The Death Toll (October 30, 2013)

I found some random, and kind of interesting, websites that track the amount of deaths and other random stats. Thought I would share them, so check them out.....

This website has a death count, a birth count, and some random other real time world statistics:

http://www.worldometers.info/

This one shows you how many people have died since you opened the website. The deaths are also sorted into different causes of death (heart disease/accidents/etc):

http://www.fabulant.com/downloadcenter/deathcounter/deathcounter.html

Questions about The Magus (October 24, 2013)

Here are a couple of questions that I thought about while reading the Magus....
1. Can freedom be obtained? Or is death the only form of freedom?
2. Are you living the water or the wave? How about Conchis and Nicholas? (taken from De Deukans, don't                       remember the exact place in the book).
3. Is Nicolas a seeker of mystery or does he run blindly into it?
4. What is the purpose of the fictional stories and "shows" that Conchis uses on Nicholas, when  he is so adamant that novels are useless because of their fictional content?
5. Does it matter whether or not Conchis' stories were true or not?

More on the Magus...(October 22, 2013)

Last week the end of our discussion was on how Nicolas goes from the 'boring' or mundane existence, to the strange adventure and back to the boring. (I should have written this blog when the ideas were still fresh in my head but I forgot so I will try to put together some sort of thought process). This got me to thinking about life in general and how life is kind of like that adventure- with twists and turns and struggles- until we finally die and exist (as some believe) in a sort of bland and uninteresting way. I am not sure if that makes sense, and I still have to work on it a bit, but I thought it was kind of a weird thing to think about.
This also ties into the discussion of entropy that we had earlier this month.

Thoughts on The Magus (10/17/13)

Hi folks! I hope this works now since I have had my computer fixed...If it does I will be so very happy. And I will try to catch up with all the blogs that never showed up....

                                                           Thoughts on The Magus

I was not expecting to be so drawn into this book when I began reading. I regret to admit that I assumed it would another dry school-assigned book; I guess I should have more faith in Dr. Sexson's choice in literature. This book was quite unlike any book I had ever read. And it was more than just the plot that differed from other books. What really threw me was the forced parallel to The Tempest. I found it super fascinating how the author did not leave it as a undercurrent that the reader had to find but  rather seemed to shove it into the reader's face. The reader could easily draw parallels between the characters from the book and the play, and the characters in The Magus claimed to be taking roles of those in The Tempest...
                                                            Conchis- Prospero
                                                            Nicholas- Ferdinand
                                                             Lily/Julie- Miranda
                                                            Joe- Caliban
                                                            June/Rose- Ariel
This being such an obvious and forced parallel teases the reader, suggesting there is a much stronger underlying meaning to the novel. Possibly the only world that can describe this deeper meaning is one that comes up first in chapter 53 and is repeated through the rest of the novel. Eleutheria. Freedom. Nicholas's whole ordeal is to show him that freedom only comes when you shed religion and political thought and thus be left only with reason and humanity. I find this very interesting. In this way fee will only exists if you throw off the chains of previous beliefs and hold on to only reason.I, personally, do not agree with these ideas; but I do find it fascinating to think about.