1. Short Paragraph – Personal Reflection: Before reading the selection from Plato write at least one full paragraph on this question: Why do you think Plato (or anyone else) would want to censor Homer? Think about Achilles as a "hero," and why or why not his personal characteristics are something that should be promoted, or not.
I think that Plato would disapprove of it because of how Achilles acted towards his leader. He is supposed to be the hero of the story, but he was rebellious against Agamemnon and fought only for his own pleasure. These are the qualities of a bad hero and a bad influence.
2. Then read pp. 76-85 (Section b). Secondary or Literary Education)
In Process...
3. Short Answers – Text based questions. Answer both questions, answers can be just a few sentences
a. According to Plato, what are some aspects of poetry that should be banned and why? In other words, how can poetry undermine the education of a Guardian?
1. He believes we should not describe the afterlife as a dark and gloomy place, for it will teach our guardians to fear death.
2. We should not allow lines that encourage our Guardians to be rebellious or witty.
3. Characters should not be obsessed with material things.
And
b. What should poetry “teach” and why?
Poetry should teach our guardians to be strong, brave and obedient. Otherwise, they would not do as well in their job of guarding, and would be much like Achilles in the Illiad: Rebellious, secluded, and protecting nobody but himself.
4. If you were talking to Plato what would you say to him? Do you agree with his ideas? Do you think poetry, or literature in general, should be put to the purposes that he says it should?
At this, I am torn. I do agree that these are not things we should be teaching our guardians, but at the same time, I do not think we should stifle the creativity of the writer, either. In fact, at one point, Plato even states that "The better a piece of literature is, the more harmful it is to our guardians."
My belief is that we should let the writers write and the guardians guard, and simply tell them during their training that, although these may be heroes, not all their qualities are good.
DISCUSSION TERMINATED. END OF LINE.
Now, before I get into the copied and pasted Clan Darkterror Productions updates, I have a slightly more academic announcement/request to tell you all. I was speaking with one of my acquaintances online, and she brought up how silly my love of Disneyland is, and how I make such a big deal about this being the first time in a long time I haven't visited it over the summer, and how it's silly that I had to go and "make a big deal out of material things like that." In response, I posted this:
'My Disneyland withdrawal... it's not about "[making] a big deal out of material things like that," It's about the feeling that comes from Disneyland. You are a fine example of why the world is in the horrible state it's in: You all focus on the bad times in life, and thus the world reflects your thoughts. You all use it as an excuse to say "My life sucks more than yours," as if it's some sort of honor. Disneyland is where I go to get my mind off of that stuff. I've practically spent a fourth of my entire life there, I've seen just about everything there is there. Atop that, everyone says I've already "grown out of things like that." But I still go anyway. Why? If I may quote from an episode of The Twilight Zone, that episode being the "Passage Aboard the Lady Anne," "All people know now adays is hurry, hurry, hurry, quick, quick, quick, rush rush, why? They've scrapped our beautiful boat, what's to say they won't scrap the world next?" Time is violence. Time is infinite, but there is never enough of it. You'll never have "Time enough at last." In Disneyland, there is almost no sense of time. You only realize it exists when you realize it's already 10 at night, and you didn't even notice that the sun went down. With the state that the human population is in, I may never live to see utopia, but at least in Disneyland I can emulate that feeling, if only to a very small magnitude. That's why it always pisses me off when I hear people my age gloating about how they flicked off the camera on Splash Mountain, or made sex jokes in one of the kiddie playgrounds. Disneyland has gone so far as to grow a FOREST around it to block out the outside world, and people try to bring the evils of that world inside anyway. They ruin my utopia.
You all blindly run about Plato's cave, some of you unshackled, some of you unknowingly still tied by the feet to your prison. But you all share some similarities: You all try to search for the exit, for the outside, and you all don't seem to realize that you've caused that exit to cave in from all your blindness and bumping into things. Me? I need not the sunlight. I'd rather voyage deeper into the cave, and see what treasures I can find. If ignorance is bliss, then knowledge can be damned."
Now, I've suddenly grown quite an attachment to this post. I was really just following a train of thought, I didn't purposefully mean to use Disneyland as an allegory for utopia, but now that I have... I'm thinking of taking this and turning it into a complete philosophical piece to post on My Deviantart (The tentative title, of course, being "The Allegory of Injun Joe's Cave" XD). So, I do ask this of everyone who reads this: Please, read through aforementioned post, and critique it. I would really like an emphasis on logic and/or lack of, since this really was not written to be a literary piece...yet. Thanks!
Now, for your regularly scheduled CDP update:
So, throughout the production of Eternity's End so far, I've been really experimenting with the concept of a virtual office (Partly inspired by Tom Clancy's talk of it in "Teeth of the Tiger"). Until now, I've only been recruiting classmates and close friends, so I can still meet up with them in person if the Virtual office fails.
Well, I feel confident, and feel like stepping up this concept to the next level. Now's the time to, ah, "overcome topography through the use of the topological plane", as McKenzie Wark's "Gamer Theory" would probably put it.
I've decided that I MAY be publicly hiring for the last main voice-acting job, the voice of the younger of the two princesses of Kakana and the mercenary team's only Kunoichi, Dimona. However, I'm going to be a lot more strict. You gotta go through an audition, of sorts. In reality, that just means email us, I'll send you back a little script, and you send me back the soundclips.
I warn you though, since this is a REALLY BIG test on the concept of a virtual office, you gotta be serious about this. That doesn't necessarily mean putting in 16+ hours of work a day (Although I would love it if you do ;)), but just that you don't fall behind too much.
Oh, there are also a bunch of little jobs up for grabs, too. These are only a few lines or so, so these aren't as serious ;) For all genders, too!
So, if anyone is interested, mail us at eternitysendrecruiting@gmail.com