...The article, “The A-Mazing House: The Labyrinth as Theme and Form in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves” by Natalie Hamilton is a scholarly journal entry which has an interesting take on the novel House of Leaves written by Mark Z. Danielewski. The article’s main focus is on labyrinths and the examination of the use of them as the theme and form in House of Leaves. In order to examine the theme and form, the mode of approach Hamilton takes is to “provide partial blueprints for [the] house by examining the foundations for which it is built”(3) as well as exploring the Danielewski’s use of labyrinths throughout the novel. The thesis in this paper is the idea that House of Leaves is all about labyrinths and that everyone involved in the novel, including the reader, is faced with their own personal labyrinth which they must overcome. Hamilton is able to support this argument by pointing out that the novel is a “four level split”(4) by saying that Will and Karen, Zampano, Truant, and the editors are all on different level and that “Each level of Danielewski’s text involves characters attempting to navigate the maze of self.”(5) To bolster her argument that everyone involved with the novel on all levels faces their own labyrinth, she quotes Wendy B. Faris who says: The labyrinth is no longer a special dwelling constructed for a particular monster, but rather a house where everyone lives.” (Faris p. 181, 1998) Once it is made clear that each person has their own personal...
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...In The Garden of Forking Paths, Jorge Luis Borges introduces the motif of a physical labyrinth while simultaneously constructing a story plot within a labyrinthine text. Protagonists Dr. Yu Tsun and Dr. Stephen Albert describe Ts'ui Pện’s labyrinth – which is not only a tangible labyrinth but also a book – as “a labyrinth of symbols” and “an invisible labyrinth of time” (Borges 493). Borges turns the characteristically abstract concept of time into a concrete idea, as actions and reactions bounce back and forth in a contradiction of the customary forward progression of time. As a result, Ts'ui Pện’s physical labyrinth becomes a labyrinth within a labyrinth. The initial feelings experienced when reading The Garden are akin to the sensation of...
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...01:090:101:50 index 14579 First-Year Byrne Seminar Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: A contemporary quest of self-fulfillment and joy HCK 131 Tuesdays 2:15-3:35 Dr. Dámaris M. Otero-Torres Department of Spanish and Portuguese 104A Carpender Hall DC Office hours: by appointment e-mail: dotero@spanport.rutgers.edu phone: 732. 848.6874 seminar description: Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is as a modern classic. Originally published in Portuguese in 1988, this novel has since been translated into 67 languages, becoming one of the best-selling books in history. Inspired by the teachings of ancient alchemy, the story narrates the adventures of a shepherd named Santiago, as he travels through the African desert in the pursuit of his dream: to see the pyramids in Egypt. As he journeys through the desert, Santiago becomes the ultimate alchemist when he learns to transform his life by tapping into the language of the soul. Our first goal in the seminar will be two-fold: to explore the contemplative principles of ancient alchemy as the foundation for this allegorical text and to delve into the “messy” stages of a hero’s journey. In medieval times, alchemy was considered a science, aimed specifically to transmute base metals into gold, to discover a universal cure for disease, and to prolong life. In our days, “alchemy” is basically understood as a metaphor for personal transformation. Indeed, the poetic connotations of the word “alchemy” underscore its lack of substantive...
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...Flores 1 Antonio Flores English 2333 Final Essay May 10th, 2010 Topic #1: Describe some characteristics of literature in the 20th century and illustrate these characteristics using the texts studied in class. Okay let’s start with William Butler Yeats, who was not only the main figure in the Irish literary renaissance but also the twentieth century’s greatest poet in the English language. Yeats constantly uses allusive imagery and large symbolic structures. Yeats adopted a cyclical model of history which he created a private mythology that allowed him to come to terms with both cultural and personal pain. This model also helped explain the symptoms of the Western civilization’s declining spiral; the plight of contemporary Irish society and the chaos of European culture around World War 1. Yeats shares with writers like Rilke and T. S. Eliot the quest for larger meaning in a time of trouble and the use of symbolic language to give verbal form to that quest. For many years it is Yeats’s mastery of images that defines his work. From his early use of symbols as private keys, or dramatic metaphors for complex personal emotions, to the immense cosmology of his last work, he continued to create a highly visual poetry whose power derives from the dramatic interweaving of specific images. One of his poems called When You Are Old pleads his love for the beautiful actress and Irish nationalist Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1889 and who repeatedly refused to...
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...Joyce Samantha B. Gula Introduction / Summary of Postmodernism Postmodernism is the belief that: (1) Most theoretical concepts are defined by their role in the conjectured theoretical network. (A subset are 'operationally' defined by a fairly direct tie to observations.) (2) The theoretical network is incomplete. (3) It follows that theoretical concepts are 'open', or what logicians call 'partially interpreted'. Research continues precisely because they are open; the research task is to 'close' them, although never completely. The current Postmodern belief is that a correct description of Reality is impossible. This extreme skepticism, of which Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn are particularly famous, assumes that; a) All truth is limited, approximate, and is constantly evolving (Nietzsche, Kuhn, Popper). b) No theory can ever be proved true - we can only show that a theory is false (Popper). c) No theory can ever explain all things consistently (Godel's incompleteness theorem). d) There is always a separation between our mind & ideas of things and the thing in itself (Kant). e) Physical reality is not deterministic (Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, Bohr). f) Science concepts are mental constructs (logical positivism, Mach, Carnap). g) Metaphysics is empty of content. h) Thus absolute and certain truth that explains all things is unobtainable. As Taborsky writes of Postmodern philosophy; .. the Mediated concept...
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...heryl Bardoe and Charlene Brusso each wrote an article on the interesting qualities and traits of fungi, a curious organism that’s everywhere, most of the time unseen by the human eye. Bardoe discussed how fungi is formed, found, and what it does in her text entitled, “Looking at Mushrooms”, and Brusso talked about the different purposes of the strange object in her text, “Talented Fungi”. So which author best portrayed the many different characteristics, so to speak, of fungi? Brusso did. Charlene Brusso explained what we can do with the common organism very well. Her subtitles included, “Eat Them”, “Cure Sickness”, “Make Stuff”, and “Clean Up Pollution”. It’s very obvious by looking at them that the information Brusso provided is very useful...
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...Luis Buñuel has once again created a surrealist piece to quickly grab the viewer's attention. The Phantom of Liberty is like a continuous triathlon without a finish line, but does not leave the audience exhausted after a number of events. Each story is effortlessly tied to the next like a different course in a triathlon, and is logical because as said by Roger Ebert, “[Buñuel’s] editing makes everything seem to follow with inevitable logic,” (Ebert). Buñuel was attempting to make the viewer believe the stories interlaced with each other by prompting other characters to appear on screen and connect the character’s lives together. The preconditioned idea humans created to believe in a resolution at the end of film is disregarded after an abundance...
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...Have you ever read a story with so much action that it keeps you on the edge of a cliff, but then crushes your thought about the character’s ethics? The short story “The Form of the Sword” was written by Jorge Luis Borges and published in 1942. This short story depicts the adventures of a man that was present in the Irish revolution, only to sell out one of his fellow countrymen to the enemy. His actions still plague his soul years later, at his home in Brazil. He sold the noble comrade out because of his cowardice, and the noble comrade was killed by a firing squad. While some people may find the story confusing, it should be used next year in this curriculum because of the great usage of allusion and foreshadowing. Allusion and foreshadowing...
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...Literatuuranalyse Spaans Trabajo I Literatura narrativa 15-5-2012 Introductie In deze eerste opdracht voor het vak Literatuuranalyse Spaans zal een narratief werk door mij geanalizeerd worden aan de hand van de richtlijnen in de opdracht. De keuze bestond uit een werk van Pío Baroja of van Jorge Luis Borges. Ik heb gekozen voor het twintigste eeuwse werk ‘Emma Zunz’ van de hand van de Argentijnse auteur Jorge Luis Borges omdat die in zijn geheel in de reader staat en omdat het een bekend werk is. Samenvatting Emma Zunz gaat over het meisje Emma Zunz dat op haar negentiende een brief thuis (Almagro, Argentinië) krijgt waarin staat dat haar vader zichzelf een overdosis veronal heeft toegediend in Brazilië. Dan herinnert ze zich dat haar vader zwoer dat de man die vroeger fraude pleegde in de fabriek en haar vader ervoor liet opdraaien Aaron Loewenthal heette, nu de baas van diezelfde fabriek. Niemand anders wist dit en zij besloot haar vader te wraken door Loewenthal om te brengen; hiervoor had zij een list bedacht: komen praten over de aanstaande staking, pretenderen dat ze door hem was aangerand en hem vermoorden uit “zelfverdediging”. Ter voorbereiding had ze seks met een Scandinaviër en was ze klaar om de daad te volbrengen: ze ging naar de fabriek, waar Loewenthal woonde, pakte zijn revolver uit de lade toen hij even water aan het halen was, schoot hem neer, pakte de telefoon en zei dat ze hem vermoord had omdat hij haar misbruikte. Analyse In dit werk is...
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...He was very descriptive and gave the reader a foreboding sense of what was to come of a delayed attack due to weather conditions. Yet, I remained confused throughout the story because it was quite hard to comprehend what Borges was trying to say. Part of the text was too wordy which made it hard to follow. Therefore, if he would have been more concise with his narrative or his examples it would have been more fluid to read and I would have been more engaged. To exemplify, “Before unearthing this letter, I had questioned myself about the ways in which a book can be infinite.” Borges instead said, I questioned myself about how this book’s journey can be infinite, all before unearthing this...
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...fulfil a prophecy: I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfil the scripture, 'The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.' (John 13:18) The prophecy comes from Psalm 41: Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me. (Psalm 41:9) Another theory says that if Judas had not betrayed Jesus the Crucifixion would not have taken place, consequently, there would have been no Resurrection and no plan for salvation. Jorge Luis Borges says in the Three Versions of Judas, “the treachery of Judas was not accidental; it was a predestined deed which has its mysterious place in the economy of Redemption.” Naturally God could have chosen a different avenue, a different person after all God is God. It is hard for our human mind to reconcile Judas’ free will with Jesus’ predestined death. God ways are mysterious and will remain so on this side of eternity. One explanation was offered by Luis Molina in the sixteenth century is simply, “God is omniscient, He knows what any creature He creates will freely do in any set of circumstances. Therefore, in bringing about those circumstances, He is exercising His sovereignty while preserving the human actor’s individual liberty”. David Limbaugh writes in Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel ( Page 32) If Judas Iscariot hadn’t betrayed Christ, He would have been delivered into the hands of the authorities in some other way...
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...It was in middle school when I realize that the program I was in divided me from others. Progressing through elementary school, I knew who was going to be in my class and my teacher. I felt a sense of distinction in school when the kids from other classes did not hang out with me, distinction from how the subjects taught to me were different from those taught to them. The reason why my classes were different? I was in the dual immersion program. Being in the program is important to me because of how it molded me into the person I am today; a person who appreciates their two cultures. The dual immersion program exposed me to a culture that was already embezzled in my roots, for that I am thankful for it. My elementary school celebrated...
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...No âmbito do trabalho proposto em aula, optamos por desenvolver a vertente da “República e Ordem: centenário da Guarda Nacional Republicana”. No seguimento, iniciámos a investigação, sendo que nos focámos, primeiramente, em obras gerais e, mais tarde, em bibliografia específica. Assim sendo, com o desenvolver da pesquisa, fomo-nos interessando pelo papel das Guardas precursoras da Guarda Nacional Republicana (Guarda Real da Polícia, Guarda Municipal) na Revolução de 5 de Outubro de 1911, e posteriormente, na composição da Guarda Nacional Republicana, ou seja, centrámo-nos no facto da Guarda Nacional Republicana ser a sucessora das extintas Guardas Municipais. Por conseguinte, tentámos desenvolver uma pesquisa que reunisse informações dos primórdios das forças de segurança pública até à criação da Guarda Nacional Republicana como a conhecemos. Pode-se dizer que a primeira instituição legal com funções de policiamento foi o Corpo de Quadrilheiros, que havia sido criado na sequência da crise de 1383-85, cuja direcção recaía no Condestável do Reino D. Nuno Alvares Pereira. Muito mais tarde, já no século XVIII, foi criada, pelo Marquês de Pombal, a Intendência-Geral da Polícia da Corte e do Reino, instituição que já contava, em larga medida, com uma organização bastante moderna. De seguida, em 1801, Pina Manique , intendente-geral da Polícia, criou a Guarda Real da Polícia de Lisboa, uma fusão do militar e do policial, que tinha por função velar pela execução da lei e pela...
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...Jorge Luis Borges once said, “Their books are also different. Works of fiction contain a single plot, with all its imaginable permutations. Those of a philosophical nature invariably include both the thesis and the antithesis, the rigorous pro and con of a doctrine. A book in which does not contain its counter book is considered incomplete.” This saying best applies to the book and movie, To Kill a Mockingbird. Being almost a different story, both, the movie and book, contrast on many different levels, with the novel being far better than the movie. With the plot, characterization of many characters, and the themes shown, it shows that the book is better. It is very apparent, after reading the book, that the scenes are different in the movie....
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...8/9/13 "Axolotl" by Julio Cortazar 70768 Axolotl by Julio Cortázar The Mexican axolotl is an odd-looking salamander with a flat head and spiked feet, unusual because it often spends its entire life in the so-called larval stage, like a tadpole, without ever moving to land. “It grows and grows in the same shape, and has the capacity to reproduce,” said the biologist Armando Tovar Garza. “We don’t really know why it doesn’t change.” Its gaze seems to captivate as its gills slowly beat. In Julio Cortázar’s short story “Axolotl,” the narrator is transfixed — “I stayed watching them for an hour and left, unable to think of anything else” — and experiences his own metamorphosis. New York Times, Oct. 31, 2012 There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls. I went to see them in the aquarium at the Jardin des Plantes and stayed for hours watching them, observing their immobility, their faint movements. Now I am an axolotl. I got to them by chance one spring morning when Paris was spreading its peacock tail after a wintry Lent. I was heading down tbe boulevard Port-Royal, then I took Saint-Marcel and L'Hôpital and saw green among all that grey and remembered the lions. I was friend of the lions and panthers, but had never gone into the southerncrossreview.org.education2020.us/73/axolotl.html?date=OC85LzIwMTMgNTowMDowNCBQTQ%3d%3d&u=ODRiM2E5MzEtNWJlNC1lMjExLWIxN… 1/6 ...
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