Commentary on Films, end of exams plus links
Diary: Week of 21/05: Dominas, Spiderman and Battlestar,
Elegy_Of_Flames came back on the Tuesday so that's where my week picks off really (she'd stayed in London after Slimelight). We'd stayed in town when she arrived in hopes of going to the cinema, but it turned out she was too shattered, so we headed home after eating at Weatherspoons and picking up copies of the Harry Potter movies (although annoyingly the first disc didn't work)
Pretty much watched one of them every day until we ran out :o)
Went down the cinema to watch Spiderman 3 at the cinema on the Wednesday, and I didn't think it was that bad to be honest. I can appreciate some of the more interested fans wanting to see more of each of the characters, but given the amount that happened in the film there was only so much time for each one. Meanwhile I think splitting the time over multiple characters can work very well (see the treatment of the villians in Batman Begins)
The Sandmonster villian was rather naff though, even if it was taken from the comics which I should imagine it had. The character was fine, it was just the nature of the superpower. Most of the rest of Spiderman movie verges on the believable, but this was just a bit silly.
Got a call from littlecyberalex to let us know he was down at Dungeon, so headed down there from the cinema where we caught up with him and girgocrazy, although we ended up leaving early because of a power shortage (new low for the Dungeon really...). No one was refunded of course, which I guess I would expect, although some of the bouncers had a bad attitude about it (number of dismissive references about how people pay to get in, and it doesn't matter whether you're in for hours or minutes, given that the night was honestly shoddy they could have been more respectful of the complaints...)
Headed down to Hobbit for a while after that, but we didn't stay for that long. Wanted to watch another of the Harry Potter movies anyway :o)
Thursday we headed up to littlecyberalex's place to get dressed at Pirates so as to head down to the cinema and watch Pirates of the Caribbean III. Pictures may surface at some point, maybe :o) The movie had a lot more dark and serious moments than the previous ones, but was good none the less, with an opening for another sequal (don't know if they intend to make one or not though)
After that we headed back to littlecyberalex's, ate lots of Pizza, and headed back home for, naturally, more Harry Potter. :o)
Friday Elegy_of_Flames headed up to Bournemouth with the intention of leaving me home to study, which I completely failed to do. I did manage to set up the replacement network drive that had arrived the day before, and after much annoying fiddling around with ip settings it now works, which is fantastic :o) I now have space on my computer! (although no backup...)
Saturday Elegy_Of_Flames came back and the entire day was given over to Battlestar Gallatica, as was a significant portion of the Sunday, although on Sunday we also managed to watch Shrek, Shrek II, and Bruce Almighty (the last of which I'd never seen before).
Battlestar is very good stuff. I was never overwhelmed by the movie/mini-series, possibly because it was just a jumpstart for the series and blatantly such, plus I was annoyed to get a glimpse of the new cool-looking Cylons at the beginning and then not to get to see them again through the entire thing.
The actual series itself though is pretty fab, although I had my reservations. The actual intro-sequence is cool enough (linky) but the first sequence on the start of every episode is naff (linky but don't watch if you haven't seen the movie). I think it's the 'But they have a Plan!' thing at the end... :o/
The series itself is good though, the characters are real, the plotlines generally interesting. They're not scared to really go to the depths with their storylines and touch things most series would avoid. I still find it a little odd that they invented a fictional swearword to avoid saying 'Fuck' but yet have very visual depictions of sexual assault. It might just be that they didn't have the security to really push the limits until the second season, because otherwise that makes zero sense... who the hell is going to get offended by the word 'fuck' but not by visual portrayal of rape?
I was quite entertained by my first viewing of Bruce Almighty as well, although it's one of these things were a lot of the best gags are in the trailer. It's interesting to see a comedy with a strong religious message however, and I'll be awaiting 'Evan Almighty' with a lot of interest (this one deals with someone contacted by God to build an arc for a supposed flood)
Diary: Week of 28/05: Exams, Drinking, Dungeon, and Parties
Me and Elegy_Of_Flames were watching the second season of Battlestar on the Monday (we'd bought it that day along with what we thought was the film miniseries thing, but it turned out to be the old Battlestar movie, opps!). Already commented on that series earlier.
After watching more of it on the Monday Elegy_of_Flames returned to Greece, and I got on with working on some Kierkegaard essay plans for my examination the next day, which went well as I talk about later.
Droppe through town afterwards and bought the new Battlestar movie, although it'll probably be sometime before Elegy_of_Flames comes back hence it's probably going to stay on my shelf unopened for ages. I did indulged myself by spending the rest of the day finishing off watching the second season however :o)
Problem is by the time I'd finished watching the entire season it was getting late, and this upset my sleeping pattern a bit. Waking up in the afternoon Friday I had time to get revision in (mostly Kant at that point) but I was somewhat aware that the exam being at nine in the morning was going to be a problem, so I did the sensible thing and just didn't sleep that night, keeping myself awake and active by using the Internet (I did try to keep myself awake by watching the Underworld sequel for the first time, but I got bored and sleepy so I had to turn it off, stupid film).
Went to bed about 7.30pm on Saturday and woke up on 5.30 Saturday, which gave me plenty of time to revise for my Imagination and Self-Conciousness exam that morning (yes, on a Saturday, how cruel is that?) by reading through the book that all the taught material and examinations on Sartre (for that unit) had been on but the lecturer hadn't thought fit to put down as required reading :o/
Not that I did the question on Sartre anyway mind.
After that I found myself idling for a few hours down at Highfield campus before meeting up with some other fellow graduates and buying some alcohol and ending up drinking in a 'Secret Garden' area of Highfield that I wasn't aware was there (nor are many people it would seem). Not easy to find in any case :o)
Was getting quite late before we were done, so I had to rush home, have a quick rushed shower, and rush to get back down to Dungeon to arrive at 10.30, where I found angryangeltoo already there, and Toby and Ophelia_Machina arrived a bit later.
annoyingly after dancing for a few songs I discovered that one of my heels is coming of on my boots again... When I bought them the heels were attached to the boot by a screw and numerous nails, turned out to be not enough, then I got my father to drill another screw in, and that wasn't enough... I guess the wear and tear is too high and the screw eventually snaps...
Will get father to put three screws into the heel this time :oD
Anyway, not being able to dance and Dungeon being it's usual self anyway, me and Ophelia_Machina headed off to a party at Claudia's, where more alcohol was consumed, a desperate 'don't let the cat escape through the door' struggle was pursued, and I consistently beat Ophelia_Machina at the cards games she was teaching me to play :oD
We ended up going to sleep on their coaches and waking up rather dazed. Turned out neither of us had eaten barely anything the day before, which was probably why (we hadn't drank that much...).
For my own part I'd woken up in the morning to find the Kitchen covered in beer cans and the like and thought I'd eat at Highfield, which I arrived at for eight to find everywhere capable of selling food shut, including the surrounding pubs. I eventually found a corner shop that obviously didn't approve the notion of selling sandwiches and the like and hence had a packet of crisps and a muffin for breakfast. After that I was dashing about so much that I'd forgot about food entirely, and didn't notice I was hungry. Opps.
Thought the alcohol was being a bit odd with me that night... lucky I wasn't ill really. Still, felt very weak in the morning and couldn't keep my hands from shaking!
Ophelia_Machina let me share a taxi with her and I ended up in a Subway down town to have something to eat (finally) and then I got a lift home from mother, where I spent the rest of the day slacking around on the computer and got a much needed shower, and am now feeling much better ready for tomorrow when I shall go out to meet Wrenny_Bum who is just about to finish her last university assignment :oD
University: My final exams
So I had two exams this week. I was feeling somewhat unprepared for them. In both cases I'd done less work than previously; normally I write up practice essays before hand in preparation, often with the result that I would guess the questions right and just copy paragraph by paragraph the essay I'd done at home onto the examination paper, which has naturally got me some high marks. Didn't happen that way this time.
For Kierkegaard there was no past question papers, so my question guesswork was sure reliable, but I knew the general topics and devised some general questions to work out essay plans for. Further, because Elegy_Of_Flames was only leaving the morning before the exam, I was somewhat distracted and thus the plans never got made into fully fledged essays.
Thankfully it wasn't so necessary; to be honest most of the work is done in the plans, turning the plans into essays is just doing the hard laborious bit, although sometimes new ideas spring up during the writing, and one can change one's mind about what part of the discussion should go where.
In this case it worked fine. I'd studied for a Fear and Trembling question and there was only one to choose from on my examination questions paper. It ran something like 'Explain the differences between the Tragic Hero and the Knight of Faith and explain the implications this has for the nature of religious faith'. A good question and I'd written a plan for a similar one already.
Hence I had a lot of fun exploring the nature of the character of the Knight of Faith (typified by the biblical figure Abraham) and all the problematic issues surrounding him as explained in Fear and Trembling, and how he is so unlike more conventional 'hero characters', and lastly I had a lot of fun talking about the nature of the kind of faith that Kierkegaard is talking about (a type of faith that most certainly does exist). I'm thinking it did well and is at least 2.1 material, but we shall see :o)
Imagination and Self-Conciousness was more intimidating. The lecturer in question is a bad one; she loses track of her thoughts, she obviously doesn't plan well for her lecturers, her entire course is tainted too much by her own thoughts (not necessarily shared amongst all academics) and I can't help but feel that she expects us to just agree with the material she based the course on (her phd that she only recently finished)
I knew there would be four questions and a philosopher for each. Two of them I knew nothing about, although one of them drew on Kant. Another would be dedicated to Kant, and another to Sartre, so those were my choices for preparation.
I read through the short amount of Sartre reading material specified, and then started reading the Sartre book that wasn't on her reading list but, for some reason, the coursework and her lectures spent all their time talking about. As it turned out the question still confused me (and was on something that wasn't in the specified reading so far as I could see).
Fortunately Immanuel Kant came to be rescue. The reading list for Kant was more extensive, but I had worked out a lot of that was in connection to the other philosophers, the only part of Kant that had been covered in it's own right was his 'Refutation of Idealism' in his Critique of Pure Reason. Hence I'd read through it, as it's a fairly short passage, and then read secondary material on it.
And it was the only question I had any comprehension of, although I had my doubts. The question ran 'How does the concept of imagination help Kant refute Cartesian Dualism'.
Only problem is I don't think the concept of imagination is all that important to his refutation, I don't share my lecturer's obsession over imagination, Kant doesn't either as far as I can see, he never uses the term 'imagination' in his refutation. It's also badly phrased to talk about Kant trying to refute Cartesian Dualism, a term he never uses, what he is refuting in regards to Descartes is problematic idealism, which is not strictly synonymous with dualism. Lastly, the question implies that he successfully refutes idealism, which I don't think he does (which I regard as unfortunate, as I am something of an enthusiast of Kantian ethics).
But, oh well, got to give it a try, so I wrote out fifteen pages on the issue.
I discussed the importance of 'imagination' (in a certain sense) to Kantian metaphysics, I discussed how this applies in regards to the refutation, I then discussed why the refutation was important at all in regards to the concept of 'imagination', and then gave a critique of why the refutation doesn't work (Again with numerous references and applications of the concept 'imagination')
I don't know it's what she wants, and I think she may regard me as 'missing the point' of the question maybe. It's certainly not written with regards to her thoughts on the issue (which I mostly zoned out on for reasons already expressed), but it is an honest answer to the question that remained coherent and showed some (I'd say significant) knowledge of the material. That should get me at least a pass (I've got 2.2 grades for essays that have apparently 'failed to answer the question at all' before)
So, both have at least passed, if that is true, then I will get a 2.1 overall if my dissertation is at least a 2.2, or possibly even if it's lower. This means I can be reasonably secure in getting that 2.1.
Which is kinda fab :o)
Onto other things now I guess... :o/
Links: Harry Potter Spoofs
Harry Potter and Perbertus: linky
Harry Potter and the Simpsons: linky
Harry Potter and French and Saunders:
Part one: linky
Part two: linky
Part three: linky
Part four: linky
Links: Objectionable cartoons
I was looking over youtube at some point to find a Pepé Le Pew
cartoon which I found here: linky
Just hadn't seen it for a while and forgotten about it, but then someone mentioned the name. Apparently it's inspired by a specific frenchman that thought he was God's gift to women and insisted that the object of his advances loved him, despite often being wrong.
I also hear it ties in with stereotypes of the French in America (they smell and they are lecherous) which probably makes it dodgy viewing for today. Still somewhat enjoyable of course.
Somehow though I came across this interesting one: Jungle Jitters
It's interesting to see it. I am sure it was created without any political ideology in mind, nor any hates. In some ways you might even want to say that often ethnic characters are portrayed in exaggerated ways, such as the Jewish and Asians often still are for instance, hence we shouldn't be too bothered by it.
But clearly a portrayal of Native Africans, that for some reason seems to borrow more from Native Indian stereotypes, that includes cannibalism and generally seeming rather goofy and silly (although obviously not more so than the 'white' representative Goofy himself) would be rather outrageous to produce today.
Naturally, it is banned, you can read up about it here: wikilinky, It's part of a number of banned cartoons.
Part of why it's so bad has to be understood through it's use of the 'Black Face' image: wikilinky
Reminded me of Golliwogs. I seemed to remember my mother having a collection of them when I was younger, although obviously they're not produced anymore (to my knowledge). Would be interesting to get them out again and see if the collection can be completed (it was a specific set).
Not because I don't sympathise with the complaints, but because it's interesting to posess a piece of history (hence why the cartoons originally 'banned' can be bought and made available, although only with a preface by Whoopi Goldberg saying how it's worse to deny it ever happened than to recognise it did)
I remember on one of these antique shows where people bring in their heirlooms to be valued I saw an amazing little doll.
It was created during the suffragette movement. It was crudely constructed and posted through the door of one of the suffragette who weren't very liked. It was a crude imitation of one of them with things scrawled on it and needles stuck through it. It was in bad condition at presentation, and probably wasn't good as the time.
For some reason the suffragette kept it, and now an old woman related to her had it. I don't know why she kept it exactly, but it certainly has value now. Despite being of no good craftworkmenship it's a piece of history, I'd love to own something like that. A physical symbol of the pains women had to go to in order to be liberated...
If I had such money to be practical then collecting such things for display cases in my home would be quite tempting, although in this case the woman would be rather unlikely to part with it, for reasons that are understandable.
Link: Imposter student caught
Link: Lolcat Phenomenom
Link: Flat each society webpage forum
Link: Multi-touch computers (very cool)
Link: Some pet owners are so very stupid
Link: May 23: World became more urban than rural
Link: Check your pronunciation: linky one and link two
Link: All that livejournal drama
Link: Metaqoutes entry on lj drama: WFI and security problems
Link: Fire officers diciplines for sleeping improperly
Elegy_Of_Flames came back on the Tuesday so that's where my week picks off really (she'd stayed in London after Slimelight). We'd stayed in town when she arrived in hopes of going to the cinema, but it turned out she was too shattered, so we headed home after eating at Weatherspoons and picking up copies of the Harry Potter movies (although annoyingly the first disc didn't work)
Pretty much watched one of them every day until we ran out :o)
Went down the cinema to watch Spiderman 3 at the cinema on the Wednesday, and I didn't think it was that bad to be honest. I can appreciate some of the more interested fans wanting to see more of each of the characters, but given the amount that happened in the film there was only so much time for each one. Meanwhile I think splitting the time over multiple characters can work very well (see the treatment of the villians in Batman Begins)
The Sandmonster villian was rather naff though, even if it was taken from the comics which I should imagine it had. The character was fine, it was just the nature of the superpower. Most of the rest of Spiderman movie verges on the believable, but this was just a bit silly.
Got a call from littlecyberalex to let us know he was down at Dungeon, so headed down there from the cinema where we caught up with him and girgocrazy, although we ended up leaving early because of a power shortage (new low for the Dungeon really...). No one was refunded of course, which I guess I would expect, although some of the bouncers had a bad attitude about it (number of dismissive references about how people pay to get in, and it doesn't matter whether you're in for hours or minutes, given that the night was honestly shoddy they could have been more respectful of the complaints...)
Headed down to Hobbit for a while after that, but we didn't stay for that long. Wanted to watch another of the Harry Potter movies anyway :o)
Thursday we headed up to littlecyberalex's place to get dressed at Pirates so as to head down to the cinema and watch Pirates of the Caribbean III. Pictures may surface at some point, maybe :o) The movie had a lot more dark and serious moments than the previous ones, but was good none the less, with an opening for another sequal (don't know if they intend to make one or not though)
After that we headed back to littlecyberalex's, ate lots of Pizza, and headed back home for, naturally, more Harry Potter. :o)
Friday Elegy_of_Flames headed up to Bournemouth with the intention of leaving me home to study, which I completely failed to do. I did manage to set up the replacement network drive that had arrived the day before, and after much annoying fiddling around with ip settings it now works, which is fantastic :o) I now have space on my computer! (although no backup...)
Saturday Elegy_Of_Flames came back and the entire day was given over to Battlestar Gallatica, as was a significant portion of the Sunday, although on Sunday we also managed to watch Shrek, Shrek II, and Bruce Almighty (the last of which I'd never seen before).
Battlestar is very good stuff. I was never overwhelmed by the movie/mini-series, possibly because it was just a jumpstart for the series and blatantly such, plus I was annoyed to get a glimpse of the new cool-looking Cylons at the beginning and then not to get to see them again through the entire thing.
The actual series itself though is pretty fab, although I had my reservations. The actual intro-sequence is cool enough (linky) but the first sequence on the start of every episode is naff (linky but don't watch if you haven't seen the movie). I think it's the 'But they have a Plan!' thing at the end... :o/
The series itself is good though, the characters are real, the plotlines generally interesting. They're not scared to really go to the depths with their storylines and touch things most series would avoid. I still find it a little odd that they invented a fictional swearword to avoid saying 'Fuck' but yet have very visual depictions of sexual assault. It might just be that they didn't have the security to really push the limits until the second season, because otherwise that makes zero sense... who the hell is going to get offended by the word 'fuck' but not by visual portrayal of rape?
I was quite entertained by my first viewing of Bruce Almighty as well, although it's one of these things were a lot of the best gags are in the trailer. It's interesting to see a comedy with a strong religious message however, and I'll be awaiting 'Evan Almighty' with a lot of interest (this one deals with someone contacted by God to build an arc for a supposed flood)
Diary: Week of 28/05: Exams, Drinking, Dungeon, and Parties
Me and Elegy_Of_Flames were watching the second season of Battlestar on the Monday (we'd bought it that day along with what we thought was the film miniseries thing, but it turned out to be the old Battlestar movie, opps!). Already commented on that series earlier.
After watching more of it on the Monday Elegy_of_Flames returned to Greece, and I got on with working on some Kierkegaard essay plans for my examination the next day, which went well as I talk about later.
Droppe through town afterwards and bought the new Battlestar movie, although it'll probably be sometime before Elegy_of_Flames comes back hence it's probably going to stay on my shelf unopened for ages. I did indulged myself by spending the rest of the day finishing off watching the second season however :o)
Problem is by the time I'd finished watching the entire season it was getting late, and this upset my sleeping pattern a bit. Waking up in the afternoon Friday I had time to get revision in (mostly Kant at that point) but I was somewhat aware that the exam being at nine in the morning was going to be a problem, so I did the sensible thing and just didn't sleep that night, keeping myself awake and active by using the Internet (I did try to keep myself awake by watching the Underworld sequel for the first time, but I got bored and sleepy so I had to turn it off, stupid film).
Went to bed about 7.30pm on Saturday and woke up on 5.30 Saturday, which gave me plenty of time to revise for my Imagination and Self-Conciousness exam that morning (yes, on a Saturday, how cruel is that?) by reading through the book that all the taught material and examinations on Sartre (for that unit) had been on but the lecturer hadn't thought fit to put down as required reading :o/
Not that I did the question on Sartre anyway mind.
After that I found myself idling for a few hours down at Highfield campus before meeting up with some other fellow graduates and buying some alcohol and ending up drinking in a 'Secret Garden' area of Highfield that I wasn't aware was there (nor are many people it would seem). Not easy to find in any case :o)
Was getting quite late before we were done, so I had to rush home, have a quick rushed shower, and rush to get back down to Dungeon to arrive at 10.30, where I found angryangeltoo already there, and Toby and Ophelia_Machina arrived a bit later.
annoyingly after dancing for a few songs I discovered that one of my heels is coming of on my boots again... When I bought them the heels were attached to the boot by a screw and numerous nails, turned out to be not enough, then I got my father to drill another screw in, and that wasn't enough... I guess the wear and tear is too high and the screw eventually snaps...
Will get father to put three screws into the heel this time :oD
Anyway, not being able to dance and Dungeon being it's usual self anyway, me and Ophelia_Machina headed off to a party at Claudia's, where more alcohol was consumed, a desperate 'don't let the cat escape through the door' struggle was pursued, and I consistently beat Ophelia_Machina at the cards games she was teaching me to play :oD
We ended up going to sleep on their coaches and waking up rather dazed. Turned out neither of us had eaten barely anything the day before, which was probably why (we hadn't drank that much...).
For my own part I'd woken up in the morning to find the Kitchen covered in beer cans and the like and thought I'd eat at Highfield, which I arrived at for eight to find everywhere capable of selling food shut, including the surrounding pubs. I eventually found a corner shop that obviously didn't approve the notion of selling sandwiches and the like and hence had a packet of crisps and a muffin for breakfast. After that I was dashing about so much that I'd forgot about food entirely, and didn't notice I was hungry. Opps.
Thought the alcohol was being a bit odd with me that night... lucky I wasn't ill really. Still, felt very weak in the morning and couldn't keep my hands from shaking!
Ophelia_Machina let me share a taxi with her and I ended up in a Subway down town to have something to eat (finally) and then I got a lift home from mother, where I spent the rest of the day slacking around on the computer and got a much needed shower, and am now feeling much better ready for tomorrow when I shall go out to meet Wrenny_Bum who is just about to finish her last university assignment :oD
University: My final exams
So I had two exams this week. I was feeling somewhat unprepared for them. In both cases I'd done less work than previously; normally I write up practice essays before hand in preparation, often with the result that I would guess the questions right and just copy paragraph by paragraph the essay I'd done at home onto the examination paper, which has naturally got me some high marks. Didn't happen that way this time.
For Kierkegaard there was no past question papers, so my question guesswork was sure reliable, but I knew the general topics and devised some general questions to work out essay plans for. Further, because Elegy_Of_Flames was only leaving the morning before the exam, I was somewhat distracted and thus the plans never got made into fully fledged essays.
Thankfully it wasn't so necessary; to be honest most of the work is done in the plans, turning the plans into essays is just doing the hard laborious bit, although sometimes new ideas spring up during the writing, and one can change one's mind about what part of the discussion should go where.
In this case it worked fine. I'd studied for a Fear and Trembling question and there was only one to choose from on my examination questions paper. It ran something like 'Explain the differences between the Tragic Hero and the Knight of Faith and explain the implications this has for the nature of religious faith'. A good question and I'd written a plan for a similar one already.
Hence I had a lot of fun exploring the nature of the character of the Knight of Faith (typified by the biblical figure Abraham) and all the problematic issues surrounding him as explained in Fear and Trembling, and how he is so unlike more conventional 'hero characters', and lastly I had a lot of fun talking about the nature of the kind of faith that Kierkegaard is talking about (a type of faith that most certainly does exist). I'm thinking it did well and is at least 2.1 material, but we shall see :o)
Imagination and Self-Conciousness was more intimidating. The lecturer in question is a bad one; she loses track of her thoughts, she obviously doesn't plan well for her lecturers, her entire course is tainted too much by her own thoughts (not necessarily shared amongst all academics) and I can't help but feel that she expects us to just agree with the material she based the course on (her phd that she only recently finished)
I knew there would be four questions and a philosopher for each. Two of them I knew nothing about, although one of them drew on Kant. Another would be dedicated to Kant, and another to Sartre, so those were my choices for preparation.
I read through the short amount of Sartre reading material specified, and then started reading the Sartre book that wasn't on her reading list but, for some reason, the coursework and her lectures spent all their time talking about. As it turned out the question still confused me (and was on something that wasn't in the specified reading so far as I could see).
Fortunately Immanuel Kant came to be rescue. The reading list for Kant was more extensive, but I had worked out a lot of that was in connection to the other philosophers, the only part of Kant that had been covered in it's own right was his 'Refutation of Idealism' in his Critique of Pure Reason. Hence I'd read through it, as it's a fairly short passage, and then read secondary material on it.
And it was the only question I had any comprehension of, although I had my doubts. The question ran 'How does the concept of imagination help Kant refute Cartesian Dualism'.
Only problem is I don't think the concept of imagination is all that important to his refutation, I don't share my lecturer's obsession over imagination, Kant doesn't either as far as I can see, he never uses the term 'imagination' in his refutation. It's also badly phrased to talk about Kant trying to refute Cartesian Dualism, a term he never uses, what he is refuting in regards to Descartes is problematic idealism, which is not strictly synonymous with dualism. Lastly, the question implies that he successfully refutes idealism, which I don't think he does (which I regard as unfortunate, as I am something of an enthusiast of Kantian ethics).
But, oh well, got to give it a try, so I wrote out fifteen pages on the issue.
I discussed the importance of 'imagination' (in a certain sense) to Kantian metaphysics, I discussed how this applies in regards to the refutation, I then discussed why the refutation was important at all in regards to the concept of 'imagination', and then gave a critique of why the refutation doesn't work (Again with numerous references and applications of the concept 'imagination')
I don't know it's what she wants, and I think she may regard me as 'missing the point' of the question maybe. It's certainly not written with regards to her thoughts on the issue (which I mostly zoned out on for reasons already expressed), but it is an honest answer to the question that remained coherent and showed some (I'd say significant) knowledge of the material. That should get me at least a pass (I've got 2.2 grades for essays that have apparently 'failed to answer the question at all' before)
So, both have at least passed, if that is true, then I will get a 2.1 overall if my dissertation is at least a 2.2, or possibly even if it's lower. This means I can be reasonably secure in getting that 2.1.
Which is kinda fab :o)
Onto other things now I guess... :o/
Links: Harry Potter Spoofs
Harry Potter and Perbertus: linky
Harry Potter and the Simpsons: linky
Harry Potter and French and Saunders:
Part one: linky
Part two: linky
Part three: linky
Part four: linky
Links: Objectionable cartoons
I was looking over youtube at some point to find a Pepé Le Pew
cartoon which I found here: linky
Just hadn't seen it for a while and forgotten about it, but then someone mentioned the name. Apparently it's inspired by a specific frenchman that thought he was God's gift to women and insisted that the object of his advances loved him, despite often being wrong.
I also hear it ties in with stereotypes of the French in America (they smell and they are lecherous) which probably makes it dodgy viewing for today. Still somewhat enjoyable of course.
Somehow though I came across this interesting one: Jungle Jitters
It's interesting to see it. I am sure it was created without any political ideology in mind, nor any hates. In some ways you might even want to say that often ethnic characters are portrayed in exaggerated ways, such as the Jewish and Asians often still are for instance, hence we shouldn't be too bothered by it.
But clearly a portrayal of Native Africans, that for some reason seems to borrow more from Native Indian stereotypes, that includes cannibalism and generally seeming rather goofy and silly (although obviously not more so than the 'white' representative Goofy himself) would be rather outrageous to produce today.
Naturally, it is banned, you can read up about it here: wikilinky, It's part of a number of banned cartoons.
Part of why it's so bad has to be understood through it's use of the 'Black Face' image: wikilinky
Reminded me of Golliwogs. I seemed to remember my mother having a collection of them when I was younger, although obviously they're not produced anymore (to my knowledge). Would be interesting to get them out again and see if the collection can be completed (it was a specific set).
Not because I don't sympathise with the complaints, but because it's interesting to posess a piece of history (hence why the cartoons originally 'banned' can be bought and made available, although only with a preface by Whoopi Goldberg saying how it's worse to deny it ever happened than to recognise it did)
I remember on one of these antique shows where people bring in their heirlooms to be valued I saw an amazing little doll.
It was created during the suffragette movement. It was crudely constructed and posted through the door of one of the suffragette who weren't very liked. It was a crude imitation of one of them with things scrawled on it and needles stuck through it. It was in bad condition at presentation, and probably wasn't good as the time.
For some reason the suffragette kept it, and now an old woman related to her had it. I don't know why she kept it exactly, but it certainly has value now. Despite being of no good craftworkmenship it's a piece of history, I'd love to own something like that. A physical symbol of the pains women had to go to in order to be liberated...
If I had such money to be practical then collecting such things for display cases in my home would be quite tempting, although in this case the woman would be rather unlikely to part with it, for reasons that are understandable.
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