I doubt it was suicide. We read that passage in class and it seemed obvious it wasn't. I wouldn't have even considered suicide if i hadn't seen everyones hands in class. EVERYONE thinks its suicide, but the evidence just doesn't add up.
1) the drug itself wasn't completely understood. Doctors, chemists and patients all experienced different affects on the same dosages.
2) she had just seen evidence that her life could easily turn out pretty good. (the baby scene).
3) she wants to fall asleep, not fall asleep forever. no where in her falling asleep is their substantial evidence that she wanted her sleep to be permanent.
4) she was finally free of debt. She didn't have any more weights over head. she was actually free.
in short, she didn't commit suicide, it was an accident.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Ecclesiastes 7:4
I didn't know the title came from the Old Testament/Torah/Bible...but it does.
Ecclesiastes 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth. So there it is, the title of our book. I'm assuming this means Lilly isn't wise? since shes in the house of mirth? or maybe shes escaping it and finding wisdom?
I also didn't know what 'Mirth' meant, so i looked it up. Mirth-amusement, usually expressed in laughter. I'm not too sure what all this means. i guess we'll find out.
Ecclesiastes 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth. So there it is, the title of our book. I'm assuming this means Lilly isn't wise? since shes in the house of mirth? or maybe shes escaping it and finding wisdom?
I also didn't know what 'Mirth' meant, so i looked it up. Mirth-amusement, usually expressed in laughter. I'm not too sure what all this means. i guess we'll find out.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Code?
Is Marx speaking in code? There are a bunch of italicized words throughout this section of his texts. Words like: Proprietors, Greed, Commodity, Product of Labor, Means of Life, Producing Activity, Species-existence of Man etc...
Ok well all these words are nice but frankly this section was a bit too heavy for me. I couldn't follow Marx's whole argument. I realize that he's explaining a complex theory, but i did get lost.
What i did like was all the discussion over how the products of labor are the resume of that labor. That was an interesting product.
i also liked the quote 'what is life but activity' it just seemed wise.
so even that i didn't fully understand this section i do think it demonstrated Marx's wisdom, giving credibility to the texts.
Ok well all these words are nice but frankly this section was a bit too heavy for me. I couldn't follow Marx's whole argument. I realize that he's explaining a complex theory, but i did get lost.
What i did like was all the discussion over how the products of labor are the resume of that labor. That was an interesting product.
i also liked the quote 'what is life but activity' it just seemed wise.
so even that i didn't fully understand this section i do think it demonstrated Marx's wisdom, giving credibility to the texts.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Crusoe = Value
On page 236-237 Marx talks about Robinson Crusoe. The paragraph is long so i won't type it out, but pretty much Crusoe is the embodiment of Marx's value theories. All the economic talk and symbolic reasoning was weighing me down, but that slight interlude about Robinson Crusoe really showed me how simple value theories are (in theory). It also showed me that Marx really knows what hes talking about. Anybody can ramble on in complex language, but it takes a master of a subject to simplify something complex down to laymens terms, and thats what he did.
pg 107: "Man can be distinguished from the animal by consciousness, religion, or anything else you please. He begins to distinguish himself from the animal the moment he begins to produce his means of subsistence, a step required by his physical organization. By producing food, man indirectly produces his material life itself."
Wow, maybe this just hit me and it is no big deal to everyone else, but the fact that man is distinguished from animals because he produces his own means of 'surviving at a minimum' just seems so simple that it must be true. It makes a lot of sense. We are different because we build ways for ourselves to exist, not just flying from flower to flower sucking nectar or hunting down an animal every-time we get hungry. I would argue that religion and consciousness fall in to this same category. They don't help us exist at a physical level, but at a spiritual and emotional level they definitely do.
Wow, maybe this just hit me and it is no big deal to everyone else, but the fact that man is distinguished from animals because he produces his own means of 'surviving at a minimum' just seems so simple that it must be true. It makes a lot of sense. We are different because we build ways for ourselves to exist, not just flying from flower to flower sucking nectar or hunting down an animal every-time we get hungry. I would argue that religion and consciousness fall in to this same category. They don't help us exist at a physical level, but at a spiritual and emotional level they definitely do.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
My Marx group is supposed to identify deviations from the 'communist stereotype' My only stereo type of communists comes a little from modern china, but more from post cold war sentiments of Russia. Films set during the cold war, films made during the cold war, and stories my parents tell are really the only views of Communism that i have, so they are extremely skewed.
The opening line of this reading section was one of the first things that went against my stereotype. 169: The communists, therefore, on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions and the ultimate general results of the proletariat movement.
I always saw (as my group discussed) the people of communism (not the leaders but the actual citizens) as being oppressesd and force-fed propaganda that promoted the communist way of life. I never really envisioned the people of the nation (proletariat) pushing for and marching for communism. Shows how naive i am huh?
The opening line of this reading section was one of the first things that went against my stereotype. 169: The communists, therefore, on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions and the ultimate general results of the proletariat movement.
I always saw (as my group discussed) the people of communism (not the leaders but the actual citizens) as being oppressesd and force-fed propaganda that promoted the communist way of life. I never really envisioned the people of the nation (proletariat) pushing for and marching for communism. Shows how naive i am huh?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Karl Marx's Manifesto is such a widely known book and this is the first time i read it. This may be a sign of the times, but i found the book almost humorous because of all the jokes i've heard and seen involving the 'proletariat rising up'
for example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L-RsuI_cOSI
Or how many times in class in high school we would joke about having a proletariat uprising over a test or some project.
Its very interesting now to see the actual text that bred such thought. I can imagine being an oppressed lower class worker, reading this, lending it to my friends, and becoming extremely unified and emblazoned against the bourgeois. I really enjoy reading the sections made to fire up the proletariat like on page 167 "the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product."
for example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L-RsuI_cOSI
Or how many times in class in high school we would joke about having a proletariat uprising over a test or some project.
Its very interesting now to see the actual text that bred such thought. I can imagine being an oppressed lower class worker, reading this, lending it to my friends, and becoming extremely unified and emblazoned against the bourgeois. I really enjoy reading the sections made to fire up the proletariat like on page 167 "the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product."
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