Tom's+Terrifically+Transcendental+Tangents

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The true nature of the village--effervescent and full of equanimity, yet foreboding and mysterious, is truly displayed in this tune.

I wish to make the world a less dreary and ignorant place in whatever way I can, be it through writing, helping others, or being crazy (as anyone who knows me can attest). I think a life without humour is one not worth living. I want to change people's lives for the better and live without any regrets.
 * Personal Philosophy**

As such, by reacting with immediate fear and recoiling in horror from the unknown, people will live a life that is sheltered--blissfully ignorant. Although this may be acceptable to many, it does not change the world in the way I wish to. As the unknown is an unavoidable part of life unless one spends life living inside a hypoallergenic plastic bubble, fearing it is pointless.

(1)
 * How do people react to the unknown or abnormal?**

[|The Ones We Do Not Speak of are coming](2) We are afraid because We do not know what lies beyond The edge of the forest Is it witches that lie beyond? Is it creatures? What is out there? "The children jangling the keys to the kingdom" Does this not make us afraid, To have power in the hands of the idiots? Or is it mere curiosity that drives us To seek the rest of the world? A man descended from heaven wishing To bring a message of peace. (3) An "annoyance" or an "imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea"? Does it matter? Justice Denied. Imprisoned based on what we do not know. We do not know. We do not know. Imprisoned based on what we do not know. Justice denied. Does it matter? An "annoyance" or an "imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea"? To bring a message of peace, A man descended from heaven--wishing To seek the rest of the world. Or is it mere curiosity that drives us To have power in the hands of the idiots? Does this not make us afraid, "The children jangling the keys to the kingdom"? What is out there? Is it creatures? Is it witches that lie beyond The edge of the forest? We do not know what lies beyond. We are afraid because The Ones We Do Not Speak Of are coming.

"Why must be not speak of them?" "We are afraid. Afraid that everything we have tried to hide will come to light. The light at the end of the tunnel and at the beginning of the rest of life." "That's very poetic." "Thank you. If you die on the inside then what happens to everything on the outside? Without a mind the body cannot function, and thus will perish." "Whatever you say, dad." "Perhaps this better illustrates my point:

//There once was a man from Japan He was stupid as an old tin can. Living so boring, I started my snoring The second he told me his plan.

He decided to inform me, deform me, with his ignorance so abundant.

The haikus that he Told me were inaccurate Because he completely ignored the number of syllables on the final line.

The house collapsed As time elapsed And he relapsed Because perhaps All of the gaps, My dear old chaps, All of the gaps in his mind!//

"Yes, Yoshi was a rather dim-witted fellow, it's no wonder his world collapsed in around him. Perhaps if he learned to lighten up a little and actually discover a life worth living then maybe he would have survived." "Quite a shame." "It really is." (5) A man hanged in England Better off than one dead naturally in Ireland. Self-reliance Simplicity All interconnect To remove the veil And see what is truly there. Standing up for what you Believe Or passive death. But what's ironic Is that in death They are both exactly the same. All men are created equal Even if this is false, That's how it ends up.


 * Explication:**

Many people have an initially negative reaction to the unknown. In //The Crucible//, people are quick to lay blame of recent illness on the townsfolk not because it was logical but because it was easy, in effect, the unknown was used as a scapegoat to perpetuate the ignorance of the town. This ignorance soon spiralled into hysteria that consumed the hearts and minds of all, spreading rapidly like a virus. With hysteria comes fear: the heart of people's reaction to the unknown. People are naturally wary of anything outside their comfort zone, even a haunted house can frighten one who knows all of the chainsaw-wielding maniacs or paintings of Barney's head on a pike are not real. Even in //The Crucible// at one point, Giles Corey announces of the witch hunt: "It is fraud, you know it is fraud!" (Miller, Act II, p. 78). And yet, as fraud becomes more and more pervasive, people begin to accept it as the truth, for it is all is all they know. (4) The article "Justice Denied" too explores fear and ignorance brought about by the unknown. Accusations of sexual assault are hurled wildly at day-care operators with no evidence to support them except the unreliable testimony of young children. Perhaps the purveyors of these day-cares were already considered abnormal by society, making them easy targets for an all-too-often corrupt legal system. Or the title character of "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings", a rather frail yet angelic creature, who is exploited and used to make a quick buck, as many believe the accused day-care owners were. A person's natural instinct towards the unknown is hostile; however, if something is able to be controlled, people will turn that fear into the use of something for their own selfish desires. People's reactions to the unknown are fearful, ignorant, and often mask their own insecurities: no wonder justice was denied.

Those who desire ignorance are, in modern parlance, cruisin' for a bruisin'. By choosing to ignore facts in hope of pretending the situation is more to their liking or hiding their fears, people ultimately create situations that are really quite difficult for themselves. Gothic literature in particular brings people's fears to life in tangible forms such as corpses and mouldy, decaying houses. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" features a psychotic main character who convinces himself that his dead sister is still alive and keeps her quite handy nearby, in the wall. In an ironic twist, at the end of the tale she comes back to life and murders him. Usher was concerned only about himself, living a paranoid life and finishing it in similar fashion.

The grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's equally Gothic "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is also extremely absorbed in her own narrow belief system, and imposing her rude demeanour on everyone around her. And where does she end up? Dead in a ditch by the side of the road--she does not see the value in sensible, unclouded thinking, and ultimately her murderer makes her pay the price for doing so, in order to teach her a lesson. Those who use religion as a tool to mask their fear and ignorance, using it for less-than-noble causes and forcing their way of life on other people ultimately reveals the very ignorance that they are attempting to hide. Foolish actions show a foolish mind. It is unfortunate that death is required to "lift the wool" from so many people's eyes. Isn't it funny how people who delude themselves into thinking their narcissistic, insane way of life is the best way to live, always ends up either killed my some manic person or kills themselves? Clearly leading such a life is not the ideal path to happiness.

Ben Franklin, an early proponent of Rationalism, a more logical way of thinking, developed a list of moral values in his autobiography. Among these virtues were silence and sincerity, central to his Rationalist beliefs. Silence is a rather unselfish belief, and I personally should try exercise this more often (no, I'm not joking). Instead of frittering their lives away chatting about the latest celebrity scandal they could be exchanging discourse and reciting Bohemian poetry about world politics at a coffeehouse. Although life does not have to be as serious as Franklin's virtue may at first suggest, spending much talking about vacuous subjects is a complete waste. Sincerity means that someone must act with compassion even in a difficult situation when they might face the unknown, a central value of my personal philosophy.

Philosophically speaking, folks considering themselves part of the "Transcendentalist" movement gel quite nicely with my personal philosophy as well. In Henry David Thoreau's //Walden//, the tale of his isolated odyssey living (according to him) in a completely self-sufficient manner, the author urges humans to "simplify, simplify" in order to eschew the shackles that bond us to ultimately worthless material possessions. He argued that people who spent all their time concerned with the trivial never really got the chance to experience life, to truly //live// it. Only by casting aside our meaningless attachments can we truly transcend the mortal realm. Fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his work //Self-Reliance//, advocating just that, an individual exploration through life much like Thoreau's. Without all of the pointless things to weigh us down, we can truly see with eyes unclouded by ignorance..

The once-enslaved Frederick Douglass, known better to his fans as Freddy D, also did just that. He too survived ignorance in his daily life--witnessing it both in others and having it imposed upon himself. Freddy sought knowledge from higher places, but soon found it an almost unbearable, yet necessary burden to be grappled with. Although he could have taken the easy way out and not learned how to read, or about how society worked at the time, such ignorance would have been detrimental in the long run. He could not have written his book and influenced generations of people--possibly even altering the course of history. Freddy never lost his compassion for others and stood up to adversity...certainly an admirable person in my eyes.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but stupidity and ignorance dug the grave.




 * Sources:**

Cohen, Richard, et al. __Elements of Literature Fifth Course: Literature of the United States__. Austin, TX: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 2003.

---Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance". Elements of Literature 225.

---Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden, or Life in the Woods". Elements of Literature 234-44.

Darnton, Nina. "Justice Denied?". //More//. September/October 2000: 145-147.

Douglass, Frederick. //Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave//. Austin, TX: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1994.

Franklin, Benjamin. //The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin//. New York: Modern Library, 2000.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings". //Leaf Storm//. Ed. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. New York: Harper Collins, 1954.

Miller, Arthur. //The Crucible//. New York: Penguin Books, 1952.

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find". (In-class handout)

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher". (In-class handout)

Shyamalan, M. Night. //The Village// (film). Touchstone Pictures, 2004.

Other musings and information have come from the mind of me, Tom Roberts, and I hereby give myself creative license to use anything, intelligent or otherwise, that comes from my head.

Picture/Video Sources:

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2. YouTube LLC. //The Village//. 7 October 2007.

3. <[|http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~dianes/Images/Dove.jpg]>

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