Vendôme

 On Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire paintings  The Course of Empire paintings are a collection of five stages of society. Cole's other work on a Soul's Journey are a cycle of man. The first stage is The Savage State, or, The Commencement of the Empire. The second, The Arcadian or Pastoral State; Third, the Consummation of Empire; Fourth, Destruction; Fifth, Desolation.  The Savage State, or, The Commencement of the Empire The artwork must be viewed from the left to the right: the progress of man starts from an eager individual armed with a bow, then toward the center he will form a group, finally on the right there are huts and smoke to signal the inklings of civilization. The permanence of the boulder oversees the transient man, looming clouds blend in with the rising fumes. All remnants of man shall thus change the face of this Earth. Highlighting the romantic pillar of the Hudson River School, no central figure is present in this painting.  The Arcadian or Pastoral St

^how I imagined Damascus was, in the city's peak^ Silver linen flows like silk around the ladies' fingers. These are finer days, filled with royal glamour. Opera singers, violinists, and oars are all ready. The sugary sweets tinker with the embroidered reminiscent tablecloths. Jars are filled with fresh milk to the brim, fruit trees pave the front porches, and in the pavilion draws two yawning infants. Apricots laid upon the lawns, adorned by bountiful lilies near the grass blades. Should you hear the whispers of the wispy morning, you would know the secret of this land: this is Eden. In the pavilions, you savor a glance at your youth— a bright schoolboy with some likeness to a prancing doe. The lotus flowers line the water's edge, gallantly blossoming in the dawn. Idyllic landscapes stretch beyond your eyes, barely reaching the horizon. China blue and Arabic cyan ceilings complete the dome-like structure above your head. Muslin patterned spirals and suspended angels danced

^No image is more fitting than the Fall of Icarus^ What makes tragedies so appealing to the public eye? Why does the media primarily focus on tragedies? It is because the public is, and will ever be, immediately attracted to the reality factor of it. They relate tragedies to themselves more often than fortune events, thereby making the visual experience at once more personal. Despite our chase for happiness, the impact of melancholy, the resonance in sadness flows more naturally amongst popular media. There is an impeccable tie between "what could have been" to every tragedy. In Romeo and Juliet , it is the possibility of the couple running off together; In Atonement , it exists in Briony's imagination. Without the machination of the intangible ending, tragedies would not seem so tragic after all. So then, we conclude that tragedies depend on the establishment of that temporal ideal condition, sometime before. If I were to compare life to a movie or a novel, then wouldn&#

Religion is as curious as The wreath that emboiders angels' heads tarnished copper that drapes around men's waist flames that lick the demon-haunted chasm the world upon Atlas' shoulders  will never diminish in heaviness but rather becomes "part of the vessel that carries the load" and so the fables are told  the sacrilegious breed lawlessness in their hearts  they propel corruption, debauchery, and vice. in circumstances dire, can their faiths stand adamant? or will their fragile minds descend and decay?

I am closing in on you,  on all your rebellions and artless nights  flashback to that neon-lighted diner your touch hot like candle wax, but now it is congulated and stamped upon.  Oh so daring you are the court jester in this identity-estranging masquerade  when your jocular words hush the melodies only I see your eyes close, you weep  Black carpets on the tallest parapet, where we flew past millions of lovers and politicians.  "they have been touched by mania", you say,  their delusion takes them to a foreign oasis I know you are there now, but why do you stay?

 I think a lot of these literary works boasts of their main characters for being heroic--- whether for dramatic effects or for highlighting their characteristics is not important--- but there is one thing I would like you to consider.  The value of life itself can be quantified, very much so. And so when the hero swoops in and saves the masses, does the hero ever wonder if the masses are worth saving? Does the hero think about if the masses will be able to produce a nestful of heroes? Worse, does the hero think about if the masses will be able to produce any heroes at all? No. He is caught up in the action of saving. He is then a mindless machine churning inside the wheels of his own ego. He, then, is no hero at all.  "To be completely rational is frightening", my ethics professor had paused, "it is inhumane." I have long thought about that statement. In order to be completely rational, one must extract oneself from all attachments. A rather comical image that comes