Blogs - Arnen

I think the title pretty much explains everything you need to know here. I will give an explanation for my summing up of each different story.

The entire Harry Potter series: “Accept the reality of death and you will lose your fear of it.” Explanation: Not doing this is Riddle's mistake.

The Fellowship of the Ring: “Beware of tall strangers wearing long dark cloaks.” Explanation: The Ring Wraiths, of course!

The Two Towers: “Don't cut down trees” Explanation: Well, just look at what happened to Saruman when he did.

The Return of the King: Two wrongs can make a right. Explanation: First wrong: Frodo selfishly decided not to destroy the ring. Second wrong: Gollum selfishly tried to steal the ring. Right: the ring ended up destroyed.

The Neverending Story: Don't change if there is nothing truly wrong with you in the first place. Explanation: Bastien did this, and nearly lost everything important to him.

The Childe Cycle: The ends don't justify the means. Explanation: Bleys's fault is that he believed they did.

The entire works of Terry Pratchett: Humor is often the vessel of profundity. Explanation: Read them and you will understand.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: No one is perfect. Explanation: Again, you must read them to understand.

The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium, and The Tamuli: Good triumphs over evil.
Explanation: Pretty basic one here.

The chronicles of Alvin Maker: Don't force people to live under other people's shadows. Explanation: Look at what Calvin became when he was.

Ender's Game: Hiding the truth can be traumatic for children. Explanation: I don't think this explanation is necessary.

Satan is an interesting concept. He is a frequent character in all sorts of stories, from T.V. shows to books. There are two basic types of Satan that I have seen: the Unknower and the Uncarer. Let's talk about each one specifically.

The Unknower

The Unknowing Satan is, in some ways excusable for his actions and evil. He did not know that what he did is wrong, in fact, quite often he thinks it is right. But, he is still evil, still does evil, and is to blame for not guiding his moral compass in the right direction, for allowing himself to be deceived, often by himself, into believing that he is in the right when he commits evil. The header of The Unkower also covers people who wish to do good, maybe even head towards a goal that is good, but are willing to do evil to attain that good. That is, it covers people who fall into that age-old trap of believing that the ends justify the means. One such Satan is the antagonist of Gordon R. Dickson's The Childe Cycle, a series of science fiction novels that revolves around the entirety of the human race and it's evolution. He is named Bleys Ahrens, and, as Satans often are, is a master of manipulating people. He has this ability to get inside their heads and see what they are going to do next, what they will react to, and the ends that they will go to to achieve whatever goal they might have in mind. This gives him great power, because, if you know what someone is going to do next, you can be prepared to counter it. If you know what people will react to, then you can offer them something they cannot resist, or take something that they will go to any lengths to get back. And if you know how much they are willing to sacrifice for whatever goal they want to achieve, then you can offer them that goal for a much lower price, or make it just beyond their reach. This manipulation he does on a day to day basis, and very few people wise up to him. He, of course has his devoted followers, all of which think him a truly great man, but none of which truly understand him or his goal. He, because of his power, can take away a person's free will, because he knows how to make them do what he wants. To him, other humans are merely puppets to be made to influence other puppets, with him, the master puppeteer up above, telling them what to do. Sounds sort of like playing God, doesn't it? He does not recognize this in himself, despite how smart he is, because he is the one person he cannot get inside of. That is his primary fault, he set out to do what he felt he needed to do without looking at why he felt he needed to do it. Without fully understanding himself. And you have to understand yourself if you want to fully understand your goals. He set out to change the human race without realizing that all he really wanted was to change himself. He deserves sympathy, and gets it from the author in the form of novels, parallel to the rest of the series, from his perspective. He is still evil, though, and that is something that he cannot change.

The Uncarer

When someone describes someone else as evil, this is what they usually mean. An evil being who was once good; in fact, who chose evil over
good consciously. And, because he was once good, he often knows that he
is bad, and usually reacts by not caring and by reveling in his evil. This is true evil. The Uncarer sees himself, and maybe even hates himself, and wishes he could change, but is unable to. Because he has let the part of himself that loves to hurt, to destroy, take control. He is without qualms and without cares, about anyone except himself. The only way to hurt him is to hurt him. He often comes off as carefree, even light-hearted, because he too often gets what he wants. One such Satan is the character of the Sheriff of Nottingham in the fairly recent BBC retelling of Robin Hood. The Sheriff is a man incapable of sympathy, who will do anything to get what he wants, and does quite often. He hatches various plans to catch Robin Hood, and even uses public hangings of innocent men as bait for Robin. He tries to coerce one of Robin's band, whom he captured, into killing Robin. But he does this by, if the man does not kill Robin, threatening to make the man kill his own mother. He makes people choose between doing evil, and doing evil. He uses people as if they did not have lives, because he sees no life but his own. He does not recognize the fact that other people might have something to live for. As such, he is often confounded when someone stands up for what they believe in, stands up against him. He, of course, covers this confusion, because he does not want to appear weak. And he defeats himself, over and over again, because he cannot see anything from someone else's point of view. He has to be able to be someone else if he wants to get that person. He, in essence, needs to be Bleys Ahrens. And that is why Bleys is so dangerous. But the Sheriff is more dangerous to individuals, he has tongues cut out, people hanged and stabbed. Bleys tries to avoid any violence that is not necessary, but is more dangerous on a bigger scale than the Sheriff.

First of all, a disclaimer. I am not
doing this for you, dear reader, I am doing this for me. I know, it's
selfish, but I don't think it is wrong to be true to your nature. I
think that that shirt I see around sometimes that says: "More
people have read this shirt than your blog." will be very true in
this case. So, for me, it will be like keeping a journal, only it
will be more secure. A journal attracts attention, just one more dolt
keeping a blog does not. Also, since I am the only person who will
probably end up reading this, the writing will be more shoddy than it
would be if I were writing this for other people to read. That is all
for the disclaimer. On to today's topic:

Photography and Philosophy:
Photosophy

Have you ever noticed that some people just take a photo and move on
without looking at it? Or that some people take lots of photos and
only show others the good ones? Or that some people take one photo
and, whether or not it is a good one, are satisfied with it? These
three different types of photographers are the topic of today. Let
us examine a situation and see how each of the types reacts to it,
and what it tells us about them. We will look at them in the order
that I mentioned them.

The Hedonist
Photographer

The Hedonist Photographer is the guy who, when confronted with an
absolutely stunning photo opportunity while driving to a friend's
party (let us say that he sees a beautiful sunset) gets out of his
car immediately with his camera, snaps a photo that he doesn't even
look at, gets back in his car, and continues driving to the party. He
doesn't really seem to care about the actual photo, all he wants is
to get to the party. The Hedonist Photographer does not care about
the photo in and of itself, all he cares about is the possible
pleasure that it might give him to show it off to others if it is
good. Thus he doesn't bother to look at the photo, because it is not
as important to him as the time that he might save by not looking.
Because he doesn't look, he thinks, he will get to the party and
pleasure sooner, and getting there sooner matters more to him than
any pleasure he might obtain by making sure he has a beautiful
photograph to show off to people. Hedonist Photographers are usually
self-centered, and they live only for pleasure. To The Hedonist
Photographer, every action is measured as to whether it is worthwhile
by how much pleasure it might bring his way.

The Epicurean
Photographer

The Epicurean Photographer is the person who, when he sees a stellar
opportunity to photograph something takes a hundred or so photos and
then goes through them deleting all of the ones that he thinks aren't
good enough. He does this so as to, when he shows the photos to
everyone else at the party, avoid any embarrassment and pain he might
feel if one of them is not liked or is not good. As such, he is often
revered by all who know him as an excellent photographer. The
Epicurean Photographer seeks to eliminate all pain from his life,
while maximizing all his pleasure. He maximizes his pleasure by
taking hundreds of photos to make sure that there will be at least
one good one. He minimizes his pain by getting rid of all of the ones
he deems as unworthy. This, of course, assumes that he will be
showing them to someone, which he usually does. He is an extrovert,
usually, and as such must always show off his photos to anyone who is
willing to sit and hear him talk through them. To the Epicurean
Photographer, every action is measured as to how much pain it might
eliminate compared to how much pleasure it will bring to him. So,
despite the fact that it is not fun to go through and delete all the
bad photos it will get rid of a lot of pain when he shows them to
others, so it is worthwhile. Likewise, he took the hundreds of photos
in the first place, despite the pain of not getting to the party as
soon as he wishes, because this assures that he will have at least
one photo to show off.

The Stoic
Photographer

The Stoic Photographer is the person who simply takes one picture of
the sunset, looks at it, and is satisfied, whether it is worth
showing off or not. He doesn't really care whether it is worth
showing off or not because he does not intend on showing it off in
the first place. He takes the photo merely for his own private,
personal pleasure. And he takes pleasure in it even if it is bad
because he accepts that it is bad, accepts the fact that he did not
take a good photo, and in accepting it, he makes it good, in his own
eyes. And whether it is good or not in his own eyes is all that
matters to him, because he is the only person whom he ever intends on
letting see it. The Stoic Photographer is generally unselfconscious,
because he only really cares what he thinks about himself, not what
everyone else does. As such, it doesn't bother him if someone might
dislike the fact that his hair is messy or he is dressed
inappropriately for whatever occasion he is at. Unlike The Hedonist
Photographer or The Epicurean Photographer, he maximizes his pleasure
by accepting anything that might be unpleasing to him, and through
accepting it, he makes it pleasing. The minimization of pain that
comes because of this is not intentional, it is merely a happy
by-product of his acceptance. Nothing is ever really painful for the
true Stoic Photographer.