Blog Post #10: Pillow talk comment

After reading through Sei Shonagon's lists, I agree with some of her opinions. In particular, I agree with two things in her list:
" A guest who arrives when you have something urgent to do, and stays talking for ages" is infuriating. I have this problem on a daily basis. I find it hard to leave the conversation because every time they talk, they keep rambling from one point to another without ever stopping. One time, a friend of my grandma was visiting us and I was in the car with her. She rambles on for about 2 hours and I had to pretend that I was tired and I needed to sleep to stop her from talking. I felt a little rude but it has to be done.
"A person who is in no way eccentric or imperfect, who is superior in both mind and body, and who remains flawless all his life". I find this also to be true. Not a single person I have met is perfect in every way. Trying to be perfect or believing that oneself is perfect and flawless would only lead to a miserable life in my opinion. 

Blog Post #9: The Art of Wu Wei

In high school, I was this cringy kid trying to be liked by everyone else. I hung out with these supposedly "cool" kids and do the stupid things they do, even if it was mean. It did not get me very far, my grades plummeted, got sent to the office; and when my parents found out about this and that I was hanging out with these types of kids, I got the butt whoppings of the year and grounded for about two months. In these grounded months, I realized maybe I should stop trying to be like the "cool" kids I was hanging out with and be more like myself; maybe I do not need to be friend with everyone at school but rather have a few close friends who accept me just the crazy and weird way I am. I believe this moment was an example of Wu Wei, to stop taking the upstream path and just follow the current. I wanted friendship; but instead of pretending to be someone I was not, which was difficult and uncomfortable, I was being myself and attracted friends that are more suitable and support me just the weird way I am.

Blog Post #8: Duties for a good life

Duty is defined as a moral or legal obligation; a responsibility. Duties vary from one person to another but they are all based on the things we value and deeply care about in life. To a 6 years old boy who is obsessed with the video game Pokemon, he would feel an immense sense of duty to "catch 'em all". For me, my duties revolve around a good relationship between family and friends, fitness/well-being, future career. 
Family and friends are a vital part of my life. The daily interaction with mom and dad, hanging out with friends, or a simple talk with grandma seems to be ordinary little things but these simple moments are what makes life so beautiful. As the old cliché goes, "enjoy the little things". Fitness is also something I value because working out, eating healthy leaves me feeling energized, and happy; and this improves my overall quality of life. Lastly, it is having my future career of choice. Having a job is a part of most of everyone's life because a person should be able to self-provide but the right job should improve everyday's life's quality instead of turning it into boredom. A job I believe would improve my future life would be Mechanical Engineering because it presents the type of problems I enjoy solving.
My duties or responsibilities are to pursue or maintain these things I care for. The reason I know they are my duties is simply based on my reasonings and emotion feedback. Not being able to go workout makes me feel sluggish, grumpy, and unsatisfied. Not being able to talk to my friends or family makes me feel lonely, and deprived. Similarly, not working towards my goal of future career makes me feel unproductive, and kind of useless. All these negative feelings are a type of pain. Pain is an emotion feedback that we are luckily born with so that we know when something is wrong with our lives and needed to be fixed. Avoiding fixing these crucial problems or these responsibilities would only lead us to a miserable life. 

Blog Post #7: What makes a good life

                   I find the way I live resembles the most to Plato's philosophy of a good life. According to Plato, to achieve "Eudaimonia" or fulfillment, a person should do the following: exploring oneself, having the right partner, understanding art.

                   By exploring oneself, Plato means using rational thoughts and introspection to discover one's qualities and values. I believe that finding the right values is crucial to a happy life because these values would dictate a person how to live their life. From a personal perspective, I believe three traits for a good value are that it is controllable, reality-based (non-superstitious), and socially constructive. For instance, a good value would be honesty, it is a value that improves society, non-superstitious, and one within one control. Living life based on these good values would result in happiness. On the other hand, valuing the wrong thing could lead to a destructive life. One example would be valuing popularity or caring too much about being liked by everyone, it is not within one's control and such values are factors to a terrible life. Bad values are common in "doxas" such as "fame is great", "money is key to happiness", etc. 

                   I also strongly agree with Plato's point of view on relationships. Plato believes the key to a strong relationship is finding the right partner that has good qualities and values which you lack. Being with this partner would in turn help to develop those missing values and thus, both partners would better each other. 

                   One point I would disagree with Plato is his censorship for his idea of a "reformed society". Plato believes exposure to his ideas of imperfections whether in art or poetry would cause corruption of a person, and therefore support censorship of such contents. For instance, Plato support that tales of gods and heroes should be censored because poets such as Homer and Hesiod would portray the characters to be immoral, or banning pieces of poetry and tales because a man should not be portrayed to cry, and grieve over the death of a friend. In my point of view, censorship is unnecessary because, through intuitions and education, people should be able to recognize goods and bads and not blindly follow what is presented to them.

Cite:

Plato's philosophy of a good life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDiyQub6vpw

Plato's censorship: http://www.stephenhicks.org/2012/01/21/plato-on-censoring-artists-a-summary/

Some of my points are from this book I've read (PG-13)

: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subtle_Art_of_Not_Giving_a_F*ck

Blog Post #6: Is Achilles considered a hero today?

Achilles is praised as a hero for ancient Greece time but would he still be considered a hero in today's modern society? To answer this, we have to understand the virtues of a hero back then and today.
At Greece time, a hero must satisfy these virtues:
Nous: intellectual and wisdom
Kleos: glory (earn on the battlefield)
Time: honor
Arete: excellence in all skills
Oikos: homecoming
Xenia: hospitality
In today society, a hero does not need to have "Kleos" or "Arete" but is more common and usually share these traits: bravery, courage, selflessness, caring, nobility, and respected by society. They are the people who put their lives at risk for others' safety and wellbeing. From these definitions, they could be common people in our society such as soldiers, police officers, doctors, firefighters, fathers, and mothers.
Achilles could be considered a hero both in Greece and today's society as he displays virtues of heroes in both standards. However, due to cultural differences, a person with today's worldview may not consider Achilles to be a hero based on certain instances such as when he was displeased when King Agamemnon takes a slave, a woman named Chryseis away from him or the fact that he even owns slaves. However, in Greece time Achilles' reaction is justified due to King Agamemnon has dishonored him by not showing "Xenia" (the hospitality virtue). Even so, Achilles would defy Greece's virtues by withdrawing from the battle but at the same time value "Oikos"- a virtue for homecoming. Therefore, it is complicated to determine if Achilles is a hero in such instances.
In the closing scene where Achilles return the body of Hector to his father, Achilles shows an important tradition of ancient time: honoring the dead, even if it is your enemies'. This tradition is practiced to this day as bodies, remains of soldiers are retrieved from the battlefield for their families to honor. 

Blog Post #5: King Gilgamesh

What makes Gilgamesh interesting is that Gilgamesh differs from many other hero archetypes in that he does not start out as a respected figure, rather, as a tyranny hated by his people. However, as the epic unfolds, he displays many good attributes of a hero such as courage, bravery, and the care for his companion. Through the development of his character, the reader could sympathize with Gilgamesh throughout his journey such as when he is in grief for the death of his partner or for his fear of mortality.
Gilgamesh makes readers reflect their own mortality through the way he could live forever through his legacy. Also, he also shows the importance of a true friendship and how the sudden disappearing of it could be painful.
I personally could emphasize with Gilgamesh when he lost his friend through my own experience. When I was fifteen, my family moved from Vietnam to America and I had to leave behind my best friend who had always been with me. Needless to say, it was sad but thanks to the technology innovation of the twenty-first century, I could still facetime him and fly back to visit him once a while. However, that is unfortunately not the case for Gilgamesh.

Blog Post #4: What makes Gilgamesh a hero

In movies, a hero is typically depicted as an extraordinary person who has exceptional strength, courage, nobility and is admired by a great mass of people for some incredible deed such as saving mankind. However, in reality, heroes are quite common. They are the ones who put their life at risk every day for our safety such as soldiers, police officers, doctors, firefighters, or simply a father in a child's eyes. All these people in our society could be considered heroes and they usually share common traits: bravery, courage, selflessness, caring, nobility, and respected by society.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, although the king could be classified as a Hero's archetype as he follows many common traits of the hero character in epics, movies, and literature, he does not seem to possess the heroes' traits in today's society. He lacks the selflessness, nobility and the respect from his people. A soldier would sacrifice his life for his country, a father would also for his child but Gilgamesh does not show this quality in the Epic, also, his quest for immortality stems from his selfish desire. Also, he does not receive respect from his people as they view him as a tyrant who contempt the gods, and a serial rapist.

However, Gilgamesh also posses some heroic traits such as courage, bravery, and caring. His bravery and courage could be seen when he slays the beast Humbaba, killed the bull sent by Ishtar, through his immortal quest and when he accepts his faith to be mortal.

Blog Post #3: Neolithic Plastered Skull

In 1953, a group of archeologists led by Kathleen Kenyon was digging in a mound in the site of Tell es-Sultan, near the modern West Bank city of Jericho, and discovered one of the most important artifacts of the Neolithic era, the Jericho skull. With today's modern technologies and forensic reconstruction technique, the skull was identified to belong to male about 40 years old and his face was also constructed:

The Jericho skull was one of the seven plastered skulls found in the site and they all were stuffed with soil to support delicate bone features and then plastered to create personal features such as noses. bones, and cheeks. However, the Jericho skull, in particular, has one eye made from a bivalve shell divided in two and the other one is a smaller, complete shell.
There are several famous theories on plastered skull such as:
 1) they are part of an ancestral cult. During the Neolithic age, as they moved from a nomadic hunting lifestyle to a more settled one, it is suggested that the skull of an ancestor is used to mark the territory of a location.
2) they are the skulls of defeated enemies, used as trophies and for the purpose of marking territory like previously.
3) They are used for a spiritual, religious purpose, the reincarnation of the dead. This is probably a way the Neolithic people reintroduce their passed loved ones to join them in everyday life. I believe this theory the most due to the credible evidence found regarding plasters during the Neolithic. Plasters were found in mortuary practices, suggesting the use of it might be for connecting or separating the living and the dead. Also, plastered skulls were found in ceremonies for protection against evil,fertility and "life force" rituals.
4) They are perhaps a homage for the dead.
5) Lastly, they are probably used for the purpose of art because the creation of such crafts would require great effort and time.
Sources:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=283002&partId=1
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/jericho-skull-neolithic-facial-reconstruction-archaeology-british-museum/
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-jericho-skull-british-museum-facial-reconstruction-ct-scan-a7474516.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3929714/

Blog Post #2 - Shamanism theory for paleolithic art

Shamanism is defined as a practice that involves the practitioner entering an altered state of consciousness (either through chanting, hallucinogenic, etc.). Shamanism is recognized in cave paintings for primally two images: geometric patterns and human-animal hybrid.
Under experiments conducted by neurologist Henrich Kluver, subjects under the influence of mescaline reported seeing strange geometric shapes and patterns similar to those found in the cave paintings.

Cave of El Castillo in Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, Spain, dated to more than 40,000 years old 

Geometric patterns in Native American cave art

Shamans are also reported to see threads of light as a door to enter the "spirit realm" and these "doors" are possibly depicted in San rock art found in Southern Africa. In these paintings, there are long red lines at cracks and steps appeared to be "doors", whereas, the painting around it could be some sort of "veils"

San rock painting of an eland found in Drakensberg, South Africa.

Graham Hancock claimed in his book Supernatural that another type of image that is usually seen in an altered state of consciousness is any hybrid of human and animal. An example of this is "The Sorcerer" painting found in "the Sanctuary" cave in France dating back to about 13.000 years ago depicting a hybrid of man and dear.

“The Sorcerer” with the re-drawn version by Henri Breuil

Also, the human-like figure in the San Bushman cave art could possibly indicate a shaman in a trance state.

Shamans lying in a trance in San Bushman cave art

Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the artists of cave art are Shamans from the evidence provided.

Source:

https://www.ancient.eu/article/787/the-meaning-of-european-upper-paleolithic-rock-art/

https://www.samwoolfe.com/2013/04/are-cave-paintings-sign-of-shamanism.html

Blog Post #1 - "cultural diet"

My name is Khoi Bui and I will reveal my "cultural diet" through my actual diet. Since traditional cuisine is an important aspect of any culture, I will reveal the food that I eat on a daily basis. I live in a Vietnamese family and my grandma cooks for us traditional Asian meals that would mainly consist of some sort of whole grains, vegetables, protein (usually fish or poultry), and some servings of fresh fruits as a dessert.

I would pick any of my grandma's meals over American dishes because they are so much healthier and tastier. The reason I believe traditional Asian meals is healthier is that they are more plant-based with a good amount of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and other whole plant food and the protein comes mostly from lean meat sources such as seafood or poultry. Researches have proved that whole plant food could prevent, treat and reverse top America killer diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. This is probably due to the little amount of plant-based food and an overwhelming amount of fatty meat in American meals (a Mcdonalds double cheeseburger is an epitome). Not only traditional Asian dishes have numerous health benefits but they are incredibly delicious as well with each meal has its own unique taste. A famous Vietnamese dish is Pho, a dish consist of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat (either beef or chicken). A proper bowl of Pho would take about 12 hours because the broth requires to be simmered with chicken or beef bones and various herbs. Despite the hard work, the outcome makes it all worth it.

Pho is only one of many famous mouth-watering dishes of Asia and luckily I get to try a lot of them because of my grandma. With the tastiness and health benefits of these nutrients packed meals, home food truly is the best food, or at least in my case.