martes, 29 de marzo de 2011

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

Well, folks, I have already finished this blog for this year (because I do not know if I will have to write another one the next course) and I would like you have enjoyed reading it.
Firstly, I think I might say sorry for all the grammar and lexical mistakes I have made and I hope they would not have given you problems to understand what I was trying to say. I can promise you that if I would know English the way I want to know it I would have done it almost perfect.
Secondly, and related to the first point, I want to say that I would like that my teacher will correct the mistakes I have made for me to get better and to be able to express what I want to say the best way possible.
And thirdly, I would like to add that you have to dare to believe in your dreams and to fight for making them come true, because you guys are the owners of your lives and the only duty you really have is being HAPPY.
Up until nobody knows when…good night and good luck!

- I DARE YOU TO LIVE THE LIFESTYLE YOU HAVE ALWAYS DREAMT OF -MMM...CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Dare you to move by Switchfoot is the other song I wanted to treat here.
Well, I first heard this song while I was watching the movie A walk to remember, but I did not pay attention to it. Was the second time I watched the movie when I really listened to it and I really liked it, but the problem was that I had no Internet so I could not listen to it again and look for the lyrics. So, the time passed by up until I saw this film for the third (and also last) time and I took the name of such song. Then, when I arrived home, I searched it for in the Internet and I listened to it carefully, reading the lyrics at the same time...about it, I should say that it really reached my heart.
I think I should add that I was then in a very stressed stage of my life, because I had realized that there is almost no time in Life for doing all those things I would like to do, and this song, as the title shows, urges you to move. I would like to travel a lot, to learn music, study cinema and to dance…so many things in little time, and when I listened to this song I felt as if two strong hands would stand me up and encourage me to make my dreams come true.
For you to understand me, I will explain to you things I like from this song.
The first thing I do liked from Dare you to move was the beginning, because it says to us all “Welcome to the planet, welcome to existence”, as if we were just born and a person who is very old and/or knows a lot about life, welcomes us.
On the chorus, appear the two most urged sentences, which say “I dare you to move, I dare you to lift yourself up of the floor”. These two statements are the ones which made me feel the needing to stand up and start doing what I really want to do with my life. I could feel how they urged me, how they whispered screams to me telling me to live my life the way I want to. Moreover, I liked that it says that you should grew accustom to fall and that you also have the obligation to lift up by yourself, to keep on fighting until the end although nobody give you any support.
To finish up, I would like to highlight two rhetorical questions the song has: “Where can you run to escape from yourself? Where are you gonna go?” and a kind of answer it gives is “Salvation is here”. In my opinion, the former rhetorical question is the best one because there are lots of people that try to be someone who really are not because they want to be accepted by the crowd, they are running away from what they are, but I think they should defend who they are and to be always proud of it…because I believe that you are going to be your entire life with yourself, so the sooner you get used to yourself the better will it be for you. And the later question just gives strength to the previous one, as saying to all those people who are almost afraid of themselves that they have no chance, they cannot go anywhere…you are who you are, and that is all. By the way, for me, the last statement is saying to us all that we cannot do the things right for come into some Heaven; we just have this world to be good or bad, and I think in the end we are our own judges. So, if we do something we know that is betraying our beliefs, we have to get better in that subject only for us, because the salvation is being who you are and to do all the good you can. If you do not meet these requirements, you will make your life your own Hell.
So, finally, I would like to add that this beautiful song urged me to want to get my aims, as if someone asks me to live the lifestyle I have always dreamt of, I will say yes, challenge accepted.

P.S: Once again, here I leave you the song for you to feel the needing of running away from wherever you are now, of bringing to life all those dreams you have ever dared to live before.

MR. BUSH, YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO TAKE A WALK WITH ME

Now I leave the books, which the former taught me to not to wish just materialist things for being happy and the later showed me how cruel people can be and that I cannot change that fact, for passing to treat two of the songs I like the most, and the first one is Dear Mr. President by Pink.
Well, I have to add to all that I will say later that I have always loved Pink, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore, a US singer who has a lot of principles I agree with and that has no problem in showing either what she thinks or feels, and that is something I do like from her. So, I had heard lots of songs of her before listening to this one, but no one had ever made me feel as Dear Mr. President.
I think I might start from the beginning: the songs I consider the best are the ones that not only have music but also very deep lyrics, what makes them to reach my heart when I HEAR them, and make me think that they are worth enough to be LISTENED, again and again.
So, it was summertime when a friend of mine passed to me the video clip of this song and, when I heard it, I fell in love with it. It is like a letter to the ex USA President George Bush from Pink, who asks him why did he do all those things that a good person would ever do.
First of all, I was shocked by the way the song starts because it says “Dear Mr. President, come take a walk with me. Let’s pretend we’re just two people and you’re not better than me. I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly”. This called my attention because it does not say his real name; she says the position of Bush, as if what he cares about is of being an important person and not a good one, who would be remembered by his name and not by his charge. In fact, the next sentence says that they are going to pretend he is not better than her, because what is sure is that Bush believes he’s better than the rest of us. And this is because of something as stupid as he is “someone” in this world, because everybody knows who he is, and we all are “nobody” because we are unknown, the thing that makes Pink not to deserve his lucky presence (what Bush thinks, SURE). Moreover, Pink asks Bush for being honestly, because she knows that he does not think that is something you should be always…he is pretending and lying all the time, as far as he has believed his own lies. So, I found that Pink was right in all she “said” to Bush, and I really love the way she did it: Pink says the true things she want to say to him hidden behind sentences that have an allegedly respect, and it is, in my opinion, a very intelligent trick.
After this, Pink starts to ask questions to Bush and, although I really love all of them, I wanted to highlight my favorite ones.
The first one is “What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?” because when I see all those poor people I feel really sad and I think that, if it will depend on me, I will try to do something for them… at least, I will have the intention to help them, although I would finally do not. And, as Pink, I also wonder if those who have the power to help poor people feel wrong too when they, from their amazing cars and houses, see how miserable is the lives of the others, the ones who cannot eat even. In my opinion, powerful people do not walk through the street to see what is going on, and if they do it, I am almost sure that they try not to see how horrible could be the life when you do not have anything, and Bush is one of that people.
The second one is “And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?” I know homosexual people and some of them are part of my family, and I know that they never told to their parents that they are gay because they know their progenitors did not accept the homosexuality as something perfectly normal and acceptable; they punished that behavior. Also, I know that this was a boundary which did not let their son to feel understood and beloved by his parents, and which separated the one from the others. Moreover, I think that the homosexuality is not something you decide to be or do not (as you do not choose to be heterosexual) and it is a current, not bad thing because it hurts nobody. But, although you would not accept this way of living the sex, it does not have anything to do with you. So, as the heterosexual people have the right to be happy the way they want to, homosexual people too, and, in my opinion, the ones that think the homosexuality must be punished by law have a deep medieval point of view. So, medieval-but-current parents, if you loathe your son or your daughter because he or she is gay, the only one who lose are you.
And the third one is not a question, is a statement that says “Let me tell you about the hard work. Rebuilding your house when the bombs took it away” When I first heard this sentence, I wept because of how much sadness and truth hides inside. I, as Pink does, think that people like George Bush Jr. do not know what is to work really hard to get an aim. And, what is worst, they cannot picture in the situation of the common people who are the flock of sheep that can be killed because of the wrong decisions powerful people take.
Finally, I would like to focus the attention on the fact that the song comes stronger from the beginning to the end, as we can see from the three sentences I chose. The first one and the second one are questions, the thing that makes them more soft, although the latter is more reproachful than the former; but the third one is an statement which objective is almost openly denounce Mr. Bush behavior. Moreover, I wanted to say that, because of all that you have done, Mr. Bush, you are the one who do not deserve to take a walk with any of us…you do not deserve to delight in our lucky presence, as my beloved Pink told you in the last part of this wonderful song.
By the way, Pink, my answer to the last sentence you say in your song, "Would you?", which is dedicated to us all, is: I would not take a walk with Mr. Bush because he does not DESERVE it.

P.S: Here, you folks, have the song, for the ones who want to through their eardrums with truths.

lunes, 28 de marzo de 2011

MISUNDERSTOOD SOUL TRAPPED IN AN ALMOST-DEAD BEETLE

I read this book a year ago because I had a subject, called Universal Literature, where I was said to read some classics, and this work was one of them. Moreover, I had to study its content because it could be one of the books I would be asked for in the University Access Exams (in fact, it was one of the two exams I could choose between).
Firstly, I would like to say that I remember I felt missed when I first saw this book: it was very short (little bit less than 100 pages) compared with the others I also had to read (as The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, or The Flowers of Evil, by Charles Baudelaire), and its name, The Metamorphosis, made me feel quite intrigued.
I also remember that I searched for information about the author, Franz Kafka, and I found that his life was a kind of sad and his books were so weird and full of symbolism.
Knowing this stuff, I started to read and I found, as I was waiting, a strange book: It is a book as a whole, I mean, it is not divided into chapters, and it all begins with a man, Gregory Samsa, who is transformed into a kind of huge beetle.
Gregory is the elder brother of his family, who is his sister and his parents, and he is the only one who works and brings money to home, so the fact that Gregory has become in a nasty insect makes that he cannot be able to work again. Then, his family encloses him in his bed room and does not let him to go out again because they consider Gregory is not “useful” and that he is not a member of his family yet. So, Gregory’s father starts to work and everything goes alright at the house, but Gregory: He is forgotten by his family (they have even forgotten to give him food), left all alone at his room, with an enormous wound in his shell that is killing him slowly.
Finally, Gregory dies, and no one realizes about that, up until the day the woman that sometimes cleans his room comes inside and see the corpse. Then, his family leaves him there and keeps on with its life.
When I finished reading, apart from weeping, I realized about some things: First of all, I saw his family (his sister more than the others) tries to help Gregory at the beginning but, as the story goes on, they stop helping him, even though his sister, because they consider him an strange, they refuse him because is different. By the way, I could also realize that the room where Gregory lingers symbolizes the Death and the living room, where his family usually is, symbolizes the Life, where Gregory is forbidden to come in, because he is dead to all of them.
And secondly, I have watched that Gregory becomes more and more in a beetle (he stops talking, sleeping, wishing…) because he is apart from the society and he dives in himself, up until he is a complete insect and does not feel anything…Well, one thing: sadness and the needing of dying because of it.
But I did not know there was so much behind this little novel, although I supposed it. That is because I realized it was full of symbolism and, as I said before, I knew Kafka’s books always hide a far beyond meaning inside of them.
After reading the book, I searched for information about Kafka’s life and I found that he had a very bad health during his whole life. Kafka was always ill and one of his two sisters understood and looked after him, but the one who ever understood him at all was his father. Kafka was almost hated by his father because he was so introvert, a kind of weird and, moreover, ill. These three things were the opposite of the kind of son Kafka’s father wanted to have: what is commonly known as a macho man, someone strong who were capable to lead a house and a family. In fact, his father was not the only one who did not understand him: the society did too. Kafka was different from the other people, and in that time nobody could understand the different crowd (and, what is worst, neither nowadays), so he felt very out-of-place and misunderstood, set apart by the world.
And all those things are what Kafka has shown at his book: he wrote a kind of autobiography for unburden himself: Gregory is a beetle (which represents Kafka, who is ill and has a not understood personality by society), whose father just wanted him to work and, now that he cannot do it, he hates Gregory for has become in an insect, as if the boy were guilty of it (what represents the loathe of his father to him because he is different, as if Kafka decided it to be, and does is not a macho man, who has a family and works). Moreover, there is Gregory’s sister, who helps him when he becomes in an insect (who symbolizes the Kafka’s sister that helps him when he is ill and that understands him). To finish up, everything ends in a very bad way, because Gregory’s family forgets him completely, even though his sister does, and Gregory dies of sadness and illness (which is Kafka’s thoughts about his own future: that everyone will hate him and that he will die all alone).
Now, I would like to add that I wanted to talk about The Metamorphosis because I think it is one of the most interesting books you can read, not only because of the singular story, but because of what it hides inside, and because it is a sad tale that can give you the chance to understand how a different person can feel when everybody refuses being with him or her. Moreover, I think it shows perfectly how cruel humans can be... I think the reality that lingers in this book is overwhelming.
Sure, I would have liked the story would have finished the other way around: that he finally would have been understood and would have lived a lot of years happy as a beetle…but, sure too, it would not have been realistic. Alas, the true thing is that, if the story would be real, it all would have finished as it does in the book. Because we humans are cruel, and that is something we have learnt to live with.

P.S: Just for you to know, Kafka died because of sadness and illness, all alone.
Alas, he was right.

lunes, 7 de marzo de 2011

FRENCH WOMAN, UNFAITHFUL AND NARCISSISTIC

What I think about Gustave Flaubert’s work Madame Bovary is a kind of weird. It is not one of my favorite books. In fact, it is one of the books I have needed too much time to read because, for me, it is very blue and boring. This makes such book convoluted, the reason why I don’t like it. And that was what I wanted to highlight from this work: it is tough to read because the author wants it to be! Flaubert wants the reader to have a feeling that the story reflects the lifestyle of the XIX century in France, that the time passes very slowly and that the evolution which Emma Bovary suffers comes little by little. In my opinion, this is much more difficult than achieving to write an enjoyable work.
At this point, I think I must explain to you all what the plot of the book is.
It has three parts: in the first one, Emma Rouault knows Charles Bovary, a doctor, and marries him. At the beginning, she is more or less happy, although the married lifestyle she wanted is not the one she has.And at the end of this part, Messieurs Bovary go to a nobility party and Emma starts to wish that kind of life for herself. Then, Messieurs Bovary move to other town, called Yonville-l'Abbaye, where Monsieur Bovary has been offered a new and better-remunerated job as such town’s doctor. Then starts the second part, where Emma got pregnant and has a girl, called Berthe, but she does not play as the mother of the child because she lives in her own fantasy, reading romantic books and wishing to have that kind of life. Here, Emma knows Rodolphe, a womanizer nobleman, and falls completely in love with him because of himself and because he can offer she the lifestyle she wants. They have a fling and finally decide to run away from Yonville together. But Rodolphe runs away without Emma because he really did not love her. Then, Emma falls ill because her hopes are frustrated and does not recovers until she goes to the opera and finds Leon, a young man that loved her when she was with Rodolphe. And, in the third part, Emma has a fling with Leon, but now she does not look for a man who can give to her the nobility lifestyle she wants because she gave up with that. Emma wants a man who loves her, because she is so rotten inside that nobody really loves her but Charles, her husband, and Emma hate him because she thinks he cannot give to her the life Emma thinks she needs to be happy. In the end, Emma wants to run away with Leon, but he leaves Emma because he has realized she had just used him to escape from a lifestyle she did not like. Then Emma is so sad that commits suicide and leaves Charles (who dies too) and her daughter alone, the only ones who could had made she happy if she would had cared of what really matters in life.
So there are two things I like from this work: On the one hand, as I said at the beginning, is the capability of the author to transmit the idea of sadness, because the story is sad as Emma cannot rate what she wants and makes unhappy the lives of the ones who love her; and convolution, so that the story is so long and the Emma’s evolution is quite slow, what I think is very hard to show in a work and the reason why I really like this book.
On the other hand, I have always wished to have things like money, a very good house, a more than good car and all that stuff because I thought that this was what will made me happy. But, as I grew up and, later, read this book (which is very realistic), I have realized that this really does not matter. Focusing on Madame Bovary, I could see how a too-strong idea can lead a person to the most miserable life and, finally, to suicide. Of course, I do not want that happen to me. And then, another idea came chained with the former: the richness is not an idea that you should make too strong because it is the one that can make you the saddest person in the world, so that it is empty and makes you to forget everything else. It makes you to forget what really matters in life: the little things. And among those things, the ones that you cannot buy with money. Of course again, there is the love of all the people who feels you are essential at their lives…those who think without you their world would not be the same…as the love of a husband and a daughter, dear Emma, for whom the world was not interesting without you on it. But alas you were too far to bring you close to realize of that…French woman, unfaithful and narcissistic.

jueves, 3 de marzo de 2011

BACK TO WRITE

Well, here we are again.
More than two months later, I am back to write again a minimum of four thousand words this second semester in this blog. And my purpose is writing one post per week, but it is further probable that I could not achieve this objective.
Although the previous semester I decided to write whatever that came to my mind in that moment, now I have chosen to take my favorite books and songs. Then, I will make a summary of the plot and highlight those parts I do love. I will also explain what they transmit to me and why they have helped me throughout my life.
Moreover, I would like to say that maybe I will write pieces of those books or songs here in the blog, but obviously I know that those words does not count in the four thousand I have to write.
And I have thought that this will be good for me: to remind myself all those things that have reached the deepest part of my heart, which gave me some of the bases of my own beliefs and helped me to know what I would like to get in my life.

lunes, 3 de enero de 2011

YEARNING

Sam, you told me that it is dignified to die because of something that is worthwhile, but I do not agree.
You can ask Death for being fast, brief and painless, but you cannot ask if for dignity, because it lacks of that.
Perhaps are Muhammad, Gandhi or Martin Luther King remembered because they died, like any other living does? No. They are remembered because of what they did in their lives, because they fought for their goals and they reached them, leaving a very huge record in this world. And maybe those goals carried them to Death, but it was not to die what gave them the glory, was that they reached what they wanted to…You do not die with dignity, Sam, YOU LIVE WITH IT.
Moreover, we humans think that we are better than the other livings because our brain is much more developed than theirs, what gives us the chance to make weapons and kill them all…even kill ourselves. And I wonder…and?
Really, take a look at us, Sam: we are made of a very soft material that’s easy to break down; we need to sleep, to eat…we need so many things to keep on living. And we still think we are invincible, but that is not true at all.
Perhaps you think that the AIDS and cancer are stronger than us? Allegedly no, they aren’t. But nevertheless they can kill us…so maybe we are not as strong as we think, are we?...In the end, our lives cost less than the bullet that kills us.
So, knowing how weak we are, we must live everyday of our lives as it would be the last one while we have the chance. And if we don’t do it, we will regret the rest of our existence.
Nowadays, I’m sad, Sam. I feel that I am losing my entire life in studying and doing everything that is supposed to be right…and I cannot repair it.
I have to study to get a good job and to be happy…but what people forget and I don’t is that you are really happy when you are young. Is nature, because is when you are really healthy. And we humans dedicate the best years of our life, when we do can be happy, in stay in a chair, looking at the books instead of being face to face with Life.
I want to feel life, Sam. I need it as the air I breathe.
So I have two options:
First, leave it all behind and take the control of my life. Live as if nothing else would matter…that really, nothing else matters.
Second, still like this, but try to be free some moments of my life to take the strength I need to still studying. Taking Life not as something to live, as something to survive.
And, in fact, Sam, I know that I am going to take the second one, even though I know that I would be really happy taking the first one, because I am so afraid.
I feel I lose every day of my fucking life, and I can’t do anything because I am not brave enough to do it! But some day I will be fed up with everything and I will run far away from here, living it all behind…
Sam, between you and I, I do am yearning for that day to come.