Personal response to "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare

"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare is some of my favorite plays. Therefore, I really enjoyed reading from this very romantic play. In my opinion, the part we read in class is the best part of the story. This made the class even more enjoyable. The English language in this play is from the early modern period. Therefore, I sometimes found it bit hard to understand at first glance. On the other hand, there was several of the English words we got explained in class that was very similar to Norwegian, and hence, easy for me to understand. The story of Romeo and Juliet is still amazing and current as the theme of forbidden or unhappy love is prevalent in every culture and social class. Reading the transcript also made me recall drama classes in College where we played this part of the play. I also remembered one of my favorite films called "Romeo + Juliet" featuring Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes. I include a clip of my absolute favorite scene of the 1996-film and please listen to the fantastic music. It gives me goose pimples every time I listen to it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9Vd4tGPi0

Personal response to "The riddle of experience vs. memory: Daniel Kahneman on TED.com"

I really enjoyed this clip called "The riddle of experience vs. memory: Daniel Kahneman on TED.com" as it made me think in a different way. I had never thought about the difference between experience and memory in this way. I also appreciates Kahneman's various and good examples on what he talked about. What I did not like so much was the pictures presented to me at Google images when I looked up the word "colonoscopy". I did not know what this word meant and I must say that the pictures showing on my laptop repulsed me. Thus, I lost my lunch appetite..

Nevertheless, the outcome for me watching this clip was positive as I learned that happiness may be analyzed and interpreted in at least two different ways. One based on the actual and concrete experiences and variables such as income etc. whereas the other is all about what a person perceives or memorizes.

Here is the link to the clip: http://blog.ted.com/2010/03/01/the_riddle_of_e/

Personal response to "Beowulf"

Some years ago I was on student exchange to Paris and saw the film "Beowulf" by Robert Zemeckis in a French cinema. I liked the film very much, so I was looking forward to read the excerpt in class despite Nathan's warnings about the text being difficult to read. So far, I must say that Nathan was right. The text seems difficult to understand as we almost get every second word explained. Nevertheless, I recognize some of the aspects from the film in the text. I liked the story in the film "Beowulf", so, as long as I get the difficult words explained in class I expect to like the text as well.

Personal reaction to "2011: A space Odyssey"

I really enjoyed watching the movie "2011: A space Odyssey" by Stanley Kubrick. One of the reasons why I liked the movie is that Kubrick utilizes the powerful music like "Thus Spoke Zarathustra " by Richard Strauss to create the extraordinary and fascinating mood of the film. Further, the music is being played several times during the film as it supports the theme of the film; human evolution and our dependency of technology. I am also amazed by the great animations and graphics that were used in this film considering that the film was made in 1968. The animations and graphics still seem modern and contemporary. Stanley Kubrick was very prophetic when he predicted that the humankind would depend so much on technology and some of the devices the characters use in the film bear resemblance to the modern devices like the iPod we use today.

What I did not like so much about the film were the slow pace and the lack of action. In comparison to contemporary films of the 21-century, with upbeat pace and typically a lot of action, I find "2011: A space Odyssey" too slow.

All in all, I liked the film very much.

A perfect surprise on a rainy day

Yesterday, the weather was very windy and it rained a lot here in Vancouver. I got soaking wet riding my bike from school. When I finally got home, my dog, Gordon, was very happy to see me and he expected me to take him for a walk at once. I thought to myself, “well, all my clothes are wet anyway,” so we went out for a short walk in the neighborhood. Returning to the house, the landlord called me and said that she had some post for me. In her hands there was no small postcard but a huge cardboard box with Norwegian stamps on it. I got so excited and could hardly wait to open the box till I got inside. My dog seemed to sense my excitement and started to rump around in the apartment wagging his tail at a high speed. I saw the box was addressed to me from my mother and I opened the box carefully. Inside I found Norwegian candies of every kind. There were potato chips, different types of chocolate, caramels, a special Norwegian brown cheese made of goat milk and liver for the dog. I placed all of the items on the kitchen table to watch them and realized that I was smiling from one ear to the other. Then my boyfriend entered the apartment with an annoyed grin on his face as all his clothes was dripping of water. I showed him the surprise on the kitchen table and his sad look turned into a bright white smile. We were both standing in the hall, smiling and holding each other despite the fact that we both got wet from his dripping clothes. Living abroad, it is really strange how you learn to appreciate the small things from you own country like the goat cheese. This was a perfect surprise on a day where the rain did not seem to have an ending.

Thank you Mom!

What happens after the story of “The Killers”ends

The story called “The Killers”, by Ernest Hemingway has an open ending. Here is my suggestion of what George, Nick, Ole Anderson, Max and Al do after the story ends.

First, I think George will continue to work in the restaurant as usual, but he and his colleagues may discuss the incident with "The Killers" during future lunch breaks. Second, Nick will start to look for a job out on the country side as he feels that he have had enough of his life in town, saying; “I’m going to get out of this town”. Third, Ole Anderson realizes that his life will end very soon as he probably has double-crossed somebody in Chicago, and know that somebody traces him down. Max and Al will manhunt Ole Anderson until they find him, and then they will kill him, easily, as he lies on his bed waiting for the vengeful bullet.

This ending will release the tension and and give the story a proper dénouement.

Personal response to “The Epic of Gilgamesh”

In order to give my personal response to “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, I discuss different attributes of the story.

My first impression of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” was that I liked the story and the way the unknown ancient author writes. The author writes concise and in forms of short verses, which I appreciate. He uses a lot of repetition in his writing style like when he repeats “Your form are not different, you are just like me”, “…Sleep like a fog already breath over him” and “At twenty leagues they broke bread, at thirty leagues they stopped for the night”. I also liked that the author uses a lot of similes and metaphors like when he compares sleep with a liquid that spills over; “No sooner had sleep spilled over me, than forthwith you touched me and made me awake!” Further, he also uses a lot of similes. One example of this is “The ocean grew calm, that had thrashed like a woman in labour, the tempest grew still, the Deluge ended.” Here, the ocean is compared to a woman that gives birth. What I liked the most about the unknown author’s writing is that he uses imageries to describe things so that I can imagine how things in the story were like. Finally, the author uses symbols like the number seven and snake which makes me think of stories from the Bible.

What I did not like so much about the story was the abrupt finish and the ancient language. I believe the reason why the author suddenly shifts to describe Gilgamesh’s hometown is that the author wants to convey to the reader that Gilgamesh realizes that he, eventually, will not live for ever. The language was sometimes hard to understand as some words were old-fashioned and unknown to me.

To sum up, I liked the story and the way it was written, but I found the ending a bit difficult to understand and some of the vocabulary ancient.