Okay okay okay, so I finished the book and...
Drum roll please.
*Drum roll*
I liked it!
*Drum roll turns into crashing of cymbals and high hats. This goes on for about 20 seconds before I yell for it to cease*
But as much as I enjoyed it, it had raised many questions in my mind. Mostly concerning the proper way to live or the possible ways to live rather. Before this book, I never considered it possible to look at everything indifferently. Now I can certainly see how one is able to do this. Towards the end of the book, Mersault seems to directly link his indifferent perspective of the world with the indifferent world itself. He talked about "The gentle indifference of the world" and how it made him "happy again." If you ask me, that's the only way to live. Find a connection through something and live with it. Mines is writing or basketball. If you ever had a conversation with me, you know I will refer to those things at least three times each. It doesn't matter if the conversation is 24 seconds long (NBA REFERENCE! The shot clock is 24 seconds! Okay, I'll stop now).
Now look back throughout The Stranger. Has Mersault not constantly found comfort or reliance in connecting everything back to his surroundings? I mean, it's the reason he killed a guy. Would I kill someone for writing or basketball? Pssh...maybe! But that's aside from the point. Now I forgot what my point was -_-.
There is no "proper" way to live. That would be only slightly ridiculous. Our human nature is to make our own pure and imperfect connections to something and...not live through it but to find comfort in it. Something we can identify with. I mean...that can be a "proper" way to live in itself. Kind of. But there is no "proper" connection. Then we would be robots and our status as the human race would be nothing but a label. It is with this that we are the most advanced species on earth. Not the technology! Not the thumbs! THIS!
I was going to end it there but I came back for more because my brain is just oozing with these thoughts of the right way to live. Mersault reminds me a lot of Wes Bentley's character of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty (my favorite film in case you're ever taking some Brandon Sanders trivia). In American Beauty, Fitts appreciates nature and his surrounds just as much as Mersault. He constantly records his surroundings and at one point admits that, "There is so much beauty in the world, I feel like i can't take it. Like my heart is just going to cave in." Sound familiar? I thought it would.
At another point in the film, Fitts nonchalantly offers to his next door neighbor that he'll kill his father. NONCHALANTLY. Some would argue that he's joking but I don't think that's clear since he's always so indifferent and emotionless.
Gee, that reminds me of someone...
Point being, I think I kind of love this book now. It caused me to address a question that I thought had a blatantly obvious answer. I was wrong. It made me realize how I live and how I want to live. Where I can find happiness and where comfort lies. But most of all, Mersault reminds me a lot of one of my favorite characters of all time in Ricky Fitts. So thank you Albert Camus for creating Mersault. More importantly, thank you Sam Mendes for creating Ricky Fitts. In fact, I want everyone to call me Rick Fitts from now on.
...In fact, don't do that.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
And here is what I think about YOU... (HW #2: Blog Comments)
Bryam,
I thought your connections to Plato's allegory about the cave were outstanding. It shows that you have a deeper outstanding of the text by connecting to something we've learned in the past. Also, the connection to Plato is very valid by saying we must view the world through our own senses.
I also think for you to make such a vivid connection to another complicated text as you did, it further enhances Banach's ideas. It made me realize that there are a countless amount of ways to view this text just as there are countless amount of ways for us to view the world. It's simply mind boggling for me to see it first hand so quickly since we've been reading about it all week.
I think for you to develop your ideas more, you should make include an opinion in your post and try to make it clear. You had wonderful ideas but most of them were just begging for some personal input from you.
This post was as interesting as they come. It made me reflect and realize how we all view things differently on a smaller scale. Banach is absolutely right. Our minds are truly our own and Bryam, my good man, you made this apparent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Sandy Sandy,
Your last paragraph did it all for me. I completely agree that it's hard to identify one's TRUE self since we're always putting on these masks. Not to necessarily be "fake", but in order to hide insecurities or make others around you feel more comfortable. But since we are constantly doing this, you posed very good questions which all stood under the umbrella question of: How do we know who we really are? I thought your ability to pose such questions shows just how complex this reading is and also how thought-provoking it was.
I loved the connections to stories of your friends and how you thought there were enough humans in the world for emotions to overlap. I'll have to disagree (respectfully of course). While I agree on our core base feelings, I think it is impossible to tell whether two people feel the same way. Two people can go through identical situations and perhaps feel similar to one another and then that creates a connection. But to say they feel the same way, I think would be a little unfair.
I think to further develop your ideas, you can try adding more personal connections to your next post. The ones in here were so good and enjoyable that they left me wanting more so I think to add more personal connections would make the post feel a little more concrete and whole.
I absolutely adored this post. I thought it was nearly perfect. It not only addressed Banach's challenging concepts and your opinions on them but you also provoked the thoughts of the readers with your Banach-esque philosophies in the third paragraph. Very well done.
I thought your connections to Plato's allegory about the cave were outstanding. It shows that you have a deeper outstanding of the text by connecting to something we've learned in the past. Also, the connection to Plato is very valid by saying we must view the world through our own senses.
I also think for you to make such a vivid connection to another complicated text as you did, it further enhances Banach's ideas. It made me realize that there are a countless amount of ways to view this text just as there are countless amount of ways for us to view the world. It's simply mind boggling for me to see it first hand so quickly since we've been reading about it all week.
I think for you to develop your ideas more, you should make include an opinion in your post and try to make it clear. You had wonderful ideas but most of them were just begging for some personal input from you.
This post was as interesting as they come. It made me reflect and realize how we all view things differently on a smaller scale. Banach is absolutely right. Our minds are truly our own and Bryam, my good man, you made this apparent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Sandy Sandy,
Your last paragraph did it all for me. I completely agree that it's hard to identify one's TRUE self since we're always putting on these masks. Not to necessarily be "fake", but in order to hide insecurities or make others around you feel more comfortable. But since we are constantly doing this, you posed very good questions which all stood under the umbrella question of: How do we know who we really are? I thought your ability to pose such questions shows just how complex this reading is and also how thought-provoking it was.
I loved the connections to stories of your friends and how you thought there were enough humans in the world for emotions to overlap. I'll have to disagree (respectfully of course). While I agree on our core base feelings, I think it is impossible to tell whether two people feel the same way. Two people can go through identical situations and perhaps feel similar to one another and then that creates a connection. But to say they feel the same way, I think would be a little unfair.
I think to further develop your ideas, you can try adding more personal connections to your next post. The ones in here were so good and enjoyable that they left me wanting more so I think to add more personal connections would make the post feel a little more concrete and whole.
I absolutely adored this post. I thought it was nearly perfect. It not only addressed Banach's challenging concepts and your opinions on them but you also provoked the thoughts of the readers with your Banach-esque philosophies in the third paragraph. Very well done.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Let Me Bring This to the Light for You (HW #1)
In a middle school poetry class, Khadijah Allende got up and read a poem. The first line was, "Have you ever been alone in a room full of people?"
...No. I mean yes. Wait what?
Since she was a seventh grader and I was only in sixth, I figured she knew something about the world that I have yet to learn. Was this an actual feeling or just fancy wording? At the time, it was just fancy wording to me. A type of writing that I had yet to learn. But then time went by. Now six years later, I know the exact feeling of which she spoke. Apparently so does David Banach.
I have grown all too familiar of this feeling. But apparently this is not only a feeling but it is who we are. To realize that you're actually by yourself, the moment you realize it...it's such an exposed feeling. Like a dry leaf in late autumn. Like a flower has bloomed in the awakening of spring.
Nobody can understand truly what I feel. I am convinced of this. I wouldn't wish for anyone to feel the horrible things I've felt and if someone's felt my greatest sensations, they wouldn't feel at all authentic. To be "trapped in a dark room with no windows" might sound like a depressing setting but you feel things a lot better. It allows you to know yourself better and understand who you are as a being. People are distractions and can get you out this dark room. But luminosity is only a curse for your thoughts and feelings are as exclusive as the sun when you surround yourself with other humans.
As you may have guessed, I'm not ashamed of my pessimism. "Only [I] feel [my] pains, [my] pleasures, [my] hopes, and [my] fears immediately, subjectively, from the inside." I accept this fact and therefore accept my absolute individualism. With this comes the pessimism, depression, and, ultimately, the loneliness.
- Brandon Sanders
...No. I mean yes. Wait what?
Since she was a seventh grader and I was only in sixth, I figured she knew something about the world that I have yet to learn. Was this an actual feeling or just fancy wording? At the time, it was just fancy wording to me. A type of writing that I had yet to learn. But then time went by. Now six years later, I know the exact feeling of which she spoke. Apparently so does David Banach.
I have grown all too familiar of this feeling. But apparently this is not only a feeling but it is who we are. To realize that you're actually by yourself, the moment you realize it...it's such an exposed feeling. Like a dry leaf in late autumn. Like a flower has bloomed in the awakening of spring.
Nobody can understand truly what I feel. I am convinced of this. I wouldn't wish for anyone to feel the horrible things I've felt and if someone's felt my greatest sensations, they wouldn't feel at all authentic. To be "trapped in a dark room with no windows" might sound like a depressing setting but you feel things a lot better. It allows you to know yourself better and understand who you are as a being. People are distractions and can get you out this dark room. But luminosity is only a curse for your thoughts and feelings are as exclusive as the sun when you surround yourself with other humans.
As you may have guessed, I'm not ashamed of my pessimism. "Only [I] feel [my] pains, [my] pleasures, [my] hopes, and [my] fears immediately, subjectively, from the inside." I accept this fact and therefore accept my absolute individualism. With this comes the pessimism, depression, and, ultimately, the loneliness.
- Brandon Sanders
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