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19 Aug 2019

Rather than focusing on No Exit as we did the previous week, today we focused more on the main idea behind the play, the philosophy which one will immediately think of upon hearing Sartre’s name, Existentialism. We watched videos on existentialism and what Sartre said about it. It felt like a review of the research I did a few weeks ago. What I learned for the first time was the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir on feminism. Her ideas can be thought to be based on Sartre’s. She said that a woman is not born but chosen to be one. This relates to the idea of Sartre and existentialism, “Existence precedes essence”. We can choose to be a female or a male. This idea made me think about the era we are at now, an era where there are more than the 2 typical genders. 

Another idea she brought forth was that the stereotypes and standards for women are made by men and women are “forced” to live based on these standards. The having to live by the views of others are not restricted to only females which is shown through the play. Garcin, a male character wishes to be viewed as brave and not a coward. But females have it worse. In another video introduced to the class, a woman named Jean Kilbourne presents her collection of ads with women in it. In each ad she presents, the women are being shamed and treated or implied as being at a lower class than men. I didn’t recognize any of the ads but the ads are so obvious at showing how they see women that anyone would be able to understand what they mean. This made me think about the media today. The ads in this day and age still have these features, using women in lingerie to sell their products. But as Kilbourne said, there are also groups now that share her view and are fighting for the women.

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13 August

Our class finished reading ‘No Exit’ yesterday, using the method of being the character themselves. Today we reflected on any ideas, perspectives thoughts we have or gained from this play. 

Through the play, I learned that ‘Hell is other people’, which is also a quote from the play, a line from the character Joseph Garcin. Garcin reached this conclusion because each character is being tortured by the other 2. Estelle Rigault forced to face reality as she is in a room with 2 very realistic people who are always thinking. Inez is tortured by seeing Estelle, a lady she is very much attracted to, being head over heels over Garcin. Garcin’s hell is being known for a coward and is desperate for just one person to believe that he is not one.

This made me think that someone is someone else’s hell, whether it is intentional or not. This idea scares me because that means I am also someone’s hell. Like Garcin, I never meant to be anyone's ‘torturer’ but eventually still became one. This also made me reevaluate my friends and whether they are causing me ‘hell’.

Satre’s ideas were also displayed throughout the play. Garcin and Inez have been analyzing the situation and Garcin also deeply analyses the process of blinking, a process so mundane turned to something so complex. Estelle is the representation of ‘Bad faith’, she refuses to face the truth and does not live for herself. She has to be adored by everyone, her worth depends on others. Sartreans are against this type of behavior.

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7 Aug 2019

We finally started the discussion of No Exit. The first step to any discussion is definitely reading the piece itself. But No Exit is a play, just reading the play won’t have the same effect as watching the play itself. As we are not able to watch the play, we went with placing ourselves into the characters and act them out. Our class consists of 6 people and there are 3 main characters in No Exit, Joseph Garcin, Inez Serrano and Estelle Rigault, with the side character of the Valet. We were divided into 2 groups with each person taking the role of one character. I took the role of Inez Serrano. 

By acting out the play myself, I was able to really notice the actions Inez did during the scene and felt how she felt. Although I still have not read the whole play, I have read a majority of it so I know what will happen next. I get frustrated and annoyed when my classmate does not do what the character is supposed to be doing as the actions itself are very important in a play.

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6 Aug 2019

Does this poster look familiar to you? That’s right, this is a poster of one of the movies in the infamous James Bond series. Although it is a movie from 2012, 7 years ago, we can still recognize it, probably because of the iconic “007″ logo. 

How about this poster then?

This one you might not recognize or even seen, I know I have not. This poster is also one of the James Bond series but from the year 1965. You can tell that it is an old poster of an old movie because of the illustration which seems low quality compared to the one above. 

You can distinctly see a difference in the 2 posters, the one below is much more crowded with different scenes at every part of the poster, such as an exploding ship and someone hanging off a helicopter. But what really catches the eye at the second poster is the legs of the woman, who is only wearing a bikini or underwear. This really tells a lot of what the culture was in the 1960s, they have to use the appeal of women, who are dressed in minimal clothing and destruction and chaos in the background. The Americans are attracted to the idea of violence and being able to see women who are close to nude.

Compared to the 2012 poster, there are no women in sight. It is focused on Bond in a suit, a gun in hand looking right at the camera, engaging with the audience in a way. James Bond no longer needs to use girls in the poster to attract the audience. It may also be inappropriate to use girls who are in their underwear in a movie poster in the 21st century due to the increase of feminists and girls protecting other girls.

The posters show just how much America’s views have evolved.

[sof-kus]

30 Jul 2019

How do you talk to your principal? What about your parents? Or your friends? Talking to different people will require you to use a different set of vocabulary, paired with different actions especially considering the situation. In class, this idea was highlighted with the activity of role-playing. As we are relating it to Language and Power, the situation was that a student was being expelled, characters consists of one student, ( it was me ) and a principal. In ways that we don't even realize, the actions we chose, the body language shows that the principal is in a position of power.

We were then told to continue the scenario with the student explaining to their parents next on their expulsion. Again, the parent is in power. Next is to friends. We all approached it carefreely, not hiding anything and even joking around. 

This lesson on word choice will be useful for when writing the Wriiten Task as we may have to write a letter or a blog to different people that may require different word choice and greetings. Today’s class was full of laughs, I really enjoyed it.

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Other Blogs

Bella ~ https://bellatantri.tumblr.com/

James ~ https://jaaameeesssss.tumblr.com/

Devin ~ https://d-promax.tumblr.com/

Sally ~ https://langlitprogress.home.blog/

Marco ~ https://marcohutomo.wixsite.com/everydaylanglit

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29 Jul 2019

In class, I discovered the usefulness of the textbooks given to us a year ago. In the previous year, we never touched the book for our classes. My textbook was hidden away in a locker, only being let out last week. We were told that the book has a guide on how to write our written tasks and that it will be of great help. Other than the textbook we received, we also received temporary textbooks to study for the meantime. I realized that I need to invest more time in researching about written tasks and what I want to write about. I am considering using an episode of a TV series or a cartoon as my source, “Rick and Morty: Raising Gazorpazorp” as this episode focuses on gender inequality. I am still not sure whether I should go through with this and if I do, I’m not sure how I would proceed.

I started reading “No Exit” today, it is about Garcin, Estelle and Inez being placed together in a room that is supposed to be “hell”, although I have not finished the whole play, due to my prior research, I can see Sartre’s ideas expressed in the play. The way Garcin breaks down the process of blinking, an action we do every day and considered normal or nothing special, into an intricate process. This is the way Sartreans think.  

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Meet Sartre

Remember the play I mentioned in the previous post, “No Exit”? Well, meet its writer, Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre is famously known as a philosopher, not a writer. His life began and ended during the 20th century, living up to 75. When you type Sartre into the Google search engine, on the right Sartre’s pictures will appear. The first thing you will notice is his wandering eye, it seemed silly for me at the start but was taken aback when I started reading about him and discovering more about his philosophy, existentialism. 

Existentialism is the philosophy in which we, as humans are free. Free to make our own choices and give our own meaning in our respective lives. This means that there are actually no guidelines or morals that we should follow. As everyone is just like us, not knowing everything, these guidelines are what they made up. This also leads to the idea that we should not live based on the expectations of others or that you will do something because you SHOULD do it. This is what Sartre calls “bad faith”.

What I discovered about Sartre is that he had an open relationship with Simone de Beauvoir, another philosopher and so much more. This really interests me as this may be one of his ways in which he breaks free from the norms, not following the rules of society. 

Check out these links below : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQsZxDQgzU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDvRdLMkHs

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/40829/1/simone-de-beauvoir-jean-paul-sartre-hate-zine-essay-love

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23 Jul 2019

My second year of the IB Diploma Program just started. It must be because it is the start of the new academic year but I am determined to be productive and do better than the previous year. My goal for this year is to improve my marks in both Maths HL and English A Language and Literature which needs a lot of work. 

For English A, the first year we mainly focused on how to analyze a particular text, discovering the purpose of the text, the intended audience, the tone of the piece and the meaning being conveyed. I found myself struggling in doing this as sometimes I just can’t find it or even if I did find something, it might not be it. This really demotivated me, making me dread English A class. 

I hope this year will be different. Through the discussion on the first day of class, I realized that I am not reading much. I have no interest in reading the news as to me, that seemed boring. The only way news would reach me was through social media, such as Instagram. I recall the days where I would read book after book, reading whenever I had spare time. This year, I have to start reading again, receiving views and ideas from different parties.

Today in class, we decided on the play we would like to study, I chose No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre. I found the plot to be interesting and disturbing. But during the class, I took an interest in another play, A Streetcar Named Desire. This play was filled with twists and turns, full of drama, which piqued my interest. I also had to start thinking of what I should write for my written task. I hope I will be able to find materials that would allow me to write a good written task on.

The second year of IB, please be good to me.