A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream features Puck, a wood sprite from English folklore. In fact, Puck is the life and soul of the play. His actions drives the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and nails the theme of the difficulties of pursuing true love on its head.

Simply put, Puck is the primary catalyst of the events depicted in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and consequently plays a large role in delivering its message concerning true love. More specifically, Puck sets the plot of the play in action by effectively unleashing a hurricane of true love/hate relationships by turning said relationships upon their heads. For example, it is Puck’s mistake that neuters Lysander’s genuine affection for Hermia by replacing it with an obsessive infatuation with Helena. He also redirects Demetrius’ feelings, however wholesome they were, from Hermia to Helena. Indeed, not even Titania was immune to Puck’s actions, seeing as his acts directly caused the Fairy Queen to fall in love with a literal jackass, thus temporarily distracting her from her feelings, whatever they were at the time, for her lover Oberon (although it is worth pointing out that this was done on Oberon’s orders). In short, Puck’s actions effectively set up an obstacle course, literally and figuratively, for the culmination and realization of the genuine affection that the various pairs of lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream hold for their respective partners.

Just as Puck set this series of calamitous events (for the lovers, that is, it’s rather hilarious from the audience’s point of view) in action, it was also up to Puck, to use Puck’s very own words, “to make amends.” Indeed, Puck did eventually right each and every single one of his wrongs. He eventually sets the love triangle between Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena straight by turning Lysander’s heart back towards Hermia. In doing so, he also calmed an ongoing feud between Theseus and Hippolyta, which led them reconcile as well. Moreover, Puck also participated in the blessing of these three couples during the final act of the play. As such, while Puck was the primary obstacle to the union of these couples in love, he was also the one who facilitated, watched over, and ultimately blessed their bonds of love.

Thus, by using Puck’s actions to literalize the familiar cliché that "the course of true love never did run smooth," Shakespeare suggests that the realization of true love can be likened to an obstacle course in that there are many challenges to overcome. However, by also depicting Puck as the character who ultimately brings about amends, Shakespeare emphasizes the silver lining of these challenges, which primarily rests in the possibility to ultimately bring lovers closer together than they would have otherwise been. As such, it is clear that while the statement “the course of true love never did run smooth” seems to convey a somewhat pessimistic (and most definitely realistic) view concerning the realization of true love,  the fact that the lovers’ were ultimately far more content as a result of Puck’s roughening of their loves’ courses carries a  more idealistic message. In short, Puck and his actions embody the two-sided nature of the theme of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Blogga, Please.

01/22/2013
I spent two hours (5:30 PM-7:30 PM) at Krav Maga San Francisco yesterday evening. An hour was spent in a Conditioning class, which consisted of a series of exercises, drills, and circuits. I spent the following hour in a class in which I reviewed the basic fighting stance and footwork of Krav Maga, after which I was instructed on how to properly deliver a round kick and another kick directly targetting a potential opponent's bladder. I look forward to learning more techniques next week.
TOTAL: 2 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 2 HOURS

01/29/2013
Over the course of the previous week, I have spent a total of 6 hours at KMSF, two of which was devoted to conditioning. I learned the some of the basic attacks of the Krav School, most of which emphasized the utilization of one's elbows as a short-range weapon. I learned seven different ways to take down an opponent with one's elbows alone. I'm simply astonished that elbows can be so versatile and deadly. I wonder what I can do with my fists then, given the prowess of my elbows... I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
TOTAL: 6 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 8 HOURS

4/24/2013
My new laptop came in today, so this blog is back in business! Anyways, I just came home from a 2 hours at KMSF, all of which was devoted to instruction and practice on the side-kick. It's a simple concept that has many variants and as such, took a great deal of time to cover in detail. I'm probably going to have trouble walking tomorrow. I hope that I won't be this sore when I repeat this ordeal a week from now.
TOTAL: 2 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 10 HOURS

4/27/2013
So this week went as follows:
Conditioning- 1 hour
Inside Defense- 2 hours
Conditioning was relatively straight-forward, consisting of running, practicing various combatives on a bag, pushups, situps, and various other exercises. The inside defense was a bit more complicated, with it essentially being a series of poses/stances designed to block a physical attack to various areas of the body. It was tough to get them all down, but I'll try to do so in the next two weeks.
TOTAL: 3 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 13 HOURS

5/4/2013
So here's what I did for the week:
Monday- Conditioning: 1 hour
               Side-kicks, Groin-kicks: 1 hour
Wednesday- 360 Defense: 2 hours
Saturday- Conditioning: 1 hour
                Mule-Kick: 1 hour.
Conditioning consisted of running and various other exercises, per usual. I've really gotten the kicks down. In fact, I was barely fatigued while I was doing them! The 360 defense though, is a whole other animal. The poses have to be memorized and the correct one implemented in a split-second process when someone attacks. I'm aiming to get that down in the next week or so.
TOTAL: 6 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 19 HOURS

5/12/2013
My weekly schedule was thus:

Monday- Conditioning: 1 hour
               Weight Training: 1 hour
Wednesday- Footwork: 2 hours
Saturday- Conditioning: 1 hour
                Combat Stance: 1 hour.
Undergoing weight training immediately after conditioning was tough. I don't think I'm fully recovered even now. Footwork and stances were pretty easy, as they compose the basics of Krav Maga. I guess I just need to lift more weights this week to get used to Monday's workout.
TOTAL: 6 HOURS
RUNNING TOTAL: 25 HOURS

Google Troubles

Whenever I use Google, a simple search with no more than a couple of keywords is usually sufficient to bring up more information (usually in the form of millions of hits) than a mere mortal would ever need to know. Recently however, it has come to my attention that Google provides numerous ways to refine one's search for information on any given topic. In fact, today, I took the liberty of experimenting with just how concise a search on Google could be.
With said goal in mind, I searched "fiscal cliff" and was informed that Google had found 757 million results in a mere fraction of a second. By merely adding "2013"(the year in which the fiscal cliff in question is reached), however, the herd of results was thinned out to a mere 175 million. Encouraged by this, I hurriedly added "partisan policy positions" and the number of results was further reduced to 926,000. Given that books are often deemed reliable sources, I finally limited the search to books and was greeted with a short (relatively) list of 421 results.

Loneliness in Frankenstein

The loneliness of various characters is a prominent motif in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both Victor Frankenstein and his creation, both of whom can be seen as the true hero of Shelley's work, can count loneliness as a significant element of their respective experiences.

The circumstances that were the repercussions of Victor Frankenstein's act of creation led him to feel isolated from his peers, companions and family due to his sole possession of intimate knowledge among mankind of the truth concerning William's murder and Justine's execution. As such, he bore a heavy burden of guilt, which led to him isolating himself from his companions. As Victor describes in his own words: "I was seized by remorse and sense of guilt...This state of mind preyed upon my health... I shunned the face of man.. Solitude was my only consolation-deep, dark, deathlike solitude." (Shelley, 72)

Likewise, Victor Frankenstein's creation also encounters loneliness. In fact, his existence is practically defined by loneliness, even from the moment of his birth through animation. "It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also... finding myself so desolate... I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch... feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept." (Shelley, 84) Indeed, this feeling of loneliness becomes the centerpiece of his experiences, leading him to pursue acceptance, sympathy and perhaps ultimately love from human beings, including the De Lacey family and his creator. At last, when he realized that his appearance made said quest nigh on impossible, he sought Victor for another purpose, which was to create another being, a female, that was just like him for the purpose of companionship. What further proof does one need to prove the creature's loneliness, that one should seek to bring another being into a proven miserable existence merely for the purpose of shared sympathies and companionship?

Frankenstein and Walton: A Comparison (With a Touch of Ozymandias)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein depicted striking similarities between two of her characters, namely Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. They were both infatuated by natural philosophy and believed that it was their respective destinies to achieve greatness through scientific discoveries or as Frankenstein puts it, “…unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creations.” Although their fields of work differed (Frankenstein sought the secret to the animating force of life itself while Walton was determined to unravel the wonders of the North Pole and its role in magnetism), Shelley goes out of her way to impress upon the reader of how these two men are practically kindred spirits. In fact, Walton states that “I [Walton] begin to love him as a brother” (pg.11) scarcely two days after Frankenstein boarded his ship. Indeed, Frankenstein only recalls his story in an attempt to prevent Walton from encountering a fate similar to his.

That being said, it is implied that Walton was on the edge of a revolutionary scientific discovery, which would have earned him the glory that he yearned for through this contribution, when he encountered Frankenstein, who did indeed discover the secret to life. In short, both Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein in years past were defined by their determined pursuit of scientific discovery, which, it seems, was merely the means through which they both would earn glory and thus leave their marks upon this world.

However long their glory would last, however, is a highly debatable issue. Prima facie, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias would seem to assert that any marks, any imprints, left by such glory as both Frankenstein and Walton sought would decay and ultimately leave behind a worthless, empty shell that is devoid of any of the grandeur with which it was overflowing at one time: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:/Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!/ Nothing besides remains. Round the decay…”

Upon a closer look, however, it is worth noting that however empty and lonely the pedestal seems, the fact of the matter is that it endured, indicating that glory remain for a much longer time than one would expect, albeit in a barely recognizable form. Is this not exactly Frankenstein’s fate? After all, both Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein, its namesake character, linger in modern popular culture, having endured nearly two centuries of changing social values and lifestyles. That being said, the popular conception of Frankenstein today is egregiously erroneous and in my humblest opinion, a mere husk of the greatness of the original as written by Mary Shelley. However, it is indubitable that the notoriety of Frankenstein has proven itself to be capable of enduring the ravages of time and, being a classic, will continue to be able to do so for the foreseeable future.

Science vs. Religion?

First of all, I'd just like to say that science is not necessarily the antithesis to religion, and vice versa. As Albert Einstein once said, "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."   In other words, I believe, or rather, I know, that it is possible to embrace and recognize the values of both. I, for one, have done so.

That being said, science and religion seem to contradict each other on a variety of issues. Certainly, the media seems to enjoy setting the two up as equally valid systems of thought and pitting them against each other and based on the ratings of numerous talk-shows, the general populace seems to enjoy this clash as well. In these debates, there is no issue that is so contentious or so controversial as life itself.

Indeed, life, particularly the origins thereof, is a particularly touchy issue when it comes to the whole science vs. religion dispute. As strange as it sounds, I believe that there are valid points on both sides of the aisle. Based on my life experiences, I have come to believe in the existence of a Prime Mover of sorts in this universe. However, biology has also led me to hold that evolution is a viable scientific theory. As such, I have effectively taken eaten the entirety of the proverbial pie by reconciling my religious belief in the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent Judeo-Christian God with my recognization of the validity of the scientific evidence gathered and the conclusions drawn from said evidence. Since science, by definition, cannot prove or disprove the existence of God, I am inclined to hang on to my beliefs and should science provide new information that clearly contradict said beliefs, revise them accordingly.

In short, I do believe that one can, given an open mind and a reconciliatory attitude, see the life the same way through the lens of both science and religion.

P.S. Before I sign out, there is a somewhat disturbing trend among religious conservatives in this country that I feel like I must call out, which is to label any evidence-based belief a religion. Indeed, I have heard various individuals call the belief in the impact of man on climate change a religion; Darwinism, a religion; Atheism (which incidentally happens to be the total absence of a religion), a religion; and of course, science, which is defined as by the New Oxford American Dictionary as "the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the struture and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment", is somehow also dubbed a religion.  Now, the New Oxford American Dictionary defines religion as "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power" and science is precisely... not that. You know, all I hear when I listen to these individuals dubbing science a religion is "Come on, we all believe in something..." No. No no no no no. I mean, it's a merely a variation of the grand old intellectual tradition of "I know what you are, but what am I?" (Props to Karl Rove) Just because one finds it difficult to defend one's own superstitious theories concerning the origins of life does not mean that every other plausible explanation is invalid, and it definitely doesn't mean that one should label these explanations as religions. Science is a religion in the same way that abstinence is a sex position, got it? Goodness gracious, that was a long post-script. In truth, I can only hope that my spiel was at least somewhat enjoyable to read. Until next time, then.

Introduction

Hi! My name is Joe and I'm currently a senior attending South San Francisco High School.

My dream institution of higher learning is Columbia University. Its reputation of academic excellence is, in my most humble opinion, most well-deserved and when combined with its extremely diverse atmosphere, low faculty to student ratio, generous need-based financial aid, and its location in the bustling metropolis that is New York City, which presents an innumerable number of ways through which one can advance one's career while still at school, simply makes Columbia irresistable to me.

However, I am well aware that my chances of being admitted is about as high as that of finding a virgin on Jersey Shore, I am looking into alternative schools including but not limited to: Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory, Dickinson, Tulane, Amherst, Bowdoin, Williams, Wesleyan, Tufts, Pomona, the University of Chicago etc. That being said, go Lions!