Sunday, June 6, 2010
Effect on Soul and Body
Until this time, we discussed lots of subject about the book. If some of those subject are true, I can say that this book is a reflection of Oscar Wilde, is an inner conflicts of Oscar Wilde. In the book, Dorian Gray's soul and body are not complete. When his body was imprisoned, his soul is free as depending on Lord Henry. In first times, Dorian knew these words' meanings and importance, soul and body till he met Lord Henry. In the film, my subject is reflected in a scene. In this scene, Lord Henry took Dorian Gray to a club which is in a poor ward. When Dorian Gray saw many prostitutes, he asks that isn't there any effect on soul. Lord Henry felt lonely and homesick because according to him, when you take pleasure, there mustn't be anything like being ashamed. Why I didn't give an example from the book? I gave this example because visual things are more memorable :):):) What is thing which affected Dorian Gray? Of course, secular pleasure, beauty, youth and genius. I believe that maybe Oscar Wilde did a bad thing in that period he lived but this book came to today and it created us to have a chance to discuss. I have never thought before these words so deeply. Beauty, Genius and Youth... We are always talking about them. Our expectations depend on them. Everything doesn't have equal conditions and because of these, we are in this state.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
THE DESIRES OF WORDS
For the first time, Dorian notices to the truth of his own beauty when he sees Basil's portrait of him and Lord Henry’s words after he sees the portrait. Lord Henry told him that he was beautiful, but when he aged he would no longer have beauty. He thinks how important beauty is, and that he can give everything to keep his physical beauty. He comprehends the most important thing of him is his beauty. Beauty is more important than his soul.
I believe that this is one of the most important questions of the book: What are the effects of words on people? Being a witty person of words gained pleasure to Lord Henry; he began to talk to Dorian at once with a serious tone and with clarity of the sentences: “You are too charming to go in for philanthropy, Mr. Gray – far too charming.” Dorian couldn’t notice the thing which made Lord Henry was pleasure. When he looked back on his life, he got that beauty was not the most important thing. All the things happened because of the desires of words.
To Wilde, words were material and real: “Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape of them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?” How can they change one’s life completely? How?!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
" that a man like the Duke of Berwick leaves the room of a club when you enter it? why is it that so many gentlemen in London will neither go to your house nor invite you to theirs?" (page 172.)
"why is your friendship so fatal to young men? there was that wretched boy in the Guards who commited suidcide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England, with a tranished name, you and he were inseparable. what about Adrian Singleton, and his dreadful end? what about Lord Kent's only son, and his career? " (page 173.)
What about Lord Henry? I think he is the most dangerous man in that time period he isn't genious as seems because when he takes Dorian to go astray, he think that is a experiment but the fact is that is the end of rised England (for who?). For wealhty guys, factory owners and other high level guys. when dorian makes something bad too much and when he can not conceal his sins from notice, his portrait became worse.
We talked about who is Mr. Wilde and he is genious or not but he has ability to became genious and fool.
Killing is My Business.. and Business is Good!
"It brings me a great pleasure" says Mustaine in that song. "The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man who was seated at the table, more thain his whole life he had ever loathed anything. He glanced wildly around. something glimmered on the top of the painted chest that faced him. His eye fell on it...", "He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again."(Page 182)
Nowadays there are lots of murderers in hotel rooms, backyards even in little happy family houses. And According to Blackstone, English common law identified murder as a public wrong. but why? Why all civilians cannot kill someone, but a police or a soldier. They both may want to protect somebody or they may just kill someone in purpose. They have a chance to discuss about it if it is a crime or not. Whether it is allowed to a group of people, is it in nature of us? Does it stay inside of us and gnaw us.
"How quickly it had all been done! He felt strangely calm, and, walking over to the window..." When Dorian murders Basil, he keeps his presence, just like nothing happened. But when someone kill another they say they are sorry and regretful. Are they sorry about killing a person or being behind the bars? I think it is the second one. Because someone who is not punished can do it again and he doesn't feel a bit of contriteness. It seems it is in human nature, because Dorian who is not punished and still out of jail, can kill someone again and do it again with the great joy of slaughter. Also he is not under pressure of people about being a murderer.
"Killing is my business
And business is good
You'd better believe it"*
by Dave Mustaine, Megadeth, Killing is my business
IS ACTING MORE REAL THAN LIFE?
“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.” (pg. 94)
Oscar Wilde said in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” that acting is more real than life. I don’t agree with that idea, because nothing can be more real than life. Being real is very common in life, because people can only say that something is real when they live it or feel it. Everybody have to live the idea if they want to prove that something is real.
Acting is very unreal thing, because when you are acting you always trying to be a different person. Like Sibyl Vane did. One day she became Juliet, one day she became different person. Then when she left the opera she became his real character. When you are acting someone you are trying to be like him or her, because you have to give the main idea of the character which you are acting. So you are unreal, for example Monday you are Juliet and Sunday you are Sibyl Vane. Sunday you are not Juliet or Monday you are not Sibyl Vane. So you are not real on both Monday and Sunday.
People on the opera are unreal person. Actually they are real, because you can see him or live that moment. But they are figurative; they can’t be themselves on the scene, so they are unreal people on the scene.
As a conclusion acting can’t be more real than life, because if you want to prove something that real, you have to live it or feel it with your real character.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Good Source
Victorian Sources
These are EXCELLENT resources from the BBC. I am going to require that you use one of these in your annotated bibliography. (remember - 6 is only the minimum!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timelime/victorianbritain_timeline_noflash.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Oscar Wilde's Opinions about Women
Dorian Gray is an only REFLECTION!
When I hold this book, I see every time the soul of Oscar Wilde in those characters! He wrote book with the pieces of his broken soul. While you reading that you can find the clues to prove that idea. Let me explain that.
Dorian Gray is the major character of that book and he is very beautiful and young. Lord Henry is aged man but he is very clever and he is a sort of philosopher. Basil is a good man who is an artist and homosexual. These are the major properties of the characters that are in the book and all of them is in the high society in the west England.
They have connections and the conflicts because of their ideas and and willings. Dorian Gray is the purest one in the beginning like Oscar Wilde's soul but he is affected with the ideas of Lord Henry Who is hedonist and he sold his soul to devil and the picture and Dorian's soul exchanged the souls. Basil is the homosexual ones and he is an artist but he is more experienced than Dorian and he warned Dorian. Main idea was that; Lord Henry is an only director and he never lived the life that he tell. He is jelaus of Beauty but he never be the man like Dorian.
Every character has the piece of clues that belongs the Oscar Wilde. Some of them has a pressure of being homosexual some of them influenced the hedonistic ideas of Victorian England and the some fo them is the real wronged. He is the junction of every one of them.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Ha ha ha...
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Why don't we commit suicide?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Oi! Don't forget to comment!
Don't forget to respond with comments to the 2 posts by Umur and Betigul before Thursday, 11p.m. Or else...
Sunday, May 9, 2010
We live for nothing?!!
In the book The Picture of Dorian Gray which is written by Oscar Wilde, there is a sentence “There is no doubt that Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves.” The idea about the comparing beauty and genius is not so important for me because each people can look that part in a different perspective. But I really do not understand the part "we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves". Pain to over-educate ourselves?!! That means we all educate ourselves in this life for nothing? ROFL!!! No way mate! If all we do is for nothing why we live? To be happy? To make other people happy? Go jump from a bridge then. Why not, you said we all take such pain to over-educate ourselves. If Oscar Wilde supports beauty and criticise the genius that means he live to see beautiful things. But if you do not open your eyes someone can do it for you with killing these good things.
"People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is." Same thing continuous in here. I think Oscar Wilde must think about the relation between genius and beauty. Beuty is temporary. We can not live for the thing that will disappear. Genius is not like that. Genius is all about your intellect and knowledge. You can improve it, you can read books, you can search, you can share your ideas with people. There is no limit!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Love at First Sight! (Such a big lie!!)
While I was reading the chapter that includes the opinions of Dorian Gray about Sibyl Vane, I felt that "love at first sight" will never exist. Dorian Gray really exaggerates his emotions about Sibyl Vane and this causes me to feel unwell. I will explain why, but at first I want to talk about Sibyl Vane, her first influence on Dorian Gray and reasons of that, on my side.
Mr. Gray starts to believe that "the search for beauty being the real secret of life" because of the influences of Lord Henry on himself. And then Mr. Gray tries to find the real beauty.
Dorian goes in an absurd theater by coincidence, and there is the play "Romeo & Juliet". Look at that chance! And also there is a dreadful orchestra, even Romeo is terrible. But let me give you an example from Dorian about Juliet:
"But Juliet! Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little flower-like face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose. She was the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life" (p. 61)
Look at these adjectives and compliments! How boring they are! Basically, these compliments are not for Sibyl Vane, these are for beauty that is searched by Mr. Gray, these are for Juliet, for Sibyl Imogen not for real Sibyl. Even Dorian Gray and Lord Henry express that, when Lord Henry asks that "When is she Sibyl Vane?", Mr. Gray replies: "Never!" (p.66).
He describes her as sacred and the finest actress he has ever seen. But I believe that this is because of the several trips to the theater, and the obsessions of Mr. Gray to find the real beauty not the real love or real woman that lives for him for years.
As a conclusion, I can say that I describe the future relationship between Dorian Gray and the Sibyl Vane will be the most dreadful relationship on my side. For a footnote, I will never believe the love at first sight, and I will never trust the existence of the trustworthy compliments without emotions and with obsessions .
Sunday, May 2, 2010
This is the real World Of Warcraft
Diego Lugano
Supersport Car by Lamborghini
Lamborghini made a supersport car named Gallardo LP560-4 Superleggera. this is very good sport car and Lamborghini made this car to beat Ferrari's California. Because this car has many super properties like most lightweight Lamborghini and this car has 570 horsepower and it's maximum speed is 375 km/h. Also this car can accerelate to 100 km/h at 3.5 sec. This value is very good for a sport car. It has V10 5.2 cc engine. Also this engine can produce 399 horsepower per ton. This value is very crazy. You can think that you can't stop or control this car. But it is too wrong, because this car has many fantastic security system to preserve any bad accident. This car is allwheel drive system and it is very good decision to preserve accident because of happened to lose your control when you are driving at high speed. So can you imagine a price for this car. I think it must be high, but Lamborghini don't think like us, because the price of this car is 175.000 pound(430.000 turkish liras) and it is so good for a supersport car like this. You can watch a video about it which is on this website => http://www.evodergi.com.tr/evo/0410/video1.php
Father of Suspense Novels
The Best Way to Satisfy Your Curiosity
Colorful Pitcures From The Century Before
Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin is the Russian chemist and photographer that lived in 1863-1944. His main research ws about producing a colorful pictures and taking a cinema movies. In 1905, he alter to tecnology in Russian Empire. His projects aim was teaching the "optic color reflections" to students. He used to 3 different black-white picture for catching the real colorful light to create the original color system but that was very hard and complicated and it takes a long time but he did! :D Today we can see the 100 pictures that belongs to 1910 thanks to Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin. You can see there 84 of them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
www.oyungezer.com.tr/videolar/v/986-call-of-duty-balck-ops-ilk-video/
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Koc High School - RamFest'10 (April, 29)
From our school, there were five paintings and two bands. Five songs were sung by our students and also it was the birthday of two students from our school (İlhan Barış, Ali Baran) and one of the bands sang the song "Happy Birthday" for them. The other songs were Pretty Woman(Elvis Presley), Gimme Gimme Gimme (Abba), Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin), Breakfast in America (Supertramp), Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Guns'n Roses).
There were lots of bands from lots of high school (Darussafaka, Kadikoy Anadolu, TED...) and the day was full of music, art and also sun. The day was really great.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Kimimaro
This is a character from the manga called naruto. his name is kimimaro and like all the other ninjas he has some special abilities. his blood line gives him the ability of controlling and manipulating his bones. he can make bone-bullets or bone-swords. You can find all antagonists from naruto by this link.(this link not the other ;))
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Eye of the Beholder
While I am reading the first few chapters of A Picture of Dorian Gray, I am constantly reminded of a book I read a few years ago called Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. I will explain the connection shortly, but first, a few words on Mr. Wilde.
To me, Oscar Wilde is both a genius and a jerk at the same time. I am constantly overwhelmed by his words. Very few writers in the English language have the talent to express ideas so simply. He is fond of the literary maxim. No, not this maxim, but this one:
maxim |ˈmaksim|
(noun)
a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct : the maxim that actions speak louder than words.
And the preface is made up of a long list of maxims that help set the scene of the book. Even the characters talk in maxims, such as this example:
"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one."
(p. 15)
While most of them are truly excellent summaries of what is important in life, many times Wilde comes off as elitist, egotistical and generally, well, a jerk! For example,
"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."
(p. 5)
The cultivated? The elect? Nothing could be more elitist and undemocratic! Does that mean the rest of the world is worthless? This is a view that perfectly reflects the wealth and class divisions of Victorian England. Wilde seems to be saying that anyone who cannot find beauty in something beautiful, is somehow less of a person (i.e., not elect or cultivated). Basically, he dismisses anyone who is not like him! What about the people who work for a living? Does Basil Hallwood give a damn about them? Nope.
And this brings me back to Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. Published in 1929, the book is basically about this character who is so sad and depressed because he feels like he doesn't fit in with "regular people" in the world. Because he is a person who thinks about important things, he believes he is better than all the "poor souls" who do not see the truth of life and instead go on with their daily activities happily.
Like most German literature, it discusses some very serious and important philosophical questions (What if there really IS nothing more to life than just living?), but I became so disgusted and depressed when I was reading this book, that I was convinced these ideas brought me nothing but sadness.
The thought of being disconnected from other people is not a feeling I want. I find happiness in connection with people (teaching is great for that.) Maybe there is no God. And maybe there is no afterlife and when we die we just return to dust. But while I am alive, I'm going to do my best to make sure that I live my life as completely as I can. I want to meet and connect with people and make sure that I am benefitting those people in some way and that those people can benefit me.
I disagree with Oscar Wilde. There is no such thing as a "cultivated" person or an "elect" person who is different from others. I can probably learn something from Basil and Lord Henry (maybe) and Dorian, but I bet I can learn something from the non-cultivated and non-elect.
Anyone can find beauty in anything - especially the simpler things in life (love, anyone?) As Plato said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
I enjoy this musical response:
Friday, April 23, 2010
Test post
Here are all the possibilities available to you with this blog.
First, you can change the way that your text looks by using bold, italics, or making it bigger and smaller. You can even choose a different font if you don't like this one.
The best part of blogs is that you can use hyperlinks to connect easily to other content on the Internet.
You can insert photos and videos and move them to any part of the page you want.
And, if you want to use a direct quote that is really long, there is even a quote option:
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
~ Oscar Wilde