Mohini Chatterjee / মোহিনী মোহন চ্যাটার্জী / মোহিনী চ্যাটার্জী কে নিয়ে লেখা ইয়েটস এর কবিতা। Here is the link to an article written by Asim Dutta F Mohini Kalidasa and Yeats
LOGOPHILES Centre for Creative Writing & Critical Thinking
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Tuesday 16 January 2024
"মোহিনী চ্যাটার্জী" - ইয়েটস এর কবিতা
Saturday 17 June 2023
Literature and Law
- Crime and Punishment - greatest novel about law and human life.
- Hard Times - shows the 19th C. society with all its faults and follies.
- Billy Budd - one of the most complex novels about crime and punishment and moral responsibility.
- To Kill a Mockingbird - great American novel about social and legal justice.
- The Sea-Wolf - a great American novel about lawlessness and morality.
- Bartleby, the Scrivener - short novella about lawyers who work in the Wall Street.
- The Trial - Kafka's terrifying story of totalitarian misuse of Law and existential crisis.
- The Farm - popular John Grisham novel about the world of Lawyers.
- Anatomy of a Murder - Robert Traver's classic courtroom thriller.
Friday 9 June 2023
Practice Essay Topics
- We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (400-450 words).
- Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (1000 -1200 words).
Wit - Method in Madness - Simplicity
Saturday 27 May 2023
Discussions today = Why Major + Covid Essay + Sample Add Info Essay
Three major items were discussed today.
SAT
- The next two dates for SAT are on Oct 7 & November 4. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to opt for the November 4 date.
- It is important to begin the day with 40 minutes of digital SAT from Khan Academy and Collegeboard. It must be in the early MORNING, when our minds are blank.
- We just started new Significant Activity Essay. A brief essay was attempted in the class. Assignment given to complete a 400-600 words essay to be submitted tomorrow.
- Several attempts have been made to prepare Why Major Essay. But today we discussed WHY this is one of the MOST challenging Essay that one can attempt during application season.
- Earlier we have done a couple of small POEMS. Today, W. H. Auden's poem "An Unknown Citizen" has been assigned for reading and appreciation. [Link Here]
- Emperor of Maladies [Link of 27 pages]
- The Selfish Gene [Full Book]
- Selfish Gene is here [Summary ]
- Worldly Philosophers [Critical Study GUIDE]
- Robinson Crusoe (discussed in detail as to WHY this is a MAJOR text of Western Civilization, and how this apparently simple tale incorporates ideas from Capitalism + Colonialism + Religious Doctrine (specifically the doctrines of Sin + Atonement + Redemption cycle of Christianity.) [Illustrated Abridged]
Friday 26 May 2023
Essay Discussion Today
- We began with Run(a)e from Nagaland.
- We moved to HAMNET and Bertleby the Scrivener.
- We then talked about 'Reembrace' as an act of defiance against the 'Erasure of time'. We then listened to "A Tribute to Rituporno Ghosh". Listening to "Remember Me" poem by Christiana Rossetti can be a wonderful way of looking at men's desire for eternity through remembrance. Also recalled the greatest modern French Novel "Remembrance of Things Past."
- We then drifted into the world of songs - first, "Miss Sarajevo" by Bono and Pavarotti. Then the inevitable "Musee des Beaux Arts". Then we could do the ending of Keats' poem "Ode to the Grecian Urn", which makes reference to TWO types of truth - Beauty as Truth, and Truth as Beauty. This dichotomy can only be understood when we see that TRUTH is single-dimensional. That Truth can be understood only in Art, while Life is itself truth (whether ugly or beautiful). I would also love to go back to the unforgettable lines from Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I could not wait for Death." This is the link to a Wonderful Dramatization of the poem.
- Made a quick reference to Nietzsche's concept of Apollonian and Dionysian character in human beings. Apollonian characters are more logical, while Dionysian characters are more into physical pleasures.
- By the end, Zaina and Progga are 'requested' to write something that will give them some clue to what is coming for them. This exercise will be of use when we go into many such long exercises.
- We all agreed that in writing ESSAYS, a beautiful thing can only surface, when there is a terrible depth of thoughts tugging at our hearts.
Wednesday 24 May 2023
Application Season: 2023-24
Yesterday we have started a new session for the 2023-24 session. The following items were discussed.
- Connection between Philosophy and Natural Sciences and Technology. We also gave a brief reading from Andrew Feenberg's "Philosophy of Technology". It is highly readable for a non-expert. The author RIGHTLY connects upholding democratic values for ensuring ethical use of frontier technology. Interestingly, this article, which was written in 2003, makes intelligent allusions to modern technology of the 2020s.
- Thereafter we read through the two articles by Yuval Noah Harari, both of which were published in FINANCIAL Times. These are excellent readings for someone new to the idea of how technology-dependence by governments on the pretext of security and surveillance can DRASTICALLY cut down on individual freedom. Here are the links - (1) World after Corona, (2) Big data and end of Free Will .
- From Noah Harari, we moved on the consideration of "Free Will" and the nature of it. We briefly discussed two novella - Metamorphosis and The Outsider - both of which are mid-Century European texts that discuss the question of Free Will in a world dominated by organized faith.
- We also very slightly touched upon the Question of TRUTH as seen in the context of Epistemology. It will be discussed in greater detail in our next class.
- I have assigned Andrew Feenberg article and a LONG reading on Style & Fashion from BBC.
- Coming Friday at 9.30, we shall commence our first Application Essay.
Friday 30 December 2022
Why College = How To
Following article written by Arshiya Arman
When writing a why college
essay, I submitted the 3/4 drafts and
was met a disapproval. I got to changing and making a few adjustments, which
was taking quite a long time. The next instructions were to check the blog, and
the instructions Zuhan was
given (for Georgia Tech) for his own essay to make the corrections. The process
was not easy, since the college’s website was down, and was given ten minutes
to finish the essay. I wrote what I could and submitted the next draft to
complete it within the time given and started working on the next draft of it.
The website finally started responding and I was able to make another draft
with all the required information, which was approved and
submitted to the college. I followed all the 4 points that Zuhan was given and this time my Why
College essay got approved.
Advice for Zuhan to
write Why Georgia Tech
Name of
Department | Title of select Courses | Name of Favourite Professor |
Technical Facility | Must mention this 4 points.| Otherwise I will reject
| Just mention the 4 points, I will APPROVE
Sunday 20 November 2022
Choosing a Right FIELD of Research - Unambitious Student Syndrome
- First day = 3-5 hours = search the area of your favourite Field of Inquiry
- 1st and Second day = 5-6 hours = identify the Top Papers in your research field.
- 2nd and 3rd day = Collect all the info in your Word Document and also list the links to the latest and earlier Research BOOKS + Articles.
- End of 3rd Day = submit your finding to me for guidance for approval of topic.
- Students FANTASIZE that their Research should look like a LAB research Paper.
- They often think that their research will COMPLETELY Change the World. Phew!!!
- They are Physically INCAPABLE to work in Early Morning and continue throughout the day.
- The time they start SEARCHING the Research Area, it is already 12 pm or 1 pm and that's the end.
- They often SUFFER from Cold and Physical Weakness. So, academic AGGRESSIVENESS is for EVER MISSING in their attitude.
- The KEEP their ROOM and DOOR shut, and take this Freedom of Seclusion to KILL time.
- They are UNABLE to work in OPEN space under the scrutinizing EYES of a guide or parental care.
- They don't either Eat Well, or SLEEP Well, or Drink Well. Some even don't bath well. Or even a few don't even Moshari well.
- And they believe that their caregivers (Parents/Teachers/Guides/Peers) are their Filthiest Enemies.
- Submit RESEARCH proposals within next 3 days.
Friday 21 October 2022
A new start for Zakaria
I welcome Zakaria to our class for the 2022-2024 sessions. Zakaria has a unique opportunity as he will work with me for a length of about 14 Months. I am very glad to note that this will give me enough time to prepare him for college admission abroad. We have already planned to make a daily routine as Zakaria will try to accommodate activities such as Sports, Social Organization Work, Reading, and some amount of hobby such as Music or Mathematics.
Sunday 17 July 2022
Preparatory Reading List for Literature & Psychology Undergraduate Program
- A Short History of English Literature (Ifor Evans): One of the shortest and most readable history of literature written in English.
- Norton Anthology of English Poetry: This can be replaced with poem reading from Poetry Foundation website.
- A Selection of Novels: Tess (Thomas Hardy), Emma (Jane Austen), Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne), Moby Dick (Melville), Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro). All these are available online.
- Non-fiction: A good introduction to Non-fiction is provided by the anthology titled Norton Short Prose. And then you can read regularly from Aeon.com
- Having regular interaction with the newspaper Guardian Unlimited is also definitely worthwhile.
- Shakespeare: Watch the following Shakespeare of films = Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet (Directed by Branagh), Macbeth (Denzel Washington acted), The Tempest (Helen Mirren). For a good introduction to Shakespeare's Life watch this wonderful film Shakespeare in Love.
- Check your college's Summer Reading List of previous 2 years and you will have a fair idea of what is coming.
- For Psychology go through any Wikipedia entry on Psychoanalysis and Freud. But then you must shift to Jacque Lacan.
Wednesday 13 July 2022
Russell's Paradox = A fascinating introduction to the world of Logic
- WikiWand Article (Very Good Start) Click for Link
- Insider Article (Easier bite) Click for Link
- Finally, a youtube Explication of the Paradox Russell's Paradox LINK
SAT and US College Application Season Begins
- Poems = Ezra Pound's In the station of Metro, Auden's three or four poems, Byron's Darkness, and a few others.
- A few novel titles were suggested = Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Metamorphosis, The Stranger, The Great Gatsby.
- Shakespeare's films were suggested = we shall later use these Shakespearean stories to build on political and ethical issues/questions of our time.
Sunday 29 May 2022
Maisha Maliha Joins my Class
Maisha joins our class and we have planned to read 2 novels, 15 poems and 3 Dramas. For today we discussed the following two. We have also discussed an article from Business Standard.
- Pride and Prejudice
- Merchant of Venice
- A Singaporean Startup Rooted Firmly in Bangladesh
Sunday 2 January 2022
Romanticism - A Summary | "Masterful Images: English Poetry from Metaphysicals to Romantics" (1976)
This post has been specially created for those who hear the call of Poetry in their heart. Some may even have produced a full Book of Poems!
Tuesday 12 October 2021
Thursday 7 October 2021
Lyotard+Foucault+Derrida and little bit of Guy Debord = All French Theorists
Yesterday I took an early morning class with Mehjabeen, Adiba, Zawad, and Ramisa. I was unable to record the session but Ramisa kindly did a recording which she will share with me later this week. After this session I separately called Adiba, Zawad, and Ramisa and asked them to submit their thoughts on the French philosophers. Following three submissions are three different ways that the class can be understood. I mainly used Wiki entry but if anyone MORE intensely interested, can access Stanford University Online Philosophy Encyclopedia for FULL texts.
I am uploading Adiba's text today.
Date: 6/10/2021
Thoughts on Lyotard, Derrida and Foucault
By Adiba Alam
Our class today
was mainly based on three white French male philosophers- Lyotard, Derrida and
Foucault.
For Lyotard, we primarily focused on his book: The
Postmodern Condition. It mainly talks about the loss of faith in
metanarratives, mainly that of science and technology. The word ‘metanarrative’
is new to me and I found its meaning quite interesting. It is the
interpretation of events, theories, and discoveries in the past that sets up a
pattern and can be used to describe the future. So, it is like a grand,
coherent story that describes all. It can be religious scriptures or scientific
theories like that provided by Darwin or Freud. Postmodernists seek to reject
the metanarratives of science which places science on a much loftier position
than it should be and question all theories. I realized that we tend to use
metanarratives as well for example, when one dismisses other’s beliefs as
superstitions, when a feminist regards the patriarchal system to have always
only oppressed women or when someone resorts to a certain drug as a cure for an
illness without a second thought. On a broader scale, this can be seen by the
influence of the West on world values and can be deemed as unjust because local
beliefs, methods and procedures are disregarded. Science seeks to proof all
faith systems as false, but itself is a faith system. I had not previously
viewed science or religion as this universal scheme, but now I see how it is a
metanarrative. I agree with the Postmodernist theory that rather than a grand,
all-encompassing theory, we should have smaller, more local narratives because all people are different.
Moving on from Lyotard, we discussed Derrida and Deconstruction. This
describes the relation between texts and their meaning. His concept was a
little bit difficult for me to grasp. Upon researching online, I found that the
definition of Deconstruction itself is complicated because it critiques the
very language that is used to define it. I think it is to look into sentences
and not take them at face value but rather challenge the sentence and its
meaning. The question or challenge need not come from outside but rather from
within the sentence itself. It is a bit paradoxical. I think one of Derrida’s
quotes, "there is no out-of-context,” means exactly that. Every
assumption that we make from a sentence, though not obvious at first, can be
derived from that single sentence. There is rarely any definite truth in
anything. It all depends on our perception.
Finally,
we discussed about Foucault. “I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly
what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that
you were not in the beginning” -I found this quote to be quite relevant to our
lives. I think it aligns with the popular quote, “it’s not about the
destination, and it’s about the journey (or rather how the journey can
influence the destination).” Lyotard says we must be content without universal
truth and Foucault says life has no fixed destination, both are kind of similar
in the sense that there are no set rules that govern life. We also discussed Foucault’s book, ‘Birth of the Clinic’,
which describes society’s need to create systems in order to contain
revolutionary or ‘peculiar’ ideas. That is how power is exerted. This is done
through mental clinics, asylums, jails and even schools where people are
streamlined according to society’s laws. Schools participate in the oppressive
regime that places the knowledgeable on a higher level than others. This is
similar to how metanarrative puts science on a pedestal. Sir’s example of the
recent protest in Dhaka and its ineffectiveness at minimizing crime in the
long-run holds true and something that I have thought about previously.
Punishing the offender is definitely important, but so is questioning the
system that created that offender. People are hesitant to do so because it will
mean changing a system that has been functioning for a long time. Yet, should
we ignore transforming a system for the better just because of our reluctance to
restructure?
Overall,
I thought that all philosophers have very pessimistic views of the current
society. Lyotard questions the pervasive and dominating nature of science,
Derrida asks about the need to challenge meaning and Foucault makes one wonder
about the effectiveness of the systems in place. I have been pondering over a
lot of questions since our class today. Is society beyond repair at this point?
Is it kind of like the climate crisis, where we have already crossed a threshold
temperature and now only drastic action can save us? If we were to start
implementing philosophies like those discussed today amidst our smaller
circles, will it eventually be enough to make a larger social impact? If truth
is fragmented and subjective and as we are delving farther away (much like
entropy), is it possible to ever return to the absolute truth of something? While,
I don’t know the answer to these questions, I realize that having such
contrasting ideas, presenting challenges and asking questions is how we can improve
ourselves and eventually move forward.
Above review has been prepared based on the following Notes during the
·
French
speaking white male philosophers (some privileged, some disadvantaged)
·
Lyotard
o
Observation
of modern society
o
Lost
our faith in the metanarrative
o
Metanarrative
Ø
In
the 19th century, people had faith in science and technology to fix
everything
Ø
Religious
scriptures give information about past, present and future (apocalypse,
judgement day and the happiness achieved after)
Ø
These
are metanarratives
o
Science
and tech also created metanarratives: Darwin, Freud, Karl Marx
o
Postmodern
people and views from the west influence others unjustly
o
Challenges
moral, psychological and philosophical views of people
o
Metanarrative
is unjust
o
Science
is destroying cultures: religious faith system is defective; one is hurting
other to help themselves.
o
“There
is no single sentence on Earth that is not true.” -paradox
o
Science
says all metanarratives or faith systems are false, but itself is one
o
Truth
has become fragmented
·
Derrida
o
Deconstruct
thoughts, beliefs, sentences only to find they have either no meaning or lots
of meaning
o
Darwin’s
theory challenged religious scriptures; Freud said man was not always rational
(Freudian slip); Karl Marx challenged the belief that people were changing from
barbarians to modern civilized society.
o
Bertrand
Russell, analytical philosophy
o
Truth
is fragmented and subjective
·
Modern
Philosophy began in the 17th century
o
Renee
Descartes- Mind and Body Dualism
o
Is
the kidney a part of mind or body? Is it external or internal? It is part of
body.
·
Foucalt
o
I
don’t feel it is necessary to know who I am
o
Where
there is power, there is resistance
o
Science
has led people to feel superior/inferior
o
Book:
Birth of the clinic
Ø
Clinics
are created to control opposition in society
Ø
Mental
clinics, psychiatric asylums, jails, schools, church
Ø
All
revolutionary ideas will be suppressed so that one is streamlined
o
Medical
Anthropology: medicine makes an impact on human mind
o
Books:
Madness of civilization, Birth of clinic, Discipline and Punishment
o
We
punish offender but bigger question is how did the offender come about? What
circumstances led them to commit such an act?
Ø
Questioning
this will result in questioning the entire system.
Ø
Prisons
and schools are used to correct such systems to an extent
Ø
School
participates in the suppressive regime that knowledge works in the apex of
power
·
So,
what is right?
o
Universal
systems are wrong
o
All
men are different
o
Trigger
clock inside a human
o
If
one doesn’t like a certain community, they should come out of it and form one
of their own
o
We
change community as we grow up and build our own families
o
It
is true that tech has democratized the knowledge system
o
We
are at the threshold of a volatile time
o All scientific inquiries, thoughts, work are connected to philosophical model
Thursday 30 September 2021
SAT Final Strategy List
- Concept first = strategy and timing, second.
- Official Tests are Gold Standard = do it more.
- Look for wrong answers First.
- Your Vocabulary determines your Reading ability.
Skill | Frequency | Expected Questions Per Test |
Dividing polynomials | 1.72% | 1 |
Trigonometry, radians | 1.72% | 1 |
Absolute value | 1.29% | 0.75 |
Complex numbers | 1.29% | 0.75 |
Experimental interpretation | 0.86% | 0.5 |
Lines and angles | 0.86% | 0.5 |
Solid geometry | 0.86% | 0.5 |
Systems of equations with nonlinear equations | 0.86% | 0.5 |
Function notation | 0.43% | 0.25 |
Friday 27 August 2021
SAT Exam = Passport + Pencils + Breakfast
- PASSPORT – PASSPORT – PASSPORT
- Get 4-6 number of 2B Grade Pencils
- Eraser
- Pens are NOT allowed for SAT Answer
- Get the SAT Ticket printed
- Get the direction to the Exam Venue on the Google Map. Make sure you can instruct the Driver.
7. Take Solid Breakfast.
- One soft-boiled Egg
- A small piece of Bread and Butter
- Half cup of Juice / Milk
- Roti-vegetable OR Milk & Cornflakes
- Small sips of Water: ½ litre
- Take a Bottle of Water (250 ml) NOT more than this.
- Try NOT to visit washroom.
Monday 23 August 2021
Logic & Reasoning
Doing the class with Ramisa, Jannat, Mehzabin, Bishway, and Zawad.
- https://brilliant.org/wiki/conjectures/
- Types of Logic
- Logic of = Reasoning & Sentiments
- Examples of LOGIC
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