Reflections on "The Singularity is Near"

I was sick most of this short week (I only came in Monday), and didn't get to do much work in English.  I did, however, do a lot of reading, and during that time I got to read more of "The Singularity is Near", by Raymond Kurzweil.  It's an extremely interesting read, if a bit dense.  I am really enjoying it, although I'm not exactly sure how to structure my essay just yet.   

In Class Essay - Should we be saving the world's languages?

 Here's the in-class essay that I wrote today, responding to an article that I read in the past week about language.

Should We Be Saving The World’s Languages?

Language is one of the things that make us human.  No other creature on this planet has such an extensive range of communication as we do.  Even beyond that, humans have a multitude of different languages that are used around the world every second.  From the two major dialects of Chinese in China (Mandarin and Cantonese) to Italian in Italy and English in America, the world is a hotbed of different languages.  There are, unfortunately, languages that have not been able to stand the test of time and have died out, becoming “extinct” languages.  The most prominent of these extinct languages is Latin, which is no longer used conversationally anymore, learned mostly for scholarly practices.  There are hundreds of other languages that have died out as globalization has spread, most of these being small languages known only to a specific tribe or region.  Some languages are on the brink of extinction, and a lot of these can be found in New York City, where researchers are trying to preserve the languages.  We should take steps to preserve dying languages, but ultimately, let them follow their natural course and go “extinct” from human speech.

            These languages need to be preserved in one way or another, most probably through audio recordings and some examples of the writing, if there is any, for a multitude of reasons.  Language is intimately connected to culture – without a culture for it to rest on, or vice-versa, the other generally dies out.  By documenting these dying languages, we can revisit the roots of more commonly spoken languages.  In the article Listening to (and saving) the world’s languages, a speaker of the dying language Garifuna says that “Here, I teach [my children] their history…The fact that they’re speaking it is empowerment in itself” (Roberts).  This man is teaching his children their culture through their language, which shows that language is tied to culture, and the bond is very powerful.

            However, this heartwarming story is part of a losing battle.  Experts worldwide predict that this hotbed of languages will die out anytime from 20 to 30 years from now.  No matter what resources are put into this, these languages are inevitably going to go out of use.  The teacher of the language will die, the students will marry others who do not share this language, disallowing it to be passed on to the next generation.  A linguist expert, Juliette Blevins, says that this extinction is “the inevitable consequence of globalization”, while the United Nations agrees that “a language will probably disappear…if the population of native speakers is too small and in decline” (Roberts).  Sadly, this is exactly what’s happening – the populations are isolated and in massive decline, with almost no hope of growth. 

            The sad truth is that these languages are going to die out from speaking existence.  In a hundred years at the most, the languages mentioned in the article, such as Garifuna and Mamuju will have no speakers left.  A descendant may know a couple of phrases or words picked up from their parents, but that will be the extent of it.  Instead of pretending the inevitable death of these languages is not going to occur, there needs to be an effort to preserve them while we can, for cultural purposes. An example of this would be a museum exhibit, showing the origins of these defunct languages and how they died out.  Languages have a life expectancy, just like humans, only longer.  English has only been around for a little while, relatively, who knows, English could become an extinct language as well. 

Beowulf and the Singularity

This week, we read the epic poem Beowulf, analyzing it and seeing what culture it came from.  This was extremely interesting, learning how old mythology combined with the new Christian faith in this story.  In addition, we compared the original epic to the movie, and learned that the movie mostly kept to the poem - except for a little part about a 50-year gap in the story.  Overall, I liked the poem quite a bit.


On the other side of class, my group and I have been working on a proposal for our independent study project - focusing on the future, by reading books such as The Singularity is Coming.

This Week in English - The Origin of Languages

This week in English, we studied languages, specifically the origin of english and endangered languages.  The origins of English, from the video we saw, was originated from a very lazy mix of French and German words.  Supposedly, there was a time where they simply accented the first word on a letter.    It eventually evolved to what we have today.

On the other side of the week, we explored languages that have been dying out.  A group had found that there are over 800 languages in the New York area alone that are in danger of dying out.  These have mostly been found in ethnic neighborhoods, following the influx of immigrants as a result of conflict or strife.

Semester Reflection

The “Most Beautiful Work Award” for my writing goes to my personal statement, without a doubt.  It's a work of love and labor - I've spent countless hours on it, getting it reviewed by my peers and mentors.  It's my personal favorite piece of this year, and I hope it helps with my college admission process.  As a reader, I have learned to analyze what I'm reading more deeply, thanks to the Inquiry Project.

I've learned how to write well.  It's simple, sure, but a great skill to have.  Between my in-class essays and longer pieces, I really learned a lot about writing both with a time constraint and with more preparation time.  Other than this, I really expanded with creative writing with my own short story - it can be seen in my blog.  I have never written like that before, I wrote like a man possessed.  I'm pretty happy with the end product, as well.


There are several "Lessons I'd Like to Learn".  I feel that I need to be able to analyze writing more deeply, for one.  When reading Vonnegut, I heard that he used several metaphors, I never caught them.  I think I'm too used to reading casually that I focus on the story alone, and completely ignore some of the more subtle hints.  As for the next semester, I really don't know.  This English class has been amazing so far, thanks a lot!

Poetry Essay

For my English class, I wrote an essay on Mark Twain's poem, "Genius".  Here it is.

Gustavo Guerrero
December 6, 2010
English 4
Stephanie Lytle

Genius?

In “Genius”, Mark Twain, otherwise known as Samuel Clemens, speaks about the defining qualities of a genius.  His poem describes the exact meaning of being a genius.  The speaker’s tone is one of contempt for geniuses.  While it is subtle at first, near the end it becomes much more powerful.  A gradual tone of contempt and the heavy use of satire make this poem extremely related to the writing style of Kurt Vonnegut, who also uses many of the same tones of satire.
            “Genius” is a satirical look into what a genius is, and a main way this is shown is by the tone Twain uses as the poem progresses.  In the opening stanza, the poem states that “Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheres/far above the vulgar world and fills his soul/ with regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth/It is probably on account of this/that people who have genius/do not pay board, as a general thing”.  This opening stanza, as written by Twain, seems to show a tone of contempt for geniuses, stating that, because they are smarter, geniuses think they are superior.  As the poem progresses, however, another idea opens up – geniuses are not smart at all.  Twain writes a section that says “If he is too proud to accept assistance/and spurns it with a lordly air/at the very same time/that he knows he can't make a living to save his life,/he is most certainly a genius.”  This statement is one that is repeated several times throughout the piece.  He uses different words, but the same general idea, points to the fact that for all their brains, geniuses aren’t necessarily the smartest people.
            Aside from his tone of contempt, the other overarching theme in “Genius” is satire.  For the first few stanzas he has minor and somewhat normal examples.  However, as the poem progresses, Twain says that the genius is so smart that he has become unintelligent, in the sense of connecting with the real world.  In the poem, he uses an extreme example in his second-to-last stanza: “If he throws away every opportunity in life/and crushes the affection and the patience of his friends………./persists in going up some infamous back alley/dying in rags and dirt,/ he is beyond all question a genius.”  Twain clearly has a mindset going on:  He thinks that a genius is indeed not as smart as they are perceived to be.  At least, until the very last stanza where he says that “But above all things,/to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse/and then rush off and get booming drunk, is the surest of all the different signs of genius”.  This last line, however, hints that he is simply describing himself, having just “thrown the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse”, referring to his poem.

“Genius” connects a few different writing concepts, most noticeably satire and tone, to create a truly unique piece.  This style of writing is also reminiscent of the works of Kurt Vonnegut, who is famous for using satire in many of his works. A genius is many things, and Twain’s analysis cannot be a complete definition of all geniuses.  This poem is extremely critical, although satirical.  Otherwise, one would be inclined to say that you cannot lump people into one category, something that this poem does.  Since it is satire, however, not meant to be taken seriously, it avoids this argument.  He seems to hint that the genius he is talking about is no one but himself, which exemplifies the satirical nature of this poem.            

Exploring Kurt Vonnegut's Writing

This week, in preparation of my final English project, I have been exploring several aspects of Kurt Vonnegut's writing.  I've found several essays written by him, as well as several poems.  These poems are not by Vonnegut, but come from his inspiration, Mark Twain, as well as black humor that is much like his writing.  From what I've found by reading several of Vonnegut's books is that he really likes black humor in his books, his writing makes you laugh while thinking seriously.  Next week, I will update my blog with my essay I will have written for this class about this project.