THE HIDDEN BLOG

The hidden blog, is a blog not late but undiscovered.  It is analysis of two unexpected pieces of Literature, Fable by Charles Yu and Three Short Moments in a Long Life by John L’Heureux, I didn’t have any writing events to discuss so instead I’ll talk about my semester as a whole.  I fully realize this isn’t the criteria for the blogs but I feel this will provide the best paper.

These two short stories are amazing representation of life’s events artfully created to become connected with the narrator rather then the story itself, because even if the stories are told beautifully the real importance is the narrator himself. In Fable, the story told is one that is mythical that is supposed to describe his life, but it is the reactions he gives when the therapist forces him to keep talking.  In Three Short Moments in a Long Life the narrator goes over three huge moments within his life, each one shipping who he would become, it is not the individual stories but rather the sum affect that it had on him.

Fable begins with the narrator talking to a therapist and being told that he must tell a story describing his life, which in the beginning he gives a  mundane story that just describes how bad he essentially feels for himself.  The therapist tells him the story doesn't go in depth enough, the therapist continues to tell him to describe in better detail until he realizes what actually has him in such a troubled state, his child who he loves but also causes a great deal of added stress.  It was not what he wanted to say for fear that it wasn't an appropriate thing to say.  The narrator has trouble comprehending that this could the source of his problems and then realizes that he has to come to grips with it and change his mind set.

Three Short Moments in a Long Life has the narrator describe 3 moments that greatly impact his life, they are normally heartbreaking but give a relevant idea as to how the narrator was thinking at the time of these stories and how the narrator matured.  The final story includes the narrators death but this is no normal death in a story but a very real choice made by a human.  Due to the experiences throughout his life he decides that the next seizure he has he’ll not ask for treatment and allow himself to die.  His wife is reluctant but because of her love for her husband she allows it to happen.

I have no great stories from this semester I just know that is was a bad one.  I was sick for about 2 1/2 out of the 3 1/2 months which not only hurt my social experiences at school but also greatly impacted my athletic performances.  It was heartbreaking and greatly annoying seeing a lot of hard work going to waste.  But I can only imagine like the stories above that these experiences will shape me further and I firmly believe that most bad experiences can be learned from.  These small stories connected with me so well that shared them with my girlfriend and we talked about them after she read them. 

Missing blog

I noticed the other day that I had only posted four blogs out of the necessary five for the semester. While I obviously don't have an event and can't find the time for one at such a hectic time of the semester, I thought it would be at least an interesting if not relaxing exercise to just write a sort of recap and reflection on the semester, with our final exam being tomorrow evening.

Admittedly, I initially took this class simply to fill part of my core requirement for English courses. However I have found that this was one of the more thought provoking and insightful classes that I have taken here in my short time at Loyola. I thought we had a great group of individuals in our class, many of whom showed how intelligent they are by offering very impressive statements and responses during both our in class discussions and on this blog site. I though the idea of doing a blog for a class was at least worth a shot, and the results were pretty cool. I liked that we were able to choose between the service learning and event track, this gave everyone's blog a lot more of a unique feel as most people either helped at different organizations in the community or went to different events on and off campus.

Probably my favorite event that I attended was the debate forum held by the Loyola Rhetoric Society back in late October. With the election season reaching its apex, tensions around both the country and the world were as high as they have been in recent memory. I found that the debates had between the diverse group of students and scholars provided the audience with a model of civilized debate on real world issues that Secretary Clinton and the eventual President-Elect Trump failed to exemplify. On the topic of the election, perhaps the most memorable class we had was on November 10th, the day after Election Tuesday. It pains me to say this, but outside of that class, I have rarely encountered civilized discussion of what happened and how everyone was reacting in a way that was respectful to the opinions of both sides. The climate here on campus seems better than most, yet the tension over the events of that night still makes too difficult for some people to talk about. On social media, it's even worse. It seems like my facebook feed is just a wash of overzealous Trump supporters and my twitter feed is filled with enraged, sometimes violent disdain from the other side. So for our class to be able to not only have a civilized discussion about the issue, but to be able to recognize and accept the opinions of both sides as equally valid is something truly commendable given the circumstances.

Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable and even at times relaxing class. As a business major, it is rare that I can focus my attention on topics like philosophy or literature, as many of my classes are objective and math based courses. This course was in many ways a breath of fresh air for me and I am very glad to have taken it.

Macbeth and Twelfth Night

I attended the Loyola Theatre Department’s performance of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare.  The play was packed and nearly every seat was filled.  I was really impressed with the quality of the acting, since my peers were the actors in the play.  Also, I learned that for some of the actors this was their first performance and they did very well, given their lack of experience.  I’d never been to a live play before and Macbeth was a very good first play.  The acting was superb and true to the way that Shakespeare wrote the play.  I found that Macbeth and Twelfth Night complement each other, one play is a comedy and the other is a drama.

Macbeth is a drama that focuses on the themes of loyalty, power, and fate.  The play’s overall tone is very dark because of the murder and bloodshed that takes place.  The corruption of absolute power is an important aspect of the play, as shown by Macbeth’s eventual death.  Twelfth Night, on the other hand, is a much more positive play.  Shakespeare incorporates comedy and dramatic irony to create a much more positive tone than in Macbeth.  However, there are some similarities between the two plays.  They both use dramatic irony and have a common theme of love.  Love is the main theme in Twelfth Night, but it also plays an important role in Macbeth.  Macbeth’s love for his wife is what drives him to kill the king. So, although love plays a different role in each play, it plays an important role nonetheless. 

A few important lessons can be drawn from each of these plays.   Macbeth teaches us that power corrupt.  Therefore, when we are placed in positions of leadership, we must be fair to everyone and make a conscious effort to help others.  Twelfth Night teaches us not to let our emotions get the best of us and to always keep hope.  Both of these lessons can be applied to everyday life, especially here at Loyola.    

Looking For an Identity

In “Twelfth Night” one of the major themes that presents itself is having an identity crisis. The main person that has an identity crisis is Viola, and this is obvious from when Viola disguises herself to make it look like she is a young male servant named Cesario. Viola does this because she is able to get close to the one she loves Orsino, and she is also able to be recognized by Olivia, whom she originally wanted to be the servant of. Viola has an identity crisis because she is not sure whether or not it is better to be herself or to be Cesario. As Viola she knows that she is able to love Orsino, but she will not be able to be close to him, as Cesario she is able to be close to Orsino but she also knows that she is not able to love him because they are both men. Along with not being able to love Orsino, Cesario also has the problem of having Olivia love him when he is supposed to be setting up Orsino and Olivia to love each other. If Orsino finds out Olivia is in love with Cesario and not him, Orsino will be upset with Cesario, and that is the last thing that Viola wants.

This identity crisis relates to meditation because sometimes we do not know what type of person we want to be, so a good way to determine what kind of person you want to be is to meditate on it. I have noticed that through meditation I have tried to focus myself on becoming a better person. Rather than focusing on being a person that can please everyone, if I can focus on being a person that is kind and good in everything they do, it is easier to be kind and to be the good person that I want to be. We are always told to focus on who we want to become, rather than focusing on the person we are on now, because if you focus on what you are doing now, you will never change the ways you do things. But if you focus on the person you want to be, you are able to change your life to fit it more to the person you want to be because you are able to see the changes you need to make in your life.

Viola (or Cesario) can use this meditation and put it into their life to decide which person they decide to be. If Viola wants to focus on going for the love of her life she should stay as being Cesario because she can stay close to him this way. If Viola wants to focus on being a girl she needs to focus on being Viola and not worry about what Orsino is thinking. Of course there are repercussions with both of these options. If Viola is to stay acting in the character of Cesario, she will never be able to love Orsino, and she will be loved by Olivia because she is a man. If she is to reveal herself as Viola she will not be able to love Orsino or be near him because she pretended to be a man and because she is of a different class. Obviously Viola is dealing with a major identity crisis and her best way to deal with it is through meditation and focusing on being the person she really wants to be and sticking to that. Rather than trying to be a person that she is currently which is not the person whom she wishes to be.

Romantic Love

Analysis

Lexie Trzcinski

11/21/16

A couple weeks ago I attended an event on Journalism, Michael A. Memoil came and asked people questions relating mostly to politics. I felt really intrigued by this event because prior to this year I had always wanted to major in communications and eventually work for a television show like NBC, where he had worked for for 8 years. Although I have changed my interest I still found this event to be extremely fascinating. Especially because we had just gone through the presidential election a couple weeks ago. Michael had an immense amount of experience through all sorts of social media such as LA Times, Today and NBC. Being able to hear someone else’s own experience helps people have a better understanding of the different things you can for jobs or internships.

The first half of the “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare it immediately depicts the dramatic, romantic love in a sequence of events. Although the play begins by talking about the brother of Viola seems to be dead and she is still mourning this loss, it begins the romantic love of each of the characters as well. I thought the first half of the play was slightly confusing because of all the different characters and their lovers that you had to follow. While the Duke of Orsino is trying to express his love for Olivia, Viola is in deep mourning of her brother Sebastian who is believed to have died on a shipwreck. I find the each of the character’s intentions to be slightly deceitful throughout the first half of the play. They seem as if they are all out to get each other. For example, when Viola wishes to be one of Olivia’s servants so that she can spy on her and see what the Duke of Orsino is going to try to do to win her love over. Another example is when they write to Olivia’s servant Mavolio pretending to be Olivia. Except they tell him to do all the things that Olivia does not like especially at this time of mourning. Overall, I find this first of of the play to be very dramatic.

Blog 11/21

Not Getting Any Say

For my event, I went to a discussion about the results of the election. Many of the students there were upset with the results and were not accepting Trump as their president. I was indifferent; I was leaning towards Trump, but it did not matter to me since I did not like either candidate very much. I would have preferred the independent candidate, Gary Johnson, but I knew that it would only be a battle between the two major parties. Students could not believe that people would actually vote for Trump and they were judging those who did. My roommate was not at the discussion, but we were watching the election and as Trump took the lead, he said that anyone who voted for Trump had to be an idiot. He said this because he thinks that anyone who voted for him was convinced that Trump was going to do everything that he says he will. My roommate is certain that Trump will do none of the things he claimed and try to ruin America. I also know people who think the opposite. They think that Clinton is a liar and will ruin America. There are so many different views and the discussion made that clear to me. It also showed me that politics is a huge deal to some people and that they actually really care about the country they live in.

            In Twelfth Night, when Viola tries to express the Duke’s love for Olivia, Olivia denies it and almost ignores it completely. It reminds me of Trump in all the presidential debates. He would say that everything Clinton said was wrong and would ignore any kind of explanation that she tried to give. Everything that Viola tried to say Olivia turned it away. Before Viola even got to say her speech, Olivia thought that she was a comedian. She did not take Viola serious just like Trump did not take Clinton or any other candidate seriously. During the primaries, Trump would laugh at what many other candidates proposed, then just say it was untrue or that it was stupid. He gave no consideration to other candidates like Olivia is doing to Viola. Viola says “Lady, you are the cruell’st she alive,” (14) because Olivia has a comeback for everything she says and is not letting her give the speech she was sent for. I think this is why many people hate Trump and think that he is deceiving his voters. He seemed like a terrible person and candidate during the debates, but many of his proposals were compelling.

Love and Death (I think?)

To start, the first two acts to me appear to be a classic Shakespearean setup where I feel the play will continue as all Shakespearean plays with love and tragedy.  My first take away from the story is that it may be the first love triangle written and is also the only example of a love triangle I’ve heard of that is a true triangle, with all three characters loving one character and having another character love them.  Love triangles aside I believe that this Shakespearean play meshes well with a musical I saw over the weekend, “The Adams Family”.  Both plays involve love, humor, and are also dark. 

“The Adams Family” uses love and humor similarly to the Twelfth Night, its just the dark tones of the plays that are different.  In the musical I saw the dark tone was set as a back drop, to be used comically amongst characters.  The music numbers where fun to listen to but the heart and soul of the musical came from the individual characters themselves and how they were setup.  I grew attached to each character, with all of their very specific quirks and each is now forever in my mind almost like a long lost friend.

This is very different from Shakespeares characters which to me are never too interesting.  The plays follow a similar setup of creating romantic interest between characters and then this love interfering with the character’s better judgments.  Then some sort of confusion ensues and just about everyone dies, its interesting the first few times but then you start expecting a tragedy like a twist in an M. Night Shyamalan movie, its never actually a surprise.  But who knows maybe twelfth night will be different.