Cathy Zhou's blog

With all the daily introspection on my crimes,I know I would have gone crazy within the first week.

The isolation is the punishment actually in this place.I cannot imagine if I stay in such place day by day without talking.

I see a complete disregard for the humanity of the prisoners.

When I finally stepped out of Eastern State Penitatiary,back in the sun and back to freedom,I heard crowds talking incessantly and I fely like a cell myself.

I am bored this doesn't hold my attention either.

Conflict of silences.

I wondered,if like her,prisoners tried to imagine,but found themselves too busy making shoes(or other commodities)or too disconnected from the world to daydream about another,maybe better,life.

"Stable ruins" seems oxymoroniz because time conhnces(?) even now to weak have in the aging place.

But I could feel the misery and insanity of these place and it was suffocating.

It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere than people who needed reforming.

It's only a place which made people want to keep away from.

Eastern State Penitatiary seemed more like a place to cause someone to go mad rather than teach them to reflect.

Imagining myself staying there for years, I only saw a numb me, or the me who suicide.

Marriage as a company

When I started reading NW, I ‘m interested in the relationship between Leah and Michel and I think it would be interesting to apply economics in their marriage.

Leah and Michel decided to get married after they had multiple sexes, and their rely for each other is based on sex:“It was hard to get used to the fact that the pleasure her body found in his, and vice versa, should so easily overrule the many other objections she had, or should have had, or thought she should have had.”It seems like a random decision, but the consequence of their marriage is satisfying: They became an accepted couple by the society and their own families. As an immigrant, Michel got a social position wit his marriage with a white woman, and with Michel’s job, Leah is also enabled to release the pressure in her life. Basically they are satisfying each other’s needs socially and sexually. The marriage did improve the productivity of them. When they get married, it’s more than the sex relations they have, they start to share social connections, take care of each other, and inevitably, influence each other. Getting married is like setting up a little company--- each of the family members have different functions, and they came together to maximize their efficiency. And it was efficient at first, the problems followed up with their likely successful business.

For my last paper, my lens was the econimical cause in the depressed marriage relationship of Leah and Michel. I still want to use this lens but I want to relate some knowledge from the econ class I take in this semester.

When I started reading NW, I was confused about the entirely different actions by Leah and Michel. And I decided to focus on their difference caused by economical influences.

The story keeps comparing their differences: Leah wants to stay wherever she is, and Michel is always trying to push things forward. Their conflict comes from their different plans for future: as a well-planned man, Michel wants a child but Leah has a fear for having a change. But that difference didn’t occur for Leah hates her husband----she always likes being with Michel when alone, but she got socially embarrassed all the time by his poor English and social awkwardness in public. When they were in Natalie’s house, Leah kept correcting Michel and they came to a little fight which ended soon when they went back home and had time alone. This show that they actually are very harmonious without the society interrupting. Their social life seems to be one interruption to their relationship. And what made the differences?

I want to focus on the different vision from Leah and Michel.It's interesting that they have a different consideration,different race and not loving each other but still like to be with each other. Leah wants to stay eighteen, but Michel is hoping to move to the next step. Their marriage is between two totally different spirit---- one longing for freedom needs no boundary and one well-planned.When I read about Leah, I thought she would not be someone needs marriage, like other normal women. She seems to have a spirit that wants something more. And Michel is a good-looking man that every woman would like, he can easily find someone suits him better than Leah. I want to find the reason of their marriage---what are they expecting out of this marriage. Even it led to a tragedy because they want different things, it should not meant to be a total mistake.

I’m now sitting in Collier Library at Bryn Mawr, writing my homework for fall break with three other girls in a study room. Just two days ago I was lying in an apartment of Manhattan with my friend reading Zadie Smith. And two weeks before that, I met Zadie Smith and got a signature on my NW. If I go a little farer back to August, two months ago, I was in my hometown in China, and I knew nothing about this place I’m now sitting, or the people I’m sitting with, or how to take the greyhound bus to New York, or who Zadie Smith is. But now here I am, writing this paper, trying to think something out of these two months.

Play in Night Market

There was a conflict going on in my mind when I found the Night Market is on Thursday, at night. I have midterms on Friday and Saturday, and that should be an intensive night for me. But I know I would go, I know this the first time I saw the ads in Chinatown, it is something that means more than a good grade for me. Night Market is something rooted in my memories, with flashing lights, crowds, sweet smell of marshmallows in the air, and loud bargain sounds.

When I proposed to go there on Thursday, I thought there would be nobody with me, but it turns out that all the Chinese in the class wants to go to the event. When it comes to Night Market in Chinatown, nobody from China wants to miss it.

It’s the first Night Market I went to in Philly, but I feel there’s nothing really fresh and surprising in playing, instead, the fun I found in here is all about familiarity.

Step 1:google "october philly events"

http://www.visitphilly.com/events/fall-events/

Step 2:go to fall events

http://www.visitphilly.com/philadelphia-neighborhoods/?utm_source=VISITPHILLY.COM&utm_medium=REFERRAL&utm_campaign=HOUSE-FORMATTED-BANNER

Step 3:go to night market

http://www.visitphilly.com/events/philadelphia/night-market-philadelphia/

Step 4: official website

http://thefoodtrust.org/night-market

I did see this event last time I was in chinatown, and when I googled the events going on in Philly this fall, it came out and brought my attention.but this isn't just a chinese celebration, it has food from all over the Asia, and also, it's the place we've already been to, but only during the day,so we can observe the difference of the "night market" and normal times.

I think it's worth-going because it's the last night narket of the year and they've been preparing for a long time,there's certainly something to expect.

I still remember the last family dinner I had before I left home. I have about twenty relatives invited and everyone had a talk with me, and there’s one sentence they have been repeating: Don’t wander alone in the city, stay in your dorm when it’s getting dark.

And when I take the class trip of play in the city, I have always feared the messed-up American metropolis would give me some scary encounters. Diversity of strangers----those who my parents always told me to stay away from has planted deep-rooted fear in my mind.

I was going to do some research on surrealism, but Marcel Duchamp suddenly jumped into my sight. His pieces as well as his lifestyle have some really intriguing parts.

According to the research, he wasn't intending to be an artist while growing up, and only did so because he wasn't willing to serve for the military. When he went to the art school, his talent didn't seem to be discovered, he tried different styles, including fauvist (I also noticed he later married the post-daughter-in-law of Henry Martis and Martis was the founder of fauvism), impressionism, post-impressionism.

Later he figured these traditional arts were not what he likes, and decided to create something new. He mocked the traditional art----he added mustache on Mona Lisa and claimed that there's no perfection in art, this idea later made him the representative of Surrealism and Dadaism. The action of sending a photo named Fountain (which is a picture of a urinal) to the museum was a mock of traditional art.

He is considered one of the authorities of the long history of art while proposing to put aside the authority and make art without bounded by the previous art pieces. As one the most influential artists, Marcel has being playing with art and did creations that challenged the art field in his own way.