In the final paragraph of “Physics,” Tama Janowitz writes, “I suddenly wished I could go back to school and take physics again: I knew that this time I would understand it. The notion of random particles, random events, didn’t seem at all difficult to comprehend. The whole business was like understanding traffic patterns, with unplanned crack-ups and hit and run accidents…I saw how emotions caused objects to go whizzing about…”
Because of their density, urban environments produce many chance encounters between different people and different ideas. There are many seemingly random “collisions.” But these chance encounters and random events arguably occur within the context of a larger, ordered systems and patterns.
Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” Janowitz’s “Physics,” and the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi that you just watched all touch on this theme of chance occurrences within larger urban patterns. Write a reflection on the role of chance and order in these three works. What happens that is improbably at the individual level, but part of a larger pattern? Which works portray the city as being more dominated by chance, and which portray it as more dominated by order? What are the positive and negative aspect of chance and order for individuals who dwell in the city?
November 18, 2017 at 8:26 pm
What happens that is improbable at the individual level, but part of a larger pattern? Which works portray the city as being more dominated by chance, and which portray it as more dominated by order? What are the positive and negative aspects of chance and order for individuals who dwell in the city?
In “The Mugging” by Ginsberg, the narrator in short gets mugged by a bunch of kids, which can be seen as improbable from a larger pattern. The way I tell it makes it seem that the occurrence is very rare, how often does one get mugged or what are the chances of getting mugged? But the style in which the narrator talks through the entire incident makes it seem as if the mugging is not rare at all. Almost as expected as the previous details he notes (10 years worth of same things, like same streets, same store, same 13 bus). However on the grand scheme, this very style of detailing the incident in a casual manner makes it seem like muggings are inevitable in such an environment. The way how the narrator describes the streets as full of broken glass and a bunch of kids hanging around looks like the prime scenario in which to get mugged. His pointless meeting with the police also supports how common such a mugging actually is and how little there is that can be done. This interesting twist where the chaotic yet ordered nature of the city has a negative impact on the narrator (as is seen when he is mugged”. He also repeats the phrase “om ah hum” which is a buddhist phrase used in meditation to purify your mind, body, and speech (each word to one of those, forgot which was which). It is noted how despite how the narrator repeats this internally and to the boys who are mugging him, it has no impact. Possibly a contrast between the order experienced within the narrator and the utter chaos that’s just so normalized in the city during those times.
Janowitz’s “Physics” has a very artistic approach to this topic. The story opens up in a rather probable setting; an aspiring artist seeks fame and wealth in New York City. The entire story has a recurring theme of the narrator (Eleanor) coming to terms with different aspects of her life. The main improbable and climatic scene is when Eleanor is offered to join Samantha and her gang into a Limousine. At the moment, it seems like a very instant moment where Eleanor can just have fun with a bunch of richer, much more famous artists. However in the thematic schemes of the story, this was a doorway for Eleanor, a doorway of opportunity. For Eleanor, her main desire was to make “the dream” of becoming successful so this is likely a big opportunity. And she’s disappointed at first for declining the offer. However she quickly overcomes this and solidifies how she accepts her conditions (theme of the story). In the end, I believe that Eleanor embraces how chance has lead her to the life she has now (not the lavish life she thought she wanted), but is ultimately what she truly wants. This is confirmed with her desire for a baby, stating that she would make a much better mother (much different than an a jeweler that she aspired to be!). In this case, the city dominated by chance has lead Eleanor to desire a different more fulfilling life, and has had a positive impact.
Koyaanisqatsi is very unique in its combination of film and music. In terms of of the cinematography, there is a theme of zooming in and out of different “lenses” of the city. The first scenes of traffic relate to themes of order and patterns as mentioned in the prompt. Every car seems to be going in a straight line, and the motion is as monotonous as it is continuous (I wouldn’t have noticed if the scenes were kept on loop). But with every changing seen, we can observe that it isn’t as simple as a single pattern as we once thought. As the lenses of observation on the city change, we observe different things. One, the cars are not all continuously moving, but there are pauses in between. The roads are not all straight, but they curve and turn in all different directions. The video continues by delving deeper into detail about the diverse life within the city. Not of only people, but how it is simultaneously existing on different platforms (like with machines, or how its also for entertainment for business). with transitions to the original view of the monotonous traffic, the film reminds us how diverse and alive the city is even if from a distance, it may seem like any other city (reinforcing this by showing the diversity of different people of different styles and races before returning to their thematic tool of using traffic).
In terms of music, it’s a very simple sequence of increasing the texture within conjunction of the film. As the film delves deeper into the city, the score evolves primarily by increasing the texture (Adding more sounds or voices). The music begins to sound much more organic as different musical elements are used (such as dynamics, accents, and use of a choir). From what I believe is a 4-4 time signature, there’s a continuous 8th note ostinato with an ostinato on the first 8th note of every pair, that never ceases from beginning to the end. Most noticeable as the choir sings. I believe this ostinato is used in a similar manner of the traffic in the film, and how although at first the song may seem simple and structured, it is also very alive and diverse (with many different instruments being used). There is no negative or positive in my opinion for this work, it merely states that what seems to be a bland city dictated by order, is much more exuberant and lively and lead by chanced.
November 24, 2017 at 2:20 am
“Mugging”, “Physics”, and the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi all present how we often face chance experiences within a larger order and context in a city like New York. In “Mugging”, the narrator experiences chance by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting mugged, while such an event occurs within a city in which many different events are happening around him as he walks through the streets. In “Physics”, Eleanor experiences chance through the unlikely “random” events that occur within her life, while such events occur within the larger context of elitist social life in New York during the time period of which she takes part. In the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi, chance interactions occur between people each and every day as they pass through the streets and live their life, while such interactions occur within the context of the bustling city in which we are all a part of and experience collectively each and every day.
“Physics” presents the city as more dominated by chance by presenting how Eleanor’s life is shaped and characterized by “random” events such as choosing not to get in the limousine with Samantha and getting hit by a car. On the other hand, “Mugging” and the excerpt present the city as more dominated by order by showing how people take up small roles within the larger and more complex system of New York City and the busy city lifestyle. All the individual chance events make up small parts of a much larger and more complex whole that people in a large city like New York often experience unconsciously.
The positive aspect of chance for individuals who dwell in the city is that people have their own unique experiences and can often come across important opportunities. On the other hand, the negative aspect is that people can often be stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. The positive aspect of order for individuals who dwell in the city is that people are all part of a large, strong, and collective community that comes together in times of need and make collective contributions to the city as a whole. The negative aspect is that millions of people are crammed together in a busy city each carrying out their individual lives.
November 25, 2017 at 9:05 pm
In “Mugging” by Allen Ginsberg, the author speaks about a time he got mugged. In the ten years he lived there, this was the first time this happened to him, suggesting that this turn of events was improbable. He in a sense depicts the saying “He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.” Thus, this situation was just a mere coincidence. However, his details about the neighborhood suggest otherwise. Before Ginsberg has the encounter with the kids who mugged him, he describes his surroundings with phrases like, “garbage cans chained to concrete anchors…corner pharmacy iron gated…Broken cement stoop steps” (926-927). This instance does not seem rare for the neighborhood. This can be confirmed with his interaction with the police, because they do not seem to help him at all. This suggest that muggings are common in this area and if anything, Ginsberg has been lucky to avoid them until now. Thus, this part of the city is less dominated by chance but more by order. The order is so common that it can become negative in one’s life, as it is somewhat inescapable.
In “Physics” by Tama Janowitz, the author lives in a bustling city where rare events are rather probable. There are a lot of instances like Eleanor getting hit by a car and getting invited into a limousine that seem improbable in the moment. However, when you think about it, the city is always moving, much like the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi, and such events are bound to happen to someone. For instance, when Eleanor comes to terms with her life and how she wants to one day have a child, her boyfriend Stash says “This forty-nine-year-old widow was walking down the street and all of a sudden a thirty-five-ton crane toppled over and hit her. She was pinned under it for nearly six hours…That’s why you can’t have children in New York.” It is reasonable for him to fear for his child’s life, however, it is not a reason to stop doing things that makes one happy. The city is a large place and most of the things that happened to Eleanor were due to chance. Same goes for the old woman crushed by the crane. Thus, Eleanor embraces her life full of chances in a big city like New York. The large scale of people in the city could be seen in the excerpt. There are thousands of cars on highways, in subways, at restaurants, and on the street. Thus, the probability of someone getting hit by a crane is very low. That’s what makes the city so interesting to live in, because there are so many opportunities and outcomes, that it makes life evermore exciting. The positive aspect of chance for individuals depends on the infinite experiences one can come across while living in the city. However, the more negative aspect is, no one knows what can happen at any moment, much like the several terror attacks and series of unfortunate events.
November 26, 2017 at 12:57 am
“Mugging” by Allen Ginsberg is an interesting representation of both chance and order. For the most part, the story is about a rare circumstance in which Ginsberg gets mugged for his wallet and watch. The situation itself is by chance, but how it played out is natural order within urban patterns. Towards the end of the incident, Ginsberg mentions that the robbers left behind something far more valuable than his wallet and watch combined – his poetry. He describes the shoulder bag that they had left behind as “10,000 dollars full of poetry,” which I saw as a rather natural circumstance. Normally, no robber who would mug people on the streets would have appreciation for poetry, let alone actually hurting someone for it. Also, when Ginsberg asked for help, he was not only denied but refused to even call the police for him. The kids he asked to help showed him a scar they received from a mugging and mentioned that they would all get arrested for simply getting involved in this incident. Our instincts to avoid trouble and putting ourselves first before others is a gut instinct in not only urban communities, but in all societies. Overall, Ginsberg’s “Mugging” represented a greater theme of natural order over random chance.
“Physics” by Janowitz gave a similar first impression. The story opens with the narrator being hit by a car right after she got a haircut. The story follows with more random events and descriptions of her day with Stash. On the surface level, everything seems to be occurring by chance. Yet, the setting of this story forces an inevitable reality into the story, similar to the “Mugging”. On page 5 of the story, Eleanor is asked why she is going out with Stash if he is not rich. The materialistic nature of the question fits perfectly into the larger pattern of system and order.
The excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi highlights the fast paced and complex lifestyle in the urban area. Unlike the other two works, this focuses heavily on the natural system of monotony and repetitious life. For instance, the clips of factory workers in their daily workflow and cars moving across a structured grid system greatly embodies the natural flow and order in society. The music is repeated throughout the video, adding to the repetitiveness depicted. There were also many other clips, which may hint at limitless opportunities. Urban life may be complex, but the overall repetitiveness portrayed in the video actually reveals the lack of opportunity and chance.
For individuals who dwell in the city, this systematic structure ingrained into society provides stability, especially in populated areas. Without a structured way of living, many people will However, this naturally limits the opportunities available to us. For example, our education system forces us to go to kindergarten, then primary and secondary school, and finally the “optional” yet advertised as imperative educational experience to our success. For over twelve years of an average student’s life in America, students have little to no opportunity to choose the courses they desire, not to mention that all public education students follow a standardized curriculum for their courses. There are many instances other than this that limit one’s opportunities. Personally, I believe that a society dominated by order offers a more stable lifestyle, but that stability does not outweigh the limits on innovative thinking and unqiue opportunities.
November 26, 2017 at 2:34 pm
In “Mugging” by Allen Ginsberg, the author describes a time in his life where he was robbed. While for him this experience had been one that occurred simply by chance, being at the wrong place at the wrong time, for others, he described it as an “all-too-common experience of 1970’s New York.” According to Ginsberg’s description of the area in which he lived, it actually wasn’t all too safe and mugging generally did occur often in his neighborhood. We see this when Ginsberg asks for help while being robbed and is denied because of the kids fear to get involved. Although the way in which this event played out for Ginsberg can be recognized as happening by chance, in reality describing it as an event that was dominated by order seems to make more sense if looking at it through a bigger picture.
“Physics” written by Tama Janowitz, depicts a city where life is dominated by chance rather than order. Eleanor’s life is shaped by events that are considered “random” such as when she was invited into a limousine, getting struck by a car, and other random events that she experiences throughout her day with Stash. Chance led her to the life she now lives today. While living a life full of chance rather than order can have positive impacts such as endless opportunities and never be limited to any ideas or actions it can also have many negative impacts. Not knowing what can happen at any moment in your life can be terrifying, living by the day and not being sure of what’s to come tomorrow. Unfortunate events occur all around us constantly and those are things that order becomes important for.
The excerpt from Koyaanisqatsi, unlike the previous two works, focuses on the common daily lifestyle of those who live in an urban area. Patterns within this urban lifestyle are clearly portrayed throughout the clip which presents images of the jobs of factory workers, streets packed with hundreds of people walking through the city on a daily basis, and cars traveling back and forth to where they need to go. The way in which the events are shown in this video of the way that people go through in their daily lives portrays a sense of meaningless as if they just skid through every day just to get to the next. Everything is rushed and fast passed and nothing is depicted in detail which leads to the idea that chance isn’t very unlikely in these circumstances and certain opportunities are limited to these people.
November 26, 2017 at 11:10 pm
Whether it is by chance or not, individuals living in densely populated areas are more vulnerable to events happening randomly. The individual instances of these chance events thus contribute to the overall patterns of the city itself. The repeated theme of chance occurrences within larger urban patterns not only affect the individual but also the community as well. Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” Janowitz’s “Physics,” and the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi all touch on this theme of chance occurrences within larger urban patterns.
Although the Native American word translates to “life out of balance,” Koyaanisquatsi portrays the city closest to dominated by order rather than by chance. The excerpt displays the congestion and patterns of New York rather than things happening by chance. For instance, it shows traffic moving in and out of the city. Traffic is bound to move every day in New York no matter what. Thus, it is not a chaotic or unusual thing to portray. Moreover, since it would rather show the patterns of the city that will happen every day, it can be argued that the excerpt of Koyaanisquatsi portrays New York City as being dominated by order rather than by random occurrences.
As for Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” the reading displays what could happen if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. In it, the narrator is mugged on his way home. Although this is a random occurrence, it is part of a larger pattern that dominates cities. That larger pattern is the crime rate. Although being robbed is relatively improbable at the individual level, the chances are higher the more time that individual spends in the city, as a mugging is likely to happen at least once a day in the city. Furthermore, Ginsberg’s “Mugging” exemplifies the possible negative effects for individuals who dwell in the city. Although if one is to be aware of his or her surroundings and avoids neighborhoods with higher crime rates, then that induvial limits his or her chances of being mugged. Thus, Ginsberg’s “Mugging” shows the although it is by chance, robbery is something that may be predicted and so shows that the city is both dominated by chance and by order.
On the other hand, Janowitz’s “Physics” portrays the city as being nearly completely dominated by chance. From the beginning, the narrator remembers a freak accident of being hit by a car, something that would only be categorized as a random occurrence. Then, she finds money in the gutter, again something that may happen, but is unlikely. On top of that, the woman in front of her in a pizzeria orders the same unusual slice that she ordered. All of these random occurrences contribute to the author’s notion that the city is dominated and dictated by chance. Thus, “Physics” argues that whether you are hit by a car or find twenty dollars in the gutter, an individual living in the city is going to be impacted by random occurrences, whether those occurrences be positive or negative.
November 27, 2017 at 1:44 am
From these three works, we see that chaos versus order generally depends on perspective. In the “Mugging,” by Ginsberg, the narrator details certain aspects of his neighborhood and then his encounter with muggers. For him, he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, for him to have no money is the mugger’s unlucky hit. However, when looking at the neighborhood as a whole, this chance encounter doesn’t seem so random anymore. His environment is a common place for people to be mugged, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to others. So, although it may seem like it was chance for this individual, it is also part of the routine in that neighborhood. The negative aspect of chance in the city as shown in the “Mugging” is that there is a greater chance of an event like a mugging to happen. In Janowitz’s “Physics,” the incidents that occur every day in the city are almost completely dictated by chance. Eleanor faces many random events in the city that seem very unlikely. From a car accident to monetary opportunities, the city is full of random occurrences that happen at once. With the many simultaneous things that happen in the city, the probability that a certain event happens to individuals increases dramatically because the chance of it happening at all is much higher. This is also what makes chance a positive aspect in the city because seemingly random things elsewhere become less random as more of it happens. Opportunities in the city for ambitious individuals become much more probable. Lastly, in the excerpt of Koyaanisquatsi, it depicts the constant movement and liveliness of the city. It shows the cars, people, workers, and the other parts of the city moving together like a living organism. While each incident may seem unlikely alone, things aren’t so random when they happen together. This portrays the city as more dominated by order because it shows the various movements of the city as a collective whole. I believe that the natural order of the city actually comes from all the disorder and that we have to observe events from multiple perspectives.
November 27, 2017 at 6:00 pm
Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” Janowitz’s “Physics,” and the excerpt from Koyaanisqatsi all show how people live in and deal with the spontaneity and structure that comes with a city like New York. In Ginsberg’s “Mugging”, we witness something occur that is very uncommon to occur at the individual level but much more common as a larger pattern- a mugging. The speaker of the poem gets robbed for everything he owns as he’s walk in the streets of New York. Even though it isn’t overly common to get attacked in New York like this, it is part of a larger trend. I’d say this poem more portrays New York as being dominated by order rather than chance because of the way the author just experienced something as traumatic as being jumped but then just goes back to his life right after. The way he described the neighborhood made it sound like this was not something out of the ordinary and would likely be repeated again. In this story, order can be seen as a negative of living in the city because he had to deal with this but it also can be a positive since the speaker went back to his daily life even after what he experienced. Janowitz’ “Physics” is a story that shows the city as being more dominated by chance rather than order. This can be seen in the way the narrator Eleanor deviated from the path she thought was her dream but still ended up being happy. Since this unexpected path led Eleanor to fulfilling life she didn’t know was possible, this story shows that the spontaneity of the city can be a positive. In the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi, the city is primarily portrayed as a place of structure and order. Through the use of time lapses and camera panning, the maker of this video was able to show the city as a working machine. The film shows how the city’s immense scale and complexity make it an interconnected organism of sorts. I think this video shows order as a positive thing because it shows how order is the way New York is able to be so efficient and fast-paced.
November 27, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Tama Janowitz’s article “Physics” explores the idea of chance and order. The story opens as Eleanor, an aspiring jewelry designer, gets hit by a car in the bustling city of New York. Fortunately, Eleanor is not severely hurt; she proceeds by ordering a slice of pizza to celebrate her liveliness and is surprised when another customer orders the same strange slice as her. This event is the first indication of the theme of chance. Eleanor wonders what the odds are that the woman in front of her could be ordering the same odd slice of pizza, and what the odds are that this event took place right after she survived through a hit-and-run. When she arrives back at her small apartment with her partner Stash, the two get into a minor fight but ultimately proceed to attend a party that night which has other famous artists in attendance. At the table, Eleanor feels overwhelmed by the success and fame of those around her. She wonders why the woman, Samantha Binghamton, wearing a rubber garment with no apparent beauty or talent could gain so much popularity. Given the opportunity to penetrate the lifestyle of the elite, alongside Samantha and her brother in law, Eleanor realizes that her life would not be improved in any way by increased attention from a glamorous lifestyle. She would be “in the same mess only in a different neighborhood” (Janowitz 7). Ultimately, through various events that occur in the story, Eleanor comes to the conclusion that all of the random particles in physics may not be so random at all. There is a complex pattern to understand the madness of New York City- one which includes the chance that perhaps others may have the same bizarre taste in pizza or the socialites may intersect with the common artists and perhaps, life is perfectly imperfect with the understanding that not every random event needs to be understood.
In Allen Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” he explores the chance event that any person can be mugged in New York City. In hindsight, it seems extremely unlikely that a man could get robbed by a bunch of children, however Ginsberg’s recollection of this event portrays the notion that these events can happen to anyone at any time. He had lived in lower Manhattan for 10 years and never once had an encounter of the sort. In the beginning of the excerpt, Ginsberg explains the order of his urban lifestyle; when he leaves his apartment at dusk he passes by the same landmarks he is accustomed to- garbage cans, fire escapes, withering posters, and stores. He introduces this theme of order and repetition in the city, which is abruptly interrupted by his mugging. Living for 10 years in the same area of the city can mean that one day in all those years may be different from the others. There is always a chance that an unexpected event may unfold, because despite the predictable nature of the city, people can be unpredictable sometimes. Even when Ginsberg is attacked by the gang of adolescents, he is unable to immediately process what is happening to him. When the first kid jumps him, with his arm around his neck, Ginsberg believes the act was “tenderly.. for a moment” (927). The order of the city makes dwellers susceptible to attacks and muggings, because they do not expect events out of their daily routines. In this aspect, routine can negatively impact people.
The short film Koyaanisquatsi represents different visual aspects of the city through time lapses. Different perspectives reveal certain patterns that exist around Manhattan, including lights and cars traveling in circles. Simultaneously, the city does is not depicted to have a uniform pattern and flow. At times, the shots showcase brief interruptions in the smooth flow of the city movement- around 6 minutes the natural bustle of the city is interrupted almost by the large projected screen that depicts seemingly unrelated images. The viewer is drawn to this unnatural subject matter as images flash across the screen- a woman’s eyes followed by an advertisement and some random designs as transitions. The time lapses reveal the beautiful symmetry and order than exists in the city, with a few unbalanced interjections to make it evident that there are random collisions that occur at the individual level. The random patterns of cars, people, and lights moving appear cohesive at a larger glance. When you take a closer look, you can find the little differences and random particles that make the city so unique and contribute to the efficiency of the large, oiled machine that is Manhattan.
November 27, 2017 at 11:38 pm
Allen Ginsberg “Mugging” describes his experience of being mugged. This event would be unlikely to happen at an individual level but it does occur as a part of a larger pattern. In the reading, Ginsberg makes it seem like muggings occur occasionally. This is depicted since the citizens and the authorities have become used to these incidents and no longer do anything to help Ginsberg. Even today, we often hear about muggings on the news when we watch television or read the newspaper. However, the authorities today make an attempt to prevent an event like this from happening and citizens will most likely help. Overall, it is unlikely that one person out of the others living in New York City will be mugged.
An example of a writing that is dominated by chance is “Physics” by Tama Janowitz. She discusses Eleanor and a scene from her life. In the beginning of the story, Eleanor experiences many unlikely events starting with the car crash in the beginning of the novel and the introduction of a possible husband at the dinner. These events influence how her life will end up but she ultimately chooses the decisions that will create happiness. On the other hand, the excerpt from Godfrey Reggio’s film Koyannisqatsi depicts that the city is dominated by order. The film shows how every day is constant. You take any mode of transportation to get to work, you work and then you leave with that same mode of transportation again. It shows how industrialization has caused life to be repetitive and that it has become tedious because citizens are doing the same tasks again and again.
The negative aspect of order is that it creates a boring lifestyle because it becomes predictable. You know what will happen ahead of time and there’s nothing to look forward to. However, the positive aspect of order is that there are no surprises. If everything remains constant, then there will be almost nothing to fear. The positive aspect of chance is that it brings excitement to life. However, with chance, there is also a negative aspect to it since the random events is not necessarily beneficial to you.
November 28, 2017 at 12:26 am
In “Mugging” by Allen Ginsberg, the author recounts a time that he got robbed. The narrator had always seen this event as improbable and was surprised that in the past 10 years of his life nothing like this had ever happened. The central idea of this story is “He was at the wrong place at the right time.” At first, it seems like an instance of chance, however through further evaluation, it seems that the instance was not rare at all. The style that the author uses to describe his surroundings throughout the piece suggests that the neighborhood in which he lives is one that is not safe. With environments of “streets full of broken glass” and “groups of kids hanging around”, it seems like an environment that would contribute to crime or bad behavior. With little help from the police, it seems as if there is little order instituted on the community, and rather than his surroundings being a place where he should feel safe, it is one where he should be conscious of crime. If anything, muggings should be common in the area, and Ginsberg should consider himself fortunate to have escaped the chaos in an environment that he chooses to see as orderly. How the instance of his mugging is played is seemingly chance, but actually a product of natural order in urban communities. When he asks kids for help, they ignore him saying that by even getting involved in the incident they risk being arrested themselves. The kids possess an instinct to put themselves before others and represent how in urban communities where crime flourishes a natural order triumphs over random chance.
The story “Physics” by Janowitz represents a contrasting idea of a society dominated by chance rather than by order. The story opens with the main character Eleanor being struck by a car. She lives, and the idea of chance is set into motion, driving the rest of the story. When Eleanor orders a slice of pizza, the customer behind her proceeds to order the same obscure slice. This contributes to Eleanors bubbling fascination with how chance effects her everyday life, and her life as a whole. What were the chances she would get hit by a car today, and live? What is the chance that she would get hit by a car, and then stand next to the line to someone who would order the same slice as her? She carries these ideas with her into her night when she attends a socialites dinner, where she comes to the revelation that whether she was “elite” and wealthy like the socialites, or living the life she already leads, “chance” is an inescapable thing. Her final conclusion is that all of the random particles in physics may not be so random at all, and everything happens for a reason. The city of New York is run by a complex system that is not meant to be understood, and life is better when you let the universe deliver you to your fate rather than you attempting to harness and control it.
In the excerpt from Koyaanisqatsi, the patterns of everyday urban lifestyle are depicted. In contrast with the previous two pieces of work, there is less of a focus on the systems of order or chance. Instead, the artist portrays New York City, and the world, as a meaningless flow of events with no deeper or further philosophy. The work features lives of urban area dwellers, form the jobs of factory workers, to hundreds of cars racing through the city, and masses of people filling the sidewalk. The idea is that there is both order, and disorder in everyday life; Neither idea constitutes the universe. Random images will suddenly flash across the screen, illustrating the unexpected quality of life in New York. Time lapses are used to give the viewer a sense of just how much energy is funneled through space and time each day, and how easy it is to get lost in the maze of variables that is life.
November 28, 2017 at 2:20 am
In Tama Janowitz “Physics” events that occur through the period of one day seem random and chaotic as though they have no real significance to life. Throughout the day, the narrator gets into a little car accident, loses her slice of pizza to another customer and eventually attends a dinner with other artists in order to support her boyfriend Stash. Although the narrator depicts a pessimistic tone throughout her story, as if looking for meaning in the insignificance clutter of life, she end the narrative with an upbeat message. She finally concludes that life isn’t simply “happening to her” but rather she is making active choices which reflect her happiness. Many times, we overlook events as random occurrences that are just part of the natural flow of life, however towards the end of the story when Tama is presented with a choice whether to leave her boyfriend and go for a night out in town with a socialite to go back to her dingy apartment-she chooses her apartment for she knows she will find love there. In that split second, she is forced to analyze her options and weigh what truly makes her happy-and she chooses love and familiarity. Although at the individual level, these events seem mundane, in the larger pattern of life Tama is able to discover what she has and what she is missing in her life. In New York City, as shown by this short story, the positive aspect of chance is that there are always new opportunities arising even when you didn’t see them coming. This happens when the elite socialite from the art dinner tries to set Tama up with her brother-in-law mitch. The negative aspect to these chance occurrences is that you never know who could steal your next slice of pizza of when you could get into a serious car accident. This piece of work definitely portrays the city as being run by chance and random acts.
In the excerpt from Koyaanisqatsi, the story depicts how chance occurrences occur everyday in the hustle and bustle of New york City while also highlighting the highly repetitive nature of city life. Thus, this clip presented both positive and negative aspects to the urban lifestyle as it depends on the kind of lifestyle each individual is searching for.
In the piece of literature “Mugging,” the city is portrayed as being dominated by order since the author portrays the probability of being robbed as relatively high through his descriptions. The author describes how he got mugged in New York City and although the probability seems pretty low, it rises as the narrator describes how he has had the same daily routine for ten years and counting. Thus, the chances that he would get mugged while on this routine arise. Furthermore, it highlights the fact that this act was very improbably at the individual level but when seem as part of a large picture-it becauses much more probable. Additionally, it portrays New York City as an orderly environment in which things don’t happen in visible patterns. This is seen as a negative facet of New York City in this particular story as it leads to the mugging of the individual.
November 28, 2017 at 10:51 am
“Mugging” by Allen Ginsberg and “Physics” by Janowitz, in my opinion, show how the city is dominated by chance rather than order. In “Mugging”, of all the people on the street, a poor man who weirdly values his poems over his life gets mugged. Also considering that he had lived in the same neighborhood for 10 years and he hadn’t mentioned that he had gotten mugged before, we can assume this was his first time. In “Physics”, the narrator, Eleanor, describes her life. She quit her dream of being a jewelry designer and works two days a week as a copy editor. She also lives with her boyfriend, Stash, who is an artist and their dog, Andrew. She recounts a time when one of her family members had water dumped on her head from a window because she was singing early in the morning and we see later on that Stash does this to a couple of people who walk by the apartment while Eleanor is walking the dog. At one point in her story, Eleanor and Stash attend a dinner with other artists. However, this takes place the day after Stash receives a negative review in the newspaper and Stash was at first reluctant to go. The dinner is free for them and Eleanor reminds Stash of their financial situation and convinces him to go to the dinner. At the dinner Eleanor could’ve changed her entire life. One of the richer artists’ wife offered Eleanor to spend the rest of the night with her and her brother in law in attempt to set them up so Eleanor wouldn’t be poor anymore. Eleanor declines and realizes that although her life may not be perfect in many ways, it is still her life and she likes it. I think that chance encounters like this, while being in the city, can be both rare and common. Some people have more luck than others in a large and crowded city. If someone isn’t somewhere the exact second someone else is, the chance of meeting decreases. This is shown by the clip from Koyaanisquatsi where one can see that the city is always moving. There are cars driving and people walking next to each other, but to completely different destinations.
November 28, 2017 at 11:50 am
All three authors touch upon order and chance with differing takes on each. In Allen Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” the idea of chance is demonstrated in the rather uncontrollable event of being mugged. The author describes the night like any other night, having “walked out of [his] home [for] 10 years” in the same “honking neighborhood” on East tenth street. The night seems rather ordinary, as does his surroundings, until suddenly, he is apprehended by a group of kids and dragged into an abandoned store. They attempt to rob him, but leave when they realize he has no money. For Ginsberg, the event seemed bizarre and completely random, as he walks out and tells a grocery store owner, “I just got mugged[!]” However, we see from the reaction of the public that the event wasn’t so surprising for them. The “drunken” store owner shrugged it off and didn’t reply. Even the police seemed disinterested. In this sense, the event was actually not as out of the ordinary as Ginsberg thought. It is actually only one of the many string of muggings that occur in the city everyday. Although it was by chance that he was the person to be mugged, the event itself is not random but very much premeditated. This is the crime pattern of the city, an unfortunate negative result of living in New York. Whereas Ginsberg struggled with the idea of chance and order in the city, Eleanor delights in the possibilities. She realizes that the events in her life, whichever decision she makes, usually results in the same outcome. Whether she had chosen to go with Samantha or stayed with Stash, she would still end up in the same place and same feeling, at home and depressed. But now that she knows events in life are more calculated than she thought, she was enticed by the inevitabilities and different possibilities, comparing it to physics. Here we see the more positive aspects of chance in NYC, in which the possibilities are endless and its quite exciting. In the excerpt from Koyaanisquatsi, the order of New York City is depicted in the pattern and flow of traffic and people. Despite slight nuances, all traffic is organized and people are moving with purpose; the city is full of life but all oriented towards the same goal. It shows the sort of monotonous and repetitive nature of the city, which can come off dulling, but is actually quite beautiful and fascinating. How all these different people with different lives can meet and pass one another by perfect chance and never to see each other again.
November 28, 2017 at 9:30 pm
In my opinion, both “The Mugging” and Koyaanisqatsi show how the city is dominated more by order than by chance. “The Mugging“ by Allen Ginsberg describes the improbable event of a robbing. The author describes the time he was mugged and states that this happened by chance. He claims that he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, when Ginsberg described the area he lived in, it didn’t seem too uncommon. His details about the neighborhood contradict the belief of it happening by chance. After 10 years of living there, this was the first time this happened to him, and I would say that it was more of his luck. When he asked kids to call the police, they denied. They showed him their scars from a mugging and explained that if they were to call the police, they would get arrested for being involved. Although the situation was described more by chance, the reality is that it is dominated by order. This makes more sense since these muggings are so common in the neighborhood. The short film Koyaanisqatsi represents visual features of the city over time. Cars are constantly moving and much of the same is occurring throughout the film, which represents the fast-paced lifestyle in the area. Images of workers and the clips of people walking through the city portray the urban lifestyle. The idea of chance isn’t likely and it seems as if opportunities are bound. New York City is seen to be dominated more by order than by chance.
On the other hand, Tama Janowitz’s “Physics” explores the idea of chance. This story begins with Eleanor getting hit by a car in busy New York. As the day progresses, random events are occurring. After she gets hit by a car, she goes on about her day and decides to order a slice of pizza. She is surprised when another customer orders the same slice. This clearly displays the idea of by chance occurrences because someone else had the same taste in pizza as her. Later on, Eleanor attends a party and as the day goes on she is invited into a limousine, which seems improbable. This could be a huge opportunity for her, especially because she wants to become successful. However, she declines the offer. It can be seen that Eleanor eventually welcomes how chance led her to the life she now has. This city dominated by chance led her to want a different lifestyle and had an overall positive impact.
November 29, 2017 at 1:23 am
A concept that I’ve always been rather fond of and fascinated by is the Law of Truly Large Numbers, which essentially states that, given a sufficiently enormous sample size, any outrageous or seemingly impossible thing is bound to happen. Another intriguing statistical conclusion is that, if one calculates the probability of a particular occurrence to be “one in a million,” then they ought to expect one such event to occur every thirty five days. These calculations are interesting, but as cities and urban centres expand and attract more people, they begin to be increasingly useful in explaining the “remarkable” or “unimaginable” events that occur on a frequent basis. In a city like New York, with a population of over 10 million, a “one in a million” chance really doesn’t promise any sort of rarity. All three works mentioned in this prompt, “The Mugging,” “Physics,” and “Koyaanisqatsi” present readers with examples of random events, “collisions” and hidden patterns experienced by characters in their everyday lives in New York City. Each author shows a character dealing with a theoretically “unlikely” even or series of events, and demonstrates the different ways in which these elements of life can be interpreted.
In Ginsberg’s “The Mugging,” the narrator gets mugged by a group of kids. Perhaps to some, getting mugged may seem like an unfortunate strike of bad luck: a pity, but something that “would never happen to me.” However, the narrator’s nonchalant description of the event makes it clear that he sees the mugging as something almost inevitable, and merely an unfortunately everyday aspect of the harsh reality that was life in some New York City neighbourhoods in the 1970’s. The author’s description of streets littered with broken glass and teeming with kids who may have had “nothing better to do,” even readers who have never experienced sub-par neighbourhoods begin to realize that, in some living situations, these occurrences may be tragically commonplace. The narrator’s description of a pointless meeting with police officers further drives in the notion that the his “horrible luck” was nothing more than the occurrence of something that was due to happen anyhow. The author even makes clear attempts to use phrases meant to clarify his mind and body, but these obviously don’t help him or change his situation in any way. “The Mugging” illustrates an interesting scenario in which, by residing in a certain part of the city, a character can essentially surrender preconceived odds of unfortunate events, and accept the “unexpected” as part of everyday life.
Eleanor, the narrator in “Physics” takes a different perspective. She occupies a common archetype found in the city: a poor artist seeking wealth and glory in New York. In this piece, a hit-and-run, a potentially difficult to avoid, but quite common occurrence in the city, makes Eleanor examine two different possible trajectories of her life, both of which are also the results of theoretically “chance” encounters. Eleanor lives with meager means with her artist-boyfriend “Stash,” when she encounters Samantha, a rich gallery owner, at a party. Samantha introduces Eleanor to her wealthy brother-in-law, and offers her to leave with them. Eleanor realizes that, as an artist, a life with Samantha and her connections could be her only chance for riches and fame. However, she declines the offer. Although she initially regrets her decision, she decides that she could be unhappy both in rich surroundings as well as in meager ones, and that in her current life, she has at least been lucky enough to find love with Stash, something which very easily easily could have never happened. In the end of the piece, Eleanor remains with Stash, and admits that she wants to have a child. “Physics” is intriguing in the sense that it combines the ideas of “chance” and “choice.” Eleanor encounters two individuals who could change her life, Samantha and Stash, and experiences an accident that almost ends her life. Although she chose neither of these events, she is able to choose which coincidence she wants to develop and base her life on. However, in the end, she also wants to have a child: a person whose existence she can control, and who she can essentially guarantee will better her life.
On a final note, Koyaanisqatsi is interesting because it provides viewers with a visual demonstration of the hidden complexity behind what we see as “orderly” everyday situations. By focusing prolongedly on something e usually only give a cursory glance to, traffic, Koyaanisqatsi makes viewers realize that cars really move in an irregular fashion, and that the seemingly ruler-straight streets have curves and deviate from their grid. The musical accompaniment enhances this appreciation of complexity, as the soundtrack’s melody increases in complexity and depth as the scene goes on.
November 29, 2017 at 1:23 am
A concept that I’ve always been rather fond of and fascinated by is the Law of Truly Large Numbers, which essentially states that, given a sufficiently enormous sample size, any outrageous or seemingly impossible thing is bound to happen. Another intriguing statistical conclusion is that, if one calculates the probability of a particular occurrence to be “one in a million,” then they ought to expect one such event to occur every thirty five days. These calculations are interesting, but as cities and urban centres expand and attract more people, they begin to be increasingly useful in explaining the “remarkable” or “unimaginable” events that occur on a frequent basis. In a city like New York, with a population of over 10 million, a “one in a million” chance really doesn’t promise any sort of rarity. All three works mentioned in this prompt, “The Mugging,” “Physics,” and “Koyaanisqatsi” present readers with examples of random events, “collisions” and hidden patterns experienced by characters in their everyday lives in New York City. Each author shows a character dealing with a theoretically “unlikely” even or series of events, and demonstrates the different ways in which these elements of life can be interpreted.
In Ginsberg’s “The Mugging,” the narrator gets mugged by a group of kids. Perhaps to some, getting mugged may seem like an unfortunate strike of bad luck: a pity, but something that “would never happen to me.” However, the narrator’s nonchalant description of the event makes it clear that he sees the mugging as something almost inevitable, and merely an unfortunately everyday aspect of the harsh reality that was life in some New York City neighbourhoods in the 1970’s. The author’s description of streets littered with broken glass and teeming with kids who may have had “nothing better to do,” even readers who have never experienced sub-par neighbourhoods begin to realize that, in some living situations, these occurrences may be tragically commonplace. The narrator’s description of a pointless meeting with police officers further drives in the notion that the his “horrible luck” was nothing more than the occurrence of something that was due to happen anyhow. The author even makes clear attempts to use phrases meant to clarify his mind and body, but these obviously don’t help him or change his situation in any way. “The Mugging” illustrates an interesting scenario in which, by residing in a certain part of the city, a character can essentially surrender preconceived odds of unfortunate events, and accept the “unexpected” as part of everyday life.
Eleanor, the narrator in “Physics” takes a different perspective. She occupies a common archetype found in the city: a poor artist seeking wealth and glory in New York. In this piece, a hit-and-run, a potentially difficult to avoid, but quite common occurrence in the city, makes Eleanor examine two different possible trajectories of her life, both of which are also the results of theoretically “chance” encounters. Eleanor lives with meager means with her artist-boyfriend “Stash,” when she encounters Samantha, a rich gallery owner, at a party. Samantha introduces Eleanor to her wealthy brother-in-law, and offers her to leave with them. Eleanor realizes that, as an artist, a life with Samantha and her connections could be her only chance for riches and fame. However, she declines the offer. Although she initially regrets her decision, she decides that she could be unhappy both in rich surroundings as well as in meager ones, and that in her current life, she has at least been lucky enough to find love with Stash, something which very easily easily could have never happened. In the end of the piece, Eleanor remains with Stash, and admits that she wants to have a child. “Physics” is intriguing in the sense that it combines the ideas of “chance” and “choice.” Eleanor encounters two individuals who could change her life, Samantha and Stash, and experiences an accident that almost ends her life. Although she chose neither of these events, she is able to choose which coincidence she wants to develop and base her life on. However, in the end, she also wants to have a child: a person whose existence she can control, and who she can essentially guarantee will better her life.
On a final note, Koyaanisqatsi is interesting because it provides viewers with a visual demonstration of the hidden complexity behind what we see as “orderly” everyday situations. By focusing prolongedly on something e usually only give a cursory glance to, traffic, Koyaanisqatsi makes viewers realize that cars really move in an irregular fashion, and that the seemingly ruler-straight streets have curves and deviate from their grid. The musical accompaniment enhances this appreciation of complexity, as the soundtrack’s melody increases in complexity and depth as the scene goes on.
December 3, 2017 at 9:09 pm
In Physics, the narrator disdains her life in the urban city of New York. She is currently working in the pizzeria. At the beginning, Janowitz begins the story with the narrator getting hit by a car and the driver denies his fault and for her injuries. This shows the lack of care and consideration for others in this fast-paced society. People in urban cities are mainly driven by power and money. At the end, the narrator expresses that she wished she could go back to school and take physics. For her to understand the notion of the random particle like understanding traffic patterns, the unplanned cracks, and hit-and-run incident. She wants to use science to understand the reason and principle of life. She doesn’t understand the reason why people in society act a specific way of and wants to use scientific reason to answer her questions.
Based on Koyaanisqatsi, the urban culture is face paced society, with industrial machinery and mass production of products. There is a lack of human interaction and conversion where everyone is doing their own thing and fully concentrated on working. There is an abundant need for a large amount of food for the growing population through the use of factories and machinery. People are always moving around and going somewhere. Living in NYC means that there is no time to slow down or to have time for leisure. People are all dominated by order and are brainwashed to a function a specific way to survive an urban life.
In the excerpt of Mugging by Allen Ginsberg, he highlights an experience when he was robbed on the streets. They demand his wallet, credits cards and all of his valuable possessions. He was dragged to the abandoned store and threatened with a knife to hand over everything or else they will murder him. This short story illustrates the desperation and violence of people in an urban society. It can be concluded that people in large cities need value and gains in life. Residents in the countryside are much kinder and less inclined to take advantage of other people. The large pattern of urban culture is the competition and stress. There so many people and financial burden, people are compelled to rob or murder to gain a sense of comfort. The positive aspect is the melting pot of great diversity in NYC. People of multicultural races come together to work for a common theme of wealth, prosperity, and happiness. The negative aspect is the robotic sense of fast-paced and working society. Everyone is so busy and moving around. No one really has the time to take a breathe and enjoy time to spread with family and friends.
December 18, 2017 at 12:14 pm
The chance that something random may occur, especially more than once, is greatly increased in a setting with large numbers of people. Situations such as these are at the whim of a variety of factors we often cannot foresee. Such is the case with Allen Ginsburg’s mugging and Janowitz’s car accident. Both of the pieces portray a series of chance occurrences. Yet the tone Ginsburg takes, especially in reading his poem, is something resembling expectancy. He approaches the situation with a casualness that subverts the expectations one may have of the appropriate reaction to a mugging. His almost premeditated reaction, as implied by the line “Om Ah Hum didn’t stop them enough”, suggests he perhaps subconsciously believed this would happen to him. This is shared by Janowitz as well when she recalls how her mother had warned her of about the city. Perhaps if we have these preconceptions we are more likely to pay attention to these random instances and single them out. Muggings and car accidents are some of the most common crimes committed so perhaps subconsciously we expect these things will happen. However we can never predict when they will happen. Koyaanisqatsi most portrays the city as one of chance as the subjects of its shots, all the people who pass through those particular spaces do so without us ever knowing that they will. For some it may be part of a routine, whereas for others it may be a new route they are trying for the first time. While we may strive for order it is often chance that presents us with the most authentic and memorable moments. The added expectations of a plan often contribute to a sort of disappointment when the event inevitably fails to live up to our imagination. But the unexpected, while can bring with it some negatives, has the capacity to result in some of the greatest positives we cannot imagine we would ever encounter. So while a mugging may be unpleasant, finding twenty dollars on the street is very pleasant. And both are instances of chance.
December 21, 2017 at 4:03 pm
Ginsberg’s “Mugging,” Janowitz’s “Physics,” and the Koyaanisquatsi excerpt all serve to prove that coincidence and order play conflicting, yet equal roles in the occurrences that take place within the city. Ginsberg’s mugging incident took place during a period of heightened crime rate, as implied by the notion that it was regarded as an “all-too common experience of 1970’s New York.” This indicates that there is some semblance of order in that the group carrying out the task had planned to mug someone, and the general public was clearly accustomed to such crimes because a witness had eventually come to the conclusion that the most beneficial behavior for himself would be to simply mind his own business rather than getting involved. However, his presence at the particular place and time was completely by chance, and something as insignificant as remaining in bed for five more minutes in the morning may have had the potential to change his entire future.
In Janowitz’s “Physics,” the narrator, Eleanor, relates the occurrences of a single day, and they seem to be demonstrative of individual experiences, as not everyone encounters ill-mannered people and gets hit by a car every day. However, these speak to the overall system of order prevalent throughout New York City because the abovementioned events are not necessarily out of the ordinary in the metropolis. While she may have been in unfortunate in her timing and location, the occurrences have become common and she was essentially just a particle that took part in a collision. A concept she struggled to understand in her physics class turn out to be an analogy she used with the clarification provided by a real-life experience.
The excerpt from the film Koyaanisquatsi presents New York City in a largely structured manner. The provided time lapse of the city illustrates the order existing on a day-to-day basis, as the cars flow in a certain direction and must follow that path lest they cause traffic and accidents that would subsequently affect every other car on the highway, which would, in turn, impact people who must be in a certain place at a certain time. Even the traffic lights, though they may appear to be random, operate on a preset timer and dictate when the vehicles must halt and proceed, which contributes to the overall system of order within the city.
The transportation system is arguably one of the most defining aspects of working and living in the city, as it serves as a supposedly ordered structure, yet it is probably the reason for many stressful situations. Delays with the MTA have become so commonplace that nearly every time someone is late, the cause is predictably the mass transit. As such, the positive aspect of dwelling in the city is that these “coincidental” delays become a feature of the order, so the most people are understanding of the circumstances. The negative, on the other hand, remains that individuals are still late for an event for which they would have been early.