Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, more popularly known as Pablo Neruda, was one of the most prominent Latin poets of the 20th century.
Pablo Neruda was born in 1904, in Chile. He started writing poetry at a very early age. He grew up in Temuco. His father did not approve of his poetry, and did not encourage him of it. His father discouraging him could be the reason why he started publishing under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda.
Even though Neruda did not get any support from his father, he wasn’t completely devoid of support. The major source of encouragement for him was Gabriela Mistral, a nobel prize laureate who won the nobel prize a few years before Neruda. Neruda published multiple poems in local newsletters and magazines.
Literary work
Pablo Neruda published his first work, an essay at the age of 13 in a local magazine. In 1921, he left Chile to move to Santiago to study at the University of Chile in order to become a French teacher. He adopted a different lifestyle in Santiago almost that of a bohemian and was able to complete during that time his first collection of poems entitled Crepusculario (book of twilights) in 1923. A year later, he published another book, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada which when translated into English means Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair published in 1924. Both of these books brought him recognition. For the next few years he dedicated himself fully to writing poetry and continued to publish poems.
But unfortunately, he was unable to make ends meet through just his poetry so he worked as a consul in Myanmar for about 5 years. After that he moved to Sri Lanka. By this time he was quite familiar with South Asian culture and wrote a book called Residencia en la tierra meaning Residence onEarth. In 1932, after spending time as a consul in Indonesia he moved to Chile with a woman he had married, Maria Antonieta Hagenaar. In 1933, he worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a consul. The following years Neruda moved around the world and became involved with the communist parties, also during this time he separated from his wife in 1936. He published another edition of Residencia en la tierra in 1935.
Political career
He moved back to Chile again in 1937 and became associated with the politics of his country. When he returned to his home country in 1943 from Mexico, he ran for senator and won in 1945 and joined th communist party. In 1948, he was exiled from the position of a senate for writing an open letter against the leader and he left the country so as to not get arrested. He spent his exile travelling around the world writing poems, he published Tercera residencia.
In 1952, he returned to Chile, again and lived there for the rest of his life. There he campaigned for political leaders and wrote a lot more books.
In 1971, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was terminally ill and died in 1973 in his home country of Chile.
Rudyard Kipling, a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist who is best known among us for his novel the jungle book, was an eminent 20th century writer. Kipling became the youngest person and till this date is the youngest person to receive the award in 1907, at the age of 41.
Life
Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865, in Mumbai, India, which was a British colony during that time. He was born to John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling. His father was an artist and an architect who used to work at an art school in Mumbai.
He spent his early childhood in India as an Anglo-Indian and at the age of 6 went to Britain and was vaguely perplexed with his identity, a topic he lightly touches on in his later work. In Britain, Kipling did not live with his parents; instead they left both Rudyard and his younger sister with a foster family. During this time, the couple that were looking after the siblings did not treat him very well. In his autobiography Something of Myself for My Friends Known and Unknown, which was published posthumously, Kipling looks back at this period of his life with dread. Kipling felt abandoned and isolated throughout his childhood. First he was abandoned by his parents and then he was neglected in his foster home too.
In 1877 Kipling’s mother returned to England and pulled her children out of that foster home. The very next year, he was sent to the United Services College in Devon, where students would be prepared for the army.
Career
Towards the end of the school, Kipling dropped out as his family did not have enough money to send him to college so instead his father secured a job for him in India and worked as an editor and a journalist for a newspaper. This was the beginning of his journalistic career. It was in India that Kipling started to publish his collection of short stories. He published Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888 and he published 6 volumes of short stories which included soldiers Three, The Phantom Rickshaw; between 1887 and 1889. By the end of this decade, Kipling gained so much popularity that he was being considered one of the best prose writers of his time.
He left India in 1889 and went to San Francisco during this journey he met The Adventures of Tom Sawyer writer Mark Twain.
In 1892, he married Caroline Balestier and the couple lived in America before moving to England. In this decade Kipling he produced work that he is most known for, like The Light That Failed in 1891, The Jungle Book in 1894, The Seven Seas in 1896, a collection of poems, Captains Courageous in 1897.
In 1907, at the age of 41, he became the youngest and the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. Kipling is thought to be an imperialist; his ideology at that time and even during this time is not accepted by people and has been long criticized for the same. However, he was a very popular writer of his time.
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About that author- Charles Bukowski
“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
This very famous quote by Charles Bukowski gives us an idea about the kind of individual he was. He was the kind of poet who wrote whatever was in his heart, whenever it was. He always spoke about a part of himself that exists inside us all but we choose to silence it. Bukowski, afraid of that part, still chooses to give it a voice through his poems.
Life
Charles Bukowski was a German-American poet, writer known for the violent imagery he tries to depict with his writing. Bukowski left his home in Los Angeles to move to New York to pursue writing. In New York he took up a lot of odd jobs so that he could continue to write, but he did not see much success during that period of his life.
Career
Charles Bukowski published his first story, titled “Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip” in 1944, at the age of 24 in a magazine. He published another story titled “20 Tanks from Kasseldown” about 2 years later in 1946, but unfortunately he failed to make a breakthrough and was left disappointed. Bukowski wrote a lot, was published too little and received even less recognition. This led him to quit writing or rather take a break from writing in the year 1946.
Now, one could say that Bukowski did not do anything during his hiatus but I disagree. During these years Bukowski gathered material for his future work. He moved back to Los Angeles and lived the life of a hippie and wandered around the country staying in cheap places. He would travel. drink alcohol and observe. The observations are talked about in his later published books.
Bukowski talked about the harsh and crude reality of existence and is known for his raw and bare writing.
After a hiatus of almost a decade, Bukowski got back to writing. In the mid 1950s he was hospitalized for a fatal bleeding ulcer. After being released from the hospital he started to write poetry, at the age of 35. Charles Bukowski, in 1957 married Barbara Frye, who later died in India. This incident resulted in Bukowski going back to alcohol and writing poetry.
By this time, Bukowski’s poems were published in literary magazines. But still he was unable to see the success he very much deserved. In the 1960s, he published a lot of poems and short stories and only tasted success in his 50s.
Bukowski spent more than half of his life writing and not seeing any considerable amount of success. He did not give up, in fact there was no point in him giving up because he was not one of the writers who wrote to achieve success, he wrote because he was extraordinarily in love with his art. He did not try to be a writer, in fact he didn’t try to be anything but true to himself and his work. He did not force himself to write, evident by his decade long hiatus. He thought that there had been too many writers in the past who forced themselves to try, whereas in his opinion if you truly love an art form you wouldn’t have to try, it would come to the artist. In his opinion if you had to try to be or do something you shouldn’t try at all. Even his grave has the words “don’t try” engraved on it.
He died in 1994, due to leukemia after living an adventurous and fulfiled life.
George Orwell, best known for his novels “Animal Farm” and his dystopian novel “1984”. He was known for a dystopian world he could create through his imagination. His writings, in a sense were also satirical, criticism towards institutions that held power
Childhood
Born on june 25, 1903 Eric Arthur Blair wrote some of the best dystopian novels under the pen name George Orwell. He was born in Motihari, India. His father worked for the Indian Civil Services. His mother Ida Blair grew up in Burma. A year after Eric was born his mother took him and his sister back to England. Eric had 2 sisters and he was the middle child. He was sent to a boarding school, excelled academically and even secured a scholarship in school.
He did not come from a financially sound household and therefore could not go to a university to study further. So instead he left for Burma (a British colony back then) in 1922 to serve in the Indian Imperial police. 5 years later he resigned from the Imperial Police to go back to England in order to chase his dream of becoming a writer. But Burma left him inspired, inspired enough to write a novel about it entitled “Burmese Days”. His experiences in Burma shaped his perception of writing to a certain extent.
Career
After leaving Burma, he spent some time with his family and also lived in the slums of London and Paris, working odd jobs, he even washed dishes at hotels in Paris. He collected all of these experiences and wrote them down in his first well recognized work “Down and Out in Paris and London” published in 1933 under the pen name George Orwell. This work of his provides insights about the life of the impoverished and the working class in that economy.
Orwell’s second piece of work “Burmese Days” published in 1934 gives it’s readers a tour of Burma under British rule. This novel surrounds the grim facets of colonialism that he himself first handedly lived through.
His stories contain an alienated character, a character who feels a little detached from the environment. This alienation parallels his feelings during childhood and perhaps even his adult life.
Orwell published books in the next few subsequent years including “A Clergyman’s Daughter” in 1935, “Keep the Aspidistra Flying” in 1936, a rather political novel.
Orwell’s writings became political due to political movements involving imperialism and the uprising of the communist ideology.
Orwell left for Spain in 1936 to fight in the Spanish civil war where he suffered some serious injuries. At the time, his wife, Eileen was taking care of the publishing of his next book “The Road to Wigan Pier ” (1937). In mid 1937 Orwell came back to London and was later diagnosed with tuberculosis. His time in Spain was one that he expresses in his novel “Homage to Catalonia”. During WWII, he was working as a journalist at the BBC, a job that he left in 1943. Later working as an editor for a newspaper which led him to be known as a fine journalist.
In 1950, about a year after “1984” was published, he died due to Tuberculosis, granting the world some great work to read.
To kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee. The book was published in 1960 and was successful right away. It was Harper Lee’s first novel which sold more than 30 million copies all over the world and was also given the Pulitzer Prize. This novel is a classic among and outside of the bibliophiles for some very valid reasons. Let’s explore them
Plot
The story is set in a fictional town of Maycomb in Alabama and narrated by a 6 year old girl, Jean Louise Finch, the daughter of a righteous and virtuous lawyer Atticus Finch.
The story begins with Jean Louise and her brother Jeremy Finch talking about their esoteric neighbour Boo Radley who never went out of his house and that fascinates the Finch siblings yet they are scared of him too much. It revolves around the adventures of the Finch siblings in the beginning.
These adventures are followed by some worries that rain down on the finch household by virtue of a case their father is working on, the case of Tom Robison, an African-American fellow who is accused of rape of a young white girl Mayella Ewell. Atticus Finch is fighting in favor of Robinson. This story is set up in the 1930s, when discrimination against African Americans was prevailing, a good evidence of that is provided in the book when different churches are mentioned for the white and African American people. Because Atticus was fighting for Robinson, he was looked down upon by the people of Maycomb, especially some of the more powerful figures of the town. Atticus Finch and his children are threatened all this while but he didn’t deter, he refused to step down until Robinson was given a chance, but he didn’t stand a chance.
The trial takes place and Tom Robinson is convicted of raping the girl even though all odds favor him. He is pronounced guilty because of the color of his skin. Nevertheless, an African American man being given the chance to explain himself was a huge leap for that town, all because of Atticus’s determination and skill. This case affects the finch siblings as well.
A deeper look
At first glance, the story seems about the escapades of Jean Louise and her brother Jeremy Finch but after a close look one will discover that this novel explores more profound issues in Maycomb which parallels the issues that 20th century and to some extent even 21st century America faces. First and foremost it addresses racism, in not the best of ways but you can’t blame the author considering the times it was written in. it doesn’t deal with racism nor does it offer any solution to deal with it. It simply mentions the bizarre laws that existed or rather lack of any laws. Understanding is a thing that Atticus does very well, he possesses the ability to understand even his enemies even When a mob is about to attack him. “A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what” is what he says to his children when talking about the same incident. His empathy is something that keeps the readers wondering.
It touches on the subject of gender roles and how Jean Louise who was a tomboy was told by her aunt to act ladylike. And it talks about subjects that can only be realized when you read and think about it yourself
An American essayist and novelist, born in 1924 in Hampton, James Baldwin who addressed the issue of race in 20th century america. He grew up poor, in a black ghetto and in the 1930s, during a time when racism encompassed the whole of America and Baldwin too was subjected to it all his life.
His work revolves around the racial and social issues that existed in 20th century america.
Early life
James Baldwin never knew his biological father who was a drug addict, owing to this reason his mother left his father and moved to Harlem where she gave birth to James baldwin. Baldwin was the eldest to his 8 siblings. Baldwin figured out his affinity toward writing at an early age and was exceptional at it too. He wrote his first article when he was only 13, this article was published in his school magazine. Throughout his teenage years Baldwin published short stories and essays in local literary magazines. In his young teenage years Baldwin was a youth minister at the church. Bldwin was a devout christian, this could be because his father was a baptist minister. In later years of his life, he refused to being religious however his religious attitude shaped his perception to a great extent.
Throughout his life he faced incidents of racism, some of which he addresses in his work as well.
Career
In 1943, he moved to Greenwich village to pursue literature and work with other writers and literaries. During his time at Greenwich he was also able to secure a writing fellowship. At this time Baldwin’s short stories were being published and not in local but well recognized and reputed magazines.
About 3 years later Baldwin emigrated to France under another fellowship where he would not be treated with the racist remarks of the American and would be able to make a name for himself beyond his african -american community. In France he was met with his sexual conflict and hoped to come to terms with it and understand it better.
Work
Baldwin wrote his first novelGo Tell It on the Mountain which was published in 1953. a near autobiographical novel which revolves around a young teenager growing up in Harlem, New York and his relationship with his father and the church. The book deals with several issues that prevailed in america. It talks about racism, poverty, Harlem, New York, basically all the things that Baldwin endured in his childhood are mentioned in this work through the eyes of another character.
Giovanni’s Room, was his second novel released in 1954, which deals with the sexul ambivalence of a man, and his relationship with other men living in paris. Homosexuality was a tabboo during that time and who else could have talked about a topic so contreversial if not Baldwin.
Baldwin’s subsequent novels Another Country and Tell Me How Long The Train’s Been Gone, talk about race and homosexuality.
James Baldwin is known for his thought inducing essays. He had the ability to write about an issue giving the reader another highly intellectual way to look at it. In addition to being an important literary figure of the 20th century he was also an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
Baldwin in 1987 died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France due to stomach cancer leaving his work enriched with revolution behind.
If the moon smiled, she would remember you. You leave the same impression of something beautiful but annihilating.
This quote is from one of my favorite Sylvia Plath poems “The Rival”.
If you read Sylvia Plath you would find that her poetry wasn’t about the beauty that surrounded her, the fruity aroma of the garden flowers or blistering sun shining on her face or the wind sweeping her way. No, it was about none of that. Her poetry style was confessional.
LIFE
Sylvia Plath was born on october 27 of 1932 in Boston Massachusetts. She was a poet and a novelist who shaped American literature to a great extent. Plath published her first poem at the age of 8 in an American newspaper under the children’s section.From then on Plath went on to write and publish multiple poems in different magazines and newspapers. At the age of 8 Plath also faced a great deal of personal loss, her father passed away due to untreated diabetes. Her father was also a subject for a lot of her poems that she wrote in her later years.
Plath was a good student, she excelled in academics and attended the Smith’s College in Massachusetts. Plath also suffered from depression, which she elaborates in her poems. She underwent electrocution therapy for her depression. We are talking about the year 1950, when mental illness was not a socially acceptable concept. No points for guessing that the electrocution therapy did not work in fact it made matters worse for plath. In 1953, at the age of 21, the feeling of which she describes in one of her works as “blissfully succumbed to the whirling blackness that I honestly believed was eternal oblivion.” plath made her first suicide attempt by taking her mother’s sleeping pills. After this incident she remained in psychiatric care for months.
Career
In 1960, Sylvia Plath released a collection of her poems, entitled the colossus and other poems.. In this collection she talks about death, suicide, her father, and her depressive periods and thoughts.
Sylvia Plath’s poetry wasn’t particularly happy and that is because it was confessional or even autobiographical in a sense and Plath herself was deeply depressed. Here is an excerpt from one of her poems called Lady Lazarus;
“Dying is an art,
like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call”.
If it wasn’t clear until now, then these lines give us an idea of the intensity of torment that her own mind was subjecting her to.
Marriage and the aftermath
Plath married Ted Hughes, a poet and writer in 1956. They had 2 children together. The two later separated in 1962. The couple did not have a great relationship, some controversy and rumors surrounded Hughes even after Plath’s death.
During the last few years of her life Plath published exceptional work, some of the best work ever written. This vey period of Plath’s life is the one that shaped literature and inspired the future confessional poets. Plath poured her heart out on the pages during these years. She published a novel “the bell jar” in 1963 which did exceptionally well. But her career was cut short when at the age of 30, in 1962 after what is described as “a burst of creativity” she took her own life. Her posthumously published collection of poems “Ariel” also attracted a lot of readers and to this day transcends her.
A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational objectives” (in Bloom’s original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.
The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge.
A statement of a learning objective contains a verb (an action) and an object (usually a noun).
The verb generally refers to [actions associated with] the intended cognitive process.
The object generally describes the knowledge students are expected to acquire or construct. (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 4–5)
The cognitive process dimension represents a continuum of increasing cognitive complexity—from remember to create. Anderson and Krathwohl identify 19 specific cognitive processes that further clarify the bounds of the six categories.
The Cognitive Process Dimension – categories, cognitive processes (and alternative names)
The knowledge dimension represents a range from concrete (factual) to abstract (metacognitive) (Table 2). Representation of the knowledge dimension as a number of discrete steps can be a bit misleading. For example, all procedural knowledge may not be more abstract than all conceptual knowledge. And metacognitive knowledge is a special case. In this model, “metacognitive knowledge is knowledge of [one’s own] cognition and about oneself in relation to various subject matters . . . ” (Anderson and Krathwohl)
The Knowledge Dimension
Factual
knowledge of terminology
knowledge of specific details and elements
Conceptual
knowledge of classifications and categories
knowledge of principles and generalizations
knowledge of theories, models, and structures
Procedural
knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
Metacognitive
strategic knowledge
knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
self-knowledge
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Model
Note: These are learning objectives – not learning activities. It may be useful to think of preceding each objective with something like, “students will be able to…:
The Knowledge Dimension
Factual
The basic elements a student must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it.
The Knowledge Dimension
Conceptual
The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together.
The Knowledge Dimension
Procedural
How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.
The Knowledge Dimension
Metacognitive
Knowledge of cognition in general as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Remember
Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
Remember + Factual
List primary and secondary colors.
Remember + Conceptual
Recognize symptoms of exhaustion.
Remember + Procedural
Recall how to perform CPR.
Remember + Metacognitive
Identify strategies for retaining information.
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Understand
Construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written and graphic communication.
Understand + Factual
Summarize features of a new product.
Understand + Conceptual
Classify adhesives by toxicity.
Understand + Procedural
Clarify assembly instructions.
Understand + Metacognitive
Predict one’s response to culture shock.
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Apply
Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation.
Apply + Factual
Respond to frequently asked questions.
Apply + Conceptual
Provide advice to novices.
Apply + Procedural
Carry out pH tests of water samples.
Apply + Metacognitive
Use techniques that match one’s strengths.
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Analyze
Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation.
Analyze + Factual
Select the most complete list of activities.
Analyze + Conceptual
Differentiate high and low culture.
Analyze + Procedural
Integrate compliance with regulations.
Analyze + Metacognitive
Deconstruct one’s biases.
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Evaluate
Make judgments based on criteria and standards.
Evaluate + Factual
Select the most complete list of activities.
Evaluate + Conceptual
Determine relevance of results.
Evaluate + Procedural
Judge efficiency of sampling techniques.
Evaluate + Metacognitive
Reflect on one’s progress.
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Create
Put elements together to form a coherent whole; reorganize into a new pattern or structure.
The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind is a spiritual self-help book, which teaches you how to use visualization and other suggestion techniques to adapt your unconscious behavior in positive ways.
Understanding your subconscious mind as a photographic mechanism removes the emotion and struggle from changing your life, because if it is simply a matter of replacing existing mental images with new ones, you begin to see the ease with which you may change.
‘The law of your mind is the law of belief itself,’ Murphy says. What we believe makes us who we are. William James observed that whatever people expect to be true, will be so, irrespective of whether the object of their belief exists in fact. In the West we have made ‘the truth’ our highest value; this motivation, while important, is weak next to the actual power of belief in shaping our lives.
1. You Receive Answers To Prayer Because Of Mental Acceptance About What You Pray
Murphy proposes that your religious affiliation is not what makes prayer effective. Rather, it is based on your ability and willingness to accept what you pray.
It makes sense that whatever you can and do accept on a conscious level has to be accepted by your subconscious as well.
Another statement that expands on this idea is this one: “the subconscious mind is subject to the conscious mind.” What Murphy is saying is that you can train your subconscious mind to believe what you can accept on a conscious level.
2. Your Subconscious Mind Has The Answer To All Your Problems
This statement makes perfect sense if you don’t have any problems with the idea that your subconscious mind = God.
Even if not for that, though, it speaks to the power of the subconscious mind. You don’t need to go looking outside for the answers you seek – Murphy is saying – you can look inside, and pose questions to your subconscious.
The answers may not come immediately, but your mind is always working on problems you submit to it even when you’re doing other things, and it will eventually present to you a workable solution.
3. Faith Is The Only Universal Healing Principle Operating Through Everybody
I believe the implication here is that faith is created by accessing and harnessing the power of our subconscious minds. Illness, physical ailments, and even traumatic experiences can be healed by repeatedly submitting thoughts of healing to our subconscious minds.
Can we be healed by any other means? According to Murphy, no. Faith is the universal healing principle. Of course, I don’t think he would discount the importance of medicine and other orthodox cures, but I have to guess that in this case he is referring to instances of healing that have occurred in so-called “healing services”, churches, or religious gatherings.
4. If A Prayer Is Answered, It Is Answered Scientifically
What Murphy is suggesting is that there is a formula to prayers that are answered. He explains that “science” means knowledge that is coordinated, arranged and systematized, so the idea here is that we can cooperate with our subconscious minds to see more of our prayers answered.
If anything, the entire book sheds light on how little attention and thought we give to our subconscious minds, and what fantastic tools they are in helping us achieve ends that we desire to see in our lives.
5. Don’t Compel Your Subconscious Mind To Accept Your Idea By Willpower
Although Murphy does talk about presenting positive thoughts and images to our subconscious minds, he is also quick to caution us that we can’t force things. Our willpower is limited, and it continues to decrease and diminish throughout the day. Can you imagine how tiring it would be to force yourself to think the same things and visualize the same images all day long?
I think the idea is that we can plant seeds and nurture them, but we shouldn’t be constantly uncovering the soil to see how our seeds are doing. We must keep pulling the weeds and watering the seed, and while that may require a daily investment, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
6. The World You Live In Is Determined By What Goes In Your Mind
Regardless of whether you subscribe to Murphy’s theology, I think this is something we can all agree on. What goes into your mind is hugely important. If you choose poorly, you’ll assimilate bad attitudes, behaviors, and thoughts. If you choose well, you’ll begin to see positive changes within yourself.
What world do you want to live in? Have you thought about it? If you aren’t sure what you want to achieve in your lifetime, it makes it much harder to select input that will assist you on your journey. If you are fully in alignment with your objectives, choosing the right input becomes much easier.
7. Man Punishes Himself With His False Concepts Of God
We create our own misery. No one else does it for us. I think I know exactly what Murphy was saying here. I can attest to the fact that my false concepts of God led me down a path of misery.
In 2014, I went through a period of depression. Up until that point, I had felt that there was a clear path laid out ahead of me. Suddenly, that path disappeared and I could no longer see what was ahead. I cried out to God, but to no avail. My prayers kept hitting the ceiling. And, in retrospect, I feel it was my false ideas of the divine that were responsible for my bouts of depression.
Mysticism is the belief that something outside you controls your life. Recognizing that you are in control and you can rely upon your subconscious mind for the answers you seek is empowering. Right or wrong is not something you can check against a book. Right or wrong is embedded deep within you already, and to try to fit yourself into someone else’s ideas is to try to put a square peg in a round hole.
Be willing to see the unchangeable change.
Give yourself permission to be successful.
Don’t allow other people’s fears to cast shadows of doubt.
Surround yourself with positive reinforcement.
Speak your success as a present fact, not a future plan.
Known Mysterious Incident About“the queen of crime” except her famous novels.
Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time.
She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.
Agatha Christie is one of the greats of mystery literature. For eleven days, she was at the center of her own mystery, that got international headlines. Unlike the plots in her brilliant books, the motives underpinning this particular storyline are rather vague.
The characters of this real and known incidents were the Two of Britain’s most famous crime writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series and herself (Agatha Christie” the queen of crime”).
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S DISAPPEARANCECASE
WHAT DO WE KNOW-
On the December night of 3rd,1926 she drove away from her home in Berkshire and vanished completely. Her car was found abandoned and a huge manhunt was launched. Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, participated in the search. Their specialist knowledge, it was hoped, would help find the missing writer.
Her disappearance would spark one of the largest manhunts ever mounted. Agatha Christie was already a famous writer and more than one thousand policemen were assigned to the case, along with hundreds of civilians.
Agatha Christie’s disappearance prompted a nationwide search and for the first time in UK history, aeroplanes were employed as part of the search effort.
Newspapers offered rewards for information and her husband Archie was suspected of foul play.
The Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, urged the police to make faster progress in finding her.
It didn’t take long for the police to locate her car. It was found abandoned on a steep slope at Newlands Corner near Guildford. But there was no sign of Agatha Christie herself and nor was there any evidence that she’d been involved in an accident.
Not until 14 December, fully eleven days after she disappeared, was Agatha Christie finally located. Eventually, it was revealed that Christie had absconded to Harrow gate via train, where she spent eleven days hobnobbing with the young social crowd under the name of her husband’s mistress. Christie, upon being discovered, says she had no memory of the events.
The Speculations–
Agatha Christie rarely talked about the incident, simply putting it down to about of temporary amnesia caused by a blow to the head.
The consensus of opinion at the time was that the whole affair (no pun intended) was an act of revenge aimed at her erring husband.
Recent researches on her medical condition suggest that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. She died of natural causes in early 1976.
“Fake it until you make it” has been a life mantra for many. It’s a scenario where you create a lie for yourself and keep believing that lie until it becomes your reality. But what if we are not the ones creating the lies? What if someone else lied to us and we made it our reality?
Hello readers, I welcome you to a new age of MANIPULATION. *cue evil laughter*
The lies we believe-
The term for this is Self fulfilling prophecy given by Robert Merton. The name itself is self explanatory but still I want to give some insight on it. This psychological term in short can be named as misconception that later becomes true cause at first we believed it to be true. So essentially a lie we believed in and subconsciously we commenced our work towards that lie and made it our reality.
Now what if somebody lies to us like “I know what you did last summer.” Pretty vague. No one’s a psychic here. But subconsciously we already start reminiscing what haphazard thing we did last summer hence giving into the manipulation and believing a lie.
Classic manipulation, isn’t it?
The lies made me do it-
Security dilemma is caused by Self fulfilling prophecies. It can lead to people not being able to distinguish between the actual truth and the prophecy discussed above. In general it is a political term which happens only 40% of times in a case of self fulfilling prophecy.
Take it like this, there’s a person, 2 parties A and B and an old age rivalry. So this person who favors none of these parties and wants to stir up some trouble. He goes to party A and says “Hey there, I found these filled water balloons near B. Weird right?” Now that A has evidence that B might be preparing for a water balloon fight they start packing their own balloons and Nerf guns. B part sees the ammunition. And voila blow the toot for a full fledged WATER FIGHT!!!
Now imagine this scenario going on a bigger level and let the realization dawn upon you that how everything is just psychology.
The lies I am-
Talking about Behavioral confirmation, it is a very special kind of self fulfilling prophecy where we change our personality according to someone’s initial belief about us.
Let’s make it clear with an example. Some random person comes up to you and says “When I first saw you I thought you to be a little aggressive.” Now remember this is a person whom you have met only 2-3 times and you are anything but aggressive. Now whenever this person come around you’ll start acting a little aggressive and sometimes even when the person is removed from the equation.
Leading a belief/expectation to turn into reality just like in the 2 cases mentioned above.
All these scenarios are derived from self fulfilling prophecy. A very basic way of controlling human brain according to our wishes. These psychological ways can be used positively too but if you decide to go for manipulation then I didn’t tell you this. Jokes apart, it’s still quite wondrous how a little he said she said shenanigan can be used in our favor.
Yes, you read it write. This book has been trending on Booktok (book recommendation tiktoks) under the titles of “books that I would sell my soul to read for the first time again”, “books that will make you sob” or something as simple as “must have books”. But this particular book made many heads turn.
So, what’s all the hassle about? That’s exactly what we are here to find out.
Book history-
This book was written by E. Lockhart in 2014 and did a commendable job. The real hype began when in 2019 this book made an appearance in Booktok and ever since it’s still in the lists of many.
Popular sites like Daily Trojan recently added “We were liars’ on their must read pile. Publishers weekly too has named it as one of the most discussed book on TikTok.
Plot check.-
Nope, sorry can’t say. My lips are sealed.
But still for the sake of our lovely readers I will give you some insight. The plot is everything. It’s about a family, a rich one, whose story is narrated by a girl who can’t remember the last summer she spent on that island. No literally she can’t remember what happened. And believe me when I say that’s the only the start of the mysteries that revolve around the great Sinclair family.
Next up comes the plot twist. The suspense of this book will make you question reality. It will toy with your brain. But this book make every misery it puts us through worth it.
Theme park.-
The themes portrayed by the author E. Lockhart is quite literal slap on the society. The book challenges social norms head on. Ranging from racism to rich/poor and everything in between this book has it all. It also deals with psychological disorders which I might add is a very sensitive and controversial territory. But E. Lockhart sashayed her way into it quite elegantly.
This book can be added in our school syllabus and no one would question it. Cause that is life. Real one not the Shakespearean where people die unnecessarily or take unfinished revenges.
Why are Tiktokers hyped about it?
The reason behind this is one word “narration”. The lines can be stolen, plot can be copied, hell even if entire idea of this book is plagiarized, still no one can copy the way the author narrates this book. The narration keeps you on edge, makes you restless and leaves a mark right on your soul. The ending will have you wailing in a corner of your room and question life and the entire credit goes to how beautiful the story has been narrated.
And that’s right I would personally sell my soul to read for the first time again.
Not just luck-
‘We were liars’ made I to the popular list mainly due to Booktok but what makes this entire ordeal a little disappointing is that why such a great book written by a very talented author need a social media platform to get popular and sell some copies. It’s been a long time since I have been a reader, whilst social media is a great advertising platform, I still feel books should have a separate platform where we can find genuine books which are of our interest and not just the books which were lucky enough to reach Tiktokers.
‘We were liars’ is like a ride on emotional rollercoaster. It takes you to another level of epiphany. This book has the capability to change one as a person and I am so not exaggerating.
Booktok made me read it but I hope you can say the review made you read it.
Franz Kafka is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time who gave birth to a new manner of writing all while being tormented by his very existence.
Early life
Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, the capital city of what is now known as Czech. He was the eldest son to an acquiescent mother and a strong, assertive and highly dogmatic father.
Kafka’s father had an assertive and sturdy personality, his presence alone was enough to intimidate Franz or his mother.
Neither Kafka nor his mother could ever gather enough courage to contradict his father. For even if Kafka did gather it, it would lead to consequences that Kafka was extremely familiar with. His mother too, was too timid to ever try and protect her son. Much of Kafka’s personality is profoundly shaped by his relationship with his father. Kafka grew up with profuse self hatred,anxiety and despair. He was nothing like his father, in fact he was the exact opposite, and for that he was always a target for criticism.
Even as a young child, he had a particular inclination towards writing and literature, he wanted to write but this dream of his was highly detested by his father and his mother too failed to comprehend the intensity of his dreams or preserve them.
Kafka’s relationship with his father
Kafka did not have a good relationship with his father and the same is well reflected in his novels. In his novels, Kafka often created an authoritative figure that cannot be vanquished.
In his unfinished work, The Trial,he talks about the bureaucracy, politicians and businessmen that hold the power to oppress and push around an office worker, Josef K., whose personality awfully resembled that of Franz’s. In The Trial Josef .K, one morning was arrested for reasons he was unaware of, and didn’t even attempt to find out because in his view he deserved every tiny bit of it. He doesn’t try to protest or push back and is ultimately pronounced guilty.
Relationship with self
Kafka’s most famous novel, The Metamorphosis, published in 1915 acts as a great mirror to understand his relationship with himself. In The Metamorphosis, a salesman, Gregor Samsa, one morning wakes up only to find out that he has turned into an insect. The novel revolves around Gregor’s struggles after this significant change.
The metamorphosis represents the hatred and disgust that Kafka held towards himself.
Franz Kafka’s most notable works include The Judgement, A Hunger Artist, and a series of short stories, and much of them were left incomplete. Kafka would burn down more than half of what he wrote because he did not like his work. The trial was written in 1914-15 but wasn’t published until after his death by his friend, Max Brod. Kafka left all of his work to Max Brod, instructing him to destroy all of it, but luckily Brod disregarded his wish and went on to publish his work which attracted attention and was regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
LEGACY
Franz Kafka’s most notable works include The Judgement, A Hunger Artist, and a series of short stories, and much of them were left incomplete. Kafka would burn down more than half of what he wrote because he did not like his work. The trial was written in 1914-15 but wasn’t published until after his death by his friend, Max Brod. Kafka left all of his work to Max Brod, instructing him to destroy all of it, but luckily Brod disregarded his wish and went on to publish his work which attracted attention and was regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
Franz Kafka, in 1924 at the age of 40, succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving behind some of the best novels ever written. Kafka was a great literary figure, who inspired writers such as Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Kafka’s world is often characterized by dark but very real themes. His work has a certain melancholy associated with it. It almost seems like a dread filled dream that sticks with the reader and leaves an everlasting impression on them. His work became so profound that it went on to inspire a style of writing called “kafkaesque”, which is often used to describe something with nightmarish, oppressive and despair-like qualities. His world is a place where most people at some point in their life find themselves, and most of them get out of there too but Kafka stayed there for as long as he lived, giving the world something that transcends their imagination.
Anyone can get stress from any situation. Dealing with stress does not have to be a boring routine. Stress-reducing activities are simple, relaxing, and you can do them anywhere.Find out why Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in students increased since COVID-19, and ways to stop them!!
Stress is your body’s response to the physical, mental, and emotional pressure beyond your coping ability. Stress is a silent killer which is responsible for 60% of health issues in your body. Students are more prone to stress since the pandemic.
Let’s see the severity of mental health issues on students.
Onset of Covid-19 Pandemic: Surge in Mental Health Issues
Covid-19 has brought stern changes in our lives. People avoid areas of heavy public congestion to stay safe from any contagious virus.
If you are a student you will know the effects pandemic has brought in your life. You are expected to change your mode of education and take online classes to continue your semester. Many students have seen the demise of their loved ones in the pandemic.
Because of these sudden changes, students have faced extreme mental and emotional pressure.
Lee, Jeong, and Kimshows in their research show that in the US alone, the early stage of Covid-19 pandemic has marked increased stress in undergraduate students.
The research concluded that about two-third of students never used any mental health services. Moreover,
88% students had moderate to severe stress
44% students had moderate to severe anxiety
36% students had moderate to severe depression
The students that were most vulnerable to these mental health issues were female, rural, low-income(below 22K), and academically underperforming students(cgpa<2.0).
The infographic shows the the need for mental health education in students and 10 Stress-management strategies for students to relax.
<a href="https://edupub.org/2021/09/01/10-stress-reducing-activities-for-students-to-chill-out/"><img style="width:100%;" src="https://eduindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/7a1b4-2a445-10-stress-reducing-activities-infographic-joysi-1.png"></a><br>Made by : Joysi7 from <a href="https://edupub.org/">EDUPUB</a>
Infographic:10 Stress-Reducing Activities For Students To Chill Out!
Coping with Stress
Stress is called a silent killer. Why??
Because stress affects your hormones, blood pressure, memory, sleep pattern, appetite, immune system, and cholesterol. That’s a lot of damage to your health.
But you don’t have to worry about it. Managing stress at the initial level is FREE, EASY, and you can do it ANYWHERE. Stress management at the initial level is done by altering your physical, mental, and emotional status, even without taking any medications. Yay!!
Managing stress in the initial level is your best health investment.
Reduce Your Stress with 10 Easy Activities
1. Take a deep breath
This is a simple breathing exercise. Sit still, relax your body, and try to forget your anxieties. Now, take a deep breath count till 5. Exhale and repeat.
This exercise relaxes you in minutes. When you breathe slowly your heart slows down, signaling your nervous system – it’s time to calm down man.
2. Write yourself a motivational letter
You think no one understands you? Why not write a letter to yourself?
Make an inspiring note. You may add affirmations of your choice, and end the letter with motivation you want.
Just add your name here if you don’t have any clue:
Dear (Your/Name)
I know you are going through a lot. But I know you will be great(insert what you want to be) some day. Keep it up and never give up.
Keep a bunch of self motivating notes somewhere. Whenever you are stressed out, pop one out and read it. You will feel calm and composed.
This is a self motivation technique to calm you. It is your words pushing you to get up on your feet and face that day!
3. Brush up dance moves
If you feel no interest in doing any paperwork then this step is for you. Gen Zs are blessed with all the viral(and cringey) dance moves.
Take 5 minutes to practice a crazy step. Take up a viral challenge(safe, ofcourse). This might sound goofy, but it works brilliantly.
Dancing helps your body release endorphins and finishing a challenge motivates you. The result is positive energy and good vibes!
4. Snacks to help
Certain foods are mood boosters. Your empty stomach makes stress worse. So grab a healthy snack, sip your tea and see magic happen.
Try out variations in your snack including dark chocolate, bananas, oats, and berries. These foods release stress-reducing hormones that will elevate your mood. Stress managing activity sounds delicious.
5. IMAGINATION
Find out which visuals make you happy. Feeling calm starts with your mind. Here check the following steps to reach your calm space:
Plug in your favorite soundtrack
Get into a comfortable position
Close your eyes
Visualize your happy place
Enjoy
This step will manage your stress in an hour, and you’ll end up sleeping like a baby. Visualizing is a guided imagery technique that helps to shift your focus from stress to something peaceful.
6. Keep a Happy Face
You have been told to keep a stiff upper lip to compose your emotions. Many, like me, feel an outburst of emotions that are difficult to control. What is needed is a big laugh. Do you need to force it? Yes you do.
Force smiling releases a stress-reducing hormone that boosts your happiness level, and it’s also free.
7. Clean rooms
Your room mirrors your personality. A cluttered room shows a cluttered personality.
Start by arranging your desk, flipping bits of paper in bins, and re-ordering your books from frequently read to least. Then move to the other areas of your room.
This stress-reducing technique releases endorphins, burns your calories, cleans your room and leaves you with a calm mind.
8. Nature’s touch
A study on the impact of plant’s touch on our body shows:
that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress compared with mental work. This is accomplished through suppression of sympathetic nervous system activity and diastolic blood pressure and promotion of comfortable, soothed, and natural feelings.
doi: 10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8
So bring in the greens in your house, keep a small sapling on your desk. Touching leaves is a great stress buster to gently reduce your blood pressure. Go green thumb.
9. Coloring
People find a variety of activities calming. There are many adult coloring resources available in the market. Coloring is a stress-reducing technique that is a fun and fantastic pre-bed time ritual.
Creativity makes you happier and relaxed.
10. Nap time
Your health is related to your sleep pattern. Sleeping makes your mind to rejuneivate all the lost strength. Loss of sleep can cause altered blood pressure, fatigue, low concentration, and dull skin.
And we haven’t even started talking about chaos when you are sleep deprived.
But taking midday sleep, even for 15 minutes, will change your mood game. Mid-day sleep or power naps is a stress reducing activity you can do at your station. You will feel fresh and stress free.
Final thoughts
Your health is the outcome of all the positive efforts you make.
Pro Tip: Tired doing all the activities?
If you have done all you can to feel better, and still find no change in your mood. Do seek help from your Psychologist. You can also take help from your friends, family or Minister. Frequent mood changes signal an underlying problem. Stress can be more deadly if hidden for a long time.
Stay safe. Eliminate stress for a better life!!
References:
Jungmin . Hyun Ju . Sujin Kim, “Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Among Undergraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Use of Mental Health Services“, Innovative Higher Education, Springer, 2021. doi: 10.1007/s10755-021-09552-y
Min-sun . Juyoung . Bum-Jin . Miyazaki, “Interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress by suppressing autonomic nervous system activity in young adults: a randomized crossover study” J Physiol Anthropol. 2015; 34(1): 21.doi: 10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8
What will be your response if your dreams become your reality? Wouldn’t you be delighted to live your alternate reality! What it’s a goofy fantasy? Let me take you all in the world of fantasy; Alice in Wonderland is a movie directed by Tim Burton, is a 3-D blend of live action and animation of Lewis Carroll novel Alice in Wonderland.
SYNOPSIS
The story starts with a girl named Alice who has a reoccurring dreams since her childhood. She has turned 19 year old mourning over the death of her father. She is attending a garden party at Lord Ascot’s estate, she is confronted into an unwanted marriage relation with Ascot’s son. Taking some time to take a decision she in haste follows a rabbit to a rabbit hole under a tree, unintentionally falling into it. The story takes a drastic turn by that incident and opens a portal to her recurring dream world from where she begins her journey to the Wonderland and also finding her true self. On her journey she meets the different characters of wonderland ; the Caterpillar (played by Alan Rickman), Mad Hatter(played by Johnny Depp), White Rabbit (played by Michael Sheen), Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter), White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway) and many more. The destiny unfolds the secret of her presence in Wonderland. She was brought her to fulfill the pronounced Oracle. This adventure helps Alice to overcome her fears, insecurities and emerge as victorious. The adventure helps Alice to realise her potential and follow her own will and doesn’t get lost in the society rituals or let them decide your potential and future.
Overall the movie is pretty good, it’s a bit intense and scary at times for younger children who could not understand the film depictions just because of the scary secens. As it’s the Lewis Carroll bizzare imagination not many can match that level of fantasy creativity. The cast was great, everyone perfectly fits into their allotted characters. Their costumes, the makeup, the dialogue delivery everything was perfectly done. My personal favourite would definitely be The Red Queen I feel her presence on screen always keep’s the audience jolly and entertained. Her carzy acting her weird dressing sense everything just speaks confidence it just creates a feeling of nostalgia. I love everything about her in my opinion well sorry on advance for being baised! I feel the cinematography was substantialthr visual effects makes a person experience the scenes. According to me the story unfolds quite briskly. The direction was great but the writer could have added more parts of the actual novel, the film can be more descriptive. But what can we say after all it’s Tim Burton film who is unique in his work. So it’s a must watch movie .
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