Blogged.

Blogged about Barry M's new nail varnish...

http://allthingsfashionablyme.blogspot.com/2011/03/nail-effects.html

Semester 2, Lecture 3

This week was about Heroin, mostly...although Existentialism did make an appearance.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In1c5O3bNeg

This was the image we were first presented with. Edie Sedgwick, actress, socialite and heiress posed for one of Andy Warhol's 'screen tests' which were mostly filmed at the Factory between 1964 and 1966.

Andy Warhol was a major influence of 60's culture and because of his work at the Factory 'Heroin Chic' was born. Characterised by thin bony women with a pale complexion and dark circles around the eyes it was a stark difference to healthier looking models. During the time 'Heroin Chic' emerged the price of Heroin was decreasing and its purity increasing; the stigma around it changed which meant that the middle-class and the wealthy began using it.

When taking Heroin one has no sense of the past or future, their mind and bodies become numb - only being in the moment of now, the present. Heroin removes the pain and pleasure neurons from the body which is what gives the numb feeling, so when the body comes off Heroine it is particularly unpleasant as these senses return.

The rest of the lecture was hard to write down in a sensible 'making sense' fashion so apologies for the bullet points of what seems to be random notes.

• Existentialism was a movement in post war arts and culture, especially in France and the USA, and especially in music (jazz), theatre and literature.
• The state of mind described in The Outsider (Albert Camus) is similar to that of someone on Heroin
• Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex described being female as a narrative. It challenged prejudicial thinking
• The new left - very French and Existential. All for personal oppression, freedom, racism, gay rights, disabled rights (rather than focus on class, trade etc)
• LSD slows down our perception mechanism and turns off short term memory
• LSD slows down our perception mechanism and turns off short term memory
• (sorry had to be done)
• Merry Pranksters poisoned the water supply in America with LSD to try and stop the Vietnamese War
• Gonzo Journalism
• Existential literature - you cannot write for slaves because they do not have the freedom to have their own thoughts

According to Philosophical Idealism existence itself is made up of three things that exist.

1. Things in themselves - these are things which are alive, they decay and change but they're just there
2. Things for themselves - these are self determining and self creating free people such as white educated men (not women or children or uneducated people at this time) they can do something about their existence such as end it - commit suicide
3. Things for others - Slaves or even wives. It is anyone who lives for someone else, Existentialists believe that they are living in bad faith

New Blog.

 I have decided to create another blog; a separate one from 'Claire's Cosmos' which I can use for whatever I like!

Check it out...and follow! :)

http://allthingsfashionablyme.blogspot.com/

Semester 2, Seminar 2

Albert Camus - The Outsider

These are the notes I made whilst hearing the two seminar papers;

• Camus was about the absurd and seemed to have strong Existential themes although he rejected this idea
• Absurd means that as humans we have no meaning to our lives
• The character of Meursault is not romantic at all (Camus did not like Romanticism) he sees not feels
• He makes no real effort to connect with the people around him. Even his 'lover' Marie is just there - there are no feelings of love
• He is free of guilt - has no focus on the past, only the immediate future

These are the things that we discussed as a class;

Existentialism means that the mind and body are connected.
When someone dies that is it, the end. Whereas Christians for example believe that there is an afterlife with Jesus and even though the body will die on Earth, the sole will be with Jesus.
Existentialists believe that there is no point in having a relationship with God because of their belief that their minds will die along with their body.

The Outsider was written just after WW1 and before WW2, during a war in Spain and Algeria - there were a lot of Existential ideas floating around, it was common.

Live, eat, do. Live in the present.

We discussed that if you live totally in the present then surly you cannot relate to anyone because you cannot delve into past experiences and feelings.
Perhaps this is why Meursault did not communicate with others, not because he was a miserable isolated man but because his way of life would not allow for it.

We were not sure whether it is even possible to live in the present. The people we are today is because of the people we were yesterday and the experiences we had.

In the end it seems that Meursault accepts his death, we thought that this could be because as an Existentialist he just takes each day in his stride. Today is the day he dies...it's okay because this is what happens, life!

We also discussed whether he was in a way sacrificing himself for society, he may have realised what he had done to society and finally felt guilt for it so he was okay with his death. He could have also thought him self as Jesus. Jesus was killed because he was different, like Meursault?

I do not think that today we could live like Existentialists. So much of our lives are focused on the past - good and bad. As human beings we are always striving for the best quality of life and living, to better ourselves we must look to the past in comparison. We also like to remember the past for good and bad memories, I think that as beings we like to feel - it's part of being alive. To feel sad or happy confirm that I'm here, I'm living and experiencing life.

Semester 2, Lecture 2 - The Outsider

Here are my notes from the lecture;

Husserl
Consciousness is intentional and meaning is fixed subjectively.
Knowing is a structure, with some ideas having more priority than others - depending on intention.

Heidegger
'Objects to hand' - don't think about them. When we do think about them they become odd, strange.
'Being' is making choices about what is important.
There is no pure thought - always an agenda.
Ideas are structures of intentions.
Existential problem of choosing is a curse of life!
The source of our decisions is our social interaction and habit of mind.
'Hell is other people.'
There is no self - only a temporary structure of ideas. There is 0.1% of other people within our structure.
Existence is Dasein (ordinary) - a way of coping of being alive, a way of being. It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it.

Anthropology
Everything you think is relative to the culture you're from

Hermeneutic
This is when you see meanings in things.
I.E. a cup of tea...NO I SEE CAPITALISM!
What you see is not what you see.
Freud said that we are unreliable witnesses to our own lives.

Time
What is time? Kant was the first to realise that there are different types of time.
Einstein said that time itself is a dimension of the universe. We can only see three dimensions; length, depth and width. Time is the fourth dimension. (Not uniform or regulated.)

Heidegger on time:
our structure of being.
Time is a function of perception;

1. The past - guilt
2. The future - unknown
3. The present - dread

Existential Morality aims to reduce feelings of guilt about the past and promote indifference towards to future.
Existence proceeds essence. We exist not because we're born, we don't know, it's not important.

Where does guilt/dread come from?
OTHERS!

Camus - The Outsider
He refuses to be determined by other people, he strives for authenticity.
Nobody is writing your life - strive to gain control, can lesson guilt and fear, widen choices.
All in present tense, the main character feels no guilt about his actions in Nazi Germany.
Bad things happen to society and individuals when you don't live your life authentically.
Why are we here now? We're thrown into the world.