Go to a “virtual” museum online. Many large museums have all or part of their collections online now. You may want to go to several to find a format you like. Spend some time browsing. Check out some of the famous works of art. How does visiting an online museum compare to visiting a museum in real life?

When I was thinking about an art museum, I wanted to see a lot of art work to compare. The very first museum that popped into my head was the Metropolitan museum in New York City. The artwork selection is impressive. I have been there personally and it’s massive. Whole wings dedicated to modern art, armor, musical instruments, a whole Egyptian temple, and a man made Japanese garden with ponds, fish, and bridges. 

With a selection of famous works by Degas, Dali, Van Gogh, Piccaso, and Matisse it was awe inspiring to see them in person. But when I looked online there was such a loss of connection. It was such a wonderful feeling to look at this piece of work, and feel a connection with the artist. This was actually them that touched this canvas, this was actually the artist that molded the bronze.When you look at an online exhibit all you see is a picture. The artist never touched your computer screen. There is a distinct lack of connection in that aspect. 

Visiting the Met was one of the most awe inspiring moments in my life. Truly it was that good. Visiting the website? I felt like those images can be seen anywhere, I don’t have any connection with the artist, which is the entire point of art, right?

Week 9-Frye Museum visit

The Frye museum was a fun field trip that ended up being educational in a non-traditional sense. We could have easily looked at art online and found a piece to analyze, but it was a whole other matter to physically see the painting right in front of you. I was able to actually see the medium that was used, I got to see the brushes that were used for his paintings. I was impressed and had fun to say the least.

What I love was the Noguchi exhibit, what I wasn’t a fan of was the salon in the back of the museum. I can understand why the Frye’s would collect these types of art, they were popular in their time, but they weren’t for me.

I was not a fan of the massive paintings that could take up a whole wall, nor their crazyily ornate golden frames that accompanied them.

The ambiance was typical of a musuem, people walking around and appreciating art, and I was definitely one of them.

Week 8 Basic Kindred Pot Summary

Write a brief review of Kindred for someone who has not read it. Include all the basic information and a brief plot summary that does not give away the ending (no spoilers). Include your points of critique and your overall opinion.

Kindred may have varying opinions based on who you ask. It doesn’t quite fit into a category. Not quite science fiction, not quite historical fiction, not quite adventure, but it does leave a resounding impression on the reader that is hard to miss, which is the point right?

Essentially a woman named Dana finds herself catapulted into the past, she has no idea why at first and she slowly figures out that these jumps back in time are connected to a distant family member.

Overall the book is a quick and decent read, would I have chosen this book at the bookstore? No, probably not. I am not typically drawn to the period fiction pieces, which is what I would most consider this book to be but Kindred was a good read.

Kindred had a good pace, there wasn’t much time where nothing important was going on, even if it didn’t seem like much was happening, there was an astounding amount of character building that was the most important part of the story. There wasn’t a whole lot of action, but a lot of human interaction, which can be harder to write. 

What I wish had been included was a better explanation of why Dana was going into the past in the first place. I understand that that wasn’t really the point of the book, but it felt like an elephant in the room. We knew she was going in the past, but not why, I would have liked at least a little bit of an explanation. 

Week 7-Butler’s Approach to Time Travel in Kindred

Compare Butler’s approach to writing a time travel novel with others you have read? Consider the amount of times time travel occurs in the book, and who travels, and how? Butler wrote in the science fiction genre, but how much science does she incorporate in her work?

Having read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells I thought that I had a decent understanding of the time machine genre of science fiction. It’s a very classic example of moving through time, man makes machine, goes back in time, fixes machine, and goes back to his own time. Butler’s approach to moving through time was drastically different. 

In Kindred, Dana doesn’t have a machine, she has no physical object that pulls her into the past. She doesn’t even know how it happens, even after it is all said and done. She has a specific purpose unlike the unnamed time traveler in The Time Machine. The differences in experiences are quite astounding, they’re almost unrelated stories entirely. The story isn’t even considered a science fiction novel in my opinion, it’s mostly just a story about a woman that gets thrown in the past and how she deals with the relationships in the past, not how she actually got there physically

Week 6: What type of scenario do you think might “call” you? Why?

Put yourself in a position similar to Dana’s. Think about your life and relationships. What type of scenario do you think might “call” you? Why? (Try to think of something other than the “saving the ancestor” story.) If you knew you were getting zapped back into the past, or forward into the future, what would you do to prepare yourself?

Traveling in time in order to preserve one’s identity is an interesting premise. Who wouldn’t want to know what was going to happen years down the line? Who wouldn’t want to prevent certain instances in their life?

I think saving your own ancestor is admirable, and certainly necessary, but I don’t think that is what would “call” me to a point in the past or future. I must be more self centered than Dana, but I think that if I was being called it would be to instances that were possibly a hindrance to my happiness later on in life. For example, the person that I might be marrying hypothetically, what if we ended in a bitter divorce years later? I think I would be called before we met and told to avoid said person. Another example, getting into the car to drive my hypothetical children to school, later to be nearly killed, or have my children die by someone running a red light. Being able to prevent massive tragedies in my life would be a very beneficial power to have.

In regards to preparing for these events to happen, I don’t think that I could prepare all that much. If I was there to prevent all of the bad things in my life, how would I know that I was in danger? I would certainly know the end point, so that would be a bonus that Dana didn’t have. Dana had no clue if it was just Rufus that she needed to protect. It could have been for any member in her family that was in danger of not being born, or severely injuring themselves. I would at least know when I was called, because of my time traveling self’s age. I hope that makes sense, time travel is a tricky thing.

Gender Cluster-Butler’s Take on a Modern African American Woman in the Past.

In Octavia Butler’s book Kindred, many societal issues are brought to light throughout the book, both in her trips to the past and her interactions in her present time. Race, gender, marriage, and family all take center stage in Kindred.

What I thought was most curious was the gender role issue that was present during Dana’s trips to the past. Obviously race was a major issue, but some of the factors that we assume were problems, might have actually been gender issues, and not necessarily racial issues. For instance, the interactions between Dana and Rufus.

Throughout the story, I got the feeling that Rufus felt like he possibly owned Dana. I didn’t contribute this to his owning slaves, but how he treated women in general. With Alice he decided that he was entitled to her, and her body. With his mother, he would dismiss whatever she was saying, if he was no longer interested he would simply tell her to leave. With Dana, he was entirely sure that she was his property.

In my opinion, gender was a much bigger issue than it was made out to be, it seemed to be clouded by the obvious slavery and white supremacy that was so prevalent the novel.

Week 1-What Is My Understanding of “Message, Method, and Medium”?

In any ambiguous piece of literature, art, musical composition, or any type of media for that matter their are multiple ways to interpret them and multiple conclusions to the exact same song, dance, painting, book, etc… Unlike a technical piece of work like a blueprint for a house, and a scholarly journal their is an open interpretation with nearly everything that we interact with. Having the ultimate understanding of message, method, and medium it can bring us closest to the author’s intention of the piece and understand the ending emotional experience that they intended.

Message may indeed be the hardest item to interpret. In my understanding it is somewhat the culmination of the intention of the piece, the method that it was conveyed in and the medium that was used to evoke the proper emotion. Even the word message has many meanings or messages. It can be used as a unit of communication, the overall idea that is being presented, or even something that obviously shows an important point. All in all the message is simply what the author is trying to convey, whether it be a campaign for McDonald’s, such as this:

And with a lot of money invested in their marketing department, there can be multiple meanings for the same piece such as McDonald’s obviously showing the logo to remind you that you want to eat there, the color red (which has shown to stimulate appetite), and insinuating that your mother’s food isn’t nearly as good as something from McDonald’s. It’s all about message.

The method is quite simply how the piece says its intention or message. The literal words (or images, notes, etc…) that are being used in a certain way would be the method that the message is being displayed. This brings the very specific composition of the piece to light. The composition is the understanding of all of the pieces fitting together, the aesthetic balancing, patterns, and symmetry to name a few.

When looking at The Statue of David, what would the medium of the piece be? The medium of any form of art and literature would be the physical representation and actual pieces of material that are being used to portray the message of the artist. For instance, the medium of The Statue of David would be marble. Marble is Michelangelo’s choice of physical material to showcase his creation.

Hello World!

So…Where to start?

I’m kind of a boring person, in all honesty. I sleep, eat, work, and go to school obviously. Between those four things I keep a pretty tight and busy schedule. 12 hour shifts? No problem! 3 hours of sleep? Don’t be a wuss!

Because of this I don’t have much time anymore for hobbies, (at least until school is over in 11 weeks, but who’s counting?) but when I do get around to having free time to spend on myself I enjoy a few things.

Reading. I have known to down a 850 page book like it’s a shot of Fireball Whiskey. You look at it with apprehension. Immediately regret your decision when the time comes, then suddenly get a warm fuzzy feeling when it’s all over. I enjoy the warm and fuzzy feeling very much. Does that make me a book-aholic?

Cooking. Obviously. This is the degree that I am slowly chasing after, and the only thing that has managed to keep my ADD addled brain attentive. It is truly an art that I can say I will never master, but I will always attempt that perfection. It’s tough, and there is literal blood, sweat, and tears and all at the same time occasionally; but it is rewarding work in the end. A true passion in my opinion.

Traveling. What I would do if I won the lottery. “I feel like going to Paris today” would suddenly become a common sentence for me. I love experiencing new cultures and meeting new and interesting people. I just need to become rich. Darn.