Written by Matthew Iakov Liberman Some might reproach me for my facetiousness. I reproach “such ‘serious animals’” for their “prejudice against all ‘frohliche Wissenschaft’; let us show that this is prejudice!” To attack the Musician of the Future with such a dour creaking machine of the intellect in ‘ernst,’ would be a heinous blasphemy. (Nietzsche, ernst nehmen) The Madman Shoots Lasers From his Eyes: Heliocentricism and the Marketplace ‘No, because Nietzsche wasn’t a time traveller…’ ―Herr Doktor Doktor Polakoff, pers….
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Written by Meghan Elcheson for Prof. Robert Rose In George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant,” a British Imperial officer stationed in Moulmein grapples with his ambivalence towards his empire and the citizens of Burma as he comes to discover the true nature of imperialism. Orwell’s essay presents an English narrator caught in a moral dilemma when he is asked to deal with a local elephant that has gone “must.” At the height of the narrator’s internal conflict, he forgoes his…
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Written by Sarah Tue-Fee For Prof. Leland Young There is a pervasive but largely ignored bias toward White standards of beauty in Western mass media, a bias which is denied by many who argue that America is post-racial and point to African American beauty icons in the media, such as Beyonce or Tyra Banks, as evidence that American society is completely healed of its racist history. However, these exceptions to the rule only draw attention to how relatively rare they…
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Written by Julien Gagnon for Prof. Patrick Barnard In Petrarch’s letter “The Ascent of Mount Ventoux,” which serves as an introduction of sorts to his work, he writes “we look around ourselves for what can be found only within us” (Petrarch 18). Throughout his Canzoniere, Petrarch seems like a man who values his inner world more than the outer world, and yet cannot help but draw quite a lot from the world around him. Laura, the subject of the poems,…
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Written by Emmanuelle Dastous Sara for Prof. Rebecca Million Behold! A victory may only come upon a land with the guidance and strength of its people. Yet certain prophecies must be fulfilled for the assurance of a victory. This concept was clearly portrayed in J. R. R. Tolkien’s second installment of Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. The beauty of Middle Earth is slowly perishing and the darkness within is emerging throughout the land. Middle Earth is slowly dying…
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Written by Sewsen Abubeker for Prof. Rebecca Million In several literary works, it is common for authors to abide by the guidelines of the archetypal hero described by Joseph Campbell. Indeed, this is true about J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. However, a particularity that can be observed in Tolkien’s work is the fact that he presents various elements of the Hero’s Journey by means of several characters. In addition, each personage has a specific way of portraying their heroism. Thus,…
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Written by Sahib Al-shemeri for Prof. Robin Feenstra In Oceana, power and propaganda are the main tools that the party uses to purge its citizens of their humanity and ultimately their self-worth. The goal of this endeavor is so that the party can create a populace where the sum of the whole is greater than its parts, a place where individuals do not have any value. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four offers its readers a warning that power seeks to establish…
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