Romanticism Blog Post

I think what Thoreau is saying that people need to stay awake and live their lives the way they want to live. The reason I say that is because when he was talking about men building the railroads, he says “If we do not get our sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads?” He says men are trying to live too fast and they don’t take the time to notice the little things. If we spend all of our time working, we would die without ever living.

What Thoreau would say about my life? That’s a tough one because my parents would say I am awake too much and I need to get some work done more often. Thoreau might say that I don’t work, but I’m still not living. I don’t have a lot of friends down here in southern Utah because we just moved here, and I don’t make an effort to make new friends because it’s easier for me to be alone than to go and talk to new people. So he would think I am still just going through the motions and I need to get out there and really live my life to the fullest.

He would agree with how I am balancing my work with my play because I’m not afraid to take a break from the real world and have fun. He would disagree with my lack of social skills and maybe tell me to not be afraid to be myself and people may like or not but it was worth a try. And get out there and try, try again! 

Enlightenment Blog Post

Marriage now a days is changing from how it was even just ten years ago. People don’t like the legal liability of being committed to one person forever. Some people like having companionship but they don’t need a piece of paper to prove it. They’ll live together but they don’t want to get married. Being gay is a lot more accepted in today’s society, so people are being more honest instead of being embarrassed and trying to hide it. Since people of the same gender can’t get married in most of our country and all over the world for that matter, they’re not getting married. So the institution of marriage today is different because people are ok with not getting married. And If they do get married it’s not all rainbow and everyone lives happily ever after. We can get divorced now, affairs, getting married too young of for the wrong reasons.   

There are a couple different ways I could paint this story. Two gay people getting married and the in laws don’t agree. A teenager gets pregnant and the parents of the kid think it’s what they should do and rush into the marriage because it’s “what’s best for the baby”. A husband cheats on his wife with his secretary at work. There are too many ways to count! 

Let’s go with the gay couple for the next question. I don’t think it would be the same rather than just opposite of Hogarth’s. In his painting it was an arranged marriage, but they want to get married but their parents don’t want them to. Maybe the side of family that’s supporting them has to pay for the wedding, but that would be the only thing that is similar.      

Baroque Blog Post

The Renaissance style as we have discussed before is very clean with straight lines and it’s simpler. The Baroque style is pushing to the limits, crowded and the lines are always curved rather than straight.

When comparing the three Davids, Michelangelo’s, Donatello’s, and Bernini’s you can definitely see the difference in the two styles.

Michelangelo and Donatello both have David standing straight up and there is a slight bend of the arm and leg on the right side in both but other than that they are both very simple and nearly the same.

In Bernini’s he has David crouching down in a way that reminds me of a hockey player. The leg on the right is back farther than the one on the left, when in the other two the left leg is farther back.

The Renaissance Davids have a more soft expression on their faces. Like they are pondering something off into the distance. The Baroque David is much more serious and looks like he is concentrating on something specific.

Maybe Bernini put clothes on David “because he could”? David is hunched over and his body and arms are curved rather than him standing straight up, which is Baroque style. All together Bernini’s is a much different look then the other two.      

Renaissance Blog Post

Everything in the painting "The Last Supper" says it's from the Renascence era. All the lines are very straight and what we discussed in class, it look like someone said ok everyone line up and let's take a picture! When we know in the real world that would never happen. There is a lot of open space in the room behind the dinner table, and the decor on the walls is very square and neat. Even the food they are eating seems to be perfectly placed and organized on the table. As far as colors go, Their clothes are very bright colors. When I think what it would be like to live back in that time I picture a lot of browns, tans, very neutral and boring colored clothes. Not all these rich reds and blues that you see in the painting. But that's my word against da' Vinci's. The book talks about how Leonardo was so  good at making the viewer of his paintings look in the right places to see what he wants them to see, maybe he thought the colors helped tell the story better or easier? No one will know but him I guess.

The straight lines and and simple backgrounds combined with the bright colored clothing the people are wearing, helps make you focus on them and what is happening at the dinner table. Since nothing catches my eye in the back of the painting, I just want to focus on the people and see what they are doing. I think that was a smart play again by da' Vinci because in my opinion  that's how we keeps us looking where he wants us to look. 

When we compared the Renaissance style to the Baroque style in class, Baroque was a lot more dark and shadowy. And there was also a lot more going on in the background of the Baroque styled Last Supper painting. This painting by Leonardo is very light and almost cheery. With it's very clean lines and simplicity you can defiantly tell it's from the Renaissance times.     

Happiness

My personal opinion of which theory of happiness would work best in our world today is stoicism. Because there are going to be hard times and times when you just want to throw in the towel and throw your hands up into the air and shout, why me!? But stoicism says that we cope with those hard times and we learn how to still go on with the world, even though it is not always fun. I felt like when we were talking about all the theories as a class everyone was trying give the worst possible circumstances for every theory. But that is the thing with stoicism, your dog could run away, your husband could cheat on you then leave you, your kids could be addicted to drugs and alcohol, but you would have learn how to cope and get on with life. The world isn’t going to slow down because you are having a hard year. S*@% happens and the only way that we can ever get over the hard times is get by with what we’ve got.

I think that in the world we live in today, they would give both of the kids a prize. People these days think that if you participate then you deserve a prize, which is not the case. If you win then you deserve the prize. In the sports world at the end of very last game of the state tournament, both teams do not get the trophy, the team who practices harder and plays harder in the game wins and gets the trophy. In my grandparent’s generation that’s how they thought, both parties can’t win. But this generation has twisted that way of thinking into everybody is a winner. I don’t think we are as hard on our kids so that’s why everyone expects things that they do not deserve.

Other than stoicism, the big earnings theory is the most helpful. If you do charity, you will be blessed. Treat others how you want to be treated, what goes around comes around, you get the point. The least helpful theory is hedonism. You can’t treat yourself in one thing all at one time. All of the examples we came up with as a class, none of them were healthy to over indulge yourself.

Into the Woods Blog post 2

“Wishes may bring problems such that you regret them. Better that, though, than to never get them.” I do agree with this the statement because this was very true in many cases in the story, one example that came to my head first, was the Witch. She wanted more than anything to be young and look beautiful again. When her wish finally comes true she loses all of her powers. If she could undo the wish and become ugly again to get her powers back, I don't think she would, I wouldn’t. She wanted this to come true for who knows how many years? Yeah I'm sure that she misses using her powers and regrets that they are gone, but everyone else in the world doesn't have powers and they handle it just fine. I would be happy to look young again if I was the witch. Because in the real world people get married and have kids, who says that wouldn't happen to her.

This can also happen in real world situations. For example, newlywed couples usually want to start a family of their own and have kids, maybe not right away but you know what I’m getting at. They pray and they hope and then one day it happens and they find out that they are actually having a baby. Then things take a turn for the worst. The husband is dealing with the devil for a wife because she a pregnant women with cravings and mood swings. The wife is pretty much going crazy because weird things are happening in there and she can’t do anything about it and she wants a doughnut with the raspberry filling but make sure to take out the seeds, with a fudge brownie and a pickle on the side, but she has not clue why. She laughs one second and you blink and now she is crying because the cat died in the joke you were telling her, and that is just the beginning. Then the baby gets here and keeps you up all night and cries but you don’t know what he wants, he is so helpless and you are trying your hardest but nothing is working, and he is so expensive!! So yeah it may be a little easier if he wasn’t here, you could actually get some sleep, you could go in that vacation you’ve always wanted to take, but you would do anything for this little bundle of joy and you wouldn’t trade him for the world, because you made him and love him with all your heart.

When a wish comes true you may see some of the things that you are missing out on, so in a way that could be you regretting it, but for the most part I think we would all rather take the wish and deal with the consequences later. 

  

Into the woods Blog post 1

When the characters were first talking about going into the woods, I thought the woods represented a sign of hope for them. For example the backer and his wife, all they wanted was to lift the curse and have a child. They needed to find the four objects for the witch and in return she guaranteed that they would have a baby. To me, that gave them hope that if they succeeded they would finally have a child. In the real world it's not so easy to just snap your fingers and find out you're pregnant. But in the sports world, if you play really hard and continue to get better and you show the coach you can really be a positive effect on the team then they will probably put you in the game, which really "your sign of hope".

“The harder to get, the better to have”. When the two princes say this they are obviously talking about the women they are trying to win over. I think if someone was to say that in the real world, they would be talking about a goal that they are trying to reach. The harder you work for it, the more rewarding it will be. Say, you worked really hard in your classes, on ever single assignment you gave it your all and you studied really hard for all the tests, you are going to be looking forward to a good grade because you worked so hard to get it. But if you slack off the whole semester and just go with the flow you're probably going to be more ok with just a passing grade in the class. You worked hard for the grade so it would be more rewarding when you got an A.