Billy's Online Journal

Images

“Bent double, like old beggars…”
This quote gives me the image of broken men . Bent double makes me think are fatigued, in pain, maybe injured; the war is not giving them a good time. Old beggars gives me the image of men who have movement inabilities cant walk properly as if they are old.  Also the image of ripped and ragged clothes. There could also be literal begging, begging for the war to end so they can go home.

“Knock-Kneed…”
This gives me an image of men stumbling through difficult terrain, there knees not working properly. Stumbling along almost falling to the ground.

“Men marched asleep…”
This tells me how severely tired they all are. They are barely staying awake, barely keeping on going.

“But someone still was yelling out… and flound’ring like a man in fire”
Someone missed the chance to get their gas helmet on. He freaks out and starts yelling for help but there cant be any help as he has already been affected. He goes insane with pain and starts spazing out.
“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”
Not only do they have the pain of getting shot at, gassed, fatigued, broken bodies, ripped clothes; but they have to watch there own friends and comrades die on a daily basis. I think that would out-way all the personal pain of war.

Language

“An ecstasy of fumbling”
The word ecstasy makes it seem chaotic, everyone is hyper and going as fast as possible to put on their gas masks.

“”As under a green sea”
There not a small amount of gas but his friend is drowning under a whole sea of the stuff

“Obscene as cancer”
The man was not foul but the foulest of foul. He was hideous.

“Cursed through the sludge”
They weren’t walking through the sludge all downcast, but were cursing as they went.

Who was Wilfred Owen?
He was a soldier in the first world war. He also wrote some of the best poetry of world war 1. He died one week before armistice in November 1918. He died in action at age 25. He was born on 18 March 1893. Mentor siegfried sassoom. He became a teaching assistant so his writing was top notch.

Why Did he Write the Poem?
He wrote the poem to shock civilians at home who believed the war was noble and glorious. He wrote the poem for his mother, telling them not to tell anyone that war is glorious. Written to emphasize how the war was carrying on beyond reason.

When and Where Was the Poem Written?
“The earliest surviving draft is dated 8th October 1917” Don’t know where. Wrote it a day after seeing his friends being killed by the gas. Wrote most of the poetry in hospital suffering from shell shock.

What does this poem mean to readers today?
Shows the horrors war entailed.

How is this poem interpreted?
It was a form of catharsis for him, for post traumatic stress of war.
“Normal isnt a word that has any meaning for soldiers anymore.” – Soldiers can’t forget what they have been through, there lives will never be the same.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wilfred-owen
http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/dulce-et-decorum-est

‘Suddenly, a Knock on the Door’ is a short story written by Etgar Keret. It is set in the living room of a writers house, in a middle eastern country. The story begins with a knock on the door of the writers house. A Swedish man comes in demanding the writer tells him a story. The writer only agrees as the man has a pistol. The writer tries to reason with the Swede that a story will not come to mind if there is a gun pointed at him. The writer begins to tell a story about a man being held hostage and forced to tell a story, when suddenly there is a knock at the door. Its a pollster who barges in with a gun also looking for a story. The writer starts his story again but this time with two kidnappers, but there is another knock on the door. This time it is a pizza man with a delivery, but the writer didn’t order pizza? The delivery man turns out to have also come for a story, but doesn’t have a gun only a cleaver, “but I’ll cut him into julienne strips unless he coughs up a good one, on the double.” The writer settles down to retell the story but the kidnappers won’t let him talk about what is currently happening in the room. He tells it anyway, getting a bit ocd having to get to the part about a knock on the door then the story ends.

The story talks about how in the middle east you have to take things by force, you can’t ask politely. “In this country,’ he explains, ‘if you want something, you have to use force.” This relates to the real world, as in a lot of third world/ ‘undeveloped’ nations the law is quite out of balance. This makes people feel as if they have to use force to get things. This is because everyone has become defensive of sharing things, so won’t freely give. So asking politely for something will not likely get it for you.

A personal connection I had with the text was with the writer. “It’s hard to think up a story with the barrel of a loaded pistol pointed at your head.” The writer struggle to think of things on the spot, or under pressure. I struggle with this a maybe a few times daily. When I’m talking about something and someone asks “Give me an example of when you’ve done this, or this has happened” my brain just freezes up. I can’t think of things easily when I am put on the spot, but I would think of a whole bunch of things straight afterwards. Another example of when I can’t think of things is during English exams or anything with a time limit. My brain takes ages to think of things as it go through all the best possible ways of how I could write something, and is constantly trying to improve it as I write it.

“Transcendence is a film directed by Wally Pfister starring Johnny Depp (Dr. Will Caster), Rebecca Hall (Evelyn Caster) and Paul Bettany (Max Waters). The film is set at a modern time with everyone relying on technology in their daily lives. The opening scene of the film shows a world where some event has wiped out all electricity. It then rewinds to Dr. Will Caster being shot by a terrorist group called R.I.F.T (Revolutionary Independence From Technology) because of his work on artificial intelligence (A.I). He survives the bullet but it was poisoned so he only has a few months to live. Will’s wife Evelyn hears of a scientist who, instead of creating a self-aware A.I, uploaded an existing conscious. He successfully uploaded a monkeys brain into the computer, so Evelyn wonders if she can upload Will to save him. Max helps her but as they uploaded Will into the drives of an A.I called PINN Max is skeptical that it is actually Will. ‘Will’ creates an empire of science and the films conclusion makes us wonder whether it was actually Will or just a mad computer.

A connection this film had to the real was the modern day technological advancements. In the real world at the moment there are so many people researching things like artificial intelligence and cancer cures. In the film one leads to the other as the A.I creates nano technology. The nano technology created by Will, after he was uploaded, was able to create new cells which allowed healing of tissue. This meant that any sickness was healed or cured. ” These people are suffering, Evelyn. They have no hope and I’m able to fix them.” There are so many people around the world who are researching for these advancements. They would help so many people who would benefit from these being a reality.

A personal connection I had with this film was with the fears of R.I.F.T. R.I.F.T believe that artificial intelligence would ruin the world if it were allowed online. “We were too late, it’s out there now.” R.I.F.T sent a team to shut down the A.I before it went online but were too late, Evelyn had already let it online. R.I.F.T’s concerns are that if this A.I is let online it can access any file from any database connected to the internet and would never be able to be shutdown. I share these concerns that A.I, if they are not contained, will be dangerous. If the A.I is self aware then whats to stop it doing it’s own thing and launching nuclear bombs. I know it’s far fetched and a lot of research off but there are still concerns. Transcendence reminded me of a film called ‘I Robot’ directed by Alex Proyas. This film about an Artificial Intelligence which decides the human race needs to be destroyed because they all they do is kill each other. Transcendence reminded me of this film because of R.I.F.T’s concerns. The A.I in I Robot is exactly the type of A.I R.I.F.T were concerned that would happen in Transcendence. It is also the type of A.I I am concerned someone could create in the future. Since our current generations are growing in a technological world most of future jobs will be in the computer sciences industry. Which means there will be plenty of people working on these A.I’s in the future to come.

“Transcendence” is a film directed by Wally Pfister, starring Johnny Depp (Will Caster), Rebecca Hall (Evelyn Caster) and Paul Bettany (Max Waters). The film starts at a point of society where some devastating event has wiped out all electricity. It then rewinds a few years to a conference at which Dr. Will Caster is presenting to his sponsors about his work on artificial intelligence. He is on the brink of discovering how to map the human brain to create a self aware A.I. On the same day Will is shot my a terrorist group called R.I.F.T (Revolutionary Independence From Technology) and A.I. labs are attacked all over the country. Will survives but the bullet was laced with poison so he only has 3 months to live. Evelyn finds the research of a man which successfully uploaded a monkey’s brain into a computer and, as a chance to save her husband, recruits life long friend Max to help her upload Wills brain. Will dies but his brain was successfully uploaded or so Evelyn thinks. She is instantly a believer that it worked but Max is skeptical about how much of Will Caster actually survived. This is because they uploaded him into the drives which housed PINN (Physically Independent Neural Network) Max is not sure if what they are seeing is PINN or Will. They have an argument and Evelyn sends Max out. Max is confronted and kidnapped by R.I.F.T, who then send a team to capture Evelyn and shut down this A.I before it is loaded onto the internet. R.I.F.T is too late and Evelyn uploads ‘Will’ onto the internet. Will instantly starts using the stock market to pile money into him and Evelyn’s bank account. They eventually buy a small town in the middle of nowhere and build a gigantic laboratory where A.I will makes massive advancements in nano technology and other sciences. Max is convinced by R.I.F.T that the A.I needs to be shut down and enlists help from his contacts in the FBI. Deformed or Disabled people from all around come for Will to heal them with his nano tech. Not only does he heal them though he also enhances their bodies and connects them to him, so he can control them like a hive mind. Max and his team capture one of these people and use their blood to create a virus that will shut down the A.I but will also shut down the whole internet in the process. The contact Evelyn who is getting more weary that this mind is not actually Will and she says she will plant the virus as she created the problem. Will in the mean time has figured out how to grow tissue and has created himself as a human again. Evelyn is dying as the virus is in her veins she would implant it by getting Will to upload her to him. At this time the army are bombing all of Will’s solar panels so he doesn’t have enough power

“The Archipelago” is a short story written by AC Tillyer. It is set around an archipelago, hence the name, of islands. This is a descriptive piece and doesn’t really have a plot, or characters. The different islands are inhabited by a different race of people. Although they all look the same, they are told apart by their distinct dress and dialects. The one similarity between the people is their backward way of building; the people build opposite to the environment. “On rocky hillsides there are wooden huts and in wooded valleys, towns of brick. Arid uplands are irrigated and planted with leafy gardens, whereas, on fertile plains, the parks are paved with stone.” The islanders are peaceful however despite all of their differences. There is an island in the middle of the archipelago which has been deserted for generations and there is no obvious reason why. The story then describes the past in which this island was plentiful inhabited and the centre of trade. The inhabitants of this island decided to build a wall, a giant wall “from faraway the island resembled an enormous wedding cake.” The building of this wall killed the islands prosperity as resources got used up and they had nothing to sell. They had spent so many generations building this wall that they worked themselves all to death and the wall wasn’t completed.

A personal connection I had with this short story was the segregation of the islands. This reminded me of the different friend groups we have in our year group at school. “Although physically they look alike, you can tell them apart by their styles of dress, their distinctive dialects and even their most casual gestures.” We are all humans, but each friend group has their own ways of communicating with each other, their own inside jokes. “Despite their differences, the islanders coexist peacefully.” There are rarely any fights, between friend groups. “Distances between the islands are not great and the sea is calm but people prefer to stick with their own kind.” Most people could change friend groups, and it does happen, but mostly people stick with the group they are with. “For the most part, the only contact between the different races is for trading purposes.” Mostly the only mingling between the groups are when they have to work together in class. When you a paired up away from your friends for class projects.

This text relates to the real world/history in the times of the cold war. “There were no rumours of an attack from overseas, although the people admit that while the wall was under construction, they had grown nervous.” The surrounding islands had not heard of any enemy sufficient enough for anyone to build a wall of such size. The middle island building the wall made them skeptical though as the middle island might have known something they didn’t. This relates to the cold war in the fact that each nation building more bombs made the other feel like they had to build more or they wouldn’t be prepared. “They felt uneasy, as if they too should be taking special precautions but against what, they had no idea.” America and Russia felt uneasy of each other, even though there was no immediate threat they felt like they had to prepare against it. Just as there turned out to be no threat in the story and work on the wall eventually ran out, there was no nuclear war.

“A Duel” written by Guy de Maupassant, is a short story set in post Franco – Prussian war. The Germans have occupied France. The story follows the train journey of four characters: M. Dubuis, a Prussian officer and two Englishman. M. Dubuis is a French soldier on his way to see his family for the first time since the war started. The Prussian officer is a boastful victor who talks about where he killed Frenchman and how many he killed. Dubuis is infuriated by the Prussian’s comments but sits passively behind a newspaper. Meanwhile the two Englishmen pretend to be fascinated by the Prussian. The Prussian then targets Dubuis ordering him to buy him some tobacco, as if he were a slave in his own country. Dubuis, being passive, left the car but not to buy tobacco. He went into the car behind to escape the Prussian but was followed by him and the two curios Englishmen. The Prussian begins to heckle again but Dubuis has enough and explodes jumping on top of him and punching him until he is too tired. Dubuis then resumes his seat and tries to cool down. The Prussian calls Dubuis out saying he has to duel him otherwise he will kill him. At the next station the Prussian gets some pistols and the two square up. In great irony Dubuis kills the Prussian and the curious Englishmen quickly drag him back to the train so not to miss it.

I can relate to “A Duel” through Dubuis’ immense tolerance in the first half of the story. “He was alone! He tore open his waistcoat, his heart was beating so rapidly, and, gasping for breath, he wiped the perspiration from his forehead.” Dubuis had to use so much self-control to just walk away and ignore the Prussian. So much control to hold in all that anger, one more thing could tip him over the edge. Then the Prussian follows him and starts tugging on his mustache, this sets Dubuis off and he beats him up. I can relate to this as everyday there are people/things which annoy me or get on my nerves. For these things I have to use self-control not to burst out and tell them to stop. Sometimes, usually when I’m tired, I have trouble controlling myself though.

A real world connection to the text would be that of bullying. Bullying can be seen on a whole lot of different levels around the world, in school, at the work place, it happens with all different ages. M. Dubuis is bullied by the Prussian Officer and the two Englishmen do not step in to help. This seems to happen a lot with people not wanting other peoples problem to become their’s, which is a reason why bullying still persists. “The Englishmen stared at them, retaining their previous impassive manner.” The Englishmen sat passively. Most bullying occurs to get a reaction out of the victim and in this case the Prussian pushed Dubuis over the edge. “Blood flowed down the face of the German, who, choking and with a rattling in his throat, spat out his broken teeth and vainly strove to shake off this infuriated man who was killing him. Dubuis ends up beating the Prussian up. This happens in the real world bullies looking for a reaction, and with nobody there to back up the victim it is really easy for him.

“Lord of the flies,” a novel by William Golding, is set on a remote island with a gang of stranded boys. It is around the time of the second world war and the boys were being evacuated when their plane crashed. There are no adults so the boys try to govern themselves. They vote a boy called Ralph, the main protagonist, to be the chief. A boy called Jack, the antagonist, is against Ralph being chief as he believed he should’ve been chief, because he was the leader of the boys choir. The little governance they had is quickly thrown out the window with the idea of a beast being on the island. The ‘biguns,’ older boys, dismiss the idea of a beast at first, but become slowly more paranoid about it. Eventually Jack’s disagreement with Ralph becomes too much and he starts a coo. All the boys bah Ralph’s closest friend Piggy end up following Jack’s tribe. Jack’s tribe turns savage and ends up killing two boys, Simon and Piggy, before the boys are rescued by a passing ship.

This book has lots of good messages such as how power lust can have fatal consequences. Jacks greed for power brews for the whole book till the point he calls for Ralph to step down. “I went on. I thought by myself-‘ The madness came into his eyes again. ‘I thought I might kill.” This brewing increases his blood-lust for pig hunting, turning him into a savage. His savagery is enforced by all the boys joining his tribe, and he ends up killing two boys. I can relate to power lusting, not in the intensity in which that statement makes it sound, through playing some video games. In one game I play, characters can escape on very little health which gets you annoyed. So you follow them under all of their towers trying to kill them, just one more hit. Your greed eventually kills you and they escape, which only increases your annoyance and greed till the point where you lose the game.

The theme of power lust reminded me of the play ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare. In this play the character Macbeth kills the King of Scotland so he could become king, and his ambition only grows from there. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other. Macbeth’s power lust grows to the point where he kills his best friend as he thinks he is a threat but, eventually Macbeth breaks down in despair. This relates to Jacks power lust growing through the story till he kills two boys and becomes a savage. I’m sure after the boys are rescued Jack will struggle with the things he had done for the rest of his life.

A connection between the text and the real world would be the attempted government. “The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.” The boys try to govern themselves the way they new from England, through democracy. But, they were unable to keep the peace as Jack was too immature. Jack wanted to be chief, the leader, more then he wanted to be saved and get off the island. “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?” They tried to do things like the adults but it eventually collapsed. They were trying to be like the English government but they are just kids, they couldn’t handle not having adults to tell them what to do.

“Legend” a novel written by Marie Lu is set in a dystopian world where North America is split in two by a civil war. The two sides are The Republic, once western United States, and The Colonies, once eastern United States. The republic is a dictatorship and is a very poor nation as of the war. High class Republic citizens see the Colonies as the enemy and Republic the hero, but the lower class Republic citizens see the Colonies as a wealthy nation full of freedom and riches if it were possible to get there. The story is told from the perspective of the two main protagonists, Daniel Wing (Day) and June Iparis. June is the Republics prodigy, she scored 100% in the Trials, she graduated high school almost instantly, she attends Drake University at the age of 15. June lives in the wealthiest sector of the Republic. Junes parents are dead so her brother Metias raises her. Day is the Republics most wanted criminal, also 15 years old, and lives in the slum sectors of the Republic. Day failed the Trials so the Republic stole him from his family, sent him on a train to concentration camps, with the rest of the bad genes. But Day escaped and stayed hidden from his family, only his brother John knows he was alive. The Republic has a plague which circulates the poor sectors as they cannot afford plague cures. Days family get the plague so he decides to steal some from the military hospital, which Junes brother happens to be the commanding patrol officer. Day didn’t find any plague medicine in the hospital and Metias follows his escape. Day is very injured but mages to escape by throwing his knife into Metias’ shoulder and wading through the sewers. Metias is found dead on the scene and June is hired to hunt Day down.

A personal connection I had with the text was how both the characters June and Day both had to persevere so many times throughout the text. One moment in particular is after Day escapes the hospital and is struggling through the sewers. “That would be something-wouldn’t it?-to escape the hospital only to die down here, lost in a goddy maze of sewers.” He is being chased by an entire Republic patrol of troopers. He is badly wounded from jumping out of the window of a skyscraper, but he has to keep going, keep persevering. If he dies down there, there would be no one to look after his friend Tess and his family. This relates to me as I am always having to persevere with things. Never anything as extreme as that, but things like massive homework projects such as my first spacial one. Half way through the project i realized i had done a lot of things wrong and I couldn’t be bothered restarting. But, I did and I kept persevering and I got excellence for it.

A connection between the text and the real world would be the politics in the text. The Republic’s government is a dictatorship and Marie Lu does a great job of showing how the people feel about this. Since the book is written through the perspectives of two different characters I got to know how the different classes think differently about there government/leaders. Upper class love their glorious Elector Primo, as they live good lives, have electricity, have food and have jobs that pay. Whereas lower class citizens such as Day, who live on the streets, eat whatever they can find, don’t have jobs, dislike the leaders as they do not put any money towards the poor sectors. “The ground sits low against the water (not unlike the other poor sectors, which all seem to look the same), so that whenever there’s a storm, the lake probably floods all the streets lining the shore with dirty, sewage-contaminated water.” This quote is from when June hunting Day down and realizing for the first time how terrible it must be living in the poor sectors. I also got the perspective of small time shop owners, how pretty much all the money they earn is taxed away by the government. This relates to history in the form of communism how everything is supposed to be equal but the governments are actually corrupt. How everyone is meant to be treated the same but the rich and poor gap is still huge.

This novel is a great read I loved how it was told by the perspective of two people who are the same, but were just brought up in different places. This factor gives you a far wider range of backstory and helps you to get into the ideas so much easier.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Name one language effect used in the poem.
Personification

Quote an example using this effect.
“Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,”

How does Shelley use this effect to communicate the idea of hubris in his sonnet?
Shelley using the language effect “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,” to personify a shattered statue. Shelley personifies the statue as a man with great hubris. His ‘sneer of cold command’ shows how he knows he holds the power and believes he deserves it. “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Shelley uses this quote, possibly on the plaque of this statue, to show again how much hubris this man has.

This relates to a character called Jack from the novel The Lord of the Flies. A bunch of boys crash on a remote island and there are no adults around. Jack believed he deserved to be the chief as he was the leader of the choir at his school. The boys vote in a boy called Ralph and Jack gets mad. Later on in the book Jack starts his own tribe as he believes Ralph doesn’t deserve power. Jack has so much self-pride that he can’t handle not being in charge so had to start his own tribe.