Women Aren’t Perfect-and They Don’t Have to Care! September 27, 2006

(taken from oldnavy.com) This is an image of a maternity sweater. It goes against what Douglass says about the media, because it presents women in their NATURAL states, without tons of makeup and perfectly-toned bodies. Women do not have to be supermodels to be wearing trendy clothing; they can be mothers, too. Also, just because pregnant women keep up with the trends does not imply that they are narcissistic, it simply means that they embrace their new motherly physical qualities.

(taken from newbalance.com) This goes against the typical media-enforced ideas that women have to always look their best. Also, Douglass emphasizes that the media DOES show women working out, but only doing so to get more noticeable bodies. This image, however, proves that some media sources, especially athletic ones, show women dominating in sports and becoming strong, not simply obtaining greater sex appeals.

(taken from bettycrocker.com) This image shows females baking desserts and smiling about it! According to Douglass, the media forces women to teach themselves to step away from sweets and to concentrate on healthy foods. This way, they will be able to keep their good figures. Betty Crocker, however, shows that dessert can make anyone smile!

(taken from plowhearth.com) Plow and Hearth teaches women that it is OK to have muddy feet if they are working in the lawn. This woman obviously does not care about the condition of her feet. Also, the fact that she has been working in the lawn shows that women do not just need to sit around and beautify-they can do yard-work and get dirty! If flecks of mud DO happen to get on her face, it is purely by accident. She is not concerned with Douglass’ mention of a mud-mask, in order to keep her face looking young and vibrant. This photograph is simply meant to portray a woman taking care of her lawn.

Questions for a Second Reading on “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger September 20, 2006

1. Berger tends to pay a lot of attention to the relation between art and history. He even ends his Ways of Seeing by stating, “A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history” (p. 155). This is relevant to the charts which Berger intersperses in his writing about how different classes of people interpret museums. History, in this sense, stands for art’s authenticity over time. It is relevant to pictures, because people’s perspectives on viewing the pictures is constantly changing. Over time, it becomes more difficult to fully grasp the painter’s original feelings and intents when painting the piece. Also over time, the ways in which we view pictures has changed, through things such as the invention of the camera. Berger explains, “Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified” (p. 144). Modern devices influence interpretation. Paintings can also “take us back” to places throughout history. If I had to define history based on its use in this essay, I would probably come up with something like: “history is a collaboration of many people’s feelings and interpretations of life, leading up to present day.” The relation Berger shows between the past and the present, is one that holds both positive and negative aspects. Positively, pictures from the past can help us to understand the artists’ feelings throughout their lifetimes; however, our viewpoints are constantly changing. Negatively, therefore, we may adapt paintings to modern-day society and completely miss their meanings. It is bad, Berger teaches us, to over-analyze works and “mystifying” them. He writes, “The art of the past no longer exists as it once did. Its authority is lost” (p. 155). It is hard to understand pieces of art of you cannot allow your mind to become free and to go back in time to understand feelings of those artists. If Berger has not “discovered” the past, then he has either completely misinterpreted the paintings about which he has written, or he has advanced our thoughts and opinions for the better by evoking new questions and ideas about art. To imply Berger “situating” us in history explains that he has taken us to the creators of artworks and gotten us to really think about their true motivations in producing them. He mentions that people who have been denied this right have been denied freedoms. This could be taken for a political meaning, because certain cultures and peoples have been oppressed over time and prevented from truly exploring their past. Furthermore, this could be applied to examples such as the Civil Rights Movement, etc.

2. Berger names the unnamed art historian’s interpretation of the Hals painting “mystification,” because the unnamed historian overanalyzes the piece and pays more attention to nitpicky details rather than feelings and emotion. Berger, himself, defines mystification when he writes, “Mystification is the process of explaining away what might otherwise be evident” (p. 140). I would characterize Berger’s account of the Regentesses painting as “emotionally-aware.” Rather then looking at details in the painting and connecting them to society around the turn of the seventeenth century, Berger pays more attention when looking at paintings to the feelings and motivations of the artist. I would say that what he sees is really there, but it is not self-evident, because there is a difference between looking at a painting and seeing it for what it is worth. It takes an expert to really see a painting, because the expert knows that true art possess some sort of meaning behind it. Berger, in this case, appears to be an expert. He not only looks at images in churches, he sees that the images are a part of them. Also, he distinguishes between original works of art and their replications, by stating that uniqueness is lost through reproduction. If the artist paints what he feels at that moment in history, then a reproduction twenty years later could not possibly house the same emotional feelings as did the original. Artists are “in the moment” in this sense. Berger further elaborates on this when he writes, “Reproduction isolates a detail of a painting from the whole. the detail is transformed. An allegorical figure becomes a portrait of a girl [see bottom, p. 148]” (p. 149). Again, he likes emotion. Berger also reflects upon how words can change the feeling of a painting, like the explanation that Wheatfield with Crows was Van Gogh’s last painting before he took his own life. Berger writes on knowing and believing affecting ways of seeing. He knows that people need to not let technologies and reproductions of great works of art affect their interpretation of the works’ original meaning. He also knows that he, himself, has been a victim of this. Berger believes that, in order to reach this goal, man would have to go through a hard battle to try and get themselves to fully appreciate and understand art and its history.

September 11, 2006

comment here on the post below- for some reason comments are off for that one.

Answering Questions on Walter Percy’s The Loss of the Creature September 11, 2006

1. Percy, in writing his many examples of tourists and students, presents differences between them. The first man mentioned cannot truly experience the Grand Canyon, because he plans the whole trip ahead of time. He has set expectations from unreliable sources: the media and postcards. The tourist who views the Canyon in its natural state is in a better situation, because he is looking at nature, instead of man-made trails. He will simply start a trend, though, and pretty soon the beaten track will not be so beaten afterall. The family viewing the Grand Canyon after the outbreak of typhus solve the previous problem, since there will be no one else to steal their idea; however, Percy questions whether it is better for other people to be absent in order to fully appreciate something in its natural state. The wounded man and the Australian expedition build off the other situations to present a conclusion. Natural disasters help people to appreciate how things were before they were destroyed, and things in their natural state help people to see how they were before man took over and tried to facilitate things. The people in Mexico see this complex issue and try to find their own resolution. They know it is best to see things in their natural state, so they do not stay in an Americanized hotel. They, however, face the question the family faced on whether other people are a negative force. If they worry too much about what their friend, the ethnologist thinks, then they will miss the true experience for themselves. When they see the religious festival, they are convinced that they have found the thing for which they were seeking; however, this is only a preconceived notion. The progression of these tourists to the later-mentioned students, is one of the theme of how to truly see something for what its worth. The islandler dissecting a dogfish with only the equipment he has on hand is far better-off than the laboratory student who is given a dogfish. Similarly, someone who finds Shakespeare’s works on his own has a better chance of seeing them for their true worth than someone at Harvard who is given the works to read. Like the tourists, these students have a better chance at appreciating something when it is in their natural state. The transition from tourists to students is used, because, students are more directly given ways to look at things from their teachers; therefore, it is harder for them to view things correctly and genuinely.

2. Percy continuously writes about what is missing from our society (the loss of sovereignty and the loss of the creature). Because of this, he also mentions the need for a sort of recovery of the appreciation of things in their true and natural element. When mentioning the family that sees the Grand Canyon after it is secluded following the typhus-outbreak, Percy writes, “Is looking like sucking: the more lookers the less there is to see?” (p. 470). Thereafter, the question arises of whether the thing that is lost from our society is the absense of isolation and quiet. Besides meaning a ruling role, sovereign can also mean independent. Society, though, may be using sovereignty against the individual through the use of zoning. The family is enjoying the Grand Canyon for themselves; however, others are prevented from doing so because society uses its caution tape to evacuate the area. Percy goes on to say that perhaps it is people’s own faults that their soverignty is lost. He explains this through the use of the Mexican tourists who pay more attention to what their friend thinks of the surroundings to their own feelings towards them. Planners and theorists take away from the worth of the consumer, or the student, who is receiving others’ ideas, instead of relying on his own opinions. It is, to some degree, though, the consumer’s fault for succombing to such a thing- for looking for “an it,” when sightseeing or learning in a classroom. Cardenas, though he was the first man to see the Grand Canyon, could still be influenced by a higher source. We really have no way of knowing. He could simply be comparing the sight’s beauty to that of another location, for example. Percy writes to point out, therefore, that this loss of soverignty, this loss of creature, is a loss of the individual thought. It affects everyone. The consumer has the worst end of the bargain, since he has no way of thinking for himself. Is the theorist or the “producer” any better-off, though? Is he not basing what he wants the consumer to feel off notions he himself has had preconceived by others? The cycle becomes so vicious that the tourist has to carve his initials into a tree to prove that he has seen it. Things should not have to be this way. People should be able to experience things without having to broadcast this to others. Also, people should not have to live isolated. Other people should not affect one’s interpretation of an event. Percy’s piece applies, therefore, to the interest of the people who want to see things for themselves for what they truly are. Then, and only then, will there be a gain of indepence, a gain of nature, and no more of the so-called “loss” in our world.

Reflection on Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature” September 6, 2006

1. The text, though intriguing, left me with a few unanswered questions. I’m confused about the relevance of the constant mention of the Bright Angel Lodge in comparison to the Grand Canyon. Since I had not previously heard of the Bright Angel Lodge, it was a bit of a struggle for me to see its importance in embellishing Percy’s points. Also, I’m a bit confused by the relevance of mentioning the importance of a biology student reading and an English major dissecting things to the rest of Percy’s writing. I understood his point that first-hand experience is undeniably the best in dealing with any subject, but I was confused as to why he mentioned the switch in subject-studying, in coinciding with his opinions on the matter. I also was confused by his mention of how the archaeologist who puts something in a museum is keeping that something to himself. Does Percy mean to say that this is because the archaeologist is claiming it as his own?

2. I struggled occasionally, when reading this piece, with seeing the connections between Percy’s many hypothetical scenarios. He would jump from the Grand Canyon to Indian tribes to a Sarah Lawrence classroom in a matter of seconds, without thorough transitions. Every now and then I found myself re-reading previous paragraphs and playing “catch-up” to his writing style.

3. I certainly was reminded of our class discussion on cliches while reading this. Percy flat-out used several cliches, such as “he has other fish to fry” (p. 471), and “this is too good to be true” (p. 473). Also, his mentioning of people’s reaction to the Grand Canyon being, “Why it is every bit as beautiful as a picture postcard!” (p. 469) evokes thoughts of cliches in stories and movies having to do with going to see the beauty of the Grand Canyon. Percy’s writing style, in itself, explores cliches, because the whole piece has to do with irony and learning experiences through unlikely situations. For example, this occurs when the people at the Grand Canyon are able to fully experience its beauty once all the man-made trails and other things which are there to help them have the true Grand Canyon experience are destroyed.

September 5, 2006

I never really get what you’re talking about, but I always know what you’re going to say…

Liberal Arts September 1, 2006

This reminds me of liberal arts education, because it represents a Spanish classroom environment. In liberal arts colleges, students are required to explore different languages. As we discussed in English class, learning about other cultures helps people to be more in touch with their own. Oftentimes, students in liberal arts colleges are required to have more years of languages than mathematics, for example. This is because this type of education system is a vehicle used by students to give them a broader sense of the types of people and places around them. These colleges feel that the years the students spend in this educational program should be used to help them explore themselves and the world, rather than solely working on problems. The photo presents a student finding Andalucia on a map; however, we don’t see the rest of the story. Liberal arts programs are not only made to teach students about cultures, but also to give them hands-on experience. The student may be just excited to find the city. She may, however, be planning a trip abroad there for her next semester. I give credit to Lifetimelearners for this picture.
Colleges present students with many options for their futures. Because of this, students can discover many possible fields of study, rather than simply going to a specialized college where they choose to solely focus on theatre or engineering, for example. I chose this picture of students at the library to present this aspect of liberal arts colleges, because they all look curious and interested in the various reading materials. Each book explains something different, either about life as we know it or about life lessons through fiction. In liberal arts colleges, students can pick up a book about any subject and choose to make it their future. I give credit to potsdamlibrary for this picture.
This picture of a small group of people helps to present how liberal arts colleges can be described as smaller, intimate communities. Smaller schools such as these help students to have a closer, one-on-one relationship with their professors and with each other. This way, they can have more direct help with choosing future careers. I chose this image, because it presents young men and women looking out into the distance. You could even go so far, perhaps, as to say that they are looking out into the world, since the photo portrays distant scenery. They are all together in this picture. It is a community. They are all looking at the same thing, as well; however, what does each one of them see? Everyone has a future. No future is the same. I thank monkeycurious for this picture.
This graduation image also helps to present the concept behind liberal arts colleges: students can receive diplomas in many different fields. These educations help the students to be more familiar with many subjects and ideas. Some of the people in this picture could be graduating with honors. Some could simply be thankful just to get out of the college and into the real world. No graduate, however, can bid his liberal arts education goodbye without saying that he was given opportunities to truly explore everything which life has to offer him. Hopefully, these graduates will use their knowledge to add even more careers into our society and to help make our world a more diverse and intelligent one. Thanks to CourtneyMay for this picture.