Blog Post

During the break, I watched the movie, “Life of Pi” with my childhood friends in Korea. In the movie, I was instantly engaged when I saw the protagonist reading the book that I was very familiar with, L’etranger (The Stranger). I wound up thinking that the theme of Life of Pi had a strong correlation to existentialism, and began analyzing the movie with this thought in mind. From the movie, it seemed like Piscine Patel was an Ubermensch and an existentialist. In the shipwreck, Piscine loses almost everything that matters to him such as his family and most of the animals that were in his zoos — with the exception of the tiger, Richard Parker. Despite his unspeakable hardships and bleak chance to survive, Pi chooses not to die. His decision reflects his acceptance of an existentialist phrase coined by Sartre, “existence precedes essence.” To existentialists, existence of life is more important than the essence/ nature of it (Wikipedia). Because he finds meaning in his existence — however miserable it is — he chooses to live and not to die. He exemplifies the trait of Übermensch, defined by Fredrich Niche: a being that can withstand hardship and take responsibility for his own decisions. In other words, because he chooses to live, he has to endure the constant fear of death from Richard Parker and the vast sea. In the end, he was able to survive because he had the will to live. The author of Life of Pi, Yann Martel, might have wanted to say that existence - or life - has a value in itself, and that the existentialistic motto of “existence precedes essence” might help one survive one’s hardest times.

Citation:

·         “Existence precedes essence”

o   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_precedes_essence

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/7249849/North-Korea-secrets-and-lies.html
While sitting in Asia Rising class this last past week, I have learned
more about the historical background of North Korea.  While the
Americans dislike many traits of the North Koreans, it is mainly their
leaders who are harming them.  The reign of the Kim’s have been in power
ever since many of the current North Koreans can remember, they have
been responsible for keeping their country literally in the dark.
Constant power outages occur throughout the day and the ironic part is
that they blame the U.S. for invading their reserves of energy (Ms.
McKenna). It is no wonder why the U.S. does not like North Korea.

Interestingly, the power of an individual can cause the downfall of
around 24 million people.  The relationship the North Koreans have
with their government appears as if they worship their “masters” or
their leaders.  Having mass games where millions of Koreans attend to
see this mass production of basically the Beijing Olympics opening
ceremony and wanting their leader to look at them and be proud of all
their hard work, it seems as if the North Korean population reveres
their leaders.  It appears to me that this is because the North
Koreans do not know otherwise.  They are split into 3 tiers where the
first is the pure, very military oriented families, the wavering
class, the class whom are military focused but not under the constant
watchful eyes of the government, and there is the unpure, the
physically and socioeconomically struggling families.

North Korea threatens their people, telling them that if they have
familial ties with a South Korean person, their whole family will be
put into labor camps.  Understanding that not just an individual would
be put into the harshest working conditions, but also knowing that the
people do not even know when their next meal will be, this jeopardizes
that too. Due to the extremely poor working conditions and the
malnourished people, they can only look up to their government and
join their huge military because they know the government will feed
them.  These people are deprived of their food and the wealth is
extremely not well managed and basically goes to their capital,
Pyongyang where the streets and buildings are larger than life,
however the streets are bare.

Being an isolated county is extremely difficult especially because of
the technology people have these days.  Using Goggle Earth allows
people to see how desolate the country is. While merging both the
ideas from Asia Rising and of Alienation, it seems as if many of the
people that are alienated are either afraid of society and facing it,
or they are pressed down by others because it is easier.  I believe
that much of the ostracizing of the North Koreans stems from their
xenophobic leaders and because they are afraid that everyone does not
like them.  If one was to tell a lie to themselves everyday, it would
be hard not to start to believe it.  I also think that because we do
not have great relations with the North Koreans, they do have reason
to be afraid of the U.S. and the world.  The world can be a scary
place and I feel like the leaders are not prepared to face it and
understand that they really are not self-sufficient.

http://www.nytimes.com/iht/2006/07/12/sports/IHT-12globalist.html

In this article from the New York Times, the infamous head butt by the now retired French soccer player Zinédine Zidane during the last game of his career (2006 World Cup) is compared to Camus’ The Stranger. The writer of the article describes Zidane’s head butt as a “senseless act”; a sudden spark of rage and violence from the player that no one had ever predicted would flare up—much like Meursault’s murder of the Arab. He goes on to explain that in the end that it is we ourselves that individually chose our fate. Meursault and Zidane both chose their fates or the “ends” - the end of Meursault’s life as a free man and a violent ending to the last game of Zidane’s career. Sometimes humans make choices that are seemingly illogical and random, but ultimately it is just ourselves making our own choices and deciding what we want our fate to be.

(Grace) 

Article by Matt Clark

The song “It is what it is” was written by the jazz turned rock guitarist Vic Chesnutt. In it, he explores the various themes of appearance versus true identity. This can be seen in the very first few lines he sings: 

I am a monster like Quasimodo

or Caliban, the natural man

Giving wild ripostes to my reflection.

One ugly morning in a rage

Father threw an apple into my carapace.

Vic Chesnutt would always write songs that retained part of who he was. These first few lines illustrate this because he was left deformed and crippled after a car accident in his early life. Because of this, he compares himself to monsters such as Quasimodo or Caliban, repulsed by his own reflection. The next few lines even make a reference to Gregor from Kafka’s Metamorphasis, in which his father throws an apple to ward off Gregor, who’s appearance repulsed those around him. Following this, Vic says that,

Appearance is everything

Nothing is how it seems

A civilized society

Is calm civility. 

By saying this, he is stressing the importance we hold to ones appearance in our culture and how our entire society is really based more on tolerance, calm civility, rather than acceptance. 

In the next stanza, Vic brings includes more concepts of existentialism, saying

I’m the phantom of the opera

singing beauty and at ease

or Henry Darger’s autobiography

and that is curt clues to my essence

planned obsolesence

These lyrics convey Vic’s opinion that perhaps one exists to become obsolete, a nihilistic concept, but he also says that he sings beauty and he references Henry Darger, a man who was institutionalized in his early life before making thick tomes of beautiful and thought provoking art work after being let out. And so, Vic may be saying that one exists to create beauty.

In the next stanza he echos the previous “chorus”, but with slight changes:

Appearance is everything

nothing is how it seems

in a market economy

its called marketing

Although he is repeating the first two lines, they take on a different meaning this time, implying that in the capitalist economy that we all live in today, people manipulate appearances to make things seem more appealing. Beauty products, clothing, and alcohol are all marketed to enhance the user’s appearance.

The next few stanzas strike at the core of existentialism:

But sometimes clear headed

sometimes a doofus

sometimes very cordial

and somtimes aloof

I am syrupy optomistic one moment

and gravely pessimistic the next

irritable as a hornet some times

than agreeable as it gets. 

These passages directly relate back to “The Stranger”, because Vic is acknowledging the fact than man cannot be defined by anything but his actions and that his actions are not always predictable; they are sometimes sporadic. 

The next few lines introduce more of Chesnutt’s beliefs, in which he holds no major reverence for either religion nor science.  This perhaps could be more connections to the protagonist of “The Stranger”, who didn’t have any regard for religion either.

And I’m not a pagan

I don’t worship anything

not Gods that don’t exist

nor the Sun that’s oblivious

The last few lines continue to convey Vic’s beliefs :

I love my ancestors

but not ritually

I don’t blame them or praise them

for anything they have passed along to me

And I don’t need stone altars to help me hedge my bets

against the looming blackness

it is what it is.

These lines seem particularly meaningful to me. Vic loves his family, but only because he wishes to love them, not because it is part of his religion. He also accepts the inevitability of death, claiming that one cannot distort it. Again, this introduces Vic’s past experiences into his lyrics: After his car crash, Vic was in constant pain with little relief from pain killers. In an interview, he said that he had flirted with death, attempting suicide many times and that “it just didn’t stick”. Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas, 2009 from a painkiller overdose in the hospital.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQbhPlJbqiM

In this song, Macklemore really emphasizes the fact that there is no “destiny”. In the lines “We have many paths in this journey

They act in different directions
So when you question don’t be worried
It’s not a wrong one” ,

he acknowledges that many people feel like they have set roles that they should fill and that any other role would be considered incorrect. In a similar way, in existentialism, the concepts of “good” and “evil” are rejected and people are simply labeled by whatever actions they perform (such as the being labeled a “liar” if one lies). 

Macklemore goes on to say that,

Life can be a burden or a blessing
The choice is yours to be connected
It’s there if you want it, you got it, now let it”

By saying this, he is bringing in the existentialist concept of perspective, where life is what ones makes of it. For example, in Invisible Man, IM has the ability to choose whether to stay in his “cave” or to go out into he world despite being misunderstood by those around him. Based on his perspective, the outer world could seem a hopeless due to his invisibility. On the other hand, if he accepts the fact that he will never be fully understood, he can move on and try to get his “message” out via his speeches.

-Matt Clark

In his lyrics, Sam Sparro seems to invoke a higher power to understand the meaning of life, using a color metaphor of the night sky: black and gold. In this song, he inquires about the higher being for the purpose of his life, specifically when he sings, “And now I’m looking for a reason why/ You [higher power] even set my world into motion.”  He tries to find a meaning to life through god, in other words, to understand why god has put him on earth, but he cannot contact him because it is impossible for humans to understand the meaning in life. His despair over this impossibility is shown when he says, “I look up into the night sky/ And see a thousand eyes staring back/ And all around these gold beacons/ I see nothing but black.” The gold color of the stars in the night sky is used as a symbolism for the meaning and purpose of life, and the black is used as a symbolism of void and meaninglessness. He sees nothing but black because, according to Existentialism, the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning in life, the star, will ultimately fail. He says that without the help and presence of god, there cannot be a purpose in life. 

- Jeff L.

The title, “All These Things That I’ve Done,” corresponds with the premise of existentialism: I do, therefore I am. Clearly, the song title is playing off this phrase. The lyric “When there’s nowhere else to run/Is there room for one more song” corresponds with the absurdity that is part of existentialism. In absurdism, there is no meaning behind one’s actions; in other words, there is not destination or point to actions. Music is a way of expression, but what is the point of expressing oneself if there is no point or end destination? Like the subject of the song, Sisyphus is pushing the rock to an uncertain destination, yet he holds onto his goal of making his way up the mountain with the rock. The lyric “If you can hold on, hold on” is similar to this idea of making a heaven of one’s own hell like Sisyphus does. Moreover the line “I got a soul but I’m not a soldier” is similar to Meursault because he has a soul but does not take action or responsibility like a soldier does.