Author: ramishsaqib

Hi

Miró

I) Miró alludes to Joan Miró, who was a Spanish painter from the late 19th century to the late 20th century during many periods of art including surrealism, fauvism, cubism, abstract, realism and modern art. The title of the chapter “Miró, Miró, on the Wall” is a reference to the popular line from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall”. The main character of the chapter, Claire, says this because she is a fairly high-class woman living in a nice house and is very depressed over her son that died and seems to be unsure if she is more dead than her son is. She appears to be very affected over the tragic loss of her son.

II) Primary characters: Adelita, Blaine, Ciaran, Claire, Corrigan, Fernando, Gloria + the other mothers, Jazzlyn, Lara, Phillipe, Sam + other hackers, Solomon and Tillie. They’re is about 65 human interactions now (may be off by a few) that I can point out.

Lara was with Blaine while he was driving and they were the ones who crashed into Corrigan’s car while he and Jazzlyn were in it, resulting in both of their deaths. The interaction that interested me the most was between Lara and Ciaran because she first told him that it was her driving the car, while it was actually Blaine. Ciaran forgives her for it and Lara realizes she wants to leave Blaine and we earn that previously when Lara and Ciaran went to get a drink, she told him that she actually wasn’t the one driving, to which Ciaran responds that he knew all along and then kisses her. It’s kind of weird that things turned out like this since she was in the car responsible for killing his brother and that Lara actually decides that she wants to leave her husband Blaine probably a little for what he did and how he treats it, plus the whole Ciaran situation.

Let the Great World Spin – Chapter 1

The prologue of the book starts us off at the World Trade Center in Manhattan. There is a lot of tension there because of a figure at the edge of a building, with no one sure why someone would be up there. At the start of chapter 1, we are taken to Dublin in Sandymount to the childhood home of Corrigan and his brother, Ciaran. There is also the place Corrigan used to go to get drunk with the other drunkards. The book then goes to New York City, where Corrigan now lives and Ciaran also goes there. Corrigan’s apartment appears to be a central area to the story and is where the other characters like Jazzlyn and the other hookers are introduced as people that Corrigan wants to help.

The beginning of the book sort of reminds me of my childhood and what it was like to be carefree and asking all these questions and wondering what’s going on. The tone sort of shifts however when Corrigan’s drinking and smoking problem is introduced, the father not being with them and the mother eventually dying. This is a point in the book where it becomes a lot more sad and where I can’t relate much to except for my dad not living with me either. There is also a spiritual feeling I get when hearing Corrigan talk about his relation to God and how devout he is, even though this is pretty opposite of who I am. Ciaran sort of has more similarity to me in his nature of questioning things and being a bit more real on how things are. The ending of the chapter is also very sudden and depressing which adds to the importance of the moment, as incidents like that in real life are also sudden and usually unforeseen. Overall, the tone really changes after the first few pages from being bright, to a bit more dark. However, it was a good read and does really pull you in with the real life elements and character differences.

Pleasing harmony of parts

The pleasing harmony of parts is similar to the idea of consonance or unison, in that it is sort of a term used to describe something that is or acts mechanical and are strung together and work well with each other, or organized. In the line of text that it is used, it is used as a potential description of beauty. The sentence goes, “If beauty can be defined as the pleasing harmony of parts”. The author does seem to however use a skeptical tone on this definition as he goes on by saying, “… so that what is beautiful has the character of a mechanical, a superficial integrity-then what is ugly can be described as a disharmonious totality”. The writer also uses examples such as a nose that is too large for a face or teeth that stick out to be disrupters to the harmony and that is what would make something or someone ugly. The idea of perfection in terms of looks is something that most human beings have been obsessed with since the beginning of us all. In a society where everyone is judged by how they look and, mainly targeted towards females, is used to make judgements and determine how you would treat that person as if they deserve to be on another level than anyone else. Beauty being a very superficial thing where the outside of someone matters more than who they truly are. The “pleasing harmony of parts” is used to perhaps make us think about society and how society is run by it.