phantoms in the brain, how little we know of ourselves

                I have temporarily halted reading the scarlet letter because I found a different book (but I will return to reading the scarlet letter soon). I came across book while cleaning my book shelves at home. The first thing that caught my attention was the title: phantoms in the brain. I skipped the foreword and the preface and began to read the first page. It is a book written by a doctor about his personal experiences with patients. From the very first page I was hooked. It’s basically about how the brain works, but it’s not all boring facts one after the other. It’s about real life experiences and it’s absolutely thrilling. There are detailed descriptions of neurological phenomena. It answers the most unexpected questions!

This book really reveals a lot of interesting information about the way we think. And from the very first page it shows how little we really know about ourselves. I thought about the phrase from Romeo and Juliet “we’re born to die” and I realized that although it is true, the world is so complex. There are so many technologies in the world that are working to discover, to create, to help our way of life. And behind these technologies are people that create them and each person is “powered” by a brain. And yet there is so much information that remains unknown. As I was reading I couldn’t help but think of it as my brain learning about the brain. What really captured my attention was that this book contains theories about why certain people believe in god, and others don’t. To me this book just gave me a new perspective on life as we know it. It’s very intriguing. 

The Scarlet letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Themes

Right now I am reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. To give you a brief summary, the book is about a young woman in a puritan town in Boston, Massachusetts. Her name is Hester Prynne and she has gone to prison, for committing adultery. She is released with her infant but she has to always wear a bright red letter A, as public shame. Hester refuses to identify the father of her child.

Some themes in this book so far are sin, and secrecy. I also notice that at the beginning the scarlet letter is very thoroughly described and later on in the book, Hester’s daughter (pearl) wears a dress that has a similar description. I think that Pearl is supposed to represent or embody the scarlet letter that Hester has to wear. Pearl is kind of a shame for her mother, because her mother had her while committing adultery. I thought that this was a very interesting aspect of this book. Hester Prynne was a woman that was bolder than others; she did something that cost her her innocence.

the lost symbol by Dan Brown

                Although I have read and enjoyed the other two books in this series, this one did not pull it off. The first book of the series is “angels and demons” the second is the “Da Vinci code”. All three books have the same exact plot, and by the third book, it’s just annoying to read. I felt like this book was much too similar to the other two. I like Dan Brown’s writing but almost all of his books start off with a murder, then a really intelligent main character and usually some kind of assistant set off on a journey to find out who the murderer is. And this journey usually has an interesting twist, with lots of codes to crack and ancient mysteries. But it gets to be too repetitive. In my opinion this book was just an attempt to write another novel in the series and it used a lot of the same material as in the other books, just with more violence and more stuff going on as “fluff” to make up for the lack of originality.

                What I do like about these books though, is how they have interesting factual information. It shows that Dan Brown does a lot of research in order to write his books. And I learned a lot about different topics in each book. Angels and Demons was about antimatter, and the Da Vinci code was about the Mona Lisa and certain codes and stuff, and the lost symbol was about Free Masonry. And these books made me want to do more research on each topic. However this does not make up for the fact that the third book in the series was a failure and I really hope that Dan Brown does not write another book in this series, unless he can make it interesting.

response to miranda's blog post

 

                I really liked Miranda’s blog post (I know it was a few weeks ago but it really stood out to me). All of Miranda’s blog posts are really good, they have a brief summary and then she writes about an interesting idea or thought of hers. This particular blog post made me want to read the book, because of the way Miranda describes this book. In her blog post she proposes a very interesting question, is it better to be a victim, or a witness?” there were several comments about this question and most people said that its obviously worse to be the victim, but I believe in some cases it could be just as terrible to be a witness. I think that it’s especially when you are witnessing the pain of a loved one or someone who is very close to you. And living in such an abusive and violent environment is not healthy at all. And I’m certain that there is a pain that comes from being ignored.

                Miranda did an excellent job on this blog post; I can tell that she put thought and effort into it. This post was also successful in starting discussion, which is really good and shows that it was thought provoking. Great job Miranda, keep it up.

http://cottoncandymush.blogspot.com/2011/01/because-i-am-furniture-victim-or.html

Ernest Hemingway writing

                I’ve kind of been reading a lot of Ernest Hemingway lately. I have read the old man and the sea, recently finished the sun also rises and just started a farewell to arms (and I’m planning on reading for whom the bell tolls next). But I haven’t really read far enough in the book to post anything at the moment. However I can write about Hemingway’s style of writing.

                First of all, a lot of situations in his books are based on personal experiences. For example the sun also rises was based on his own experiences in Spain. And a farewell to arms is based on his experiences as an ambulance driver during world war1.

                In his writing he rarely uses adverbs. Ms. Rear said that she thinks that it makes his writing a little bit too “dry” sometimes. I happen to agree with her opinion. Hemingway’s writing is a lot of the time “straight to the point” without very much description. I suppose that he wanted to get the main point through but I believe that elaborating and using descriptions adds a good quality to text. I have had trouble starting his books but as I read further, they became much more interesting.

                Hemingway’s books are all very interesting and deeply meaningful. Several of them have won awards. In research about Hemingway I found that he traveled to many different countries. He led a very interesting life which contributed to his writing. To me he seemed to be a very troubled person, I read that he was often a heavy drinker, was often depressed and also was very paranoid especially in his final years. He suffered many injuries from war, as well as two airplane crashes. And he was married four times in his life. The reason for his death was suicide.

                Hemingway writes in prose, the most typical form of written language. It is the natural flow of words, no rhythm or rhyme like some poetry has. Hemingway is famous for his “spare and tightly written prose” style of writing. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature because of his influence in contemporary style.

does the sun also rise? i think so

                I have now finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I must say, Hemingway has a very interesting and powerful style of writing. This book is a story of love, and jealousy and tension. And all of this tension circles around Brett with whom the main characters are in love with. Brett is engaged to Michael Campbell. The main character, Jake Barnes, and his friend, Robert Cohn, are also in love with Brett.

                Brett is a complicated character. She has several love affairs which leaves men believing that she still loves them. As I was reading this book I noticed some reasons why Brett is considered to embody the sexual freedom of the 1920s. Brett has short hair and her attitude and behavior are much bolder than women in earlier times. She also cannot decide who she loves, even when she is engaged. (Spoiler alert)She uses her beauty and bold personality to eventually even seduce a 17 year old matador whom she was in love with later on in the book(by the way, Brett is 34). But she makes him leave because she feels guilty for what she has done. And she finally realizes that this is not what is right for her to do. And she decides to marry Mike Campbell.

                Although I really didn’t support what Brett was doing, I felt sympathy for her when she was crying. She regretted what she had done. As she was talking to Jake she said “I don’t wanna be one of those b*tches.” And I think that she made the right choice in the end, although I also felt bad for Jake and Robert Cohn, and Pedro Romero as well as any other men who were in love with her. And I believe that we all make mistakes. A lot of us make a big mistake that affects our whole life, but there is always some kind of hope and forgiveness that could be given for nearly any wrong doing. And there’s bound to be something positive that comes from something very negative.

                “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever…the sun also riseth and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose…the wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits…all the rivers run into seas; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”-Ecclesiastes