Wesley LeBaron

Humanities blog post

Utopia/Dystopia

            The book I decided to read was Tunnels written by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, whom were both born and raised in London, England. The society in the book is a race of humans who have lived underground for many ages. The city is based under London. The characteristics of the people are mainly pasty white skin, on the taller side, and super skinny. The society is ran by a race or group of people known as Styx. These people are very human like, but have some slight differences such as they have no pupil’s just straight black eyes. They talk in a snake type manner rolling their S’s as they speak. They are super skinny and have very small sharp noses. They use fear, along with their sickles, as a method to run the underground city. The Styx one main rule, or law, is to never go to the outside world without permission first. Family units are the same as they are in modern day society; there is a mother, father, and children and the occasional house pet. The Styx have a religion ceremony every week teaching the people how their ancestors have plotted to take over the outside world starting with London and moving outward to create a perfect society ran by the Styx. If anybody disobeys the rules they are subject to “the black light” which drains all life out of somebody and makes them miserable usually through bringing up bad past memories.

            The story goes a boy named Will Burrows and his friend Chester Rawls try to find Wills dad who went missing on his last digging excavation. As they dig up clues of where Wills dad disappeared to they discover a secret hidden city deep underneath modern day London, England. They soon find out that this city is not a great place to be for a person from the outside world. A very interesting plot twist happen in the middle of the book when Will finds out he is adopted and his birth parents, or at least his father, live in the underground city. His mother took him to the surface to get away from all of the Styx madness. They Styx knew this and Will eventually got captured and was then sentenced to life in “The Deeps” which leads into the second book in the series.

            I would have to say this book is a Dystopia because the Styx are trying to strive for a world that is practically impossible to have. They have a system where they are trying to get everybody in their city to hate everybody in the outside world so they can one day raid and take over the outside world. They don’t really believe in God they think they are Gods for the war they are about to start. Some of the similarities I see in the society is that they do in fact have art which they keep very sacred to them. They have a book similar to the bible which supposedly has sacred writing in it telling Styx how to successfully live.

            I do not agree with the society in the book. I can see that the Styx race are a blood thirsty group of individuals who want all the power in the world. They would kill anybody in their way to obtain what they are after. I am not that type of person, I am a more laid back go with the flow type of person. I would not want to be a ruler of the world I think it would be too much of a responsibility. 

Wesley LeBaron
4/12/14
Cultural review blog post
Matthew Brandt Lecture Review
Matthew Brandt was a very inspiring artist who knew how to connect with the audience no matter who was in the crowd. So many people were talking about his artwork afterwards that at that moment I knew he not only inspired me, but also many others in the crowd. When I went to his lecture I was not expecting what he showed us. He inspired me, who is not a slight bit interested or wanting to know more about art, to want to know more about his art and how it all works. Most of his art work had me wooing and wowing. Some of it though I was thinking to myself, “this is kind of weird…” In the end though I thought it was a very well structured and I actually took something out of what he was trying to tell us. Art can be in many shapes and forms inspiring, whether it takes five minutes to create, or many days. No matter what the art is made of, in some way it will inspire at least one person.
The technique that Brandt used was very unusual to me. I did not know that someone could finish an artwork piece by dipping them in items such as condiments: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and relish. To capture a shot and then finish it by giving it a hint of color from a condiment to me sounded absurd until I actually seen the finished product myself hanging in a gallery. I was blown away at how something as simple as ketchup could be used to give an artist’s shot so much more depth to it. The colors changed significantly, mostly the color of the condiment, but at the same time a lot of the shadows and shading were much different.
On the more unusual side of Brandt’s technique was the human bodily fluids he used to finish his artworks. He told us that salt is very important when developing an art piece. So I thought to myself well I know that sweat and tears contain quite a bit of salt in them. Those are a given that he was going to use them to develop his artwork. What I did not realize that when he said bodily fluids he meant almost all of them such as: puss, urine, blood, semen, women’s ejaculation fluid, breast milk, fathers’ sperm, vomit, ear wax, and bile. I found this method very unusual, but after I thought about it for quite a while I finally came to a conclusion that I found his art form very interesting and even though it may be a little strange, it totally works out in the end.
In closing, I want to say that I am glad that I found the time to go listen to Matthew Brandt and see some of his amazing, but crazy artworks. I would have not went if it was for this assignment so I will have to say this is one assignment that I am glad to complete. I went thinking to myself well all I have to do is pay attention and take some great notes and I should be able to get a good grade. To my amazement I found it very easy to pay attention because most of his artwork stood out way more than most any others that I have seen. The way that he put his artwork together blows me away. For example, the bees on bees artwork that he showed us must have taken so long not only to collect the dead bees, but to put them on canvas in a certain order looking like the shape of an actual bee. The salt water sketches of the oceans were really cool knowing that they were developed in the water where they were taken. He inspired me to look more into this field of artwork and I am glad I attended his lecture.

 I chose to talk about the second option, or option B for the enlightenment era. This option talks about two authors and their opinions of the enlightenment. They stated that the enlightenment quote, “dischanted us from the world” which I believe means that took away what was really happening in the world and made it seem like all was good so to speak. I don’t think we should rob life of its charm, in fact sometimes we need to let life slide and just go with the flow of things. They say that the enlightenment is the “ultimate authority” and that “the enlightenment does away with self-knowledge” which in my opinion means that we can’t think for ourselves and that we have to be taught how to have an opinion. I don’t think we know just how much the self helps us think. The only way to do this is through enlightenment through art. “Rationality and science are used to control people” are what the two authors said about the enlightenment. I guess they kind of have a point because when I think of science controlling people I think of what happened to Japan during WWII. The Japanese were not doing what they were told so the United States decided to make them obey using a good old fashioned atomic bomb. This scenario ties in with the last point the two authors made was that “all man made calamities started when man decided to be a ruler.” The atomic bombs were a very serious decision to make, which lead to a lot of controversy of whether or not they really should have done what they did with them. This comes back to the critical thinking aspect of things. Did the person who said yes to the release of the atomic bombs really know what they were doing when they said the word yes? I will let you ponder about it and decide.

I chose to do the As You Like It and Plato. Orlando was writing about Rosalind all of the time. In the eyes of Plato this would be considered one of the first stages on his latter of life. Rosalind was disguised as Ganymede which did not help the situation out hardly at all. Orlando wanted to woo Rosalind every chance he got, which was kind of hard for him because he did not realize Ganymede was indeed Rosalind. This after time finally bloomed into an attraction of pure love.  Oliver and Cecilia were totally different. They had a physical attraction about them which bloomed into love fairly quickly. They had a mind set about them that really caught my attention. Touchstone and Audrey were by far the ones that I thought were the funniest. All they wanted to do was get together, have a great time and then be on their separate ways. This after some time blossomed into something which I thought would never happen which was marriage. In the end I would have to say that Rosalind did indeed find the ultimate good. She found the beauty in everything. At the end of play when she bid farewell to everybody that was the moment when I realized that she was infatuated with true love. I don’t think this helped me move closer to the ultimate good because I did not fully understand the play. I feel like some of the play was cut off from when we watched it day to day. I understood the whole purpose behind the play which was to show true love conquers all. Also that a great way to end a play is to have everybody get married.

Renaissance post

I decided to talk about Michelangelo’s and Donatello’s David statues. First to talk about the differences. What I see first off is the material which was used is different, one is a white chalky color, while the other is a shiny black color. Donatello’s is holding a sword with a shield on the ground in front of him. He is wearing a hat with what looks to me like flowers on it. Donatello’s is very skinny and weak looking compared to Michelangelo’s David who is very muscular and ripped. Michelangelo’s is looking up off in the distance, while Donatello’s is looking down at the ground not far off in front of him. Donatello’s reminds me of a person who relies on his skills in battle to win the fight. His sword, shield, armored leggings, and weak stature shows me he relies heavily on weapons and armor to win his battles. If he did not have a weapon with him he would not be the same person. He would look like a frightened little, scrawny man.  Michelangelo’s looks to be strong in stature with his head held high ready to face anybody who opposes him. He shows that hard work and dedication do indeed pay off. He looks like he thinks very highly of himself, not scared of anything. Michelangelo’s David, which shows Apollonian classicism, shows the classic art during the renaissance. Strong built, naked, and posing. Donatello’s David shows passionate individualism, which means that he shows off his passions such as sword fighting, or conquering the battleground. The sculptors had to make some pretty serious decisions like whether David was going to be clothed, what pose he would be striking, what direction he would be looking in, if he was going to have items in his hands, or what the stature of David was going to be.

The Lottery

The short story “The Lottery” had quite a bit to say in such a small amount of space. The whole concept of the story was a lot to take in at the time. Some of the author’s decisions in the script threw me off of what was really happening. He had some depth behind what was taking place, for example, the characters names and what they actually mean. Every person with their special name played a very important role in the story. The black box also represented something very important, such as how long the lottery had actually been going on for. The wear and tear on the box had been handed down from generation to generation. Not much has been done to try to get rid of the lottery which in my own opinion doesn’t really make sense. In today’s society this event would be really hard to get used to. This would be especially hard if the person who won was staged to win. Throughout the whole story it seemed to be staged that Tessie was somehow going to be the one who ended up winning.

 I didn’t quite like how the story ended. For one the way Tessie’s husband treated before and after her name was chosen. He was on her side fully until her name was drawn and at that moment he knew her only as the winner of the lottery. He was ready to kill his own wife right when she was called. Tessie was also a little strange throughout the story because she was all for the lottery until she was the one called as the winner. She yelled “This isn’t fair,” but at that time it was too late the villagers were already upon her including her husband and son little Davy. This story reminded me quite a bit of the Hunger Games which didn’t end as badly as this story did. 

All about me

Hello Melanie,

My name is Wesley LeBaron. I was born and raised in Santaquin, Utah. I am a freshman attending Dixie State working on my general education right now hoping to one day get into the Radiography program. I was raised in a family of three boys, I myself being the middle child. I have two amazing parents who have raised me to be the best person I could possibly be. Unfortunately my father was diagnosed with cancer and ended up passing away in December of 2012. My mother is currently single and works hard day in and day out providing for our family, mainly her and my younger brother who still lives at home with her. Well enough about my family, I myself love to be in the outdoors. I spend a lot of my free time out at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes, which are located North of Delta, Utah. I love to take my camper and four wheeler out to play in the sand as much as I can. I love to spend time with my family and friends whether it be just sitting down on the couch talking with them, or out and about doing an activity. Anyways I am super excited for this semester and hope I can learn a lot about humanities.

Test Post

I Love My Toyota Tacoma!