I recently watched the movie "Shutter Island", a psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. I enjoyed its novel counterpart and was certainly pleased with seeing the imagery I had while reading the book come to life on the big screen. It's a very thought-provoking story about a man with very severe psychological issues due to his estranged wife murdering their children. He then kills his wife after realizing there is something severely wrong with her. Instead of coming to terms with what happened, he creates an entire fantasy scenario that constantly replays in his mind. In it, he is a detective trying to find a missing woman at a very secure mental prison on a remote island. In reality, he's actually a patient there.
When the doctors are finally able to break through to Teddy, they await to see if he "relapsed" back into his fantasy world. If he had, he would be lobotomized. The ending scene of the movie is of Teddy sitting next to Dr. Sheehan. He turns to the doctor and refers to him as "Chuck", which signaled to the other doctors he had relapsed into his fantasy world. However, the last line of the movie is very ambiguous and leaves much up to the imagination. Knowing he will be lobotomized, Teddy stands up and says, "Chuck, is it better to live as a monster or to die a good man?". It's an ambiguous statement as it leaves us questioning if he actually relapsed or not. In my opinion he didn't relapse and instead faked returning to his fantasy world not only out of fear of relapsing himself, but due to not being able to live with what had happened. Choosing the lobotomy would make him forget about everything and help him live out the rest of his life in peace.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Discussion Question #1: Objective/Subjective Claims
Before the baseball season began, a friend and I got into several debates about who was the better bay area team. He is a A's fan and I'm a Giants fan. Before the season started, we could only make subjective claims solely based off our of personal bias to a baseball team. We didn't have any win/loss records to argue over, combined ERA of either pitching staffs, or any other statistic that helped us prove our points. We decided that we would pick up where we left off as the season wore on. As each team accumulated wins/losses and their personal stars, we had factual information that both of us could now use. At the time we debated (Early August), the Giants had just come off of an incredible July where they went 21-7. The Giants were 17 games over .500, while the A's were hovering just above the .500 line (for those not involved with baseball, a win/loss record that is the same is a .500 ball-club. Ex. a "65-65" record is a .500 record). The A's have a potential AL Cy Young winner in Trevor Cahill, but the Giants have the better record and potential Rookie of the Year winner in Buster Posey.
An example of a "subjective" claim I've recently heard is a friend debating over the existence of God. He's a heavily devoted Christian that decides to use Facebook as a way to force his beliefs on others. I don't partae in his debates as religion arguments get very heated, but it all comes down to what your personal belief is, obviously leading to bias. As it stands now, there isn't factual evidence proving nor disproving the existence of a god. Any claim made otherwise is subjective.
An example of a "subjective" claim I've recently heard is a friend debating over the existence of God. He's a heavily devoted Christian that decides to use Facebook as a way to force his beliefs on others. I don't partae in his debates as religion arguments get very heated, but it all comes down to what your personal belief is, obviously leading to bias. As it stands now, there isn't factual evidence proving nor disproving the existence of a god. Any claim made otherwise is subjective.
Introductory Post
Hey, I'm Stephen.
I'm a sophomore currently at SJSU. I started off as an Industrial Engineer, but switched my major to Business-Management Information Systems last year. This is my second online class I will be taking and had overall a good experience with my last class (Music Appreciation). My communication experience is mostly from being involved with my music program at my high school. I was section leader and had to oversee 50+ other students during various drill rehearsals and music run throughs. I took Comm 20 last semester and thoroughly enjoyed that class.
A little bit about myself..I'm a huge SF Giants fan, I'm always at Metcalf or Hollister every weekend riding my dirt bike, and I'm always listening or playing music. My great-grandfather taught me how to play alto/tenor sax when I was in 4th grade and it stuck with me all the way through high school. I marched snare and quads for four years at my high school for both marching band and winter percussion. My main instrument right now is bass, both upright and electric.
I'm a sophomore currently at SJSU. I started off as an Industrial Engineer, but switched my major to Business-Management Information Systems last year. This is my second online class I will be taking and had overall a good experience with my last class (Music Appreciation). My communication experience is mostly from being involved with my music program at my high school. I was section leader and had to oversee 50+ other students during various drill rehearsals and music run throughs. I took Comm 20 last semester and thoroughly enjoyed that class.
A little bit about myself..I'm a huge SF Giants fan, I'm always at Metcalf or Hollister every weekend riding my dirt bike, and I'm always listening or playing music. My great-grandfather taught me how to play alto/tenor sax when I was in 4th grade and it stuck with me all the way through high school. I marched snare and quads for four years at my high school for both marching band and winter percussion. My main instrument right now is bass, both upright and electric.
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