard to get her to talk, and then one day years later she just decides to talk again. 

Making a Statement

The picture in our book of Interrogation II by Leon Golub really got me thinking about how horrible torture and war are.

 The picture made me think of a prisoner of war being tortured in order to make him tell information. Golub did an excellent job of portraying the emotions of each of the men. The man standing on the gives the impression that he has seen this happen many times and this is nothing new to him. The other three interrogators appear to be having a good time with the torture. They are making playful motions with their hands and they have evil grins on their faces. The image of the prisoner is what really strikes me. He is tied to a chair after being stripped of all his clothing. Golub did a good job by putting a black bag over the prisoner's head. It helps to show how the man is completely helpless, and will only have a slight clue of what is coming next by the sounds that the interrogators make.

Interrogation II and Golub's other paintings are perfect examples of propaganda in art. They show Golub's feelings on war and in particular America's presence in Vietnam. Many of his paintings showed the contrast between submissive figures such as a man being tortured and sadistic figures such as the men seeming to enjoy the torturing. His highly political works often seem to portray a bleak, evil world that has no hope for redemption. I think that his works did a very good job of showing the evils which often take place during wars. 

Andy Warhol's Popular Art

Page 135 of our humanities book states "Pop Art, the quintessential style of the Information Age, embraced the imagery of consumerism and celebrity culture mediated by television, film, and magazines." I think this is the perfect description of what Pop Art is whether it is in something like music or such as the paintings of Andy Warhol. In his Pop Art, Andy Warhol used things common to the general public such as cans of soup. Pop Music of today is much the same way. The 2011 song "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez incorporates lines that are easy for the general public to relate to such as the line "I'm like Inception, I play with your brain" referring to the recent, popular movie Inception.

Andy Warhol, who was a pioneer of American Pop Art, used very common things, which could often be found in a supermarket, as the images for his art. A couple of his most famous paintings were of the Campbell's soup cans and the Coca-Cola bottles. I think his paintings were a work of genius. Of course they are nothing that the average person today could not easily create with the aid of a camera and a copy machine, but that is not the point. I respect Andy Warhol, and I believe he is included in our Humanities book because he is an innovator. While I am not a fan of Picasso, I believe that likewise, he should be included in our book because he created a new form of art, abstract art. Therefore, I think Warhol should be in our book because he was a pioneer of Pop Art, and I like his works because they are of things that are easy for me to relate to.

Despair

As I read The Day of the Locust I continually got the feeling of despair. The book elaborates on the many different structures which are fake and poorly built just to be used as props for movies. Tod often looks at these structures with contempt because of their lack of sturdiness, but accepts it because he knows they are all created not with conventional materials such as steel and concrete, but with "plaster, lath and paper" because "plaster and paper know no law, not even that of gravity (61)."

Each of the characters shows despair also. Tod wants Faye so baldy that he has contemplated raping her more than once. Faye, who seems to have nothing going for her except her beauty, is convinced that if given a chance, she WILL become a movie star. Poor Homer, who came to Hollywood to get rest, is also madly but uselessly in love with Faye. I think Tod does a very good job of describing all the people who come to Hollywood seeking "instant fame and success" with his saying about the "people who came to California to die."

The last chapter of the book does an excellent job of summing up the feeling of despair that I feel when I hear about the lives of the main characters living in Hollywood. Tod talks about all the people in the world who work and save their entire lives for something and decide to come to California in order to find what they have been looking for. Page 178 reads "They have been cheated and betrayed. They have slaved and saved for nothing."

A Powerful Message

I really enjoyed "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes. I feel that his poems are much like those of Robert Frost, in that they are easy to understand and leave the reader with thoughts to ponder. I found it very clever that Hughes was able to write a poem about writing a poem.

 There is no doubt that "Theme for English B" has a very powerful message. Hughes is simply pointing out that people of different races are equal and should be treated as equals. That is a simple enough statement for anyone to say, but Langston Hughes was able to convey that thought through a magnificent poem that was constructed with a great deal of class.

The poem is about a young man who is the only black student in his college class. His assignment is to write a poem about his true self. In the poem, Hughes is able to make a connection with almost all readers by showing how, while he is a black man, he enjoys many of the same things that people of other races do. Lines 21-22 read, "Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, listen, and understand life." These are things than everyone enjoys, which is why these are such powerful lines. The rest of the poem goes on to state that he is black and enjoys certain thing, and his professor who is white will probably also enjoy these same things because they are both American. Without being the slightest bit disrespectful, Hughes was able to show that, whether they desire it or not, blacks and whites are a part of each other and should be viewed as equals.

I'm pretty sure I could do that

The first time I ever saw a painting by Jackson Pollock I was in 6th grade and I thought, "How in the world is a mess like that considered great art!?"  Jackson Pollock is one of the best know of the Abstract artists, and his work is easy to identify as his. His personal style is to lay the canvas on the floor and walk around it dripping and splashing paint onto it.

He wished to show random action which would express the unconscious mind instead of a preconceived subject. On page 86 of our book it states Pollock believed that his canvases are "apt metaphors for an age that defined physical reality in terms of process, uncertainty, and chance." He also liked to think of his canvases as having lives of their own which were controlled by himself.

I do not believe that Pollock's works are at all beautiful. To me, he is a lot like Pablo Picasso. While I do not find the works of either one particularly pleasing to the eye they are both very famous artists. Picasso is famous for his Cubist work and Pollock is known for his Abstract work. Each man was able to effectively create and express a totally new concept of art. I think that I would be able to do a decent job of replicating the "drip method", but what makes Pollock so great is that he was able to actually create action painting before it had ever been imagined. All in all, I think that both Picasso and Pollock are considered great because they both invented new ways of expressing themselves.

Not All Science is "Progress"

The painting Two Ambiguous Figures by Max Ernst caught my eye the minute I turned the page in my Humanities book. The first thing that came to my mind was an image from a science fiction movie where the earth is being invaded by extraterrestrial creatures. When you look at the painting it is not hard to see the two "creatures" staring back at you. A closer look shows that the two figures are really only pieces of science equipment that could be found in a chemistry lab that have been stacked on top of each other. While Ernst does not even give his creatures a mouth to help indicate a happy or sad mood, I get a sense of evil when I look at them.
         On page 58 of the book, it reads, "Ernst's machinelike  monsters are suspiciously reminiscent of the gas-masked soldiers that he encountered during his four year stint in the German infantry." To me this picture shows the way that war became even more brutal than before in World War I with the deadly new weapons, such as poison gas, which were created through scientific "progress." I believe that war may be necessary in order to keep our country safe, but I also know that it is a horrible and traumatic experience. Without including any humans, blood, or weapons, Max Ernst was able to do an excellent job of representing the horrors of war. His work does an excellent job of compiling common laboratory equipment representing science, with goggles in order to give the appearance of sadistic killing machines. 

Useful Art

I was prompted to write my first blog on Frank Lloyd Wright because I appreciate something that is both useful and beautiful at the same time. To me, his works are the first works of art in our book that have a use other than to be pleasing to the eye/mind.

Robie House

Fallingwater

A house is obviously useful. It provides shelter and i'm sure the houses built by Frank Lloyd Wright do an excellent job of providing shelter, but they are so much more than just structures. They are themselves beautiful, masterfully crafted works of art. I am very impressed with the first impressions I get when viewing his works. I see a finely designed and crafted building which holds my eye for much longer than a glance. I see two parts, the setting and the structure, which go together like summer and the beach. I appreciate the way the colors of the house coincide perfectly with the feeling of the surrounding landscape. In his works, Wright extensively used the cantilever, which is a beam supported at only one end. This technique reminds me of things found in nature such as the water in a waterfall or a sheet of rock hanging over a cliff. Wright claimed, "To use any material wrongly is to abuse the integrity of the whole design." I believe this belief is what makes his works of art so peaceful yet stimulating.