Cards of Darkness Reflection

Cards of Darkness Reflection

    This Cards of Darkness game was very simple to understand and to play, but the possibilities for what could happen (as far as our moves were concerned) were endless. Staying passive and peaceful with the natives for the whole game, my team and I decided, would be a bit like a nice businessman… unsuccessful and not profitable. My team and I found that we had to use some force, but do it very strategically. We all decided fairly quickly that we had to use force at some point in order to be profitable. We decided that our strategy would be (put in it’s simplest form): 1) a little force 2) hold a good relationship with the natives 3) come in guns a’blazin. The more exact blueprint of our plan was this: 1) for the first 2 months, we would use heavy force in order to have a small surplus that would act like a “cushion” of money in case of bad weather or the slight chance of native hostility 2) for the next 6 months we completely changed our course of action and held every bit of force we had been dishing out on the natives in order to develop a good relationship with them so we would have minimal chances of native hostility, but still having that money “cushion” to keep us stable in the event of bad weather or native hostility 3) now we make a complete 180° turn all the sudden and come in using as much force as we could on the natives to extract as many resources, and by extension money, as we could while still having a relatively clean native relations pile which lowered our chances of native hostility. After the game was over, we were quite profitably and very happy with the strategy that we had come up with. I think that what this game teaches us is not about the importance of profit and it is not promoting hostility, but it is teaching us the importance of strategy. It also teaches us that when we as a nation were expanding and conquering, we hurt many people on our quest. This reminds me of the quote that we studied by Joseph Conrad that says “It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog,” which is what this game effectively demonstrates. The quote is saying that in order to rule, you must be able to overlook and dismiss all of the terrible things that you will have to do on your way to becoming a ruler. In the case of the game, we (the players [the ones wanting to rule]) had to violently take the resources, which was not ours, from the natives in order to be profitable and win. 

Chapter 14: Yes, She’s a Christ figure, too - Reflection

Chapter 14: Yes, She’s a Christ figure, too - Reflection

This chapter particularly resonates with me because Jesus Christ is a very prominent figure in my life. I was somewhat surprised at the perspective that this chapter gave me. Before when reading a book or watching a movie, I only recognized a character to be a “Christ figure” if that character was religious or in some way affiliated with the church, but this chapter proposed that any non-religious character can be a “Christ figure” if they check certain boxes that display Christ-like characteristics, some having to do with religion but most not. It makes sense, I don't know if I agree with everything that it says, but I see his train of thought, and it is something to think about when reading a new book or watching a new movie. After reading this chapter, I started remembering past movies that I have watched and making connections. Like Harry Potter for example, he had a wound on his head, was in agony, self-sacrificing, good with children, used humble modes of transportation, spent time alone in the wilderness, had a tempted (and untempted) confrontation with a devil figure (Voldemort), defied death on multiple occasions, had disciples, was very forgiving, and came to redeem an unworthy world. I noticed that I felt a deeper and more personal connection to that character and that the story of the character was kind of taken to a whole new level. Since I read this chapter, i’ve noticed myself looking for a Christ figure where I wouldn't have before in stories/movies, and when I do, I am constantly looking for more Christ-like characteristics.

Chapter 21: Marked for Greatness - Reflection

Chapter 21: Marked for Greatness - Reflection

This chapter is really pretty cool with regards to the way that the chapter is structured. It starts off fairly surface level, talking about Oedipus and how “Oedipus” literally means “wounded feet”

so we know that the main character will have damaged feet and that will come into play at some point in the story or there would really be no point in the reader knowing that he has wounded feet. Then it goes a little deeper, talking about how the mother had three options as to what to do with her son when he was born, to avoid the prophecy from coming true, and of course in the prophecy, was her son having wounded feet. Then he gets even deeper, saying that an author might even give many characters some wound or something that makes them stand out from everybody else in the crowd. And then at its deepest, he says that an author might actually use these unique characteristics of these characters to make a statement about humanity or society as a whole. But then, he makes a 180 and goes completely surface level and says that, sometimes a limp is just a limp, or a hunchback is just a hunchback. And at the very end, he asks the reader to figure out Harry Potter’s scar. So let's do that… From the time that Harry was an infant, he was dubbed as “the boy who lived” and has a scar to make him as such. When Harry is older, Voldemort is able to see into Harry’s mind and uses that to his advantage. But in the end, Harry was able to reverse that and see into Voldemort's mind which ultimately led to the destruction of Voldemort. So what was the author trying to tell us about humanity through Harry’s scar? I think that the scar represents humanity always prevailing over evil, and showing that humanity is strong, and that we can endure through all of our hardships.

Chapter 4 : If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet - Reflection

Chapter 4 : If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet - Reflection

This chapter is essentially a very thorough analysis of a sonnet entitled, “An Echo from

Willow - Wood.” It starts off by telling all about what a sonnet can be and the different types of sonnets. After it presents the text of “An Echo from Willow - Wood,” it breaks that sonnet down and points out all of the things that makes that sonnet, a sonnet. It demonstrates that a sonnet is actually incredibly complex and even says that they can be far more complex and far more difficult to write than long stories. Foster quotes Blaise Pascal saying, “I had not time to write a short one,” to back up his claim that sonnets are harder to write that long stories. When first reading this, I actually thought of an omelette, because at first glance, an omelette looks like nothing more than a flat egg, but then you realize that lots of tiny pieces of other types of food that has been added to this flat egg that gives it all of its flavor. Alton Brown say that “an omelette is one of the easiest thing for a chef to make, but it is one of the hardest things for a chef to make perfectly.” This seems to fit with Foster's claim about sonnets because a sonnet is a seemingly simple thing that is actually incredibly complex when you dissect it.