Hello Folks!
I am sorry for not being able to post for a few days. I have been busy doing my college applications. So yeah I am just free for some time now. I was thinking of posting about my visit to Malaysia about a month back. Hope you guys are looking forward to this as much as me!
Afro's Little Expeditions
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Creative Writing Workshop!
We commenced our class today by
discussing around 10 essay topics from the Official SAT book by College Board.
This type of essays is usually referred as “illustrative essays”. The reason behind this is that we should make
a statement in favour or against the topic and to support our statement we
should give examples from authentic
sources, such as, Literature, History, Science, and Current World Affairs.
Therefore, one word, which is important focused while we are given instructions
to write such essay, is DEVELOPMENT.
We are asked to develop our ideas and point of views from readings, studies,
personal experiences, and observations.
The first two topics that were
discussed are:
1. Is it important to question the ideas
and decisions of people in positions of authorities?
2. Should people take more responsibility
for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general?
However no such examples were
discussed. Both of the essays seem to be almost similar and at the end of the
class, we were able to provide examples for the above essays.
The third essay topic is “Can knowledge be a burden rather than a
benefit?” This topic was extensively discussed! This essay topic questions
ethics and morality of an individual. Age of Renaissance can be a perfect
example when we are stating knowledge as a benefit. On the contrary Foucault’s
ideology about knowledge can be used to write stating that knowledge is more of
burden than benefit. The fourth essay topic seems awkward as it asks “Do changes that make our life easier, not
necessarily make it better?” I believe that it never really made our life
better. And to support my statement examples from Literature fictions can be
taken, which are 1984, Babbitt, Valley of Ashes, Bombardiers, The Great Gatsby,
Frankenstein, Brave New World.
I found the fifth essay topic very
interesting as it asked, “Is conscience
a more powerful motivator than money, fame or power?” Since conscience is more
emphasised word here, we should define it briefly. And then examples should be
given to support our statement. For instance, the character of Gatsby is an
example in which money is more of a motivator than conscience. On the contrary
Nick Carraway, also the narrator of the novel, is a character for whom
conscience is more important. Characters, such as, Santiago form “Old Man and
the Sea” and Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick” prefers fame over consciousness. We
should conclude the topic by stating that there are other factors, which can
also work as a motivator rather than conscience.
The sixth essay topic consists of only
four words, but the topic is way more impactful than this. It asks, “Can success be disastrous?” Of course to
some extent it does. Success is ephemeral, does not matter whether he or she is
a celebrity or a politician. A perfect illustration would be of the character
Macbeth from one of the Shakespeare’s famous plays “Macbeth” because success
destroys him at the end. To support this statement more, other characters can
also be mentioned, such as, Kurt from the “Heart of Darkness”, Snowball from
“Animal Farm”, and Gatsby from “The Great Gatsby”.
The seventh essay topic can be answered
biasedly as it asked, “Do we need other
people in order to understand ourselves?” Undoubtedly yes. To support this
statement, characters from fictions, like, Gregor Samsa from “Metamorphosis”,
Lily Bart from “House of Mirth”, the kids from “Lord of Flies”, and lots of
others. “Is the world changing for
better?” This was the eight essay topic, which I think is a problematic
question. Some famous poets and writers do not think the world is changing for
the better and they have revealed it through their writings. Yeats is
considered to be giving a deadly prophecy in his short poem “The Second
Coming”. Likewise, T. S. Elliot in “Wasteland”, Jhumpa Lahiri in “Lowland”, and
George Cornwall in “1984”.
In between our discussions, we talked
about the novel “Aurora Leigh” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and you have
instructed me to read this after “Mistress” by Anita Nair. We also talked about
others; Sylvia Plath, Rabindranath Tagore, Victoria Ocampo. The ninth essay
topic can be said to be very gripping. “Do you think that ease does not
challenge us and that we need adversity to help us discover who we are?” To a great extent it does not challenge an
individual. To strengthen this point of view, characters from Moby Dick, David
Copperfield, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Great Expectations, can be
used.
The last essay topic was “Should heroes be defined as people who say
what they think when we ourselves lack the courage to say it?” We were asked to
write about this in which I got a 12 and it reduced to a 7. I learnt that line
space should not be kept in between paragraphs and no one should mention the
SAARC countries. As discussed we should briefly define a hero from our point of
view. I think actions speak louder than
words, thus a hero never puts forward their words before taking any actions
while protesting against something. Brutus from Shakespeare’s play is an
accurate example.
However a hero is not always supposed
to be a male figure; it can be a female. In History and Literature, there are
thousand of female characters that have protested injustice in households and
societies. Women have protested and revolt against the wrongdoings. Despite
this fact, little or no limelight was given to them. Examples of such
protesters from the Literature World are Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Browning, and
many more. Female characters from fictions like, Wings of the Dove, Doll’s
House, Much Ado About Nothing, Duchess of Malfi, Winter’s Tale, and Midsummer
Night’s Dream can be used to describe as protestors. Later, chapter 14 from
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bengali Version) was read in the class. We
learnt about the character Jim that with his natural wisdom he protested
against the learnt knowledge. Therefore he can also be accounted as a hero.
Moving forward and away from the essay
topics we were shown a file: “Teaching Art Since 1950” by the National Gallery
of Art, Washington. We came across terms, such as, pop art, minimal art,
abstract expressionism, performance art, new image and much more. The following
terms should be studied: impressionism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism, and
realism. We came across a Renaissance saying or aphorism “Truth is the daughter
of Time”. This means that truth changes with the passage of time and is very
short-lived. The questions from this reference should be answered as per your
given instructions. In addition, the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar
Nafisi, Big Question Series from the website templeton, and B. F. Skinners
Science and Human Behavior: Its Antecedents and its Consequences should also be
read. Deng Xiaoping’s economic ideology was also discussed.
In the next lecture class, Foucault,
Structuralism and Deconstruction in Art, Technology and Philosophy should be
discussed.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Monday, October 19, 2015
Theatre Anthropology
Sorry for being unable to post anything for the past few days! I have been busy with a lot of chores. I hope everyone is doing well. My recent reading is based on Theatre and Dance Anthropology. The book is written by Eugenio Barba, a renowned italian author who prospered in the field of Theatre Anthropology. It is called "A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of The Performer". The book explores the different dance forms in both the Western and Eastern region. He achieves to find similarities between between them and talks about the Eurasian Theatre: improvisation through modernisation. I loved the book and I think each and every one of you should have a look the book. If you do not want to submerge yourself into anthropological readings, you should at least go through the beautiful pictures.Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Food Review:
Hope you had a great meal! Well I had a lovely meal in ABSOLUTE THAI. Its just around Banani beside Taste bud.
It is a must visit for Thai food lovers (myself being one)! I will post the pictures of the following items I had: Fish Cake, Crab Meat Fried Rice, Green Curry Chicken, Red Curry Sea Food. Everything was delicious and mouth watering. I would rate this as a 10/10!
Check the link below for more information!
My Recent Work:
Good Afternoon bloggers!
I have been working on the poem "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope. I will update the work soon. It will feature the themes and a brief summary.
Also I would like to five a brief description of Alexander Pope. He is one of the most satirical poets and his works flourished in the 18th Century.
A message to all the Literature lovers: Enjoy reading and I will be glad to hear about your recent updates on readings :)
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