Hey Kids, I'm back! Just sent out ten blog invites, and there are six that I sent out earlier that have not been responded to, so that makes 16 on deck and 24 now joined. Just read your recent posts on sexual maturity and maturity in general and I applaud your responses and participation.
I'd like to encourage you to step back a little and read Huxley less literally. Separate Huxley the writer from the world he is creating for you to consider. Your disagreement is not with Aldous Huxley, so if that is indeed the case, who ARE you disagreeing with?
I saw an excellent essay this week at the AP reading where the writer used Huxley and Brave New World as evidence in an argument -- the argument was about the role of adversity our lives. The writer used Brave New World to demonstrate what happens when there is no adversity, where drugs such as Soma remove the stress of daily living, where sex is easy, readily available and removed from human relationship...in a world without adversity, there is also no innovation, no struggle, no creativity and no growth. What do you think about that idea? None of us like trouble, but what if trouble was gone? Just gone from the face of the earth?
I heard speaker once describe what the hawk would be like if the mouse was slow. No need to develop excellent eyesight or speed. No need to fly, really. Just lay on the ground and wait for a mouse to wander by. The hawk would be slow, blind and fat. It's sheer beauty and hawk-nature is evoked by the challenge presented by the rodent.
As you read Huxley, I want you to observe an imagined world from 1934 where technology has numbed the human being. Don't get mad at Huxley! He's just holding a mirror.
And I want you to consider a 24-hour technology fast: no TV, no telephone, no computer, no video game, no movie, no iPod. Just you and your beautiful, powerful mind, your books, your drawing notebooks, your journals. Remove technology for ONE DAY and watch how you twitch like an addict trying to kick nicotine, or any drug that holds the user in a vice.
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Welcome back! I finally figured out how to comment and I've been reading the different posts quite often, however I haven't yet learned to post my own. They appear in my own blog it seems, unless all blogs posted forward to each site you follow. How can I view the blogs I post in our AP blogs?
ReplyDeleteThe example of the hawk and the mouse really caught me. I will have to use that sometime. (: Unfortunately the world HAS become numbed by all these new techonologies. It's made life convenient and easy. No more striving and the definition of hard-working has been updated. I will definitely try that 24-hour fast and see how my body reacts to all the silence. For once I will test your theory that I call "Stopping the Noise". Like it? Thanks for the updates!
ReplyDeleteTwentyfour hours, woah. That is a challenge for me, especially that I listen to the radio mostly all day. I dont really watch television as much as I use too, also because I don't have Direct Tv. I dont mind not talking on the phone, since it is a thing I do not really need. I actually remember when my Ipod broke, I was very devested. I thought I needed my Ipod more than anything, yet I have gotten use to not having one in my pocket all the time. Even my parents say it is a better that way.
ReplyDeleteSo I tried the 24-hour technology fast. It was actually harder than I had expected. I woke up in the morning and immediately went to turn on the TV. It was so automatic. I did not even think about it. I spent the morning playing board games, reading a book or going outside to help me not think about texting or using the computer I was very committed to not to crack. When I went to lunch with my sister, I sat on the side of the booth not facing the TV because I didn’t want to be tempted to watch. As the day wore on, I realized that I had to find something to do to occupy my time because I was so bored.
ReplyDeleteThe day seemed so much longer without the use of electronics and it made me realize how long the television and/or computer stays on during the day.