Closer to the Reader

Parshas Truma: Jewish celebration.
 a Saturday the Torah was read
one week a year. 

I hate when movies don't have a proper ending. I hate when I'm left wanting for more, but the movie ends and a sequel is never released. The same thing happens to me and books. When I finish a book I love, I look up for the author, the context and any more information I can find about the characters life's after the ending of the book. Consequently, I love sequels and trilogies because they are more profound and complete, quenching my desire for more.  This leads me to love Maus by Art Spiegelman because he really tries to connect with the reader and convey his family's story through a more personal and friendly way.  

Therefore, the fact that Spiegelman tries to makes everything so real as to convey a stronger meaning is perfect for me. His father, you can notice doesn't speak English in the most grammatically correct way, however Spiegelman doesn't correct him, or change the mistakes in the book.  For instance, when Spiegelman is describing the incident with Anja and the communist, Vladek says "The police went over our house. Top to Bottom. It was nothing to find so they searched the neighbors" (Pg. 30). It sounds funny, and from a single glance you can notice something is wrong with the sentence. The verbs aren't conjugated in the correct way, or order is weird. Consequently making the story more realistic as it shows Vladek's English as a second language. The reader can see how real and honest his book was just by the fact that Spiegelman wrote everything exactly as it was narrated. Furthermore, there are scenes which his father strictly asks not to mention in the book, such as when they are talking about Vladek's ex, and he says "I don't want you to should write this in your book." (Pg. 25). Spiegelman not only included the story, but also his father asking him not to do so. It brings you closer to Spiegelman and his father's story. It shows how their relationship was, and everything that ocurred while wrting the comic. It gives the reader a sense of welcoming and warmth towards the reality of the book.

Likewise, Spiegelman includes not only the time he spend with his father talking about his story, but also different events that occurred while we was writing the book. It really takes you closer, and feel more knowledgeable about the situation and the feelings felt by the characters. Its a non fiction frame story. The simplicity Maus employs makes it closer to interpretation, and rather subjective. The reader can see itself within the comic's characters and connect with them. 

Zombies

After reading this article from the New York Times by Maria Konnikova I couldn't help but wonder in the consequences from our lack of sleep. She states that if we continue not sleeping eventually we will prone to degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. However, this is our short-term effect. So I wonsee what will happen if we keep increasing our lack of sleep? What will happen to our bodies in the future if we keep avoiding sleeping? As I imagine the answers to this questions, I can't help but think on zombies. I think It would be quite possible to become a kind of  zombies. 

If you really think about it, it wouldn't be so hard. Without sleep we fall into a sort trance or hypnotic state. We wake up, shower and go to work or to school, come back and sleep. Without caffeine we are like zombies. We work, eat and sleep mechanically. Our sleep depravation leads us to this, and if according to this article we are more prone to become sick at an earlier age, in a matter of time we would be un such a state of depravation and sickness we would be acting like zombies.  Don't take me wrong, or think I'm mocking this article. We might exist as a type of zombies we have never thought of. We wouldn't be the flesh eaters, or the still living super decomposed humans. Gangrene exists, and we might become the sleep deprived, mechanical gangrened humans. It would be a different kind of life. A life of no sleep, where being  sick  and deprived would be the new cool. Just think about it, we are just a step behind. 

Sleep is essential, and the world will keep moving even if we don't. If you think about it, the world doesn't stop while your sleeping, or even when you're dead. The stocks change everyday, the economy is constantly moving just as politics is changing everyday too. There will come a point in which we all fall into this zombie induced state due to sleep depravation. It's a horrid future. Our only choice, or basically alternative is to either sleep more or find a cure to this dreadful future that awaits us.

Vlogging! Am I doing this right?

What does truly matter?

Have you ever wondered why such innovations have been made in some things but in others not? Science is acknowledged as a very important science, while many other not so knowledge required areas are known for. Cooking for instance, is very important to us, but we pay very little attention to it. Why people have given new technological advancements in areas for oil industries, than in gardening? Well obviously because one is more imperative and important than the other. However who makes that choice? Who decides what is more important and what we should place our attention in? 

Ladle (n): a deep-bowled long-handled spoon used
especially for dipping up and conveying liquids

For example, to make my point I ask myself: is science more important than cooking? Many people would clearly answer that science because it is the basis of our technology and knowledge about the world. However, have you ever stopped and thought that without food, and therefore cooking we wouldn't be alive to develop new technologies?  People underestimate the importance of cooking, and leave it as a hobby or second hand chore. Bee Wilson states in her book Consider the Fork that there was very "little impetus-until very recently-to develop labor-saving devices" (Pg 165).  I hate thinking that the reason behind this is the fact that people tend to ignore what's most important, such as cooking.

Usually what we least value is what we desire the most once we lose it. No one thought on making the housewives work any easier, as it seemed a simple job. No one though in relieving physical work from servants in the eighteenth century, or from burning turnspits. Likewise Wilson says that "the technological stagnation reflects a harsh truth" (Pg 170). The truth is not nice, or colorful. Its harsh and sad. Many people think that having money is enough in the world, and they are terribly incorrect. People should care about the welfare of others, and especially those who are served my many, such as kings and queens. These people however, are those that many times care the less, and the more they have the more blinded they become. To them, it doesn't matter if someone is killed to provide them the most exquisite food. Women skeletons have been found with "signs of acute arthritis, with knees, hips and ankles severely worn by kneeling down and rocking back and forth to crush grain against stone" (Pg. 153). Isn't it absurd the price people have to pay, in order to serve fat selfish wealthy people?

Pestle (n): a usually club-shaped implement for
pounding or grinding substances in a mortar

We humans are selfish and we tend to overcome others hard work, as we didn't had to do it. It seems much easier to say something, than to do it. People have "very little interest in attempting to save labor when the labor in question was not your own" (Pg 166). I really liked what Wilson said because it is the truth, and it is a truth many times we don't acknowledge, and surpass without noticing it. It is something we should have noticed a long time ago. Cooking nowadays isn't as harsh as before, but the problem is that cooking was one of many examples. There are many situations of hard, unfair labor that people don't pay much attention to, and should. Colombian sweat shops for instance.