Jews, Binx and Romantics

      So yes, I forgot about my blog after reminding myself several times to write it! Just so happens God is really good at reminding me of such things right before I cozily slide under my covers for the night! Fun stuff!

      So yes about The Moviegoer. I haven't finished all the way through I kind have skipped around some. However I think its interesting to watch Binx as he tries to pursue 'the search'. Now like I have said I haven't read the whole book, but I've read a few sections were Binx describes a Romantic, and describes his Jewish characteristics. 

      This topic was very interesting for me. In Binx's search he says he feels Jewish. He has Jewishness. Most of his friends are Jews, he feels exiled like the Jews, and most Jews are moviegoers. He says Jews are his first clue in his search. "but when a man awakened to the possibility of a search and when such a man passes a Jew in the street for the first time,  he is like a Robinson Crusoe seeing a footprint on the beach" Does this mean that when Binx encounters a Jew he feels like he is not alone on his 'search'? Does it give him hope? Maybe he feels like there could be someone who already no the 'search' and has found its ending.

      Binx at first doesn't seem to like Romanticism, he seems to have hatred for it. Yet, he knows it has some importance to the search. I think he realizes that Romantics know there is a 'search' but they cannot pursue it properly. He considers mundane, everydayness with using your senses, which is why I think he doesn't approve of Romantics. Romantics are all about using the body and soul and reconnecting to nature through these. I think he knows you can't be strictly scientific in searching for clues for 'the search", because that requires categorizing things, and you cant do that to 'the search'.  After all he says "Somewhere, the English Soul, received a injection of romanticism, which nearly killed it" He also laters says "He[Romantic] is moviegoers, except he does not watch the movie". Otherwise they know the search, but cannot search it, because they are using the wrong methods. 

 Jews, Binx, and Romantics... It may just because its late at night, but its a very interesting connection to me.

The Big Picture

I cannot help but wonder even when reading the first few pages about Binx. Here is this man who is looking for something more, but is by no means adventerous. It seems as though he would rather experience life through movies instead of experiencing life through the senses. Even his old secretary Linda sees this and is disappointed by the lack of stability in the physical world he has. What I find most interesting is the fact that he is so caught up in the big picture that he is limiting himself in his search to realize the bigger picture beyond the marquee....

I commented on Nickhampton's Model Tenant/Citizen???

Truth

In the moviegoer, it talks about being on a search. As most of our discussions in class have pointed to, we are on a search for truth. In class we brought up the fact that God is brought into the search for truth, but like Mallory mentioned in class, it is like God is the very last thing that would even be considered. I think that this book is a good read and just adds to the search that we are on in honors in general and even in life. We are born with a void that we seek to have filled. We will try everything and anything. Material things work for awhile but often fail to complete. Even philosophy, we search and search and yet we still do not find the answer. We are brought to the same end... what is our purpose? As a christian, we know that the answer is God. But what do you tell a person who is not? Ofcourse we will try to convince them that God is the answer. There is no perfect fit, besides God. (Sorry i just went all Christianly on here) I just find this "search" interesting because I know that God is the only one who can fill it. Taganger writes in the Moviegoer and shows us just what one would do in a search for truth.

P.S commented on Danielle's Post

Model Tenant/Citizen???

I noticed something ironic the other day when I first started reading The Moviegoer. In the first few pages, Binx states, “I am a model tenant and a model citizen and I take pleasure in doing all that is expected of me.” The irony? The fact that although he may do all the things he is supposed to and strays from the things that are “bad,” he actually doesn’t enjoy doing all that is expected of him. What I mean is that what is expected of Binx is to just do the normal things in life, but he would rather go on his “search” for a meaning that is greater than what is in a normal life.

I just find it funny that his claim is something which is opposite from what he actually does.

I commented on Danielle’s What Mitchell Said.

on being a doctor and ecclesiastes.

So Abernathy has been questioning everyone about the end of the book. Meaning, whether or not we think Binx fixed his existential crisis by becoming a doctor and accepting his role. Maybe even accepting his box.

I don't know how anyone else feels, but I think Binx gave up. I really do feel like the existential crisis needs to be answered by something bigger. As in, you can have any kind of job you want, marry anyone, but the Search is deeper. In some sense, I'm with Bono in that "I still haven't found what i'm looking for." And maybe i'm just projecting myself on to Binx, i don't know. I just feel like Binx simply forgetting the search is not a way to live life. Even if it does meaning being happy in a numb, dead sort of way. It isn't the same thing as answering the search.

this is my favorite thing we've read so far. i like kate and binx. i feel like they know something- they know about despair, about feeling like life is meaningless. They know about the waste land. And there is something liberating in that despair. Because everything is meaningless, and the only thing in life is to turn to God. It's ecclesiastes and elliot and catcher in the rye. i like it.

I commented on Binx the existentialist.

All is Vanity

As I was meditating on the Moviegoer, I couldn't help but think of two accepted maxims of daily life found in Ecclesiastes:

1) All is vanity (1:2)

2) There is nothing new under the sun (1:9)

As I pondered these things today I began to notice patterns throughout our daily lives. We wake up. We eat breakfast (sometimes we skip it). We go to class. We eat. We go to class again. We do something with our friends. We set and early bedtime. We miss bedtime because of homework. We go to bed. The end.

And so we continue, day after day, maybe some things stick out. We may remember fun things we did before. We may remember deep thoughts, but essentially, there is no heightened emotion. There is no awareness of self or purpose. We lose that thirst for adventure, that desire to go seek why we are on this planet.

Well, I'm going to leave it at that. I'm going to go find myself...or maybe I'll just look at funny cat pictures instead.

~Cody Martin

Commented on Josh Goldman's Searching Before it was Mainstream.

Popcorn! (Cause it's the moviegoer and all that...yea)

In class we talked about how in The Moviegoer, he seems to be searching for something. He even mentions God a time or two but then emphatically says he doesn't want it. We said that 98% of America believes in God. He never sees anything good from people who claim to be Christians. He says he doesn't want to believe in something that so many people do and yet their lives are still meaningless. I feel like Christians should take this as a warning. So many people in the world are like the moviegoer and they won't want what we have if we live empty and meaningless lives. It seems like a lot of things in my life have been reminding me of this lately, especially in the last two or three days. Something was said at church tonight about it. They used a scenario where you go to church then afterwards, you are out in a store and you are tearing down someone at church. The whole time you don't know that the person behind you was visiting your church and they saw you. They were on the fence about Christianity, but after hearing the way you talked about people, they didn't see any point because you were no different than them. Could you live with knowing that you were the reason they gave up on Christ? I wonder if the Christians in this book could have lived with themselves knowing how their lives effected another person.

Commented on Lane's

Comment on Will's

I wrestled with the ending of this book for a long time. It just felt like he gave in and became what he swore he would escape. He said the movies always got it wrong, and ended up back in everydayness by the end of the movie. I didn't want him to be content, though. I wanted him to either escape his despair or continue his search. But you're right, he didn't succumb, he chose to be content with his life. He was still different from the rest of his family, but he didn't see them as dead. He was finally at peace with himself.

The Moviegoer and Wise Blood

Dr. Talmage warned me in my sociology class to watch for similarities between The Moviegoer and the movie we watched in class recently, Wise Blood. Everything from the characters to the meaning of the story is very similar between the two. The most important similarity I saw betweean them both is the ideal of the malaise and people being put into "boxes." Bolling and Motes from Wise Blood always have people trying to them into these categories or roles in life, when both characters just don't belong. Bolling and Motes don't fit into society; they both embark on a sort of search in order to find themselves. Both stories even have a little bit of a lighthearted touch to it. The difference between the two is that Binx ends his search and finds a place for himself in the world. Motes on the other hand ends his search by finding peace for his life in death.

I posted on Lane's blog

-Susan Berner

Searching before it was Mainstream.

I'm quite enjoying Percy's moviegoer so far. I regret to inform that I'm not quite done yet, however, it should be knocked out by tomorrow. Anywho... the one concept that has me the most infatuated is "the search". Binx is trying to find himself, and this search is all about escaping the monotony of the every day. He says, "What is the nature of the search? you ask. Really it is very simple; at least for a fellow like me. So simple that it is easily overlooked. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life." I love this concept because it so plays into our (forgive the pun) every day lives. I find that the goal for the modern person is to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream is the ideal for most people. They want a spouse with children, a house, one or two vehicles, and steady jobs to support their lifestyles. However, this lifestyle is so monotonous. Binx calls for spontaneity. He plays big into the Hipster movement. This searching for an end to malaise fits in perfectly with the concept of escaping the mainstream. These concepts call to take into question what everyone else accepts. They escape from the monotony of every day life. Another story that comes to my mind is the myth of Sisyphus. It tells a story of a king punished for eternity by rolling a massive boulder up a hill which only rolls back down once he gets to the top. We do this constantly. We wake up, eat, go to school, eat, more school, study, eat, sleep and repeat. It makes me realize the truth in Ecclesiastes 1:9-11. These verses say,

" What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
'Look! This is something new'?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them."

We go through the same everydayness through our lifestyles and unless we force ourselves to escape this malaise and monotony, we will stay in our dreariness.

commented on Danielle's "What Mitchell Said."

Ohh, Kate...

Kate Cutrer is, to put it nicely, lost. Very lost. Like in her own world lost. Possibly her own universe. But we love her anyway because we can relate to her,  especially in those low, dark moments where we question our purpose in life and ask "Why am I even here?!" repeatedly with no reply. We have probably all experienced an existential crisis similar to hers, except we eventually come out of ours and back to everydayness whereas her entire life since the accident is an existential crisis. She describes the feeling as if she were walking on a tight rope over an abyss. 

She tries to end her life on multiple occasions, but then never follows through with it. She claims that suicide is, in fact, the only thing keeping her alive. The fact is, she can't commit suicide because she is so deep in despair. Kierkegaard calls this torment of losing the inability to die, to die death. 

"... this sickness of the self, perpetually to be dying, to die and yet not die. For to die signifies that it is all over, but to die death means to experience death means to experience dying, and if this is experienced for one single moment, one thereby experiences it forever."

Now imagine living (if you could even call it living) in this "sickness unto death". Imagine no longer wanting to live, but without even death to look forward to. Suddenly, Kate is a little more understandable. But this is where God comes in. In my paper, I talked about why Percy didn't "end the novel with Binx at the altar of the local Catholic church." He wanted Binx's search to spark his readers' searches without their knowledge. He wanted them to find their way to God on their own. Kate also had to discover this on her own, Binx couldn't do it for her. 

Great day in the morning!

"Me, it is my fortune and misfortune to know how the spirit-presence of a strange place can enrich a man or rob a man but never leave him alone, how, if a man travels lightly to a hundred strange cities, and cares nothing for the risk he takes, he may find himself No one and Nowhere. Great day in the morning." (99)
This quote made me reflect on my love of traveling. For some reason, when I travel, even if I simply rest- I don't sightsee or run around- I come back tired (yet energized). I think Percy hit on the reason for this, because if you go somewhere and you experience the journey and the place and the people... then you are impacted. You share life with the people surrounding you through conversation and "regular" interaction. When you are in a new place, "regular" interaction is not mundane- it's charged with a taste of adventure and novelty. Even if the place you go does not involve a different culture or people who are drastically different, there is still the process of figuring out where things are and how to get there. It's tiring to experience all these things, but for me it's also energizing because I love learning about people and I enjoy the disruption of mundane routine. Being in a new place results in new thoughts and a different way of looking at things, because you are taken out of the everydayness and placed in a situation that requires a reaction. I believe Percy would also call traveling a relief from everyday deadness and a bit of life... if one experiences travels in the right way and seasons them with some risk and adventure.
On the other hand, if someone hops on a plane and jumps around from place to place, their head in the clouds or wrapped up in their own concerns, they do not experience the place or the people. Traveling is not meant to be a selfish thing but a learning experience. If it's a selfish journey then there is no discovery of self and no real journey has been taken.
p.s. I still do not understand the phrase "Great day in the morning" ...I had a teacher in elementary school who said that all the time!
p.p.s. commented on Rachel's Lip Piercing

What Mitchell said.

When Mitchell said that we long for another 9/11, I was conflicted.

"No I don't," I thought. I spent a good ten minutes trying to convince myself that I didn't. Reluctantly, now, I've concluded that he was right. We long for another moment of heightened emotion. It's why girls love chick flicks, why some churches focus too much on emotional worship--it's why boys want to go off to war and writers create drama. If there wasn't that heightened emotion caused by tragedy, there would be no growth and ultimately no life. Perhaps that's why Kate is such a drama queen.

Though it may be true that we sometimes long for tragedy and drama, we should not become desperate for it. Desperation creates a narcissistic view of the world and petty tragedies.

Commented on Lane's.

The Search cannot be conquered alone

Walker Percy creates a cosmos in which human interaction is necessary. He presents man as a being which is unique, unlike that of any other creature. In his Lost in the Cosmos, he speaks of how, although man has continually tried to prove that other animals have the capacity to learn language, all attempts have fallen short (“Cosmos” 94). Moreover, it is this uniqueness of man that allows him to have an added dimension to his interaction with others and the world. You can teach a pigeon a command, or condition them to make a certain response. Take for example B.F. Skinner’s pigeons who learned to match a particular color to the word for that color in order to receive food. But, with man there is another level of interaction which can never occur with a pigeon, or any other animal; “The human's behavior cannot be understood within the S-R paradigm because there is no direct relation between the sound "ball" and the ball itself, nor is the learning of the relation a conditioned response." When man sees the name of a color he does not recognize it as a trigger into action, but instead he is able to recognize the meaning behind the letters, he sees the word as a symbol/ sign representing something else.

Now, this ability of man to use signs makes him a triadic being. In other words, for man to use language, there are three necessary parts: a signifier (the one introducing the sign), a referent (the object or thing which the sign is referring to), and Dasein (the being who is receiving it) (“Cosmos” 95). Therefore, “all such triadic behavior is social in origin,” for there must be someone to introduce the sign (96). As Percy states, “A signal received by an organism is like other signals or stimuli from its environment. But a sign requires a sign giver. Thus, every triad of sign-reception requires another triad of sign-utterance” (“Cosmos” 96).

So it is understood that Percy believes human interaction is necessary for the use of language, but does this mean that he believes interaction is necessary for one to know their Self?

The answer to this question can be found within Percy’s “Space Odyssey”s. In these provocative short stories, he speaks of one’s own consciousness of Self as being completely dependent on the use of language:

“…in order for the individual consciousness to be activated, it is required that there be a Soc, that is a society, that is, two or more persons; an exchange of Sy, that is symbols; and an Int, that is, an intersubjective relationship in which there is agreement about the symbol used and the thing that is talked about” (“Cosmos” 208).

Therefore, for Percy it is crucial that one have this meaningful interaction of signs if they are to become aware of and ultimately come to know their Self. To take this interaction away would be to deprive man of something “profoundly and uniquely human” (Poteat 10).

Furthermore, in The Moviegoer, one can see Percy’s theories in action. His character Kate has a lost Self. She is constantly troubled by who she is, and ultimately in the end of the novel asks Binx to marry her so that he can continually tell her who she is and what she is supposed to be doing.

Binx: “… I should tell you what to do?”

Kate: “Yes. It may not be the noblest way of living, but it is one way. It is my way! Oh dear sweet old Binx, what a joy it is to discover at last what one is. It doesn’t matter what you are as long as you know” (Percy 196).

Moreover, this marriage does not only have a purpose in Kate’s search for self, but it also has a purpose in Binx’s search as well. It is not until Binx opens himself up to a vulnerable relationship with Kate that he is able to truly rise above the fog of the malaise for the second time in his life. “There I see her plain, see plain for the first time since I lay wounded in a ditch and watched an oriental finch scratching around in the leaves…” (Percy 206). Therefore, one cannot wrest the Self from the everydayness without accepting the help of another. The search cannot be conquered alone.

I commented on Josh Spell's Blog "The Matrix and the Moviegoer"

Heightened Senses

When Dr. Talmage started talking about secretly hoping for another 9/11 it struck something in me. My whole life I've been sort of an adrenaline junkie. I love to do stupid things to see if I get caught and just for the fun of it. I love the thrill that you get when you do something crazy that you know you shouldn't have done and get through it unscathed. I am 100% behind what Uncle John said. We are all secretly hoping for something to happen in our lives that will get the blood pumping and heighten our senses. I went on the honors storm chasing trip last year just because I knew that it would be different and exciting. I want the rush, the excitement, and the increased heart rate. That's what I live for and I think it what everyone lives for either publicly or secretly. We all want that but it exists on different levels. Some people want out there in your face, death defying actions while others want mild action. We do secretly want another 9/11. We want a reason to join together again. We want to get our blood pumping and get nationalism on the rise.

P.S. I commented on Will's post

Wanting Tragedy

Yesterday in class, we talked briefly about the desire for tragedy. Of course, no one wants their house to burn down. No one wants their child to die. However, there is something to be said for the rush that tragedy brings. It breaks us from the cycle of everyday life. We are no longer numb. Even though it hurts, we really feel something. For that moment, you go from fuzzy black and white to bold HD colors. I don't necessarily think that it is the tragedy itself that we hope for. It's the intensity it brings.

I remember being in elementary school, and every time I fell, I secretly hoped that I would break a bone or received some other type of injury. I wanted some type of excitement. Something that would give me special attention outside of the mundane.

I do believe there are times when people sub-consciencely want bad things to happen. However, I think that the desire for tragedy comes from people who have not truly experienced it. There is a day in my mind, from my life, that sticks out in my memory in crystal clear HD, but I know without a doubt that there isn't even a small piece of me that wanted it to happen. (If you want to know the story, feel free to ask me in person. I just don't feel like I can write the story down on this blog tonight and deliver it right.)

Crystal Clear

One of the topics that we discussed in class Tuesday really stuck out to me. Dr. Talmage mentioned how people secretly hope for another 9/11 attack to experience the heightened sense of emotions that came with it. I honestly agree with Dr. Talmage. I do not think that we wish for a 9/11 attack again. We just want the rush of emotions and sharpened senses again. I was in a car accident almost 2 years ago. I experienced the same sharpened sense and it really opened my eyes. I can barely remember what I wore yesterday, but I can still see the car pulling out in front of me. I can still hear the sound of the metal scraping. I can still hear the pop of one of my ribs. I can still taste the blood in my mouth. It is a crystal clear picture that has never lost any details. Imagine if life were always like that. Every memory could be clear and precise. Every detail of life could be seen just like it was in a movie. But unfortuantely those feelings of emotions will never be reached again unless there is another tragic event. I know that people are not secretly wishing for another terrorist attack, but you cannot deny that we do not enjoy the rush of emotions after an acident or event.

P.S. I commented on Joy's post, "Guest Speaker."

The Matrix and The Moviegoer

Binx Bolling is "a model citizen" who "takes pleasure in doing all that is expected of him." He lives a peaceful life in Gentilly, Louisiana. He stuffs his wallet with I.D.s and credits cards, he owns a first-class television set, and his armpits never stink. Everything about him appears clean cut, conventional and perfectly ordinary, and in a crowd of other clean cut, conventional and perfectly ordinary citizens, he is invisible.

Binx doesn't like that. Discontent with the world he sees, he searches for something, though he knows not for what he searches. This search is the plot of Walker Percy's Moviegoer, a 1960 novel that is not unlike the Wachowski brothers' Matrix, a 1999 action film. From a strict sci-fi perspective, The Matrix is a pretty cool movie, but underneath its action-packed exterior is a world of philosophical depth.

Like Binx Bolling, Thomas Anderson (Neo) is an upright, respectable citizen. He has a Social Security number, pays his taxes and helps the landlady take out her garbage, and like Binx, he comes to think the world is a lie. He too is searching for something, and this prompts the question: "What is the Matrix?" Neo goes to the sage Morpheus, who tells him:

The Matrix is a system, Neo. The system is our enemy... You can see it when you look out your window or turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Morpheus holds out his hands. One contains a blue pill, and the other, a red. He makes Neo choose.

You take the blue pill- the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill- you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering you is the truth.

"The Matrix is a system..."

Binx believes that 98% of Americans have taken "the blue pill." Going against fashionable opinion, he questions. He searches. He takes "the red pill." He says,

What is the nature of the search...? The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life... To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.

While the worlds around them sink into blandness and despair, Binx and Neo question, which, according to Heidegger, is to be willing to know, and "to know" is not the accumulation of facts but to be willing to learn what knowledge he does not possess. He who thinks he knows does not "know," and he who does not know is far closer to "knowing" than he thinks.

This perpetual uncertainty about the establishments, systems and institutions that make up society is the very essence of postmodernism.

What do you choose?

EDIT : I commented on Kelsey Parrish's "Crystal Clear."

The Gulf Coast Is Under the Sun

"Zombies staring, looking my way, crying out for something, anything.

They can't fill their stomachs with enough to satisfy the hunger growing,

needing something real."

-Project 86, One Armed Man

You know, as I was reading The Moviegoer and observing Jack Bolling's thoughts about the world around him, one thought kept rising up in my mind...wow, this guy is nothing more than a misanthropic jerk! I have rarely seen him satisfied at all with the world or the people in it. Bolling is living in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction to the point where he can rarely find happiness in his life at all. He claims to be on some great search for meaning but at times that search seems almost completely meaningless and self-defeating. No peace, no joy, just perpetual wanderings and disillusionment. He is selfish, discouraging, and as unchristian as it gets...

...except for the fact that Bolling is totally biblical. Wait, what? How could this jerk possibly adhere to biblical principalities at all? Allow me to introduce you to King Solomon, AKA known as Qoheleth, the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes. This focus of the book is that the writer had once been the most successful man on Earth, earning and doing everything conceivable under the sun. He had seen the most beautiful sights, heard the most interesting things, and was considered by all who knew him as the wisest man in all the land. He literally was the most interesting man in the world!

Yet despite all of that, Ecclesiastes is significant in that Qoheleth, looking back on his life, realized it had absolutely no value at all. He found everything he had attempted and/or accomplished, all of the things that he loved, and all the things that he thought to have so much value to be nothing but vanity. In the end, he realized that the world was nothing but a hollow shell of what it should be and those that live in it are not better off. In fact, he could be downright misanthropic at times, and is often considered to be one of the most depressing books in all of the Bible.

Bolling, of course, is a much less successful man who may not be quite as wise as Qoheleth, but he has the advantage of realizing this biblical truth at a relatively young stage of his life and seeking to avoid it. Qoheleth calls it vanity-Bolling calls it malaise. Normal, everyday existence is hollow and pointless, and to follow the ways of the world is the way of destruction. To contrast the two, Qoheleth discovers that only through loving and obeying God can a man find any value and happiness in his life, for God resurrects the man's life and the world around him so that it is beautiful and worth existing. Bolling never really finds a definite answer (and it certainly isn't God) for his search is one that is not supposed to end, for if it did, then he would be both figuratively and physically dead. Of course, Qoheleth's point is that finding God does not equal death but resurrection, but if God is irrelevant to you than so is the aforementioned point. What matters is finding a way to live in the world in a way that does not conform to but stands out, and both these writers search for ways to do this. Existentialism has always existed, but no one really knew what it was-nothing is new under the sun.

Thank you for reading! If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, tell her I bring the horoscope myself. One must be so careful these days. I commented on Rachel Kotlan's Lip Piercing.

Binx the Existentialist

I will be interested to see how the discussion in class goes tomorrow.

We continued some discussion after class yesterday. Binx seems to succumb to the ideas that he hated and to join a profession of science upon the realization that he cannot break away from the categories. I believe that is precisely the problem, though. He has not succumbed to these categories, he has become content with himself. He allows himself to live in the categories without the categories influencing his life. He is no longer hindered by malaise. He has learned to live in the world unlike Banquo's ghost.

This was the goal of the existentialists. It was not to separate self from the world, but to learn to live in it without being affected by the objective categories.

Ad augusta per angusta,

Will Drake

P.S. I commented on Rachel's "Lip Piercing."

Lip Piercing

Picture this. Walker Percy the awkward observer kid in high school watching everyone else observing their movements, conversations, and actions and analyzing them to form his views on human exsistence. I hope that does not sound overly simplistic because I truly believe a lot about social construction can be observed easily in a high school setting because so many people who do not chose to be there are all put in one place.

Slowly, Percy creates his characters who fall into simple categories first, the aware and the unaware. Without surprise most of the characters are unaware.

Callie and I discussed this today and I think that part of the discovery found in this and others of Percy's work is to understand and accept and then through that live a meaningful life.

This semester has been difficult for many reasons, in particular because there doesn't seem to be a theme or a line of thought to follow. (Other than modern) I think that the common thread through this season has been life. Sometimes it doesn't make sense and nothing really does, there's suffering, challenge, disaster, everydayness, existential dilemmas, etc. but we can find comfort in the fact that it is still life and we are still living. Whether or not that is what I was supposed to take away from all this is indeterminable, but I've enjoyed Honors the struggle, the friends, the food, the games, the slow and painful process of grading blogs. And as it winds to and end it's definitely bitter sweet as I am ready to be done and go home and I will definitely miss the fun I've had exploring the meaning of life and whatever else. So Let it be.

I commented on Joy's post (1st on in the section) about the lady who spoke to us last week

Guest Speaker

Okay so we are suppose to blog every week about something we either read or discussed in class. I want to blog about how awesome thursdays class was since we had the privilege of hearing a woman who survived Hitler. She was just an incredible woman!!! I enjoyed hearing her stories, especially the one about her saying she remembered what her mother had taught her when she was little when men got to fresh and she only had to bring her knee up and kick once in her whole life!!! haha... She is a sweet woman who has been through many trials. We can learn much from her, but we must seize that time while we still have her. I just wanted to say I thought it was awesome getting to hear from her and what she has lived through!

PS - Lane