Saturday, September 7, 2019
Experiments in Art and Technology Essay Example for Free
Experiments in Art and Technology Essay The new interface I will define is one in which the artist makes active use of the inventiveness and skills of an engineer to achieve his purpose. The artist could not complete his intentions without the help of an engineer. The artist incorporates the work of the engineer in the painting or the sculpture or the performance. what a perfect synergy! Introduction ââ¬ËExperiments in Art and technologyââ¬â¢ (E. A. T. ) is an aged non profit making and tax exempted organization instituted as far back as 1966 by renounced engineers and artists. The engineers included the persons of Billy Kluver and Fred Waldhauer, while the artists, the persons of Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. Experiments in Art and Technology was pioneered from the experience of a popular work titled ââ¬â ââ¬Ë9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineeringââ¬â¢. The notable event was of the 69th ââ¬ËRegiment Armory in new York City, United State of Americaâ⬠(October 1966). About 40 engineers and 10 popular artists symbiotically worked together to put up an engineered and equally artistic performances. With the works of E. A. T. , artists and engineersââ¬â¢ relationships have received huge boost, thereby stimulating the willingness and participation of industries in artistic events. Companiesââ¬â¢ cooperation through sponsorship is one of the achievements of E. A. T. There was fast expression of interest in the group over the space of time. Three years after the inauguration of Experiments in Art and Technology, the organization recorded over 4,200 memberships of diversified artists and engineers all around the United States of America, South America, Japan, Canada and every other interested industry all over the world. Through the process towards achieving the aim of E. A. T. , there was a local program within the group named the Technical Services Program. This program enhanced the effective collaboration of artists working hand-in-hand with engineers on a specific assignment/project. This was made possible by a deliberate effort at pinning suitable artists with appropriate engineers for synergic results. The program also assisted the collaborators in reaching out to industries and corporate-business communities in meeting the needs to accomplish outstanding project. Furthermore, E. A. T. commissioned inter-field projects and events which were anchored by artists involving the use of new technological woks. Some of the projects included the earlier mentioned ââ¬Ë9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineeringâ⬠in 1966ââ¬â¢, ââ¬ËSome More Beginning in 1968ââ¬â¢ ââ¬â the later happened to mark the start of ââ¬Ëexhibition of art and technology. The exhibition was held at a museum in Brooklyn. Included in the list of the project was the ââ¬Å"artist-engineer collaborations to design and program the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. â⬠Picture showing First meeting of E. A. T. in November 1966 The Story of Experiments in Art and Technology When Andy Warhol was trying to create floating light bulbs, he asked Billy Kluver for his kind assistance. Kluver, who was an engineer working at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, rejected the plea but instead promised to offer him a wrapper usually use to wrap sandwiches, the material is silvery. Warhol fashioned the material into a rectangular object called Mylar today. Injecting Helium into this Mylar created a floating funhouse mirrors in 1966. This example of collaboration between artists and scientists was a motivation to forming Experiments in Art and Technology (E. A. T. ). The artist-engineer collaboration in E. A. T. was formalized at the event of ââ¬Å"9 Evenings; Theatre and Engineeringâ⬠, (Oct. 1966, in New York). The program exposed audience to ââ¬Å"state-of-the-art performances and musicâ⬠from about 50 artists and engineers. Technology electrified things in an appreciable ways, e. g. ââ¬Å"Dancers tripped light switches by moving their legs past photo-cells, and a tennis game was amplified through microphones in the rackets. The compliment received was overwhelming reflecting the need for engineers in artistic works. E. A. T. was then established in November, and by the early 70s it had already absorbed networks of over 6,000 members. ââ¬Å"Throughout the lifespan of E. A. T. , affiliated groups produced over 500 artworks; most common was the body-oriented performance or supercharged minimalist sculpture. One of the most memorable projects commissioned was the Pepsi Pavilion of Expo 1970 Osaka. There, over 60 artists and engineers contributed to the interactive exhibits inside the futuristic domeâ⬠The Pepsi Pavilion at Expo 70 Osaka with Fujiko Nakayas mist shroud Aims and objectives of E. A. T. The non profit making organization was vibrant primarily within the two decades of its institution in 1966 by Billy Kluver, Fred waldhauer, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. It was carved out of the need to ââ¬Ëmobilize the ingredients of arts, industry and science around collective projects, calling the participation from different disciplines. E. A. T. also aimed at encouraging the technical harmony towards the realization of new means of expressing arts using modern technological equipment such as computer-made images, sounds, video, (audiovisual), manufacturing materials and robotics. To start with, ââ¬ËExperiments in Art and Technologyââ¬â¢ brought artists and engineers together to enlighten the participants in order to accustom them with ââ¬Å"tele-writing and satellite transmission using telecommunication technologyâ⬠. In addition, E. A. T. aimed at giving the developing countries around an ease of Communication Bridge through certain project assignments. In pursuance of these goals, E. A. T. began opening annexes in the US, Canada and Japan. Other Projects Projects realized at the advent of interdisciplinary included: The Anand Project of 1969, this project aided educational television whereby public spaces were linked together to facilitate interactions irrespective of the distance apart. Through this, different countries all around the world can exchange disturbing questions even about a common uncertainty. For example, ââ¬Å"Anand Dairy Cooperative in Baroda (India); Telex: QA (1971), which linked public spaces in New York (U. S. ), Ahmadabad (India), Tokyo (Japan) and Stockholm (Sweden) by telexâ⬠Still among the projects is the ââ¬ËChildren and Communication in 1972ââ¬â¢this particular project piloted the enabling of children within the suburb of New York City, to exchange conversation with telex, telephone and fax machine. Also, in El Salvador is a project to fashion out methods for storing culture and tradition in the region (1973). Collection of E. A. T. ââ¬â¢s Published Documents Detailing the activities of Experiments in Art and Technology in 1980; over 400 documents were stored in archive ranging from information bulletins, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, photocopies of press clippings, proposals, lectures, announcements newsletters reprints of major articles, among others. The archive was deposited at major libraries in New York, Moscow of Russia, Washington in U. S., Paris in France et cetera. The archive was aimed at monument the reflection of E. A. T. ââ¬â¢s wide geographical tentacle with technical and artistic diversity. Technical Service Program (1966-1973) Technical service program (TSP), founded as a subgroup in mid 60s, permits specialist in art and engineering to collaborate with the aim of meeting the artistââ¬â¢s technological needs without interruption in the team projected design and developmental stages. Highly technical projects were accomplished with this partnership. This collaboration was publicized when E. A. T. group came up with EAT News that announced projects at different stages of completion. Still, was the periodic public forum held on upcoming technologies such as ââ¬Ëlasers and holography. ââ¬â¢ The TSP came to an end in 1973 Technical Information (1966) This program provided consulting services for artists. The service provisions included ââ¬Ëtechnical librariesââ¬â¢ for artists in New York and telephone assistance line operated by engineers from E. A. T. offices. The library collection features documented activities of EAT from ââ¬Ë60s to ââ¬Ë80s. More on ââ¬Å"9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineeringâ⬠(1966-2005) These were series of events that catapulted performances of artists and engineers working in unison as an E. A. T. group. The performances broke down inter-relationship barrier. It went does: Billy kluver and Robert Rauschenberg requested the working relation of 30-man engineer at Bell Laboratories, seeking their involvement in an inter-disciplinary project where avant-garde theatre, dance and new technologies were blended together. The artists involved were John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman. These artists were paired with engineers to produce technical components on the podium used by the participants. It was indeed a break through adventure in the field of Art and technology. Billy Kluver, farther of ââ¬ËExperiments in Art and technologyââ¬â¢ Reference http://www. fondation-langlois. org/html/e/page. php? NumPage=306 The Man Who Made a Match of Technology and Art
Friday, September 6, 2019
Animal Lane Cattery Information Technology System Essay Example for Free
Animal Lane Cattery Information Technology System Essay The Animal Lane Cattery, a privately owned small business, needs an efficient, updateable, expandable, easily accessible information system to track and document clients needs for boarding/grooming services. The objective is to design and develop a system that fulfils the needs of the Cattery. An effective electronic filing system will eliminate lost paperwork, minimize errors, and provide a method for quality customer service. I will be designing and making the system that we choose for the Cattery. As the Cattery has expanded its boarding and grooming services to accommodate a total of 15 cats in separate pens, an increase in customer complaints have been received concerning the Catterys inaccurate and time-consuming tracking of specific client information. This inefficiency means that clients have to give an update of their felines information to the Catterys staff and has resulted in service errors. At the moment, they use a flatbed database, which only allows you to work with one table open at any time. The Cattery has considered using a pen and paper system, writing things out manually and storing information on paper, but a more efficient system would be a relational database. Their ideal system is a relational database, and this will allow them to have macros, reports, queries, and searches based on the information needed. This, therefore, is the system that I will be developing for the Catterys usage. Objectives: The user needs to be able to: -view the information -search for specific information -print out receipts for clients Alternatives: There are many relational database packages I could have chosen to work with, but I have decided to use the database package Microsoft Access because I have great respect for Bill Gates and also, Microsoft Access is an older program, therefore any bugs in the system will hopefully have been fixed and the package improved. I could have used Microsoft Works, but there cannot be any more than one table open at a time, and it is necessary that I have multiple tables. Users: The users of this database will be the Catterys staff- full and part-time employees responsible for the care and grooming of the cats. The Office Staff will be able to view and edit the data, whereas the Grooming Staff will only view the information they need. ANALYSIS The software I decided to use here is Microsoft Access to create and view the database. The hardware needed is a keyboard to enter data, a mouse, a printer to print out the receipts, and the computer monitor. All data will be output using the printer. I will need to ensure that there is enough memory for a relational database to function. This should not be a problem, as Microsoft Access (which I have chosen to use) does not require that much memory space, and there will be plenty of space available on their office computer, which, other than the necessary software components, will be used solely for the database used for the storing of data and the running of the Cattery. Backup copies of data will be stored on tape. The tape needs to be clearly labeled and stored in a water-tight case inside a fire-proof storage box away from the initial source of data, in case of fire or flood that may damage the computer that contains the original data. Using floppy disks as a form of backup was considered, but the database is relatively large and updated on a daily basis, so the floppy disks will not have a capacity large enough to adequately store the data. Data collection: The data will be collected from the clients using a form that they will fill in giving the information needed by the Cattery. The fields required will be on the data capture form given to clients. These will be in the form of questions, such as the ones below: -What is the cats name and owners contact information? -What is the cats vets contact number (in case of emergency)? -What is the cats meal schedule? -What are the boarding drop-off and pick-up dates? -What are the cats grooming requirements? There will doubtless be other questions that the staff will need to know the answers to. To update the data, I will need to remove certain clients information and replace it with new data when the first cats are collected. The printed data will be the reports when a search is started, and a second report to give as a receipt to customers when they collect their pet. DESIGN Two tables will be developed: owner information and services. The link between the two tables is the owner code. Each owner has only one address, but multiple cats may reside at the same address. Each cat has personal service needs even if it shares the same owner as another. The client names and cat names will not be used as key fields because there might be multiple clients with the same names or cat names. Office staff at the Cattery may view and modify the data in both tables, and the grooming staff may view data. Following are the hand-drawn designs of the database. First are the initial rough designs to show the basic layout of the database. I will then give a data capture form (next page) to one of the users (an office staff person) asking what things they think could be done better and how the design of the database could be improved to make using it easier. The users comments will then be taken into account when making the final designs of the database, detailed so that anybody could create the same database that I will be making for the Cattery. Final Users Comments (after having reviewed the initial designs) How effective do you think the designs will be? What do you think could be improved, from what you have seen of the initial designs? What is lacking from the database (if anything)? Other comments: IMPLEMENTATION On the following pages are the print screens of the way the Catterys database was created (tables, forms, queries, reports, macro code etc). EVALUATION The original objectives outlined in my Identification stage were met. The Cattery now has a useful and fast system to find and store their clients information, to view and search for specific information, and to print out things like receipts for clients. After having reviewed the owners comments and compared to the things I have changed, I feel I have improved the database enough for him to be comfortable with using it. I took in to account the things he mentioned about needing designs for reports and queries, and lessening vagueness of some designs. I feel I have achieved my objective in making the Cattery an effective, easy system to hold all their information.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Real Danger Men: Begin To Think Like Computers
Real Danger Men: Begin To Think Like Computers This quote by Sydney G. Harris has several connotations to it. In one view, it essentially shows that how we work, how we live and even the way we think is constrained by the tools that we use. Explaining it with a very simple example, as an adult in the world today, we do not have to write anything at all. We just type everything. So, there really is no call for proper handwriting. It is very similar to another famous quotation If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. It narrows your thought. It narrows your skills and diminishes your imagination. The essential significance of this quote by Sydney G. Harris is that one should open up ones mind and realize the peril that we all face today, and not what we perceive to be the real threat. Today, the predilection is for us to think about how one day, machines and computers might be able to think like us, and the troubles that that might bring for the human race. Have we all not given a thorough thought to it after watching the Sci-fi Hollywood movies set in the 22nd century, where the true enemy of earth is the army of machines that men themselves once created? But people do not realize the real hazard that faces us today, which is that if we start thinking, behaving and acting like the machines do; it would be by far more disturbing than the former. Let us try and answer some very simple questions to understand what Mr. Harris is all apprehensive about. What is that inimitable human trait that we stand to lose and in the process become like machines? What is it that separates humans from computers? Is it our ability to think? Or is it our ability to comprehend and learn? As quoted by Edsger W. Dijkstra The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of whether submarines can swim. They do not do it on their own, but it solves the purpose. With the development of expert systems and advanced technologies, machines do now think by themselves and learn on their own. So, what is the fine line between humans and machines? May be it is our ability to feel, to imagine, to be intuitive and to have emotions. As Albert Einstein once said, Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to k now and understand. Let us look at the difference between this imagination, intuitiveness and facts, the knowledge accumulation. Blaise Pascal was one of the very famous physicist, mathematician and philosopher, who also invented the first digital computer to add or subtract up to eight digit numbers. One of his most famous works is called the Pensà ©es, explained the distinction between the spirit of geometry and the spirit of finesse, the difference between machines and humans. The key distinction between these two modes of according to Pascal is that while the spirit of geometry analyses observable facts into clearly definable elements and uses deductive reason to construct a system of knowledge and rules based on meticulous attestation, the spirit of finesse concerns ideas and perceptions which cannot be precisely defined or broken down into parts, and uses instinctive reason to make sense of the relevant phenomena as a whole. Furthermore, the spirit of finesse results in imperfect opinions about which intellectual people may from time to time argue. A computer thus, works as a spirit of geometry and humans as a mix of the spirit of geometry and the spirit finesse which gives them the ability to reason logically and also to have an intuitive mind, which has a suppleness of contemplation for things it loves. Such a brain is accustomed to adjudicate at a single glance and that too tacitly, without mechanical rules. For example, Einstein did not uniquely possess any piece of information that was not accessible to physicists of that era when he developed the theory of relativity. He merely deduced the same existing facts in a completely different manner, and then made testable prophecies on the basis of them. This explains another of the very famous quotes by Albert Einstein Laws are only reached by non-logical methods. To make a law one has to have an intellectual love of the subject. We may now deduce the apprehensions of Mr. Harris. While the mechanical thinking of computers implies that every predicament has a definite and clearly definable solution, still not all the human thinking can be equated with problem-solving. There are no set rules and theorems which can logically conclude many important questions that confront us in the human life What is religion?, Does God truly exist?, How should one choose a career path?, Am I truly in love? These questions do not have unambiguous solutions, but these queries are difficulties that require thoughtful illumination. [Richard Van de Lagermaat, 2002] The danger of losing our humanly thoughtful illumination is very evident in todays world. Apart from the example of using computers for writing, we can deduce from the classroom teachings, how we lay heavy importance on facts and information. Every school focuses on a truck load of information which is stormed into the young brains. We inculcate the substance of logic in our children at a tender age, thus, taking away the essentials that make them more human than anything else, the originality in thinking, in perceiving, in imagining all by them themselves. A quote from Charles Dickens novel, Third Times strengthens this school of thought: Facts alone are wanted in life, Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them. It shows the direction that we are moving. But this is not the lone want from our life and our education. It is also a must to understand how to think intelligently on the basis of raw facts, make consequential connections between them, and come up with imaginative original ideas. The above discussions pose computers as an evil creation of humans. Does that mean that computers are truly an iniquity? Are they destroying the very nature of mankind? Evidently and quite rightly it is untrue. According to some researchers, programs such as clip art and Microsoft Word encourage creativity in children by making it possible for them to write and edit documents without getting encumbered with the mechanics of handwriting and spelling [Provenzo,1999]. The computer is thus, not evil unless it is used as an alternate to learn the fundamentals, such as writing, reading and basic mathematics. The time that we become dependent on computers and start using it as our numero uno resource of education, we lose the basics which build everything else. This is when we lose our creativity, originality and narrow our thinking to programmable machines. Thus, this quote expresses an extraordinary message, that even though technology is highly advantageous and it truly makes our life a lot easier for us, if used incongruously, it is also as devastating as it is obliging. For example, a car is surely is a faster and more comfortable way of commuting from one place to another, especially over long distances. And with time, it has only improved to better suit the needs and comfort of ours. However, while exploiting the luxury and ease, we tend to become so used to this comfort that we start neglecting the very nature of ours, walking, as and when possible. From the very first word to the last one in this quote, Sydney G. Harris is trying to differentiate between a humans lifestyle and a computers lifestyle. By saying that men will begin to think like computers, he indicates that our future is likely to be lazy because this is what the tool all of us use gives us. Computers are out hammers which drill all the nails by themselves. It give s us shortcuts for all the problems we feed it; it does things the easy way. The same implies to any other technology. Consider the following questions. Has Google made us lazy? Are Facebook friends our true friends? Are we more efficient when we are multi-tasking on our android and windows hand-held devices? We need true answers to all these questions. What we need is a real-time realization, a quick snap back to the time when we did not have all or any of this. That time, we used to read in libraries to find out about people, places and things and in this process used to learn more in the library than what we do through Google, just the overview. We used to be close to our dear friends and met them often, confided in them instead of dropping a virtual hippopotamus on them through Facebook. We used to be more focused. We used to have more time than we seem to have right now with all the technology and we thought multi-tasking was saving us all the energy and time in the world. We used to be healthier than we are. We used to go out and play under the sky on a green earthly carpet of grass instead of building virtual farms, cities and caring for pets that did not exist. We need a quick consciousness, to apprehend that we live inside a computer now. We have our own virtual lives and cities and events, all inside a computer. And between this entire clamour, we are forgetting how it felt to be real, to be human. Through this quote, Mr. Harris is trying to turn us around to face the real danger and make us understand that, in fact, we are losing our inherent humanness. He is trying to alarm us that if we humans continue on this path to think, act and behave like computers, the consequences will be far more severe. The author of the quote has surely achieved his ambition by saying this quote. John F. Kennedy once said Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all. The discussions surely suggest that we may not be far from the time when this quote becomes the unintended reality of the human race and we are all reduced from the most extraordinary creature to have walked the planet, to the most extraordinary computer to exist. To conclude, in this progressively more computer subjugated and fact-driven world, as the quotation by Sydney G. Harris suggests, the real danger is not that machines would start thinking like humans, but neither is it that humans will start thinking like machines. The biggest concern is that humans will stop thinking like humans do. We will lose the very innate nature that makes us humans. We face the hazard that people begin to think solely like computers and that we lay more value to technical proficiency than astuteness, and mathematical calculations than sound acumen. We live in virtual lives and in process forget the wonder of natural life we have been bestowed by the almighty. We are succumbing into our own trap, into our own creation. Hence, following the theory of Pascal, we must inculcate from childhood in our students, not merely the spirit of geometry, but more importantly, the more difficult and ever so obscure, the spirit of finesse.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Ancient Egypt Essay example -- essays research papers
The Nile à à à à à The Nile river was the most important thing to Ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians were very smart because they were settled near a river. Without the Nile the Egyptians wouldnââ¬â¢t survive, and even now we wouldnââ¬â¢t study their history. The Nile was so important because it gave them water and fertilizer for farming and they believed in a God of the Nile whos name was Osiris The God of The Nile River. à à à à à ââ¬Å"Irrigation along much of the river supported the growth of agricultural products such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, dates, citrus fruits, sugarcane, and various legumes.1â⬠Other local communities fished in the Nile River. ââ¬Å"The first great African civilization developed in the northern Nile Valley in about 5000 BC. Dependent on agriculture, this state, called Egypt, relied on the flooding of the Nile for irrigation and new soils.2â⬠à à à à à The Nile was their only way of trading and fastest way of transportation. Without the Nile it would take them a long time to go from city to city or trade. Egyptians always depended on the Nile to flood, when the ice from the mountains melted every year there was a flood. The flood from Nile left furtilizer for farming, and when there wasnââ¬â¢t a flood they depended on fishing and trading. Pharaohs à à à à à Pharaohs were very important to the Egyptians, they control everything. for every great Pharaoh there wa...
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Sir John A. Macdonald Essay -- Canadian History
Sir John A. Macdonald Sir John A. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 10, 1815. His fathers name was Hugh Macdonald and his mothers name was Helen Shaw. His father had migrated to Glasgow from the town of Dornach. His father was a very pleasant and easy going guy and he alwasys wanted to make everyhting better but he usually made things worst. He was a man that had lots of friends, he would talk a lot and drink too. His mother came from Spey Vally. His mother was a very smart girl, she was like the opposite of his father. His mother and father got married on 1811, and after 8 years they had 5 children, the eldest child died and after John was the eldest. In Glasgow his fathers business wansn't doing that good and he thought that if they would move to upper Canada they would have a better life there. So finally in 1820 they sailed to upper Canada. They arrived at Kingston in mid July, and John was only five years old. When he arrived his thought about Scotland just disapeard. The M acdonald family decided to stay in Kingston. Sir John A. only went to school untill 1829, when he was only 15. His parents couldn't afford to send him to University. He says that if had went to University he wouldn't have went into politics. When he turned 15 Sir John A. articled to a Kingston lawyer, George Mackenzie, so he was learining Law. In 1832 Mackenzie opened a branch office where he put Macdonald in charge of it. Later on he had taken over another law practice i...
Monday, September 2, 2019
Spanish Settlement of the West :: European Europe History
Spanish Settlement of the West International borders have always been centers of conflict, and the U.S.-Mexican border is no exception. With the European colonizing the New World, it was a matter of time before the powers collided. The Spanish settled what is today Mexico, while the English settled what is to day the United States. When the two colonial powers did meet what is today the United States' Southwest, it was not England and Spain. Rather the two powers were the United States and Mexico. Both Counties had broken off from their mother countries. The conflict that erupted between the two countries where a direct result of different nation policies. The United States had a policy of westward expansion, while Mexico had a policy of self protection. The Americans never had a written policy of expansion. What they had was the idea of "Manifest Destiny." Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States had the right to expand westward to the Pacific ocean. On the other hand, Mexico was a new country wanti ng to protect itself from outside powers. Evidence of U.S. expansion is seen with the independence of Texas from Mexico. The strongest evidence of U.S. expansion goals is with the Mexican-American War. From the beginning, the war was conceived as an opportunity for land expansion. Mexico feared the United States expansion goals. During the 16th century, the Spanish began to settle the region. The Spanish had all ready conquered and settled Central Mexico. Now they wanted to expand their land holdings north. The first expedition into the region, that is today the United States Southwest, was with Corando. Corando reported a region rich in resources, soon after people started to settle the region. The driving force behind the settlement was silver in the region. The Spanish settled the region through three major corridors; central, western and eastern. The first settlements were mainly through the central corridor. The Spanish went thorough what is now the modern Mexican state of Chihuahua into the U.S. state of New Mexico. Eventually the Spanish established the city of Santa Fe in 1689. The eastern corridor was through modern day Texas and led to the establishment of San Antonio. The eastern expansion was caused by the French expansion into modern day Louisiana. The Spanish crown wanted a buffer between the French in Louisiana and central Mexico. The last corridor of expansion was in the
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Consequences of Phobia in Edgar Allan Poeââ¬â¢s The Tell-Tale Heart Essay
ââ¬Å"The Tell-Tale Heartâ⬠, is a thrilling short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It is about the narratorââ¬â¢s attempt to convince us that he is not crazy, just have keen senses as we realize when he says: ââ¬Å"Why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharped my sensesâ⬠(The Tell- Tale Heart, p. 44). He tries to persuade us of his innocence and his sanity telling how he was able to kill an old man, proprietor of the house where he lives, with a good planning and craftiness. The story shows how the eyes of the old man were like the eyes of a vulture, how it disturbed the narrator, and how it made him paranoid. Every night he enters in the bedroom of the old man in order to get rid of those eyes, however he always keeps himself paralyzed when he realizes that the old manââ¬â¢s eyes are closed. We notice the narrator couldnââ¬â¢t commit such a crime in this situation when he says ââ¬Å"I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eyeâ⬠(The Tell- Tale Heart, p. 5). One night, the old man sat down on the bed and began to call him, but he had no reaction. The sight of the old manââ¬â¢s eyes starts to terrify him. The narrator begins to hear the sound of the old manââ¬â¢s heart accelerated and thinks the neighbors are listening to it too, so he smothers the old man under his bed. He opens up some planks in the living room floor and buries the old man there. Now everything is clean. However the old manââ¬â¢s scream waked up a neighbor, and three police officers arrived at the house. Afraid of being arrested, the narrator invites them to come and shows that everything is fine and that the old man wasnââ¬â¢t in town. He offers a drink and the police officers sit in the room, and they keep satisfied with the manners of the narrator: ââ¬Å"My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at easeâ⬠(The Tell- Tale Heart, p. 47). But the narrator begins to hear the heartbeat of the old man again, so he decides to confess to the police and asks them to take the body away from the house, and so the story ends. Analyzing the short story ââ¬Å"The Tell-Tale Heartâ⬠, Lisa Fritscher reaches some conclusions about the narrator, such as he is really paranoid, with the words ââ¬Å"He is constantly convinced something about the old man is out to get him ââ¬â first the eye and then the heart. â⬠The narratorââ¬â¢s paranoia is first embraced by the obstinacy of the narrator with the eyes and when it ends, he becomes obstinate by the heart beating. There are strong reasons to think the narrator is really paranoid. In addition, Lisa brings a new idea to our eyes, the fact that our narrator has a phobia of the eyes of the old man. The old man probably has an eye disease called cataract and Lisa goes on to state that the narratorââ¬â¢s phobia would not have been enough reason for murder and adds ââ¬Å"Clearly the narrator suffers from deep mental health issues beyond a simple phobia. â⬠Summing up, we can conclude saying that the Poeââ¬â¢s short story is electrifying and for those who suffer of phobia, it can cause different reactions. With his writing that makes us always on the verge of taking scares, it makes us think of our fears and phobia in a frightening and very exciting way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)