My Personal Obsession

My interpretation of the image above is that, well, computer science is the key.  The succession of zero’s and one’s are the computer’s language – binary.  Weird way to start off a blog entry about personal obsessions, right?  Yes, it is kind of weird, but not off topic in any way.  I am obsessed with, well, computer geeks.  Geekiness in general, I suppose.  Programmers? Yes. Hackers? Yes.

I guess this all very well stems from my childhood.  I taught myself how to use the computer in elementary school, and my days of using a computer began with playing those educational game CD’s that my parents would buy from Costco like JumpStart, Magic School Bus, Carmen Sandiego, etc.  I’ve always been a sci-fi fan, and I devoured the old Star Wars movies in our mini-theater in the basement on Laserdisk.  Yes, laserdisk.  They existed back then.  Well, the computer basically introduced me to gaming, torrenting (file sharing), and all sorts of fun stuff.  Of course, most girls would enjoy gossiping and dressing up and all that jazz, and don’t get me wrong, I like painting my nails and looking cute, but I don’t think I follow the typical girl stereotype.  I love computers.  I love video games.  I love sci-fi and geekiness and Star Wars and Star Trek, etc.  Heck, my roommate likes to tease me that I sit like a man when I’m playing video games.

I think my obsession was inevitable.  I was first introduced to “programming” and “code” through movies.  There’s always that one geeky hacker that has his massive computer station setup in movies that is like some sort of information hub and can get you anything you want in just a few clicks and commands.  The earliest movie I remember this from was called “The Core,” which aired in 2003.

Unfortunately, the geek is never usually the main character, but “Rat” Finch was an elite hacker that played a fairly vital role in the movie.  I thought he was adorable.

One of the most famous hackers in film is from the Matrix!  Not exactly your average computer programming geek, but still, it’s a start.

I don’t think I ever really noticed it, well, not really until my first trip to the Microcenter, which is a chain computer store.  I walked in and there was a section of the store for computer parts, and there were workers there physically building computers.  I thought it was the most awesome thing in the world, and I watched them for a while.

I also think one of the neatest things in the world is the term being “wired in,” or when programmers have their headphones in and are focused only on coding for hours on end.  You know what else is cool?  Hacking competitions…!  I always recall that scene from The Social Network where interns had to compete against each other while coding drunk.  A little exaggerated, but still a fun concept.

Symbolism of Winter in “Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”

“Winter birds take wing from the branches and fly over the Wall to the south.  The clouds sweep in low.  Winter readies to lay siege” (123).

The beasts die in the winter when they freeze to death outside the wall.  What is interesting is that it is stated in the text that they succumb to their deathand accept it without question.  The colonel remarks that the beasts’ winter death may be their “salvation,” that “they die to be reborn in the spring” (223).

Everyone in the End of the World talks about winter as a looming figurative death that weakens the spirit.  The gatekeeper even refuses to let the narrator see his shadow until winter.  And what about that time when the narrator wanders into woods during winter, feels an encroaching numbness, passes out and almost freezes to death?

In literature, winter is symbolism for death, or the onset of death.  I remember reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe in which winter was desolate and hopeless.

In Japanese folklore, the goddess of winter is Yuki-Onna, a pale maiden dressed in white.  She entrances people into storms, surrounds them in a numb whiteness and then slowly cause them to freeze to death.  Almost sounds like how the narrator almost died out in the winter snow.

Heck, even Disney utilizes winter symbolically.  In Bambi, his mother passes during the wintertime.  More death!

Must I mention the famous video game Skyrim?  The continent is set in the northernmost continent in the Elder Scrolls series… the NPC’s speak of its Skyrim and her ruthless, desolate lands.

It seems that all references to winter seem to be negative and relate to either a figurative death or hopelessness.  The book is using the onset of winter as the foreshadowing of death… or the end of the world.

An interesting quote from the text is: “The sound of the wind, swaying of the grasses, the clack of heels on the cobblestones in the still of night, all grow remote under an ominous weight” (144).  At first if you were to read the first half of the sentence out of context, you could imagine a sunny day in summer or spring in a lively town.  It is only after “ominous weight” is added that we associate the sentence with the cold.

Winter is not only associated with death, but also doubt and weakness.  The Colonel tells the narrator: “‘You have doubts, you have contradictions, you have regrets, you are weak.  Winter is the most dangerous season for you'” (146).  Here it is again.  Winter being weak. Dangerous.  Not a pleasant time.

O.K., so winter is used a lot in literature figuratively.  What about science?  Well I’m sure everyone’s heard of ice ages, or glacial periods.  When the narrator’s shadow jumps into the whirlpool, it is still winter.  What if it stays winter?  What if his mind is numbing over and going through a figurative ice age?

Clearly the author is deliberately using winter as an important plot device in the book.
1. Winter as a warning sign… foreshadowing the death of his mind?
2.  Winter relating to hopelessness like the hopelessness of the beasts and the hopelessness of the narrator when he finds out he is going to die.
3. An encroaching numbing that ultimately clouds his consciousness when he slips into the world in his mind.

Chess in “Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”

In the “End of the World” chapters of the book, the author is often found playing chess with the Colonel whom he lives with.  What was really strange, though, was that I did not recognize many of the chess piece names that they were using.  Having played chess a lot with my dad when I was a little, I was surprised when I couldn’t recognize the names.  I decided to investigate!

The chess piece names are as follows:

• King
• Queen
• Knight
• Bishop
• Rook
• Pawn

Some of the chess piece names I found in the book:

• King
• Knight
• Ape
• High Priest
• Parapet
• Wall

I can’t even begin to imagine what the heck “ape” might be!  Parapet may be referring to the rook, as I looked it up to mean the raised portions of the wall of the rook.  “High priest” could be the “bishop” – both of them are related to the church.  Since the “knight” and “king” seem to the same, by process of elimination, I am guessing that “ape” must be the “pawn.”  “Ape” does have a crude connotation and would probably refer to a dispensable piece… the pawn.  Could the “wall” be the “queen”?  I remember the queen being the most powerful piece because it could move anywhere in any direction, acting as a shield for the king.  The wall could act like a shield?

Why would some of the names be different and some of them the same?  It could just be a loss in translation, since the original print was in Japanese.  I feel like there should be a deeper reason, though.  For sure, the inclusion of the “wall” piece must be important, as his little “End of the World” land is enclosed by a wall.  The speaker even spends several paragraphs on page 164 talking about how he lives in a “world completely surrounded by walls” that represented “limitations.”

Chess itself is a strange game.  Well, it’s meant to be a fun and strategic game – which is more light-hearted and meant to be enjoyable, right?  But… chess is like war.  There are two sides, and the goal is to kill each other off until one of you can kill the other’s king.  It is interesting that it is included in this story.  It could be analogous to the scientist using the speaker as an experimental subject just for scientific “funsies,” but it ends up being a tragic and life-ending conclusion.

Hard Boiled Wonderland…

One of the details about this book that intrigued me the most was the concept of the character as having separate-yet-whole sides of the brain that he uses to process data.  He described it as putting in data to his right brain and then converting it and outputting the data through his left brain. In the earliest part of the book while he is in the elevator, he talks about how he uses the right side of his brain to count the change in his right pocket, and the left side of his brain to count the change in his left pocket.

O.K. A lot of things go off in my head – the first of which, being a biological science major, is the concept of left/right sides of your brain. I am fairly sure that the right side of your brain commands the left side of your brain, and vice-versa.

I also thought of the whole categorization of people into “left-brain” and “right-brain” people. The common understanding is that “left-brain” people are more logical analytical – like people in engineering or people good at math. “Right-brain” people on the other hand are creative and intuitive – like artists. This leads to a whole another tangent about how the brain learns, and how different learning/teaching methods are more effective in training different parts of the brain!  Not everyone can effectively use their brains in equal proportions – some learn more “right-handedly” than others, for example.

But how does this all relate back to Hard Boiled Wonderland? The narrator describes the conversion of data in his right brain as “converting it via a totally unrelated sign-pattern,” while the left brain just acts as an output. I find this a little weird, as I would think that the more logical, analytical side would be doing the conversions.

Then, in the chapters on The End of the World, they keep talking about the “mind.” Well, the brain and the mind are two entirely different things. In Hard Boiled Wonderland he keeps talking about his brain, but in The End of the World he talks about his mind. Is this so-called place, “The End of the World” really just in his mind? After all, he did say that chaotic core/pit in his brain was coined “The End of the World.” Anyway, there IS a distinct difference between the brain and the mind…

The mind is conscious. The brain is innate. The mind knows and the brain understands. When we gain knowledge, we gain it consciously – in the mind. It’s weird, then, that the narrator’s “core” or his “End of the World” program cannot be known by him, but the mind is conscious. He says he uses his brain to process data, but he processes data consciously. Shouldn’t this be the mind’s work? The brain is just a physicality…

Maybe there’s a meaning behind this. Maybe since he has become a Calcutec, he hasn’t really been “conscious” – just going through the motions as if trapped in an innate system – thus, the brain. His true mind is in “The End of the World.”

 

Julio Cortazar’s “A Yellow Flower” is a story about coincidences that might not be coincidences, or just may be coincidences…

The narrator is talking to a man at the bar telling a story about how he met a boy named Luc that seemed to be exactly like him when he was a boy, and is convinced that they are the same person. Confusing, yes, because he even hypothesizes to say that the cycle continues endlessly.  Kind of sounds like some sort of Buddhist reincarnation theory to me.

Anyway, I mapped out all of the drunkard’s “coincidences” with the boy, Luc.  During my first read, I think I was fairly convinced that the drunkard and Luc were living the same “lifeline,” as the drunkard says.  However, after mapping it all out, I look back and realize that all of the so-called similar experiences that the two had could apply to anyone.  I am positive that every little boy has gotten sick or broken a bone before or received a birthday gift that somehow got lost or destroyed.  Boys will be boys, right?  I think the drunkard is so miserable with the way his life turned out that he’s just imagining these crazy theories just to keep him going.

By the time the drunkard starts talking about the yellow flower and how “it was the end of the chain” and he was going to be “absolutely nothing,” I’m pretty sure he’s already had way past the amount of drinks he should be having in one night.  The stuff he is saying seems like something someone would say when they’re tripped out…  The author even writes that his eyes were “shining with a fever that was not of the body.”  Clearly he must not be in the right mind.

It’s also weird how he’s so upset about “the end of the chain.”  He describes his life as “poor,” “stupid,” “imbecilic” – not something someone would normally want to wish on someone else’s life.  Shouldn’t he be happy that there will be no more people like him?

For my literary map of “House Taken Over,” I decided to map out the plan of the house, which is what the story revolves around.  I used the descriptions that Cortazar gave to map it out the best I could.  The gray rectangles represent the doors (Except for the corridor to the hallway – it is just left open).

What was interesting about the house layout is that it is so distinctly separated between two parts – the corridor being the intermediary of the two.  It conveniently acts as a border in the story when part of the house gets “taken over.”  It is also highly convenient (for the events in the story) that on the side not taken over, there is the kitchen, bath, and the two bedrooms.  The house is also quite large for only the two of them – there are three empty bedrooms on the upper side not being used.  They could have profited lucratively and socially if they had gotten tenants, but they did not want to.

I thought that the living arrangements and relationship of the brother and sister were very strange.  Irene even turned down two suitors.  The two live together everyday, like a married couple.  I thought it was creepy when the speaker was describing how wonderful his sister’s knitting was, and then said “It was lovely.”  I kind of felt uncomfortable there.  Another time I felt uncomfortable was when after the first part of the house was taken over, the brother spent the majority of his time in Irene’s bedroom.  I suppose I understand that they are scared so they want company, and they are kin after all, but I still find it kind of strange.  The brother and sister even refuse to sell/rent out the house, or leave… The two live together closed off from the rest of society, just living day by day like robots on a clock.

To me, it is almost inevitable that the house gets “taken over,” because the brother and sister had been living in their own little world for so long.  They relied too much on that house, and now that it is “taken over,” they have nothing left.

My favorite story we have read so far is The Spectre Bridegroom.  It is also the story that I least understood in my first read, which is why I decided to write about this story for my first essay in English 124.

When I read The Spectre Bridegroom, I was reminded of two similar things – the movie “The Corpse Bride” and the Grimm Fairy Tales.  I remember reading about the Grimm Fairy Tales, and many of them included supernatural and/or gothic elements that were similar to The Spectre Bridegroom.  Also, the movie “The Corpse Bride” is follows almost the same exact plot, except the bride and the groom’s roles are reversed.

My literary term of focus for this piece is Gothicism.  From my understanding, Gothicism is an idea that branched out of Romanticism.  I began my literary map by naming some of the major elements of Gothicism: dark, emotional, and supernatural.  I also added a section for setting, because setting also plays an important role in Gothic literature also.  Gothic tales tend to have very dark moods and sometimes even terrifying atmospheres.  The characters are also very emotional, sometimes a little exaggerated.  The use of the supernatural is a major aspect of Gothicism, especially life after death.  Finally, Gothic literature usually have settings in decaying or ancient castles.

My next row of figures include examples in The Spectre Bridegroom that follow the Gothic elements that I chose.  These are pretty self explanatory – the solemnity of the groom that makes the reader increasingly nervous, the drastic emotional changes in the story, a ghost that represents life after death, and a “decaying” castle element.

The final row of figures incorporate parts of the story that seem to contradict the classical standard of Gothic literature.  Though Gothic literature is characterized by horrific elements and negative emotions, there are a lot of moments in The Spectre Bridegroom that are quite comical.  The Baron is a perfect example!  He adds a light-hearted, comical read to the story.  Similarly, the bride’s aunts are ridiculously silly, adding more humor to the piece.  It is also strange that the Baron so willingly accepts the “spectre” as the new husband for his daughter goodheartedly without question.  He so easily accepts the fate of the dead husband and moves on to the next, which to me, is kind of funny.  Although the story talks about the supernatural – the “spectre” – the spectre turns out not to be a spectre at all!  Therefore, the supernatural element of the story almost turns into a comical one!  (It’s humorous that the ghost is actually Starkenfaust…)  How can The Spectre Bridegroom be a real Gothic piece if there is no REAL supernatural feature to it?

Literary Map: The Spectre Bridegroom

In this literary map, I made a rough map of the three main characters in the short story: the Baron, the Baron’s daughter, and Starkenfaust.  What I thought was interesting about the story is the such varied change in emotions for the Baron and his daughter throughout the tale (shown in the blue box).  What I thought was a little weird was the fact that the real Count’s death played such a small emotional role in the story.  We totally forget about him and begin to sympathize with Starkenfaust.  In fact, the Baron and his daughter are not remotely concerned with the real Count at all in the story.  His death did not have an impact on me as a reader at all; however, the heartbreak of the Baron’s daughter had a significant effect.  The overall mood and atmosphere of the story varied similarly with the Baron and his daughter based on the events of the plotline.

I actually did not even notice that the Count’s death did not play a significant role until I finished the literary map, neither did I realize how the mood and atmosphere made such a significant impact on the plot.  Irving really does a great job setting moods.  He goes into very explicit detail, especially during during the wedding festivities and preparations, emphasizing the importance and excitement of the wedding for the Baron and his family.  The wedding was probably a way for the Baron to “shine” again, since it mentions in the beginning how his “kingdom” is decaying and it is not the same glory as it had been.  That was why he tried to make his daughter  perfect.  She did turn out to be “perfect,” but in my opinion, she sounds like a very unrealistic character.  I guess that’s typical of these types of gothic tales.

I also noticed how similar this story is to The Corpse Bride!  I guess the whole bride and groom going to be married, groom dies, bride marries someone else plotline is probably used a lot nowadays.

Literary Map

Literary map for Washington Irving's "Art of Book Making"

In this literary map, I decided to map out the setting for Irving’s “Art of Book Making.”  In my opinion, the setting is the most important aspect of this short story. For my map, I began with a general description of the setting, and then I branched out into two different sections – reality versus dream. After the speaker in the story takes in the scene of the library, he dreams about an alternate reality to the scene – the comparison between the two scenes is important in understanding the story by highlighting the similarities and differences. Irving’s descriptions of the people inside the library are very different between reality and the dream, emphasizing that he sees the authors in the library as “thieves” that are blatantly stealing “clothes” (ideas) from the authors in the portraits in a disorganized fashion that does not have any professionalism or coherence. However, Irving describes two types of people in the reality and the dream. One type is the more respected gentleman that takes input from the authors of the tomes and creates an original idea (the well-dressed gentlemen in the dream), while the other takes the thoughts from all the old authors without any innovation (the gentlemen wearing a patchwork of random garments). Based on the descriptions of the people alone, Irving’s message in the short story is much clearer: the best authors learn from the old and develop new ideas, while the inferior authors take from the old and reiterate their ideas.

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Michelle