An Opinion I Have Created
For quite some time now my cousin and I have had an on-again-off-again relationship. It is off again now. From my point of view, it is off for good. I'm sure this time I burned the bridge completely too I assume she'll say the same thing.
For years we hung out every summer as I would go stay at her house for a couple months. Which truthfully was a great charity. Then my Uncle did something stupid (another story for a different blog) and she moved away to Atlanta. We basically stopped talking then. She grew up and if it wasn't for a spontaneous trip to Atlanta with an ex-boyfriend I wouldn't have seen them for almost a decade. As they hardly came to visit Pa anymore. They seemed to feel their life is not here anymore. So when I got onto myspace, I found them and I myspaced them and they hardly ever talked to me. I mean really hardly ever said anything to me. Now what the fuck kind of relationship is that?
So I wrote them both letters and said it was bullshit and said "I'm here. You know where to find me if you ever want to have a relationship." Years passed and I heard nothing. I still haven't heard anything from him, but she Facebooked me after I made my mom a page and they became friends. She said, "let's try this again". I said ok whatever. We talked ok for awhile in that same textbook answer way we have for as long as I can remember. Meaning, I write something and she answers what I ask or comments back to what I say in her very perfect etiquette way with what is her level of sincerity now. Which is below what it used to be when we were growing up. Hell maybe it was always like that towards me I just only noticed it more after she went away. To me this sucks. I mean, great at least we were talking, this time but I stepped it up a notch. I started trying to talk, talk to her. Meaning giving my opinion.
She apparently likes to party as that is plastered all over her page, so not understanding her actual position for her job I asked. When she answered that she was a sales rep for a vodka company and in charge of all these things I said in response that that was good cause it sounded like she was on her way to rehab. She didn't like that and didn't say anything back. Then when I got pregnant and she didn't congratulate my post I emailed her that and she didn't say anything. Then someone who she knew who knew me friended me and I didn't really remember him so I emailed her again asking her to give me some memory as to who this person was and whether I should accept his request or ignore him. She didn't say anything back again, I ended up pissing him off (even though he had no reason to get mad, honestly, also another story for another blog). When a couple weeks went by and I saw her post an anti-sonogram status message I emailed her again and said I was sad she had not returned any of my previous emails and also disheartened by her anti sonogram post. Though she clarified in the post and to me again that it was not anti-sonogram so much as anti-posting sonograms on your Facebook account that was her pet peeve. Which means she chose, in my eyes, a bad quote to quote to express her point of view. Jimmy Fallon calling sonogram pictures drawings of aliens is not the post you post to say you don't think posting sonogram pictures to Facebook is appropriate.
This aggravated me. So I decided to let her know what one of my pet peeves was and that is about people not having care about what they post on Facebook. Which is basically the same pet peeve that she had except I defended posting sonogram pictures cause they are symbolic and posting your who-ha and ta-tas all over your page, that you use for networking as well as family and friends, is inappropriate to me.
Tara Amedure 21 March at 17:31 Report
For years we hung out every summer as I would go stay at her house for a couple months. Which truthfully was a great charity. Then my Uncle did something stupid (another story for a different blog) and she moved away to Atlanta. We basically stopped talking then. She grew up and if it wasn't for a spontaneous trip to Atlanta with an ex-boyfriend I wouldn't have seen them for almost a decade. As they hardly came to visit Pa anymore. They seemed to feel their life is not here anymore. So when I got onto myspace, I found them and I myspaced them and they hardly ever talked to me. I mean really hardly ever said anything to me. Now what the fuck kind of relationship is that?
So I wrote them both letters and said it was bullshit and said "I'm here. You know where to find me if you ever want to have a relationship." Years passed and I heard nothing. I still haven't heard anything from him, but she Facebooked me after I made my mom a page and they became friends. She said, "let's try this again". I said ok whatever. We talked ok for awhile in that same textbook answer way we have for as long as I can remember. Meaning, I write something and she answers what I ask or comments back to what I say in her very perfect etiquette way with what is her level of sincerity now. Which is below what it used to be when we were growing up. Hell maybe it was always like that towards me I just only noticed it more after she went away. To me this sucks. I mean, great at least we were talking, this time but I stepped it up a notch. I started trying to talk, talk to her. Meaning giving my opinion.
She apparently likes to party as that is plastered all over her page, so not understanding her actual position for her job I asked. When she answered that she was a sales rep for a vodka company and in charge of all these things I said in response that that was good cause it sounded like she was on her way to rehab. She didn't like that and didn't say anything back. Then when I got pregnant and she didn't congratulate my post I emailed her that and she didn't say anything. Then someone who she knew who knew me friended me and I didn't really remember him so I emailed her again asking her to give me some memory as to who this person was and whether I should accept his request or ignore him. She didn't say anything back again, I ended up pissing him off (even though he had no reason to get mad, honestly, also another story for another blog). When a couple weeks went by and I saw her post an anti-sonogram status message I emailed her again and said I was sad she had not returned any of my previous emails and also disheartened by her anti sonogram post. Though she clarified in the post and to me again that it was not anti-sonogram so much as anti-posting sonograms on your Facebook account that was her pet peeve. Which means she chose, in my eyes, a bad quote to quote to express her point of view. Jimmy Fallon calling sonogram pictures drawings of aliens is not the post you post to say you don't think posting sonogram pictures to Facebook is appropriate.
This aggravated me. So I decided to let her know what one of my pet peeves was and that is about people not having care about what they post on Facebook. Which is basically the same pet peeve that she had except I defended posting sonogram pictures cause they are symbolic and posting your who-ha and ta-tas all over your page, that you use for networking as well as family and friends, is inappropriate to me.
Tara Amedure 21 March at 17:31 Report
Marie -
I'm sorry for not responding to your message although I was incredibly excited to hear the news (of which I told my dad). I have not actually logged onto Facebook in about a month - only status updates on my phone. I have been traveling all month for work. Please don't take it personal, you are way off base.
In the case of Steve Riley, I haven't talked to anyone in Pennsylvania in eleven years - sorry I couldn't be of help.
Lastly, I'm sorry for your loss. I hear it is very common for the first pregnancy especially before the 8-12wk mark. I had you in my thoughts and prayers.
As far as my post - I GET an ULTRASOUND and its a BEAUTIFUL thing for your close, close friends and family. I'm sorry if I think it is something more personal than just another pic to post up on the WORLD WIDE WEB. Just my opinion which I am entitled to and explained. If you would have read all of it you would have seen that I do not have a pet peeve for ultrasounds - just the posting of them on Facebook.
I hope you are doing okay with everything.
XO
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Tea,
I'm sorry for not responding to your message although I was incredibly excited to hear the news (of which I told my dad). I have not actually logged onto Facebook in about a month - only status updates on my phone. I have been traveling all month for work. Please don't take it personal, you are way off base.
In the case of Steve Riley, I haven't talked to anyone in Pennsylvania in eleven years - sorry I couldn't be of help.
Lastly, I'm sorry for your loss. I hear it is very common for the first pregnancy especially before the 8-12wk mark. I had you in my thoughts and prayers.
As far as my post - I GET an ULTRASOUND and its a BEAUTIFUL thing for your close, close friends and family. I'm sorry if I think it is something more personal than just another pic to post up on the WORLD WIDE WEB. Just my opinion which I am entitled to and explained. If you would have read all of it you would have seen that I do not have a pet peeve for ultrasounds - just the posting of them on Facebook.
I hope you are doing okay with everything.
XO
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Tea,
I know you have been traveling a lot for your job, I do see all your updates, and you do seem to be all over Cali.
In the Steve thing, it wasn't about whether you talked to him any time of recent, I was asking for you to help me out with memories. Like was I missing a memory that I shouldn't have been, therefore a reason why he would have friended me. I know you don't talk with anyone from pa anymore really, which makes me, personally, wonder why you aren't more choosy with who you add as your friend on Facebook. I know you are an extremely friendly person but everyone you have known or met in your life doesn't have to be your Facebook friend...
Which leads up to the ultrasound pic thing...
I know personally, I would post my ultrasound pic (when I get one) on here because I only have those in my family, close co-workers and friends on here. I wouldn't be posting it for the whole worldwide web. I can't obviously speak for your friends, but that may have been their thought too. Since you are friends with so many people that may just be why you are seeing those posts. Though Facebook has added the option that you can hide posts from anyone you don't want to see posts for. Just a thought. If you need to know how to do that on here just ask.
Thank you for the thoughts and prayers for me, though I am ok. I am aware that it is common. Though this is my second miscarriage, I still know it is a common thing. I will be talking with my doctor in April to make sure all is ok with me internally. We will probably try again this summer. But we'll see, we're in no rush.
Lastly~ You state in a matter of speaking, at least I think, that people should be careful or more choosy with what they post on the world wide web. I think you may want to heed your own advice a little more. It seems to me you want two things out of your Facebook page. It seems you want to be on here to network and to keep in touch with those you cant see all the time that are close to you. To avoid pet peeves in the future I think maybe you should streamline your Facebook page to a personal page and make a different page that you can network on. I say this also because the pictures you post of yourself, most are not bad but some are not appropriate for being on your page or someone else's that links you to them all the time. I mean any pic taken of you is up here whether tasteful or not. Which if it was just a close-knit circle you were showing them to that would be fine. But every time you go out with Darryl, for instance, and you get crazy, everyone your friends with along with everyone he is friends with gets a notice that they can look a the pictures. Because when he uploads them he probably doesn't filter who can see them. Meaning I and all you two are friends with have access to his picture database. Just an f.y.i cause I truly don't think you know this. I may not see or talk with you often at all but I think I know that you would have more care with your page if you knew that everyone can see what your up to whether you tell it or one of your close friends is. This is why you may want to make a separate page for your work colleagues and people you meet while your out and about, that doesn't include any personal pics of yourself (this too will head off any wackos). I only say this cause I care and am slightly concerned. You can even call it one of my pet peeves that people don't take more caution what they air on the world wide web that I would think is more personal than a sonogram picture, that most people again cannot make out anyways. People can make out a 25 yr old giving money to a male dancer, giving a lap dance to a guy that may or may not be her boyfriend and a girl who is pictured to look like she parties a lot. Again just a thought, take it for what you want or ignore my comments it makes no matter to me, I love you but your life is definitely your own. When I say all this don't think I'm being judgmental when I do, cause I'm not judging your lifestyle at all just what you personally post and allow to be posted about yourself.
XO
Marie
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In the Steve thing, it wasn't about whether you talked to him any time of recent, I was asking for you to help me out with memories. Like was I missing a memory that I shouldn't have been, therefore a reason why he would have friended me. I know you don't talk with anyone from pa anymore really, which makes me, personally, wonder why you aren't more choosy with who you add as your friend on Facebook. I know you are an extremely friendly person but everyone you have known or met in your life doesn't have to be your Facebook friend...
Which leads up to the ultrasound pic thing...
I know personally, I would post my ultrasound pic (when I get one) on here because I only have those in my family, close co-workers and friends on here. I wouldn't be posting it for the whole worldwide web. I can't obviously speak for your friends, but that may have been their thought too. Since you are friends with so many people that may just be why you are seeing those posts. Though Facebook has added the option that you can hide posts from anyone you don't want to see posts for. Just a thought. If you need to know how to do that on here just ask.
Thank you for the thoughts and prayers for me, though I am ok. I am aware that it is common. Though this is my second miscarriage, I still know it is a common thing. I will be talking with my doctor in April to make sure all is ok with me internally. We will probably try again this summer. But we'll see, we're in no rush.
Lastly~ You state in a matter of speaking, at least I think, that people should be careful or more choosy with what they post on the world wide web. I think you may want to heed your own advice a little more. It seems to me you want two things out of your Facebook page. It seems you want to be on here to network and to keep in touch with those you cant see all the time that are close to you. To avoid pet peeves in the future I think maybe you should streamline your Facebook page to a personal page and make a different page that you can network on. I say this also because the pictures you post of yourself, most are not bad but some are not appropriate for being on your page or someone else's that links you to them all the time. I mean any pic taken of you is up here whether tasteful or not. Which if it was just a close-knit circle you were showing them to that would be fine. But every time you go out with Darryl, for instance, and you get crazy, everyone your friends with along with everyone he is friends with gets a notice that they can look a the pictures. Because when he uploads them he probably doesn't filter who can see them. Meaning I and all you two are friends with have access to his picture database. Just an f.y.i cause I truly don't think you know this. I may not see or talk with you often at all but I think I know that you would have more care with your page if you knew that everyone can see what your up to whether you tell it or one of your close friends is. This is why you may want to make a separate page for your work colleagues and people you meet while your out and about, that doesn't include any personal pics of yourself (this too will head off any wackos). I only say this cause I care and am slightly concerned. You can even call it one of my pet peeves that people don't take more caution what they air on the world wide web that I would think is more personal than a sonogram picture, that most people again cannot make out anyways. People can make out a 25 yr old giving money to a male dancer, giving a lap dance to a guy that may or may not be her boyfriend and a girl who is pictured to look like she parties a lot. Again just a thought, take it for what you want or ignore my comments it makes no matter to me, I love you but your life is definitely your own. When I say all this don't think I'm being judgmental when I do, cause I'm not judging your lifestyle at all just what you personally post and allow to be posted about yourself.
XO
Marie
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Not going to lie - weird messages lately as if I have personally offended you. I was very happy to reconnect with you but you seem to be terribly offended/concerned, etc with my life.
All of the people I am friends with on FB I actually have real experiences with or shared, fond childhood memories. I also add a lot because I live in a city with 4 million people, not to mention lived in another large city for quite some time as well. With that said, I also do not add a lot of people.
I know it is hard to believe because we really don't know each other as adults but I am fine with my Facebook page and open to questions. For starters - I'm only 26 and building my life in one of the largest cities in our country. Not only do I manage all sales/marketing operations for an offshore company, but I also take care of my amazing dog, and work with charitable organizations almost on a weekly basis. I'm not pointing this out to say "hey look at me" I'm pointing it out to show that I function on a very strict schedule. I start my mornings around 6 and finish after midnight. I run triathlons and am preparing to finish my law degree (I don't think a person would a true problem could maintain).
Please recognize that your last email came off very judgmental. I am VERY close with my friends and family. Those who know me know the men on my page are GAY - that was not a male stripper, it was a GAY go-go dance at The Abbey (famous restaurant/bar).
Yes, I am out A LOT. I dance A LOT. I have FUN A LOT. I do not do drugs (still have never gotten involved with narcotics) and my drinking is limited. I have to go out and make sure my product is placed/moving/selling in my accounts and I do that best during business hours.
You were judging my lifestyle (please re-read your message) based on perception and or your own opinions. As family & friend, I would expect questions of "concern" that I would be happy to answer. And to be honest, I'm okay with saying yes - I am always on the run and I am out more than I am in...BECAUSE I CAN and there will be in time in my life where I will have priorities outside of myself.
I hope you can see how you have come off. I haven't judged you even for a second about anything. If it seems like I'm firing back a bit..yes. You come into my life only to criticize me when it is completely unwarranted and unfair.
I hope this doesn't "end" our effort to stay in contact. However, I cannot apologize for living my life as a fun-loving, young, city-centered woman.
All of the people I am friends with on FB I actually have real experiences with or shared, fond childhood memories. I also add a lot because I live in a city with 4 million people, not to mention lived in another large city for quite some time as well. With that said, I also do not add a lot of people.
I know it is hard to believe because we really don't know each other as adults but I am fine with my Facebook page and open to questions. For starters - I'm only 26 and building my life in one of the largest cities in our country. Not only do I manage all sales/marketing operations for an offshore company, but I also take care of my amazing dog, and work with charitable organizations almost on a weekly basis. I'm not pointing this out to say "hey look at me" I'm pointing it out to show that I function on a very strict schedule. I start my mornings around 6 and finish after midnight. I run triathlons and am preparing to finish my law degree (I don't think a person would a true problem could maintain).
Please recognize that your last email came off very judgmental. I am VERY close with my friends and family. Those who know me know the men on my page are GAY - that was not a male stripper, it was a GAY go-go dance at The Abbey (famous restaurant/bar).
Yes, I am out A LOT. I dance A LOT. I have FUN A LOT. I do not do drugs (still have never gotten involved with narcotics) and my drinking is limited. I have to go out and make sure my product is placed/moving/selling in my accounts and I do that best during business hours.
You were judging my lifestyle (please re-read your message) based on perception and or your own opinions. As family & friend, I would expect questions of "concern" that I would be happy to answer. And to be honest, I'm okay with saying yes - I am always on the run and I am out more than I am in...BECAUSE I CAN and there will be in time in my life where I will have priorities outside of myself.
I hope you can see how you have come off. I haven't judged you even for a second about anything. If it seems like I'm firing back a bit..yes. You come into my life only to criticize me when it is completely unwarranted and unfair.
I hope this doesn't "end" our effort to stay in contact. However, I cannot apologize for living my life as a fun-loving, young, city-centered woman.
I do want to end with this: I love you - you're family and my message is not to start a circle of tit for tat. I honestly was just taken back.
Tara Amedure 22 March at 22:03 Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And I didn't want you to apologize for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was exactly the response I was hoping you WOULDNT make.
because NO I was not judging your life, it's your life, live it, however. please fucking live it, however. MY POINT WAS.... please don't make comments that other people should have more care about what they post on Facebook when the same argument could be made to you!
As it was your pet peeve about the sonograms
It is mine, and maybe someone else's, that you post a lot of things that we wouldn't consider "postable" material.
Not because you shouldn't live the life you live but because your life can be misconstrued by someone not involved in it daily.
So I appreciate the recap on your life but I was not making reference to all the great things you do in your life but, YOU MADE MY POINT.
I don't know everything and everyone in your life so to me and anyone else not completely up-to-date on all the things you have posted can be mistaken to mean something they don't. GET MY POINT.
I WASNT JUDGING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST CONCERNED.
I don't understand why you misunderstand what I write so often. I do reread what I send you and I don't speak a foreign language and just as an extra precaution I read what I write to my mom or dave so that I make sure I'm making the correct point and three times now you have misunderstood things I have written, so I have again reread them to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Only to see that no I was clear about what I was saying.
I am so pissed right now.
Marie Beaven 22 March at 23:03
She accused me of judging her, though I clearly stated I was not doing that, just stating that if she was going to address what people post that I would as well. She obviously did not like this at all. Though she wanted to make sure I knew she loved me but that she was taken back by what I had inferred. I said I was tired of her assuming I was saying something I was clearly not. That it was bad enough she did it before but that she was continuing even when I had stated exactly what I meant and was addressing. So even though I love her very much (that was why I cared whether she posted her who-ha and ta-ta's all over the place) and will love her forever cause she was my blood cousin, that didn't mean that we had to have a relationship and that I didn't know why it was so important to her that we did. Furthermore, I would hide all her posts so that I wouldn't feel the need to comment on anything she posted from then on cause I didn't want her misunderstanding me anymore.
Was I harsh? Yes, I know I was. I was a bitch, plain and simple. I do actually feel bad for being that mean about it, but she pissed me off beyond belief. Though that is truly no excuse, however, I will not feel bad for the end result.
We as human beings have the right to allow certain people and not allow certain others into our lives. We for no reason have to be friends with everyone. It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean she has 620 friends on her Facebook page. Now that is fucking stupifying. Who the fuck (obviously besides her) would have 620 friends. You can't possibly keep up with all of them. you can't have any real relationship with them. That is like a fan page without saying it's your fan page. This is our major difference. I want to only have people in my life that I can have personal relationships with and can be involved with on a regular basis. She wants to have fans, apparently. I cant deal with that. I cant deal with being a number to someone. I cant deal with people quoting the wrong quotes, dissing something that's symbolic and saying that the whole wide web doesn't need to see something as personal as a sonogram but she can show all 620 of those "friends" her every party move. I don't understand where that is ok but a sonogram isn't. I would make a safe wager, not that many people. I don't think most people on here are friends with hundred(S) of people.
I truly don't know what else to say. That is my rant, the bug up my ass in terms of my cousin.Tara Amedure 22 March at 21:38 Report Marie Beaven 21 March at 20:59
This was exactly the response I was hoping you WOULDNT make.
because NO I was not judging your life, it's your life, live it, however. please fucking live it, however. MY POINT WAS.... please don't make comments that other people should have more care about what they post on Facebook when the same argument could be made to you!
As it was your pet peeve about the sonograms
It is mine, and maybe someone else's, that you post a lot of things that we wouldn't consider "postable" material.
Not because you shouldn't live the life you live but because your life can be misconstrued by someone not involved in it daily.
So I appreciate the recap on your life but I was not making reference to all the great things you do in your life but, YOU MADE MY POINT.
I don't know everything and everyone in your life so to me and anyone else not completely up-to-date on all the things you have posted can be mistaken to mean something they don't. GET MY POINT.
I WASNT JUDGING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST CONCERNED.
I don't understand why you misunderstand what I write so often. I do reread what I send you and I don't speak a foreign language and just as an extra precaution I read what I write to my mom or dave so that I make sure I'm making the correct point and three times now you have misunderstood things I have written, so I have again reread them to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Only to see that no I was clear about what I was saying.
I am so pissed right now.
Honestly, Tara, I don't know why it was so important for you to keep in contact with me. we have grown very far apart. it's great to know that we are each alive and well but we could truly find that out from our parents. I really don't need to get worked up about someone who gets defensive about something that I say that I clearly stated you could "take it for what you want or ignore my comments, it makes no matter to me".
I do care about you, that's why I voice my opinion but since you clearly never understand what I'm saying. I will refrain. If it is that big of a deal to you I will not delete you from my page but ill "hide" your posts so I don't see what your up to so I don't feel the need to comment about anything.
Furthermore... if anyone who knew me through you from the past contacts me ill just ignore them from the get-go so that I don't have to send you "weird" messages in the future and if anything big happens in my life ill let you hear it from your dad.
That may seem, TO YOU, harsh or unmerited but I need to do certain things in my life to be able to avoid crap like this that I know I get involved in because of who I am.
With that said, I'm done talking about this. if you email me back with misunderstandings again I will simply not reply back.
I do care about you, that's why I voice my opinion but since you clearly never understand what I'm saying. I will refrain. If it is that big of a deal to you I will not delete you from my page but ill "hide" your posts so I don't see what your up to so I don't feel the need to comment about anything.
Furthermore... if anyone who knew me through you from the past contacts me ill just ignore them from the get-go so that I don't have to send you "weird" messages in the future and if anything big happens in my life ill let you hear it from your dad.
That may seem, TO YOU, harsh or unmerited but I need to do certain things in my life to be able to avoid crap like this that I know I get involved in because of who I am.
With that said, I'm done talking about this. if you email me back with misunderstandings again I will simply not reply back.
I love you too, you are my family, but blood means nothing to me in the sense of having a relationship. I will love you forever regardless, and also do not want tit for tat either, but I do not have to have a relationship with you because you are blood.
Marie Beaven 22 March at 23:06 She accused me of judging her, though I clearly stated I was not doing that, just stating that if she was going to address what people post that I would as well. She obviously did not like this at all. Though she wanted to make sure I knew she loved me but that she was taken back by what I had inferred. I said I was tired of her assuming I was saying something I was clearly not. That it was bad enough she did it before but that she was continuing even when I had stated exactly what I meant and was addressing. So even though I love her very much (that was why I cared whether she posted her who-ha and ta-ta's all over the place) and will love her forever cause she was my blood cousin, that didn't mean that we had to have a relationship and that I didn't know why it was so important to her that we did. Furthermore, I would hide all her posts so that I wouldn't feel the need to comment on anything she posted from then on cause I didn't want her misunderstanding me anymore.
Was I harsh? Yes, I know I was. I was a bitch, plain and simple. I do actually feel bad for being that mean about it, but she pissed me off beyond belief. Though that is truly no excuse, however, I will not feel bad for the end result.
We as human beings have the right to allow certain people and not allow certain others into our lives. We for no reason have to be friends with everyone. It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean she has 620 friends on her Facebook page. Now that is fucking stupifying. Who the fuck (obviously besides her) would have 620 friends. You can't possibly keep up with all of them. you can't have any real relationship with them. That is like a fan page without saying it's your fan page. This is our major difference. I want to only have people in my life that I can have personal relationships with and can be involved with on a regular basis. She wants to have fans, apparently. I cant deal with that. I cant deal with being a number to someone. I cant deal with people quoting the wrong quotes, dissing something that's symbolic and saying that the whole wide web doesn't need to see something as personal as a sonogram but she can show all 620 of those "friends" her every party move. I don't understand where that is ok but a sonogram isn't. I would make a safe wager, not that many people. I don't think most people on here are friends with hundred(S) of people.
I truly don't know what else to say. That is my rant, the bug up my ass in terms of my cousin.Tara Amedure 22 March at 21:38 Report Marie Beaven 21 March at 20:59
A List I Wrote to The American Public About Shipping Their Stuff
TOP TEN (THERES MORE BUT THESE RANK AS THE TOPS)
1. SCOTCH TAPE IS NOT PACKING TAPE
2. CEREAL BOXES ARE NOT PACKING BOXES ( NOT EVEN IF YOU WRITE PLEASE DONT CRUSH ON IT)
3. TUPPERWARE CONTAINERS ARE NOT STURDY ENOUGH TO GO THROUGH OUR MACHINERY SO THOSE COOKIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS ARNT SAFE IN GLADWARE
4. IF IT HAS A POINT TO IT AND COULD SPEAR THROUGH FLESH IT WILL SPEAR THROUGH PACKING TAPE AND THEN MY FLESH. PLEASE APPLY A CORK TO THE TIP OR MANY LAYERS OF PADDING PLEASE
5. IF IT WEIGHS MORE THAN, SAY, A HUMAN BEING ( I.E. 50 GRAPEFRUITS FROM FLORDIA) DO NOT PACK IN A COPY PAPER BOX WITH SCOTCH TAPE. THIS REQUIRES A LARGE TUPPERWARE CONTAINER WITH BUBBLE WRAP INSIDE AND HEAVY WRITTEN ON IT. OTHERWISE, GRAPEFRUIT JUICE WILL ARRIVE AT THEIR DOOR
6. IF YOU ARE MAILING OUT A LOT OF PAPERS THAT END UP AMOUNTING TO THE SIZE OF A BOOK PLEASE USE A BOX NOT AN ENVELOPE. JUST LIKE FAT PEOPLE TRYING TO FIT IN SKINNY JEANS>> SEAMS DO BUST. AS A MATTER OF FACT, DONT SEND ANYTHING FAT IN SOMETHING SKINNY PLEASE!!!!!!
7. PIZZA BOXES ARE NOT PACKING BOXES. ESPECIALLY OILY USED PIZZA BOXES (COME ON NOW, REALLY)
8. IF YOU OR YOUR FAMILY CAN'T READ YOUR HANDWRITING NEITHER WILL OUR COMPUTERS. WRITE LEGIBLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. IF YOUR SHIPPING OUT A DARK COLORED BOX DONT WRITE THE ADDRESS IN DARK INK WRITE IT IN WHITE, DONT HAVE WHITE INK YOU SAY, TRY WRITING IT ON A PIECE OF CLEAN WHITE NOTEBOOK PAPER AND TAPING WITH PACKING TAPE TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
10. IF YOU THINK IT COULD BREAK, WRITING FRAGILE ON IT DOESNT PREVENT BREAKING, PROPER PACKING DOES WITH SUCH INVENTIONS AS BUBBLE WRAP AND/OR LOTS OF CRUMPLED NEWSPAPERS, ETC.
IT MAY BE OUR JOB TO GET YOUR PACKAGE TO ITS DESTINATION ON TIME AND IN THE CONDITION IT WAS GIVEN TO US IN BUT COME ON PEOPLE WERE NOT GENIES IN BOTTLES WIGGLING OUR NOSES TO GET YOUR PACKAGES THERE. WE ARE PEOPLE WORKING ON MILLION DOLLAR PIECES OF MACHINERY THAT ARE SORTING MAIL BY THE THOUSANDS PER MINUTE. TRY TO USE COMMON SENSE ABOUT PACKING TO AVOID DELAYS DUE TO REWRAPPING OR BREAKAGES DUE TO IMPROPER PACKING. WE'RE ALSO NOT YOUR PERSONAL SECRETARIES SO... SINCE IT IS ILLEGAL TO SEND BOXES ANY WAY BUT AT THE WINDOW NOW, PLEASE ASK FOR TAPE IF YOU NEED IT OR FOR HELP PACKING YOUR STUFF IN THE APPROPRIATE BOX/ENVELOPE/ CONTAINER WE WILL BE GLAD TO ASSIST YOU. IF YOU DO NOT ASK WE DONT KNOW YOU NEED HELP AND IF YOU JUST THINK IT'S STUPID TO ASK THEN WE THINK... WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE THINK...
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS AND PASSES IT ON TO THOSE WHO MIGHT NEED A LESSON IN PROPER PACKING OR A LAUGH.
1. SCOTCH TAPE IS NOT PACKING TAPE
2. CEREAL BOXES ARE NOT PACKING BOXES ( NOT EVEN IF YOU WRITE PLEASE DONT CRUSH ON IT)
3. TUPPERWARE CONTAINERS ARE NOT STURDY ENOUGH TO GO THROUGH OUR MACHINERY SO THOSE COOKIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS ARNT SAFE IN GLADWARE
4. IF IT HAS A POINT TO IT AND COULD SPEAR THROUGH FLESH IT WILL SPEAR THROUGH PACKING TAPE AND THEN MY FLESH. PLEASE APPLY A CORK TO THE TIP OR MANY LAYERS OF PADDING PLEASE
5. IF IT WEIGHS MORE THAN, SAY, A HUMAN BEING ( I.E. 50 GRAPEFRUITS FROM FLORDIA) DO NOT PACK IN A COPY PAPER BOX WITH SCOTCH TAPE. THIS REQUIRES A LARGE TUPPERWARE CONTAINER WITH BUBBLE WRAP INSIDE AND HEAVY WRITTEN ON IT. OTHERWISE, GRAPEFRUIT JUICE WILL ARRIVE AT THEIR DOOR
6. IF YOU ARE MAILING OUT A LOT OF PAPERS THAT END UP AMOUNTING TO THE SIZE OF A BOOK PLEASE USE A BOX NOT AN ENVELOPE. JUST LIKE FAT PEOPLE TRYING TO FIT IN SKINNY JEANS>> SEAMS DO BUST. AS A MATTER OF FACT, DONT SEND ANYTHING FAT IN SOMETHING SKINNY PLEASE!!!!!!
7. PIZZA BOXES ARE NOT PACKING BOXES. ESPECIALLY OILY USED PIZZA BOXES (COME ON NOW, REALLY)
8. IF YOU OR YOUR FAMILY CAN'T READ YOUR HANDWRITING NEITHER WILL OUR COMPUTERS. WRITE LEGIBLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. IF YOUR SHIPPING OUT A DARK COLORED BOX DONT WRITE THE ADDRESS IN DARK INK WRITE IT IN WHITE, DONT HAVE WHITE INK YOU SAY, TRY WRITING IT ON A PIECE OF CLEAN WHITE NOTEBOOK PAPER AND TAPING WITH PACKING TAPE TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
10. IF YOU THINK IT COULD BREAK, WRITING FRAGILE ON IT DOESNT PREVENT BREAKING, PROPER PACKING DOES WITH SUCH INVENTIONS AS BUBBLE WRAP AND/OR LOTS OF CRUMPLED NEWSPAPERS, ETC.
IT MAY BE OUR JOB TO GET YOUR PACKAGE TO ITS DESTINATION ON TIME AND IN THE CONDITION IT WAS GIVEN TO US IN BUT COME ON PEOPLE WERE NOT GENIES IN BOTTLES WIGGLING OUR NOSES TO GET YOUR PACKAGES THERE. WE ARE PEOPLE WORKING ON MILLION DOLLAR PIECES OF MACHINERY THAT ARE SORTING MAIL BY THE THOUSANDS PER MINUTE. TRY TO USE COMMON SENSE ABOUT PACKING TO AVOID DELAYS DUE TO REWRAPPING OR BREAKAGES DUE TO IMPROPER PACKING. WE'RE ALSO NOT YOUR PERSONAL SECRETARIES SO... SINCE IT IS ILLEGAL TO SEND BOXES ANY WAY BUT AT THE WINDOW NOW, PLEASE ASK FOR TAPE IF YOU NEED IT OR FOR HELP PACKING YOUR STUFF IN THE APPROPRIATE BOX/ENVELOPE/ CONTAINER WE WILL BE GLAD TO ASSIST YOU. IF YOU DO NOT ASK WE DONT KNOW YOU NEED HELP AND IF YOU JUST THINK IT'S STUPID TO ASK THEN WE THINK... WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE THINK...
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS AND PASSES IT ON TO THOSE WHO MIGHT NEED A LESSON IN PROPER PACKING OR A LAUGH.
Literature and Politics in the 1920s
The 1920s was the decade when the Republican Party nominated Warren G. Harding for President and Calvin Coolidge for Vice President. In this decade World War I may have just finished up but its impressions still lingered on and the trial over evolution was just beginning. The Victorian Age of decency was crashing to a halt and sexuality was being spoken about with more liberty. People like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernst Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, and Langston Hughes lived this era, felt this era and wrote this era. They lived the segregation in the south through the post was drama, and through the social classes that were being defined more and more. In this decade literature was written and politics happened, and one way or another, literature reflected the politics of the 1920s.
It seemed that the more the world changed, the more the United States governed its people. The more the United States governed its people the more the people had to say about it; and oh what they had to say. Attitudes were formed and if a person’s social status wasn’t of Bourgeois, the norm for that time, then it was of the poor and no respectable person of that time was poor. It seemed that money helped define the social status and keep the people pf this decade segregated. People like Dorothy Parker and Langston Hughes, in response to the Bourgeois, headed up the Harlem Renaissance of African American writers. These writers had no trouble expressing their troubled times. They didn’t believe in the only good social status was the rich, white, American, male and they wanted to world to know that. They wanted the world to know that they were not poor by choice and they were not bad people, they were just people like everyone else. Langston Hughes wrote a poem Southern Gentle Lady that expressed the hard times that African American people went through in the 1920s. He speaks of “Southern gentle lady, do not swoon. They’ve just hung a black man in the dark of the moon.” In this section, he takes the typical African American woman working to feed her family and announces to her that in the shadow of the night they hung a man based on the color of his skin, and please don’t cry. He then says “They’ve hung a black man to the roadside tree in the dark of the moon for the world to see.” Again that in the shadows on the night a man was condemned for the color of his skin and he was hanging there for all the world to see, though the world was not allowed to see this act in progress. Lastly, he states “How Dixie protects its white womanhood. South gentle lady, be good! Be good!” establishing that again this act only happened due to the color of his skin and were he a white man the Dixie land of America would never have let this happen but because he was a southern black man he was left unprotected. Also that that southern gentle lady, while having every right to be mad at the times and the intolerable cruelty must rise above the hate and be good, as to not stoop to the white man's level. It is clear in Langston Hughes's poem that he was affected politically by Dixie’s ability to protect the white but not the black and therefore writing about how the American government in the 1920s still saw the black race as a separate but not yet equal part of the American society.
It then was said that, “Politics became an arena for defending traditional rural values. The revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s manifested itself in the political conflicts associated with Prohibition, which divided Americans according to race, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and residential local.” (American Decades 1902-1929, page 758) This proves the extent of the contempt toward the African American culture but also establishes political contempt during the 1920s for any individual or group that fell outside of tradition. This brought about the Lost Generation of white writers who, just like those of the African American race, expressed their same trials and tribulations with society, the prohibition, and their anti-war beliefs. This group consisted of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernst Hemingway, and E.E. Cummings, just to name a few, who wanted the whole world to know what money on margin and world wars were really doing to the American Bourgeois and post-war veterans. F. Scott Fitzgerald presented us with characters such as Jay Gatsby, the man who made his money off bootleg booze to try and establish himself to win over Daisy only ending in Gatsby’s emotional and physical demise. Ernst Hemingway created Lady Ashley the “perfect product of the postwar world” whose main activities included “ having drinks, lovers and passionate moments”. She was in Hemingway’s mind the perfect reflection of a “hard-boiled flapper” she could drink anyone under the table and she could always explain why six cocktails grew where one grew before. She displayed all the attributes of a typical woman of the 1920s who enjoyed living the bohemian way of life because the American government felt it necessary to do away with alcoholic beverages. E. E. Cummings wrote The Enormous Room where he “suggested a philosophy of war compounded equally of resignation, hatred for all authority, and an almost abstract cynicism.” (Twentieth-Century American Literature, page 569) Many went on to say that this book was the “first to express for America the emotions of those artists, students and middle-class intellectuals who were to constitute the post-mortem war generation, and whose war experience was to transform their conception of life and art.” (Twentieth-Century American Literature, page 567)
It was plain to see that in the 1920s not all writers believed America needed to involve itself in wars to end all wars. They believed that politics was inflicting itself to heavily on the American people and that people from all over the world were taking advantage of the kind-hearted nature of the Statue of Liberty. John Dos Passos was one such writer who felt this way, he said that Americans from all over the world, came and turned our language inside out” and “took the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul.” He wrote the History of the Republic in which he proclaims that the Italian anarchists have inflicted and corrupted the entire labor force, politics, and the values of our great nation. He couldn’t believe that our government would back so heavily the Italian mob. In this decade World War I may not have made the world safe for democracy, but it did help lay the groundwork for a decade of American economic expansion. Gigantic houses out on Long Island like those in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the stocks that bankrolled the travels for the characters in the Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway would not have been culturally correct if it weren’t for the economic boom in the 1920s. This decade was something to love, something to live, and something anyone who lived during it will never forget. This decade is showed so wonderfully through the writing of its time. Those who lived through this decade were impacted so much by the new technology beginning to surface due to the economic boom and the political debates that it is hard to understand this decade without understanding how the politics of this time affected people. The literature of this decade really captured those feelings and debates well. Therefore it is clear that the war to end all wars impacted everyone in this decade somehow and the political-economic system of buying on margin made almost everyone rich. It is also clear that the jobs created by the war and political incentive to move forward created the topics for a whole score of remarkable books capturing with great detail the roaring twenties. Now every time F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, or anyone of the many authors of that time are read it will be apparent just what was felt and going on it that incredible decade.
Works Cited:
It seemed that the more the world changed, the more the United States governed its people. The more the United States governed its people the more the people had to say about it; and oh what they had to say. Attitudes were formed and if a person’s social status wasn’t of Bourgeois, the norm for that time, then it was of the poor and no respectable person of that time was poor. It seemed that money helped define the social status and keep the people pf this decade segregated. People like Dorothy Parker and Langston Hughes, in response to the Bourgeois, headed up the Harlem Renaissance of African American writers. These writers had no trouble expressing their troubled times. They didn’t believe in the only good social status was the rich, white, American, male and they wanted to world to know that. They wanted the world to know that they were not poor by choice and they were not bad people, they were just people like everyone else. Langston Hughes wrote a poem Southern Gentle Lady that expressed the hard times that African American people went through in the 1920s. He speaks of “Southern gentle lady, do not swoon. They’ve just hung a black man in the dark of the moon.” In this section, he takes the typical African American woman working to feed her family and announces to her that in the shadow of the night they hung a man based on the color of his skin, and please don’t cry. He then says “They’ve hung a black man to the roadside tree in the dark of the moon for the world to see.” Again that in the shadows on the night a man was condemned for the color of his skin and he was hanging there for all the world to see, though the world was not allowed to see this act in progress. Lastly, he states “How Dixie protects its white womanhood. South gentle lady, be good! Be good!” establishing that again this act only happened due to the color of his skin and were he a white man the Dixie land of America would never have let this happen but because he was a southern black man he was left unprotected. Also that that southern gentle lady, while having every right to be mad at the times and the intolerable cruelty must rise above the hate and be good, as to not stoop to the white man's level. It is clear in Langston Hughes's poem that he was affected politically by Dixie’s ability to protect the white but not the black and therefore writing about how the American government in the 1920s still saw the black race as a separate but not yet equal part of the American society.
It then was said that, “Politics became an arena for defending traditional rural values. The revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s manifested itself in the political conflicts associated with Prohibition, which divided Americans according to race, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and residential local.” (American Decades 1902-1929, page 758) This proves the extent of the contempt toward the African American culture but also establishes political contempt during the 1920s for any individual or group that fell outside of tradition. This brought about the Lost Generation of white writers who, just like those of the African American race, expressed their same trials and tribulations with society, the prohibition, and their anti-war beliefs. This group consisted of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernst Hemingway, and E.E. Cummings, just to name a few, who wanted the whole world to know what money on margin and world wars were really doing to the American Bourgeois and post-war veterans. F. Scott Fitzgerald presented us with characters such as Jay Gatsby, the man who made his money off bootleg booze to try and establish himself to win over Daisy only ending in Gatsby’s emotional and physical demise. Ernst Hemingway created Lady Ashley the “perfect product of the postwar world” whose main activities included “ having drinks, lovers and passionate moments”. She was in Hemingway’s mind the perfect reflection of a “hard-boiled flapper” she could drink anyone under the table and she could always explain why six cocktails grew where one grew before. She displayed all the attributes of a typical woman of the 1920s who enjoyed living the bohemian way of life because the American government felt it necessary to do away with alcoholic beverages. E. E. Cummings wrote The Enormous Room where he “suggested a philosophy of war compounded equally of resignation, hatred for all authority, and an almost abstract cynicism.” (Twentieth-Century American Literature, page 569) Many went on to say that this book was the “first to express for America the emotions of those artists, students and middle-class intellectuals who were to constitute the post-mortem war generation, and whose war experience was to transform their conception of life and art.” (Twentieth-Century American Literature, page 567)
It was plain to see that in the 1920s not all writers believed America needed to involve itself in wars to end all wars. They believed that politics was inflicting itself to heavily on the American people and that people from all over the world were taking advantage of the kind-hearted nature of the Statue of Liberty. John Dos Passos was one such writer who felt this way, he said that Americans from all over the world, came and turned our language inside out” and “took the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul.” He wrote the History of the Republic in which he proclaims that the Italian anarchists have inflicted and corrupted the entire labor force, politics, and the values of our great nation. He couldn’t believe that our government would back so heavily the Italian mob. In this decade World War I may not have made the world safe for democracy, but it did help lay the groundwork for a decade of American economic expansion. Gigantic houses out on Long Island like those in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the stocks that bankrolled the travels for the characters in the Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway would not have been culturally correct if it weren’t for the economic boom in the 1920s. This decade was something to love, something to live, and something anyone who lived during it will never forget. This decade is showed so wonderfully through the writing of its time. Those who lived through this decade were impacted so much by the new technology beginning to surface due to the economic boom and the political debates that it is hard to understand this decade without understanding how the politics of this time affected people. The literature of this decade really captured those feelings and debates well. Therefore it is clear that the war to end all wars impacted everyone in this decade somehow and the political-economic system of buying on margin made almost everyone rich. It is also clear that the jobs created by the war and political incentive to move forward created the topics for a whole score of remarkable books capturing with great detail the roaring twenties. Now every time F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, or anyone of the many authors of that time are read it will be apparent just what was felt and going on it that incredible decade.
Works Cited:
- Peggy Whitley, Http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade20.html, May 2002
- Harold Bloom, Twentieth-Century American Literature, Volume 2-3, Pages 567-569
- Judith S. Baughman, American Decades 1920-1929, Volume 3, Page 758.
Analysis of The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F. Scotts Fitzgerald is an intricately patterned piece of literature. It bears no comforting message about the simplicity of life, but more so establishes the ironies of life’s tribulations. It is fashioned around money, land ownership, financial success, and the misconception of love; all things that can be explained through Karl Marx’s economic theory Marxism. Marxism will help illustrate a sub theory on commodities that can be found littered all throughout The Great Gatsby. In this book we do not see complexity written for the sack of complexity, we see it written in a stylish, symbolic, culturally functional way for its time. Illustrating the creative mind of F. Scotts Fitzgerald we see through flashbacks a chronological reconstruction of events; Jay Gatsby’s rise and fall that the reader is responsible for interpreting. At the beginning of the story we are introduced to Nick, the narrator, who tells the whole story of how Jay Gatsby a self-made American wealthy success story falls in love with Daisy, the one who got away. We learn of all the riches Gatsby acquires and his thought process that he can win Daisy’s love with money. We start to realize Gatsby’s failure to develop through specially picked settings, styles, and symbolism that Fitzgerald carefully wove together to create the ultimate paralysis of Jay Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby is set in the roaring 1920s from April to November of 1922. It takes place in what they considered Long Island New York to be at that time the “Valley of Ashes”. Here everyone lived in accordance with their social status. Gatsby lived in a “palace” in West Egg (the part of Long Island that housed those of the newly rich status), Tom, a friend of Gatsby’s, lived in his “Georgian Colonial” of East Egg (the part of Long Island that housed those of established wealth), and Nick lived in his Bungalow next to Gatsby. But they were all following the sophisticated money trail of America's high-class society. In Marxism philosophy, this can be considered the motivation to gain economic power and separate the social statuses into a “Super Structure” where the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Thus we see commodities in The Great Gatsby. Those would be the items that are valued on their monetary value rather than what they contribute. The more commodities a person owns the higher their social status. In The Great Gatsby, we see this in the Mansion Gatsby owns, the marble swimming pool he never uses, the forty-acre lawn for guests he entertains, and the abundance of food and drink everyone but him partakes in. This can also be seen in the $350,000 string of pearls tom gives to his wife-to-be.
In this time period, we also had jazz music that was at the center of the souls of most individuals and the music that was played at many of the memorable evenings on the terrace of Gatsby’s estate. Gatsby did not only provide the setting for these memorable events he provided the bootleg booze for them as well. Gatsby was a part of the bad parts of the 1920’s just as well as the good and he played his cards mysteriously close to his vest when it came to revealing his financial successes. Given these settings, we see the paralysis of this one location that is torn apart by the two social classes of West Eggers and East Eggers. Then within those confines, we are confined again to the sweltering summer heat that only empties the soul from life. Emptying it till it is dry and brittle, till the summer sun bleaches its color and paralysis’s its freedom. Gatsby became caught up in this heat rising with the spring flowers and dying among the fallen leaves of autumns end.
F. Scotts Fitzgerald has a layered style of writing that lends itself well to The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald didn’t just regurgitate Gatsby through a drunken epiphany; he spent years perfecting the incredible man of Jay Gatsby. He poised Gatsby with social class and created him to be a character with typical human personality traits such as a relatable ignorance-of-love quality. This style of writing lent to the stagnation Gatsby was in. Actually, it is quite conceivable that Fitzgerald felt a little stagnation in writing The Great Gatsby and therefore turned his emotion into Gatsby’s, it is said that Gatsby is a literary representation of Fitzgerald himself. Gatsby was a true romantic dreamer and even though we are being narrated to by Nick, we feel what Gatsby feels. Fitzgerald seemed to create Gatsby to exude the characteristics and style of a typical American explorer dreaming of conquering the world in the 1920s. He gave Gatsby a materialistic ideal with the adolescent faith to try and win Daisy with granger. With all these characteristics in place, Fitzgerald knew he created a mood. He gave Gatsby a poetic dialect and placed him in the right lighting and the most descriptive settings with all the grey under and overtones one could imagine. Gatsby was stuck in a beautiful montage of a dream world he created for himself and stylishly kept himself there day in and day out.
Symbolic meanings pour from the pages of The Great Gatsby especially in reference to Gatsby himself. They are integrated so well into the text that they seem to flow freely adding dimension to the text rather than weighing it down. Marxism’s commodities can also be seen as the texts rich symbols that help create Gatsby’s paralysis to money and love with his love of money. Gatsby himself can stand amidst a roomful of party invites and still stand alone. Gatsby has made such a habitual life pattern of keeping people around himself at all times that he has secluded himself. He stands as a silent among a faded timetable of guests that appear at his parties to serve as a social class conquer rather than true friends. Its Gatsby’s parties alone that express how quickly time flies by, how discarded we can become, and how dreams can be crushed by the simplest most delicate golden white fingers. Where once a green light of opportunity stood at the end of Daisy’s dock at the end of chapter one, we see only a light bulb by the end of the story that becomes burnt out. Upon burning out it can be thrown into the heap of garbage in the “Valley of Ashes” to be broken down among modern America's manufacturing waste. Much is the way Gatsby feels as he learns of Daisy’s non-interest in West Eggs new money. Much is what he sees as the dust from the “Valley of Ashes” reaches closer and closer to Gatsby as the summer draws to an end. Fitzgerald symbolizes Gatsby’s life into an ironic depressing mess with Dr. T.J. Eckleburgs gigantic sightless eyes of God watching from above.
Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby with painstaking effort and perfectionism. He gave no room for misinterpretation just personal interpretation. He showed us through Jay Gatsby that money does not buy happiness; it buys selfishness, loneliness, and social misconception wrought with romantic dreams that never become reality. Fitzgerald draws us into the mysterious yet exciting life of Jay Gatsby and effectively plays on our emotions. Letting us feel the endless downward spiral of Gatsby’s need for Daisy and Daisy’s rejection. Letting us feel Gatsby’s paralysis of life through his self-made financial success. For Jay Gatsby sometimes succession is in the omission of defeat.
Works Cited:
The Great Gatsby is set in the roaring 1920s from April to November of 1922. It takes place in what they considered Long Island New York to be at that time the “Valley of Ashes”. Here everyone lived in accordance with their social status. Gatsby lived in a “palace” in West Egg (the part of Long Island that housed those of the newly rich status), Tom, a friend of Gatsby’s, lived in his “Georgian Colonial” of East Egg (the part of Long Island that housed those of established wealth), and Nick lived in his Bungalow next to Gatsby. But they were all following the sophisticated money trail of America's high-class society. In Marxism philosophy, this can be considered the motivation to gain economic power and separate the social statuses into a “Super Structure” where the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Thus we see commodities in The Great Gatsby. Those would be the items that are valued on their monetary value rather than what they contribute. The more commodities a person owns the higher their social status. In The Great Gatsby, we see this in the Mansion Gatsby owns, the marble swimming pool he never uses, the forty-acre lawn for guests he entertains, and the abundance of food and drink everyone but him partakes in. This can also be seen in the $350,000 string of pearls tom gives to his wife-to-be.
In this time period, we also had jazz music that was at the center of the souls of most individuals and the music that was played at many of the memorable evenings on the terrace of Gatsby’s estate. Gatsby did not only provide the setting for these memorable events he provided the bootleg booze for them as well. Gatsby was a part of the bad parts of the 1920’s just as well as the good and he played his cards mysteriously close to his vest when it came to revealing his financial successes. Given these settings, we see the paralysis of this one location that is torn apart by the two social classes of West Eggers and East Eggers. Then within those confines, we are confined again to the sweltering summer heat that only empties the soul from life. Emptying it till it is dry and brittle, till the summer sun bleaches its color and paralysis’s its freedom. Gatsby became caught up in this heat rising with the spring flowers and dying among the fallen leaves of autumns end.
“ About five o’clock our procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate- first a motor hearse, horribly black and wet, then Mr. Gatz and the minister and I in the limousine, and, a little later, four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby’s wagon, all wet to the skin. As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground. I looked around. It was the man with owl-eyed glasses whom I had found marveling over Gatsby’s books in the library one night three months before.” (Page 183)
F. Scotts Fitzgerald has a layered style of writing that lends itself well to The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald didn’t just regurgitate Gatsby through a drunken epiphany; he spent years perfecting the incredible man of Jay Gatsby. He poised Gatsby with social class and created him to be a character with typical human personality traits such as a relatable ignorance-of-love quality. This style of writing lent to the stagnation Gatsby was in. Actually, it is quite conceivable that Fitzgerald felt a little stagnation in writing The Great Gatsby and therefore turned his emotion into Gatsby’s, it is said that Gatsby is a literary representation of Fitzgerald himself. Gatsby was a true romantic dreamer and even though we are being narrated to by Nick, we feel what Gatsby feels. Fitzgerald seemed to create Gatsby to exude the characteristics and style of a typical American explorer dreaming of conquering the world in the 1920s. He gave Gatsby a materialistic ideal with the adolescent faith to try and win Daisy with granger. With all these characteristics in place, Fitzgerald knew he created a mood. He gave Gatsby a poetic dialect and placed him in the right lighting and the most descriptive settings with all the grey under and overtones one could imagine. Gatsby was stuck in a beautiful montage of a dream world he created for himself and stylishly kept himself there day in and day out.
“Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages where new red gas pumps sat out in pools of light, and when I reached my estate at West Egg I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard. The wind had blown off, leaving a loud bright night with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight and turning my head to watch it I saw that I was not alone- fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbors mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.” (Page 25)
Symbolic meanings pour from the pages of The Great Gatsby especially in reference to Gatsby himself. They are integrated so well into the text that they seem to flow freely adding dimension to the text rather than weighing it down. Marxism’s commodities can also be seen as the texts rich symbols that help create Gatsby’s paralysis to money and love with his love of money. Gatsby himself can stand amidst a roomful of party invites and still stand alone. Gatsby has made such a habitual life pattern of keeping people around himself at all times that he has secluded himself. He stands as a silent among a faded timetable of guests that appear at his parties to serve as a social class conquer rather than true friends. Its Gatsby’s parties alone that express how quickly time flies by, how discarded we can become, and how dreams can be crushed by the simplest most delicate golden white fingers. Where once a green light of opportunity stood at the end of Daisy’s dock at the end of chapter one, we see only a light bulb by the end of the story that becomes burnt out. Upon burning out it can be thrown into the heap of garbage in the “Valley of Ashes” to be broken down among modern America's manufacturing waste. Much is the way Gatsby feels as he learns of Daisy’s non-interest in West Eggs new money. Much is what he sees as the dust from the “Valley of Ashes” reaches closer and closer to Gatsby as the summer draws to an end. Fitzgerald symbolizes Gatsby’s life into an ironic depressing mess with Dr. T.J. Eckleburgs gigantic sightless eyes of God watching from above.
“But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic- their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens and then sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.” (Page 27-28)
Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby with painstaking effort and perfectionism. He gave no room for misinterpretation just personal interpretation. He showed us through Jay Gatsby that money does not buy happiness; it buys selfishness, loneliness, and social misconception wrought with romantic dreams that never become reality. Fitzgerald draws us into the mysterious yet exciting life of Jay Gatsby and effectively plays on our emotions. Letting us feel the endless downward spiral of Gatsby’s need for Daisy and Daisy’s rejection. Letting us feel Gatsby’s paralysis of life through his self-made financial success. For Jay Gatsby sometimes succession is in the omission of defeat.
Works Cited:
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scotts Fitzgerald, pages 25, 27-28, 183.
Buddah
Buddha
Even before the class that we had that discussed religion, I was interested in Buddhism, but it was only after the class that I actually reached into it. I wanted to enlighten myself as to the ways in which that religion is different from any other. I was baptized catholic and raised catholic as well but have found much pf what they say to be very one-sided and incomprehensible for me to understand completely and be able to adhere to in my everyday life. Therefore I decided that maybe the best thing for me was to look elsewhere for the faith I needed. My father has always been interested in the eastern religions so it was not hard for me to acquire information on the subject as well as the wealth of information you can find on the Internet. Though if it wasn’t for the class we had the discussed religion I might not have taken the time to look into it further, or at least it would not have been anytime soon. In this paper, I would like to explain why the Buddhist culture has made a difference in my world.
In class, we learned that Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, lived around 6th century B.C. in northern India and while there he lived unhappily and had an intuition that there was something more to life so he went out in quest. Eventually, he found a tree to sit under where he discovered 3 main truths and they were 1. Life is suffering 2. The root of all suffering is desire and 3. In order to give up suffering, we must give up desire therefore gaining enlightenment. He also came up with the eight-fold path that states it’s “ all about the moment”, also that the value of experience is more important than knowledge and that the mind does not equal knowledge. After learning this I decided to investigate this subject some more. I learned the Buddha truly means “he who is awake” and Siddhartha Gautama became awake after many tries at finding the true answer to his dyer question of how one loses the feeling of suffering. He was born prince of Sakya, a tribe in Nepal, and about the time he was twenty-nine he went out in search of this answer. He left his wife and new son to eventually find himself immersed in life under a fig, or bodhi, tree. He went first through deep concentration to free him of mind filling worries, and then through mindless meditation, which brought him freedom of all thought. Once free of all thought he was brought to sheer enlightenment that allowed him to see all his previous lives and all that was going on in the world. With this enlightenment, he went around for forty-five more years teaching what he had been privileged to experience under that tree.
After reading about how Buddha came to be I wanted to learn what it was that he had to teach. I found the Seven Factors of Enlightenment were:
In conclusion, because of my Communication Skills IV class, I learned more about Buddhism and what it took to get me to look into it more so that I would gain a greater appreciation for it and about it. I will leave this class this semester taking that with me in hopes that it will bring me greater peace in the long run so that I may approach my goals in my education and life with less stress and greater appreciation and love for the people and things around me.
Even before the class that we had that discussed religion, I was interested in Buddhism, but it was only after the class that I actually reached into it. I wanted to enlighten myself as to the ways in which that religion is different from any other. I was baptized catholic and raised catholic as well but have found much pf what they say to be very one-sided and incomprehensible for me to understand completely and be able to adhere to in my everyday life. Therefore I decided that maybe the best thing for me was to look elsewhere for the faith I needed. My father has always been interested in the eastern religions so it was not hard for me to acquire information on the subject as well as the wealth of information you can find on the Internet. Though if it wasn’t for the class we had the discussed religion I might not have taken the time to look into it further, or at least it would not have been anytime soon. In this paper, I would like to explain why the Buddhist culture has made a difference in my world.
In class, we learned that Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, lived around 6th century B.C. in northern India and while there he lived unhappily and had an intuition that there was something more to life so he went out in quest. Eventually, he found a tree to sit under where he discovered 3 main truths and they were 1. Life is suffering 2. The root of all suffering is desire and 3. In order to give up suffering, we must give up desire therefore gaining enlightenment. He also came up with the eight-fold path that states it’s “ all about the moment”, also that the value of experience is more important than knowledge and that the mind does not equal knowledge. After learning this I decided to investigate this subject some more. I learned the Buddha truly means “he who is awake” and Siddhartha Gautama became awake after many tries at finding the true answer to his dyer question of how one loses the feeling of suffering. He was born prince of Sakya, a tribe in Nepal, and about the time he was twenty-nine he went out in search of this answer. He left his wife and new son to eventually find himself immersed in life under a fig, or bodhi, tree. He went first through deep concentration to free him of mind filling worries, and then through mindless meditation, which brought him freedom of all thought. Once free of all thought he was brought to sheer enlightenment that allowed him to see all his previous lives and all that was going on in the world. With this enlightenment, he went around for forty-five more years teaching what he had been privileged to experience under that tree.
After reading about how Buddha came to be I wanted to learn what it was that he had to teach. I found the Seven Factors of Enlightenment were:
- Mindfulness
- Investigation
- Energy
- Rapture
- Tranquility
- Concentration
- Equanimity
- Sensuous lust
- Aversion and ill will
- Sloth and torpor
- Restlessness and worry
- Skeptical doubt
- Generosity
- Morality
- Renunciation
- Wisdom
- Energy
- Patience
- Truthfulness
- Resolution
- Loving-kindness
- Equanimity
- Feeling (Pleasant, Unpleasant or Neutral)
- Perception
- Volition
- Consciousness
- Self-delusion
- Doubt
- Clinging to ritual
- Sensuous lust
- Ill will
- Greed of fine materials
- Greed of material existence
- Conceit
- Restlessness
- Ignorance
In conclusion, because of my Communication Skills IV class, I learned more about Buddhism and what it took to get me to look into it more so that I would gain a greater appreciation for it and about it. I will leave this class this semester taking that with me in hopes that it will bring me greater peace in the long run so that I may approach my goals in my education and life with less stress and greater appreciation and love for the people and things around me.
Goth
Goth
Goth is the one co-culture that most parents dread their teenagers ever becoming involved with. Why? What is gothic? How can one co-culture be any worse than any other? Stereotypes are one reason, and misconceptions of what the true gothic subculture is, is another reason. The true definition for gothic doesn’t even have anything to do with its subculture we have grown to know it by. The true definition pertained to a literary style of fiction that was around in the 18 and 19 centuries. We disregard this definition and look to Marilyn Manson, the sole product of the media, to provide us with the real definition. I would like to explain in this paper the gothic scene and why looking at it from another angel might shed light on a dark subject.
The gothic co-culture is full of ambiguity and misconceptions. Marilyn Manson and vampires may be gothic looking but are in fact not gothic at all. Bands like Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, and Alice Copper are actually in the heavy metal shock rock category while Industrial and classical are the music of choice for those practicing true gothic living. The same goes for vampires they may look very gothic and dark but movies like the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which is funny and upbeat are sooner watched than “Interview with the Vampire”. Like any true co-culture, the real definition of who is truly gothic is subject to change all the time depending on the person. The Gothic co-culture is more about being an individual than being part of a specific definition.
The date of origin has been placed back to 1979 when “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” was released by the Bauhaus band. Due to its eerie sound, it inspired a co-culture later defined as gothic. Many are not sure if it was the band or the media that coined the term gothic but whichever it may be it has sucked for over twenty years. The United Kingdom is where the first generation of gothic followers originated around the early eighties with the release of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. The gothic co-culture also originated as a stem off of the punk subculture. By the mid-eighties, the first generation of gothic children started to subside but by the early nineties, a new group of children revived it with bands like The Shroud, Rosetta Stone, and London After Midnight. The early nineties was also when the gothic co-culture gained ground in the United States, pushing as many limits as it could on its way. The third generation of gothic children then came out in the late nineties, making enemies with the first and second generation Goths. Most of the older generation Goths wanted to be unassociated with the younger generation Goths due to the attention from the media brought on by bands like Marilyn Manson, Pantera, and Prodigy. The older generation was not into the exposure that this brought to the co-culture they established and were proud of. This was becoming a movement from the underground to the sound stage. It was hard after that for the older generation to respect the younger generation, and to not question their authenticity and wonder what was going to happen to the quiet co-culture they had established twenty years prior as it moved through the 21st century.
Fashion is one of the biggest parts of this co-culture. It explains visually the mood of the culture and the attitude of the individual. Just by the symbols they wear and the clothes in which they choose to display, they are able to let whoever crosses their path know that they are not without feeling. Their fashions are also a reflection of their actions and motivations for those actions. Even if they wear no symbols and only black in the simplest form it says something very loud about that person’s character. Though not everyone who is in this co-culture is in it for what it truly stands for, and many consequently do not know why they are wearing what they are wearing besides the reason, “it looks cool”. Most dress to express. Fashions include anything black, deep blue or deep red in color; silver jewelry instead of gold, maybe a spike collar or a ribbon around the neck. Black and stark white make-up is worn with black lipstick and black eye-liner for both men and women to display paleness and pureness. Some like to look stark white for an authentic Victorian nobility look or because they are protesting in their own way to skin cancer-causing tanning. Dying of the hair is also a way to display ones self, many choose black, others may choose red, purple, or whitish/blond. Anything leather, patent leather, latex, plastic, velvet, rubber, vinyl, P.V.C., or with a corset can be worn as everyday clothing. Lingerie and cloaks are also acceptable to be worn under or over one's everyday clothing. The list actually goes on and on for the possibilities that are out there for one to wear as acceptable in this co-culture. One thing remains throughout all of it and that is that you are showing how you want to be seen, that it is dark, and that it is comfortable to fit your mood. The theme in the gothic co-culture is not really what you wear but how you wear it, why and what does it explain about your specific personality.
This co-culture is different because of its likes and dislikes, its views on society and the world as a whole. The true gothic co-culture is not destructive or to cause specific chaos but to be as one with each other and be different than the typical sports team cliques known to be in every high school across the whole world. Gothic interests include anything artistic and creative, literature, history, and philosophy and going to plays. Going out for a cup of coffee in the middle of the night or sitting in a graveyard discussing anything that interest them are other things Goths typically like to do. This co-culture is one with dimension; it has three major components to it and many sub-components that makeup why Goths are the way that they are. One way is their social scene; Goths are not unlike other co-cultures in the sense that they provide a sense of belonging for the members of the group. However, they establish hierarchies between the members and conduct themselves a certain way when out in public that is unlike that of most other co-cultures. Second would be the gothic personality, much like other groups, to be gothic is to be unlike any other. There is a main focus on anything intellectually stimulating and controversially dark. Things most people would not dare to discuss they do with bluntness and assertiveness. They believe in who they are and are not about to hide their inner hurt, disgust, pain, or angst just to please someone else. Third is gothic music, just like those of the techno co-culture or the hip-hop co-culture, the gothic co-culture has a form of music all their own. It can be easily said that the group is driven and bound together by its music. After all, it was started and centered on music.
On a personal level, I choose this co-culture to report on not because I didn’t know anything about it but because I do know something about it. I myself do not dress the typical part nor do I listen to their kind of music alone but I do enjoy the quiet aspects of life. I enjoy the part of life that not many people talk about, the part where you look deep within and see the inner demons, face them, and conquer them. It makes me happy when others show pain, it shows me that they too are human and go through the trials and tribulations in life that make us all different and worth the space we take upon this earth. I appreciate this co-culture because of their views on society and their close-knit relationships with their members. I also admire them for their guts to dress the way that they do and speak the way that they speak and act the way that they act. In my communication skills class, we have learned that in most instances we have terministic screens up and can’t or won’t look beyond the very obvious right in front of us. I hope that after reading this paper my reader will be more open to the possibilities of the world around him/her and realize that to be a part of all society you do not have to change outer appearances but inner outlooks on the world.
In short, the gothic culture may seem more depressed than the rest of society but if you look at it in another light maybe the gothic culture is expressing outwardly the depressed feeling that societies feel inwardly. No matter what the case is, know that it is okay to feel dark and gloomy sometimes. Just like the weather can’t always be sunny everyone in the world can’t always look happy. Nothing could ever be that perfect and while it may be a fact that the members of the gothic co-culture are capable of feeling immense sadness they are also able to feel incredible happiness as well. There are no rules or guidelines to this co-culture stating so. Goth is all about the beauty that lies under every rock. I hope that I have shed a new light on this gloomy subject for all those reading this.
Goth is the one co-culture that most parents dread their teenagers ever becoming involved with. Why? What is gothic? How can one co-culture be any worse than any other? Stereotypes are one reason, and misconceptions of what the true gothic subculture is, is another reason. The true definition for gothic doesn’t even have anything to do with its subculture we have grown to know it by. The true definition pertained to a literary style of fiction that was around in the 18 and 19 centuries. We disregard this definition and look to Marilyn Manson, the sole product of the media, to provide us with the real definition. I would like to explain in this paper the gothic scene and why looking at it from another angel might shed light on a dark subject.
The gothic co-culture is full of ambiguity and misconceptions. Marilyn Manson and vampires may be gothic looking but are in fact not gothic at all. Bands like Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, and Alice Copper are actually in the heavy metal shock rock category while Industrial and classical are the music of choice for those practicing true gothic living. The same goes for vampires they may look very gothic and dark but movies like the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which is funny and upbeat are sooner watched than “Interview with the Vampire”. Like any true co-culture, the real definition of who is truly gothic is subject to change all the time depending on the person. The Gothic co-culture is more about being an individual than being part of a specific definition.
The date of origin has been placed back to 1979 when “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” was released by the Bauhaus band. Due to its eerie sound, it inspired a co-culture later defined as gothic. Many are not sure if it was the band or the media that coined the term gothic but whichever it may be it has sucked for over twenty years. The United Kingdom is where the first generation of gothic followers originated around the early eighties with the release of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. The gothic co-culture also originated as a stem off of the punk subculture. By the mid-eighties, the first generation of gothic children started to subside but by the early nineties, a new group of children revived it with bands like The Shroud, Rosetta Stone, and London After Midnight. The early nineties was also when the gothic co-culture gained ground in the United States, pushing as many limits as it could on its way. The third generation of gothic children then came out in the late nineties, making enemies with the first and second generation Goths. Most of the older generation Goths wanted to be unassociated with the younger generation Goths due to the attention from the media brought on by bands like Marilyn Manson, Pantera, and Prodigy. The older generation was not into the exposure that this brought to the co-culture they established and were proud of. This was becoming a movement from the underground to the sound stage. It was hard after that for the older generation to respect the younger generation, and to not question their authenticity and wonder what was going to happen to the quiet co-culture they had established twenty years prior as it moved through the 21st century.
Fashion is one of the biggest parts of this co-culture. It explains visually the mood of the culture and the attitude of the individual. Just by the symbols they wear and the clothes in which they choose to display, they are able to let whoever crosses their path know that they are not without feeling. Their fashions are also a reflection of their actions and motivations for those actions. Even if they wear no symbols and only black in the simplest form it says something very loud about that person’s character. Though not everyone who is in this co-culture is in it for what it truly stands for, and many consequently do not know why they are wearing what they are wearing besides the reason, “it looks cool”. Most dress to express. Fashions include anything black, deep blue or deep red in color; silver jewelry instead of gold, maybe a spike collar or a ribbon around the neck. Black and stark white make-up is worn with black lipstick and black eye-liner for both men and women to display paleness and pureness. Some like to look stark white for an authentic Victorian nobility look or because they are protesting in their own way to skin cancer-causing tanning. Dying of the hair is also a way to display ones self, many choose black, others may choose red, purple, or whitish/blond. Anything leather, patent leather, latex, plastic, velvet, rubber, vinyl, P.V.C., or with a corset can be worn as everyday clothing. Lingerie and cloaks are also acceptable to be worn under or over one's everyday clothing. The list actually goes on and on for the possibilities that are out there for one to wear as acceptable in this co-culture. One thing remains throughout all of it and that is that you are showing how you want to be seen, that it is dark, and that it is comfortable to fit your mood. The theme in the gothic co-culture is not really what you wear but how you wear it, why and what does it explain about your specific personality.
This co-culture is different because of its likes and dislikes, its views on society and the world as a whole. The true gothic co-culture is not destructive or to cause specific chaos but to be as one with each other and be different than the typical sports team cliques known to be in every high school across the whole world. Gothic interests include anything artistic and creative, literature, history, and philosophy and going to plays. Going out for a cup of coffee in the middle of the night or sitting in a graveyard discussing anything that interest them are other things Goths typically like to do. This co-culture is one with dimension; it has three major components to it and many sub-components that makeup why Goths are the way that they are. One way is their social scene; Goths are not unlike other co-cultures in the sense that they provide a sense of belonging for the members of the group. However, they establish hierarchies between the members and conduct themselves a certain way when out in public that is unlike that of most other co-cultures. Second would be the gothic personality, much like other groups, to be gothic is to be unlike any other. There is a main focus on anything intellectually stimulating and controversially dark. Things most people would not dare to discuss they do with bluntness and assertiveness. They believe in who they are and are not about to hide their inner hurt, disgust, pain, or angst just to please someone else. Third is gothic music, just like those of the techno co-culture or the hip-hop co-culture, the gothic co-culture has a form of music all their own. It can be easily said that the group is driven and bound together by its music. After all, it was started and centered on music.
On a personal level, I choose this co-culture to report on not because I didn’t know anything about it but because I do know something about it. I myself do not dress the typical part nor do I listen to their kind of music alone but I do enjoy the quiet aspects of life. I enjoy the part of life that not many people talk about, the part where you look deep within and see the inner demons, face them, and conquer them. It makes me happy when others show pain, it shows me that they too are human and go through the trials and tribulations in life that make us all different and worth the space we take upon this earth. I appreciate this co-culture because of their views on society and their close-knit relationships with their members. I also admire them for their guts to dress the way that they do and speak the way that they speak and act the way that they act. In my communication skills class, we have learned that in most instances we have terministic screens up and can’t or won’t look beyond the very obvious right in front of us. I hope that after reading this paper my reader will be more open to the possibilities of the world around him/her and realize that to be a part of all society you do not have to change outer appearances but inner outlooks on the world.
In short, the gothic culture may seem more depressed than the rest of society but if you look at it in another light maybe the gothic culture is expressing outwardly the depressed feeling that societies feel inwardly. No matter what the case is, know that it is okay to feel dark and gloomy sometimes. Just like the weather can’t always be sunny everyone in the world can’t always look happy. Nothing could ever be that perfect and while it may be a fact that the members of the gothic co-culture are capable of feeling immense sadness they are also able to feel incredible happiness as well. There are no rules or guidelines to this co-culture stating so. Goth is all about the beauty that lies under every rock. I hope that I have shed a new light on this gloomy subject for all those reading this.
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