I must keep an open mind

 At first when we were assigned to read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I was kind of intimidated by the comic book format. Prior to this assignment, I had never read a graphic novel of any sort. The closest I've gotten is reading a brief comic strip or cartoon. The plot of this novel is very exciting, so I think that may have increased my curiosity about graphic novels. People I know read them and love them, but I have never gotten into them. This book has changed my perception of graphic novels.
 I always thought they were for kids. The pictures and text, I thought, had to be very easy to read, so therefore they were meant for kids. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is not aimed at young children, and I actually really enjoyed it. At first it was very difficult because my brain tried to simultaneously read the text and look at the pictures. For the first three issues I was very very frustrated. Do I look at the picture first, then read the text? Or vice versa? How long do I have to look at the picture? How do I follow who's talking? There's so much going on! Basically I had no point of focus and could not organize the pages into a readable form. Because of this frustration, I was pretty turned off by this novel even though I really liked the plot. So last week I found myself wishing it was just in a regular book format.
Until....
today when I had to finish the issues. I put it off all weekend because I knew it was going to strain my brain and was not really looking forward to it. But, I found as soon as I started the sections assigned for tomorrow, it clicked! I easily followed the layout and did not get so anxious about where to look and for how long to look at it. I think not thinking so hard about it made it easier, and much more enjoyable. I'm now reading the last issue and am having no trouble following it.
Originally I was dreading having to read a graphic novel for this class, but now I am grateful that we did because it completely changed my opinion on comic books. I guess this kind of just reiterates the point that I should always keep an open mind, especially when it comes to approaching things that are foreign to me.

Step it up Society: A brief note on homosexuality

   While reading the "Perspectives: Aestheticism, Decadence, and the fin de siecle", homosexuality comes up, and during this time towards the end of the century, the term homosexuality was created. Then on to the next reading, "The Trial of Oscar Wilde", it struck me as very interesting that Wisconsin was having a say on the trial of Oscar Wilde. First of all, Oscar Wilde was very well known, so it makes me proud that Wisconsin was able to participate in such a big event. But, I am not thrilled with Wisconsin's point of view. Even though same sex unions had been happening since forever, I do not believe they were publicly discussed, so when Oscar Wilde's trial became public knowledge I think a lot of people were shocked. It was a taboo subject that people did not want to discuss. And people reacted strongly against it, like the article about the trial goes on to say. This may just be a natural reaction to something different and foreign- to react with fear and make up all of these reasons why this "difference" is bad in order to justify their beliefs. According to the article, one theme was "Homosexuality causes Physical and Mental Illness". Now, that is just preposterous. But people legitimately believed that. I do not condone what these people said and their stance on this topic, but I can see where they were coming from. Science was not what it is today, so many people probably truly believed things like that, that could not have been backed up with true, scientific evidence. What upsets me though, is that there are still people today who think these sorts of things! And that is truly outrageous. While I can understand why people reacted the way they did over 100 years ago, you would think we'd have progressed a little more since then. Although as a society I do believe we have made some progress, there is still a long way to go. This is very upsetting because I feel like this article could be something we'd find today. I think it would be from a very extreme point of view, but it's still very bothersome. We have progressed with technology beyond what anyone could imagine, you'd think we'd have come a little farther with this. The telephone used in the late 19th century does not even closely resemble the modern day cell phone, so shouldn't beliefs and opinions about homosexuality from the late 19th century be just as different? (I don't know how strong that metaphor is, but hopefully you get what I mean.)

Maybe: A Thought on the Suppression of Women

    While reading the context section of "The Place of Women in Society",  I was struck by a thought. That maybe the reason women were so suppressed for so long is because men were, on some level, afraid of them. Going back to the Bible, (and excuse me if I get any of this wrong, I am not very educated about the Bible)  I believe the whole thing with Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit involved Eve being convinced to eat the fruit and then convincing Adam to eat it as well. So going off of this, maybe men were afraid that if Eve could convince Adam to do something that they were specifically told not to do by God, that something just as awful could happen again with women convincing men to do something. So they're only solution was to make women think they could not make an active decision (like Eve did when eating the fruit first) so that they could avoid making such a mistake again. In the first excerpt by Sarah Stickney Ellis "The Daughters of England: Their Position in Society, Characters and Responsibilities" she goes on and on about how wonderful it is to be a woman in the household. Every time she describes a women's role, it is a passive one. Ellis talks about how women are able to exert such an influence over men. She explains this more, but it is always about a woman being able to influence a decision, but never actively decide. Then in the next excerpt "Hints on the Modern Governess System" by the Anonymous author, he or she mentions the Adam and Eve scene, and says, "Thenceforth, man wreaked his vengeance upon woman, for the loss of ease and plenty, by keeping her ignorant, and, consequently, helpless"(606). This supports my point for why women were suppressed. And since that's all they knew, of course many women such as Ellis would believe that the rightful place for a woman was an inferior position in the household and be against women having any rights. But what Ellis doesn't realize, is that the reason she believes that is all so lovely is only because men want her and all women to think that. Because if women think that their ultimate, best place is an inferior one, then men will never have to worry about a repeat of what happened with Adam and Eve and the Forbidden Fruit.

Horrified

    After reading the passages assigned for tomorrow, I am just horrified. I think I have always heard the more fantasized, glamorized versions of the working-class during this time period. What comes to mind are movies like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Mary Poppins". Of course these are fiction, but that is the extent of my knowledge on this subject. These readings were very eye-opening and grossly fascinating.  Specifically the excerpts from "Contexts: Work and Poverty".
     The section from Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844  was so descriptive, I felt like I could actually smell the horrific smells of the filth and destitution. All of the accounts about how awful the lives of these poor people were struck me as even worse when compared to the excerpt from Andrew Ure's, The Philosophy of Manufactures. His observations and accounts made it sound like it was a privilege for the working people to work in the mills and live in "apartments more airy and salubrious than those of the metropolis"(p.574) is just astounding! It strikes me as so sad and horrendous that these people are being overlooked so blatantly. Engels account goes into detail about the placement of the working-classes housing situation and it is anything  but "airy" (Engels makes it very evident that any spare inch of space was built on to accommodate the poor) and "salubrious" (Engels also describes the filth and how there was excrement and disgusting chemicals and substances everywhere.) The fact the Ure could so blatantly lie about conditions like that is inhumane.
     This inhumanity of Ure, and I'm sure he was not the only one to try to convinve the public that the working conditions really weren't all that bad, makes me think of the slave of accounts and Mary Prince's personal account of what it was like being in slavery. This does not make me think very much of people who administered such horrible treatments to fellow people, and especially children! That I cannot wrap my head around and makes no sense how someone has it in them to do that.
    So basically these readings put things into perspective of what life was really like for the working class in England during this time.

Persuasion: pp. 45-145

     Before beginning this book, I read part of the introduction and it goes on to give multiple definitions of the word "persuasion". It was interesting that there are varying definitions for the word that Austen chose for the title of this book. As I began to read the first assigned section, I kept this word and its multiple definitions in mind. At the very beginning of the book there are already examples of persuasion, and people being persuaded to do something. Anne was persuaded by Lady Russell not to marry Frederick Wentworth, Sir Walter Elliott is persuaded by Mr. Shepherd about letting Kellynch-Hall and is persuaded about how to get out of his debt. There are many more examples throughout this section. When Anne goes to stay with Mary, she states how both parties on opposites sides of conflict consult her to persuade: Mary's so-called "illnesses", who seems like a complete hypochondriac-always complaining of some ailment or other and Charles wants Anne to help Mary not claim to always be ill and Mary wants Anne to persuade Charles to take better care of her when she is "ill".

     All of these instances brought to mind how often persuasion is going on around us and how we are constantly affected by it. I have always fancied myself an independent thinker, who doesn't often take other people opinions into account. But this reading has made me think a little deeper and realize that I'm being persuaded all the time when making decisions, whether or not I am aware of it. 

      People close to me, my family and close friends, are constantly shaping my decisions and actions. Not because I am too meek to make my own, but I often consult them, or they consult me when making any choice. As I am writing this, a very recent incident has been brought to mind.

      My grandparents are going down to Florida for a few months and they left a couple days ago. About a week prior to their departure they asked if I could dogsit for them.  I have recently moved. Previously I lived about 4 minutes down the road from them, and now I am about 15 minutes away. I have always dog sat for them in the past because I was so close. When they originally asked me if could dogsit, I said that I could not do it because it was too much of a hassle with my school and work schedule. Eventually,though, I said yes because other factors persuaded me to change my answer.

     It would be much easier on me not to have to go 30 min out of my way (15min there and 15 min back not including the time spent there) three times a day, especially because I have an old car and I like to drive it as little as possible. This is the reason I said no. The first instance of persuasion came from my grandparents (of course) who offered me their house, saying that I could stay there as often as I needed. This was not enough to make me reconsider. Then, they said their neighbors could take Lucy (their dog) out at nights. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, I thought, but I still said no. My mom was the next person to persuade me, who was persuaded by grandma (her mom) to talk me into it. My grandma told my mother that they would pay me handsomely to take care of Lucy AND that if any issues should arise with my car, or if I don't want to drive it, that I was more than welcome to use their car. (My car's radio doesn't work, their's does...) This persuaded me to truly reconsider, and after my grandma told me there was two bags and an entire jar of chocolate-covered gummy bears in the freezer, it was a done deal.

    I was completely persuaded from my original decision by my grandparents and my mother. Although I did not pay any attention to it, I now realize that without me really thinking about how they were doing it, they used persuasion to make me change my mind!

   Now, I hope I haven't rambled on too much, I tend to do that, but it was just interesting that the topic of this book was so easily connected to an event that has just recently happened in my life. I am not very good at conclusions, so I will leave it at that.