Absurdity.

ABSURDITY

It is a

Round, loud

Wheel of steel

On and on it goes

Wheel of steel

Round, loud

This it is

Run, Lola, Run: Analysis based on Aristotle's Poetics

Run, Lola, Run (1998) presents three different outcomes of one story with the same people and same situations; the differences were a matter of timing. On this paper, the three different runs will be analyzed in accordance to Aristotle's standards of elements that compose a good Tragedy in his book Poetics.

First, it can be established that all three runs have what Aristotle called Mimesis which is the imitation of an 'action'. All three runs imitate human actions such as running which Lola did most of the time, and even emotions such as anxiety which was most obvious in Manni as he waited for Lola. Death was also experienced by the characters except in the third run, by Lola in the first and by Manni in the second. The element Catharsis was also present in all three runs, although it was weaker in the last run caused by its being a bit ideal or unrealistic. However, all three purify the emotions of pity and fear for Lola and especially Manni, who is facing a life-and-death situation. The other elements, on the other hand, differ in every run. Those differences will be made much clearer in the next paragraphs.

Run 1

The Hamartia or the inherent flaw of the protagonist, Lola, in the first run is her uncontrollable anger and also, the fact that she was not a real daughter of whom she knew as her father, or in her father's words, a 'cuckoo's son'. Those were the flaws that caused her not to achieve her goal of borrowing the money from her father. Next comes the Peripeteia or the 'reversal of fortune'. The situation of the first run, in the beginning was not very good already. Lola was not helped by her father, and she was even upset as she finds out that she is not his real daughter. However, they were able to get the money as they robbed the market. Yet, the peripetia comes as they were surrounded by the police, and a nervous police officer accidentally shoots Lola in the chest.

(Lola, after she was shot in the first run)

Run 2

Hamartia is present in the second run because of Lola's violent tendencies, although that enabled her to rob the money from the Deutsche Bank. The Peripetia present in this run which comes after Lola being able to rob the money from the bank where her father worked, when she calls her lover, Manni, is ran over to death by an ambulance as he runs to Lola.

Run 3

The problem with the 3^rd run as to why it will not be considered a good Tragedy is, firstly, it is not a Tragedy at all. All the odds are in the favor of Lola and Manni. There is no Hamartia, because as it can be seen, Lola is actually a very nice and thoughtful person, especially when she stays with the bank security guard in the ambulance car as he struggles from heart attack. Her means of getting the money was not something totally bad; she harmed nobody in the process, since she earned it rightfully in the Casino. Peripeteia is also not present. There was no reversal from good to bad, for it had a good ending. In fact, it was better than resolution to the presented problem, since they got to keep 123,000 marks that Lola got from the Casino, as Manni was able to get the money from the homeless man who was able to get the money from the train in the beginning of the movie.

(The third run ends smoothly, with Manni getting the money from the homeless man and back to the crime boss, and both of them getting to keep the 123,000 marks Lola won from the Casino)

I on Drama, Plato on Drama, and Arisotle on Drama

I must say… It’s quite a relief to finally finish Poetry. I admit that Poetry is actually my weakness in the world of Literature despite my being a bookworm and a lover of wisdom (or Philosophy, which is quite ironic since many well-known philosophers are poets).

It would be quite pointless for me to repeat the things we tackled so I should just get this over with and tell my comments on Plato and Aristotle on Drama. Basically, Plato is against drama which the avenging Aristotle (the ‘avenging’ part is another weird but cute story but it’s out of the context) contradicts…

Hmm.. This is actually quite hard for me to comment on. Firstly, I am more convinced with Plato’s World of Ideas and I find his philosophy quite more sensible than Aristotle’s. In fact, one might even consider me a Platonist. And yes, he did make a quite great argument as to why dramatists should be banished from the ideal society or what he calls “The Republic”. However, I must also not disregard the sensible reasons that Aristotle pointed out because that would be quite biased! So if you’ll ask me, who is right?

Of course, not that my opinion really matters or that my opinion is what’s really right.. But for the sake of writing something and for the sake of an answer to a quite philosophical question, here it is: They are both right in a way, but I reckon Plato is still more right. Yes, there “might” be a need to prepare for the ‘actual’ pity and fear situations as Aristotle clarifies through the “Catharsis” thing…But then again, Aristotle is quite limited to physicality.  Being a believer of the “world of ideas”, of course I would think this is stupid. We need to look beyond the physical, and being preoccupied with the copies of the ideas will leave us no time to pursue the world of ideas. Also, I think that’s quite lame and boring. Exposure to drama does make life quite predictable at times, or we might reckon it’s too predictable that we expect an outcome that would not really happen, based on what we see on Dramas.

However, it’s not that I am saying that drama is stupid and we really don’t need it! Even Plato does not banish poetry and myths totally, since he himself uses it (e.g. Allegory of the cave). It is the same for Drama. I think we do not need to totally disregard it, but we must not use Drama for the sake of Drama, but for the sake of pursuing the Truth (of the world of Ideas) just as Plato used the Allegory of the Cave to express his special points and to reveal easier his Philosophy. We must not let Drama hinder us from the reality… or to make us be contented with this Physical world. It’s okay to go and entertain Drama, but remember that there is always something beyond..

It's All A Matter of Perspective.

Aux Imagistes

by William Carlos Williams

I think I have never been so exalted
As I am now by you,
O frost bitten blossoms,
That are unfolding your wings
From out the envious black branches.

Bloom quickly and make much of the sunshine
The twigs conspire against you
Hear them!
They hold you from behind

You shall not take wing
Except wing by wing, brokenly,
And yet—
Even they
Shall not endure for ever.

This poem, at first look and as we analyzed it, seems to be something negative. Williams is trying to tell his readers through his poem that despite the difficulty and uncertainties of life, there is no certain 'end' or purpose anyway at all. This kind of view is not very rare, and I would admit that I myself feel this way sometimes – in fact, I think everybody goes through the kind of phase of looking life this way, as if nothing really matters, nothing really makes sense, and life is just a waste of time.



I have been a pessimistic one for such a long time. Even at a young age, I started questioning what really is the meaning of everything in life. Life for everyone, as it used to seem to me, was quite repetitive, and I saw nothing special for it was only a routine. It brings to mind a movie which I personally find very good for the questions it poses for its viewers – The Truman Show. For those who have not seen the movie yet, it is about a man, Truman, who, ever since his birth, has unknowingly become a star of a reality show. Everything in his life was a set-up, from the weather up to what he calls his family. For such a long time, he did not question his existence or why he does this and that every single day. I brought this up in here for sometimes, we all are like Truman; we are all blinded by the routine of life, the hustles and bustles of everything without really stopping and thinking, what is the use anyway, in the end? One of the lines in the movie that really caught my attention was that by Christof, the creator of the show in the movie, when he said: “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” And he's not really wrong. Many really do fall into the trap of thinking that.



Yet, as I grew, my perspective of the world grew as well. I have realized that I have fallen into the world's mind bandwagon. And thankfully, I have woken from this deep sleep in the arms of pessimism just like how Truman started to question the weirdness of why such routine exists in his life, of wanting to live something quite different than what we are presented with. Just like Truman, we have to open the door of our enclosed world in order to see life beyond this routine which makes it seem unfair, meaningless. It is through that can we finally start to see life with a purpose. It might be a risk.. but I think it is a risk I am willing to take, rather than enclose myself in the boringness and ordinariness of this life with a routine.

It would be wrong for me to tell for sure what one's purpose is. What I can say is this: it's all a matter of perspective. Even looking at this poem is a matter of perspective! People would usually say that Williams is trying to tell that life is unfair and pointless, but for me, I would like to look at it differently. Instead of seeing at as a 'downer', it could be viewed in such a way that would motivate the people. Knowing that we 'shall not endure for ever' would make us 'make much of the sunshine' or make the most of life. It's quite the same with looking at the purpose of life. Everyone seems to be looking for a GREAT 'purpose' like that of Christ's – dying for the sake of humanity or something like that which is quite ideal and impossible to attain– while we do not really count the small differences that we make. We take for granted all these things that we do everyday. In my own perspective, I think that every 'act of random kindness' (from the movie Evan Almighty) we do, no matter how small or unnoticeable, makes up our purpose in life. For me, we do not need to do one massive favor for the world; in fact, I think it's the small things that matters, just as there is no 1 peso if it isn't for a hundred cents. Let's not be blinded by the kind of standards the world has for what a life with a purpose is. I would say that it is really up to us to say if we have lived a life with a meaning. I think it is only ourselves who can answer that question... So we should just make sure that we live our lives not like the way Truman used to, but the way he did when he walked out the door of the 'normalized' world set for him; we should live and end our every day in this world making sure that we know in the deepest of our hearts that we have an added a cent into our piggy bank of life's purpose.

What's Next?

All Along The Watchtower

by Bob Dylan

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion", I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.

"No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Having discussed this song has really caught my attention for two main reasons:

1. Because it's written by Bob Dylan. That statement is supposedly self-explanatory, but to make it clearer (especially for non-Old school stuff fans), I have a great liking for old music. One of the legendary names in music (during the time when most songs actually made sense and showed situations of society) is Bob Dylan, which explains my instant overreaction when I saw his name on the projector screen. Not many people, especially here in the Philippines, actually still listen to Bob Dylan or the like.
2. Seeing that the song is made by Bob Dylan, I expected the song to be something with great metaphors and reflects the way things really are in an exceptionally creative manner. And yes, my expectations were met – the song is beyond my expectations, in fact.

Having explained why this is what I have chosen to reflect about for this week, it would be just time to tell what I think of it. The first time I heard this song was, I admit, in the class itself. To be even more honest, I did not find it truly that special the first time I read its lyrics. Obviously, my judgment of it changed eventually after scrutinizing every line.

The metaphors of this song are quite hard to understand if not taken wholly. Line after line, the story reveals more the real message that Dylan wants to express to his listeners. After the song finishes, what it really means hits the listeners and get an “Oh!” moment. Apparently, I am one of those listeners. Basically, this song is about the revolutionaries represented by outsiders (fool and theif) who try to make a difference (about the social 'caste' or 'hierarchy' in the case of our class discussion but I think it could be more than that; Dylan may have been also referring to other injustices in the society that he could see). It was also established that the 'repetitive' tune of the song implies the never-ending cycle of it – society having a problem, some outsiders trying to change it, problem remains – and it goes on.

I would probably agree with Dylan in many aspects of his views manifested in this song. Yes, the representation of the revolutionaries or what I would prefer to call the 'fountainheads' (in reference to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead) is quite right, that it is through the fool and the thief. This is true, not in all but in many cases since people who get to see the society as an outsider gets to pick out what the problems in it are rather than those who participate fully and are pampered inside that society. Also, yes, this has become truly a cycle that keeps repeating itself all over the history of mankind through many people of many kind who do it with many different strategies and ways, and yet, here we are still, stuck in the same centuries-old system.

However, I find myself wondering what would really happen if the 'end' that the joker and the thief strive hard to achieve is met. What would be of the world, really, if people are all equal and all these divisions and hierarchies in society are shattered? What is the point of living if the world is already at peace? I am not trying to be a sadist here or something, but I think it's quite reasonable to point that out, since I think what makes life interesting the way it is now is the problems we have and what makes people strive hard and think revolutionary is because of these injustices they see. But then, if all that is gone... “What's next?”

Let me also tell that I find these lines hard to forget - “"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke/But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate/So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late". I like this very much, being a fan of Philosophy and all. I remember through these lines a song by the Beatles: “Living is easy with eyes closed/Misunderstanding all you see”. And those lines are only too right. Ignorance is indeed bliss. Somehow, knowing connotes a sense of responsibility. It's a challenge to know, because you know you have to do something about what you know, especially when it is something wrong. The thief through those lines is trying to say that we must do something, us who know. It will not be easy, just as it had not been for the 'two riders' approaching the watchtower... Those who know may not even be able to destroy the watchtower... But then again, who said that is the only end to the means of those who know? Trying to make a change and making sense out of the one who knows' life is through that trial, is I think, quite enough.