When we read this, it was early in the semester and I tried to read it but I didnt understand it at all because my English-knowledge wasn't enough.
Deogratias:
When we read that book we learned a lot about Genocide and what Genocide does to society. Just because the French people went to Ruganda, gave the power to one tribe and then left it causes a Genocide?! And we were talking about the main figure in that book, Deogratias. Deogratias was a young boy who had kill during the Genocide and that caused him to drink a lot and made him feel like a dirty dog cause he thought he doesn’t deserve to live because of what he did.
Slaughterhouse Five:
What I thought was interesting, is the question if this book is against or pour war. I think what we figured out in the end is that we aren’t the same opinion about that. What some people said is that there isn’t a message that it for or against war, and there were also people who said that the book is against war, like me. I think it is a book against war, because this book shows how horrible war is. It shows what happens to people who go to war, and what terrible experiences they remember.
Jihad vs McWorld
In this project we learned about how big companies and money is taking over the world and that nobody is doing anything about that. Also that nobody is wanting to pay attention to that or to their own life’s anymore. Also we learned that Jihad doesn’t have a chance against McWorld because the world enjoys comfort and cheap stuff.
Being Peace
One of the most interesting opinions that came up was when we were talking about if or how the practices of Buddhism fits into the American Culture or not.
When people in the conversation said, that it is the complete opposite, or fits partly but also that America helps the whole world and is one of the most powerful countries, not just in the military but also in the view of propaganda. But I think, even if it is true that America is one or even the most powerful country in the world, and is globally active with propaganda like McDonalds, Coca Cola or other big companies doesn’t necessary mean that that also speaks for the people in America. I feel like American know mostly what is going on in America but don’t know much about what is going on outside of America and maybe don’t want to know what is happening. So what I think was the most interesting point is that the way of how Buddhism works, may fit into some ways of living of American in America but not globally, like what the Buddhism says, that everybody has to get in touch with himself and has to be in touch with the world and try to bring peace for the WHOLE world. So I would say that Buddhism fits into the American culture partly but not mostly, and I don’t think that Buddhism is ever going to fit into a country because it is so hard to actually follow those rules, and especially in McWorld, nobody has or wants to take the time to make the goals of Buddhism happening.
The ones who walk away from Omelas:
Gregor asked a question in almost the end of the seminar, what happiness is, and if we ever had it? We talked about happiness throughout almost the whole seminar, and we all tried to answer what happiness is, for us, for the people in society and from what we know and compare happiness. And the idea, of if there ever was happiness in the world just came up when we were talking about what the author says in the text on page 2 line 37:” We can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy”. That made me think of how I would describe happiness, or a happy man, but I never thought about the argument of Gregor. Is there happiness? And if yes how do we, how do I just for myself define it and with what do I compare it. It is all just about the things I own and about the people I am around with, and I define happiness on the things I get and the things that make me happy every day. But after what Gregor said, I am not sure anymore if I could define happiness and what makes me happy.
Geopoliticus Child:
Before and after the Seminar I couldn’t figure out the message of that image. The only true and right message of this image is that there are more than one messages and opinions. In that image there is a man coming out of a world shaped egg and is being born. And next to that there is a mother with its child. I think the message of this image is that the mother is pointing out to her child that the human is taking over the world, completely using it and destroying it. And she is trying to prepare her child for that.
Dulce et decorum est
“It is always sweet and right” is what this means translated. This story was about a man telling youth that it is right and good to go to war for your country and possibly to die. And in the story a man died because he couldn’t get his gas mask on and suffered to death. After that the old man’s friend said that the old lie “it is always sweet and right” is way behind us.
Poetry:
My Poem:
Happiness...?
Everything is gone.
Everything is ruined.
With the falling walls the horror raised.
And the worst just began.
The power of the earth,
stronger than anything.
Can’t be fought against.
No matter how big the machines we build are,
No matter what we are trying to do.
A massive wave of a tsunami,
like a wall
coming down on you.
Can wipe out thousands of lives,
destroy everything,
And leave nothing behind
Besides the people
Who survived
with all their burdens.
A child sitting in the ashes.
Nothing left and everything lost.
The child holding its mother,
Not moving.
Nobody there
To help.
Families without houses.
Families with dead children.
No place to go.
A destroyed life, a broken world.
A nuclear crisis
That will kill everything,
Obliterate the world,
And leave its tracks forever.
The child leaves its mother behind,
And starts walking down the street
Through the ruins
Observing the terror
Looking for peace
They all wanted to go home to their old lives
But there was no home anymore,
Just hope.
Hope for a light
Hope for New
for good things to happen
Hope that they will find the missing ones
And pray that they don't
die.
Florian Herrmann
My content inspiration is the news, pictures and the actual tragedy that come daily in the news. My poem is about what happened in Japan, and about what happened to all the people, who died got hurt, lost their houses and their entire life. I got inspired by all the news and pain the people have and I tried to communicate those emotions in my poem. I described what happened in Japan, how it happened and what is possibly going to happen in the future because of the earthquake.
My form inspiration is “Mexicans learn running” because there aren’t many structures it follows, and it is just a story that is told, so is my poem, it doesn’t have a specific form, but I can still write about what I want to without having to worry about rhyming or form, which would change the meaning of my poem.
I will take a big card-board and will put a big nuclear warning sign in the background and put little pictures of the current situation in Japan on top of that. So people will be able to look at my poster and get a feeling of how big the destruction is in Japan is while I am presenting my poem. The pictures will support the feeling and emotions of my poem.
Reflection:
Before we started this topic in school and we got closer to how poetry works, what different devices can be used in poem. I wasn't interested in poetry at all, and if I had to read one I was skiping over it and try to catch the message, but now I know what to look for, I developed more skills for how to look at a poem, read it more than once and get the message out of it the author tried to communicate.
Besides that I also learned that as soon as a poem is published, everybody who reads that poem forms his/her own opinion about what the message of the poem is. Reading poetry can take a long time, because you would have to read a poem a lot of times sometimes to understand the message and it could give you multible meanings but writing a poem is harder becasue you have to think of many ways and the best words that express your message you nwant to communicate.
To conclude, over the past few weeks I learned a lot about how to think about peotry, how to write at poetry and it got somehow more interesting to me since I know more about Poetry now.
