And all Other Ecstasies

Tony Fitzpatrick seems to be a man of many wonders. Since he was born in Chicago IL in 1958, he has been a prizefighter, poet, actor and artist. As a native of Chicago, his work is easily found in the Art Institute of Chicago & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. He also has work that can be found in New York and Washington, DC. Fitzpatrick is a self-taught artist who has been in the business since around 1985. At a glance you would not suspect he is a brilliant artist. His large stature and tattoos would inhibit you to prejudge his character.

            I chose the piece titled, “And all Other Ecstasies”. Not only did the title itself catch m eye, but when I looked closer I saw many things that I would consider “ecstasy” in my own life. First, They center of the entire piece is a man and woman in a red heart. They seem to be holding each other. The fact that the love is symbolized in the center makes me think it tangles everything else on the vine like object together. I use the word ‘tangles’ because nothing in life is perfect, especially when you are dealing with relationships. But if you can relax and look around, you are surrounded by ecstasy. I also noticed the fall colored leaves, banners, birds and flowers. Within the frame of the picture contains many musical scores. There are many other objects that symbolize happiness to me. Another thing that would make me think of ecstasy is the hat placed right under the A of the word AND. It looks like the type of hat a man would wear while walking down the beach.

            I feel that I can relate to many of Tony Fitzpatrick’s art works not only because they are relative and show many symbols, but because I too am a native of the Chicago land region. I enjoy visiting the art institute of Chicago and will be sure to locate his work next time I am there.

The inferno

The last paragraph of Calvino's "Invisible Cities" was very interesting to me. It is true in the context of the book that you have two choices. You can sit there and think what you want about the world around you, or you can go out and find out the truth for yourself. Khan sat on his thrown and didn't want to know the truth. Part of him thought his empire was perfect, while the other part thought it was crumbling into nothing.

 This makes me think about my own life. I tend to stay on Saint Mary's campus and pretend that there is not war, political problems, and natural disasters happening all around us. I would much rather sit on my thrown and convince myself that everything it perfect. On the contrary, I know that things are happening, so in my mind I sometimes exaggerate things and since I don't fully understand what is going on in the world around me, I am ignorant to the truth. For example, whenever I watch the news I tend to worry about the world because I don't understand foreign policies and world affairs. 

Utter Confusion/Octavia

First of all, I am still very confused about our discussion today in 2D. Actually confusion is not the correct word choice. I am very intrigued by the discussion we have. I have no doubt that it was planned and had purpose when the book was originally written, but it makes me wonder how people realize things like that if they aren't reading it for a class and analyzing each section. I question books that I have read for pleasure in the past about what literary techniques and tricks I have missed!

Octavia... Reading this passage gave me a feeling of chaos. It gave me anxiety to try to picture a city of this type in my head. A landscape of a possessed circus was all I could stir up! Maybe it was the netting and tight rope comments, or the reference to gondolas. I felt nervous and scared as i reread the passage trying to find a deeper meaning. As  I reach the end and see the last sentence that reads, "They know the net will last only so long." I get the feeling that the people of this city live with these same feelings of anxiety and fear.

Girl Interrupted

Watching this movie gave me many different feelings. I didn't find the fact that she was an aspiring writer a crucial point to the plot, but it did help relate the movie to course material. I had a lot of anxiety sitting through that movie because my best friend's Dad hung himself over the summer. It was hard to see Lucy hanging in the bedroom and not break into tears for what my friend had to find in her very own home. With that being said, it made the movie more real for me. Many times I will see a movie like that and almost convince myself that there aren't actually people in the world that are clinically crazy.

I feel like the fact that she is a girl, interrupted is important. She is not possessed or a murderer. She is simply a 19 year old girl who has had a lot of struggles in her life and can't quite deal with them. Obviously we saw in the movie that she figures things out, is able to admit that she attempted to kill herself, and move on with her life as a girl. 

The girl who says 'good thing this place works on a sliding scale so that the lock picking trash is also admitted', I believe is saying that since the girl  knows how to pick locks, she is poor. One would assume she has committed crime such as breaking and entering or stealing. Other class tensions arose with Lucy and her "Daddy". He bought her an apartment of her own and some of the other girls were jealous. Also, the family of Susanna were embarrassed that their daughter wouldn't be home in time for their cocktail party they were hosting over Christmas.

When you look up the word ambivalent in the thesaurus, many words stick out to me that can be tagged to Susanna's behavior. For example: unsure, doubtful, torn, and of two minds. Through out the movie we watched her struggle with the idea of her being crazy or not. Sometimes she fought the system and didn't think she should be in there, while other times she thought she was jut as crazy as everyone else. 

A room of one's own

I think it is interesting that while she is in the library, she asks herself multiple times about the female's she is researching, "Do they have a room of their own?" She seems to be very fixated on the idea. Hence the title I would assume! This history of woman writers is that many of them use male names. Also, they are mostly still be forced and controlled by men.

As a college student I can understand the concept of having "a room of one's own." As a freshman I was in a triple and although it was alot of fun, I rarely got my homework done or found time to study. I could not concentrate with two other people always doing other things in the room. Now I live in a single, and I actually find it enjoyable to sit alone and read or study. It is very calming and I have absolutely no distractions.

explanation of "Star wars according to a 3 year old"...

o.k. I promise I can justify putting up this extremely adorable video. The first day of class we discussed how age can have an effect on how we perceive things. I feel like this is a great example of how our age and surroundings shape the way we view different topics. Obviously she was explaining what she saw in the movie, but if you asked an 18 year old, or 75 year old, they would have a MUCH different take on the film. 

We also talked about how economic status plays a role in things you are exposed to. One of the first things that comes to my mind is the fact that she refers to garage sales, "kinda like a garage sale". It does not specify what type of family she is from, but there is a good chance that a 3 year old in an upper class family may have never been exposed to a garage sale. 

Lastly, when the video was taken, she seemed to be in a very relaxed environment. If she was with strangers or on a stage, she may have acted very different. These are just a few ways that I thought the video "Star Wars according to a 3 year old" related to HUST!! :)

Writing is like...

To me, writing is like.. free falling into nothing. I don't have a very good writing background, therefore it is hard for me to jump onto the page and start writing. When I actually start to write, things tend to flow with out me really thinking about it, but I never know exactly where I'm going with the story or where I end up!

1. My strengths as a writer are that idea's tend to flow easily through my head as soon as I start to write. 

2. Something I need in order to improve is someone to help me for a thesis and put my paper in the right order.

3. I would like to work on my organization skills in my papers. They need to flow more fluidly. Also, I need to stay focused on the main idea, not branch off into other concepts that aren't relevant to the key point.