tflurry's blog

Eastern state was built as a place for prisoners to come to terms with their crimes, to pray in solitude for forgiveness. Now all that remains is an eerie building, a skeleton of the failed experiment: Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center, which effectively tried to break prisoners down mentally with silence and solitude. Imagine how much smaller, lonelier, life must be when one’s only hope for diversion comes from the guards, the preacher, or the thin hope of making contact with other prisoners; solitary confinement can quickly make a person go mad. It is understandable, then, why inmates worked so hard for the rare opportunity to communicate with the other prisoners. In the end, the goals of the prison unrealized and the rules ignored or out dated, Eastern State Penitentiary was nothing more than an experiment that failed.

Eastern state was a place for prisoners to come to terms with what they’d done, and to pray in solitude for forgiveness. Eastern State was an eerie place, not necessarily having the effects on its prisoners it hoped to. Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center. Easter State tried to mentally break me down with silence and darkness. Life would seem scarily smaller, with low outlook on life, and the only hope for change relies on people coming by. Solitary confinement can quickly make a person go mad, so I understand why Eastern State had so many problems, especially after getting a short glimpse at what the prisoners experienced. Eastern State Penitentiary is an unusual prison where inmates rarely have the chance to communicate with others, which makes me try to find ways to talk to other inmates more. Eastern State cannot change me or control me, the “new prison” is just like all the rest and I will defeat it.

Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center. 5 years of no contact with the outside world, apart from that obnoxious preacher and the occasional guard. Constant, unending boredom, or the constant threat of discovery and punishments if attempts to alleviate that boredom were discovered.

Life would seem scarily smaller, with low outlook on life, and the only hope for change relies on people coming by

“I am mad and eager to get out. I’d never be bad and have been cured by myself. Why [do] I have to stay here!”

It is funny to create the way to communicate with my buddies and neighbors. There’s no way for them to force me to welcome insolation.

Easter State tried to mentally break me down with silence and darkness.

Eastern State was a lonely, maddeningly quiet and boring cell, and unproductive waste of his time.

Eastern State Penitentiary is an unusual prison where inmates rarely have the chance to communicate with others, which makes me try to find ways to talk to other inmates more.

From the POV of Samuel Bruster, an uncooperative prisoner sentenced to five years of solitary confinement, ESP is a place where if you follow the rules and life a life in solidarity, it will drive you mad, as these conditions are not humane.

Eastern State cannot change me or control me, the “new prison” is just like all the rest and I will defeat it.

Eastern State Penitentiary was an innovative attempt at changing the very hearts of prisoners, but which failed to take into account the role of kindness.

Prison reform in Eastern State was one of the cruelest and severe. Prisoner’s lack of communication and isolation did not aid in improvement but rather inspired rebellion.

It’s an inspiring and illuminating pioneer in reforming the prisons although it failed.

From the POV of a contemporary American citizen interested in prison reform, ESP was a place that shouldn’t be glorified as a breakthrough design.

The morals of Eastern State are questionable, and the role of success of reforming prisoners (rather than simply punishing them) is disappointingly low for how many people were forced to stay there.

“Freedom belongs to everyone, no matter who made mistakes or not.”

It is a place built to reform prisoners, and gives us hope since US has been striving to do so for a long time.

From the POV of a contemporary citizen who is interested in prison reform, ESP was a place that stripped people of what made them human, and prevented people from performing acts that keep people sane. It could almost be seen as a method of torture, where instead of helping people as the founders had hoped, it took away every liberty a person has.

Although at first glance the chapter naming system in NW, by Zadie Smith, seems almost arbitrary, there is an underlying intent behind the chapter-nomenclature. This paper intends to examine how the Natalie and Leah’s reactions towards their pasts are revealed through the chapter titles within their sections of the book: Visitation and Host.

The first section, Visitation, focuses on Leah, who desires very much to appear ordinary, and would like nothing so much as to stay still, living in a certain point in time. Of the 27 chapters within the section, they are organized in the very typical, traditional Arabic number system, with only four exceptions; there are four separate occasions where the numbering system skips a chapter; instead of the chapters lining up 17 – 18 – 19, they instead read 17 – 37 – 18. These chapters 37 seem to correspond with chapters wherein Leah attempts to forestall the future.

The first chapter 37 is between chapters 11 and 12, and is only a page long. Therein Leah remembers a former true love telling her that humans are naturally drawn to the number 37, and that it will keep showing up; then the scene shifts to contemporary Leah, frozen with indecision or fear, as she considers approaching the people squatting in Number 37 Ridley Avenue. Leah can not convince herself to confront these new intruders, to admit that something has changed; much safer, much simpler, to go on as if it had never been, and to absorb her self with the past.

My first lens focused on the use of 37 in Leah's section of NW, and how that chapter title acted as a tag when the chapter discussed Leah's attempts to stay mired in the past, but I was too narrowly focused.

This week I will broaden my lens to find the 'key tags' of Nat and Felix when they interact with their past, and I will discuss how these tags compare, contrast, and balance each other.

Although at first glance the chapter numbers of Visitation, the first section of NW by Zadie Smith, seems almost arbitrary, there is an underlying intent behind the chapter-nomenclature intended to draw specific focus to how Leah thinks, and her desire to stay firmly planted in a position in the past.

When reading NW, and even more so when we discussed it in class, I found myself very intrigued by the structures Zadie Smith choose to use throughout the book. To break a mold and rebuild it is in some ways astonishing to me, and she certainly explored what it meant to be a chapter, a section, a dialogue. Some of her chapters were numbered while others were named or mis-numbered. She did not use quotation marks of any sort, some of her descriptions were stream-of-consciousness focus on one thing or another, and some of her chapters were made up entirely of google map directions, or a web page, or stream-of-consciousness senses along a certain path. I would love to explore in more depth the tools she uses, and where and why she might use them.

Play in the City: an interesting concept. To discuss what play is, means, can be, and to then go out and try it in a city as varied as Philadelphia. I had hoped, going into this course, that when I walked out I would walk out with a different way of thinking about the world- a difficult demand to be sure. Thus far I have not been disappointed. Ant Hamilton’s Quiet Volume changed how I thought about libraries, reading, even silence. Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Gardens helped change how I think about silent art forms like mosaic and painting, and to the canvas and materials themselves. The trip into Bryn Mawr proved that these lessons I am learning apply everywhere. It is clear that my experiences in this course have changed how I think about the world, given me more tools with which to think about the world, and that can only be positive.

Subversion is when the princess rescues the prince, or perhaps even tells the prince off and runs away with the dragon. Subversion is when a graffiti artist paints the likeness of a royal guard urinating on the side of a building. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines it as “seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution, or a person with such aims” (New Oxford American Dictionary). In her book Critical Play, Mary Flanagan notes that various theorists consider subversion to be “a powerful means for marginalized groups to have a voice” (Flannigan, 11). Over all, to me subversion is both the means and result when one takes established idea, person or thing, turns it on its head. This is what made my trips into the city so interesting; of the various artists and events we saw, not one was content to let the norm be the rule; they all took care to be subversive in someway. Ant Hampton, the artist behind the Quiet Volume, refused the notion that theater art could only take place in the theater, just as he played with the concepts of where the line between actor and audience falls, and how the senses, sight and hearing, merge. Isaiah Zagar similarly explored what it meant to make mosaics, where the line between mosaics and other art forms crossed, and just where the edge of the canvas actually was. Even the coffee shop I visited in Bryn Mawr was a little subversive, simply by nature of being an independent coffee shop instead of a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.