Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Why I Think That the Word Luck is Pretty Cool

I chose to write about "luck" because, try as I might, I can't think of a plausible origin story that accounts for both the entomology and the meaning. This implies that it is an exceptionally old word, which means that the concept of chance occurrences and gambling dates quite far back into human history. Researching "luck" should bring up some interesting sociological issues.

Currently, I define "luck" as (ahem):
"The quantified tendency or ability to be favored in a situation in which one would tend to be statistically disfavored or neutral."

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Frankenstein: the True Story

-Scholarly readers of Frankenstein often cling to their singular interpretation of the book, and treat most other interpretations as ignorant and wrong.
-Students find their own meaning in the story, which is reflective of the changing state of society and the multitude  of different valid readings available in Frankenstein
-The writings of Rousseau reflect the concept of giving multiple interpretations equal weight and not assuming the absolute truth of one over the other.
-The general climate of ideas in Frankenstein can be drawn from Rousseau's Emile, particularly regarding man's constant will to change his environment and the nature of education and learning.
-The arguments that either Frankenstein or the Creature is either good or evil tend to ignore a variety of valid points to the contrary, with the ultimate result being that Shelley likely intended a high level of ambiguity.