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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #6

The Nautilus’s trip is close to concluding. They have visited Atlantis, looted sunken treasure, gone underwater hunting, traveled 16,000 meters under the sea which actually isn’t possible because the deepest part of the ocean is only about 11,000 meters, and finally they have one more major thing to do. Visit the south pole. Of course it is not easy. They get stuck in ice more than once. When they finally clear out of the ice, Nemo and his Nautilus are the first to ever reach the south pole. Pretty cool stuff!

A few months later a massive warship is spotted on the horizon. It starts firing cannon at the Nautilus and Nemo seems to be furious and almost driven mad at the sight of this ship. hmm Throwback to the other time he saw something on the Horizon... Coincidence? I think not. Of course no one can make out any flags on this warship so we have no idea where it came from, other than we can assume it came from Nemo’s former home country when he says, “ I am the law, I am the justice, I am the oppressed, and they are the oppressor! It is because of them that everything I loved, cherished, venerated—country, wife, children, parents—perished as I watched! Everything I hate is there! Keep quiet!” Of course Nemo utterly destroys them in a fight, as he just rams the Nautilus’s serrated tip into it and cuts through it like butter. Arronax is forced to watch as the ship and crew sink slowly to the ocean floor. This tips Arronax past the breaking point, and decides he needs to get out and fast. 

He plans his escape the next night. They will climb into the Nautilus’s little dinghy and sail for shore as fast as possible. Suddenly, crew members start shouting and fearing they’ve been caught, Arronax and his companions latch themselves into the dinghy. They then realize they haven’t been caught, but that Nemo sailed the Nautilus straight into a Maelstrom! This guy really is bonkers! The Dinghy is torn free of the Nautilus and Arronax hits his head and is knocked out. 

Arronax wakes in a fisherman’s hut off the coast of Norway. The Nautilus is nowhere to be found. Arronax finds himself wondering if Nemo survived, and is still out there. The book ends with Arronax answering a question from a book written 6,000 years ago called the book of Ecclesiastes. The question is,” hast thou walked in search of the depth?” Arronax says only he and Nemo can truly answer yes. 

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #5

At this point in the book, the Nautilus has traveled roughly 8,000 leagues. Arronax’s companion, Ned, has begun to grow tired of their voyage. It is especially hard for him because he does not share Arronax’s fascination for the ocean. On top of that, Arronax doesn’t really want to leave just yet. Ned is constantly trying to devise ways to escape, and now that the Nautilus is touring the Mediterranean, he thinks he has no better chance. However it seems that Nemo is very careful around Europe, and he does not get anywhere near land, so Arronax and Ned have no real chance of escaping. 

In the book we learn that Crete is revolting against the Turkish, so when Nemo takes some giant gold bars in a chest and takes it to shore, we can only assume he is aiding Crete’s fight. This is another hint alluding to the idea that Nemo really hates empires, and favors the rebels. We also learn that somehow, Nemo has unfathomable wealth. He says he could pay off France’s debt, and have plenty left over. That is really just a ridiculous amount of money. So, either he has done a lot of looting of the ocean floor, or he was someone notable before he decided to throw off societies shackles. 

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #4

Months go by, of Nemo and his crew searching the Horizon for something whenever they breach the waves of the Ocean’s surface. That is, until they finally find what they’ve been looking for. For an instant, Nemo shows real anger at whatever he sees on the horizon before collecting himself again. He confines Arronax to his room to wait out whatever Nemo does, which is why we never really know what he found. Arronax falls asleep as he realizes he’s been drugged, so he misses whatever occurs over night. Our only hint comes the following morning, when Arronax is summoned to evaluate a wounded crew member. Arronax is shocked to find that the crew member has half his skull missing, and declares that he will die in a few hours. Nemo seems heartbroken, showing that for such a bitter man, he really does love his crew. He ends up being buried alongside some of his fellow crew in an underwater graveyard. It was definitely the saddest part of the book.  

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #3

Our main character Arronax has seen the Nautilus, met the captain, and gotten his feet wet with the advanced technology in use on board. But the main part of this book is their journey, which starts in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. This journey will take them 20,000 leagues all over the world, hence the title. For the first week, Arronax is bound to the ship, mostly left to his own devices. Nemo is nowhere to be found, however frequently the crew can be seen scanning the horizon for something. What that something is however, we never find out. This mysterious prey comes up a few times in the book, and is most likely Nemo’s former country. We do not know why he hunts them and fights them, as seen later in the book, but we do know he has a soft spot for rebels. Hmm...? 

Arronax finally receives a note from the mysterious captain inviting him to go on a “hunt” in the “forest.” Of course, this hunt takes place on the sea floor, in underwater forests. This is our first major underwater sight seeing adventure Arronax is taken on, and you can tell immediately that he is nearly bubbling over with excitement. It is interesting wondering about just how much contact 19th century people had with the ocean, specifically the ocean floor. The amount of contact is probably next to nothing, so you can imagine the amount of excitement people had when first reading about this unknown world. At one point, Nemo blurted out how he thinks the Ocean is alive, and that he dreams of creating underwater cities and civilizations free from the greed of colonial men. Interestingly, Verne was asked to eliminate Nemo’s hostility towards colonial empires, because the Emperor of France was not happy with it, and thought it could inspire unrest. Of course Verne refused. Perhaps Verne shares some of Nemo’s opinions?

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #2

Once Arronax and his two companions are captured, they are finally able to meet the mastermind behind this scientific work of wonder. His name is Captain Nemo. Nemo means nobody in Latin, and we never find out his true name, or race. He has thrown out all ties with civilization, preferring to live where no man can reach him; under the sea. It is an interesting concept, cutting ties with civilization and living in the Ocean, free of taxes and laws. Being able to choose how you live, where you go, and what you do. Of course it would be quite difficult in modern times, but it certainly makes you think. Everything the submarine (known as the Nautilus) and the crew needs can be obtained in the Ocean. Food, clothing, even the electricity the submarine needs can be generated from the surrounding water. This leads me to the next point. A significant chunk of this book can be found explaining the science behind different processes. While interesting at first, these little and sometimes big bits of information can become extremely boring quite quickly. They do not advance the plot in any way, and sometimes, they are not even scientifically accurate. Of course, the book was published nearly 150 years ago. Luckily these talks don’t detract from the book too much, and we can get back into the action and adventure that makes this book so great.

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea #1

The first few chapters of this book are like a fish hook. As soon as you start reading, it is very hard to put down. There is this crazy sea monster or thing, that has been sinking ships before disappearing from sight, and seems to be able to travel great distances in extremely short periods of time. Nobody knows what this thing is, if it has an agenda, or what its next move might be. On top of that, the main character Arronax, is obsessed with this phenomenon of the seas, and his excitement at the prospect of discovering what it is is palpable. This is an excellent move by Verne, in order to get readers into this book. Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Whats even better, is that the book doesn’t just get boring after this. The people in this 19th century world finally throw up their hands that enough is enough. This creature needs to be exterminated. Finally, an extremely formidable ship, the Abraham Lincoln, is outfitted to hunt this monster down. However before they can attack the monster, it jets water up, and blows Arronax off the ship with his two companions. Half dead from exposure, he finds land, realizing too late that the land is actually the beast. However, it is discovered that this phenomenon is no monster at all, but a highly advanced submarine. Arronax and his companions are captured, and taken aboard ready to begin their long journey against their will on orders from their captor, the brilliant Captain Nemo. 

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I have considered purchasing and reading this book for quite some time now, and when it was announced that our next book would be fiction, I knew right away what I wanted to read. The book starts off with a huge mystery revolving around some unknown species of fauna that has been damaging and sinking ships. However, it is discovered that the beast is not a beast at all, but rather a highly advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by the brilliant Captain Nemo. The narrator of the story is a Frenchman named Arronax, who is captured and forced to sail around the world onboard the Nautilus. and right off the bat we can tell that he is highly educated, and that he is very interested in this supposed sea monster. As the story progresses, Verne’s fascination with the Ocean is clear through Arronax, who is also clearly fascinated with the Ocean. Currently, we have explored less than 5% of the Ocean, and in the 19th century, that number was even less. So it is clear how easy it can be to nurture a fascination with something so unknown, especially since most of the exploration in that time period takes place on the Ocean’s Surface.

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Denby- Lord of the Rings movie adaptation

Genre is restricting in every way. No movie is all one genre. Usually, one genre is more prevalent than others, which then categorizes the movie. The first Lord of the Rings is a great example of this. While largely considered to be fantasy, it actually contains a large variety. Some of the obvious are action/adventure, including fight scenes and the large amount of travel that takes place. Another is the romances, including Sam and Rosie, and Arwen and Aragorn. Also included is comedy, such as the carrot scene and tossing Gimli over the chasm. Films can never truly be just one genre without taking out all the rest of it. This is why genre is restricting and how LOTR transcends genre.

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Reflection #3 - The Other Wes Moore

Sometimes the way we learn best is by making mistakes. The characters in my book made tons. And yet one was successful, and one ended up in jail. They both had second chances. Often, adolescents choose wrongly, because they have no one to look to for support or advice. Just like in my book, these outside influences are what help us to make the right choice. The successful character in my book, had these outside influences that pushed him and helped him along the way. The other character did not. He ended up in jail for attempted murder.

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Reflection #2 - The Other Wes Moore

Young people are new to the world and haven't seen much of it as of yet and sometimes the weight of it can crush them. When they have someone to help carry that weight or burden, they are far more likely to succeed. More often than not, that's a family member. This is extremely important when choosing which path you want to follow.

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Reflection #1 -The Other Wes Moore

The book deals a lot with family and how your relationship with your family can make or break you. Your peers can help you along the correct path, but you have to be careful who these peers are. Choose the wrong ones, and you could go down the wrong path. This true story explores both sides of the coin told from both perspectives.

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Baseball is High Art

When a lot of people think of baseball, they think, “oh that long, tedious, game that they play every day? I know that game.” Essentially these people are eating the skin off an apple and then throwing the rest away. They never even got to the good stuff! What most of these people don’t see is the beautiful and fun activity it really is. Baseball should be considered high art because of the skill, grace, popularity, and character many of the players possess.

When playing baseball, one of the biggest areas of the game is out in the field making plays. Just like hitting, fieldwork takes years of practice to achieve that fluid, graceful movement you see in a major league baseball game. One of the universal sayings in baseball is that it takes a hundred repetitions in practice of a play to make one play in a real game. Tim Kurkjian, who is a baseball analyst on ESPN says, “Catching a baseball is a task immensely underrated in its degree of difficulty just ask any third baseman who has played even with the bag with Vladimir Guerrero at the plate and a soft-throwing left-hander on the mound.” Fielding is insanely hard and, just like hitting, takes a very long time to gain any sort of proficiency at making plays. But that’s only half of a play. The second half is actually getting an out which means the fielder has to catch the ball and throw it to a base before the runner gets there. Keep in mind that this all happens in the space of a few seconds. On top of this the player has to think about where to throw the ball, keep the pressure out of his mind, and stay out of the base path. Easier said than done.

While baseball is a physically intensive sport, many people forget how much brain power it requires. Everything from choosing what pitch to throw, to where and how to throw the ball, takes a large amount intelligence and quick thinking. It’s all strategy. In an article by Gary Mihoces at USA Today, he says, “What’s remarkable about them is not their muscles or anything like that. It’s in their brain. Their brain really works better than yours and mine at this.” Baseball players are constantly thinking, reacting, and weighing options throughout the game. Another universal baseball saying is always think where you’re going to throw the ball before it even comes to you. During the downtime in between plays, players aren’t sitting around. They are deciding what to do if they get the ball. It’s really a lot of mental pressure and players who rarely have errors and consistently make plays, are the ones who gain multimillion dollar contracts in the MLB. 

While baseball is not the same as classical music or ballet, it holds many of the values that those activities have and should be considered a high form of art. Skill, passion, fans, Brains, and tons and tons of practice. Just like music and dancing, baseball is creative and imaginative. It is unique and complex in its own way. It is the kind of activity anyone can go to and enjoy. It’s not necessarily cheap either. It is the sport that requires you to eat all of the apple, not just the skin.

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http://classymenswear.tumblr.com/post/151702300375/poliche-available-in-black-red-or-blue-priced

Fashion, be it men's or women's is art. Fashion can be incredibly expensive which is associated with high art, or it can be relatively cheap. Fashion you wear to a dance or a expensive dinner is expensive and can be crafted to your specific build by a master craftsman who spends a long time learning skills and gaining experience to create clothing that we wear.

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http://oldpaintings.tumblr.com/post/151385212077/still-life-1868-by-blaise-alexandre-desgoffe

One form of high art is painting. Anyone can paint but in order to be a good painter you must have extreme creativity and patience. A good painting takes many tiring hours to complete. Many good paintings can go for thousands of dollars or more. Some are world famous such as the Mona Lisa which is priceless.

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http://detroitsymphony.tumblr.com/post/125515860800/happy-friday-need-some-music-to-kick-off-your

Classical music is one of the many forms of high art. Classical music is ageless. It is and always has been something people of wealth go to experience and enjoy. Playing an instrument itself is not easy. Like anything, it takes years of practice to become proficient and even then there is always room for improvement. Each piece of music is harder than the last and many of those composers are world famous such as John Williams or Beethoven.

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http://detroittigers.tumblr.com/post/151037643166/the-12th-time-miggy-has-recorded-100-plus-rbis-in

I would consider the game of baseball to be a high art. Anyone can play it when they are young. But as you get older it gets more and more competitive and harder to play. For most people, it takes years to learn and perfect the skills in baseball like pitching or hitting. In order to play in the majors you have to be drafted and there are only around 200 major league players in the United States so it is very hard and a huge honor to get into the major leagues.