Assignment 2

5 Questions and Answers

 1. Why does Siddhartha leave his father?

Siddhartha leaves his father because he was not satisfied with the Brahmans and his teachers. He wanted to reach to the self, the Atman but no one would know how to reach it. So he wanted to become a Samana( ascetics) and find blissfulness.

 3. If Siddhartha never lived with Kamala and the people in the city would he have reached Enlightenment faster?

I don’t think Siddhartha would have reached to Enlightenment faster, if he never lived with Kamala and the people in the city. Living with Kamala and with the people in the city made him lost his spirit, unlearned thinking again, forgot oneness and became from a thinker to childlike person. When he realizes what he has become, he panics and through despair, sinking down to the most foolish thoughts of suicide, he experiences divine grace and he was able to find his Atman again. But if he had not had all this experience he would still be in search of the Enlightenment as he had too much knowledge with him which had prevented him from getting it.

4. What is the significance of river?

River has played an important role in learning and understanding the life and reaching to blissfulness for Siddhartha. In this story, river represents the voice of life, voice of what exists and of what is eternally taking shape. It also helps Siddhartha to be patience, be a good listener and able to listen what the river is telling him.

 5. How would you evaluate Siddhartha/Hesse’s philosophy of detachment?

I do agree that humans are attached to money, power, relationships and so on. As a result they are struggling and fighting with each other in order to achieve those things and are unable to get out from that narrow world and see the wiser perspective. So I agree and feel logic in being detachment from “Sansara” would prevent people from focusing on the small things and will be able to gain better knowledge, gain peace and happiness in life. In addition, it shows that the world or “Sansara” and people’s fight for power is nothing but just the illusion and life cannot be happy from that. Also, I believe that the philosophy of detachment helps to know your Atman or yourself better rather through various teaching.

 8. What is the identity of Vasudeva?

Vasudeva represents as a God who has changed his appearance as a human being- a ferryman, Vasudeva. Vasudeva is the name of the father of Lord Krishna according to Hindu religion, so he is portraying his role as a father figure and he guides Siddhartha to achieve the Enlightenment or blissfulness through the medium of river.

 

 

 

Art from Emil Nolde

     Emil Nolde was a German painter,printmaker and  is the first expressionists as well as the member of Die Brucke. He is considered to be one of the greatest oil painter and water color painter of the 20th century. He was born in North Germany, near the village of Nolde and his real name was Emil Hansen.He studied in the School of Aplied Arts in Karlsruhe and also spent 3 years taking private painting class after he got rejected from Munich Academy of Fine Arts.He started his career in painting when he was at the age of 35. In 1902,he married to a Danish actress Ada Vistrup, moved to Berlin and changed his last name after his birthplace. He created almost 200 etchings followed by bursts, woodcuts, lithographs and prints. He was expelled from the Akademie der Kunste where he used to work and in 1941 the Nazi forbid him to paint. 1052 of his works were removed from museums and 20 of his works were included in the Degenerate art exhibition. After 1941, he left Berlin and he died in Seebull. In 1944, his Allied raided and destroyed his Berlin studio filled with many valuable works of art. Emil Nolde had received German Order of Merit, West Germany's highest civilization decoration. His famous works were Protrait of young women and child, Prophet and many more.

Alice, 1907
    In this painting Gouache over lithograph technique is used and bright colors like pink, red, orange, light green are used as well as black and light brown.In this painting, a woman is facing towards the wall and showing her back towards the public. The color of her clothes and the wall is bright and feminine which portrays a happy mood. But she has hidden her face towards the wall and is facing downwards with a sad face. Also the color of her face and the black shadow around her face indicates that she is not happy and trying to hide her sad face from others. I think this painting relates the women's situation at that period where they had to show their happiness towards the public and were forced to hide their sadness and oppressed life. From this painting, I can say that the woman feels nothing towards the bright side of the public in front of her sadness which relates to nihilism.








Prophet, 1912



      In this picture, it shows a God figure and from his expression he seems very sad. His eyes shows that he is in deep surrow and looks like he is in lot of pain. His face is all wrinkled, he has a long beard and he looks very tired too. From this, I think that it indicates the devastating result of the World War. The color used is black and white that creates a tragic and dull environment. It is made by woodcut. This can be related to nihilism as it shows the destructiveness that humans were capable of.

Familie, 1917

     In this picture, it shows a family man, his wife and a kid. Both man and woman are naked,very thin and it looks like they are in the jungle which indicates that they have not ate for several days and do not have house and clothes also. As I looked in their face, the man face looks like he is in shock or threatened by something, woman looks very weak and depressed and the kid is trying to hide and is frightened too. As a whole, this picture reflects how the World War had made impact on people's life or it also reflects the poor people's life. The picture is woodcut. Black and white color are used in this picture. I can relate this picture to nihilism as it shows worthless existence.

References:

www.germanexpressionism.com

Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism>.

A quote from Dada Manifesto

"Each thing has its word, but the word has become a thing by itself. Why shouldn't I find it? Why can't a tree be called Pluplusch, and Pluplubasch when it has been raining? The word, the word, the word outside your domain, your stuffiness, this laughable impotence, your stupendous smugness, outside all the parrotry of your self-evident limitedness. The word, gentlemen, is a public concern of the first importance." Dada Manifesto by Hugo Ball, 1916.
 
     Hugo Ball is one of the leading Dada artist. I think the above quote indicates that the word 'Dada' has become something very important and focuses to be given priority and think about so that it would help people to think broadly and see the truth and reality of the society which has been oppressed by unrealistic,beautiful arts,philosophies and  other means. He also challanges the random fact by being abstract and different. The author, Hugo Ball is saying this because he does not like the society's terrible act of making people delusional and covering the truth. He wanted people to be aware of the truths, facts and uglienss of the society ( the threat of World War 1, the struggle of middle class, betrayal of the socialist party)through dada and react upon it for their rights and future.

     I chose this quote because it emphasize on necessitiy of focusing on truths and making our mind  broader. I  agree with Hugo as people should be conscious of the society and face the challanges. Also people should start to create awareness to other people.This quote made me think the situation of our everyday life. We give priority to the things that is fun and exciting and we are always running away from the truth that is bitter. I can relate occupy wallstreet movement from this quote.People are living in delusional state and are not aware what is going on in this country as they are distracted by many enjoyable things,and even they knew it they try to avoid it. But the occupy wallstreet movement is trying to create awareness and show the unfairness of today's society.

German Economy

     German economy is the fifth largest economy in the world and Europe's largest exporter of machinery, vehicles, chemicals and household equipment and benefits from skilled labor force. Demographic, low fertility rate and declining net immigration are  challanging for continue economy growth, and increasing pressure on the countries social welfare system. Reforms launched by the government helped to strong growth in 2006-2007, whereas 2008-2009 German had to face deepest recession since World War 2 and the unemployement increased to 6.0% in 2011.GDP contracted 5.1% in 2009 but  grew by 3.6% in 2010 and 2.7 in 2011.

     The recovery caused primarily by rebounding manufacturing orders and exports outside the Euro Zone. Stimulus and stabilization efforts initiated in 2008-2009 and tax cuts increased Germany's budget deficit to 3.1% in 2010 but reduced to 1.7% in 2011 due to slower spending and higher tax revenues. In 2011, due to Fukushima nuclear disaster, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced 8 of country's 17 nuclear reactors shut down and remaining would be closed by 2022. Before German relied on nuclear power for 23% of its energy and 46% of its base load electoral production. Now German is hoping to replace nuclear power with renewable energy.

Nihilism In Germany

Doubt as sin.-- Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature- is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.

from Nietzsche's Daybreak,s. 89, R.J. Hollingdale transl

 

     Nietzche, a German writer ( labeled as nihilists)believed that Christianity leads to Nihilism and "God is dead". He gives several examples showing the destructive nature, pressure and negativitism of religion(Christianity), for example, asceticism, dancing mania and many more.

    

     In the above quotation, I think Nietzsche mentions the conservative and biased side of Christianity in which if someone doubts on Christianity,it is considered sin. As he mentions that human nature is filled with mixed opinions, curiosity and rationalizing things, it is ok to question the proof of God, its existence and the theory written in the religion and is legitimate too. But Christianity says that to doubt or question God is sin or crime. In addition, Christianity encourages and awares people to believe in God closing their eyes, without questioning no matter how unfair and unreasonable it would sound, otherwise they are criminals in front of God and will be punished.

 

     I think in today's generation there is a mixed opinion towards the religion. Some people think that there is no scientific proof that shows that God do exist and support Nietzsche's theory and they are moving forward in their lives focusing on rationalizing things. Some people are blinded by the religion and follow Christianity without any questioning. In contrast, some people think that religion is a medium to unite people and try to get benefit from it, so we can see politicians and leaders using the name of religion to get support,vote from the people and to justify their actions. Also, there are people who believe in Christianity or any religion which encourage them to be desciplined, to be faithful, to unite and to help and support each other in difficult situations.