The Cultural Relevance of War and Art in Lysistrata Essay Example for Free

The Cultural Relevance of War and Art in Lysistrata Essay War, it seems, is mans chief preoccupation. Throughout history, as one regards how civilizations thrived and crumbled and flourished and collapsed, how cities rose up, fell, cultures subsumed and assimilated in the process, one notices that before language and art, customs and traditions, in man dwelled conflict, combat, and the pervasive propensity for hostility. On this basis, one may argue the consistency of battle in mans nature; the ever-present presence of this desire to dominate and destroy, for one reason or another: an instinct, it seems, stemming from the savage past where survival meant killing or being killed. But the advent of civilization tempered and somewhat refined mans attitude toward war. Though ever-present still, even to this day, as all base instincts are, many responses to warfare have been devised: often, alongside those who preach in favor of battle, the voices of those opposed to slaughter and bloodshed speak too, through various avenues and paths. And throughout history, no mouthpiece has been used more often than art: paintings and plays, poems and sculptures and displays of oratory: all depict what man feels, what he dwells on: that which batters and bombards his mind and soul, driving him to action. And as war remains a constant in life, so remains the presence of war in many works of art. From 431-399 BC in Ancient Greece the Peloponnesian War was fought. The thirty year conflict changed the entire social structure and landscape of Greece, inciting skirmishes and civil wars aplenty, causing much bloodshed and sorrow and suffering. The cessation of this war is the main theme of the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata. To achieve this end, the playwright, Aristophanes, pits another base instinct against mans propensity for conflict: sexual intercourse. Aristophanes has the namesake of the play, a strong-willed woman, convince all the women of Greece to withhold all sexual favors from their husbands in order to cease the Peloponnesian War. A bloodless battle ensues between the forces of man and woman; in the end, fueled by an urgent desire to copulate, the men of the warring states of Sparta and Athens as well as their allies establish peace; this sets all aright, and celebration follows. In order to probe more deeply into the nature of the play and the concepts found therein, one must investigate the actual war Aristophanes alluded to and used as backdrop for his play, as well as the Mythology and Religion surrounding its conception. Both are integral to understanding and analyzing the social relevance of Lysistrata in the culture that produced it. When evaluated alongside current western religious inclinations and cultural leanings, one can discern the similarities and differences in the perception of war and its presence in art. The Peloponnesian War was a conflict waged between the forces of Athens and Sparta (and the people of the surrounding areas, either allied to one of the two mentioned states) over a period of approximately 30 years. The aftermath of the war completely transformed ancient Greece, restructuring the distribution of power and inflicting untold horrors upon a multitude of people and cities, in the process wreaking havoc and devastation comparable to the atrocities and mass destruction observed in many contemporary accounts of modern warfare. Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata in 411 BC, at the height of the war, which was brought to a close in 399 BC; thus the comedy was in part a piece of wishful thinking, a satirical look at the atrocity-filled events currently occurring at the time. Greek mythology, comprised of a plethora of gods and goddesses, played a large role in ancient Greek life; this is reflected in the play when Lysistrata and the throng of females, in vowing to halt any sexual activities with their husbands, seal their oath by sacrificing wine to the gods, pledging their resolve to follow through on their self-appointed task. This example portrays religion as a component and constituent of culture and history, a cultural artefact contributing to the social make-up of Greek civilization. Thus does the play begin: the women, bolstered and enforced by religion-as-culture, driven to cease a cultural event in this case, war and bloodshed. Thus do we see Aristophanes affixing a cultural context into his play, assimilating the religious and cultural practices of his time into his art, assigning it an integral role as a driving factor in the action of the play. Culture informs all pieces of art. All works can be seen as offshoots of a particular culture at a particular point in time. Lysistrata can be construed as being the product of Aristophanes, himself a product of Athenian culture and religion, compelled to create the work by the cultural events preoccupying his mind at the time, namely the Peloponnesian War. This action a cultural creation (in this case, Aristophanes) creating Art (a cultural artefact) in response to cultural Events such as war mirrors the countless acts of creation found in the myriad number of books and sculptures, plays, films, poems, and pieces of music man has produced in reaction to cultural entities and events. The brutality provoked by war and the ensuing cultural creations were prevalent in much of twentieth century history. Two world wars and countless civil wars and armed conflicts worldwide have instigated the construction of hundreds of Lysistratas, engendered by countless cultures, comprised of and informed by a multitude of sociopolitical, religious, and cultural activities. The many acts of barbarity and bloodshed have as driving forces sociopolitical and cultural Epistemes: take the Communist-driven Spanish Civil War, or the Cold War waged in the latter part of the twentieth century; take the Nazi-Ideology driven battles fought in World War 2, or the armed campaigns resulting in colonization and appropriation of land and resources and people in various parts of the world, as reflected in the subjugation of Greece by Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian War, replayed time and time again when Western nations colonized much of Asia and Africa in the name of King, God, or Country. Razed lands and lives led many to create works of art immortalizing the history, outcomes, and consequences of the aforementioned events, contributing to the cultural and historical landscape of their own times. These cultural artefacts allow us to examine how cultural events propagate themselves, and perceive the subtle links between past and present culture and history .

Free College Essays - The Forest as a Symbol of Freedom in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: free essay writer

The Scarlet Letter - The Forest as a Symbol of Freedom   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Wilt thou let me be at peace, if I once tell thee?† asked Hester. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, life is centered around a stiff Puritan society in which one can not indulge in their deepest thoughts. Puritan society does not let human beings show how they really feel. Therefore Hester had to seek refuge to explore her inner thoughts, such as the forest. In the forest Hester brings out many hidden emotions, Hester shows her love for Dimmsdale, and the forest is a place where the both of them may have an open conversation without the constraints of Puritan society. The forest is a symbol of freedom. Nobody ever watched over the forest as a place of misbehavior, that is why people went there to do what they wanted. â€Å"Throw off the shackles of law and religion. What good have they done you anyway? Look at you, a young and vibrant women, grown old before your time. And no wonder, hemmed in, as you are, on every side of prohibitions. Why, you can hardly walk without tripping over the commandment or another. Come to me, and be masterless.† Of coarse Hester takes advantage of this when she meets with Dimmsdale in the forest. She talks to him about things they could never imagine to discuss in any other place except the forest. â€Å"What we did had a concecration of its own, we felt it so, we said to eachother.† Dimmsdale is shocked and tries to hush Hester but realizes he is in the safety of the forest and no one else may hear them. Just the thought of Hester speaking to Dimmsdale in their society is un mentionable. Yet in the fore st they may feel free to do as they wish and not have to worry about any one else knowing. In Puritan society every one is assumed to be selfrelient. The puritans believe that you should have yourself to depend on emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Therefore Hester could never show her true emotions to Dimmsdale or for them to comfort each other. In the forest all of these cares are thrown away. â€Å"Be though strong for me, advise me what to do.† This is Dimmsdale’s cry for help to Hester, which they could never discuss in their Puritan village. When he asks her for help he shows that he thinks of Hester as an equal and he is not above her in any way. Free College Essays - The Forest as a Symbol of Freedom in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter :: free essay writer The Scarlet Letter - The Forest as a Symbol of Freedom   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Wilt thou let me be at peace, if I once tell thee?† asked Hester. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, life is centered around a stiff Puritan society in which one can not indulge in their deepest thoughts. Puritan society does not let human beings show how they really feel. Therefore Hester had to seek refuge to explore her inner thoughts, such as the forest. In the forest Hester brings out many hidden emotions, Hester shows her love for Dimmsdale, and the forest is a place where the both of them may have an open conversation without the constraints of Puritan society. The forest is a symbol of freedom. Nobody ever watched over the forest as a place of misbehavior, that is why people went there to do what they wanted. â€Å"Throw off the shackles of law and religion. What good have they done you anyway? Look at you, a young and vibrant women, grown old before your time. And no wonder, hemmed in, as you are, on every side of prohibitions. Why, you can hardly walk without tripping over the commandment or another. Come to me, and be masterless.† Of coarse Hester takes advantage of this when she meets with Dimmsdale in the forest. She talks to him about things they could never imagine to discuss in any other place except the forest. â€Å"What we did had a concecration of its own, we felt it so, we said to eachother.† Dimmsdale is shocked and tries to hush Hester but realizes he is in the safety of the forest and no one else may hear them. Just the thought of Hester speaking to Dimmsdale in their society is un mentionable. Yet in the fore st they may feel free to do as they wish and not have to worry about any one else knowing. In Puritan society every one is assumed to be selfrelient. The puritans believe that you should have yourself to depend on emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Therefore Hester could never show her true emotions to Dimmsdale or for them to comfort each other. In the forest all of these cares are thrown away. â€Å"Be though strong for me, advise me what to do.† This is Dimmsdale’s cry for help to Hester, which they could never discuss in their Puritan village. When he asks her for help he shows that he thinks of Hester as an equal and he is not above her in any way.

Hollywood Science & Disaster Cinema Essay

To some extent, all fiction attempts to bend factual truths in the service of the narrative. In some cases, this is done for purposes of pure function, such as heightening the stakes of narrative or preventing the dramatic momentum from grinding to a complete halt. In other cases, it is done to express a particular authorial viewpoint – perhaps a political perspective or an observation about society – which is more often than not, contingent on the thematic integrity of the narrative. In the case of cinematic fiction, Hollywood has always had a special affinity for a liberal interpretation of the truth. In the 90s disaster classic, Armageddon, screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams presuppose that it is impossible to communicate drilling experience to well-trained astronauts in order to justify sending up an oil rig crew with no astronautical experience to save the world by dropping hydrogen bombs into a geologic mass the size of Texas – which is roughly analogous to trying to split an apple with a needle. The 2003 film, The Core operates from a complete non-premise in which an inactive magnetic field puts Earth at risk from incineration by space-based microwaves – which more accurately, pose no threat and are affected little by magnetic forces let alone the Earth’s magnetic field. One could say that Hollywood does not merely bend the truth. Rather, truth is made to stretch, contort and mold itself into incredulous shapes as if it were so much Play-Doh. The film The Day After Tomorrow, which had been marketed heavily as an ostensibly cautionary tale about the potential perils of climate change, is certainly no exception to this Hollywood tradition. Directed by German-born Roland Emmerich, the apocalypse porn auteur of such films as Independence Day and Godzilla decides to unleash his cathartic urges on a larger, planetary scale (with New York remaining his primary canvas of destruction). The Day After Tomorrow focuses on one paleoclimatologist – an eight-syllable term for ‘guy who studies prehistoric weather conditions’ – and his futile attempts to convince world leaders of the disastrous implications of climate change. While many of the scientific premises he puts forth are true, it is when they reach their tipping point and send the Earth into an Ice Age far sooner than he had predicted that the film enters the realm of fantasy. At the very least, The Day After Tomorrow does the honorable thing to scientists and tries not to make them look like idiots to viewers who know a thing or two about science. Jack Hall, the aforementioned paleoclimatologist played by Dennis Quaid, maintains a coherent view of science that is above par for most Hollywood scientists. He articulates the film’s core premise, which is that melting polar ice will have a negative effect on the Gulf Stream that will severely disrupt the natural thermal flows causing severe weather changes. However, he projects that this will happen over the course of decades or centuries. Therefore, the mechanics of climate change articulated by Hall are sound. (Duke University, 2004; McKibben, 2004) It is the rate at which climate change occurs within the film that is unrealistic, as well as the near-mystical forecasting abilities of Hall’s computer simulations. The notion that no one other than Hall can transplant present day meteorological data, as gathered by his colleague Terry Rapson, played by Ian Holm, and his co-workers at the Hedland Climate Center, into a paleoclimatological scenario is utterly discombobulating, as if to suggest they are the only experts who could foresee this. To screenwriters’ Jerry Rachmanoff and Roland Emmerich credit, they remain fully aware of the level to which they have exaggerated these matters. The climate tipping point sends the Global North into a series of weather disasters: Tornados wreak havoc on the Hollywood sign (as if to foreshadow the film’s ultimate rejection of a Hollywood ending solution), hurricanes sending automobiles flying all over Los Angeles, and sub-zero temperatures freezing airborne helicopters over Scotland. All the while, the hero-scientists, such as hurricane specialist Janet Tokada, point out plainly how nigh-impossible this accelerated pace of disaster is. It’s almost as if their secondary role was to remind viewers that these are all the exaggerations of fictional conceit. Unlike The Core, The Day After Tomorrow does not disrespect the professional integrity of the science professions by presenting a fabricated non-problem. Furthermore, The Day After Tomorrow does not propose that blue-collar derring do, when equipped with enough magical high technology can combine to form the â€Å"silver bullet† solutions which undo everything. However, by presenting the climate change problem on such incredulous terms, The Day After Tomorrow risks undermining the very message it is attempting to get across, despite the fact that it has the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration director telling a dismissive Vice President who vaguely resembles Dick Cheney, that if policy makers â€Å"had listened to the scientists, you would have had a different policy to begin with! † While popular culture may have a limited influence on policy making, it most definitely affects popular perceptions of key issues such as nuclear weaponry and bioterrorism. (Schollmeyer, 2005) The filmmakers of The Day After Tomorrow have often stated that one of their goals to draw increased attention and spur greater action towards addressing the threats of climate change. However, because many scientists on both sides of the climate change debate have taken issue with the scientific accuracy of the events depicted in the film, it risks muddying this goal further. This means that The Day After Tomorrow’s lack of scientific accuracy makes it easier for climate change skeptics to continue to dismiss the threat of climate change by suggesting that the film is built on the foundations of propagandist and alarmist science, while the climate change Cassandras will remains Cassandras as they become forced to debunk a film that represents their own concerns. REFERENCES McKibben, B. (2004, May 4) â€Å"The Big Picture. † Grist. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008 from: http://www. grist. org/comments/soapbox/2004/05/04/mckibben-climate/ Duke University (2004, May 13). â€Å"Disaster Flick Exaggerates Speed Of Ice Age. † ScienceDaily. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008, from: http://www. sciencedaily. com ¬ /releases/2004/05/040512044611. htm Schollmeyer, J. (2005, May-June) â€Å"Lights, camera, Armageddon. † Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 61. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008 from: http://www. illinoiswaters. net/heartland/phpBB2/viewtopic. php? t=9007

Wake Up! Sleep is Necessary Essay - 1187 Words

Each night, the average person spends approximately 7-9 hours giving their bodies a restful vacation in the land of dreams. Considering this, we spend 1/3 (or 25 years) of our entire lives engaging in this idle activity. Although these numbers can appear as a waste of time in our every day lives, sleeping and/or napping is the energy that helps fuel our bodies to function correctly. Sleep is a necessary function in our every day routine in order to make our brains function at the most efficient level. As we sleep, the brain helps us to recuperate and regain strength by â€Å"restoring and repairing the brain tissue† (Myers, 2010, p 99). Without this reviving process, we would all eventually deteriorate. By impairing the sleep deprived mentally†¦show more content†¦With age, health issues and conditions arise, in which variables make it hard for a good nights rest, such as medicine, or discomfort. These different lifespan stages take into account what is necessary for each age group to â€Å"strengthen memory, increases concentration, boosts mood, moderates hunger and obesity, fortifies the disease-fighting immune system, and lessens the risk of fatal accidents† (Myers, 2010, p 98). The article concludes that â€Å"it is variables, such as the timing and duration of a nap, age, and experience with napping are important moderators of the benefits of naps† (Milner, 2008, p 279) after putting participants through â€Å"nap or no-nap† experiments than evaluating performances on series of tests. The test showed that those who were variables of the no-nap category had impaired functioning, higher chances of being irritable and in worse moods, were less creative and found it harder to communicate and concentrate. When those in the experiment had suffered mentally and physically from sleep deprivation, it was because lack of sleeping reset an individuals â€Å"biological clock†, also known as the â€Å"Circadian rhythm†. This rhythm syncs our bodies to a 24-hour clock where during a â€Å"peak† our rhythm induces energy where an individual becomes at their highest level of performance. This is what tricks most students into believing that they have energy afterShow MoreRelatedWhy School Should Start Later1371 Words   |  6 PagesIntro: It’s exhausting for students to wake up so early in the morning. In almost every first class of the day, many students are half asleep. There are so many reasons for why this is which doesn’t include the laziness of students, and there is no reason for school not to have a later start. So, schools should start later in the day. Reason 1: Many students are not getting enough sleep. In especially middle schools and high school, teenagers are sleep deprived. 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