"Thinking Outside the Box"

"No Exit" by  Jean Paul Sartre questions to consider.

1. Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment?                       ---Hell would be a place where the people you love and adore aren't there. It doesn't have to look ordinary or extraordinary, its the people that make hell a living hell. The mind can be in hell in a beautiful place. But that people place might undoubtedly be surrounded by little images and trinkets that remind you of the people you love, and you will certainly cry because of the their symbolism. Pain is only for a little while. Once you have received a certain amount of pain, you get used to it and it  no longer seems like an unbearable feeling. You can find that peace by accepting certain things: 1) your loved ones aren't here enduring the same pain, 2) your dead, it doesn't matter how much they hurt you, and 3) pain can be painless if you accept it is all n your head. 
2. Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex?                                                                                                                               ---Change is definitely something that keeps life interesting. A change in environment means a whole new discovery that peaks interest in the mind. A change in person means there is a whole new world of information to be learned from that person. Sleep is designed to work out our little aches and frustrations and without we get cranky. The fact that people in hell get no sleep means they don't get the satisfaction of resting = people are unhappy campers. I think variety would make hell bearable and that is why people in hell are in the same room with the same people, forever. Even if its cheesecake or ravenous sex, you will still get tired of it because  your taste-buds might at first love it but then grow to hate it. I don't know about ravenous sex but I'm sure the people involved would love it.
3.  How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?                                     ---The characters talk a lot and actually express their emotions very vividly. Garcin asks where the paraphernalia is located and he is obviously surprised by the room, which we the audience assumes is actually quite lavished. I would want the lights to be off that way even if I can't sleep, it makes it easier for me to daydream and pretend to fall asleep. Again, if I do my daily activities without the person I love, hell would definitely be my reality.
4. Compare how Plato and Sartre describe the limitations of our thinking and imply solutions to the problem.                                                                                                                                  ---Learning new information is defined by the ability to learn new things. Plato implies that you have that ability to learn if you grasp it and leave "the cave". Sartre implies that in hell, you are unable to leave that cave therefore the cave is hell for all who have lived outside of it. Solutions to this problem are to live a life where you can say you actually learned from it. Also, live a life where you are happy and not make other people unhappy. 

LAQ: No Exit

No Exit by John Paul Sartre

GENERAL:

1. "No Exit" is a book where three people (two women and one male) are placed in a room in hell. They half expect it to be torture chambers and moats it it ends up being a well decorated room with sofas. There is even bright lights. Obviously this is something you don't expect so they relax and converse with each other. Inez, one of the woman, bluntly asks what did everyone do to die. Estelle acts the innocent one and so does Garcin as they deny ever doing anything wrong. They continue to converse and converse and finally they realize what hell really is. Hell is the people you are stuck with, not the place itself. Garcin tries to escape by opening the door but there is a physical

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

Those who have chosen to reside in the cave

Have undoubtedly decided to be a knave,

A knave because they are mentally enslaved.

Now those who fight with all their might

Must first endure the pain of no sight.

Pain is but a miniscule feeling 

When compared to the triumph of gaining knowledge and being set free.

At first, you won't see clearly

Being blinded by light will hurt dearly,

Even breaking from the shackles will be a pain

But is it not better a little pain for a gain?

Now unshackle those chains,

Live a life of truth,

And question every bit of information introduced

And nothing but carefree happiness will reign.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato Study Questions:

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent? The allegory of the cave represents the shackles that hold some people while others have chosen to be unbound by them. By shackles, I think Plato means a narrow view of life. 

New Music!

      I just uploaded some new music! I thought you viewers might have gotten tired of my other songs since it has been a few months. If you are new to my blog, you can add music to your blog by checking out this post. So the new songs are:

1) "Cherry's Dance of Death" by Chingon.

Mindmeister vs. Prezi

Prezi

vs.

Mindmeister

Messing with Mindmeister this morning and I cam to realize something.... I think this program might be better than Prezi. You can invite others just like prezi and its an online format where you can create presentations. The thing I do like the most of Mindmeister is the fact that adding lines and connecting topics is relatively easy.

Mindmaps

We, the students, should use mindmaps to link our Literature Analysis posts. Also links to various other websites that might prove useful. For example, we can have a section where we have links of online practice tests of the AP english literature exam. Mindmap seems like a great idea but I wonder how the log-in situation is going to work. I know for Prezi, it only allows a certain number of people to modify it at a time, so I worry about that.

Two mindmaps I found were: Lion Den and Mappio. They are both simple mind maps but personally I like the design of CMAP so I'd rather go with that mind map even though these look simple and easy to use.