Marcopolo and I

On my previous blog I questioned about what was the purpose of Kublai Khan and Marco polo.  Finally I have the answer.  I kept on reading and I still didn’t understand until we had a discussion in class that made me realize that the explanation was right in front of me, only that I hadn’t realized it. “Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his.”  (pg. 5) This is the first page of the book, and as I said before this book was just confusing. When I read that paragraph it didn’t mean anything but now it is the essence of the explanation. The reader is Kublai Khan and the Calvino is Marco polo. Weird isn’t it? But it makes it even more exciting.

I would be Kublai Khan due to the fact that I didn’t understand what Calvino was saying, just like Kublai Khan didn’t believe everything Marco polo said, but both of us kept on paying attention to him.  Although I didn’t understand what was going on I kept on reading and the question would still remain but it didn’t matter.  Now that I have the answer I have to pay more attention to what Calvino, or Marco polo is saying, because every little thing that he says, he will be giving us important clues about what is going on. Although this book is confusing I find it more interesting because it makes me be alert about what is going on so I can figure out the figurative meaning. Before it was just a book about weird cities, but now it is an equation that I have to solve. This reminds me about “Slaughter House-Five” in the way that we weren’t sure who was speaking to us. Although I know that it is a person that is passing through all the cities I still haven’t found out who it is. Is the person that is passing through the cities actually the reader who is reading the book but doesn’t get what is happening? I still don’t know. I have seen a pattern in all my blogs, which is that I always have questions. Sometimes having them can be irritating but it also makes the reading more interesting because I always want to find the answers. The answers to my question in this book are all hidden and some may never be answered, but I do look forward on my adventure on answering them.

This is one of the weirdest books I have ever read, I don’t understand what it wants to say but I look forward on finding that out.  I admire the way that Calvino writes, it is unique because it is not clear but when you find out the message you realize that it was right in front of you.  The way that he makes allegories and writes a story about a story makes it even more exciting.

Italo Calvino's, "Invisible Cities" is one word, confusing. As I started to read, I thought that I would somehow understand what was going on but I didn't. It is odd how Calvino starts describing cities right away, that I don't even understand. It is as if he expected for us to understand what he was talking about. But again this book has so many weird things, like the way that one can read it in tow ways. So maytbe Calvino just wants to keep on confusing us and figyure out his mesage on our own. Although it is frusturating, at the same time it is a challenge that I would like to pass. Also how he includes the dialogue between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. How do these two relate?

I just kept on reading. I read about Isidora, Zirma, Despina and all of the cities had speacial characteristics. The one that grabed most my attention was Anastasia. "When you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only its slave." (pg. 12) How can a city which you believe you are enjoying end up to be one that is destroying you? I hand not understood how this could happen but then I remembered an important word, "allegory". This couldn't be a book just describing crazy cities, it has to have a meaning. That is when I started to think about something in our lives that makes you feel good but is actually destroying you. Drugs.

This book reminds me of Dantes Inferno, because it too was an allegory. It was the path of the life of a man, and I believe "Invisible Cities" is also doing so. " I too am returning from Zirma." (pg 19) That "I" I haven't figured out yet, but I hope I can. This book is one that we have to figure out what everything means, it is all figurative. Although reading it frusturates me because I don't understand clearly what is going on, it intrigues me to find out the meaning. The dialogue that shows up between Kublai Khan and Marcopolo makes my head spin even more because I don't understand the purpose of those two. Kublai Khan doesn't understand well what Marcopolo is saying but he still pays attention to him. And Marcopolo who is a great explorer tells him about the lands that he explors. In a way Marcopolo relates to this book because he would dicover new lands which can be seen as cities that we too as readers are exploring. But I still don't understand what the purpose of their dialogue or there presence in the book is. I would like to find out.

Our Nature

The title of this book is "The Selfish Gene". It will probablly seem dumb that it is until chapter 10 when I understood what Dawkins meant about a gene being selfish. He talks about the "selfish herd." Dawkins states that animals will normally stick together to protect themselves from predators, but that there will always be some that are more likely to be killed. He used the example of when animals line up together, there will always be some that are more vulnerable to being killed. "Unfortunately somebody has to be on the edge, but as far as each individual is concerned it is not going to be him!" This shows how every animal including humans does everything for their own benefit. He showed how animals stay together in order to find more food and fight together in order for it to be less probable that they will be killed. It is not because of support that they are in a herd, but it is for each individuals benefit. Is it the same way with humans? Are we that selfish that we don't even realized what we are doing? Do we just hang in groups so that we are more protected from society? Is it fear that keeps us from doing what we want, and we follow what others do to be protected? Just think about trends. Most people dress in similar ways and there are only few that really use their own style. From a large group they seem weird just because they are different but at the end of the day the weird ones are us who dress like clones.

As I am reading I am starting to dislike even more our "nature" because it seems as if all of us were selfish. It is something that I hadn't thought about before but this book is persuaying me to believe that unfortunately we are. When Dawkins says the frase "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" (Pg. 166) makes me question if we are really good people? Do we just do good deeds so we receive them back? Karma? Or is it really because of good will?

Since I was little my parents taught me values, that I had to be a good person. But am I just a good person because of what I was taught or is it my nature to be good? What would happen if I didn't have values?
Are we the ones that chose how we are or is it the society that surrounds us?

Are we selfish?

More Questions

As I was reading chapter three various things grabbed my attention. "Natural selection" was a term that got me thinking. Dawkins says that we all have the same DNA but the only difference is how the nucleotides are organized. This would be the part of natural selection because it is the way that they organize eachother. But then again, why do they decide to organize eachother a specific way? Who tells them to organize that way?
The nucleotides are like workers in a factory, they keep the factory working but they receive orders from someone to do them. There has to be someone in charge of this, and restating the point of my previous blog it should be God. Leading me to another question, who is God?

What is the purpose of everything in life? Dawkins talks about how DNA is the same for every organism that lives. "Baisically the same kind of a molecule in all of us from bacteria to elephants." (Pg 21) Why was I chosen to be a human? Why is my dog a dog? I know that they are things that we just accept because it is a part of our lives but I can't help going in deeper about the subject.

When I started reading this book I thought that it was going to be boring because it states the same things as my biology class. But as I start reading I find that Dawkins has a techinique that makes me want to be stuck in the book because it makes me ask many questions that I had never thought  about before.

In class we have discussed if genes are the ones responsible for our personality. I argue that genes are the ones that carry out the information of our physical traits. We develope the person that we are through our lives due to the experiences that we go through and the values that we are taught. Just because a persons parents are serial killers, it doesn't mean that the offspring will be too. It is probable that he/she will see it as if it was nothing wrong because it is what they see at home, but it doesn't mean that they too will do what they do. This reminds me of a quote that I saw on my friends's facebook the other day,
"We spend our whole lives becoming ourselves, when we are born as no one else."

While I was reading the book this grabbed my attention: "It means that genes are at least partly responsible for their own survival in the future, because their survival depends on the efficiency of the bodies in which they live and which the helped to build." (Pg. 24) Meaning that genes are the escence of our life but we are the ones in charge of keeping them healthy to be able to pass them on and reproduce so that our population doesn't become extinct. Just because our parents can pass us good genes, it doesn't mean that we are always going to have them in that stage. During our lives we can make great mistakes affecting our bodies, affecting our offspring.

I want to keep on reading this book, its like Dawkins is telling me important facts, but as he does this he makes me wonder if what he says is true. Although it can be frusturating sometimes because there are no answers to my questions, it is exciting to believe that maybe one day there will be.

Religion vs. Genes

Where are we from? That is a question that I ask myself all the time. Its one that everyone asks themselves. Some ask it more than others, but at the end of the day we are all waiting for the answer. As time has passed, historians, scientists, doctors, mathematicians have all found answers to our questions, but to this important one no answer has popped up.

Dawkins gives important information towards this fact. It is interesting how he states everything so direct. He says that we are made up of genes and we are the "survial machines". "The replicators that have survived were the ones that built the survival machines." Pag 19. It is very interesting the way that he uses different key terms for a normal fact. Survival machine=human. We are the "survival machines". It is odd to start thinking of ourselves as machines, as if we were just things walking around, but in a way we are. We live, do the things we need to do and then die. Nobody knows what happens when we do, although I believe in heaven. So its not quite nice to think that we are just machines because they have no souls, and if there is no souls then who goes to heaven?

 There is a God that takes care of all these things. Its true that we are made up of genes, but those genes had to have an escense. And who created them? God.

Faith is an important part of my life, and it is the competition of science. People are making great discoveries and start placing religion aside. They say that there is not a logic explanation for a person to create everything and be the reason for our existence. But again, it isn't logical for there to be all of these explanations without an essence. Therefore, Dawkins is right that we are made up of  genes but they are not the explanation of our existence.

Religion VS Genes

Where are we from? That is a question that I ask myself all the time. Its one that everyone asks themselves. Some ask it more than others, but at the end of the day we are all waiting for the answer. As time has passed, historians, scientists, doctors, mathematicians have all found answers to our questions, but to this important one no answer has popped up.

Dawkins gives important information towards this fact. It is interesting how he states everything so direct. He says that we are made up of genes and we are the "survial machines". "The replicators that have survived were the ones that built the survival machines." Pag 19. It is very interesting the way that he uses different key terms for a normal fact. Survival machine=human. We are the "survival machines". It is odd to start thinking of ourselves as machines, as if we were just things walking around, but in a way we are. We live, do the things we need to do and then die. Nobody knows what happens when we do, although I believe in heaven. So its not quite nice to think that we are just machines because they have no souls, and if there is no souls then who goes to heaven?

 There is a God that takes care of all these things. Its true that we are made up of genes, but those genes had to have an escense. And who created them? God.

Faith is an important part of my life, and it is the competition of science. People are making great discoveries and start placing religion aside. They say that there is not a logic explanation for a person to create everything and be the reason for our existence. But again, it isn't logical for there to be all of these explanations without an essence. Therefore, Dawkins is right that we are made up of  genes but they are not the explanation of our existence.

Active to Passive

1. These bottles cannot be open easily by children.
2. A road was built outside her front door by the government.
3. The antique vase was broken by Mr. Ross as he walked through the store.
4. The changes amazed her when she arrived.
5. Street repairs are being made by construction workers all month long.
6. His retirement will be celebrated with a party.
7. The exam was being discussed by his professors right in front of him.
8. All the homemade cookies were eaten by my son.
9. The hull of the ship was damaged by Corrosion.
10. The homestead was being visited by some children while I was there.

Where Will Candide End Up?

As I had mentioned in my earlier blogs everything that happens in “Candide” is so unexpected!  I am really enjoying this book because it is not like everything that I have read in the past, things happen out of nowhere and Voltaire writes them as if they were the most normal things in the world. For example, “We’ll have Jesuit for dinner.” That was said by the Oreillons and it didn’t have much emphasis when it was said. It is as if everything that had great importance in the book wasn’t highlighted and that is what makes it even more interesting.

 

Voltaire uses satire to its maximum and beyond, everything that happens is absurd. The sheep’s of poor Candide were stolen but out of the blue one of them appeared after the boat had sank. Now Candide finally had his money back. Also how Candide has reunited with three important people, Pangloss, Lady Cunegonde and Lady Cunegonde´s brother is the weirdest part.  I would have never imagined that this would happen, I thought that the story would be of Candide making a new life, never did I think it was to recuperate a person from the old one.

There are times when I start to get frustrated because of all the obstacles that Candide bumps into because it is as if bad luck was around him. Finally when he remeets with people, they are taken away, for example Cacambo he was his servant, who stayed by his side in Eldorado but they were separated since Candide wasn’t permitted to go to Buenos Aires. But even though it seems as if bad luck went behind him, something god always turned out of it. It is Pangloss´s theory that even though he might no be conscious while doing so he is following it making everything better at the end. With his optimism he is able to make bad things into good ones. I hope that Candide will find Lady Cunegonde again and that all goes well for him but it wont be easy. This book has shown me that anything can happen and that the craziest thing is the one that should be expected. That is one of the main reasons of why I am enjoying “Candide” because it makes me start thinking of crazy ideas that might be the ones that happen. Voltaire had a crazy and very creative mind that doesn’t give me any idea of where Candide will end up. 

What Love Means to Candide

Love. That’s something that is around our lives whether we like it or not.  Some people look at is as if it was the only thing that mattered in life and others try to ignore it as if it didn’t exist. While reading Candide, there is the perfect example that Candide only lives for the love he has for Lady Cunegonde.

He has passed through so much but never gives up because he always fights to be reunited once again with Lady Cunegonde. She is the “love of his life” at the beginning of the book they were separated and I was sure that she was dead. Pangloss told Candide that she had been killed by the men that attacked her home and family. But so unexpectedly she was alive and they were both reunited. To escape their troubles they left and she ended up with the Governor of Buenos Aires, and he had to run. How crazy is that? After all they’ve been through she had to be with the governor or else they would be killed. Finally Candide met Cacambo and went all the way to Eldorado where they found themselves with great things that would make them rich. They stayed there a while and got diamonds and gold and left to harbour to go back for Lady Cunengonde now that they had money. When they arrived Candide wasn’t aloud to go to Buenos Airs so he sent Cacambo and he went to Venice. But his sheep were stolen and all of a sudden when another boat sank he found one of his sheep in the ocean. How lucky but extremely ridiculous is that? Now that he has once again his money he can go and look for his love.

Everything that he does is with the hope that he will meet again with Lady Cunegonde. I don’t know if everything is a foreshadow of what is going to happen next because although he does suffer great obstacles he always overcomes them and gets what he wants. Meeting once again with Pangloss and with Lady Cunegonde is a total surprise, but I can see that it might be by the effects that Pangloss´s philosophy taught Candide. Although there are times when Candide feels there is nothing else he can do there are always signs that he will surpass his troubles. Candides only motivation to keep on living is Lady Cunegonde so I hope that he will meet with her once again. As the story goes I find that there are two possibilities: Candide will reunite with Lady Cunegonde or something crazy and unexpected will happen as it has happened throughout the whole story. But nevertheless I am almost sure that he will reunite with his love because everything that he does is for the purpose of seeing her again and it would suck if this didn’t happen.

“Candide, however, had one great advantage over Martin, which was that he kept hoping to see Lady Cunegonde again, whereas Martin had nothing to hope for.” This demonstrates how Candide does love Lady Cunegonde and it’s as if his life didn’t mean anything without her. I hope he is able to marry her as he wishes, but at the same time I am nervous to find out what will happen next!

How to Look at Life?

Candide has been through so much throughout the story but he always finds his way out of his terrible moments. Pangloss, his great friend and philosopher taught him that one should always be optimistic no matter the circumstances. Pangloss would look at situations the way that normally people wouldn’t. For example when people were talking about the volcano that might erupt he said not to worry because "For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best." Pg 35. I find it interesting that there was a chance that the volcano would explode but he was calm about the situation. Pangloss influenced so much Candide that I believe that is the reason why Candide has gotten so far. Since the moment Candide was kicked out of Lady Conegonde everything seemed bad for him, the earthquake, almost being sacrificed but also I realized that he has made it through okay. Just the fact that he reencountered with Pangloss and with Lady Conegonde, it is a good sign. 

Maybe that is what is missing in the world. Thanks to Pangloss´s philosophy of always being positive Candide is on a roll, but what would happen if all of us applied that same philosophy in our own lives? We would probably be better off. A bad situation will never change, but we can change the way we look at it. My mom always tells me that everything in life has a meaning and when I am going through difficult times she always tells me to stay positive. Even though it is something nice to hear it is hard to do, but when we do it, it starts changing the situation and what comes out of it. Because Candide was always positive good things started coming towards him. He was faced with terrible situations but because of his attitude towards them he was fine. 

I hope Candide continues with this philosophy because if he was able to escape from being killed, and saved from an earthquake he can overcome whatever. I use this philosophy when I am going to exams because I get very nervous, so I always say to myself that I am going to do fine because if I start saying that I don’t know anything I know ill do poorly. Staying optimistic relates to a phrase that my mom always tells me, "El poder de la palabra hablada" it means the power of the word spoken. What you say to yourself is what’s going to happen. Sp if we stay positive good things are going to happen to us just like Candide. In the moment it seems like it is the end of the world but at the end we understand why that happened and why it was the best thing that could have happened to us. 

Expect the Unexpected

At the beginning of the story I felt bad about Candide. He had fallen in love with Lady Conegonde just with one kiss and in seconds he was being kicked out (literally). He had past through terrible things, the earthquake, almost being sacrificed and the thought that Lady Conegonde was dead devastated him. When I reached the part when he reencounters with Lady Conegonde I couldn’t believe it. He had past through such terrible things that I never thought something to cheer him up would happen, especially because Pangloss death had been so sudden. 

When I read the title of Chapter VII, How an old woman took care of Candide, and how he found the lady he loved I though that in another of his adventures Candide would meet a woman that would make him get over of Lady Conegonde, but for my surprise it was her! The old lady that took care of him was very mysterious because she didn’t say much but when he got to Lady Conegonde´s house we understand why. When Candide and his love finally meet I couldn’t help myself to start reading faster because I wanted to know what was going to happen, and how on earth was Lady Conegonde alive. I though it was enough of a surprise that Pangloss was alive but no, this book is full of surprises. 

When I learned what had happened to her I didn’t know if to feel bad or good for her. She lost all of her family and although she was alive she would have to pass through all her days without them. Not only were they dead but also she had to see how they killed them. When the Bulgars got her they didn’t kill her but she was put in harsh conditions being a maid and later being sold. But even though she passed through all this she wasn’t so bad because she had almost her own house and lived most of the time by herself except when the two men would go and visit her. That is what I think is the worst of all, that although she seems to be alive she might as well be dead because she doesn’t control her life, her owners do. But at the same time it is great that she is alive because something more can happen between her and Candide. 

I finished reading when Don Issachar arrived at the house, I haven’t read further but I can’t wait! What will be his reaction with Candide? Will he get mad? Will he punish Lady Conegonde? Is it the last time Candide and Lady Conegonde will be together? Well this story has shown me that anything can happen. If I were Candide I would act something out, I would say that I was looking for a job and that I would be ready to serve Don Issachar with whatever he wanted, so he wouldn’t have to be separated from Lady Conegonde once more. This is a story that has love in it and I hope that the love that Candide and Lady Conegonde have towards each other can grow even more.  After all poor Candide has been through Voltaire should give him a break. 

Satire?

In class we started to read Candide by Voltaire. At first I felt a little scared to read it, because it is satire. It is something that I was never faced with before. As I started reading, it was difficult to understand when Voltaire was using elements of Satire, such as: irony, hyperbole, absurdity and the target. But as I started reading along I got the hang of it and enjoyed it because it was fun to see what would come up next. For example it was absurd that for there to be no more earthquakes the University of Coimbra said that they had to sacrifice people. Of course this wasn’t true, and right after the sacrificies there was an other earthquake. Also when Candide fainted in the barn, Pangloss spontaneously woke him up with sour vinegar that was lying there. Why would there be sour vinegar on a barn? That’s a pretty big coincidence.

The Hyperboles that I have found are weird but interesting. It makes it fun because as I am reading its something that stands out and it doesn’t let you daydream. For example, "Castle Thunder-ten-tronckh" pg 42 is not something we hear everyday. So when I read this I laughed because I found this name long and funny. 

Its cool to read something that I am not used to reading because this is a book that everything that is said cant be taken seriously. If you look at it as a literal work the book wouldn’t make sense but if you start playing with what the book is saying it starts to be fun because you don’t know what to expect. 

I love it when Voltaire starts using irony because it reminds me of my uncle, that there are times when what he says something you don’t know if what he’s saying is true or not. I remember that since I was a little kid every time he would say something it was ridiculous because I didn’t understand the meaning of what he wanted to say. As I started getting older I started to understand what was the meaning behind what he was saying, and I think that that is what is going to happen to me while reading this book. At first it was complicated to understand but as I am going through it I am getting the hang of it and hopefully at the end of the book ill be a pro at it. 

This book is like life, it’s always good to try out something new because we don’t know what to expect! Maybe I’ll like this book although it’s complicated to read and start reading more satire book, who knows! I guess I’ll have to wait and see until I finish it.