Humanities Final by Grayson DiNino https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6 What does humanity find fulfillment in, and why do we strive for fulfillment? en-us 2022-05-12 16:06:36 UTC 2024-09-09 02:53:10 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f506.png Looking For Alaska graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181557440 By John Green

]]> 2022-05-12 16:21:35 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181557440 Interview with John Green graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181572251 John Green Bio Interview (NYT)
“ I like to write for and about teenagers, because young people are thinking about so many important questions, about love and meaning and justice.”
John Green is a writer from Indianapolis, Indiana. "Looking for Alaska", his debut novel, actually won the Printz Award for best novel. John also runs the educational youtube channel Crash Course with his brother Hank, directly or indirectly saving many high school student's grades. John grew up in Florida, the general setting for many of his novels, and went to Kenyon College.
"We read Toni Morrison and Philip Roth and fell in love little by little."
“English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache.”

]]> 2022-05-12 16:31:03 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181572251 "What is the Meaning of Life" graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181590029 Psychologist Victor Frankl theorizes meaning can be found in three ways: through creating something or accomplishing a task, through having a meaningful experience with someone, or through the inevitable suffering in our lives. I think this three-part thesis almost perfectly answers Miles Halter's question in "Looking for Alaska". Miles 'goes to seek a great perhaps' at Culver Creek school; his own personal search for fulfillment. And by the time his first year is over, he's not only met some amazingly influential and exciting people, but experienced loss and created a prank in homage to his late best friend. In the last pages of the book, Miles spectulates that it's forgiveness that gets humanity out of the 'labyrinth of suffering' and lets us move on to find true happiness, or the rest of the 'great perhaps'.]]> 2022-05-12 16:41:40 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181590029 The Creation of Adam graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181647355 This piece is really influential for artists of any kind- not just visual artists, but writers too.  The main focus of Adam reaching out to god is so simple, yet it describes perfectly how so many people operate towards higher powers. We are unsure of our purpose here, and reach for a deity of some kind for reassurance about what we are alive and what we are alive to do. This chapel also represents an artist's magnum opus, his reason for existence (Art) at its completed stage. For Michelangelo, this piece, and others, were his way of reaching fulfillment in life; by creating. A lot of people, myself included, have been able to look at this and realize at one time the insignificance of humanity, and also how powerful we are. It really represents the duality of this, because we're shocked at how one person can be this talented, and at the same time, his message is that we are only *this* close to divinity. ]]> 2022-05-12 17:18:14 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2181647355 Round Here, by Counting Crows (Song/poem) graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2187574422 Lyrics:
"Well, I walk in the air between the rain/Through myself and back again/Where? I don't know"
"Round here, we're carving out our names/'Round here, we all look the same"
"And you walk out on the edge of the world and you balance yourself there for a while and you try to figure out just which one you're gonna be."- Adam Duritz (songwriter)

This song captures a lot of the uncertainty that Miles experiences, and that many people find in their journey for fulfillment. I really like it because if Miles was a music person, I feel like this is a song he would like, and it's absolutely a song Alaska would listen to. It's definitely something that speaks to the process of finding fulfillment, and our place in the world; a problem that teenagers are faced with so often.]]> 2022-05-17 13:06:06 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2187574422 graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2187580914 2022-05-17 13:10:02 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2187580914 We Are the Lost and Found graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2191489656 This book is also a coming of age novel, but set in 1983. I think this book connects so well because it is also a story about a young man struggling with love and loss, but in an entirely different setting than "Looking for Alaska". I think it offers a lot of great evidence that young people's search for meaning isn't all that different across time. Love, and loss, always seem to be themes. In this case, the main character Michael finds love through music, because at this point in his life he is finding fulfillment through dancing at clubs, and trying to forget the world around him. Part of the ending of this novel focuses on Michael being 'found' by his friends, and resetting his relationship with his family. I think what the author is trying to show too, is that fulfillment isn't something that happens all at once, but in stages. ]]> 2022-05-19 14:53:06 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2191489656 Ewan Spencer's Young Love: Time and Setting graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2193241052 “I didn’t just skulk around and just make pictures. I talked to people all night. It was like you were just a part of that night, or that coming together of people” – Ewen Spencer

This photo really exemplifies the chaos of what it. might have actually been like for Alaska, or Miles during their time at school. So many teenagers are spending all their time with friends- you see that right here in this photo, where everyone is looking at each other, and no-one is facing the camera. The search for fulfillment that so many young people undergo is, like Schwartz says in the non-fiction connections, bringing them to each other- to connections. The meaningful experiences that so many people condemn teenagers for seeking out are exactly what guides us to finding our place in the greater world when we go off on our own.]]> 2022-05-20 16:23:36 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2193241052 They Both Die at the End graydinino03 https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2193267610 I wanted to include this book in my text set because of the existentialism it deals with. I think that relates to my core question because this book deals with how people search for meaning under a very obvious time crunch. The part that most intrigued me was how quickly the two main characters fell in love, and had me wondering if that would have been the same if they had not been about to die, like the title says. It speaks so much to the way that humanity obviously seeks fulfillment in connections with each other, even as a way to recover from loss.]]> 2022-05-20 16:45:30 UTC https://padlet.com/graydinino03/uttlbmzcogw3a3x6/wish/2193267610