Blog Post 1

Part 1

My name is Mariah Annastacia Rajah. I was born in Guyana. I am 20 years old. Out of those 20 years I have lived about 10 with my biological parents. I have been to 8 different schools in 3 different countries. I speak all but one language and yes you guessed it, it is English. I have no siblings, and most of my life had no friends so writing was for me a way to escape. The first novel I ever read was The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett. It opened my eyes to how words could create a picture in your head. The Imagery of the book inspired me. I found myself writing stories after reading the novel. I have been writing ever since I discovered what could be created by words on a page. Although, my work may have become darker and I have grown closer to writing. I have found how deep and powerful the words on a page can be and how more than often people are more raw on paper or text that in reality.

As a logophile or a lover of words, I love to read what people write, so I am in college with the hopes of becoming an editor. I want to read the ideas others have and help to mold them. I want to see what they have seen in their heads and add what I see when I read their words. On another hand, my philosophy as a student it just this, work hard. I try my hardest in school. Although, I have spent so little time with my parents I want them to be proud of me. I want them to see that although circumstances have separated us I am still working hard to make the best out of this situation that is called life. That is pretty much it. I hope to learn a lot from you this semester and to find other ways to create those masterpieces in my head.

Part 2

Modern smart technology was not a huge  part of my life until I moved from South America to New York City. Back in Guyana I was used to a slower, less technologically advanced way of life in all honesty. Yes, I had a television, electricity, running water, stairs, a bed, a home land line telephone, a propane gas stove, even a refrigerator. I had technologies that made my daily life easier. Let me paint a picture, in Guyana most people wake up with the rising of the sun and sleep to the setting of it. Here in New York the sun going down does not mean what it means to the people of Guyana, but the innovation of the modern clock does. When I moved here I learned fast that the clock was the way by which you live your life. New Yorkers live by alarms on the clock. It is a technology that I  can no longer live without myself. However, over the years my actual alarm clock has been replaced with my Smart Phone. It is my life. It is the first  thing I check when I open my eyes and the last thing before I sleep. My iPhone has replaced my laptop, even my Television. I have become married to the simpler way of life that all of these innovations in technology has created. I am tied to them. Whenever I return home on vacation I am ravished by their meaning  life made easy. Not being able find an open Wifi connection is not a simple way of life. For me as a New Yorker now I have to be able have every part of my life made simple. Even my language.

Technology has drastically changed my relationship to language. I used to have a deep connection with the words I use, but now since I spend my life glued in front of a 5.7 inch screen auto suggestive text seems to know more about my language than I do. However, language is more readily available to me because of technology. I can so easily access any writing that has been ever published which in a sense has made my relationship with it very close. On the the hand, when it comes to language, technology has made me its Frankenstein. It has made me into a person with multiple personalities. When I send a text message to a friend my language is simple and I could be misconstrued as illiterate.  On the other hand, when I send an E-mail to the my professors or colleagues I am profoundly eloquent with my words. My language changes on who I am talking to and the medium by which I am doing so. I have the tendency to try to show off with my language. I have a fascination with the use of words that not everyone hears everyday and finding a way to fit them into my vocabulary. The words that I read, write, or say have an effect on my mood. Words have the ability control my way of thinking. They indeed shape me, and in very rare and brilliant occasions I believe that I have shaped language as well.

Part 3

Intro to Phaedrus 

“Why does the soul, intended to soar through the heavens settle on earth? It is because of a fault of the wing, which should be nourished on beauty and goodness; but, when deprived of this food, it wastes away and loses its feathers. This, however, is not the only source of evil that may befall man; there is also one of the horses that is ignoble-the black one” (10)

Literally; I believe the author is saying that if we as human are born good then why do we live on earth, a place plagued with death and disease. It is because of the mistakes of our own hand, which should be nurtured with vanity and honesty; but when we are stripped from these nourishment, the hand we have loses its character of goodness. This is how man becomes laden with the sin of morality.

Intellectually; This passage makes my mind wander onto the story of how Lucifer becomes the devil. It makes me think of him loosing his wings and being banished from heaven to live a life in hell for all of eternity. It makes me think of how his actions, the fault of his own wing which was to be like God. God is an entity that for many is the highest of the high. He is the most good and the beholder of beauty. When Lucifer was cast out of heaven it was because of his desire to be like God, a desire that could not be acceptable because there is all but one God. When Lucifer was deprived of the beauty and goodness he fell and in a paradoxical way did get what he wanted. He became the God of all evil. Be that as it may, when reading this passage it was hard not to make the connection to the belief in God and the Devil. While reading and seeing trigger words such as Heaven, wings, and goodness it was clear to me as the reader that the author was alluding to some story of the Devil.

Emotionally; This passage made me feel a sense of remorse. I felt sorry for mankind and all that we are stricken with. It is not every day that we as readers are given passages that inadvertently speak to us on a spiritual level. A passage that resonates with our longing for the meaning of life, or truly answers the question of why we are here.

“Man the Finder”

“Early man never committed himself to a single source of food or to a single mode of life; he spread over the whole planet and tested life under radically different circumstances, taking the bad with the good, the harsh with the temperate, glacial cold and tropical heat. His adaptability, his non-specialization, his readiness to come up with more than one answer to the same problem of animal existence-all this was his salvation. “(381)

Literally; The author of this  passage is stating that early man lived his life  as an adventurer in a sense. The Early man was not tied to one way of life, he traveled and tested life throughout the entire planet. Learning from every different circumstance. Learning how to live on the planet and work with the harsh environments just as the other animals did. This was how early man survived. This is how we as a species have survived.

Intellectually; After reading this it made me think of how far us as a species has come. We have faced every possible threat on this planet and against all odds we have managed to stay at the top of the food chain. Although, we have become more mechanical and our adaptations have evolved over the year, our early lessons from the animals still live within us. This passage resonates with me because it seems to explain more about humans than I ever thought possible. While reading this passage it became clear to me why some humans are as shy as a fox, or as brave as a bear. The early man was an impressive imitator and those characteristics still live on. I do not exactly know why this train of thought came to me. It just made sense. Early man lived around the world travelling and exploring every inch of the earth. They evolved but never outgrew their early beginnings. They just developed new answers to the new problems that arose.

Emotionally; Although, much of my mind was enlightened a larger part of me was thoroughly surprised. I never realized how much like the animals around us we truly are. I have always heard how animals were like us, but not once did I think of how much like them we are. We learned from them. We learned what to eat and  what not to eat from them. We learned basket making, trapping, even dam making from them. You could see my shock after all these years of hearing how man has taught animals so much yet after reading this passage it seems as though they have been the teachers all along.

After reading both, Phaedrus by Plato and “Man the Finder” by Lew is Mumford it is clear to say that I am truly exhausted. Let me explain. After years of molding certain beliefs it is shattering to read works that set your thinking process back to square one on topics that you thought you have built a solid argument on. These two readings have without a doubt caused me to question my sanctity, and my knowledge of mankind.