Was Hungry to Learn...

And now I have so much leaning to do I can nearly keep up. The basic classroom set up has been two to three hours of each day. We have been meeting at different places on the manor grounds. The first week we met several times in the music room on the ground floor. We have also met a couple times in Professor Ruth's luxury suite (where we enjoy the simple comforts of hot tea and coffee). Everyday I am seriously in awe of Professor Ruth's knowledge on every topic that we discus, even topics outside of her class plans. Sometimes my brain hurts for a little while after class as I continue to sort through the information. I really don't have a brown nose right now.

I have really learned a lot about the Bronte sisters. I chose "Wuthering Heights" to read because I suppose I was attracted to the dark, chaos if it. Although being in class and hearing about "Jane Eyre" makes me want to read it. The young Heathcliff and Cathrine characters in "Wuthering Heights" symbolizes a free, innocent, wildness which is within reach of being tamed by society. For an extremely short overview, in the end the two different cultures are balanced within the decedents of Heathcliff and Cathrine showing that a balance is necessary.

This past week we have been going through the different periods through history and discussing their characteristics and how they have influenced one after the other to give us the period of Modernism/Post Modernism that we live in today. We started with the the medieval mindset. During this period people turned to nature for answers and guidance, a worship of nature, exploring natures life and power (The Green Man). We also talked about how Christianity and earth religions synchronized together. The effects of this merge are still being practiced in traditions today. Some very broad illustrations would be Christmas in December and the tree. The Ester bunny and eggs. They come from the collision of earth and christian religion. We continued into the Gothic period were we talked about the Church creating superstition and mystery trying to gain power in society and government. Numerology and creating a sublime aesthetic played a huge part in creating these mysteries. This is what we labeled the "good" Gothic group. Secondly we have the literary Gothic group which is essentially the rebellion of the churches secrets and restraint in ritual. They brought up ideas of individuality and took Protestant ideas of having the Spirit within us instead of having a mediator who was "holier-than-thou". These individualistic advances brought us to the Romantic period in history when being individual and expression of feelings was so incredibly important. The common man had been suppressed and hadn't been good enough to freely express feelings and individuality and now they were being lifted up as hero's. It was all about the longing of something bigger than yourself the exotic. Trying to create aesthetic that could describe the persons aw of the sublime. The question is how do I put into words, put onto canvas, create song to, or a movement that can somehow describe something wholly encompassing body, soul and mind? It was the great quest of the time. To be so engulfed in emotion and feeling that one would forsake all other aspects of life. This way of individual thinking lead to the industrial revolution and the Victorian period. All this thought produced machinery, Darwinism, Marxism, Feminism, etc... People were beginning to battle topics that had lane under the surface for centuries. With Darwin the very existence of God was being openly questioned. Industry took most people into cities to find work. After cities were full and people couldn't find work the people fought extreme poverty. It struck a huge revolt called the Luddite Revolt. The people fighting for jobs and their very existence, went on riots and vandalized the mills and large plants. They have been drove to radical behavior. The owners of mills complained about the nuisance and requested that by law the death penalty was to anyone who would vandalize a mill. After these revolts came the Modernist period. We find in this period the balance of providing feeling and emotion along with thought and an educated insight. A behavior with reasoning and rational decision making. It was an exploration into the deep conscious and even the sub conscious. Random and creative thought placed in working order.

With every conformity there is a rebellion. I have learned that when looking at society and dividing the general public into categories there is no non-conformity. As I look back on history as an observer of art, documentation and literature I have realized the ever continuing trend of people believing that they are apart of a free non-conformist way of life and not looking at their own group of conformists. I have to wonder why people believe they have to start a revolution every time they disagree with something. It is all how we perceive things. When most people are wearing rose colored glasses it's a mind set. It's a belief system and it's so real you can almost touch it. I don't think that acts of violence will ever change a persons negative views only make them worse. And so history repeats it's self.

I have also found insight on different beliefs and how they effected the people as a whole. I want to explore them on a personal level. I believe two different beliefs and I am trying to find the balance for the two to live harmoniously together within one body. It was really refreshing to learn about the synchronizing of earth religions and Christianity and I am going to research it and make it real to me.

P.S. photographs coming later.