The Fog

Every time I read Ken Kessey's masterpiece "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" I can't help but ask myself What does crazy look like? Is crazy really something that you can label under stereotypes and give it funny and complicated names? "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" gave me a different perspective of crazy and led me to decide that a crazy person is only what society makes him.

I think that the so called fog is a schizophrenic delusion, created by Chief Bromden  as a safe guard that he creates around him to make himself invisible; But also I see the fog as a kind of isolator that Nurse Ratched uses to isolate the Inside world from the Outside world, because she knows that they are not ready to cope. And I also think it represent McMurphy's strength because once he gets to the guard the fog dissipates, slowly from Chief's mind and it is thanks to McMurphy's strength and power to laugh.

Finally I think that the Fog represents the outside world unknown and strange for most, and hiding you from staying out.

Waiting For Godot: Film

So in class we watched a short clip from a film adaptation of Becket's existentialist play "Waiting For Godot" and we where supposed to do some "Reading" on the filming, scenery and staging, and draw conclusions as on why was the movie recorded in one way or another.

In the short clips there is a huge importance given to the scenery, specially Estrogen's boots at the beginning of the movie, and the tree throughout it. Also something else  that I thought was important was the lack of color throughout the movie, which kind of implies the mood of the movie itself, specially during Lucky's speech everything is very gloomy and dark.

I think the film was a great chance to see the play through someone else's eyes, in this case the eyes of the director and how he interpreted Becket.

Waiting For Godot: Blog Response #1

After I finished reading waiting for Godot, I found myself wandering about much, which I think is Becket's purpose with his Absurdist play. I found myself wandering about the characters, about why where they even waiting for Godot, and more than anything who was Godot. But later that evening I learned that Becket said on an interview that if he had known more about his characters he would have written it on the play. This makes me ask myself, How much can a writer actually know his own characters?

Even now I think that Becket left this gaps in the text in order for the reader to interpret whatever he said, in whichever way they wanted, which reminds me of something else he said on an interview "Why do people have to complicate everything?" And it made me analyze my way of thought as a reader, how much do we complicate what a writer says and why do we complicate it? Because words cant just be words, they must have a deeper meaning. Looking back at what I know about Becket I understand why he hates labels, because not only are they labeling him, but they are also labeling parts of his text as "Symbolism" or "Imagery", which limits the ability of the reader to just wonder without having to give the text an exact meaning.

Becket made a really extraordinary work on his "Waiting for Godot" he could have left and entire page BLANK and leave it without a conclusion and it would still be fantastic!

Blog Response #3: Introduction to existentialism

 Existence is essentially absurd:

Why does God exist? I am pretty sure someone most have asked that question sometime before me, probably not sitting in front of a window wondering how to write the introduction for their English assignment but surely someone must have asked it at some point. For me after thinking about this subliminal question I've come to the conclusion that human beings need a reason that supports their existence, and that is why God exists. Because for most of us we cannot just be here, there most be a reason for our existence. If not it is essentially pointless, and it doesn't make a difference whether we are dead of alive. For me this is a topic highly brought upon in the novel "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, in the second part of the book after he has been sentenced to the Guillotine, Mersault expresses that death is just a great new adventure, he thought of it as a fresh start, so for him it didn't really matter if his execution came today or the day after for he was ready to embrace death as an old friend.

"Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe." (pg. 75)

Blog Response #2

In reading the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, I found myself wandering on the lack of sentiments, which I saw as constant in the book. Analyzing it from this new point of view, which came to me after reading the book and studying about existentialism, I found out that I could relate this lack of sentiments to the development of the character and of the author himself. 

Lack of depth in sentiments: Throughout the novel I saw Mersault as a person lacking feelings. Vacant. Since the beginning of the novel I thought that something was really wrong with him. I thought that if your mother died you where supposed to mourn her, cry for her death, but Mersault doesn't, neither does he show any guilt when he murders the Arab, or any fear when he is condemned to the guillotine. He is always expectant, wandering what may come next,  avoiding to live in the past and attempting all too hard to push his feelings away. I think this allows you to see  Mersault's character in a different way,  he is not someone you would feel pity for, but he certainly is a man of his word, it also gives out that he has an existentialist set of mind. This attitude from Mersault also gives out the author, you don't need to have the background knowledge on Camus being an existentialist to understand that the author supports his character's point of view, if not I think it would be really hard to write a novel like that if you wouldn't  be able to relate to this lack of sentiments.

"MOTHER died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday." (pg. 4)

"No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her." (pg. 75)

Blog Entry #1: The Stranger.

Existentialism: Chapter 1 - 4 

"MOTHER died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday." 

In the first few sentences in the novel you can see a lack of interest from the narrator he is indifferent to his mother's death and completely unbiased by the fact that he cannot be sure of wether his mother's death was the day before or that same day. His completely apathetic reaction is a shock for the reader who would think that any person wold weep for their mother's passing.

This is rather existentialist, the fact that he is more concerned about the moment of his mother's passing rather than at the fact that she passed away, shows that he is living every moment without feeing remorse from the past, and that he sees his mother's death as something inevitable and mundane because at the end everyone's lives lead towards death.

"When we had dressed, she stared at my black tie and asked if I was in mourning. I explained that my mother had died. “When?” she asked, and I said, “Yesterday.”"

In this line from page 14 just after Mersault has met Marie at the swimming pool he gives a small hint of guilt for his mother's death but he also states that this must be normal. Also he lacks interest in the topic and lets it go without reaching out for some comprehension and support which would be understood as his mother had just died.

In the thoughts of existentialism though this may be viewed as letting go of a moment which is gone and which we will never get back. He considered sufficient mourning his mother during the lasting of the funeral on his own way was enough and didn't consider it as a lack of sentiment from him to not weep for her, he just didn't find it necessary. I must say Mersault's attitude reminded me of someone I know who didn't weep for her mother when she passed away. We know factually that Mersault doesn't believe in God so maybe he is relieved and feels that now that his mother is dead he has one thing less to worry about and a guiltless conscience about leaving her at a Home.