Apathy for Entropy

I wanted to write out a long blog post about Entropy, but the more I think about it the more depressed I get. I had so many good things to say, but it seems kind of wasted now. Plus I have to go to work tonight so I must get off the computer and sleep.... Just let me say this:

 I really wish I could have discussed this story with the class. I feel like out of all the stories we discussed during our last classes we spent the least amount of time on this one. I understand it happens, but I was SO prepared to teach everyone a thing or two about what I learned about this story and what I liked about it, but every time I tried to speak out about its deeper meaning it seemed I was pushed under the rug for lack of time and a somewhat disinterest from everyone in the room.

So yeah. Entropy.

American Literature: Expectations and rewards of the semester

My expectations have changed. American literature is about struggle and overcoming our fears and oppression of society. We see that in ALL of the things we've read! In the Land of the Free (544) is about the oppression of immigrants and how the government rules on money. These people cannot even get their child back without waving some money in someone's face. The Other Two by Edith Wharton (522) is about a woman climbing out of oppression through the men she marries. An Agony. As is Now (1520) is about the oppression of a man who cannot be himself in his own skin. Even Entropy (1547) is a story of intellectuals being oppressed by the advances in technology making free thinking seem obsolete. All of these stories are from different time periods, yet deal with the same ideology. Being oppressed and unable to express their feelings based on societal clauses, which either make them feel helpless and suffocated, or liberate them in to going against the current and being the person they long to be.

Cathedral

Great story. Wonderfully written. The ending was obviously the best part. The man/narrator "sees" nothing but what is in his mind. He is drawing a cathedral, but once he's in the rhythm of the picture the blind man tells him to "close [his] eyes" (1567) and to keep drawing. Once he finished he refused to open his eyes. I think he pictured life from the blind man's perspective. Through this blind man he was able to be outside of himself and see something in his mind as vividly as he ever has. "It was like nothing else in my life up to now" (1567).  I think that through this exercise the narrator has a spiritual experience. He's unable to answer his wife when she asked him what was happening (1566). This man had a sort of "out of body experience" where he left his physical world and went into a state of complete zen, kind of reminds me of meditation actually. We can see this clearly in the second to last paragraph of the story: My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew it. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything (1567).