Abstract Dada

picasso's nude green leaves and bust

I read Camila P's blog titled the Cities. The first thing that I agree on is: Calvino's religious attachment can be seen in his choice of titles such as Isidora.

I hadn't noticed the significance of the titles and her blog gave birth to that particular interest. The names of the cities are each particular and special. They can each lead you towards different theories of what they are really meant to represent. 

The emperor decides to give emblems to the Cities only based on Marco Polo's description of them. Is that a representation of the amount of trust we should give the author? In my head I could imagine the items I would give to each city and Camila's blog made it clearer.

"Asthe book continues it is evident how the cities have nothing to do with eachother, they are completely isolated and non relatable" Camila Palacios

When I first read this phrase written by Camila I agreed but after reading the book more I came to a different conclusion. The cities are described in a way in which they are completely different yet the sentiment they evoke is the same. Just like memories or dreams they capture the way the thought made you feel, but are inaccurate every time you go back to them.

I decided to ask my close friends about this, Mariana Marquez told me to read her blog Calvino's Imagination that had her discoveries on this particular subject. When I did I could relate with the confusion she describes. At the end of the blog she explains what she read on the summary of the book, this was it:

Soon it becomes clear that each of these fantastic places is really the same place"

Completely opposite to Camila's theory. I found myself completely confused in trying to find a logical explanation to that. What I concluded is that it is not meant to be logical. 

I made a connection between Dada art and the book. Dada was a short movement in art, which was "rebellious". The artists made works full of meaning yet they lacked grace and logic. The movement mocked classical art. The argument for their works is that ANYTHING can be art even a toilet.

Marcel Duchamp - Fountain (signed as R. Mutt)

 Although I don't think the book lacks grace I do think that it is rebellious, full of symbolic meaning and illogic. 

Memory And Zora.

"Invisible cities" by Calvino is organized so that the reader decides his own way of reading through the book. I decided to read all the chapters named Cities and Memory first. Memory is one of the things in the world that has been explored with persistence, yet it remains very unknown. Some researchers say the best kept memories are those that you don't remember. They came up with this theory when they discovered that every time you look for something specific in your mind you change it. Make it more appealing or more dramatic for your own benefit. You add details that were not there originally and so on. Memory is inaccurate.
Calvino exposes one situation in which an old man dreams about a city. In his dream he reached the city while still young. In reality he reaches it in the middle of his elderly life. He has the memory of his dream to entertain himself when bored. But following the theory of memory he is making his dream change every time he goes back to it.
Calvino emphasizes on the visual descriptions of the cities. Although short they incite the reader to do a complex mental image of them.

I remember ( which means I distort a bit the real memory) that one city named Zora had been forgotten, but it was unforgettable. It had been forgotten because strange new gods had replaced the old ones. This unfortunate phenomena is relevant to daily life, we can see and be part of a more light headed generation that changed and forgot the past one when it brought strange morals to society instead of cultivating the old ones.

Out Pops Adam

Dawkins used his book to express some of his "hate" towards religion. In his second chapter I found a plethora of phrases that made emphasis on mocking some religious beliefs. For example: "the Septuagint could at least be said to have started something big when they mistranslated the Hebrew word for 'young woman' into the Greek word for 'virgin', coming up with the prophecy: 'behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son'"p.16

Although his remarks don't offend me, I do feel they are useless in the book. The book is supposed to be didactic and those little insights to Dawkins religious opinion don't have any educational purpose.

                                 

Let's try putting Dawkins theory into a Hollywood related example. If a teen star gains fans they will start to behave like her. The chain is created when an increase in fans means a higher increase of fans in the future. She is the trend. Therefore, she is the replicator. For some reason she is worth following and worth our time like the Matterhorn is worth naming. We can say that many lives will not be remembered because they don't have those abilities others had, or they had them but chose not to use them. Perhaps those that are being remembered are special because they are attention seekers. That is what keeps them from being unimportant. To conclude you must seek attention to make your life worth remembering.

It Is All About You

The first chapter of Dawkins book "The Selfish Gene" raises a rather interesting theory: when you do an action that is altruistic you do it from a selfish motive. YOU help an old lady to tell the story later or to get positive words from her that will make YOU feel better. YOU help your boss because YOU want to get a raise and so on. That is logical because we live in a competitive world we have to work our way up. Ambition leads us towards this altruistic/selfish path and it's normal. Where would we be without thinking of ourselves?

I chose my friends depending on how much their conversations will interest me. I care about them because I want them to do the same for me.

 For example when I help my mom I know that in the future I can bring that "altruistic" action into our discussion as a perfect defense. Through it like a bomb: "I helped you clean the other day. I'm not being rude all the time. How unfair of you!" BOOM! There, I survived the obstacle that was placed upon my path. Isn't that what we all do? Help to be helped?

 The thing is we do to get and that is okay, that is reciprocity.

Reciprocal Agreement, Kandisky.

You may find yourself staring at this picture. I've seen people find it very interesting. The artist is exploring something very peculiar: interest. What draws peoples attention about this work is that it talks about them. It talks about YOU. You are the subject of the work and that is fantastic. The work can be linked to Dawkins theory, because it aims to expose humanities egocentric nature.

An Ending Of Endings

Creativity has no boundaries and since we are all exploringtheboundaries I hope you enjoy:


"Finishing Candide, I was left confused. Why would Voltaire bring back to life both Pangloss and the Baron?" (Andres, Manuel) 
 I reflected upon the ending of the book, more precisely where Candide states “…but we must go and work in the garden” (p.144). I believe this garden that Candide talks about is a symbol for the reconstruction of a new life. 
"How dare he title the last chapter: “conclusion!”  For God’s sake!  If you’re writing a satirical novel, you can’t just suddenly decide to end the book with a “conclusion!”" (wiesner, mateo) But since it is satire it is meant to be controversial.
"In Candide the reader is not meant to identify with the characters or even wish that they succeed. On the contrary, I was constantly looking forward to Candide's failures and to being able to make fun of all the characters." (Aldana, Gabriela)
"The point he (voltaire) got across is that if we want something to change, we can’t just expect to sit back and allow others to do all the work, because things won’t end up the way you hoped they would." (Abadi, Yvette)
"Might I add the book was in its self an odyssey. At the beginning it was hard to comprehend, the titles of each chapter were spoilers of what was to come and what through me off the most was the lame and monotone storyline. After comprehending satire, it becomes interesting and funny, to see once perspective of the beautiful life brought down by one guy and his clumsy characters in a book." (Palacios, Camila)   
"The truth according to Voltaire is that life is similar to Adam and Eve’s situation in the garden. “When man was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ‘to dress it and to keep it’, to work.”(p.143) We must take an active role in our lives and never sit back and observe like Martin and Pangloss suggested." (Buraglia, Gabriela)
"Candide was confusing, yes, alas, so it goes…" (wiesner, mateo)


Contradicting Voltaire and his teachings I wanted to let others do my work. Credits to:
Mateo Wiesner
Gabriela Aldana
Yvette
Manuel Andres
Camila Palacios
Gabriela Buraglia

I think your reflections of the ending show how we as students felt when finishing the book:


Pissed 
Thrilled
Disappointed
Confused
Astonished
Curious

Thank you all 

Stupidity = Naiveness

Is it stupid of Candide to agree so fast to the money the Dutch captain was asking him for? Off course duh!

Candide is extremely naive. Naiveness could be a form of stupidity. You are incapable of seeing the ugly reality of people's minds, therefore you lack a sense of understanding- which is the definition of stupidity in the dictionary-. 

I can swallow war, poverty, tragedies and Voltaires's racism it feels like this:

But I can't swallow stupidity. Both in the book and in real life stupidity is something that I don't tolerate. I am not the only one, Diego Rodriguez has expressed several times that same frustration it's like this:

Looks uncomfortable doesn't it?

For all of us out there there is nothing we can do we will always be the minority. My suggestion music therapy LOL.

"Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." Friedrich schiller

To Put It Another Way

Bragging is something we do constantly, it can be annoying but it's natural. We seek feedback and sharing our accomplishments with others can lead to feedback (positive or negative doesn't matter). There are different types of bragging, - teenagers use them all, which can become very tedious - but there are two main ones: Bragging about interesting things that can lead to a conversation and bragging about empty material situations. Consequently, we can affirm that Candide and Cacambo show the desire to act upon the second form of bragging since, " they were both anxious, also, to show their friends how rich they had grown and to boast about what they had seen in their travels." p. 83
I wonder what friends Candide refered to, because I don't recall him having friends, besides Cunegonde.
In spite of this, one always finds someone to brag with. Bragging can come from insecurity, you need to prove your worth. Isn't that sad? All the same, I love bragging I do it with discretion or sometimes I do it just to be annoying. Bragging gives my life a twist sometimes. I can identify with Cacambo and Candide, if I found a land full of wealth and prosperity I would rejoice in telling my friends about it.
Since I got there first right? Yeah

(note: this baby looks just like a baby Tangen hihihihihihi)