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Showing posts with the label Visions: A Thematic Anthology BBS 2nd Year TU - Notes

ON WARTS - Lewis Thomas (1913-1993)

Warts are non-cancerous skin growths that develop on different parts of the body and come in various forms. They are caused by viruses. Warts are contagious (spreadable) and very common: Most people will have one at some point in their lives. Although they can affect people of any age, warts are most common among children and teenagers. Warts are wonderful structures. They can appear overnight on any part of the skin, like mushrooms on a damp lawn, full-grown and splendid in the complexity of their architecture. Viewed in stained sections under a microscope, they are the most specialised of cellular arrangements, constructed as though for a purpose. They sit there like turreted (small towers extending above a building) mounds (rises/mounts/hills) of dense, impenetrable (unsolvable) horn, impregnable (secure), designed for defence against the world outside. In a certain sense, warts are both useful and essential, but not for us. As it turns out, the exuberant (excited) cells of a wart a

THE IDEAL OF CRAFTSMANSHIP - C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Summary: C. Wright Mills was a social-conflict theorist who argued that a simple few individuals within the political, military and corporate realms actually held the majority of power within the United States and that these few individuals made decisions that resounded throughout all American lives. The major focus of Mills's work was the subjects of social inequality, the power of elites and their control of society, the shrinking middle class, the relationship between individuals and society, and the importance of historical perspective as a key part of sociological thinking. Through this essay, the essayist defines craftsmanship and provides six- features associated with craftsmanship: According to the writer, craftsman works for pleasure. He gives whole attention to the quality of the product. To create, he forms the image of the product first in the mind. Then, he produces the product spontaneously. For him, creating art is primary, whereas money or reputation or salvation i

THE COMPANY MAN - Ellen Goodman (1941)

In this essay, Goodman describes a man who died at fifty-one. Main Character - Phil Supporting Characters:   Helen (Spouse) 1st Child: Son: Hard-working executive in a   manufacturing firm down South 2nd Child: Daughter: 24 years and newly married. She lives near her mother 3rd Child: Son - high school graduate   He died at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning Goodman tells the story of Phil, a hard-working businessman who eventually worked himself to death.  She uses the name ‘ company man ’ to show how Phil was not just a man but was an extension of his work.  In the essay, Goodman uses Phil’s name only a handful of times.  By not saying his name, she uses Phil as a symbol for all businessmen and women who work themselves to literal death. One of the most powerful lines in the essay is the last line.  At the end of the narrative, Phil’s boss begins to look for a replacement for him on the day of the funeral and asks, “ who’s been working the hardest? ”  Goodman used this anecdote (narrative) to

EVELINE - James Joyce (1882-1941)

Summary:  The story ‘Eveline’ by James Joyce is about a young Irish woman who is of nineteen years of age. The story is narrated in the third person by an anonymous narrator. In the story, Eveline plans to leave her abusive father and poverty-stricken existence in Ireland, and seek out a new, better life for herself and her secret lover Frank (a sailor). She wants to start her new journey of a better life with Frank and wanted to shift to Buenos Aires, Argentina.   In this story, James Joyce depicted a realistic version of Dublin at his time. He highlights the theme of memory, responsibility, decisions, conflict, escape, guilt, paralysis and letting go (or rather the inability to let go). The story exhibits the contemporary Irish people’s inability to move. They fear starting a fresh new life. The writer captures Dubliners’ longing for the past. They fail to move ahead because of their past life in Dublin. The situation is the same with Eveline. The protagonist, Eveline is a young wom

AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT: A TRUE-TO-LIFE FARCE

DOVER BEACH - Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach  Written in 1851, Dover Beach is Matthew Arnold 's best-known poem. It was inspired by two visits he and his wife Frances made to the south coast of England, where the white cliffs of Dover stand, just twenty-two miles from the coast of France. This poem of consists of 39 lines, addresses the decline of religious faith in the modern world and offers the fidelity of affection as its successor. Many claim it to be a honeymoon poem and that is understandable because romantic love, albeit (although) of a Victorian nature, features strongly. But there's no doubt the poem goes much deeper, into the notion of happiness and humanity's spiritual state. The speaker laments the loss of true Christian faith in England during the mid-1800s as science captured the minds of the public. The speaker, considered to be Matthew Arnold himself, begins by describing a calm and quiet sea out in the English Channel. He stands on the Dover coast and looks across to France where a sma

NEW NEPAL

 Siddhicharan Shrestha (1912 - 1992) Translated by - Shreedhar Lohani Arise! Wake up! Reveal the hidden O New Nepal Speak up truth and beauty! Let the cleanest current of consciousness Gush forth with vigour  O New Nepal Jump up and soar over This black uphill precipice. Set free the courage Stifled with age-long persecution O New Nepal Send packing the worn-out disorder With furious laughter. Let the advancing foot Take the new step To bring forth the bright day O New Nepal Bless us with courage and caution Power and union. Distasteful rituals Heartless class divisions Away with all such idle forces O New Nepal Let the living thoughts  Resplendent within Nepali hearts Conflagrate and open up. Those not-to-be done acts Performed in desperation Under the cankerous inequality of wealth  By hungry stomachs and barebacks Annihilate all such evil elements O New Nepal! Glossary:  Consciousness - awareness Gush - flow out of something in a rapid and plentiful stream Forth - ahead in time Vigo

The Allegory of the Cave - Plato (428-347 B.C.)

Plato is an ancient Greek philosopher, born in approximately 428 BCE. Plato spent much of his time in Athens and was a student of the philosopher Socrates and eventually the teacher of Aristotle. He is also one of the most important philosophers in history. He made notable contributions to ethics, the study of values and morality, metaphysics, the study of the basic assumptions and ideas that frame the world, and epistemology, the study of knowledge. Most of Plato's works are dialogues, in which two or more people engage in a conversation about one or more theoretical topics. The dialogues are not records of actual conversations, but Plato, nevertheless, bases the characters in his dialogues on real people. The most notable recurring character is based on his teacher Socrates. Plato , in  Allegory of the Cave , attempted to answer some of the philosophical questions, most notably about the nature of reality. He tells the 'Allegory of the Cave' as a conversation between his

Shooting an Elephant - George Orwell

‘Shooting an Elephant’ is a 1936 essay by George Orwell (1903-50), about his time as a young policeman in Burma, which was then part of the British empire. The essay explores an apparent paradox about the behaviour of Europeans, who supposedly have power over their colonial subjects. Orwell begins by relating some of his memories from his time as a young police officer working in Burma. He, like other British and European people in imperial Burma, was held in contempt by the native populace, with Burmese men tripping (losing balance) him up during football matches between the Europeans and Burmans, and the local Buddhist priests loudly insulting their European colonisers on the streets. Orwell tells us that these experiences instilled in him two things: it confirmed his view, which he had already formed, that imperialism was evil , but it also inspired hatred of the enmity between the European imperialists and their native subjects . Of course, these two things are related, and Orwell

RELIGION AND SCIENCE - Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) < English Philosopher, Mathematician, and Essayist. > Alfred North Whitehead believed that the future course of world history depends upon people’s decisions as to the relationship between science and religion. In fact, the force of religious intuitions and the force of scientific endeavours are the two most powerful forces in history. Whitehead’s solution to conflicts between science and religion was to suggest modifications in both science and religion, as each has been traditionally understood so that an inclusive alternative worldview might be constructed. He turned to speculative philosophy for this constructive task. Whitehead proposed that philosophy attains its chief importance by fusing religion and science into one rational scheme of thought. Whitehead is counted among the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. His philosophy of organisms is recognised as an outstanding contribution to Western thought. Whitehead's m