93 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2017
  2. lti.hypothesislabs.com lti.hypothesislabs.com
    1. Our music is a language used not only to express ourselves, butalso to assert ourselves in world affairs. Additionally GBM serves as a unifying force in our externalconflict with our colonizers and as a unifying force in encouraging us to struggle against theinternalization of oppressive concepts as well as struggle against our own weaknesses

      This is what makes this music so appealing. It isn't just to express themselves, as many other types of music do, it is to make change. Their music is bigger than themselves and that makes their message weigh heavier than any other.

    2. the fact is that GBM is the only areawhere we, as Africans in the diaspora, have been able to make a powerful addition to worldculture

      This in some ways is a hard thing to hear. This is their biggest contribution because I think for a while thats all they had. Their perspective and the meaning behind why they make music is what makes this type of music so special.

    3. t Rap, in its non-commercial (i.e., "hardcore") form, speaks directly to and for African American youth

      This is absolutely true. How could someone, then, speak on behalf of the african american youth if they were not african american themselves. Specifically, how could Eminem speak for that community if he himself was not black. The truth is he wasn't, he was speaking for white people who were in situations close to his.

    4. . Indeed, Jazz inparticular and the other three genres in general self-consciously differentiate themselve

      If the point is to differentiate yourself from the dominant culture, it must feel terrible to have someone from that culture step into your domain (Eminem doing rap/hip-hop). Or maybe it feels terrible when someone from your culture steps out of it (Michael Jackson doing pop/non-african american based music) (or when the color of Michael Jackson's skin color changed). When the line that differentiates the two cultures becomes blurred, the people who were set on keeping that line get upset.

    5. Rawness openly reveals what hasbeen socially repressed/oppressed/exploited--at least with urgency, and often seemingly with furyor anger.

      This is very important. This is an emotional part in music that can be heard through the words or the tone or both. A lot of music, whether from Michael Jackson or Eminem, has this aspect to it. In fact a lot of music made by both of these artists incorporate this feeling into their music. They both had struggles that they had to come out of although they were very different.

    6. The dark truth of Afro-American music remains unquestionably opposition

      This is because it had to be this way. African Americans, due to their position in society, have had to really fight for everything that they have including music. This is could be why people were so off put by Eminem entering the rap/hip hop domain. It was "black" music that was made better because of the african american experience. If you take out the african american-ness of it then is it really rap/hip hop? I think people were offended because it took so much fight and effort from the african american community to have this type of music and do it successfully and for a white guy to step in and do it just is well must have hurt some people.

  3. Mar 2017
    1. e always searching for new sensation

      This is an interesting idea. here dorian is being told to hold onto his youth because it wont last forever and this idea of searching for new sensations feels like a false sense of youth to me. As you grow up new things become harder and harder to find so new sensations would be like a glimpse of youth. This search would be an attempt to stay young but I don't think it would necessarily achieve that youth because being young isn't about finding new things its about how you perceive new things.

      edit: The false sense of youth is spot on. As Dorian grows he doesn't look like he is aging but he is on the inside, his picture represents his actual age. You can't avoid age and youth is fleeting no matter how many new things you discover.

    2. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self

      This is really interesting because you can interpret this in many ways. This sentence can refer to losing who you really are in an attempt to please others as the paragraph suggests. I believe however that this can also refer to the idea of following a moral compass that you believe in not that others have told you to believe in. This sentence actually reminds me of the movie Mulan 2 when a princess asks mulan for advice because she agreed to an arranged marriage but has fallen in love with someone else. She asks mulan how she was able to make the decision to take her father's place in the army and pretend to be a man. Mulan's response was that she discovered that her duty is to her heart. I think that this is foreshadowing and that dorian or basil may possibly have to to re!member where their duties lie and make a hard decision that may go against what others may deem appropriate.

    3. When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

      He aimed to kill his past and the only way to do that was to kill himself

    4. . It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free.

      He wants to erase his mistakes and he sees his mistakes in others. Thats why he killed basil he felt that basil was the cause of his past sins and if he got rid of basil he would get rid of his sins but he just created more.

    5. Poor Basil! what a horrible way for a man to die!

      He goes back and forth between his hatred and love for basil the same way he did with sibyl. It is like there are two sides to him the good rational side and the evil corrupt side and he goes back and forth between them. As the novel has progressed he spends more time as the evil corrupt side but every so often he'll switch over.

    6. Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him.

      If Basil had never been infatuated with Dorian's beauty non of this would have happened.

    7. I want you to lead such a life as will make the world respect you

      this reminds me of a quote I annotated in the beginning of the novel. Dorian's duty is to himself not to the public so why should he lead a life that is respected by others if it is not respected by him.

    8. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

      This chapter stood apart from the rest to me. it was focused on dorian's obsession with beauty and youth. It highlighted a crazed persona that he has especially with his portrait. Although he may not look like he is aging his soul is aging terribly. I noticed that this chapter made a lot of references and didn't contain much dialogue nor was there much interaction between anyone it was just kind of the mind of Dorian. The way this paragraph stands out lets me know that it is a very important one.

    9. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and the highest respectability is of less value in its opinion than the possession of a good chef

      It is better to be perceived as good (have good manners) than it is to actually be good (have a sense of moral)

    10. but he was unchanged. No winter marred his face or stained his flower-like

      Is he feeling guilty for his youth now? He is obsessed with beautiful things, he loves them, and he notices that they die and age and change. He isn't doing that. Does that mean he is not actually beautiful? Is true beauty the change itself or the process or experiences that causes one to age and change and mature?

    11. Perhaps he had read it, and had begun to suspect something. And, yet, what did it matter? What had Dorian Gray to do with Sibyl Vane’s death? There was nothing to fear. Dorian Gray had not killed her.

      This sentence really gives the impression that Dorian is going crazy. the use of many questions and going from one position to the other makes him seem like he is questioning himself in every way. It gives the feeling that he is struggling with paranoia.

    12. hat was enough

      Is his obsession with his youth really just him latching on to something to fill a void. It seems to me that he was better off before lord henry and before he started obsessing over youth. I think it is making him sick.

    13. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution

      This is true. The act of confessing takes weight off of one's shoulders and acknowledging that you made a mistake is the first step in overcoming and learning and more importantly maturing. we continuously see signs of Dorian growing as much as he hates it.

    14. It was not too late to make reparation for that.

      This is so sad. It is too late... He had to learn that you can't take people for granted because every day could be their last. Thats a lesson that he had to learn and each lesson you learn ages you. The harder he tries to latch on to his youth the more he ages

    15. She was nothing to him now.

      She was never anything to him. She just represented artistry that he wishes he had and he thought that if he married her, she would be "his possession" and therefor her artistry would be his that he was missing.

    16. During the three terrible hours that the play had lasted, he had lived centuries of pain, aeon upon aeon of torture

      earlier when she was crying on the floor he thought that she was being melodramatic and now just because she wasn't as artistic as she once was "he had lived centuries of pain". seems very hypocritical to me.

    17. You have killed my love

      this is the result of her failure and the response to his realization that his decision to marry her was wrong. This is also what everyone else feared when they questioned his intentions.

    18. She was a complete failure.

      It seems to me that this failure is not only referring to her as an actress but to her as a person. It feels like dorian's decision to be engaged to her is starting to backfire on him because it seems he didn't really know what he was getting into

    19. When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and

      Im not sure what he means by deception in either scenario. The first reminds me of blind love so I suppose one would deceive one's self into thinking that the other is perfect and then deceive others when you know the other isn't perfect but may want to portray a happy or perfect relationship. whether that is the right interpretation or not this is no doubt significant in meaning.

    20. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning

      I really like this. It's pretty straight forward in its meaning so I wont elaborate on that too much. I think this is a good thing for dorian to hear. I think recently he has been obsessed with youth due to his realization that it is fleeting and I like that this is kind of a reminder that while your not getting younger things get better from here and there is a lot to discover. besides that its just a nice quote in general and gives you fuzzy feelings inside. There's a lot to discover in life and when something really good is only the beginning you just can't help but smile about all the really good things that are to come.

    21. women, the plain and the colored.

      I recognize that this may just be the manner of thinking for that time but I can't help but wonder what experiences may have affected this way of thinking. I feel like even if it was common to see women as less than men, if you had interactions with women that were more than just "plain or colored" you wouldn't necessarily think this was true. I also think that having negative or boring experiences with women would have brought out this feeling. or possibly even a lack of attraction to women which is where we can see Wilde hinting through his writing.

    22. the full reality of the description flashed across him

      This is him fully understanding not only that he will grow old but also how much he will lose when he does so. He recognizes his youth and beauty and what that means to him and in the same moment he realizes how damaging it will be to him to lose all of that.

  4. Feb 2017
    1. Although the primary concern of this essay is the response of Byron's readers to his poetry and persona, I will begin by briefly investigating how the poet consciously courted female consumers through a process of 'flirtation' with the reader

      This is a strong claim that basically states that this is going to be about the response of byron's audience but also how he flirted with girls through his writing. This is the thesis.

    1. Attimesattracted,yetperplexedtheview,210AsifwithinthatmurkinessofmindWorkedfeelingsfearful,andyetundefined

      I think the repetitive use of yet represents his conflicting mind. He is trying to understand something.

    1. British Romantic poet and satirist whosepoetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe

      This is good evidence for our paper because it states that his poetry and his personality is what made him important

  5. Jan 2017