Frankly Speaking

I could not stand this book!  I have sympathy for  Vicktor Frankl’s suffering, along with the thousands of others that suffered and died too but I couldn’t get into this reading one bit.  A Man’s Search for Meaning was written to not only tell one man’s view of the Holocaust, but to introduce his method of psychology.  The introduction about how he knows these stories have been told millions of times but he wants to shed some light on what he learned while in the camp about the psychological make up of a man and the meaning of life really got me interested.  The part about the thoughts of his wife pulling him through each day was worth turning another page but anything else in between made me want to close the book.  Maybe I’m just soft and can not handle books on this topic because I couldn’t even finish the darn thing.  This was the first book I have ever read regarding the Holocaust and I don’t think ill read another.  I didn’t understand the full psychological damage he was going on about and I definitely did not get the logo therapy part.  This was, by far, one of the worse books I was forced to read for school.

Response to No Exit

No Exit was a mind boggling read.  We all know that nothing is certain after death and I believe that Jean-Paul Sartre has created some worthy food for thought.  I think that it is pretty amazing how people’s creativity can lead them to originate a new view on life after death.  After reading Sartre’s perspective of Hell, I can see his way as a way that is a lot more reasonable than devils and physical torture.  In my opinion, a mental Hell is far worse than a physical Hell because over time you can get used to the pain but no one can ever escape their thoughts.

One of his greatest points in this play is that, “Hell is other people.”  This easily falls under the inescapable torture of the mind.  I also found it very interesting that for Estelle, Garcin and Ines their Hell was beautifully personalized.  And by beautifully personalized I mean it simply can not get any worse for them.  I truly commend Sartre for his contrasting view of Hell, which is a topic I have never really given much thought about. Regardless of if Hell is psychological or physical, there is no real escape from the inevitable torture which is a point that he really brought home. I LOVED IT!!

World Literature, Please!

So it’s time for those quarter reflections, huh?  Well let me start off by saying this; I did not sign up for this class.  I was simply registered by a system that does not care so much for the individual within the system, but the product of the system’s effort.  Whitney Young is easily one of the top schools in the state of Illinois, but with over 2100 students, it’s hard to cater to every needs of person.  Whitney Young is kind of like the world in that way.   You’re only here for a short period of time and you’re encouraged to make the most out of your time here, even with the obstacles life or the school throws at you, like being placed in an unwanted class.  A quarter with this one error has allowed me to realize two things:  humans are so insignificant on earth in the grand scheme of things and that we have no real control over what happens. 

I have been able to look at world with new eyes, thanks to this class.  It may not seem like it, but I do enjoy coming to this class every single day.  If I had known that this really was a discussion based class, I probably would argued my way out of this class a little bit more.  I am not too fond of group work but the product that stems from those group discussions are always rewarding.  I love hearing other people’s opinions of life’s biggest questions.  And the blogs are a beautiful way for those who aren’t so outspoken or even mute to state their opinions.  English is no where near my favorite or strongest subject, but this first quarter of Philosophy of Literature has me looking forward to the rest of the year with a small joy, a joy that in this uncontrolled world this accident did occur.

How do we know what know?

I don’t think this is a question worth discussing.  I think it is completely safe to say that no one knows anything to be true and if they do, in fact, “know” something, it’s because of what someone has told them or because of what they have experienced or seen for themselves.  For example, in some part of the world, a country’s government has rewritten their own history and soon, after many generations, that new history will be known to all the citizens to be the “truth”.  Why, because they were told that this is real and that this has happened.

As for people’s experiences or what people have seen, that’s more real and holds more truth because… well because they were there.  They have seen it, so they know it to be true.  If I were asked the question how do I know if I throw a ball into the air that it will come back down, I don’t have to refer to what my teachers have told or taught me about Newton’s beliefs.  I can simply say that every time I threw the ball it came down and I saw it with my own eyes.  Now I know that’s not philosophical at all, but if we do know something to be true it’s because of what we have experienced or seen.

Who would Voltaire and Camus vote for in this year's Presidential Election?

So I am considering two candidates, President Barrack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.  It’s not that the other running candidates aren’t important, but these two seem to be getting all the attention seeing as though they are a part of the Democratic and Republican Party. 

With that being said, can’t see Camus voting for anybody or anything, ever.  He believes that human beings live in essential isolation in a meaningless and irrational world. So if life has no meaning, he would go with the flow or just not care at all.  Now this is contradicting what I just stated, but I feel as though, when the day comes, who ever is leading the polls the day he enters the booth, is the person he would vote for.  He’s just going with the flow.

As for Voltaire, I have a good idea who he would vote for.  Obama stands for the people, at least that what his campaign is all about.  Personal independence ties closely to what the President advocates so his vote would be for a government that protects those views.   Honestly, we will never truly know who they would vote for.

What Gives Life Meaning

Life does not have any meaning whatsoever.  We all live and we will all die.  That’s the one thing we all share in common right? Death, no one knows for certain what happens afterwards but that’s the path we are all headed for.

Someone once said that it is better to live your life like there is a god and find out that there isn’t, than to live your life like there isn’t a god and to find out that there is.  I can’t say most people live their lives in fear of God.  People do great things like helping others, making sacrifices or even simply loving everyone and everything because agapai will get them their ticket into heaven.   I think those things are meaningful in my life though, the act of caring for one another and bettering ourselves in hopes for a chance to sit for eternity with God in our own paradise.  But what does that even mean?  In the grand scheme of things most good deeds are minute and over time go unnoticed.  And in the end, was there any no true meaning behind being sweet and worshiping the Lord, besides the possibility of being in bliss for the rest of eternity after death? 

Nothing makes sense in the world; you just have to find your own meanings for living.  So what if in the end everything doesn’t add up.  It doesn’t make any sense that we are here in the first place from either God’s hand or from billions of years of evolution.  You only live once so as long as people are happy then those small good deeds and all that love keeping the earth spinning is all that matters and that has meaning.

Candide's Crime and Punishments, do they fit?

Candide is quite the unlucky character throughout this story.  He has faced the shadow of death on numerous occasions within his short journey.  He has been kicked out of his home, tricked in to joining the army, beaten, survived natural disasters and has even been threatened to be eaten.  Pangloss would argue that all these things were meant to happen but what were Candide’s crimes that would cause such an unreasonable amount of repercussion, and do his crimes fit the punishments?   He has murdered three human beings and the lovers of two women.  Five souls have been carried away from this earth, by his hand, and yet he still lives his stupid little life without any true change in character.  I guess you could say that the worse crime he has done would have been the killings and he has not been punished, but seeing the way he has been living his life thus far, with all his misfortunes, maybe a fair punishment can’t be too far away.