Romantic

I have thought about this topic a lot. I think that I have a more romantic perspective. I look at life through nature and relaxation. Today in class, We talked about the poem called I walked a lonely cloud. It’s about a man that remembers and reflects on a memory that he can return to in times of distress. This poem stuck with me because there have been times in my life were I have experienced things that have made me depressed and I have felt lonely. I connected with the poem in a way that I haven’t connected with anything in this class this much. On July 26, this year, I got married to the most amazing guy. As always, we went on a honeymoon. We went on a cruise to the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Grand Turk. There was one point on our honeymoon that we went out on our balcony and just looked out over the ocean. We just talked about life and we looked out on the ocean. When I have hard times or I am stressed and worn out, I think back to this moment and I remember all the feelings I felt and I change my attitude. This memory will always be my “happy place”.  I think the experience has helped me through many hard times and with this, I feel I am a product of romanticism.  I think the romanticism era is one that I have really connected with. I feel that this time period speaks to me the most. The charactistics that we talked about in class, according to the art, I feel apply to all aspects of my life. Its one of the only few eras, we've talked about, that have really applied to me. This era is the one I feel describes me as a person. 

Enlightenment

            In the 1940’s there were two writers by the names of Theodore Adorno and Max HorkHiemer. In their work they criticized the aims of the Enlightenment. They also made claims about the principles about the Enlightenment. One of their claims was “The Enlightenment disenchanted us from the world.” In this statement and many of their statements, I think it has merit. Depending on the circumstances. Overall I don’t know these writers but I agree with the statement that ‘The Enlightenment’ has disenchanted us from the world. I think that the time period was a time of exploring and engaging in the ideas that are out of the norm. This period of time was a chance for those people who weren’t the in “classic” frame to come out and experience a whole knew life and perspective. In a way, I think that there is value to myths and being enchanted. I think that it’s a way that people can communicate with the upper world/ lower worlds or heaven/hell. Yes, it may be irrational but I also think that these people didn’t know how to handle these enchanted people and they didn’t know how to react. So I think this period was a switch over to being more accepting and inviting to ‘not normal’ people. I also think that the ‘rule of reason’ can rob your life. If someone is constantly worrying and wondering and trying to reason everything, that they lose their life. The reasoning gets in the way of life experiences. Life experiences are how people gain knowledge and understand who they are. So if someone is reasoning through everything then do they really experience their lives? Do they know who they are? I don’t think they can without those crucial life lessons. We learn by what we do and we understand ourselves better through our mistakes so why waste our lives reasoning and wondering ‘if’. Lets just do and become people we are meant to be through our experiences.

Baroque Art

            I think our society is definitely more baroque. In class we talked about what baroque was and came up with a list. Some thing  on that list were “because I can”, a contrast between light and dark, “out of the ordinary”, and such. Our society is based off of that. Everywhere we look people are rebelling and doing things “because they can”. If you compared it to someone hair, the renaissance person would have a clean cut “normal” look. The baroque person would have blonde, black, and red hair, with a different style than anyone has ever seen before. We see this throughout our society.

  Our society revolves around people being themselves and allowing themselves to be who they want to be. That is what our country is focused on. I think this relates to Baroque Art because at the time they were rebelling against the “norm”.  If you look icons in the media, they do anything they can to be out of the ordinary and abnormal. Miley Cyrus just recently had an evolution and at the Baroque time the artists were being criticized by other artists and spectators. This is happening to Miley Cyrus as well. This is just an example of the comparisons of time periods with being or becoming Baroque. In music we see this as well. Artists are coming out with songs that are not normal. 

We can even relate Baroque Art to Science in our days. Scientists are constantly coming out with new medicines and new procedures. Cancer Research, Genetic changes, and much more can be considered rebellion and "out of the ordinary. 

Platonic Love

            The painting called “Primavera” is a representation of platonic love in many different ways. One of the ways platonic love is defined by Ben Jonson, an artist of that time, is “A spiritual coupling of two souls/ so much more excellent as it relates unto the body.” As our reading goes on to say that our soul is long lasting and could have a platonic relationship with the object our body would find after we die. This painting is a representation of platonic love because of the coupling of souls throughout the painting. On the far right of the painting Zephyrus, god of the west wind, tries to grab Chloris, the nymph of spring. In a way, I think this shows the coupling of seasons. It shows that the west winds or fall is grabbing onto spring, trying to reach it to pull the spring season into fall. In another comparison, Flora (the goddess of flowers) is standing next the Chloris. I find this interesting because spring is almost always associated with flowers because it is a time of things to bloom and colors to be added to a winter world. These are different ways that things are coupled together with platonic love.

            In this painting there are many angles. Whether it is a goddess reaching for a branch or one goddess reaching for another, it shows and demonstrates the science and math that can be categorized with renaissance art. Another generalization that can be connected is the highly symbolic rule. I think that each goddess was place where they are for a reason. Many comparisons can be made about this painting. Zephyrus is placed next to Chloris and I think this could be symbolic of winds bring season changes to the world. 

Happiness

In response to question one, I think that our society is a hedonistic society. As a society, we focus on what we want and will do anything to get it. Today we are lazy humans, and with that I think we have developed the thought that we need things and we need it NOW! This can be related to the hedonism approach of happiness. In a way I think our society has the thought “as much happiness as possible” which is a reconsideration of the theory. Our society focuses on what happiness they can thrive off the easiest and quickest. Which can be fine, but also it allows them to become lazy in a sense of the word. I think this relate most like to our society. I feel that I am the same way. The sum of a bunch of happy little things can generally make someone very happy in life. I feel that in a way its the little things that make me happy. Just tonight, I worked from 2-10 and I can home in a disgruntled stress and my husband had cleaned the whole house. This made me very happy. Its the little things he does (also big things) that make me a very happy wife! On the flip side, the theory also talks about how humans cant have pleasure every minute of the day! This can become a problem with the life our society lives. What they want cant always be given right away. Which many people could be upset with that fact. The “All you can eat buffets” are a key to this theory. A hedonist would say “There will be time to cut down later, let me indulge now.” They will worry about the guilt later, I feel this is how todays people think. Also, they thought of overindulging would never cross the mind because there is no such thing as it? They would never think that this would be possible. Also this theory discusses the fact that “pleasure owed to a deserving person for services rendered or unpleasant chores performed. This can also be related to todays people because everyone wants what they think they deserve.

Wishes for more wishes

I think that many characters experience the wishing for more wishes so to speak. At the beginning of Act II, one of the characters sings “Wishes may bring problems such that you regret them. Better that, though, than to never get them.” I agree with this. I think many characters had to have this journey to make a point and to learn a lesson. They needed to go through this to become who they are/were. The baker became a whole new person after his journey. He lost his wife, and gained a child. In many ways I think that helped him. It was definitely a struggle but he gained so much more out of it in the end. 
I can relate to this. We all wish for cool stuff and fun things to have. I always wanted a cool car. Now this may seem selfish and/or self centered but, at that time it was what I wanted. After two years of having my beloved car, I crashed it and totaled it. It was emotional and hard to see my "baby" being towed away for the last time. This has helped me through my life though. That car accident helped me grow up! It also showed me that life is precious and I need to stop being so materialistic. Im grateful, in a way, that this happened. This has humbled be and helped me become a better person! 
I always will agree with this statement. Whether you like the outcome or not, the journey is what counts and the journey is where you will learn a better lesson. Wishes will be granted, but also will come with a price. The price will come with a lesson to learn and change you for the better!