Arthur Conan Doyle Essay Example for Free

Arthur Conan Doyle Essay The stories of Sherlock Holmes are typical of the detective genre and the characters remain popular; they are also useful social, historical documents. Explain why you think this is so, referring to 3 of the stories you have read. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19 and early 20 centuries, who first appeared in newspaper in 1887. Hes created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is famous for his intelligent study to solve difficult crime cases. He is one of the best known and most generally recognizable characters in detective genre. Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories that featured Holmes, that are narrated by Holmes friend and biographer, Dr John Watson. Most of the stories first appeared in the magazine called Strand. The three stories that I read are The Red-headed League, The Speckle band and The final Problem. A brief outline of the first story, The Red-headed League Is about VS planning to rob the bank and Its not long when holmes and JW investigate and catch VS in the act. The Speckled Band is about a stepfather, Dr Roylott, who wants to have his step daughters inheritance. He finds out she is going to wed, but if she does, this mean he will get less money. He therefore decides to kill her and does this with a speckled band, a breed of snake. In The Final Problem, we meet Professor Moriarty who is Holmes old enemy, he is a criminal genius. Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson and P. Moriarty travel to Switzerland, and there Holmes gets pushed off a cliff and dies. The crime always takes place in a rich and middle class areas. They often use strange and curious settings in the crime places, strange objects at that time used to excite people. All the stories open in the same way, with Dr Watson telling us the story from the beginning. We only get to Dr Watsons view, because its Watsons voice that narrates the stories. The two main characters are Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Dr Watson is inspired by Holmes. Watson tries to solve the crime in the Red-Headed league, He Trys to figure out Jabez Wilsons personality. In The Empty house he had to solve the crime because Holmes wasnt there because he had died in the previous story. In the majority of the stories he is portrayed as a person who shows a great passion for crime along with Holmes. Holmes Watson work together as a good team because Watson is inspired by what Holmes does, thats why Watson always describes Holmes as a very nice an intelligent person, and Holmes likes Watson because he writes everything down. Although, intellectually he can not compete and always seems to become second best; Holmes, I cried, I seem to see dimly what you are hinting At. We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible Crime. (The adventure of the speckled band) The two also differ in other ways for example, although Holmes is intellectually gifted he lacks the contacts of friends, this shows him as a loner.

The Rise Of Melaka

The Rise Of Melaka IN 1511,despite the brave efforts of its defenders the last defences of Malacca was overwhelmed in the face of a fierce and sustained Portuguese invasion.Sultan Mahmud and his remaining fighting men were finally forced to abandon the city and retreated to Pahang before moving to Johor where his descendents founded the Sultanate Of Johore which lasted into 1914 . The fall of Malacca to the Portuguese brought to an end more than a hundred years of Malay rule. At its height, the sultanate was one of the worlds busiest emporia, attracting ships from the Middle-East, India, China, the Ryukyu, and the surrounding islands of the Archipelago. During the period, Malay wealth and power dominated the region. It was also an influential Islamic centre.It was an international enterport of its day the same way Singapore is to us today. Scholars generally agree that the fall of the Malacca sultanate marked a turning point in Malaysian and world history. But they disagree as to the nature of that importance. Many Western writers portray the fall of Malacca as ushering in a new political and economic order in Malaysia and South-East Asia, one dominated by the West. Others, including Asian scholars, dispute this. They insist that the Portuguese Empire was really a commercial enterprise based on a series of strategically-located fortified posts. The Portuguese were never able to impose an influence in the way the Malacca sultanate once did. Within the sphere of power in the Straits of Malacca, the Portuguese were only one of them.And unlike the Malacca Empire did not expand its influence beyond the City of Malacca. From the Western perspective, the success of the Portuguese in Asia was of epoch making importance. The capture of Malacca was the highlight of nearly a hundred years of Portuguese exploration. Prior to this, Western traders had travelled overland to reach China. But it was only in 1498 that a Portuguese fleet under Vasco da Gama finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at the Malabar Coast of India. For the first time, a Western fleet from Europe had reached Asia. Adam Smith, in his classic Wealth of Nations, declared this as one of the two great events recorded in human history. The other, according to him, was the discovery of The New World(America) For a long time Europe had searched for a sea route to China and the East. But what motivated countries such as Portugal and Spain to undertake early explorations and to seek territorial expansion? Portugal was then only a small and poor country of about a estimated 1 million people. A mixture of motives such as scientific curiosity, adventure, profits, and religious zeal explains the support given by the state in the early Portuguese and Spanish explorations. One of the earliest patrons was Prince Henry of the Portuguese ruling house and he was keenly interested in science and geography. But perhaps the overriding factor was that there were profits to be made in the trade of spices. During the Crusades from the 11th to the 13th century, Christian knights and pilgrims had acquired the tastes of the Mediterranean, including spices. Spices then meant Eastern luxuries but pepper, nutmeg, clovers, and cinnamon were the more highly sought. These various spices soon became essential for food preservation and preparation in the pre-refrigeration era of Europe. But the spice trade was controlled by Arabs and Indian Muslims who dominated the Indian Ocean. Europe could only obtain pepper and cinnamon through the middlemen merchants of Genoa and Venice. Religious zeal was also behind the attempt to weaken Arab and Indian Muslim control of the spice trade. To this could be added the evangelical hope to bring the gospel to non-Christian lands. But the Portuguese had very little navigational knowledge to get to Asia. Furthermore, the Muslims controlled long stretches of the waters. Some explorers decided to try a different route. Hence, six years before Da Gamas voyage, Christopher Columbus sailed westward, believing this to be a shorter and easier way to Asia. Instead, he reached America. It took several exploratory voyages down the west coast of Africa before Da Gama finally made it to India. If immediate returns were to be measured, then the expedition had really little to show. The trip had lasted more than two years and, of the original crew of 170, only 54 survived. The glass beads, trinkets and textiles brought to Calicut, India, by the Portuguese found no demand. On its way back, Da Gamas mission resorted to seizing a cargo of spices from a small Muslim ship. From a wider view, Da Gamas expedition must also be seen as really a modest maritime feat compared to Arab seamen who had been circumnavigating Africa for centuries before him. Arabs traded over long distances stretching from ports of the Mediterranean through to India and to China. By the time of Chinas Tang dynasty, there was a large community of Muslim merchants in Guangzhou (Khanfu to the Arabs). Detailed Arab navigational manuals such as by Ibn Majid provided sailing information from Africa to China. Likewise, Chinese ships had by the 9th century been trading regularly at Quilon, a port just south of Calicut. The use of the compass and advances in ship technology helped Chinese overseas trade. More than a hundred years before Da Gama, Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) led a Ming fleet of 62 large ships that called on rulers in the South-East Asian region. In the next few years, the Ming emperors sent out six more expeditions. One of these led by Admiral Zheng He reached the east African ports of Malindi and Mogadishu as well as Aden and Hormuz in the Arabian Sea-Persian Gulf area. For Western scholars, Da Gamas expedition defined the beginning of a new epoch in world history. For over a thousand years, Europe had been on the defensive, having to fight off the Islamic and then the Mongol threats. According to British historian Eric Hobsbawm, Europe after Vasco da Gama took a more assertive international role and over the next 500 years gained hegemonic influence over most parts of Asia. The Portuguese first, and then the Spaniards, the Dutch, the British, and the French carved out empires. It was under two viceroys, Francisco de Almeida (1505-09) and Afonso dAlbuquerque (1509-15) that Portugals Asian empire, the Estado da India, was created. DAlbuquerque personally led naval campaigns to seize strategic points along the major trade routes. Goa was captured in 1510, Malacca in 1511, and Hormuz at the entrance of the Persian Gulf in 1515. The Portuguese took over Malacca but the city never regained the prosperity and the power that was seen during the sultanate period. Once Malacca was no longer ruled by Malays, it lost the daulat, or legitimacy, to command tributes and trade from the surrounding states. Where there was one dominant emporium in the Straits of Malacca in the 15th century, by the turn of the 16th there were several. The Portuguese presence survived largely by allying itself with one or several of the local states. From the local historians point of view, the fall of Malacca had at least three other major impacts on the immediate course of South-East Asian history. Firstly, the shift of Muslims merchants from Malacca contributed to the rise of Aceh. New commercial prosperity and political power strengthened Acehs claim to being the new Islamic centre in the Straits. Aceh, at the height of its power in the 16th and 17th centuries, conquered most of north Sumatra and extended influence over the Peninsular west coast states. The Acheh push to the coast states were anyway interrupted by The Portuguese Empire The Johore Empire which after the fall of Malacca took control of most of the Malacca former Vassal states such as Pahang,Perak,Terengganu and Temasik(Singapore).The three powers continued to struggle with each other for control of the Malacca straits trade on into the 18th century. The Sultanate of Melaka or Malacca Sultanate (Malay: Kesultanan Melayu Melaka) was a Malay sultanatecentered in the nowadays state of Melaka, Malaysia. Traditional historical treatise marks circa 1400 as the founding year of the sultanate by a traitor Malay Raja of Singapura, Iskandar Shah, who was also known in certain accounts as Parameswara. The view however is being compete by a new historical contract that place the founding year in circa 1262. At the height of the sultanates influence in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important entrepots of its time, with domain covering much of the Malay peninsula, Riau Islands and a significant portion of the east coast of Sumatra. As a noisy international trading harbor, Melaka appeared as a center for Islamic tutorial and dissemination, and encouraged the development of the Malay language, literature and arts. It heralded the golden age of Malay sultanates in the archipelago, in which Classical Malay became the lingua franca of the Maritime Southeast Asia and Jawi script became the primary medium for historical, religious and intellectual exchange. It is through these intellectual, spiritual and cultural developments, the Melakan era witnessed the enculturation of a Malay status, the Malayisation of the region and the subsequent formation of an Alam Melayu. In 1511, the capital of Melaka fell to the Portuguese Empire, forcing the last Sultan, Mahmud Shah (r. 1488-1511), to decline to the further reaches of his empire, where his progeny established new ruling dynasties, Johor and Perak. The legacy of the sultanate remained, with significance lies in its far-reaching political and cultural legacy, which, arguably, continues to be felt in modern times. For centuries, Melaka has been held up as an exemplar of Malay-Muslim civilization. It established systems of trade, diplomacy, and governance that persisted well into the 19th century, and introduced concepts such as daulat- a distinctly Malay notion of sovereignty that continues to shape of a new generation understanding of Malay kingship. Before the arrival of the first Sultan, Malacca was a fishing village to live by local Malays. Malacca was founded by Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah or Sri Majara, the last Raja of Singapura (present day Singapore) following a Majapahit attack in 1377. He found his way to Malacca around 1400 where he found a good port-it was accessible in all seasons and on the strategically located small point of the Malacca Straits. According to a popular legend, Parameswara was resting under a tree near a river while hunting, when one of his dogs cornered a mouse deer. In self-defence, the mouse deer pushed the dog into the river. Impressed by the courage of the deer, and taking it as a propitious omen of the weak overcoming the powerful, Parameswara decided on the spot to found an empire on that very spot. He named it Melaka after the tree under which he had taken shelter, the Melaka tree (Malay: Pokok Melaka). In collaboration with united countries from the sea-people (orang laut), the wandering proto-Malay privateers of the Straits, he established Malacca as an international port by compelling passing ships to call there, and establishing fair and secure facilities for warehousing and trade. Mass settlement of Chinese, mostly from the imperial and merchant fleet occurred during the dynasty of Parameswara in the nearby of Bukit Cina (Chinese Hill), which was perceived as having excellent Feng Shui. Palace of Malaccas Malay Sultanate came from its strategic location, Malacca was an important stopping point for Zheng Hes fleet. To enhance relations, Hang Li Po, according to local folklore a daughter of the Ming Emperor of China, arrived in Malacca, accompanied by 500 attendants, to marry Sultan Manshur Shah who reigned from 1456 until 1477. Her attendants married locals and settled mostly in Bukit China (Bukit Cina). (See Zheng He in Malacca). At the height of its power, the Sultanate of Malacca ruled over the southern Malay Peninsula and much of Sumatra. Its rise helped to hold off the Thais southward expansion, as well as hasten the decline of the rival Majapahit Empire of Java, which had been declining in power as Malacca rose. Malacca was also pivotal in the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago. After Vietnam (then known as Annam) destroyed Champa in the 1471 Vietnamese encroachment of Champa, they engaged in hostilities with Malacca with the intent of conquest. In the 9th month of the year 1481 envoys arrived with the Malacca again sent envoys to China in 1481 to inform the Chinese that, while Malaccan abassador were returning to Malacca from China in 1469, the Vietnamese attacked the Malaccans, killing some of them while castrating the young and enslaving them. The Malaccans reported that Vietnam was in control of Champa and also sought to conquer Malacca, but the Malaccans did not fight back, because they did not want to fight against another state that was a tributary to China without approval from the Chinese. They enquired to face the Vietnamese party to China which was in China at the time, but the Chinese inquire them since the disturbance was years old, they could do nothing about it, and the Emperor sent a letter to the Vietnamese ruler responsibility him for the incident. The Chinese Emperor also ordered the Malaccans to lift soldiers and fight back with violent force if the Vietnamese attacked them again.

Essay --

Caste systems are a necessity in any world, and without hierarchies there would be no order and control. One can say that this hierarchy is usually accompanied by some form of oppression, because with one person having a higher level of power, such as in the government vs. the people, there is always tyranny. In order for any society to run smoothly, there has to be domination, which is typically from the government. The basic idea of caste systems throughout the world is to divide human species into different groups based on physical or behavioral differences. The caste system originated in India and is about a â€Å"hierarchical socioeconomic organization of society that evolved around India's ancient civilizations†, and later spread around the world, â€Å"a new way of life brought with it a need for governance and order, defense and conquest, learning and trade, laborers and artisans. Roles began to be defined and people were classified according to their function, occupation and economic place in society.† (â€Å"Caste System in India.†Anand & Kulbir, 2009.) The Hindu system divided their people into different castes, which showed their levels of dominance as well as inequality. †¨ Much like the caste systems in India, George Orwell's’ 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World both portray human worthiness based on caste systems, a system which only benefit s the higher authorities within their communities. The totalitarian control in both Brave New World and 1984 can be seen through an oppressive government which controls and strips their people of rights to freedom and prosperity. In brave new World oppression is seen through the use of soma, a drug given to the people to help them cope with life and the societal restrictions, the depr... ...(for "father" was not so much obscene as–with its connotation of something at one remove from the loathsomeness and moral obliquity of child-bearing–merely gross, a scatological [since it rarely occurred] rather than a pornographic impropriety); the comically smutty word relieved what had become a quite intolerable tension† (Orwell.151) The word ‘Father’ clearly had a huge affect on the witnesses because it was almost foreign in their everyday language. Overall some individuality must be suppressed in order to insure stability and ‘happiness’ in a society. Caste systems are also set up too provide organization and hierarchies, and when these two aspects of a community are practiced oppression is nearly inevitable. Brave New World, and 1984 both support the idea that the less fortunate are left to defend themselves in a world where meritocracy is strongly executed.

Freudian Analysis of Woman on the Edge of Time Essay -- Woman on the e

Freudian Analysis of Woman on the Edge of Time One can use the psychoanalytical approach to successfully decipher some of the complexities in Marge Piercy's novel, "A woman on the Edge of Time". The psychoanalytical approach stems from Freud and his belief that "... Most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control"(127 handbook). The two aspects of Freud's approach that relate to this story are the Oedipus complex and the struggle between the id, ego, and superego. The Oedipus complex of according to Freud is turned upside down in this novel, because there is no father, yet there are three mothers. The Oedipus complex believes that as a child grows up, he starts out loving both parents equally. As the child grows older he starts to lust after his mother. He then finds that his father is in the way of his goal, and so he decides to try and get rid of the father. In this story, however, there is no father. "Father?" Luciente raised her wrist, but Connie stopped her. "Dad. Papa. You know. Male parent." "Ah? No, not Bee or Jackrabbit. Comothers are seldom sweet friends if we can manage. So the child will not get caught in love misunderstandings."(68 novel) The child can't feel any rivalry because he has three mothers to satisfy his desires, and no father to compete with. The child obviously has very little to be upset about. This change in the balance of power, and the obvious love that a child gets from the three mothers also opens up a new realm to the people that are born to this age. The children feel more attuned to what they wa... ...int of changing the language so that it isn't sexist. The differences between the two sexes are so minimal that people can get along. The novel takes Freud's ideas on how the human conscious works and tries to change the world so that there is less conflict. The idea of creating humans that are less sexually dimorphic could definitely be beneficial to humans. The idea of having three mothers and no father is also an interesting idea that could prove helpful. The only concern that I have is that with everyone being so similar, won't our individuality be challenged so that we feel the same as every one else. Individuality is a characteristic that humans pride themselves on. If it is taken away, then people wouldn't feel as good about themselves, and most people would lose their drive to do anything constructive or inventive.

Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” and Rowan Atkinson’s “Mr. Bean” Essay

The most apparent similarity between these two films is that both films revolve around the daily lives of the main characters. The main characters, Charlie and Mr. bean, in The Kid and Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie respectively, both have child-like qualities, and the tendency to be rather mischievous. Mr. Bean is naive and self-centered, sometimes to the extent of becoming somewhat mean. Despite his considerable age, he still sleeps cuddled up with his teddy bear. Nothing is sacred to him, and he plays his games with an earnest sheepishness. His childish directness and honesty, while offensive at times, are his sharpest weapons. The little adventures he gets into usually revolve around the foibles of British life and the comedy of embarrassment. He is practically friend-less (save for his teddy bear), and is an outcast, just like Charlie, the main character of The Kid. Charlie is a tramp living in the slumps of South London who, while walking around one day, stumbles upon a crying baby that had been abandoned on a heap of garbage. Instead of ignoring the desperate cries of the infant or throwing it into the nearest sewer, he displays the more compassionate side of human nature by taking the baby with him and caring for it like a father. When the child is taken is away from him, he naturally gets very upset, and with a child-like recklessness, embarks on a journey to get him back, a process which includes pursuing the orphanage van over rooftops to descend into the back of the truck, then dispatching the official who had taken the child away. These two characters are also similar in their disregard for established values and the possible consequences of their actions. Their quaintness manifests itself in the unconventional way in which they analyze and then  try to make the best out of whatever situation they find themselves in, clearing obstacles and solving problems that come, â€Å"their way†, with a have a never-say-die attitude in their attempts to somehow belong to the society. Both films, being formalistic, reflect the condition of the society at the particular point of time it was made; these â€Å"raw materials† have been slightly distorted, with symbolism and visual exaggeration being used to bring out the core messages their creators aimed to convey to the viewers, while giving the films a comic effect. As Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie was a more recent film – The Kid was made several decades prior to it; the technology available to the creators of each film differed greatly. At the time of The Kid’s production, a thing such as colour television was not heard of and sound had not yet been introduced into the production of films; The Kid was a silent, black-and-white film while Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie was one with colour, sound, and certain special effects such as having its main character, Mr. Bean, falling from the sky as the credits rolled. It would be impossible to create such effects in Charlie Chaplin’s time. Also due to the different eras in which these films were made, the scenario of each plot also differed. In the case of The Kid, it was a film made in the era of the Great Depression and the aftermath of World War 1, and with the twin themes of emotional loss and homelessness being haunting motifs in its plot, it is a poignant social commentary – of the displaced refugee children of World War 1, and for the persons grieving for loved ones whose lives were sacrificed in that war. The opening title, â€Å"A comedy with a smile–and perhaps a tear†, sums it up. This film addressed social and political issues of the day, and that was an admirable feat in itself considering the fact that this film did not have the advantage of synchronized sound for dialogue nor colour for its images. Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie, on the other hand, has its plot based on a much lighter theme. It generally pokes harmless fun at the ‘rigid’ and ‘uptight’ stereotype we have of Englishmen by first depicting a typical Englishman, Mr. Bean himself, in a typically ‘English’ environment, then later putting  him in an ‘international’ environment. Being release in 1997 it is a light-hearted satire of how the more conservative English society reacts to and attempt to adapt to rapidly changing international standards and the shifts in power. The main difference of these two movies is that The Kid aims to bring some cheer to its audiences’ hearts by showing how joy can still be found in the gloomiest conditions (as depicted in the daily lives of Charlie and the child he has adopted) and also to reflect the state of the society while Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie seeks to bring some comic relief into the highly stressful lifestyle of the modern-day individual, by actually letting them laugh at a highly exaggerated, and therefore comic, version of ‘themselves’. As mentioned earlier, the era in which Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid was made did not allow for colour or sound to be incorporated into its production. Being disadvantaged in this area, the actors in the film had to make up for it by emphasizing on facial expressions and body movements, in order to express thoughts and emotions, and also to portray certain unique mannerisms and character traits of the various characters in the story. Modern-day audiences who are unaccustomed to this form of acting might feel uncomfortable viewing films from the silent era, because the actors may seem to them, to be over-acting to an outrageous degree. However, it is also due to the same reason as to why silent movies tend to be more popular than modern-day comedy as overacting is a natural form of comedy. One example would be the fight scene in which Charlie defends the child from the Bully. The moves require both grace and precise comic-timing; Chaplin’s talent was apparent in this scene as he manages to make even a brawl seem funny without the use of colour, sound or special effects. Title were also edited to clarify the on-screen situation to the viewers or add critical dialogue when there was an absolute need to. As for Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie, dialogue is being kept to a minimum. The creators of this movie probably wanted the focus of the viewers’ attention to be Mr. Bean’s immature, self-centered, and sometimes  outright mean persona and how these character traits of his actively contribute to the various sticky situations he often finds himself in. The dialogue in this film is mainly used to depict his mood or immediate response to certain occurrences, and from that, the viewers form a deeper impression of his character. Dialogue is seldom used to make known to the audience the plans the characters has in mind to tackle his problems. Mr. Bean almost always executes his impractical ideas and solutions immediately after he is faced with the problem. This deliberate lack of dialogue somehow suggests the unwillingness to share ideas, the impulsiveness to carry out ideas without consultation, and the complete disregard for the welfare and feelings of others that will be affected by his actions. Suitable sound effects were used to further enhance the various moods of the scenes and these sounds also give viewers a clue of the magnitude and severity of the situation Mr. Bean has once again landed himself in. Both films make use of physical comedy extensively to bring out the comic aspects of their respective characters. The signature â€Å"French-kick† displayed by Charlie when he was with the child was one example. Throughout the movie The Kid, this â€Å"French-kick† motion of Charlie’s is being executed frequently; other actions of this sort are often employed to enhance the overall comic aspect of the movie. In Mr. Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie, the use of physical comedy was also evident throughout the entire show, with Mr. Bean trying to resolve his perpetually unceasing string of problems with a clumsy and impractical style of doing so, a style that is typically his. The characters in The Kid had to endure poverty, homelessness, and extreme loneliness; they are exposed to the harsher aspect of life. Mr. Bean, however, had a job and a decent place to live in; the only unhappy moments he ever experiences are when his plans backfire. These moments of unhappiness are very short-lived. Therefore the characters in Chaplin’s film definitely possessed more emotional depth than those in Rowan Atkinson’s movie. Bibliography *http://www.dvdreview.com/fullreviews/bean.shtml *http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/soc/run.html *http://indigo.ie/~obrienh/bean.htm *http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/soc/kid.html *http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_in_film *http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/charlie-the-kid.html *http://math.gc.cuny.edu/Charlie_Chaplin_bio.html *http://www.gltech.org/Death%20of%20a%20Salesman/Dramatic%20Terms.htm *http://www.tvguide.com/movies/database/ShowMovie.asp?MI=38984 *http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=043041 *http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film *http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/wheeler/lit_terms_Q-Z.html#lit.terms.S.Anchor *http://www.epinions.com/content_29557624452 *http://www.historychannel.com/cgi-bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//www.historychann

Kant the Sublime

The Sublime In Lyotard’s reading Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime, he explains how critical thought exists within an infinite amount of creativity with no principles but in search of them. Lyotard understands the Kantian sublime as a way to comply with the standards that critically analyze postmodernism using deconstruction. Kant differentiated the sublime between the vastness and greatness and the dynamic sublime. The vastness sublime is so great we can’t just use our senses like we normally do; it requires us to heighten our senses beyond comprehension. The dynamic sublime is the way in which rationalizes things and his perceptions.Lyotard describes the boundlessness of the imagination and reason as a ‘differend’ and this is ‘to be found at the heart of sublime feeling: at the encounter of two absolutes equally present to thought, the absolute whole when it conceives, the absolutely measured when it presents. ’ (Lyotard) Our imagination understands forms and measures while reason understands something without form of an infinite nature of something. There is a separation of imagination and reason and when we use the ‘enigmatic’ power of critical thought we can reflectively judge something.Kant's presentation of the sublime has been taken up by Lyotard and he explores different ways of finding a philosophical understanding of different artworks. Through Longinus and Burke we can explore the pre-modern and modern conceptions of the sublime and through all these critiques we can draw different manifestations of the sublime in art. Kant questions how can someone judge an object before knowing how to properly judge that object and how do they know what proper judging is? Longinus in part of his critique implies that man can go beyond his limitations as a human being by experiencing emotions and language.The art or technical talents was described, as the human while the sublime was something that escaped ou r experience of art. ‘Sublimity consists in a certain excellence and distinction in expression’ (Longinus, pg 100). To understand and have knowledge of the sublime, there needs to be a vague understanding of something that is beyond our experience or senses. He explains that there is more to the human ordinary life because we feel this through the senses, but these senses are an incorrect interpretation caused by a physical perception as opposed to a psychological one.If you think about the sublime, it cannot be pictured or imagined but we have translated and suggested through the arts and poetry. Longinus tells us that nature is the creative and the first principle of the sublime and what follows is a matter luck and good mentors. In Goodbye Lenin, a German film directed by Wolfgang Becker, Lenin tries to hide the unification of Germany during the 1990’s from his mother who was in a coma throughout those months and has to stay in bed. He successfully conned her into thinking nothing had changed by using tricks like old product bottles and filming his own news broadcasts.This film successfully executes the idea of the sublime in what was going on between his mother and the rest of the world. ‘Our faults spring from the same place as our virtues. ’(Longinus)She believed everything around her was real and time had not changed but the people around her were well aware that this was a deception of reality. The way in which Lenin created the same world and reality his mother had always known is overwhelming to the senses and questions what is really for real? Burke believes that the ideas of pain and pleasure cannot be defined, but pleasure of every kind satisfies quickly.He goes on to say that there are two kinds of pleasure: the first that simply is and has no relation and the second that cannot exist without relation. The film has preserved and stopped time that defies nature and in reality cannot be done. The son is so scared an d terrified that his mother will die that he tries to please her by keeping the world exactly the same. This terror is the source of sublime because it creates the most emotion and he imagines the worst. The fear that his mother will die has caused him to be terrified. It explores different areas of the mind by letting her believe this lie.His mother would not survive the fact that everything she has believed in had crumbled while she was asleep and that the world she once knew was suddenly a capitalistic society that now included Burger king, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Lenin did not want to devastate his mother and cause another heart attack so he had to make everything appear, as it always was wile the outside world was growing and expanding at such an accelerated rate. The kitsch setting of the typical German 1989 apartment filled with yellow flowered wallpaper and dark wood furniture brings calmness to his communist mother.The film captures the nature of humans and their strong social beliefs and how it can affect the human psyche. Burke believes that terror is the source of the sublime and that pain is the more powerful than pleasure. Lyotard believes that pain is not the end point, there is the ‘movement’ of pain to ‘pleasure’ In Joseph Turners Impressionistic painting titled Slave Ship, he has created a seen of vastness that relates to the Kantian sublime but moreover he has demonstrated the use of color and dynamic composition to create a sense of horror.The brushstrokes give a natural look to the painting and the seemingly unintentional brushstrokes create an organized composition. We are aesthetically pleased when we look at the painting because an overwhelming response is experienced when looking at the picture. Burke believed that the Beautiful was very different from the sublime. â€Å"All privation is great because they are all terrible: Vacuity, darkness, solitude, and silence. Low and intermittent sounds and shadows bring a bout feelings of the sublime. Above all, the actions of the mind are affected by the sublime. â€Å"The way in which Turner has used rough brush strokes and lots of contrast between moods and contrasting colors creates the Sublime as opposed to the Beautiful. The use of purple and blue shadows that cast over the foggy night, the bloodline skyline, the flaming enraged sea and the insignificant ship create a sense of horror. The Sublime is experienced in this painting because it is detached from the actual danger of being in an actual situation and rather experienced through the visual arts and poetry in its overwhelming vastness. There is a sense of elation and intimidation when traveling through the painting.Thomas Cole’s Landscape with Tree Trunks create a struggle to be able to understand what is being implied. It becomes uninviting to the viewer as the scary tree trunks in the foreground block our path into the painting and we get further into only for our view to be bloc ked again because of the mountains that come right into the middle part. The painting does not accommodate to human feelings. These are sublime components such as the scary trees, the contrasting light and dynamic sky create frustration in entering the painting make us feel that we are not welcomed and that we are in a wilderness that we cannot control.The overwhelming tree and sky not only creates and unexplained phenomena but also implies that time and power of nature is vast and infinite and these unpredictable forces can in themselves become sublime. The painting composition seems to have been distorted by Cole yet it feels genuine and believable. In the Pianist directed by Roman Polanski we are safe to knowing the reality of the actual circumstance of Jewish victims trapped in a concentration camp but we still enjoy the horrific actions taken against them caused by the overwhelming power of human nature.We are awed, disgusted and in disbelief by the question: â€Å"How can hum an beings do such things? † ‘There is no explanation for the communication of passion, but it is concluded through the experience or premonitions of others. ’(Burke) there is no way to rationalize how the Jews were treated during this time of suffering and we can’t even fathom such events to reoccur, but it still exists today. The pain and suffering that we experience as a witness is subliminal and in cannot be justified. Within the film Szpilman is able to detach from the war and all the pain and suffering he has experienced by playing the piano. When different men have a common faith in the object of admiration we come to the Sublime’ (Longinus). Szpilman creates his own sublime world through the piano. He creates a stimulus of powerful and inspired emotion and he seems to be dignified and elevated when playing the piano, not guilty or ashamed for being a Jew. His talent brings even his worst enemies to respect him and be in completely awestruck by his music breaking all boundaries of human laws and standards and elevating itself to a much higher place that is universal. The unknown and unbound is created in the film when everyone is awestruck and in total admiration of the music.In the end, art has the vastness that allows the mind to be free of obstacles of distraction. Basically, I understand Kant in his way of thinking of art as a way of means to letting the senses experience a feeling far greater than the everyday ordinary life and sublimity only exists in our minds and not in nature, and if we are conscious of this we can become superior to nature within and to nature which does exists without us. Lyotard explains that art should work with no rules and that it therefore cannot be judged and instead be combined and pluralized.Longinus explains that the human is the technical aspect of art while the sublime is the existential part of the human psyche that goes beyond our experience of art. Burke’s modern view of su blimity in art can only be experienced through actual knowledge an actual experience where things are only recreated and reordered. He thinks that death and fear are feelings of the sublime and that what one might expect is very different to what actual really happens and that expectation creates fear which in turn makes us unreasonable and therefore brings about the sublime.

Aztec Calendar Stone Essay Example for Free

Aztec Calendar Stone Essay Obtaining the knowledge that was passed down to them from earlier Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs carved the calendar stone in 1479 (Smith 253). At the time, the Aztecs lived in a very civilized world filled with amazing architecture, an impressively complex government system, and they also employed intricate systems of writing and calendric systems (Taube 7). The Calendar Stone was made by basalt stone. For the Aztecs, everything was pictorial in nature around this era. The calendar stone depicted different pictograms or Codex Magliabechianoand, which was primarily written on religious documents (Aztec-History). Art was centered around religion in this era. So the pictograms of the gods on the calendar stone would correlate with that subject matter. The Aztecs were a highly ritualistic civilization devoted to divination and their Gods. The Aztec calendar stone was created as a divinatory tool which was used for rituals, to forecast the future, and to determine which days were lucky and which days not for the outcome of various actions and events (Smith 254). The calendar had two systems. It had the sacred Tonalpohualli, which was based on the 260-day cycle and the Iuhpohualli, which was a 365-day cycle (Palfrey). Seen by the count, there is a five day difference between these two calendars. The five day differences were thought to be the most unholy, unlucky days of the year (Smith 257). The world was thought to be coming to an end. On the Aztec Calendar, the year was divided into 13-day periods. Each group of 13 days had a different deity ruling over the unit. This is because these units were thought to have a special symbolic influence and the deities were to ensure a positive outcome (Smith 256). In the middle of the Sun Stone, is the sun god Tonatuih. His tongue protruding between his teeth resembles a sacrificial flint knife. In his claw like hands he clutches human hearts (Palfrey). ‘Many scholars have debated on the stone’s meaning and purpose. Some suggest that, fixed horizontally; it served as a sacrificial altar, which would make sense because the stone was dedicated to the sun deity. Most agree though, that it offers a graphic representation of the Mexica cosmos’ (Palfrey). In The Aztecs, Smith sums up what is to be believed the thought of the Aztecs when they carved the calendar stone â€Å"The Aztec calendar stone conveyed the message that the Aztec empire covered the whole earth (territory in all four directions), and that it was founded upon the sacred principles of time, directionality, divine warfare, and the sanction of the gods† (Smith 270). Keeping the Aztec calendar is proof of ancient cultures mathematical and scientific achievements without the aid of modern technology. The study of the sun stone could lead to further advances in mathematics and acts as a road map to our celestial bodies from that era of our history. The Aztecs believe they felt justified in believing in this calendar because of numerous events that changed the course of history for them. Because Aztec Indians were fervent astronomers, they tracked the stars and correlated that between the days to create this sun calendar. Examples of events happening within the timeline of the calendar stone being built are these: Between 1452 and 1454, their capital city Tenochtitlan suffered from flood and famine, the following year on 4/16/1445 (Julian calendar) there was an eclipse of the sun. From 1473-1479, there were 4 more solar eclipses within a five year time frame (Aveni, Calnek). During this time the Aztec nation conquered and sacrificed many of the neighboring towns. Their leaders were wounded or killed, followed by violent earthquakes (Aveni, Calnek). There may have been even more visible eclipses seen by the Aztecs that have not been discovered because they were lost, or destroyed, or even confused with other natural events (Aveni, Calnek). If one were to take into consideration the Aztecs being a society with strong beliefs in deities, the Aztecs constant state of turmoil from wars and death and then couple that with a constant flow of solar eclipses; it wouldn’t take much to consider that the Aztecs might have thought there Gods were planning on ending their world†¦. again. The Aztecs might have carved this massive calendar from stone to give their future generations a chance to do things right, where they did not. Many other artifacts of the same caliber and craftsmanship were excavated around the time the calendar stone was. This was an amazing find, because in the early colonial period of the sixteenth century, pre-Hispanic stone sculptures were considered potent satanic threats to successful conversion (Taube 25). With the Spaniards thinking this, this lead to the destruction of many great pieces of art, manuscripts, and other forms of architecture. Thankfully, with the Aztecs foreseeing this frame of mind being a possibility and other circumstances occurring, many artifacts survived by being hidden in caves, on mountain tops, and even buried under Mexico City (Taube 25). After the artifacts were excavated, rather than being destroyed, they were treated as objects of curiosity and to be studied (Taube 25-26). I account for any differences between reception then and today by knowing people today have so many different religions and beliefs. Whereas the Aztecs were ignorant of the different beliefs we have today. They just had knowledge of what was taught to them by their elders as we do ours. There were not that many differences and very many similarities between American Indians of this era. In the way they did things to their architecture and sculptures. As a matter of fact, the Aztecs calendar was based of the earlier Mayan cultures. The Aztec calendar stone and Mayan calendar share many similarities. Both calendars have ritual days. The Aztec ritual day that was formed is the Tonalpohualli and the Maya ritual day is the Tzolkin. The day names on both calendars are also very similar. Both calendars used 18 months with 20 day counts along with other counts. The Aztec and Maya calendar stone is believed to have both mythological and astronomical significance. Both Native American cultures regarded their calendars as religious. Using the calendars, the Aztec and Maya priests dictated when to grow crops, when the dry and rainy seasons were, when to go to war, etc. (World Mysteries). The main way the Aztec calendar differed was in their more primitive number system and less precise way of recording dates. The year also started with different months. The Maya calendar tracked the movements of the planets and the moon. From this came their reckoning of time, and a calendar that accurately measures the solar year to within minutes. The Aztecs also kept the two different aspects of time, the Tonalpohualli, which was counting the days and the Xiuhpohualli which was counting the years (World Mysteries). The Aztecs believed they were living in the fifth and final stage of life. Because the Maya used a 360 day long cycle, they could tell that there were time periods way longer than the age of our universe (World Mysteries). It helped me figure out what some of the major celestial events where during the time the Aztec Sun Calendar was created. Palfrey, Dale. Mysteries of the Fifth Sun: The Aztec Calendar. n. p. Web. 8 January 1999. http://www. mexconnect. com/articles/199-mysteries-of-the-fifth-sun-the-aztec-calendar This is a website with basic information about the Aztec Sun Calendar. It gave me more insight into what the calendar looked like. Aztec-History. N. p. , nd. Web. 1996-2012 http://www. aztec-history. com This website has an enormous amount of information about Aztec Indians, from clothing to their demise and pretty much everything in between. The website gave me most of the information about the calendar stone I have so far. Smith, Michael. The Aztecs. Blackwell Publishers Inc. , 1996. Print. The book is Aztec Indians and their culture. This book helped me to understand the calendar stone more and why it was just a big part of Aztec life. Taube, Karl. Aztec and Maya Myths. British Museum Press, 1993. Print. This book detailed facts and myths about Aztec and Mayan Indians. This book helped me find what the Aztecs art and idols were see as in the early colonial period. Aztec Calendar Stone. (2018, Oct 26).