Response to Kassie

Hi Kassie,

I do like how you jazzed up your blog including some photos. Makes mine rather drab by comparison.

Your questions are right on the humanities track. I am saying, questions such as "What would life be like" and "what would I do if in similar situation?"  are what Humanities struggles to present. Literature is sort of the red headed step child to Humanities, so your questions are very appropriate.

If Lincoln had lived?

The North, was a much more industrialized and urban society than it's brother the South. Presidents have typically taken a "spread the wealth" approach to the nation, I would think that Lincoln would have attempted the same thing. The South ultimately mechanized along with the rest of the nation, but I believe that it may have happened a great deal faster.

What would I have done and where would I have lived during that time?

I told AJ, when he asked a similar question, that I would have run oft. Either to the West, distancing myself from the recent trials and tribulations facing both Blue and Grey. Alternatively, I would have gone to the Bahamas. Set up a nice run factory and beat the rush.

Decker

Response to group (AJ's)

AJ,

Do not feel too alone, my first blogging experience as well. At least you followed the instructions and included a couple questions.

What would I have done if I was African American and in the situation that the majority of African Americans were after the war?

I would have gotten the hell out of the South. Seriously, there are to this day a great deal of racial issues present in the southern states. Just because some people won/lost a war, didn't change the mindset of people residing there. The West provided not only a place to go, but was popularized as a new start. Perfect place to run oft to.

What would have happened if the transcontinental railroad was never assembled?


The West would have been invaded/populated by other interests. Spain/Mexico would certainly have taken over much of the West, it was only by laying ahold of the land that the United States was able to keep it.


Decker

video link for WAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv5BYEOQYLo

link to "War what is it good for." performed by Edwin Starr

Talking....... about reading, ....a novel concept

I thought the title pretty clever; and will up until the point I find that it has already been used somewhere before. “Well read”, that is what someone once called me. I would disagree, I think I am greatly read, but much of what I have read is more pulp than fine literature. I love to read it, just have not spent much time talking about it. This will be an experience for both of us, not guaranteeing a smooth flight nor well executed landing, but I promise to be at least entertaining.

Did anyone else find that the text, by setting the time and stage for the writing, helped immensely with the messages in the readings? "War, what is it good for right?" As the song goes, "absolutely nuttin!" (Norman Whitfield 1969) , (no relation to Walt Whitman)

Speaking of Walt Whitman, this week’s reading included his Song of Myself. I read this in high school, 30 years ago, went right over my head. This time, I seemed to pick up some of his references. Some concerned the recently ended American Civil War which was followed by increased diversity married to adversity. The blood was still hot, on both sides of the campaign, with some writers still attempting to stir the pot. Walt Whitman makes an attempt to turn the heat down; presenting odes meant for harmony and acceptance from numerous perspectives challenging the reader to build their own feelings rather than simply those presented by the Blue side or the Grey side. "You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead...... you shall listen to all sides, and filter them for yourself."  

Some of Mr. Whitman's references speak to the ride of industrialization; the value of a return to nature.  He relates very real personal experiences with his own rediscover of a rural lifestyle. "I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked; I am made for it to be in contact with me.  Then there are references to other’s enjoying this naturalistic lifestyle. Line 177 finds a trapper about to be married to a local Indian. Wondering just how much of a stigma existed for those mixed marrieges during that period.

Whitman surprised me towards the end, giving a sneak peek into his naughty side. “I believe in the flesh and the appetites:” (line 518) Dirty old man indeed, however, now we are relating.  Ok, I am a man, we have needs as well right? Opps, I forgot that this is literature, not a chick flick. He proceeds to get downright vulgar mentioning the smell of his armpits, which has me wondering where this is all going. Then the takes a direct shot at mainstreet religion by coming out of the closet as a humanist. “If I worship one thing more than the othjer, it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it.” (line 523)

This guy tells it like he feels. THAT, I can connect with.

“art engages.” – D. Weston

Decker