Post by help on Dec 20, 2010 0:01:42 GMT -5
Can someone help me with grammar...
Life Must Go On.
The Belle Epoque was an era of creativity and remarkable change that was rooted in the heart of Paris. It was a period of bright thinkers and connoisseurs whose passions were not restrained by the cultural and social mores. It was a period where the society discarded ‘outmoded values’ giving birth to an era of expressionism, symbolism, cubism, and other modes of great thinking. It is also where the age of individuality blossomed. The great transformation of our cultural and social mores signals a new outlook on life and also divulges the truth of our own life and existence.
Art in the Belle Epoque period underwent a great transformation from neo classical art to impressionism. It was not until the World Exposition of 1850s where the influence of other cultures transformed the way artists depicted subjects in their paintings. Prior to this great exposition, artists would try to confine all what they see within the frame of the painting, focusing on the theme of religion and power; however, after the introduction of various art styles, artists began to stylize and reinterpret nature not in its true form. Japanese art was generally “unfinished”. It would employ simple lines to depict nature unrealistically and would contain different subjects in common place settings rather than focusing on religion and power. Unlike western art, it also had writing and poetry on the subject. Instead of containing everything within the frame, the Japanese would capture a specific moment in “open air.”Eventually this “open air” mode of art dominated western paintings. Renowned artists of the period such as Monet would seize the moment with his paintings such as the “Sunrise” and the “The Water Lily Pond”. Renoir did the same with his “Luncheon of the Boating Party” and the “Dance at Bougival” capturing the pleasure of wine and dance among little French men and women.
This decadent mode of art quickly accelerated into the post-impressionism period. Prior to the Belle Epoque, artists based certain concepts on the notion of order. However, during post-impressionism, many influential painters such as Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gaughin altered the way art was depicted. Georges Seurat played with the science of vision and perception, employing dots to depict his paintings. He utilized a scientific approach by studying the effect of colors and geometry on our perception. Paul Cezanne reversed the concept of perspective by deconstructing everything in life into basic geometric shapes and forms using cylinders, spheres, cones, and cubes. Every feature of the whole subject can be seen with a different dimension on a single plane. As the great painters tear apart the visual world, it gave way to a form of art that is even more beautiful and mysteriously captivating to the eye of the individual. This mode of art introduced a different mentality of how we can visualize the world, not by eye only but by our very own imagination. It gave a boundless potential to the art movement and opened a great number of possibilities with what we can do with art. These great artists allowed themselves to be liberated from the rigid expectations of artwork and experimented with radical styles defining the decadence of the Belle Epoque art movement.
The decadence against the status quo can be seen through the protrayal of eroticism in music and dance. What was accepted as conventionally shocking became the new plug into mainstream entertainment. Moulin Rouges in Paris gave rise to the Can Can, a rebellious, shocking, erotic, form of dance which eventually became popular in the city of Paris. Dancing girls appeared with gaudy makeup dancing in the spotlight lifting their skirts high inviting a huge uproar of excitement and anticipation from the audience. This liberating dance in the period soon gave way to the famous Ballets Russes, where Nijinsky, a major star performer, swept Paris in 1890 with his shocking performance. This ushered in the modern dance and redefined ballet performances in theatre. His choreography in St. Petersburg excited and enraged many viewers from his performance to the outfit he wore on stage. In 1912, Nijinsky’s first performance of the Ballets Russes in the “Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun, was the most controversial performance. He provoked and completely altered the form of expression of dance. The performance begins with a faun who fails to flirt with the nymphs. When the nymphs flee from his presence, he picks up a scarf left by one of the nymphs and he begins to play with the scarf sensually finishing the performance with masturbation. What was more shocking is that he wore slacks that outlined his genitals during his performance. Even though society was unyielding at first to this new mode of entertainment, society eventually yielded to the portrayal of eroticism. Ballets Russes had a profound effect on the modern world and the future of the modern world. The Ballet Russes was a catalyst to the change of aesthetics in choreography and theatre. HIs choreographies questioned the language of dance and seeped into the modern society's performance in ballet.¬¬¬.
Just as artists went against what was acceptable, enlightened women did not submit to the old conventions of society. Women no longer had the submissive role in a relationship but instead played the dominant figure in the household. It is through Cheri and other literature where we see the modern women’s creation of their new identities as the “femme fatalle”. Colette tells a story of an affair between an older woman, Lea, and her lover Cheri. Cheri is persuaded to leave Lea and make an arranged marriage in order to provide his mother with greater financial security. Cheri finds love in his relationship with Lea, and feels abandoned without her. Cheri tries to restart the affair with love but love was no longer a remedy for the broken affair. As time progresses, Leah becomes incredibly rotund and she loses her man’s love and past obsession of her beauty. He eventually becomes obsessed with the photographs of Leah in her early twenties and eventually commits suicide. He was the product of the Belle Epoque and he could not live without Leah in her young age. This literature is reflective of women’s movement in the 1900s. Colette suggests that women are not necessarily interpreted as the weaker sex. She tries to prove her point by asserting that man is easily manipulated and that woman is the stronger gender because they have the ability to survive and adapt themselves in new situations and circumstances living in a new mode of living.
The destruction of culture and morals is what is frightening and reassuring when we see ourselves as homosapiens of “thinking.” Our perspectives of our previous attitudes with art, society, and theatre are completely redefined. Who we are and what we believe in today is simply distorted by a delusion of illusion and ideological change of the period. The definition of what is beautiful, what is considered moral, and other truths we accept today is just temporary. There is a line drawn from the truths we see during this period and the truths we see in the future. This change in our modern society tells us that defining meaning in our lives are completely up to the individual. But how can we create meaning in our lives?
What drives us to work feverishly after graduate school? Is it really because we want to help and support our family? What is our sole purpose in life? Is helping and supporting a family a lifestyle we seek? Or are we simply byproducts holding the ideals of our era? In a way, the Belle Epoque period changes the way we perceive things. We are using the current morality and false truths to define our very lives. Even as we may say that you are working to settle down and get married in a couple of years, we are just simply the vast majority who wants to settle down and get married. In spite of the cultural and societal norms we have today, these norms are bound to change in the future. Even the purpose in our lives is bound to change. As Guy de Maupassant even says, “A human being - what is a human being? Everything and nothing. Through the power of thought it can mirror everything it experiences. Through memory and knowledge it becomes a microcosm, carrying the world within itself. A mirror of things, a mirror of facts. Each human being becomes a little universe within the universe!" www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/18791.Guy_de_Maupassant
we are forced to define our own meaning in our lives, knowing that our attempt to do so is temporary. If the meaning is ambiguous, our human desire for logic and understanding is futile. Just how do we do search for meaning?
In Kafka’s Metamorphoses, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa hates his job as a young traveling salesman. But Gregor creates his meaning in life by providing his family a comfortable life with his work. He devotes himself to the “ grinding work as a traveling salesman, not only because he wants to support his parents and pay off a debt that they incurred, but because he dreams of sending his sister, Grete, to a conservatory where she can learn to play violin professionally (Kafka 37). However, the next day he inexplicably changes into a disgusting insect ostracized by even his own family and his supporters at work. As an insect, reality dawns on him on his perspective of life. As he is forced to come to terms with his odd predicament, he gradually loses his humanity and he begins to deteriorate in his monstrous insect form. He can no longer eat what they are eating, and only eats spoiled food. Kafka’s intention in this literature discloses how the human’s mental state is susceptible to one’s circumstances and conditions reshaping his or her notions of life. It also reveals how our vulnerability to these indifferent social forces and the constant war between the individual and society. For us to create meaning in this meaningless society we are in a constant struggle against modern society to survive.
All we can do is that as slaves of modern society, it is this horrific existential view of life that we cannot eliminate by just living. It is the reality that life is a nightmare unless we make something out of it and stick to our passions. We may have hopes, and hopes of love, hopes of happiness. It is inevitable that we live for the fear of tomorrow combined with hope. Whatever meaning we make is born out of our creation. But we have to keep in mind that our freedom of choice and responsibility has consequences. The only meaning of life we can make is what we make of our very own existence and by the actions we choose to do; this will then develop our own meaning to exist. Either we sit idly to exist without any meaning or we can find meaning through our free will.
We can either make our lives a beautiful period or devoid of meaning. Before our time is gone, we must take a step forward into the infinite possibilities of what we may be in seventy years. We may either regret dying in our deathbed without living the Belle Epoque, or actually die of happiness gazing back at the work we struggle to achieve. It is somewhat parallel to what we would do in the spare moments of our time. Would we rather stare idly at a chocolate double fudge cake on the table for several hours or would we spend that hour eating the cake or sharing it with others? What we do with the cake creates meaning and this is what we need to do with our lives. To the individual, it might be the “sharing” part. To some it’s about the eating part. To some it might be discovering the contents of the cake. Who knows? As we look for this meaning, we are unearthing the mysteries of life as well as creating our divulged roads from the starting point.
To be authentic in this world of infinite meaning and change, being meaningful for one’s self is what we can do to exist. Maupassant describes this notion with his character, Georges in Belami. Georges du Roy is depicted as an increasingly selfish and Machiavellian individual who seizes the opportunity to appropriate women for his own social and political gain. To exist, he struggles to survive in the political arena against other competitors who strive to do the same. In a corrupted world of journalism, to be the “survival of the fittest” one needed to know how to play the “game.” As he sees the crooked politicians, journalists, and reporters’ corrupt manipulation, and fabrication for success, the only way for him to succeed in journalism is through his ability to charm women. He becomes a ruthless heartbreaker with his many scandals; Despite his tendencies to employ deception for his own gain, he is essentially creating meaning to his life. Despite his unfortunate poor upbringing, he is creating meaning out of his own existence. In this meaningless world, he is using his personal morality that is true to his own values. As long as our lives do not have a random and purposeless road, we can make our lives meaningful despite the foreboding end.
To make an imprint on this face of the earth, we are bound to die sooner or later. But to live for one’s passions and desires is what is wonderful. We may idolize love, wealth, and other values as the prime motivations to our actions. But what is more important is what we build upon the foundation. We can keep adding fixtures and other addendums to the building that represents our lives. It will only be unfinished if we abandon our interests and try to seek for starkly two different things, ultimately abandoning both. To make a building wonderful and glorious is to focus on the interests we have for ourselves and stick with it.
Life Must Go On.
The Belle Epoque was an era of creativity and remarkable change that was rooted in the heart of Paris. It was a period of bright thinkers and connoisseurs whose passions were not restrained by the cultural and social mores. It was a period where the society discarded ‘outmoded values’ giving birth to an era of expressionism, symbolism, cubism, and other modes of great thinking. It is also where the age of individuality blossomed. The great transformation of our cultural and social mores signals a new outlook on life and also divulges the truth of our own life and existence.
Art in the Belle Epoque period underwent a great transformation from neo classical art to impressionism. It was not until the World Exposition of 1850s where the influence of other cultures transformed the way artists depicted subjects in their paintings. Prior to this great exposition, artists would try to confine all what they see within the frame of the painting, focusing on the theme of religion and power; however, after the introduction of various art styles, artists began to stylize and reinterpret nature not in its true form. Japanese art was generally “unfinished”. It would employ simple lines to depict nature unrealistically and would contain different subjects in common place settings rather than focusing on religion and power. Unlike western art, it also had writing and poetry on the subject. Instead of containing everything within the frame, the Japanese would capture a specific moment in “open air.”Eventually this “open air” mode of art dominated western paintings. Renowned artists of the period such as Monet would seize the moment with his paintings such as the “Sunrise” and the “The Water Lily Pond”. Renoir did the same with his “Luncheon of the Boating Party” and the “Dance at Bougival” capturing the pleasure of wine and dance among little French men and women.
This decadent mode of art quickly accelerated into the post-impressionism period. Prior to the Belle Epoque, artists based certain concepts on the notion of order. However, during post-impressionism, many influential painters such as Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gaughin altered the way art was depicted. Georges Seurat played with the science of vision and perception, employing dots to depict his paintings. He utilized a scientific approach by studying the effect of colors and geometry on our perception. Paul Cezanne reversed the concept of perspective by deconstructing everything in life into basic geometric shapes and forms using cylinders, spheres, cones, and cubes. Every feature of the whole subject can be seen with a different dimension on a single plane. As the great painters tear apart the visual world, it gave way to a form of art that is even more beautiful and mysteriously captivating to the eye of the individual. This mode of art introduced a different mentality of how we can visualize the world, not by eye only but by our very own imagination. It gave a boundless potential to the art movement and opened a great number of possibilities with what we can do with art. These great artists allowed themselves to be liberated from the rigid expectations of artwork and experimented with radical styles defining the decadence of the Belle Epoque art movement.
The decadence against the status quo can be seen through the protrayal of eroticism in music and dance. What was accepted as conventionally shocking became the new plug into mainstream entertainment. Moulin Rouges in Paris gave rise to the Can Can, a rebellious, shocking, erotic, form of dance which eventually became popular in the city of Paris. Dancing girls appeared with gaudy makeup dancing in the spotlight lifting their skirts high inviting a huge uproar of excitement and anticipation from the audience. This liberating dance in the period soon gave way to the famous Ballets Russes, where Nijinsky, a major star performer, swept Paris in 1890 with his shocking performance. This ushered in the modern dance and redefined ballet performances in theatre. His choreography in St. Petersburg excited and enraged many viewers from his performance to the outfit he wore on stage. In 1912, Nijinsky’s first performance of the Ballets Russes in the “Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun, was the most controversial performance. He provoked and completely altered the form of expression of dance. The performance begins with a faun who fails to flirt with the nymphs. When the nymphs flee from his presence, he picks up a scarf left by one of the nymphs and he begins to play with the scarf sensually finishing the performance with masturbation. What was more shocking is that he wore slacks that outlined his genitals during his performance. Even though society was unyielding at first to this new mode of entertainment, society eventually yielded to the portrayal of eroticism. Ballets Russes had a profound effect on the modern world and the future of the modern world. The Ballet Russes was a catalyst to the change of aesthetics in choreography and theatre. HIs choreographies questioned the language of dance and seeped into the modern society's performance in ballet.¬¬¬.
Just as artists went against what was acceptable, enlightened women did not submit to the old conventions of society. Women no longer had the submissive role in a relationship but instead played the dominant figure in the household. It is through Cheri and other literature where we see the modern women’s creation of their new identities as the “femme fatalle”. Colette tells a story of an affair between an older woman, Lea, and her lover Cheri. Cheri is persuaded to leave Lea and make an arranged marriage in order to provide his mother with greater financial security. Cheri finds love in his relationship with Lea, and feels abandoned without her. Cheri tries to restart the affair with love but love was no longer a remedy for the broken affair. As time progresses, Leah becomes incredibly rotund and she loses her man’s love and past obsession of her beauty. He eventually becomes obsessed with the photographs of Leah in her early twenties and eventually commits suicide. He was the product of the Belle Epoque and he could not live without Leah in her young age. This literature is reflective of women’s movement in the 1900s. Colette suggests that women are not necessarily interpreted as the weaker sex. She tries to prove her point by asserting that man is easily manipulated and that woman is the stronger gender because they have the ability to survive and adapt themselves in new situations and circumstances living in a new mode of living.
The destruction of culture and morals is what is frightening and reassuring when we see ourselves as homosapiens of “thinking.” Our perspectives of our previous attitudes with art, society, and theatre are completely redefined. Who we are and what we believe in today is simply distorted by a delusion of illusion and ideological change of the period. The definition of what is beautiful, what is considered moral, and other truths we accept today is just temporary. There is a line drawn from the truths we see during this period and the truths we see in the future. This change in our modern society tells us that defining meaning in our lives are completely up to the individual. But how can we create meaning in our lives?
What drives us to work feverishly after graduate school? Is it really because we want to help and support our family? What is our sole purpose in life? Is helping and supporting a family a lifestyle we seek? Or are we simply byproducts holding the ideals of our era? In a way, the Belle Epoque period changes the way we perceive things. We are using the current morality and false truths to define our very lives. Even as we may say that you are working to settle down and get married in a couple of years, we are just simply the vast majority who wants to settle down and get married. In spite of the cultural and societal norms we have today, these norms are bound to change in the future. Even the purpose in our lives is bound to change. As Guy de Maupassant even says, “A human being - what is a human being? Everything and nothing. Through the power of thought it can mirror everything it experiences. Through memory and knowledge it becomes a microcosm, carrying the world within itself. A mirror of things, a mirror of facts. Each human being becomes a little universe within the universe!" www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/18791.Guy_de_Maupassant
we are forced to define our own meaning in our lives, knowing that our attempt to do so is temporary. If the meaning is ambiguous, our human desire for logic and understanding is futile. Just how do we do search for meaning?
In Kafka’s Metamorphoses, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa hates his job as a young traveling salesman. But Gregor creates his meaning in life by providing his family a comfortable life with his work. He devotes himself to the “ grinding work as a traveling salesman, not only because he wants to support his parents and pay off a debt that they incurred, but because he dreams of sending his sister, Grete, to a conservatory where she can learn to play violin professionally (Kafka 37). However, the next day he inexplicably changes into a disgusting insect ostracized by even his own family and his supporters at work. As an insect, reality dawns on him on his perspective of life. As he is forced to come to terms with his odd predicament, he gradually loses his humanity and he begins to deteriorate in his monstrous insect form. He can no longer eat what they are eating, and only eats spoiled food. Kafka’s intention in this literature discloses how the human’s mental state is susceptible to one’s circumstances and conditions reshaping his or her notions of life. It also reveals how our vulnerability to these indifferent social forces and the constant war between the individual and society. For us to create meaning in this meaningless society we are in a constant struggle against modern society to survive.
All we can do is that as slaves of modern society, it is this horrific existential view of life that we cannot eliminate by just living. It is the reality that life is a nightmare unless we make something out of it and stick to our passions. We may have hopes, and hopes of love, hopes of happiness. It is inevitable that we live for the fear of tomorrow combined with hope. Whatever meaning we make is born out of our creation. But we have to keep in mind that our freedom of choice and responsibility has consequences. The only meaning of life we can make is what we make of our very own existence and by the actions we choose to do; this will then develop our own meaning to exist. Either we sit idly to exist without any meaning or we can find meaning through our free will.
We can either make our lives a beautiful period or devoid of meaning. Before our time is gone, we must take a step forward into the infinite possibilities of what we may be in seventy years. We may either regret dying in our deathbed without living the Belle Epoque, or actually die of happiness gazing back at the work we struggle to achieve. It is somewhat parallel to what we would do in the spare moments of our time. Would we rather stare idly at a chocolate double fudge cake on the table for several hours or would we spend that hour eating the cake or sharing it with others? What we do with the cake creates meaning and this is what we need to do with our lives. To the individual, it might be the “sharing” part. To some it’s about the eating part. To some it might be discovering the contents of the cake. Who knows? As we look for this meaning, we are unearthing the mysteries of life as well as creating our divulged roads from the starting point.
To be authentic in this world of infinite meaning and change, being meaningful for one’s self is what we can do to exist. Maupassant describes this notion with his character, Georges in Belami. Georges du Roy is depicted as an increasingly selfish and Machiavellian individual who seizes the opportunity to appropriate women for his own social and political gain. To exist, he struggles to survive in the political arena against other competitors who strive to do the same. In a corrupted world of journalism, to be the “survival of the fittest” one needed to know how to play the “game.” As he sees the crooked politicians, journalists, and reporters’ corrupt manipulation, and fabrication for success, the only way for him to succeed in journalism is through his ability to charm women. He becomes a ruthless heartbreaker with his many scandals; Despite his tendencies to employ deception for his own gain, he is essentially creating meaning to his life. Despite his unfortunate poor upbringing, he is creating meaning out of his own existence. In this meaningless world, he is using his personal morality that is true to his own values. As long as our lives do not have a random and purposeless road, we can make our lives meaningful despite the foreboding end.
To make an imprint on this face of the earth, we are bound to die sooner or later. But to live for one’s passions and desires is what is wonderful. We may idolize love, wealth, and other values as the prime motivations to our actions. But what is more important is what we build upon the foundation. We can keep adding fixtures and other addendums to the building that represents our lives. It will only be unfinished if we abandon our interests and try to seek for starkly two different things, ultimately abandoning both. To make a building wonderful and glorious is to focus on the interests we have for ourselves and stick with it.