Author: chelsea forbidden texts

For my research topic I chose the effects of social media on one’s mental health. The reason behind me choosing this topic is because I have seen how it has affected not only me but my friends and family as well. My point of argument is that social media isn’t really a necessity in people’s lives. Throughout this paper I will talk about things I see on social media platforms and how it is from my point of view including how it has made me develop a false image on how I am supposed to live my life. Including asking around as well as asking my friends and family how it affects them and their daily lives. On top of that I am going to discuss how it causes mental health declines and more. 

     My main goal for this paper is to show that social media isn’t good and it is something we cannot prosper from if we are constantly trying to compare ourselves or live a fake life online to make ourselves feel better. As well as touching base on how these platforms are introduced to children at young ages and how it gives them a false image on a lot of things in life. With the few articles that I have read it definitely gives quite a bit of information. It explains how it can cause people to experience many things such as FOMO which I thought was very interesting because it was something that I wouldn’t have even considered. There are quite a few things that I didn’t think would tie into the hypnotizing world of social media but there are some things that I did expect.

     In conclusion this is a topic that I do feel strongly about.I am at that age where I have seen so many things happen because of these apps and how they work including the fact that I know the toll it has taken on me and others.

     This book is called The Anarchist Cookbook and it is written by William Powell.The first few sentences on the first page say “ This is a brutal book-sensual, rude, coarse, and cruel. However, it is timely and well written and even witty.” From that little bit that I got from those two sentences I had no idea what this book was about. When I continued to skim more throughout the chapters I realized that this book is about explosives and much more. Hence the “cookbook” in the title which refers to the recipes for these explosives. Even though it claims that this book was well written I found it quite boring and it was hard for me to stay within the focus of the texts without zoning off. Even though this is like a “guide” in some way it is kind of disappointing to say the least because in my mind I figured it would have been more interesting. This book reminds me in a way of like a children’s playset that has those experiments in it that don’t work half of the time. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this to a friend or read this again. I would prefer to read Bambi instead of this.

  S.C.U.M.( Society for cutting up men) Manifesto was written by Valerie Solanas and just from reading the first three to four paragraphs it is already very clear that the men that are discussed throughout this text are dominant and they have power. On the other hand while reading this it is also very clear that the women are disgusted by these men and that they are nothing, emotional cripples, that they only want sex and so much more. I would say that this text is very extreme and has taken a lot of things to the next level. 

     In this text It is very clear that gender equality is wanted but I wouldn’t necessarily say it is degrading but some of the things that are said throughout this text are very hurtful and rude. I have noticed a few times that males are compared to females in a way that they are incomplete and that they are trying to become whole. It is very clear to me that this is passionately written but what stands out to me the most is that the knowledge that this writer has about the male population is very poor and solely based on what they know and as well as what they have experienced. To me it seems as if this was written by a young teenage girl and not by someone who is much older.

     From start to finish the entire text just bashes the male population. There were moments where I didn’t even want to finish reading it because it was just extremely ridiculous. The whole text was basically the same; they just involved different components like money, mental health or being a father but in the end it all had the same outcome and it was all negative.

     This novel talks about the fathers experiences throughout the Holocaust. This novel isn’t at all what I expected. What I was really expecting was a very wordy boring book that I would get tired of reading after the first 10 pages. In all honesty I thought this was very surprising to me when I had first opened it and after I opened it I was questioning myself on whether I grabbed the right book. To my surprise this was a comic/graphic novel style book. This is something that was way out of the normal compared to what I read and I was never really into comic books because I alway felt like it was very hard to concentrate when I read them due to the pictures.

      When reading this book I found it very interesting how the author used animals as references towards people. For example jews being represented by mice, Germans as cats and Poles as pigs. This is something that I found very intriguing because I have never really seen an author do that. Throughout reading this story you can definitely tell Spiegelman uses his own experiences when writing this book especially through the pictures and the relationships with the characters and it’s almost as if you can tell there is something behind it. 

     While reading this book it talks about the experiences that Vladek goes through for example getting drafted into the polish army then getting captured by the Nazis as a prisoner of war. Including getting treated very poorly especially since he is jewish. He ended up finding his way back home but the factory he owned got seized by the Nazis. Then he and his wife Were able to hide for a while but then ended up getting caught and taken to Auschwitz. Overall I found this book very interesting but it isn’t really something I would read again.

     I was given the task of reading chapters 7-11 of Mein Kampf. During this reading it was kind of hard for me to engage and grasp the contexts because it felt a little all over the place especially since I had to start the book in a random section. It would be talking about the Bourgeoisie and then it would be talking about war it was sort of challenging form me to enjoy this reading. From what a somewhat gathered in these chapters is that all of this is from Hitlers perspective and what he experienced. 

     In chapter 8 there is one section that stood out to me the most and in that section it says that if men believe in the same goal and want to fight for it then they should join together and add to it strengths as well as it saying that it will better serve the common purpose. This is something that I cans say I somewhat understand for example the military. If it is something you believe and want to fight for people come together in support of that goal and they want a good out come. On the other hand if it is something that serves the common purpose I dont necessarily think that it should be for something that involves malicious intentions.

     In chapter 9 it talks about state of authority it discusses how there is a foundation needed for authority and how it is based on popularity ,but a foundation that only relies on popularity is weak. It also says that if an authority is purely based on popularity it needs to be improved upon to prove that a strong foundation can be made. Even though I didn’t necessarily get much from  these chapters from what I did get from this book wasnt at all what I expected.

     While reading the introduction of Mein Kampf one of the things that is stated on the first page of the introduction is that this book is dull, lengthy, bombastic, repetitious and extremely badly written. I can kind of agree that this read for me wasn’t the best, especially since I had to pick it up in the middle of the book as well as try stay engaged since it felt all over the place. By doing this It was hard for me to grasp the contexts of  the chapters since I had no general idea of what was said in the chapters prior to the ones that I read. As well in the first couple of pages it says that, “And if Hitler has to be understood, the study of Mein Kampf is an essential part of this process.” My thought process with that is that many don’t truly know what is true and what is fake when it comes to their knowledge of Hitler and his actions.

     It also talks about how politics is compared to religion in a way and how people make it their way of life or “faith” In his early teens he was showing signs of physiological disturbance but before Hitlers 20s it says that he showed no signs of political consciousness. It was around that time he started to show some interest but still invested his time in his artistic interest. Later on it says Hitler hated the state that his father worked for and he hated his memory and that he was a brutal man. Soon he volunteered in the 16th Bavarian Reserve infantry regiment then he was moved up to Corporal. Around this time is when he was really starting to get into the swing of things, especially the organization of the Nazi party.

    I would have never thought that by reading this that is how hitlers life was in my mind he was associated with one thing and one thing only and that was the Holocaust. When it comes to certain individuals being a part of a major event in history you almost forget that they are also people too and that they experienced a lot of things that influenced the way they view and handle certain situations in life.

     Throughout my time of reading this novel, there were a few things that stood out to me that related to things we experience or talk about in real life. If you break it down, this novel is the circle of life with also things you learn, experience as well as the growth you encounter along the way. For example, how Bambi starts off as a baby and starts to see the wonders of the forest but he also is warned of the dangers that are around him. When Bambi is told these things he doesn’t understand just like how a young child wouldn’t understand these things as well.

     Towards the middle of the book there is one chapter that stuck out to me and that was in chapter eight. In that chapter it talked about how the leaves are scared to fall down from the great oak tree. One of the trees kept asking questions about what would happen when they fell and what it would feel like as well as what would happen. Just like how we wonder what it is like when we pass, what it would feel like or what is going to happen including how scary it is to think about. It is the fear of the unknown that gets us the most because it is something we know so little about. The leaves also talk about how they are starting to turn yellow or that they are getting yellow streaks because they are getting closer to falling off the great oak tree. Just like how we associate gray hair or wrinkles with old age.

     Overall I thought this book related to things we encounter in life. It is a scary thing but these things dont stop us from growing and going out to experience many wonders life has to offer us. We grow from the things that happen to us whether they are good or bad encounters.

     I’ve always loved the story of Bambi growing up, especially how it portrays him growing up and making friends along the way despite him losing his mother. Throughout the time I read this book it was shed in a very different light compared to the disney version of this story. This book is just another way of just describing the circle of life but from Bambi’s perspective and from how he experiences it. During the first couple chapters of this novel it talks about how he is first experiencing life and seeing all these great wonderful things that he get s to experience with his mother. Then slowly he realizes the dangers that they will encounter but he isnt of age yet to know what these dangers truly are.

     During the second half of this book it discusses how is getting older and he is slowly starting to separate from his mother and how he is scared of being alone. During this period it is where he meets the Old Prince as well as discovering what the real danger is that threatens them in their everyday lives. As it slowly gets toward the end of the book it talks about how Bambi is coming of age and becoming sexually interested in his childhood friends but one day they all ended up getting killed by a hunting party and his mother gets taken away from him in this incident. 

     Then towards the end of this book the Old Prince starts to show him the ways of nature and in a way takes him under his wing. At a certain point the prince wanders off to die and Bambi ends up taking his place and that completes the circle of life. He is now in a place where he is the higher up, he is the prince of the forest now. I loved reading this novel it was very interesting to me to see the story of Bambi from a different perspective in a very different way than the Disney version.

     When I googled the Protocols of the elders Zion one of the links that came up was US Holocaust memorial museum encyclopedia. It said in the seventh paragraph it says that “in 1921, the Londons times presented conclusive proof that the Protocols was a “clumsy plagiarism”  which came from a french political satire which in that text it had never mentioned jews.The first portions of the Protocols were found in 1903 in Russia. There is really no idea as to where they truly came from or who the original author is since it has been plagiarized a number of times throughout the years.

     There are 24 Protocols and even though one of them is still relevant to our modern world I wouldn’t necessarily think it should be something to rely on. From my point of view I would say that it is something that isn’t realistic. With that being said I do strongly believe that at a certain point in time people did believe in the protocols and wanted to make it happen but how would you get others to abide by that to an extent to where they truly think they are capable of making all of the things that are in the protocols a reality.

     In the article that I talked about previously it says that the protocols are still taught in school and in all honesty I don’t think this is something that should be taught at all. It puts a false idea in the heads of children and or adults. With that being said we do not know what parts of the Protocols are actually real and what  parts were plagiarized/altered because like I stated previously we are not sure where the original one came from.

    This story starts off with the author who was a victim of the revolution and it talks about how he was arrested and thrown into peter-paul prison and how he was expecting his name to be called out for execution. Later he escaped and managed to return home but in poor condition he undertook the Protocols. He shortly died after due to an illness and just from reading that it has caught me off guard because this is not the kind of turn I was expecting especially so early on in this story. 

     There is one quote in this story and it says, “God has granted to us, His Chosen People, the gift of dispersion, and from this, which appears to all eyes to be our weakness, has come forth all our strength, which has now brought us to the threshold of sovereignty over all the world.” Reading this only makes me think of one thing and that is to only show strength and no let others see your weakness. The protocols in my pov are meant send people into a state of fear or a sense of being uneasy. In that quote as well where it says ‘His Chosen People” it is capitalized but the rest of the quote isnt and im not sure if it has any significant meaning.

     As I am reading through the Protocols they get longer and more detailed as to how they need to be followed as well as understood. In some of the Protocols there are certain sentences that are all capitalized and it seem to be the sentences that come off as somewhat aggressive.

 The Gospel of Judas starts off by talking about Jesus and how “he performed miracles and great wonders for the salvation of humanity” It continues on with saying how Jesus was laughing at the disciples during their prayer and it angered them. Reading this was sort of confusing especially when it came to piecing it together. Judas was the only one who stepped up and spoke to Jesus. Judas knows who Jesus is and where he came from and in that Jesus is willing to tell him what he knows.

     There have been parts in this that have been blanked out in a way so it makes me think that there are some details that could potentially be missing or that just were not important as the rest of the text. Comparing this to the Gospel of Mary there is definitely a lot more detail when it comes to this reading all though there are some parts that are confusing in some ways. It is definitely interesting to see how Jesus trusts Judas with telling him everything. Shortly after Jesus confided in Judas he gave him up and the Judas took his own life. 

     Did Judas feel guilty for basically ratting him out or was this just the consequences of his actions? How did he have enough time to write all of this down or did someone do it for him? These are questions that may never get answered or get a better understanding to cause no one really knows.

     In this reading I learned alot from just these few pages. For example how this story just starts in the middle since the first six pages have been lost and they haven’t been found. As well as this book was lost for almost fifteen hundred years and then it just suddenly reappears into thin air. The disciples did not like the way Mary did her teachings and didn’t believe that it came from the savior. It says that the written documents that they had served as guides to preaching and practice for christians. Now it is said that we have lost about 85% of those documents. The documents that we do have are ones that may be know but there could possibly be more out there that are unknown

     It is very odd to think that the Gospel of Mary just appeared in the antiquities market in Cairo. The manuscript dealer was also unaware that he had this book in his possession and to his knowledge it was just a book that did have a significant meaning. It is hard not to do this if this book was somehow made and it isn’t the original or if it is truly the real Gospel of mary. The first six pages are missing as well as four pages from the middle. It is crazy to think how it would be if it was never lost or the pages never went missing including those two other texts that were found with the Gospel of Mary.

     When the book was found it was sent to an Egyptian museum where it was realized that the book somehow remained in good condition after all these years of being exposed to the elements. One question that comes to mind is why wasn’t this book included in the bible?

The books that I chose are related in many ways. For this assignment I had to pick a book based on something that I have interest in. Out of my many interests I would have to say science is my favorite. One of the books that I chose is called Imperial Nature by Jim Endersby. This book talks about Joseph Dalton Hooker who is one of the most successful Botanists as well as him being also a close friend to Charles Darwin. A Botanist is someone who studies plants as well as the environment, for example on page it talks about how it is easier to classify living plants rather than dried ones as it helped resolve difficulties they ran across when using European books with their research.

     In this book it gives you an insight on what science was like in the Nineteenth century. The second book I found from the previous book is called  Science as Practice and Culture Published by University of Chicago press as well as edited by Andrew Pickering. These sources discuss how the world of science has developed over the course of time and many of these things have changed the way we do research and more. Over time things change and people compare research now to research back then based on the changes and how they came upon those certain discoveries.

The two articles that I picked as well talk about the same things but from others perspectives. As well as what they learned including the challenges that they came across when doing their research.

Hi my name is Chelsea and this is my first post for this blog as well as this course .