Assignment:
Look at Characteristics of "Schwartz", a "cool" character in the story and identify what matches him with properties of "cool".
Schwartz to me is a man of mystery, someone who can't be "read' by another single person. Just by the way he carries himself shows that he fits the description most people look at as being cool. "His colleague Schwartz was just coming downstairs, but on seeing Peter Ivanovich enter he stopped and winked at him, as if to say: "Ivan Ilych has made a mess of things -- not like you and me"." This shows that it only takes Schwartz a blink of one eye to let someone know what he is thinking. It also kind of shows that he is too good to talk to someone, like he is above it.
"The ladies went upstairs to the widow's room, and Schwartz with seriously compressed lips but a playful looking his eyes, indicated by a twist of his eyebrows the room to the right where the body lay". Even in a serious situation, the "cool and suave" Schwartz manages to keep his composure and stay calm and collected. this shows self control and discipline, which is a high, cool characteristic. it's funny how this really intertwines to what society thinks as "cool" today. it's like, Cool is thought of as a "good" thing, but Schwartz' ways are making him seem like a badass of sorts. So based on this, Scwartz can be looked at as an example of what "Cool" is, which is when an individual has the ability to be good and bad at the same time.
This story signifies yet another example of a perception of the meaning of "cool". You have this guy, mysterious, but yet readable, ONLY when HE wants to be read. His characteristics really fly off him, as a way to signify who he is in society. Is this what "cool" brings, or is it "cool" when someone makes it obvious to others who that person is ( or may want to be)?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
HW 31 - Exploring Methods of M,M,C,A, & Aggrandizing the Self
PART A
For this assignment, I asked My uncle about his many tattoos he has. When told I was doing a homework assignment on class based on expressing yourself in different ways. When asked about what his tattoos meant to him, he had this to say:
"My tattoos are what symbolize me. This "masking" you're talking about, It has nothing to do with it. Tattoos to me are special, it's a visual representation of the person who one really is. I don't consider tattoos a way to hide your real persona, but instead a way to show it in a bigger way".
PART B
After hearing my uncle's response, I believe that he is right when it comes to tattoos specifically. Sometimes, people do things just because they want to. Tattoos to a lot of people, like my uncle said, are ways to express themselves and show who they really are, instead of having to say it verbally 24/7. I myself would like to get tattoos when I get older, so my uncle's response really makes sense to me.
However, this doesn't mean that masking and decorating yourself in order to fit in still doesn't go on in society. People may go as far as tattooing not to express themselves, but to gain approval from other people. Although this has been discovered and brought into a brighter light, doesn't mean everyone in society does it.
For this assignment, I asked My uncle about his many tattoos he has. When told I was doing a homework assignment on class based on expressing yourself in different ways. When asked about what his tattoos meant to him, he had this to say:
"My tattoos are what symbolize me. This "masking" you're talking about, It has nothing to do with it. Tattoos to me are special, it's a visual representation of the person who one really is. I don't consider tattoos a way to hide your real persona, but instead a way to show it in a bigger way".
PART B
After hearing my uncle's response, I believe that he is right when it comes to tattoos specifically. Sometimes, people do things just because they want to. Tattoos to a lot of people, like my uncle said, are ways to express themselves and show who they really are, instead of having to say it verbally 24/7. I myself would like to get tattoos when I get older, so my uncle's response really makes sense to me.
However, this doesn't mean that masking and decorating yourself in order to fit in still doesn't go on in society. People may go as far as tattooing not to express themselves, but to gain approval from other people. Although this has been discovered and brought into a brighter light, doesn't mean everyone in society does it.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
HW 30 Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool
How does cool relate to our attempt to live in relation to this emptiness?
Cool as evolved in the human society in a big way, for a very long time. People look at cool as a way to fill in that "emptiness" they feel inside themselves in order to feel like they are someone in the world. This can be looked at in different ways, whether it be positive or negative, or anything else.
Cool itself has been discovered as overated, or better yet, it has been discovered as being non-exsisting. Cool has many multiple definitions, so many that it can't easily be narrowed down to one meaning. However, if you look past that, everyone is able to live through life and have their own perceptions of the word "Cool". After trying to figure out what cool is or what is does for one's benefits; a fork has formed in that path. in other words, in this situation of people using cool to make something out of themselves in life has become suchn a huge topic to think about, that the questioning of the term has been put on the side for the time being.
Over the past few generations, people have been using cool to live their lives. That's right, as weird as it sounds (which that too is weird, since I live on "Cool" in at least one way), it has become true. In the episode, "Merchants of Cool" from the series "Frontline", the topic of cool is explored. More specifically, the show concentrates on corporations trying to get on their buyer's sides in order for them to keep making profits, or maybe in even increase those profits. However, what is also revealed is that corporations aren't selling too many actual products as a main sell anymore, their biggest profit maker is Cool itself.
Corporations know that the general public look up at pop culture as somewhat of an inspiration, so smartly to their benefit, they jumped on that idea and built it into empires. For example, Britney Spears. Britney is looked at as an inspiration, mostly to young, teen girls. Aside from the CDs, the clothes and perfumes, those girls are taking life advice from Britney Spears (which at the time, when she was normal, although it still is a bad ordeal). Girls have looked at Britney Spears as a role model, so when they see what she does and how she lives her life, her young fans follow her lead and copy her. Before Spears made it big, I'm pretty sure there was less attention to "being sexy" being given by people. But now that she's on top of the world, she is now a leader for thousands of followers, waiting for her next move.
Overall, people use pop culture and being cool as a way to push themselves to being someone in this world. This can be looked at as both positive and negative. Positive because more people are being inspired to go out and explore the world, to make an impact on many other people in the process. Negative because while they're doing all this positive stuff, it's based on someone elses actions (little girls being sexy because of Britney Spears' ways). I myself can even admit that me wanting to become a pro wrestler was because of the wrestlers I saw on the TV when I was a young boy who had no idea about going into the world by myslef. All this inspiration, is it nothing more but a joke? It's hard to say. I think this topic can be answered in many different ways, which that itself may be the real reason of this subject.
Cool as evolved in the human society in a big way, for a very long time. People look at cool as a way to fill in that "emptiness" they feel inside themselves in order to feel like they are someone in the world. This can be looked at in different ways, whether it be positive or negative, or anything else.
Cool itself has been discovered as overated, or better yet, it has been discovered as being non-exsisting. Cool has many multiple definitions, so many that it can't easily be narrowed down to one meaning. However, if you look past that, everyone is able to live through life and have their own perceptions of the word "Cool". After trying to figure out what cool is or what is does for one's benefits; a fork has formed in that path. in other words, in this situation of people using cool to make something out of themselves in life has become suchn a huge topic to think about, that the questioning of the term has been put on the side for the time being.
Over the past few generations, people have been using cool to live their lives. That's right, as weird as it sounds (which that too is weird, since I live on "Cool" in at least one way), it has become true. In the episode, "Merchants of Cool" from the series "Frontline", the topic of cool is explored. More specifically, the show concentrates on corporations trying to get on their buyer's sides in order for them to keep making profits, or maybe in even increase those profits. However, what is also revealed is that corporations aren't selling too many actual products as a main sell anymore, their biggest profit maker is Cool itself.
Corporations know that the general public look up at pop culture as somewhat of an inspiration, so smartly to their benefit, they jumped on that idea and built it into empires. For example, Britney Spears. Britney is looked at as an inspiration, mostly to young, teen girls. Aside from the CDs, the clothes and perfumes, those girls are taking life advice from Britney Spears (which at the time, when she was normal, although it still is a bad ordeal). Girls have looked at Britney Spears as a role model, so when they see what she does and how she lives her life, her young fans follow her lead and copy her. Before Spears made it big, I'm pretty sure there was less attention to "being sexy" being given by people. But now that she's on top of the world, she is now a leader for thousands of followers, waiting for her next move.
Overall, people use pop culture and being cool as a way to push themselves to being someone in this world. This can be looked at as both positive and negative. Positive because more people are being inspired to go out and explore the world, to make an impact on many other people in the process. Negative because while they're doing all this positive stuff, it's based on someone elses actions (little girls being sexy because of Britney Spears' ways). I myself can even admit that me wanting to become a pro wrestler was because of the wrestlers I saw on the TV when I was a young boy who had no idea about going into the world by myslef. All this inspiration, is it nothing more but a joke? It's hard to say. I think this topic can be answered in many different ways, which that itself may be the real reason of this subject.
Monday, December 14, 2009
HW 29 Merchants of Cool
What are ways that corporations sell their products? Is it wrong that they do it in the ways that they do?
In the video, there are multiple types or views of Cool. The goal of this video in my view was to show how corporations work in order to get in the minds of teenagers of this generation to know what they like and prefer in products such as clothes, games, digital devices, etc. Watching this, it rally got me thinking how corporations work.
Although we may not realize it at first, everything that we buy in today's society has a group of men wearing suits, sitting at a round table. The part where a representative of a company interviewed a handful of teens was an example on what corporations are willing to do to sell their products. The small amount of money that the corporations pay the teens are a small sacrifice to what they will eventually earn from teens including those they paid in the future, as it has already happened many times before.
There were many forms of tricking kids that were revealed in the video such as music, movies, regular TV, among other things have allowed corporations to be in the heads of kids almost all the time. Pop idols like Britney Spears have gone farther than to just sell CDs and some beauty products, she sold "being cool". Now before Britney Spears came along, I'm sure there was less exposure to sex. This is because people like Britney Spears were part of a new era in both the corporation world and eventually with some convincing, the youth into thinking this was the definition of cool. "Girls are taught to flaunt their sexuality even though they don't understand it yet." This is showing that corporations are now going farther than to just sell products, they are now selling ways to live.
This video may be able to open teenager's eyes in realizing what they have been sucked into for the most part of this generation. Corporations at times may being tricking youth int thinking they want to know something for one reason when really they'll just be scurrying back to their respective businesses with new information that's needed to have that business move forward.
In the video, there are multiple types or views of Cool. The goal of this video in my view was to show how corporations work in order to get in the minds of teenagers of this generation to know what they like and prefer in products such as clothes, games, digital devices, etc. Watching this, it rally got me thinking how corporations work.
Although we may not realize it at first, everything that we buy in today's society has a group of men wearing suits, sitting at a round table. The part where a representative of a company interviewed a handful of teens was an example on what corporations are willing to do to sell their products. The small amount of money that the corporations pay the teens are a small sacrifice to what they will eventually earn from teens including those they paid in the future, as it has already happened many times before.
There were many forms of tricking kids that were revealed in the video such as music, movies, regular TV, among other things have allowed corporations to be in the heads of kids almost all the time. Pop idols like Britney Spears have gone farther than to just sell CDs and some beauty products, she sold "being cool". Now before Britney Spears came along, I'm sure there was less exposure to sex. This is because people like Britney Spears were part of a new era in both the corporation world and eventually with some convincing, the youth into thinking this was the definition of cool. "Girls are taught to flaunt their sexuality even though they don't understand it yet." This is showing that corporations are now going farther than to just sell products, they are now selling ways to live.
This video may be able to open teenager's eyes in realizing what they have been sucked into for the most part of this generation. Corporations at times may being tricking youth int thinking they want to know something for one reason when really they'll just be scurrying back to their respective businesses with new information that's needed to have that business move forward.
Monday, December 7, 2009
HW 28- Informal Research- TV Shows, Internet and Magazines
http://ardictionary.com/Cool/11949
This page just simply listed the 20 plus definitions of cool. Although this may seem to lack any evidence as to what cool is, to me it does. Being that there is a lot more than one definition for the word "cool" makes me realize that there really isn't one, solid definition. Although I discussed my personal reasoning before, this further evaluates that there is indeed literally multiple definitions out there that vary from temperature to social status.
http://www.fenichel.com/Cool.shtml
This article interested me a lot. This article explained that being "cool" has influenced society's youth in situations that lead to peer pressure, self esteem and other youth situations. This article had me thinking on how "cool" could impact people so much, even when "cool" doesn't even have a real definition.
http://www.whatiscool.org/Cool%20%20Defined.html
This article had me laughing a bit, as it made fun of what people look at as being "cool". There is one line that can summarize this sarcasm. " Smoking's also pretty cool, and can make almost anyone look cooler. If you take this approach, you just have to remember not to think about the inevitable throat cancer looming on the horizon". This shows how a lot of people's perceptions of "cool" are just straight wrong.
This page just simply listed the 20 plus definitions of cool. Although this may seem to lack any evidence as to what cool is, to me it does. Being that there is a lot more than one definition for the word "cool" makes me realize that there really isn't one, solid definition. Although I discussed my personal reasoning before, this further evaluates that there is indeed literally multiple definitions out there that vary from temperature to social status.
http://www.fenichel.com/Cool.shtml
This article interested me a lot. This article explained that being "cool" has influenced society's youth in situations that lead to peer pressure, self esteem and other youth situations. This article had me thinking on how "cool" could impact people so much, even when "cool" doesn't even have a real definition.
http://www.whatiscool.org/Cool%20%20Defined.html
This article had me laughing a bit, as it made fun of what people look at as being "cool". There is one line that can summarize this sarcasm. " Smoking's also pretty cool, and can make almost anyone look cooler. If you take this approach, you just have to remember not to think about the inevitable throat cancer looming on the horizon". This shows how a lot of people's perceptions of "cool" are just straight wrong.
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