The Wind (Poem)

The Wind

Wind, always is the day Wind, always only stays

All else seems to fade with each passing of the day

wanderlust, you might be but do you collect

these paths you tread and these miles you see

blown from your mind ah the winds they are kind

these paths you've tread leave nothing in their stead

These winds caress but they do not obey

the faces you've seen it has blown them away

but if only the wind was so easy to hate

just a depriver of thoughts, the stealer of fate

but we must take such as we have

the good with the bad, the happy and sad

These winds to, they mend whats been broken

they wear down the hills into fields unbroken

Until the you wander on past the scene

then try to remember like a half-recalled dream

It is here the wind does you no favor

it should be forgotten but becomes something to savor

the woman she stood by the shop door

the wind in her hair but her feet on the floor

she turns to leave and catches your eye

then smiles and nods and walks right on by

The wind it is still, it bothers you not

you set her face in your mind, clearly besot

the days turn to years and you've lived out your lot

but you can still see her face, the wind serves you not

this is one hill it has not worn down

for it was still that day in that small little town

this is the problem of missed opportunity

and why the wind is a thing of beauty

things that could have or would have been

are the toys of of the treacherous wind

The Eternal Recurrence and the Problem of the Overman (Paper)

The Eternal Recurrence and the Problem of the Overman

Of the multiple ideas presented in Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the two most intellectually stimulating and encompassing pieces contained therein are the philosophical idea of the Übermensch, hereafter referred to as the Overman, and the Eternal Recurrence. In the following essay the reader will find a thorough analysis of these two themes as well as a comparison of their faults, philosophically, in relation to each other.

The first central idea in Nietzsche's work is presented in the First Part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. According to Zarathustra the Overman is the next evolution in mankind [Nietzsche, p. 13]. Nietzsche presents Zarathustra to the readers as the archetype of the Overman. In the First Part Nietzsche presents Zarathustra with all the accoutrements that would accompany an Overman: intellectual prowess, oratory skills, love of mankind, reclusiveness. The Overman, being characterized by such skills and behaviors, is a level of humanity that has superseded the ability of regular humans, but also desires to raise the rest of humanity up to the level of Overman. In order for the regular man to become an Overman there is the task of BECOMING. Zarathustra describes man as,”...a rope stretched between the animal and the Overman – a rope over an abyss [Nietzsche, p. 14].” Zarathustra says that what has made man untenable is,”...not your sin – it is your self-satisfaction... [Nietzsche, p. 14].” In the later part of this essay the reader will see the difficulty of reconciling the becoming required to achieve the status of Overman with the Eternal Recurrence.

The second major idea presented through the mouth of Zarathustra is the idea of the Eternal Recurrence. In the Third Part, Zarathustra presents an idea that all things that now live have lived already and are doomed to live again [Nietzsche, pp. 105-108]. In the theme of eternal recurrence, Zarathustra contemplates a gateway to which he has walked along a path. He stops at the gateway and asks questions of a dwarf there,” This long lane backwards: it continueth for an eternity. And that long lane forward – that is another eternity” [Nietzsche, p. 106]. To this the dwarf replies, “All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle” [Nietzsche, p. 107]. The idea here being that what has happened is destined to happen again and again an innumerable amount of times. For Zarathustra to stand at this gateway he must have already stood at the gateway and will always stand at the gateway in the future. Nietzsche's conception of the Eternal Recurrence is a romantic idea that is fraught with problems, not just in regard to the Overman but in regard to reason.

The problems that are presented with the Overman include: the ability to transform oneself into something that one does not know about, how to gain something that one does not have the capacity to understand, and to what extent the Overman represents a better humanity than humanity now.

In order for a human to transform, evolve, or otherwise change into something else, that person must understand either what it is they are changing into, how they are changing, or that they are changing. Changing, or becoming, does not necessarily imply an understanding of the end result of this change but would require some limited understanding of the change. If a person is expected to change then there must be a will to change for that change to take effect. Zarathustra acts as the catalyst for this change but does not offer a full explanation of the benefits that this change would provide for humanity with.

The Eternal Recurrence is even more problematic than the Overman. The primary problem that arises from the Eternal Recurrence is the idea of free will. Free will is necessary for humanity to decide what decisions to make and these decisions enable the individual to construct a sense of self, a sense of individuality, a sense of purpose. This is taken away by Eternal Recurrence. If a person has already done something before and is always destined to repeat it then it absolves humans of the responsibility of their actions because, in essence, these are already predetermined actions. Some may counter that if one does not know of Eternal Recurrence then their actions and decisions would retain their value to that individual. While that individual might still see their actions as having purpose that would be a misconception on the part of the individual. The decisions that the person would make would have already been made the same way with the same deliberations an infinite number of times and would continue to be made in the same fashion for eternity.

Once free will has been excerpted from the equation and humans are no longer the motivator of themselves, what remains to be answered is: Who or what is that motivator? In his debasing of christian morality, it is the belief of the essayist that Nietzsche would object vehemently to the view of an omnipotent unmoving mover. If it is not some demagogic entity that controls the actions of the world then it would be some wispy metaphysical term that would, at the same time, allow control of the universe and yet be 'non-living'. This is untenable.

To compound the problem one must also inspect the individuality of humans. In a cyclical time scheme the same people would recur doing the same actions, at the same places, with the same thoughts. If this were the case then one must pose the question; In each new cycle is the individual a new individual doing the same things or is it the same self doing the same things? In both cases there are inconsistencies. If one becomes another, different, identical self then you would have created the same person at a different time, in a different cycle, thereby creating a person that looks, thinks, and acts the same but is separated by time from his former selfs. This would make him a 'different' self which would nullify the Eternal Recurrence by putting a different person at different points in time instead of the same person. If one were to retain their individuality and were to remain the same self throughout the different cycles of time then one must account for the loss of memory between different cycles. If in each new cycle the individual is the exact same individual then that same individual should retain the memories from each previous cycle. If those memories are not retained then it is a new person in each new cycle. They would be connected to each other only because each new biological entity is doomed to repeat the same actions as the last. There would not be any metaphysical link that would tie these individuals together into one self.

The final problem with the Eternal Recurrence lies in its beginning. For something to recur it must first occur. Much in the same way that in order to draw a circle with a pencil one must first set the pencil to paper. Once completed, this written circle will recur indefinitely in a cyclical fashion. The same logic can apply to the Eternal Recurrence. There must be a linear starting point to a cyclical view of time. Once that linear starting point is established the recurrence will continue indefinitely. But for everything to occur in an eternity backwards and an eternity forwards there can be no starting point. Everything must be as it has been and will be.

These fallacies with the Overman and the Eternal Recurrence come together in the form of free will. If free will is negated by the Eternal Recurrence, how should the regular man will himself to become the Overman? The choice to become an Overman is based on a time-line that is purely linear. Attempting to reconcile this to the cyclical time-line of the Eternal Recurrence is almost impossible. If becoming an Overman requires free will and the Eternal Recurrence suppresses free will to the point of non-existence, then one, the other, or both, must be false

The two theories of the Overman and the Eternal recurrence are not compatible. The Overman, the next logical evolutionary step for humans, and the Eternal Recurrence are logical entities in their own right but when added together they turn what were two logical arguments into two mutually exclusive arguments.

Bibliography

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Thomas Common. Thus spoke Zarathustra. 3 ed. New York: Modern Library, 1917. Electronic Copy.

Black Swan (paper)

A psychotic thriller, Black Swan leaves the viewer attempting to guess what is real and what is not throughout the entire film. Natalie Portman's portrayal of a deranged ballerina struggling to understand herself leads the viewer through a wild ride of sex, music, jealousy, and rage to conclude in a climactic performance. Some elements of the film worthy of critical analysis include characterization, back-story, climax, the orchestral accompaniments and realism and anti-realism.

    The characterization in this film is absolutely outstanding not just because of the character development but also because viewers are allowed to view each character through two different prisms, that of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and through a traditional cinematic lens. When viewer character through the eyes of Nina the viewer will find that each character is tinged in darkness reflective of the way in which Nina's jealousy effects her understanding of the people around her. This is evident in the scene where Nina is late for a rehearsal and when she finally arrives in the studio she finds her 'friend' Lily dancing her parts. This is actually normal for any ballet as the viewer comes to understand that Lily is the understudy of Nina. To Nina however she sees it as a significant threat to her chances of success. Throughout the film the director of the ballet is also used to shape Nina as a character. He is adamant about her inability to correctly express the emotions of the black swan. This incessant pushing by the director leads to Nina's growth as a character but also leads to he psychotic breakdowns. These breakdowns are immensely important to the films overall message.

   To add to the mystic surrounding Nina the director attempts to provide the viewer with a glimpse of what her life was like prior to attaining a role in the ballet. She turns out to be a relatively sheltered child that still lives with her mother under very strict guide lines. The interesting part about Nina however is that she has a compulsion to scratch absentmindedly at the back of her shoulder. This is known to have gone on for quite awhile as her mother comments that she is at it again. This foreshadows the mental instability that Nina has and allows the viewer to begin to attempt to decipher whether scenes are actually real or have Nina's mental interpretation woven into them. The addition of this little bit of information allows the viewer to construct a significant, if small, back-story for Nina. The viewer begins to grasp the mental inconsistencies of Nina in a way that wouldn't have been accessible without the added light of her back-story.

    This back-story helps to lead to the climax of the film when Nina thinks she has stabbed her self-anointed 'arch-rival' but in reality she has stabbed herself. The climax proceeds to Nina dancing her soul away until, in the final scene of the film, she jumps from a ledge onto a mattress and as people crowd around her to congratulate her on her outstanding performance they see that she is bleeding to death from her self-inflicted wound and she whispers, “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect.” This statement is the epitome of the movie itself and allows the viewer to grasp the drive that was required of Nina to perform with such talent. The downside is that in order to reach her true potential she had to demonize everyone who wished her well and injure herself to the point of death.

   The injury to Nina also allows the viewer to examine the realism or direct anti-realism that is present in the film. Perhaps the starkest example of realism is not Nina herself but the people around her. The people that she is surrounded with are, seemingly, perfectly sane individuals who have no problem in coping with the world around them. Lily seems to be a person this is exemplified in. Lily, while driven to perform, is not nearly as polarizing a character as Nina is. This is due to the fact that while she is a somewhat wild individual she conforms to what people might expect from a younger female. She is a reasonable, sound-minded individual that the audience can relate to. She is the character that reflect the mental faculties that Nina lacks and is a grounding point for the viewer through her depiction as a realistic person.

   The orchestral accompaniments for the film are also a standout. In keeping with the drama and psychotic thrill of the film the music is arranged in a manner that allows the viewer to be pulled in and held in place while remaining seemingly unawares. The action in the film matches up perfectly with the soundtrack at the most important moments allowing insight into the emotion of the characters. The roaring crescendos and the screech of strings allows the viewer to remain on the edge of their seats while the softer melodies remind the audience that the characters are but human after all though they may embody things that most people leave hidden. The music truly allows the audience to peer into the souls of the performs and understand on a more basic level what drives them to do what they do and the emotions that they feel at the time of action.

   The realism that Lily displays is in direct opposition to the anti-realism that is portrayed in Nina. Nina, while at first seeming to be a regular woman, is depicted as a slightly insane individual. Her hallucinations add the element of anti-realism that makes the film become a masterpiece. The way that she reflects her inner trouble is done in a fashion that both excites the audience yet still seems unrealistic. The audience would not expect for her to stab her understudy and yet the film portrays it as so, at least at first. The climax of the film also serves as a point of anti-realism with Nina sprouting feathers directly from her flesh. While this is entirely anatomically unrealistic it does serve an ulterior motive, allowing the audience a window into her psyche. Therefore the anti-realism which is found in the movie is used to facilitate a bonding on an emotional level between Nina and the audience and enhances the empathy with which one might view her character.

   In all Black Swan is a masterpiece that draws in the viewer and holds the hostage for the duration of the film. The adeptness with which the director creates his characters is especially important as the way that we understand Nina and the way that we understand Lily enable the viewer to understand the meaning behind the film, that perfection is paid for dearly but is also worthy of reverence. The way in which the direct contrasts the realism depicted by Lily with the psychotic elements of Nina keep the viewer guessing what actions are real and which are imagined while at the same time showing the audience what is happening in Nina's transformation from a girl into a woman. The back-story provides even more evidence of the mental unsoundness in which Nina operates. But the shining moment of the entire film is in the climax with Nina giving her soul away to transform into the Black Swan and her breathless exclamation of her perfection allows the denouement to nearly outshine the rest of the film. Tying everything together though is the amazing sound track of orchestral music which sets the tone throughout the entire film and allows the viewer to feel as dark and depressed as the transforming Nina feels.

Tired (Poem)

Well here I am at 1:19 at night and I decided that it would be a grand idea to post an update. This time I figured some happier poetry was in order. This is a poem I wrote for my girlfriend to add a little more to her da. I hope you enjoy it. Like with all poetry feel free to use this under a creative commons.

If you have ever been camping then I think you might understand
The amazement in which I first held your hand

Imagine a fire that’s been put out by the rain

it has extinguished the warmth and light so arcane

But when you poke around inside the ashy mess

you find tucked inside an ember a la heart in chest

burning away without any thought of going out

yet think of how long it took you to find this fiery sprout

the rain itself had tried its best to put out this brand

but no matter the pain you've found someone to take your hand

what you once thought impossible has happened before your eyes

and believe it not its a beautiful person that doth arise

You've blown on my ember and rekindled its spirit

and I tremble when you say my name so that I can barely hear it

Maybe its that I’ve lit your flame anew

but just know that these kinds of things are quite seldom and few

The way you hold me when we lay side by side

fills me with joy that, its true, I struggle to quite hide

the way you run you fingers all throughout my hair

leaves me in another world yet still laying there

the way that this has happened is entirely a surprise

and to me it doesnt make sense, pure logic it does defy

The nights I spend with you grow that ember stronger

and I can tell that what we have should go on a great time longer

You know that I am not the richest man but I love to see you smile

and laugh and roll about when I’ve tickled you for a while

you really dont know how much good you've show a poor old heart like mine

and I look exceedingly forward to beautiful things we'll get in time

But enough about what I have felt let me show you what you are

to this poor old heart of mine that you've managed to set afire

With easy grace do you look upon me laying there

and fall on down beside me and stroke upon my hair

Your caress is gentle and appropriately so

from here to where does our joinéd journey go

Its such a wonder and such a delight

to have a wonderful you in my life