Guilt and paranoia are two common emotions that us humans experience all the time. They appear when we lie, cheat, or even murder somebody. Humans think with 2 consciences, the good one and the bad one. These consciences are influenced by situations that we go through, and Edgar Allan Poe shows this in The Black Cat. The deranged narrator’s excessive alcohol addiction causes him to lash out, spiraling out of control into a violent, bloody story of guilt, death, and paranoia. This story relates to Guilty Conscience by Eminem (ft. Dr. Dre), sharing the idea of a guilty conscience, and battling between good and bad thoughts and decisions.

Guilty Conscience is about a devil and an angel battling. Eminem is the devil, similar to the narrator in the story, while Dr. Dre is an angel, similar to the narrator’s seemingly nonexistent good conscience. They battle over different scenarios, attempting to convince different people to make the right or wrong decisions. In The Black Cat, the narrator doesn’t battle with a good conscience, but begins to feel remorse after the appearance of the second cat, causing  him to regret his excessively violent acts against an innocent woman and ripping and gouging the eyeballs out of his beloved cat’s eye sockets.

Time = Life. Let it Fly, you will Die!

Time.

Perhaps both the most valuable and the most easily wasted resource known to man.  Ralph Waldo Emerson has warned people to “be very suspicious of the deceptions of the element of time” (Emerson 26).  Similarly, Kenny Chesney advises you “Don’t blink” (Chesney, Line 7).  If not, you are risking time flying and life passing by before you even realize it.  While the song “Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney and the essay “Experience” by Ralph Waldo Emerson have some contextual differences, they are similar because they contemplate time and its importance in respect to human life.

Deception of time is a central theme in “Don’t Blink” and “Experience.”  Both Chesney and Emerson (and I) believe time can move too quickly if you don’t take a moment to appreciate today.  Chesney draws his inspiration from a man who turns 102 years old; his song is the advice given to Chesney by the old man.  The man warns him of missing his “babies growing up” (Chesney, Line 14) and next thing he knows his “better half” (Chesney, Line 17) will be on their deathbed.  All of the old man’s advice warn Chesney not to “blink.”  By this he means not to cruise through life ignorant of time passing.  In the same way Emerson tells the reader “it takes a good deal of time to eat or to sleep, or to earn a hundred dollars” (Emerson 26).  Emerson wants the reader to step back from daily activities one does out of habit, and to truly admire the world around (him/her/them).  Ignorance of time and its deception is the issue Chesney and Emerson wish the listener or reader to avoid.

Modern day artists with connections to transcendentalism, What?

                              Modern day artists with connections to transcendentalism, What?

 The script, Creedence Clearwater revival, and Lil Uzi, all 20th and 21st century musicians who have connections through transcendentalist ideas. Despite each musician being from a different time period, they all each have one piece of music that brings them together; The script’s “Hall of Fame”, lil Uzi's “You was right”, and Creedence Clearwater’s “Fortunate son.” All of these great songs songs use the same basic concept of transcendentalism and discusses some of these ideas in their songs. These three pieces of music from the AMlit playlist all relate to the central ideas of transcendentalism including individualism, nonconformity and discussions about clouded judgement. The script’s “Hall of Fame”, talks about how you the individual should go about their lives independent of society and use themselves to achieve their goals. It is clear that these ideas are shown in the first verse. “You can move a mountain...you can be a master...dedicate yourself and you gon’ find yourself.” These ideas show how an individual should believe that they will be able to accomplish their goals without help from society. There is also a direct connection to Ralph Waldo Emerson's short piece of writing “Self Reliance” where he talks about these same ideas of individualism. Emerson proclaims “To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,- that is genius” (Emerson, 28). Here Emerson discusses the same ideas of how an individual should act by using their own talents to go through life. Both the song and the short essay discuss the ideas of how by passing the boundaries of society you are able to accomplish your goals. Emerson and The Script both set boundaries for you all to follow. By using the ideas of individualism, “Fortunate son” also discusses the ideas of the individual protesting against society and not conforming to the rules.

Edgar Allen Poe and Hopsin are BOTH crazy

What kind of person throws baby corpses at people’ homes? In his song “I’m Not Crazy,” Hopsin raps about different crazy things he would do if he was actually crazy. This song is kinda like Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat”. Even though Poe’s story is about killing and Hopsin is just rapping about scenarios, they are kind of similar.


In the narrator of Poe’s story states “In a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad I am not.” He says he’s not crazy when he clearly does things only insane people do. When retelling the story he says “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me, I knew myself no longer”, he shifts the blame from himself to something outside. Speaks of lines such as “I retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits ” to once again prove that he is in fact sane with having self control. No one told him to kill his cat and wife, it was all him.  Escaping this truth, he blames it on the cat scorch mark, the white hair on the cat, and other reasons because he cannot accept his own actions. This is similar to Hopsin’s song because it starts with someone accusing him of insanity. His response was “If I was really crazy I’d run up inside an orphanage and torment kids, and beat babies faces with bags of oranges ”, he tries to contrast his accusation with something even more crazy. This makes anything he did seem less important and can dodge it altogether.One would have to be crazy to come up with these scenarios that scary, if not creative. Yet this combined with his chorus “I’m not crazy… I can’t control the thoughts that always travel through my brain….not my fault so don’t blame me” shows that his creativity isn’t intentional. He has no control over these ideas, which is just as scary. Both narrators in both works have been confronted with the idea that they might be insane, either looking back on their actions, or someone else telling them. Both of these narrators have used someway to dodge the idea that they might be insane. Both narrators do/think of ideas that no sane person would do.

The Big Shocker

     

      When you are famous everything you do is under a microscope. The world is looking at the online newspaper refreshing waiting to see your face. Your face made up of pixels pops up on everyone’s smartphones across the country. Everyone drops their cellphones. Sending a soundwave of shattering screens reaching every corner of the world. Single handedly you just shocked the world. A group of young men in 1988 had created this same effect by releasing one of the most controversial songs ever to be performed. As well as the minister who decided to make a strange fashion choice that shocked his clergy. These two very different stories that both created friction in the worlds around them. The short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the song “Fuck tha Police” by N.W.A. share in rattling the world and in many cases causing disturbances.

​      Diving into the text of “The Minister’s Black Veil” the character Mr. Hooper reveals himself to his clergy wearing a black veil. Chatter erupts among the members of the church in a way that is not quite disgust but is headed towards it. The people in the story were confused and did not know what to think of the veil. Just as the world did not know what to think when N.W.A. decided to continue to perform a violent song as seen by many including the Assistant Director of the FBI at the time. Both the minister and N.W.A were aware of what they were doing but both made an impact on the world. Whether it was the character that made the difference or just the act of having the song released sends a strong message to the world that one should never give up on their passion no matter what the world has to say.

The Fight Against Society

The Fight Against Society 

Whether in the United States or elsewhere, discrimination is apparent. People are deprived of their human rights because of their skin color, religion, gender, sexuality, social status, and many other identifiers. To address these issues, artists, authors, and other celebrities or leaders in our society should speak up for the voices unheard. In the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a minister to display a small change, yet this small change affects his entire life and the way people view him in his community. This story and the song, “Change” by Christina Aguilera fight social norms, hopefully creating a more diverse environment.

The first verse of “Change” pairs well with the portion of the short story that explains why the minister’s wife left him. A couple of lines of “Change” say, “Who you love or the color of your skin--Or the place you were born and grew up in--Shouldn’t decide how you will be treated.” (Aguilera, Change). Christina Aguilera is saying that identifiers shouldn’t determine how people view someone, instead, people should know the person inside and out before making judgements. Putting the message short: DON’T JUDGE. In the short story, the Minister says to his wife, “O! You know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone behind my black veil.” (Hawthorne, The Minister’s Black Veil). Hawthorn hits at the idea that people are afraid of changes, even if they are small and insignificant, just as Christina Aguilera hinted. The black veil caused him to lose the love of his life, while also revealing how terrified he is to be the only one who has changed. Without the idea of fear behind change, it would be hard to understand why people judge based on background. These ideas apply to your family, your friends, and, you better believe it, YOU.

Listen to the Song Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBSghlH0JgM 

Blog Post by Tommy Murillo
Posted 12/19/17

Thoreau and Journey

It’s definitely strange to think that a transcendental (aka 19th century) writer could have written and produced stuff that shares a lot characteristics with a rock song released in 1977 by the band Journey. Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking”  and Journey’s “Hotel California” use similar wording to talk about very similar ideas about life.  Each one talks about ways of looking at life in a non-traditional way that gives readers a feeling of uncertainty about how they normally view or experience their lives. 

 One of the most important ideas in both Thoreau’s essay and Journey’s song is the feeling of being trapped in your own life, but not necessarily knowing that you are or understanding how to break that pattern.  Thoreau says that he is “astonished at the power of endurance...and the moral insensibility...of [his] neighbors who confine themselves...for weeks and months, aye, and years almost together. While Thoreau takes his refreshing and eye-opening walks through beautiful woods and fields that sometimes span the course of an entire afternoon, his neighbors sit in their shops and houses, working away at the same repetitive work that they have done and will be doing for the rest of their lives.  Thoreau is saddened to realize that they will never have the joy of experiencing the refreshing eye-opener that for him, is nature.  Similarly, in Journey’s song, one hears the phrase “we are all just prisoners here of our own device.” This line is suggesting that people sit through their lives, never fully understanding or taking advantage of what might be right in front of them.  Instead, one almost imprisons himself in a repetitive lifestyle, making himself a prisoner to the boring work of familiar daily tasks, and never fully experiencing life in the way that Journey (and Thoreau) believe it should be lived.

Poe and Rihanna: a tale of alcoholism

Edgar Allen Poe is literature’s best-known insane alcoholic. The previous statement is a small exaggeration, but it is known that Poe struggled with alcohol abuse. In his short story “The Black Cat,” the main character writes from his jail cell about the effects of alcoholism on his behavior, and the effects are  gruesome. The unnamed main character has violent episodes in which he ends up killing his favorite pet cat and his caring wife. Rihanna’s “Disturbia” describes a similar experience

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that she names appropriately as “Disturbia”. Rihanna does not kill anyone in her story, but her disease does affect her and others around her negatively in similar ways that alcoholism affects the narrator in “The Black Cat.” Poe’s “The Black Cat,” and Rihanna’s “Disturbia,” are closely related to each other: they both refer to alcohol abuse and they describe the negative impact of their abuse on their minds.

Poe’s story states outright that alcohol is the stem of the plot of his story. On page the second page of his story, the narrator of the story admits the beginning of the abuse towards his animals. He writes “But my disease grew upon me-for what disease is like Alchohol![...]."

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The narrator openly admits the source of his abuse as his addiction to alcohol. Rihanna’s song does not describe her disease so easily but, it’s definitely implied when she sings “[...] To come and grab you. It can creep up inside
you and consume you. A disease of the mind it can control you” (Genius.com). The first part of this lyric describes how difficult is can be to see the difference between healthy alcohol use and being addicted to alcohol which prevents people from taking measures to avoid addiction. This lets addiction take over without the victim being aware until it becomes dangerous.  The second part of this lyric refers to the fact that addiction is a disease that changes your brain structure and chemistry, and therefore alters your behavior. Now that the main theme in these works have been determined as alcohol abuse, we can discuss what the effects of their addiction are.

The Beatles feat. Thoreau

Did The Beatles collaborate with

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau? We all know who The Beatles are, but Thoreau is a 19th century transcendentalist. Doesn’t seem like they have much in common, but one of The Beatles songs is remarkably similar to one of Thoreau’s essays. Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” was published in 1849, over a century later The Beatles released a song with the same ideas that were in “Civil Disobedience.” The song “Revolution” by The Beatles and the essay “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau are very similar because they both critique their government, oppose violence, and boycott taxes.

“Revolution” and “Civil Disobedience” are both calling for change in their governments. In “Revolution” by The Beatles, The Beatles are mocking their current government’s agenda, “You say you'll change the constitution/Well you know/We all want to change your head” (The Beatles ln. 20). The Beatles call out the government. They recognize that the government is trying to change the constitution, but then later says “we all want to change your head.” The government isn’t doing what the people want. That doesn’t make a very good government. The Beatles say the people want change not to the constitution but the government. This is similar to Thoreau’s critique of his government’s agenda in “Civil Disobedience.” Thoreau says the government is “more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity” (Thoreau 93). Thoreau does not like the current government. He believes the government is immoral, and uncivil. He criticizes the government for focusing on “commerce and agriculture” over humanity. If this doesn’t convince you that the two could have collaborated, Thoreau and the Beatles, more specifically, criticize the government’s use violence.

Baking Success

Human progress happens incrementally

Take the word recipe to mean a set of instructions that lead to a particular outcome.  Now imagine a world with no recipes. A multitude of things--books, cars, houses, birthday cakes--would, in fact, not exist, and society as a whole would fall apart. Our modern civilization requires the passing down of recipes to function because we can only accomplish so much in a given lifetime. Recipes allow us to build off the knowledge and insights that people have already gained, rather than forcing us to start from scratch. As we add and subtract certain ingredients from previous generations’ recipes, we tailor our recipes to fit new ideals. This is how different cultures and societal constructs evolve, and on a more individual and short-term basis, how adolescents blossom into adulthood.

A parent demonstrates the behavior of an adult and teaches their child manners and skills essential to cultural assimilation. The child proceeds in the parents’ footsteps, and refers to a similar recipe when raising their own children. Though there is no one right way to raise a child (is there only one truly delicious type of cake?), some parents obsess over following a “perfect” recipe.

These parents, often referred to as “tiger parents,” push their children in a way that ends up stifling the child’s curiosity and motivation. Instead of trying to guide their child through social and emotional changes during childhood, they construct a wall between themselves and their child, only penetrable if their child meets a solid metric of success. Lately I’ve been reading the realistic fiction novel, Everything I Never Told You. Celeste Ng’s characters follow unique recipes, some of which resemble those of a tiger parent’s. James is the son of Chinese immigrants, while his wife, Marilyn, is the only child of a white American housewife.  Mix the ideals and perspectives of these two together and the result is total dysfunction.

Marilyn squanders her dream of becoming a doctor when she falls in love with James and gets pregnant, while James follows his recipe for success and becomes a tenured professor. Full of regret, Marilyn feels compelled to achieve her dream vicariously, through her eldest daughter Lydia. She force feeds Lydia scientific knowledge and talks incessantly about grades and her future plans, which prevents Lydia from exploring her true self. Marilyn’s recipe for becoming a doctor is simply that; a recipe for becoming a doctor. There is no room to breath, to grow up, to make mistakes, to fall in love. Lydia has but one fate in life because her mother refuses to accept the sacrifices she made to raise children. When Marilyn’s mother dies, Marilyn feels especially regretful that she did not follow her dream career path. “She [Marilyn] thought of her mother, the life her mother had wanted for her, the life her mother had wanted to lead herself: husband, children, house, her sole job to keep it all in order. Without meaning to, she’d acquired it” (Ng 78). Marilyn intended to defy her mother's expectations, by creating her own recipe for success. After having children though, Marilyn realizes that she has failed to stray from her mother, by adding too many of her mother’s original ingredient to her own. Depending on the perspective of the reader, Marilyn’s additional ingredients make her life more sweet. A husband, three kids, a lakefront house-- what could be better? But to Marilyn, nothing could be worse. James has gotten to bake his success-cake and is still hungry, while Marilyn, drained from ingredients, is feeding the dreams of other people. Analyzing this situation makes me wonder, “can only one member of a family follow their recipe exactly? Can only one bake the cake?”

In Everything I Never Told You, this certainly seems to be the case. Even Lydia is aware of it before she passes, noting that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. One went up and the other went down. One gained, the other lost. One escaped, the other was trapped, forever" (Ng 225). Marilyn and James's problematic relationship is the result of an ingredient mix up. Marilyn added love instead of career to her mixture, and sneaky James seized the opportunity. As much as Marilyn strives to control her own destiny, her mother’s recipe inevitably merges with her’s to take the place of "career." She can taste the difference--wants nothing more than to throw the batter out and start all over--but she's struck with what she has.
Luckily, we have the YOLO philosophy and Snapchat to help us move on from our life failures, but for those like Marilyn, indefinitely stuck in the past, their cakes will never bake quite right.