Hi everyone, my name is Nadja, and I am majoring in architecture. I was born in Montenegro, raised in Italy and Germany and moved to New York almost 4 years ago. I started my studies in architecture at Pratt Institute and later transferred to CityTech, for its focus on technical skills and specific areas of architecture and construction. I took a couple of classes in mechanical engineering and loved working hands-on with manual milling machines and later CNC machines. It never ceases to amaze me what technology can do and that we have the possibility to build things that can leave a positive impact on society. I would love to learn more about electrical engineering and incorporate that in my architecture projects, create kinetic art that responds to movement or sound. I see there are students in computer science, and I always found problem-solving and analytical skills fascinating and fulfilling, sometimes unreachable.
I was a competitive swimmer until I moved to the US, and still love to do various sports. I am not a professional skier but I love to ski in the winter and swim in the summer as much as possible. I am taking 3 summer classes (maybe too much?) but I’m really trying to graduate by the end of the Fall so I can switch to a work visa and stay in the US. I can’t imagine living anywhere else but New York! The genre I usually read is novels as I can experience that immersive feeling that only music, drawing or architecture can give me. One of my favorite books is “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest” by Ken Kesey and one of my favorite quotes from the book: Because he (McMurphy) knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there’s a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.” The novel deserves to be read because even today the message that emerges in the book is extremely current and is not limited to a ruthless criticism of psychiatry that, like all institutions created by man, can’t be considered infallible since it focuses its attention on the abstract concept of “normal”. What makes the reading of this novel extremely fascinating is the metaphorical use of the writer, through the description of the events occurring in the psychiatric institution, to denounce a brutal system created by men themselves. The system that the writer attacks is symbolized by Miss Ratched, a smiling and inflexible head nurse, the perfect representation of a mythical and oppressive system. She dominates all the patients in the ward , coldly and cynically exploits their fear of the outside world, in fact there are not a few patients who have decided to self lock themselves due to the inability to bear the pressures exerted by a society that would like them to be equal to others.
The main character McMurphy, refuses to obey and seeks freedom. Throughout the book I love seeing how his character begins to awaken the same desire for rebellion in other patients as well. It allows them to face their fears and, even for a limited period of time, rebel against the oppressor.
I would love to hear more suggestions on books about social protest.
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