How do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee?

I´ve chosen this poem because I really enjoyed reading it. I could really visualize the writer feelings towards his husband-to-be. Her love towards him is so intense that she mentions she will love him, even after death. By mentioning love after death, readers may infer that this pure and unconditional love will continue in heaven, and that it will be even better there. Readers may also infer that the writer believes in God. And when she mentions the lost saints, she means that she loves him in the way she loved saints as a child, refering to the blind faith of children.
For me, love poems are really fascinating, And this is no the exception, Love can change everything; it can change negative aspects of one´s personality, it can make one appreciate life, and it may even save one´s life. Love is everything!!!  And I´m not only talking about couples´ love, I also talk about Love in all forms, family, friends, pets, etc. I believe that Love is the only way to achieve happiness.

My glogster shows what I felt while reading the poem. I have included two videos one of No Doubt another of Sahnia Twain and the BSB. The second video mentioned is really special for me. I hope you enjoy my Glogster!

http://www.glogster.com/mariaisabeltrabaina07/-mariaisabeltrabaina07/g-6l6hpt9rol26fi5ulstasa0

IN MEMORIAM

 IN MEMORIAM (sections 54-56)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

After some research I’ve discovered that this poem is part of a very long poem which is a requiem for Tennyson’s friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. I was amazed to learn this poem was written over a period of 17 years. According to Bradley and Johnson we can distinguish four different themes throughout its sections: despair (1-27), doubt (28-77), faith (78-102), and hope (103-131) .

In the sections selected (54-56) the poet fluctuates between faith and doubt. He presents humanity as God’s most beloved creation but at the same time wonders whether there is a purpose, a goal in human existence. Tennyson also portrays Nature at strife with God, Nature does not care about human being’s needs and desires, and suggests the human race might disappear as many other species have extinguished. That’s why I’ve included the pictures of natural disasters. The lines quoted below express human being´s insignificance in comparison to the vast universe.

“But what am I?

an infant crying in the night:

 an infant crying for the light:

and with no language but a cry.

I think everybody has felt like this at least once in their life.

Tennyson also challenges religious certainties. He questions the existence of eternal life, and debates with himself whether we should believe that God is love and that everything happens for a reason, or believing that faith and the pursuit of truth and justice is in vain.

I’ve chosen this poem because I was deeply touched by it when I read it and felt identified with the questions posed by the author. It’s simply marvelous how the poet can express our human uncertainties so beautifully! I found the poem so thought provoking, it reminded me of those moments I find myself daydreaming, wondering about the meaning of life, asking myself what is the purpose of everything I do…

I’ve chosen different sounds for the two feelings the author expresses: “Tristeza de un doble A” (Piazzolla) for sadness and despair, and “Innuendo” (Queen) for a more optimistic view. And I’ve included a beautiful poem that came into my mind when reading In Memoriam: “Adam cast forth” (Borges). In this poem the author also challenges the existence of the Garden of Eden. I’ve posted two versions, the original in Spanish and a translation (I don´t know whether this is the best translation).

In my opinion the reflective tone of the poem can be related to the novel “To the Lighthouse”, especially to Lily Briscoe’s constant considerations about the meaning of life. What’s more, as some critics believe the whole poem “In Memoriam” is an account of Tennyson’s thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief throughout the years, we can relate it to the different stages of mourning that Lily Briscoe undergoes in Woolf´s novel.

How do I Love Thee?

I have chosen this poem not only because of the beautiful way this writer talks about her love towards his couple, but also, because of the story which lies behind it. After doing some research, I found that Elizabeth Barret Browning suffered from a strange illness which caused her an incapacitating weakness. When she published a volume of her poems, Robert Browing sent her letters telling her that he loved her poems. After a long time of communicating through letters, they were arranged to meet each other in person. When they met, they instantly fell in love. They eloped to Italy because her father didn´t approve of their union. Elizabeth claimed that her health improved greatly because of the happiness and love that her couple gave her. Some fifteen years later, she died in her couple´s arms.

This is my favourite part of the poem:


"...I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death. "

What I very much liked about this poem is the fact that she expresses her love, not an earthly love, with a more eternal perspective, the fact that she will love him even after her death. She also expresses the way she loves him, with all her human attributes. I could really feel her love is sincere and pure.

When reading this poem, I couldn´t help thinking of The Ramones´song " Baby I love you" and of many images related to my favourite love moviy that I´ve seen, such as Noha´s Diary.

i like my body when it is with your

i like my body when it is with your is a poem by e e cummings.

After reading all the poems, this was chosen for two main reasons: the lowercase letter i and what it made me feel.

To understand why he used lowercase, I did some research and I found this excerpt that explains his peculiar style:

 ¨... In his poems, he didn't use punctuation or capitalization.  Capitals were used only for special emphasis.  Punctuation marks were used only for a shock effect.  He was also noted for the use of the lowercase letter "i" in his poems. [...]   His work looks like random words and phrases thrown together, and the reader must stop and think beyond the written text.  E.E. Cummings was a different breed of poet.  He used his unconventional, yet brilliant style to send a message to the reader.  In his work, E.E. Cummings didn't use capital letters, proper punctuation, or proper grammar.  He used this to his advantage in mixing the message into the poem. He deliberatley [sic] confused the reader by having them follow the winding paths of words he had created because he felt that a straight one would narrow the reader's mind."

Taken from: http://english11poets.pbworks.com/w/page/19005388/ee%20cummings
(I decided to write in bold the main concepts)

After reading the poem several times, I experienced strong feelings like love, passion, desire, longing... 

This poem is about the physicality of a new loving relationship (concept taken from this webpage). It stimulated my creativity and, therefore, this was the result.




It was easy for me to visualize the story that was told in these stanzas. 

I imagined these lovers could have felt that they were flying into the heavens, that's the reason why the wall of my Glogster is a sky. Besides, I found another relation with the Passion this couple could have felt in the extract of a lecture that was given by the character of Barbara Streisand in the film The Mirror Has Two Faces.

I associated each image with a different moment in the poem.

The image of the couple that is hugging with the lines:

" i like its hows. I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones"

and the image of the couple kissing with the following line:

"kiss, I like kissing this and that of you"

While I was reading it for the third or forth time, I found myself humming the song "Loving you" and I decided to included it as well. I embedded this video that is not the original version, but it was made of lovely pictures of couples, which I found pretty appropriate.

This was the analysis and the Glogster of the beautiful poem: i like my body when it is with your by e e cummings made by Marina Robledo.

Because I could not stop for Death (Emily Dickinson)

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH 

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

For only gossamer my gown,

My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

Having read all the poems provided, I’ve chosen “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson because the fact that death is the main theme of this poem caught my interest.  In my opinion its protagonist must be a woman for the words she chooses to describe how she is dying.  To be honest, I couldn’t help feeling identified with her.  The first stanza clearly states that she seemed to be “busy” to realize that she was about to die. She must have been so immersed in her duties that she couldn’t even stop for death. In this trip, she is the only person travelling with Death. This idea is emphasized throughout the poem by  interchanging the first person singular and plural. Dickinson uses the third person singular just once to introduce Death.

 The fact that death is personified as a man also called my attention.  Generally, the writers who portray death as a human being tend to depict it as an evil woman who outrageously takes people’s lives.  In this poem, Death is pictured differently. He is not described as a frightening man, but as a kind one who took the time to do what the victim couldn’t.  

In the second stanza, she regrets leaving her labor and leisure but not people. Dickinson describes the trip in which the speaker is embarked on as a pleasant one. Although she knows that she has died, she’s neither terrified nor worried. On the contrary, she seems to go through this new experience in a relaxed mood.

In the third stanza, the world the speaker is passing from is described. In the following stanza, she corrects herself by stating “or rather –he passed us”. It’s now when she realizes that she is no longer a human being, but a soul travelling to the great beyond. In this stanza Death is shown in a more conventional form. The protagonist faces the coldness that is said to be experienced when dying. However, she knows that this part of death leads her to eternity, the ultimate goal.

This poem can be related with some of the works we dealt with in class. In The Lagoon, the Turn of the Screw and To the Lighthouse, death is one of the main themes.

In the post I’ve prepared, I’ve included pictures connected to death. The colours that prevail are black and white, except for the shadow around the two phrases, which represent the light that is said to be seen once we’re dead.  I’ve chosen a young woman as the speaker of the poem because, while reading it, I imagined her as a lady in his early thirties.  There are two pictures depicting what eternity represents and in the central image Death is portrayed. There are two phrases: the first line of the poem and one which reflects how many people conceive death. I also included a video with the poem read and the story performed. The background music is ideal because it shows the feeling of peacefulness the speaker is experiencing. As regards the wall chosen, I wanted to highlight how Death must have stopped the young woman's life.

The Lady of Shalott 1842 edition. Part 2

Though the plot of The Lady of Shalott –PartII, shows a girl who is under a curse and lives a solitary life, observing but not participating in society, the tone in this section of the poem is not a gloomy or depressing one. We don’t know how or why she is confined in the castle on the island (Part I), but judging from some of the words chosen, such as “magic web”, colours gay”, “glad”, “delights”, “plumes”, “lights”, “music”, which contribute to a quite cheerful atmosphere, it seems that the lady is happy in her place or at least she is accustomed to her lifestyle, and enjoys weaving her tapestries. However, by the end of the poem the lady has a voice and her attitude changes. This is a turning point in the poem and we can anticipate that something wrong will happen to her. Because a curse will befall on her if she looks down to Camelot, she does not dare to look directly outside her window, so she has managed to contemplate the outside world through a mirror. . The images she sees on it (people, nature, the highway, etc) are described as “shadows”. Though she does not seem to lament, she eventually becomes tired of these “shadows”, of looking at life as reflections in her mirror (line 35 “I’m half-sick of shadows,” said The Lady of Shallot). I first felt pity for this lady, because though she does not seem to be suffering, I can imagine that her total isolation and loneliness are unconsciously torturing her. Then I realized that this lady is a respectful character who has dignity to express her frustration and take a decision that will change the course of her life (rather will put an end to her life!). On a surface reading, I found several similarities between this poem and Wide Sargasso Sea in connection to main characters, themes and symbols (see below **). Broadly speaking, both stories have as a main character a lady deprived of love, imprisoned and isolated from the world. However, on a deeper analysis, the poem can also be related to To the Lighthouse. Some critics claim that The Lady of Shalott is about the conflict between ART and LIFE. In this perspective, considering ART as a way of life, the lady would be the artist who enjoys weaving magic webs and singing beautiful songs (as Lily loves painting) and who voluntarily cuts herself off to the rest of the world, represented by a group of damsels, an abbot, a young shepherd, a page, etc., who stand for common people in their daily activities (similarly, Lily decides to be an independent woman, and becomes like an outcast who does not conform to the expectations of society- she wants to be an artist but society demands her to be a wife and a mother). (**) Wide Sargasso Sea and The Lady of Shalott Themes: Appearance vs Reality -WSS: different representations of reality through dreams, letters, rumours (no clear distinction between dream and reality, madness and sanity, superstition and reason) -TLS: “shadows” and reality. Reality for her is what she sees in the mirror. The Supernatural -WSS: practice of obeah. It inspires fear. -TLS: black magic. The lady suffers from a mysterious curse. Love -WSS: Antoinette is a lonely young girl. She grew up without her mother’s , parents’ or friends‘ love. She married Mr. Rochester who never loved her either, and brought her downfall. -TLS: The Lady of Shallot is a lonely girl. (she has no loyal knight). Identity -WSS: names: Antoinette is deprived of her identity. Rochester calls her “Bertha” and “Marionette”. -TLS: No name, the main character is referred as The Lady of Shalott. She is a mysterious figure, nobody has seen her (PartI). Symbol: Mirrors: can stands for the DOUBLE -WSS: mirrors symbolize duality (Jane Eyre could be the double of Antoinette, Antoinette finds her double in Tia) -TLS: (mirrors were set behind the tapestry so that the worker could see the effect from the right side). The mirror is the only thing that connects the lady to the world. But the images she sees are merely “shadows”, not the real world. The mirror in both stories is a symbol of the characters’ isolation. The Lady of Shallot uses a mirror to see the world but cannot interact with it. In WSS, Antoinette’s madness stems from her imprisonment: when she is locked up in the attic and she faces a mirror, she cannot recognize herself.

Morning Song -  Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.

The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry

Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness

Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother

Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow

Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:

A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.

Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. the window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try

Your handful of notes;

The clear vowels rise like balloons.

 http://www.glogster.com/ericavallone/flypaper-glog-by-ericavallone/g-6l78na4sh2a45on6aajkpa0

I have chosen the poem Morning Song by Sylvia Plath basically because I liked it, and it evoked several images while I was reading it. In this poem we can see from the point of view of a mother the different stages she goes through from her pregnancy to the moment the baby utters her first sounds. First she describes with happiness her pregnancy and the moment she gives birth to her child. Then, we are told about her worries and fears as she gets up at night to see her baby is sleeping peacefully. And finally, she describes her baby’s attempt to produce sounds in the morning.

I associate the poem with soft colours, such as white, grey, pastel pink because they symbolize purity. For me, the purest thing in the world is a young baby. I tried to include a picture that show every moment the mother describes. The poem makes me feel peace, love, and tenderness.

This poem could be related to the role of women played by Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse. A kind of mother devoted to her children, being unconditional. It also reminds me of the character of Annette in Wide Sargasso Sea, especially her relationship with her son, Pierre. As he was a handicapped child, she focused her attention on him. Because he was weak, she had to protect him all the time.

They are three examples of caring and protective mothers. 

Poetry My november guest // robert frost

   I had mixed emotions about the poem “My November Guest.” I don’t think I have the right words to describe them properly. On the one hand, when I read the description of the scenery, there were things mentioned (“bare withered trees,” “the mist,” “the desolated, deserted trees,” for example) which are generally associated with melancholy. Thus, I felt quite sad. It was a mild sadness, not an overwhelming one; a sadness strong enough to push a heavy sigh through my lips but not enough to bring tears to my eyes. On the other hand, when I realized that the narrator in the poem was seeing some beauty in those looming and bleak elements I experience some warm happiness because he managed to spot something good in all that. It wasn’t a sheer happiness but it was enough to bring a smile to my face.
   As for the colours, despite the fact that some are mentioned in the poem such as grey, black and silver, I thought about warm ones: red, yellow, brown and orange. Those colours are very common in Autumn (the season in which the scene of the poem is described) and one can see all them anywhere: on the top of the tress and scattered throughout the floor as well.      
   Then, as regard the tune— trying not to sound trite by choosing Vivaldi’s Autumn— the poem reminded me of a Guns N’ Roses’ song: Estranged. The song might not be directly related or connected to the poem. Whereas the former – in my opinion— is about a person who has lost his beloved and is learning to cope with that, the latter – later on I will enlarge on this point— is about an old person whose life is coming to an end. However, both of them evoke the same complex feeling which is a compound of sadness and happiness. In either piece, those feelings are so dexterously woven by the artists that one cannot experience one without experiencing the other.  In addition to that, I consider that both, the poem and the song, deal with the idea of accepting the hardships of life (which doesn’t mean resignation) in order to appreciate what one has.

   Regarding my interpretation of the poem, I think it is about an elderly person who has learned to accept those apparently negative aspects of old age and now it is quite happy with his life as it is. I interpreted the description of the scenery as a metaphor of being old. Words such as “grey” “withered” are generally associated with decay and deterioration (things that are also associated with old age.) The phrase “the birds are gone away” could make reference to the narrator’s children who went to live to their own house, they “left the nestle.” Now he is alone, “deserted” and “desolated.” In addition to that, Autumn (the season in which the poem takes place) also suggests this idea of old age since in this season the leaves fall and there is a decline of the life that bloomed in Spring.  Following this analogy, Spring, with its bust and proliferation of life, will stand for birth and childhood; Summer, with all its exuberance and frantic activity, will stand for adolescence and adulthood, and Winter, with all its stillness and cold, will stand for death. Consequently, when we read in the poem about “the November days” we can interpret that as that the man who is talking, the narrator, is very old and he doesn’t have too much time left. November is the last month of Autumn, what comes after that is the “snow”, that is to say, “Winter,” in other words, death.
   All those elements mentioned generally have a sad and somber connotation. Yet, the narrator, accompanied by “his Sorrow,” sees them as beautiful things.  The fact that the narrator is with his Sorrow (personified in a SHE) might indicate that he is sad. However, he seems to be happy with her: he is “fain to list” what she says. Besides, it appears that he admires her since in the last line he mentions that  she“praises things better.”  The narrator learned to appreciate, “to love the November days.”   In addition to all that, the title of the poem also seems to hint that the author is comfortable with his Sorrow. There, the Sorrow is mentioned as his “November Guest,” not as an Intruder.  In other words, he accepts her, and it is because he accepts her that he is able to appreciate the beauties that “she so truly sees (…) and praise” in things that normally are associated with sadness.

   Finally, I think that I could relate this poem with the book “to the lighthouse” in the sense that both deal with this idea that there is no outer, absolute reality. The objects that we describe don’t have embedded in themselves the feelings or emotions that they evoke. It is all perception, things that we might find sad, other people might find them cheerful or vice versa. An example could be that in the lighthouse whereas the sea in Lily’s eyes is quiet and calm, in the Ramseys’ is rough and tough. Similarly, in the poem, what could be generally associated with sad and depressing things is seen beautiful by the narrator.

"Losses" Randal Jarrell

"Losses" Randal Jarrell

While reading “Losses” by Randal Jarrell, I experience strong feelings related to a bloody war- sadness, fear, tragedy and helplessness. Being the poem’s main topic, Death, itself, evokes powerful and disturbing images. Dark and stormy skies, shootings and bomb attacks and the image of hundreds of dead bodies lying on the floor, come all to my mind, leaving a feeling of sorrow.  Also, the poem suggests a plaintive melody, one that immediately stirs deep and genuine emotions.
Jarrell’s poem states all different “kinds of death” that a war can cause. Some people die by accident while training, others in conflict and only the “lucky” ones are awarded medals.  Life seems to have no meaning. Soldiers die and nobody realises the importance of that.

In my opinion, this poem can be compared with “To the Lighthouse”, by Virgina Woolf, in the sense that both deal with the topics of “death” and “war”. In “Time Passes,” Virginia Woolf records the deaths of three major characters: Mrs. Ramsay, who dies of unspecified causes, her daughter Prue, who dies as a result of childbirth and her son Andrew, who dies in war- “A shell exploded. Twenty or thirty young men were blown up in France, among them Andrew Ramsay, whose death, mercifully, was instantaneous”.  I think that the phrase “Twenty or thirty young men were blown up”, ironically suggests, just as the poem, disregard for the deaths of these soldiers. Here again, “life” has no meaning and “death” becomes simply a matter of statistics.

How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

http://www.glogster.com/marian89/how-do-i-love-thee/g-6l753fbglc7jua94urqcpa0

After reading 'How Do I Love Thee?', I felt that the author's wholehearted feelings are palpable. The use of rhetoric elements convey the message so clearly that we can almost 'see' and 'hear' the poet's feelings for her beloved.  Even if it is not easy to put such an intense and abstract topic into words, the author succeeded to make it 'concrete'. Although the poem is written in Old English, the message is crystal clear, since most of the expressions employed that are still used in English.

The colour this poem suggests to me is light pink, as the love she describes seems spiritual and profound,  rather than only passional. 

The images this evokes are: Two people holding hands, hugging or keeping a dialogue and a person in front of a fireplace, thinking melancholically. In the glog, I included the picture of a mountain and the sky above, since it represents that love can be infinite as the sky. Such an image also evokes the idea of heaven -life after death. A hand with a lot of words written on it and a notebook suggest the idea of love expressed via the written word.

I feel the videos of the beautiful songs 'And I Will Always Love You' by Whitney Houston and 'Love you Till the End', soundtrack of the film 'PS I Love You' suit this poem perfectly.

As regards the prose fiction works we dealt with, H.D.I.L.T. reminds me of 'The Lagoon', since the Browning's poem represents Arsat's love both for his brother –in some lines- and for his wife –in some others. Arsat keeps on lamenting the fact that he had abandoned his brother, but he does not seem sorry to protect Diamelen on the same night. When both these dear people pass away, he feels in the sunset of his life. 

Poetry - Love your Enemy by Yusef Iman

http://www.glogster.com/aruzacnun08/poetry-love-your-enemy/g-6l781uallc0jljgakcosha0

Love your Enemy

Yusef Iman

brought here in slave ships and pitched overboard.
Love your enemy
language taken away, culture taken away
Love your enemy
work from sun up to sun down
Love your enemy
Last hired first fired
Love your enemy
Rape your mother
Love your enemy
Lynch your father
Love your enemy
Bomb your churches
Love your enemy
Kill your children
Love your enemy
Forced to fight his Wars
Love your enemy
Pay the highest rent
Love your enemy
Sell you rotten food
Love your enemy
Forced to live in slums
Love your enemy
Dilapidated schools
Love your enemy
Puts you in jail
Love your enemy
Bitten by dogs
Love your enemy
Water hose you down
Love your enemy
Love,
Love,
Love,
Love,
Love, for everybody else,
but when will we love ourselves???????
From: Something Black, Copyright 1966 by Yusef Iman

After reading all the poems from the selection provided, I decided to concentrate on this one, which is a 38-line poem written in the third person and with a statement/ answer format. As it uses accessible language, this poem is easily as well as quickly read. 

The lines stating activities that are far from human followed by a strong imperative statement - love your enemy - made me experience a weird feeling at first because I was not able to understand the message behind. Then, I felt pity for the oppressed since it seems to me that he is trying to bear his real life without forgetting what the Bible says.

A slave and the Bible were the two images this poem evoked. While I imagined the former coping with the unavoidable situation of being under his master's will, I could clearly see the Bible open with the statement "love your enemy" written in it. Both images together reflect  the contradiction between what the Bible teaches and what happened to slaves before slavery was abolished. 

The tune this poem suggests is similar to the Responsorial Psalm done after the First Reading in mass.

The final message of this poem is that we are taught to love others either friends or enemies so much that we forget about how self- love feels.

I think this poem is thematically related to "The Lagoon" and to "Wide Sargasso Sea" since both Arsat and Antoinette are the oppressed.         

At the top of this post I included the link so that you can have access to the Glog I have prepared and below there is a brief comment justifying my choinces.

While the pictures that surround the central image represent some of the dehumanising activities mentioned by the poem, the moving arrows departing from these pictures point to the centre where I placed the imperative statement taken from the Bible - "Love your Enemy", which emphasises the several times the oppressed repeats such a powerful claim. Regarding the wall chosen, it is not of a definite colour, which symbolises the weird feeling this poem made me experience when I first read it. The audio is a love hymn and I decided to include it because it cam up while I was searching for further information about this poem. 

At the bottom of the Glog is the final message with the same rhetorical question used by Yusef Iman, which invites the reader to think about self-love.

I hope you can enjoy the interpretation of this poem as I did.

POSTMODERNISM

I've chosen The Final Cut and Educational Use of Second Life

The film is a postmodernist one. It is an excelent example in which we can see the advent of computers. The key feature here is knowledge. On one hand, real knowledge is the one that can be stored in a "digitalized" way, in this case in a chip that is implanted in a baby as soon as it is born. When this person dies, the images can be used to make a "memorial" video, which is shown in their wake. On the other, we can also analyse knowledge as functional because we make use of it to produce this video.

The video that explains the educational use of second life was stricking for me. I knew that lectures were given using this platform but I didn't know the fact that you could go to different museums to see the paintings which are there and this is the key element of postmodernism. The reality created by simulation, the virtual reality. This world is not original it's a copy of the real one, we could say is a reproduction of life.

In my opinion, I found these videos appropiate to analyse two key features of postmodernism: knowledge and simulacra.

Postmodernism

I really agree with all the opinions written in the blog. They are all very interesting.
I decided to select the Final Cut and War Games trailer. I´ve found that these two videos are intimately connected with  Klages’ article on Postmodernism. The Final Cut shows how technology is good knowledge. "The advent of electronic computer technologies has revolutionized the modes of kowledge production, distribution and consumption in our society. Computer technology is the domintant force in al aspects of social life." So dominant that anything that is not digitalizable is not knowledge. And even more dominant in that it can even manipulate people´s lives.
In both videos, there is no clear difference between reality and technology, as most of your comments say. In the Final Cut, everything is recorded and cut. Our lives are manipulated by technology.
 In war games Trailer what seems to be a game for some, is realitity for others. And this game for some is "simulacrum": a reality created by simulation, for which there are only copies. In postmodern societies, there are no originals.
 All in all, this confusing mixture between reality and fiction makes us think of the vital role technology is playing in our lives.

Postmodernism

I have chosen  “Educational Uses of Second Life” and “Ohio University Second Life Campus”.

 

Both of these videos show another way of education, a virtual reality in which students are immersed in their own education. Both videos show that universities are now turning into a different learning environment, like a paralell world in which students are the protagonists of video-game-like realities.

 

I could identify in both videos some postmodernist features. One of them could be the fact that postmodernism is associated with electronics and computers as the “means of production” which determines social practices. Knowledge is transformed by our reliance on computer technology. All knowledge must be digitalizable to be preserved: anything that is not digitalized will not be considered “knowledge” and will be excluded from our systems of data collection, organization and preservation.

This is reflected in the way universities are now turning their attention to digital education, as an attempt to include education in this cybernetic era.

 

I could also identify the “simulacra” feature in both videos. A silulacrum creates a passive subject who takes the simulation as the only necessary reality. I think that by creating another reality, the Universities that have chosen to relly on this kind of simulacrum of their campus may be leading their students to take a passive attitude towards reality, the fact that students can actually “walk” and visit different places virtually dont create a need for them to actually interact in their real life situations.