The Uber Reading Journal

Kwaidan

2007-10-10T00:15:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

"Kwaidan" literally translates to "ghost story", and sure enough, the film is composed of four unrelated stories.

Ghost stories, that is. *dun dun duuun*

As with most of Asian horror, the film does not rely on gore or violence to strike fear into the audience's hearts. Instead, it relies on the fear of the unknown, done with a slow and steady buildup of psychological tension.

I'd say that as with other Asian horror films, this one is good, but the obviously fabricated backdrops degrade from its effectiveness. In my opinion, of course.

Y Tu Mama Tambien

2007-10-09T23:49:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

It's about two teenage guys with a twenty-something wimman. Now, that can't get any better (or worse).

I remember seeing this a few years back. Apparently, my brother was required to watch it as well. Back then, it struck me as being overly sexual. It still does, and it looks like most rating systems have deemed the film inappropriate for young audiences.

I will spoil the ending, ha! It is revealed at the end that the wimman has a terminal disease, and thus her behavior. Hurrah for the realization of the temporal nature of life.

Carpe diem!

Tonari no Totoro

2007-10-09T23:23:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

It's an animated film that is apparently intended for children; this becomes even more apparent when one discovers that it involves forest spirits and whatnot. It being intended for children, however, does not necessarily make it a children's movie, seeing as how this was included in the list of movies to watch. XD

Apparently, the most fascinating part of the movie is the utter lack of an antagonist. It's, well, a story. The creativity of it all, however, makes up for the lack of an engaging plot.

I'm not so sure as to why it's so seemingly popular, though.

Raise the Red Lantern

2007-10-09T21:50:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

The film is genius, a great product of our Chinese friends. It follows the story of a concubine who, in the end, sees the entire business of competing for the master's attention as entirely pointless; they are compared to pieces of cloth which the owner can wear and discard at any time. In the end, the main character - the third concubine - goes insane.

Apparently, the Chinese gov't initially banned the film as some critics thought it was a criticism of the Chinese government. It's not hard to see why, though, seeing as how the entire household metaphorically morphs into a prison as the story progresses.

Tally-ho.

The Bicycle Thief

2007-10-09T19:37:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

It's a rather simple story. The guy's bicycle - a job essential - gets stolen, so he goes around searching for it. After a failed search, he then attempts to steal a bicycle to keep his job. He gets caught and is humiliated in front of his son, and the story ends there.

I disagree with the conclusion that the main character is on equal moral grounds with the thief.
The effect of an action is not all that there is to be judged - one must include the intention, for the intention is a large determinant of the individual's probability to repeat the act in question.

In this case, it would be prudent to say that the main character stands on morally superior grounds if only in the realm of intention, for he did it to keep his job and feed his son. But then again, the original bicycle thief could have similar reasons for stealing it in the first place. Hmm.

One can never be too sure.

Casablanca

2007-10-09T19:27:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

it's a classic depiction of a moral quandary - love, or the right thing?

So, wimman A hooks up with guy B because guy A, her husband, was thought to have died in a Nazi concentration camp. Turns out that guy A survived, which prompted wimman A to immediately leave guy B to get back with guy A. Ugh. So, guy B has the "power" to allow guy A to escape, because guy A is actively being sought out by the Nazis.

Apparently, wimman A still loves guy B, so guy B helps guy A escape, and wimman A plans to stay behind.

However, guy B, being the moral and rational guy, forces the wimman to escape with guy A for the greater good. If she stayed, he said, she might regret it. Thus, his actions are for the greater good.

Great show. One of them solid, classic films which all adults know about.

Dr. Strangelove

2007-10-09T19:08:00.000+08:00

According to contemporary sources...

it's one of those cold war mockeries. Since it involves nuclear weapons and a madman who addresses the president as 'Mein Fuhrer', there is much reason to believe that it is one of the best movies ever.

Of course, it talks of nuclear war, and against prevalent ideas, the commanding officer thought otherwise. 10 to 20 million deaths at the most, he says. Mutually assured destruction? Only if both sides start hitting each other at the same time, apparently. That's more I like it, cold and rational.

Incidentally, this film is where the image of a man riding a nuclear bomb came from. Rock and roll.

Einstein's Dreams

2007-10-09T17:11:00.000+08:00

Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman

10.09.07

Obviously, these are not Einstein's dreams. If they were, then the author would be Einstein himself, for how the hell would Alan Lightman come to know of Einstein's dreams? Instead, the stories contained herein revolve around various conceptions of time, as the author understands it.

A few scenarios are, as Wikipedia puts is, "exaggerations of true phenomena related to relativity," e.g. the stilts, the flying buildings; the others are simply fantastic, or nonsensical (time going backwards? Yeah, right.). It's interesting, but its value to me ends there. A glaring problem for me is that in most, if not all of the fantastical scenarios, the properties of "time" change, whereas the physical laws as we currently know them remain constant. Nonsense!

It's a nice time-waster. It can get you to think about time, but there are other books more suited to the topic.

Persepolis

2007-10-07T21:36:00.000+08:00

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

10.07.07

Apparently, it was created with the motive of changing the reader's general opinion of Iran. Instead of viewing Iran as a country run by extremists, the author shows you everything from the eyes of a religious moderate, whatever that means.

Yes, yes, a religious person who wants to have both his religion (the cherry-picked parts) and his science is generally a docile one, but only because the beliefs are cherry-picked. Anyone who has read Sam Harris' The End of Faith, would know that such moderates play a large role in the continued existence of, well, stupidity.

Ah, and I still think rather badly of Iran. Any country that lacks a separation of Church and State is not on my list of countries to spare in my world domination schemes.

The Metamorphosis

2007-10-07T21:31:00.000+08:00

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

10.07.07

A philo prof told my block in a workshop that one must not be pretentious. He said that if one does not like or understand Franz Kafka, one must not deliberately lie to others just to fit in. He said that his reaction to The Metamorphosis was: "Bakit naging bug?"

True, true. Bandwagoners suck.

My reaction was no different. I was all "wtf?", quickly followed by "okay..."

It seemed pointless to me, and it still does, unless one is willing to do some analytical acrobatics to derive something from it. A friend told me that it had something to do with human loneliness or whatnot.

Okay.

The Falling Girl

2007-10-07T21:27:00.000+08:00

The Falling Girl - Dino Buzzati

10.07.07

Honestly, I was exasperated when I reached the middle of the story. I thought that it was "more of that chick/wimman/feminism-related crap."

When I reached the end, I still felt that way.

Today, I still feel that way.

It's a rather simple commentary on how the female youth of today are easily sucked in by their foolish desires which ironically destroy them.

Yes, we already know that, thank you. No need for the elaborate metaphors.

The Demon Lover

2007-10-07T21:21:00.001+08:00

The Demon Lover - Elizabeth Bowen

10.07.07

In a bombed out English city (London?), some wimman walks around in her bombed out house, packing some stuff. She finds a letter concerning the fulfillment of a past lover's "promise", and amazingly, she cannot recall what the promise is; she can't even recall his face.

She goes on with her business with great paranoia, and she leaves her house. She gets a cab, but when she sees the driver, she screaaaaaaaaaaams. The cab then drives of. She is still screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaming.

So yeah, it is a bit of a horror-ish story, and in this sense, it is an effective piece of work. It's a classic, which means that it does not rely on violence to scare people, unlike contemporary stories. It uses the fear of the unknown effectively. I mean, she can't even remember the guy's face, and we have no idea as to why she screamed in the cab. Actually, we've no idea about a whole lot of things!

Scary.

Scary is good.

Shatterday

2007-10-07T21:16:00.000+08:00

Shatterday - Harlan Ellison

10.07.07

Ah, yet another impossible scenario. Some guy calls his own house by mistake only to find himself answering the phone. What is this, cloning? Probably not.

Let us now completely ignore the law of matter and energy conservation.

I'd say this is what happens when you give a writer some of Jung's concepts. You get a weird story trying to touch on any person's fragmented self. Good enough concept.

I must say, I like the playfulness in the naming of the days of the week.

Moanday
Duesday
Freeday

I mean, Moan day. Effin' A.

The Rocking Horse Winner

2007-10-07T21:10:00.000+08:00

The Rocking Horse Winner - DH Lawrence

10.07.07

Lookie, another version of reality. Houses talk, and riding on a toy horse allows you to see the winner of the nearest horse race.

That's what this one is all about, really. We need money, parents say. House says to the kid that they need money. Kid gambles and wins. Keeps gambling until he abruptly dies.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to achieve.
What, am I supposed to sympathize or something?

A Clockwork Orange

2007-10-01T12:45:00.000+08:00

A Clockwork Orance - Anthony Burgess

10.01.07

The novel is quite violent. Graphic, too. I find to to be basically filled to the brim with gratuitous violence; I was very much infuriated by the first half of the book. I saw it to be pointless and anarchistic - I found myself vehemently disagreeing with the protagonist's whims and decisions.

The second part, however, decreased a bit on the violent part, but I still disagreed with it on a different level.

It provides us with a dichotomy - "free" agents freely willing evil or restricted agents forced to do the good? The novel seems to indicate that the former is "good", but I wholly disagree, for it begs the question that "freedom", as popularly understood, is intrinsically good, but I do not concur. Freedom is desirable, true, but it should not be so desirable as to override the security of others. To elevate it in such a manner would be making murder legal because it is done in the interest of freedom of expression. In short, the effect or utility of any action should be the focus of moral judgment, for I see the intention to be of little or no consequence; at best, the intention should be part of a different investigation other than ethics, such as psychology.

I still think it's too violent. I'll tolchock every last one of the characters in this thing if they existed.

Harrison Bergeron

2007-10-01T12:38:00.000+08:00

Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

10.01.07

Another dystopian story, but this time, in lieu of communism or capitalism run amok, the story illustrates a society wherein egalitarianism has run amok. When people are made physically equal by having weights put on the stronger people, something is bound to go wrong.

Harrison Bergeron, an amazingly smart and amazingly strong kid, does something amazingly stupid. He barges in on a TV studio, shouts "I am the emperor," and proceeds to take a beautiful wimman and dances with her to the ceiling.

He then gets shot.

So. Society = egalitarian maniacs, Harrison = autocratic maniac. That's a crappy set of choices.

I disagree with the egalitarians. What kind of social equality is that? One must admit that there is always an imbalance, and everyone is never equal in all respects.
I disagree with Harrison. Good thing he got shot.

The moral of the story? Don't say that you are the emperor, for I am the emperor. XD

The Portable Phonograph

2007-10-01T12:31:00.000+08:00

The Portable Phonograph - Walter Van Tilburg Clarke

10.01.07

A world war breaks out and apparently annihilates the entire civilized world - save for four men.

The amazing part here is that the entire world was ravaged without the use of nuclear weaponry. How sad.

So a doctor owns a phonograph and a few books which he protects with a very comfortable piece of lead pipe, just in case the others would want to take his belongings. This is only to be expected, however, for how does one manufacture a phonograph when almost all semblance of human technology has been blown to itty-little bits?

Regardless, I disapprove. I see Armageddon as an ideal and prudent time to exercise the democratic intuitions that natural selection saw fit to endow us with. A man with a lead pipe will not survive on his own. The chances of four men with four lead pipes will be much more preferable. XD

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

2007-10-01T12:22:00.001+08:00

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

10.01.07

Together with The Selfish Giant, I've already taken this up in high school.

We classified it to be a strain of magical realism, a story wherein the supernatural is treated in no special manner, as if it was part of everyday life, or at best, a rare event.

So a man with wings happens to drop into your backyard, muttering some incomprehensible dialect that probably sounds German - what do our protagonists do?

No, they don't call Homeland Security. They don't contact Health Services. They don't even contact the police. They contact a frickin' old wimman who is a supposed "specialist" in such things. Very infuriating.

Expectedly, she has no idea of the creature's origin. Who do they go to next? The church! My god, the church. Way to go for rationalism.

When the church fails them by not knowing/giving a shit, they turn the creature into some sort of a carnival attraction that is quickly superseded by a girl turned into a spider.

Yeah, sure. Why did they not call more competent people to investigate!? Ugh.

The Tiger's Bride

2007-09-30T22:30:00.000+08:00

The Tiger's Bride - Angela Carter

09.30.07

When some guy with a tiger's head says that he wants your daughter, what do you do?

Ah, but of course, gamble!

When the gambling turns out to be a bad move, however, and you lose your daughter, what do you do?

Ah, but of course, run away without giving a crap!

When the daughter is being "killed" and soon discovers that her skin has been hiding fur underneath it all this time, what do you do?

Ah, but of course, realize that one has run out of questions because this story is entirely metaphorical.

I was all wtf when the fur appeared. I mean, who wouldn't be? Perhaps the.. wait. I'm not exactly sure what the fur is meant to symbolize. It was, however, rather interesting to see what a man with a tiger's head would want to do with his/its life. All I know is that the father was a jerk-off.

Jerk-off. -_-"

The Masque of the Red Death

2007-09-30T22:20:00.000+08:00

The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

09.30.07

Mmm, horrorific. So a hedonistic prince goes into some fortress to escape from the disease called Red Death with a few hundred friends.

Cool, it's just like a zombie outbreak.

Without the zombies. -_-

What's weird is that these survivors partied in lieu of, say, looking for a cure, or doing something generally productive. They partied.

All is well until the clock strikes midnight, and this is when a creepy figure covered entirely in bandages (is this right?) enters the party. The prince is offended by his mockery, tries to kill him, and thus dies without apparent cause. All his friends get angry and try to kill the guy only to discover that there was nothing underneath the bandages. They then all start dying according to the progression of the Red Death.

That figure gave me the creeps. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It's much better than the overt presentation of the supernatural in contemporary western stories involving "science" and whatnot. This story involves mystery. Absolute mystery.

I mean, Red Death - Wtf?

The Selfish Giant

2007-09-29T23:17:00.000+08:00

The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde

09.29.07

I took this story up back in high school. In quintessence, it's an extremely simple allegory for Christianity. Giant does bad thing, he gets punished. Giant does good thing, he gets rewarded. POW. He gets to paradise in the end.

It's a children's story, I suppose, but... I don't know. I don't like children. I don't like their simplistic intellects. Hence, a story that feeds and maintains that kind of intellect is not on my mentally approved list.

I like Oscar Wilde, though. He rocks. XD

Getting Better

2007-09-29T23:02:00.000+08:00

Getting Better - Tara FT Sering

09.29.07

It's classified as chick lit.
It refers to the reader in the second person as a "she".
This then begs the question: why the hell am I reading this? XD

Regardless of the reason, it was actually engaging, allowing us men some insight into the impenetrable minds of wimmen. It shows how breakups affect them, how they react to pain, gossip, and whatnot, thus giving us much needed data on the inner workings of wimmen.

I liked it.

Except the part where I am referred to as a wimman.
And the part describing the sex from the wimman's perspective, all while making it seem that the reader was the one was having sex.

Ugh.

Smaller and Smaller Circles

2007-09-29T22:40:00.000+08:00

Smaller and Smaller Circles - FH Batacan

09.29.07

Short but engaging, yes. A detective story that is centered on two Jesuits who hold amazing credentials in scientific fields - a nice case of doublethink. It was fun, although it bogged down a bit at the middle, when the protagonists were interviewing sources for more leads. The ending was a little stupid though. The killer is literally cornered with no means of escape, and the protagonist walks in and nearly gets himself killed. And that woman reporter - what did she really do?

Yeah, he should have just waited for people with, oh I don't know, guns?

One of the cases demonstrating the virtuous nature of patience - wait for backup.

Weight

2007-09-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

Weight - Lakambini Sitoy

09.29.07

I don't like Feminism. It's just too... noisy.

Anyway.

It's a peculiar type of love story concerning two less than physically ideal partners. One is a rather fat feminist, and the other is some average joe. They're colleagues, but for one reason or another, they "hook up" in the story.

I found it rather fantastic. I mean, come on, an impromptu trip to Baguio just for, well, the hell of it?

Yeah right.

Some Families Very Large

2007-09-29T12:59:00.000+08:00

Some Families Very Large - Jose Dalisay

09.27.07

Ah, another tale of the family. The story tells of a father's little escapade in the Christmas season, taking advantage of the generosity of people. He has his son tag along, and he visits various people, claiming to be some sort of long-lost relative or something. He is moderately successful, but on the last visit to a grieving widow, his luck apparently runs out. The widow discovers his ploy, but she plays along.

Fascinating. But it raises the question as to why people are generous only in the Christmas season. I mean, what? Anyway.

The father's a clever man. If only everyone were that clever, and if only everyone were not that much of a liar, then the world could be a better place. By the way, I think he owns a barong.

Generations

2007-09-29T12:42:00.001+08:00

Generations - Ninotchka Roska

09.29.07

The story probably pertains to the Marcos era or any other parallel situation, making it an ideal setting for any political commentary. The story tells of a family's life, or survival, in such a time period, and it's obviously not easy. Dictatorships have an apparent tendency to destroy the cohesion of the family unit. One can ask if the family actually survived, seeing as how the father was killed by his own daughter. Again, it's not my type of story, owing to the fact that I do not like stories very much, XD.

The Cries of Children on an April Afternoon

2007-09-29T12:34:00.001+08:00

The Cries of Children on an April Afternoon - Gregorio Brilliantes

09.29.07

A story concerning the future of some poor guy. Incidentally, the man was originally an agnostic atheist, thanks to Bertrand Russell - I highly approve of this. But then his emotions get the better of him, and he thus converts to theistm - I highly disapprove of this. I say that if the story does illustrate a fixed future, then it follows that the future will hold regardless of one's actions.

But please stop interpreting that as cause for nihilism. It's not.

The Bread of Salt

2007-09-29T11:56:00.000+08:00

The Bread of Salt - NVM Gonzales

09.29.07

Hmm. I thought it was rather pointless and rather illustrative of the hopelessness of trying to get through social barriers. Since there was no expressed conflict that I deemed to be engaging, I was left a little bored by the story. I mean, wow. A story concerning pan-de-sal can only interest one for so long. The writing was good, yes, but I just wasn't engaged.

Midsummer

2007-07-31T21:41:00.003+08:00

Midsummer - Manuel Arguilla

7.31.07

'Tis a quaint little love story set in, well, the past. There are no explicit references to time save for culture, so we can accurately date it to the year 1850, plus or minus one hundred years.

The whole thing was rather uneventful, but it is oddly reminiscent of a high school encounter with an attractive wimman, only the wimman in the story was much more accommodating than the contemporary wimman. It was all over the place - the torpeness, the passive observation, the awkward conversation, the even more awkward actions, and the utterly superlative awkwardness of the wimman inviting the man, whom she had only known for a few hours, to her home.

...

I have nothing to say on this matter.

I miss high school life's awkward situations. They often give rise to even more awkward yet equally enjoyable situations.

Lust

2007-07-31T14:58:00.000+08:00

Lust - Susan Minot

7.31.07

Lookie, it's a story wrote by a wimman about some wimman's unerringly unsuccessful search for the elusive ideal of love.

Digression: "wimman" is in no way a derogatory term; rather, it is an expression of my/our ignorance of the nature of "women."

It's simultaneously amazing and infuriating how this wimman manages to hold a winning streak of crappy, sex-centered boyfriends. She ought to hold a record for "most crappy relationships in one lifetime." It is, however, infuriating that she seems to lack some semblance of self-control, insofar as she keeps on falling/sleeping for the same, sex-deprived class of man over and over again.

Perhaps she now equates love with some false sense of intermittent security, or perhaps as a void-filler of sorts after that amazing chain of hungry boyfriends. It is only too bad that she generalizes all boys to be evil machinations of the sex god. Such a tragedy is probably a result of emotional trauma in some long-lost relationship.

Emotions are quite destructive, and so are sweeping generalizations, like that phrase up there.

The Things They Carried

2007-07-29T16:39:00.000+08:00

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

7.29.07

It's a war story, but it is not told in the traditional manner of having a big, burly man mowing down rows of Commie bastards with uber-Capitalist fervor. It is in fact rather uneventful, as it concentrates on listing what the American soldiers carry according to "necessity" in lieu of of illustrating how bullet holes come into being. The list, however, goes beyond the burden of materials, e.g. guns, grenades, cats, etc. It goes on to list the burden of responsibility, being, and love, among others.

I can reasonably say that many of us can sympathize with First Lt. Cross, since a good number of us know just how psychologically heavy immaterial burdens can be. The way that we deal with such burdens, however, differs from how Cross handles them, since Cross cannot escape such burdens. We, on the other hand, aren't exactly in a war, and putting off such burdens does not have much bearing on whether one lives or not.

Take for example love. Cross' continued harboring of such insidious emotions for a "wimman" directly results in the demise of Ted Lavender. The average person, however, only harms himself should he do the same. It nonetheless sucks, however, for harming one's self is not exactly very enjoyable. Love isn't always about romance.

Anyway.

War is depicted as it is; there is no romanticism. War sucks, but some modern soldiers have found time to both fight for their lives and be entertained, seeing as how some of them have posted combat videos on YouTube. XD

First Confession

2007-06-24T00:07:00.000+08:00

First Confession - Frank O'Connor

6.24.07

Jackie was indoctrinated with Christianity. How terrible.

The story focuses on the aforementioned boy's troubles with his first confession, partly due to the forceful introduction of the fear of hell among other things, such as being cursed to living life as some obscure burning thing due to a "bad confession", that is, omitting sins in one's confession. The main reason of the protagonist's fear of confession, however, comes from societal consequences. Admitting all of one's faults to a person whom one hardly knows is difficult, but when those faults include plotting to kill one's own grandmother, the entire thing goes to "hell". Such is the reason for Jackie's troubles.

The story was sad.

All literary works, especially the fictitious ones, are ultimately subjective; it's high time that I seize this trait to my advantage.

In my view (Wow, subjective), the story inadvertently exposes a few flaws in the Christian faith. This little stratagem composed of fear and eternal torment is quite efficient in subjugating children. Is it, however, worth it?

Richard Dawkins doesn't think so. He classifies it as child abuse, and he goes on to state that "the mental abuse constituted by an unsubstantiated threat of violence and terrible pain, if sincerely believed by the child, could easily be more damaging than the physical actuality of sexual abuse. An extreme threat of violence and pain is precisely what the doctrine of hell is. And there is no doubt at all that many children sincerely believe it, often continuing right through adulthood and old age until death finally releases them." (1)

This, then, can also be defined as psychological abuse, since according to Wikipedia, "Any situation in which the repeated and extreme impact of a situation affects a person's emotional and rational thinking, in such a way as to adversely impact their later lives, could be termed as psychological abuse at some level." (2)

No doubt that a few harmless and retractable lies can be justified in the context of shaping behavior, but can such a destructive and recurring superstition be justified on the same grounds? I think not.

The narrative, therefore, just goes to show what unnecessary pains the indoctrinated youth have to go through.

Besides, what is the need for confession if one's god is the ultimate omnibenevolent being, the one who does not require neither motive nor action, since infinite love does not demand nor require reciprocation, since such a being is beyond all? You could say emotional comfort on the part of the man, but that's just plain evasion of the question, since the need we speak of is that of salvation, not of living comfortably.

(1) Dawkins, Richard. "Religion's Real Child Abuse." The Official Richard Dawkins Website. 15 May 2006. Accessed 23 June 2007. http://richarddawkins.net/article,118,Religions-Real-Child-Abuse,Richard-Dawkins

(2) Psychological Abuse - Wikipedia. 21 June 2007 (Last modified). Accessed 23 June 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_abuse

Hills Like White Elephants

2007-06-20T22:52:00.000+08:00

Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway

6.20.07

Ah, a story revolving around a rather friendly discussion between a standard heterosexual couple waiting for a train in Ebro. According to induction, the conversation revolves around the decision to have an abortion, although it could may as well be anything that relieves discomfort by "letting the air in" since abortion is never directly mentioned in the story.

It is prudent to note that I frown upon any expression of subjectivity, especially those that concern love. The statements associated with it can be extremely and inexorably ambiguous but I digress.

So. What, then, is the "point" of the story?

Like any other literary work that makes use of fiction and whatnot, one can make it mean what he wants it to, similar to how different readers can interpret George Orwell's 1984 to suit their own views. As Rickyroma from www.atheistforums.com put it, "Christians will tell you it is a parable against atheistic states such as the Soviets and North Korea; capitalists that it is about the evils of communism; socialists that it is about the evils of inequalities in wealth and power; atheists that it is a metaphor for religion."(1)

Philosophical crap aside, I suppose that the temporality of everything is what the story apparently tries to get at. "...once they take it away, you never get it back," the story states. That is definitely true, but that does not seem to be neither profound nor useful, since everyone rational knows that. The affirmation of this fact could perhaps drive some to think about their lives, but I don't know.

The issue of abortion is also present, but it does not seem to be discussed in an ethical manner. It looks to be a "prop" of sorts. I don't know.

I don't know for sure. Induction is a shaky business.

...copy-paste the forthcoming link. It doesn't work when you click it, for some reason.

(1) Rickyroma. "Creationism in Orwell's 1984" Online posting. 09 Aug. 2004. Atheistforums. 20 June 2007 <http://www.atheistforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2321>.

The Use of Force

2007-06-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

The Use of Force - William Carlos Williams

6.18.2007

Though the story seemed to have little in the way of a profound point, it does inspire some questions about the actions of both the doctor and the child. Was the escalation of hostilities due to the fault of the doctor? the child? both of them? or perhaps neither has fault in the situation, insofar as moral responsibility is traditionally attributed to free will?

Determinism shows how people tend to have sympathy for criminals when they learn of all the past causes that necessarily got them into jail, such as childhood abuse, psychological problems, family disputes, etc. until there lies no room for what we would call free will, which in itself is a fancy way of inscribing responsibility into an individual due to ignorance of the prior causes that leads to an individual's actions.

In class, some have reasoned that it was the parents' fault for what we would call a crappy upbringing, and some have reasoned that it was the doctor's fault for being rash and impatient. One could also argue that it was the child's fault, since she presumably has the necessarily faculties to understand conversation and make decisions. If being at fault is defined as being morally responsible due to contra-causal free will, then I would say that no one holds this so-called state of faultness, for I am a determinist. However, if being at fault can be described as a moral error of sorts regardless of responsibility, then I would have to say that all involved would have a hand at the necessitation of the situation assuming that we all have a uniform moral standard, which is vastly improbable. This is still open to more conjecture since this spawns a great many questions, but addressing all of them would simply be too long for this entry.

Edit:
The main point of the story is presumably the use of force, which is presented in a utilitarian perspective. Is the use of force justified when it accomplishes a greater good? I would absolutely think so, insofar as it propagates happiness (not necessarily pleasure) and virtue.

Rationality aside, it did infuriate me when the child just stubbornly refused medical examination on what is presumably a petty basis. I despise kids, if you didn't already know that.

So, there you have it. In the end, the doctor broke his objectivity and can thus be called a hypocrite for the time being, but I think that hypocrisy does not in any way detract from the value of one's arguments and/or actions, assuming that the latter accomplished a greater good. A "so what?" would be a sufficient reply to such an accusation.

I for one approve of the use of force.

An Introduction

2007-06-18T20:17:00.000+08:00

The forthcoming text is reserved only for those who know not of the nature of this Reading Journal.

Those who do know are allowed to read, insofar as I cannot control those who view this site, but why the hell bother?

The Reading Journal is basically a requirement for Lit 13 class. 'Tis a task, apparently, that will have us writing down at least five sentences borne of our gut reactions to each and every reading material that will be taken up in class. It won't be numerically graded, since one cannot assess emotions - to do so would be folly. Therefore, if one writes 5 sentences for each story, one has fulfilled the requirement, however cretinous those 5 sentences may be.

I don't think that I'd be doing the bare minimum of writing merely 5 cretinous sentences, though.