Surrealist Video

We finished up the last of our presentations today. The one that caught my attention the most was the surrealist video. I didn't know if it was based on an actual dream that the student had or if she just made it up. I can't take surrealism too seriously because there are so many different ways that people can interpret things. Im sure if you asked every student in the class what they thought the video meant they would come up with many different answers. Because of this I think it would be hard to base any real research about the human mind off surrealism.

Humanities

Humanities was an interesting class. I didn't really know what the class was about when I signed up for it. I don't think the class will apply to my career that much but it still was good to learn from the different philosophies that were brought up throughout the semester. My favorite section that we did was realism because I enjoyed reading the communist manifesto. Marx was wrong about some things but it was still interesting to read his thoughts on economics and compare them to the how the economy is today.

Yellow Wallpaper

I was going back through some old material to get ready for the final last night and ended up reading the yellow wallpaper again. That was easily the weirdest story we read all year. At the same time it was funny how her husband was being so controlling and portective and thought he knew what was best for her when actually the conditions he forced her into were making her more crazy. At the end he finally faints when he sees how messed up she has gotten. The point of the story was that she wouldn't have gone completely crazy if her husband hadn't been so overbearing. However I don't see a situation like this ever playing out nowadays because women these days have too much attitude.

Entertainment

Yesterday in class a student gave a presentation where he rewrote a chapter in the book Frankenstein. He wrote it as if the book were written in modern times. The new version of the chapter had Frankensteins wife having sex with the creature while Frankenstein was downstairs. When he came back up to the bedroom and caught them in the act it was decided that they would settle this on Jerry Springer. While the presentation was pretty funny I thought it made a good point about how entertainment has gotten to be. As time passes, movies and shows seem to get more ridiculous. Producers have to keep pushing the envelope to get peoples' attention. Who knows what crazy shit they're going to come up with in the next fifty years.

More Freud

I've been finishing up my essay for my humanities class which I chose to write about a Freud quote. The quote basically says that primitave people had it better off than people nowadays because they acted on instinct and did not have to by the rules of a society. I'm not completely sure if this is true because I think that society developed for a reason. It provides safety and a sense of security and justice for people.

End of Run Lola Run

Yesterday we finished watching the film Run Lola Run. Lola Tries three times to complete a task. The first attempt she is killed and the second attempt her boyfriend is killed. On the third attempt they get it right and not only are but also end up making a hundred grand. My professor pointed out something obvious but that I had not thought about until he mentioned it. The movie was much like a video game. If you fail the task and die you just restart and try again, but this time with more knowledge about what needs to be done to be successful. Since video games are huge these days I'm guessing that is an easy metaphor for people to understand.

Carl Marx

A while ago in class we learned about Carl Marx and the Communist Manifesto. The main point that I got from the book is that he thought it was best to have a socialist economy. Although this is understandable at the time it was written due to the horrible lifestyle of many workers who were under paid and over worked, I think that he is wrong. Not only does a socialist economy take away some amount of freedom but it also takes away competition in the economy. I think that without competition it takes away people's will to work hard and to improve because that is no longer as necessary. Competition is what drives people to do a better job. The government does need some involvement such as minimum wage and child labor laws but it should not have too much control over the economy.