Reading Analysis 9/24

In the readings for Wednesday’s class, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare, “When I consider how my light is spent” by John Milton, and “Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?” by Stacy Schiff, there seems to be a common theme of flaws in our society. All three directly deal with this concept in one way or another. With Milton, the narrator (who many think is Milton himself) is trying to come to terms with the fact that he is at a point of his life where regret has set in. He has not accomplished all that he had wanted to, and now that he is a blind man he could possibly never get back that chance. This poem is filled with regret and is told by a bitter narrator, one who truly has not come to a positive conclusion about his newly contracted handicap. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, the flaws here lie not with himself, but with his mistress. She is compared, rather unfairly, by Shakespeare to the image of a goddess. In every way, she is inadequate—her hair is like wires, her breath is unpleasant, her lips are dull, etc. She is a flawed creature. Lastly, the Schiff article talks about the ever popular search engine, Wikipedia. Again, the theme of flaws comes up in that Wikipedia, by nature, has the potential to be a very flawed system. It is a public site that allows anyone to post anything about any subject, and there are few rules or regulations that are able to stop them. The flaw here seems to be the lack of internal controls imposed by Wikipedia, and questions concerning the integrity of Wikipedia’s information seem to be creeping up in the minds of many of its many users.

An important thing to note about these flaws, however, is the greater good that seems to come out of them or the people that are able to over look them and see the big picture. In “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” Shakespeare spends nearly 12 lines providing numerous reasons why his mistress does not stack up to the image of a perfect goddess. However, the last 2 lines are arguably the most important in the whole poem, because he says that even though she is not a goddess he still loves her deeply and knows that the two share something special. In the Wikipedia article by Schiff, the flaws with the system truly are great and can be prone to lots of error, but really the site is pretty error free. In the article, Schiff says that in a recent accuracy test Wikipedia had 4 errors for every 3 that traditional power Encyclopedia Britannica. This is extremely impressive for Wikipedia, which has surpassed the million articles mark, because Britannica only has about one hundred and twenty thousand articles. This is so impressive for a website, whose mission remains to “distribute a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet in their own language.” This is an incredible feat, and an incredible testament to the nearly 200,000 contributors of the website. Lastly, in “When I consider how my light is spent,” John Milton talks about how his life was not lived to the fullest that it possibly could have, and not he is put even further behind the proverbial eight ball because of a recent blindness. Reading in between the lines, Milton really did have some greatness come out of his flaws—he was able to get his message out to the masses, and allow them to learn from his mistakes. He was able to pass down advice, and write a “carpe diem” type of poem that till help many to seize opportunities before they pass them by. While Milton may have waited too late for himself, he can take great satisfaction and pride in that he will be helping out millions of other people with his work.

Reading Analysis for Milton, Shakespeare, and Schiff

In John Milton's "When I consider how my light is spent," William Shakespeare's "My mistress; eyes are nothing like the sun," and Stacy Schiff's "Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Experience," the main idea is that human beings will acknowledge the imperfections in themselves, their loved ones, and the materials they utilize, and yet they will not stray from what they know. If these imperfections are not fixable, we find a way to accept them. We come to depend on them, even though we know they are not perfect.



In Milton's poem, he expresses his concern that he has not served God to the fullest because of his blindness. He feels that he could not fulfill his duties as well as someone without his impairment. He compares his life to Jesus' parable of talents who did not obey him. However, Milton reverses his concern by the end of the poem by stating "They also serve who only stand and wait," (line 14). He comes to accept his blindness and that he can serve God by waiting to find out what his duty is. He is aware of his imperfection, but he realizes that he can still be faithful to his Master. This poem is connected to Shakespeare's poem because the speaker is describing all of his lover's imperfections. She is not beautiful or graceful and in fact it seems that the speaker can hardly stand her. Yet she is his love, and he tolerates all of her flaws for love.



The last reading is Schiff's article about Wikipedia. She describes how popular this site has become. According to the article, the has become the 17th most popular site on the web. You really can find information about anything on it. Even though it is a wonderful source of information, it has many flaws. Anyone can edit an article and put whatever information they want on it. The article states "nothing about high-minded collaboration guarantees accuracy, and open editing invites abuse," (Schiff, page 2). Although people understand that all the information they read may not be completely true, they still use it because it is so helpful. There are articles that go in depth about Islam in Iceland, according to Schiff's article. Not too many other sites are going to have that. So, we humans are aware of imperfections in our daily lives, but we learn to cope with them because we can't always find a way around them.

9/24 Reading Analysis

Themes of new discoveries and realizations seem to be common throughout the three works, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, “When I consider how my light is spent”, and “Know it All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise”. In each there is a common and influential meaning to the reader. In the poems they are more hidden than in the article but each talk of new discoveries and changes that have happened to them. Each author writes about the way these changes transformed them as individuals as well as prove what the meaning of each is to their lives.

John Milton seemed to be the most obvious in a brief but powerful reflection of his life and blindness. As he looked back on his life I don’t think he found many events to me proud of and thought that because of his blindness he did not serve his purpose as a writer. But, just like Milton thought he didn’t, on the contrary the inventors of Wikipedia are trying to achieve a lifetime goal by producing the largest encyclopedia to almost the entire world. This way if given the opportunity to evaluate their lives unlike Milton they feel successful. Throughout the article the ups and downs of this process are discussed, Jimmy Wales reflects on the effect the site can have. Also the ways that he feels the site has not only achieved his own goals but helped a lot of the world. Even though one of the major issues with the site at the moment seems to be its constant imperfections, Wales and the rest of the organization are constantly working on bettering and expanding this internet phenomenon.

But the final and most powerful realization to me came through the William Shakespeare poem. This poem also seemed to be written about imperfections, but in a woman as well as in love. He found that the love he had for his mistress was powerful and “rare”, the way he speaks seems as if he had some sort of an epiphany about this and now understands love. Shakespeare knows that love is not a fairytale and through this piece I believe he is trying to say that true love is loving one another’s imperfections. Even through all the insults of the piece the love for his mistress wins in the end and only makes his love stronger. Just like the other two pieces, a realization was made and ultimately the writers learned lessons and made decisions based on each to change their lives.

Shakespeare, Milton, Schiff

In William Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, John Milton’s “When I consider how my light is spent”, and Stacy Schiff’s “Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?”, the idea of imperfection being a part of life that humans must cope with is subtly implied. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, the speaker describes how he views his mistress’ physical appearance. He does not describe her as being an image of beauty, but rather an image of imperfection. Even though we get the impression that he does not find anything particularly attractive about his mistress, he still longs to be with her because he will not let the physical imperfections get in the way of his love for her. In John Milton’s poem, Milton expresses his insecurity about being a blind man in society. Because he felt like his blindness left him at a great disadvantage, he expresses his fear that he did not lead a good enough life for himself. Although he felt insecure about his impairment, one way of coping with it was using his talent as a poet to his advantage and expressing his thoughts through a poem (which he in fact did in this one.) In Staci Shiff’s essay, she discusses Wales’ creation of Wikipedia and how it may not be such a reliable source for accurate information after all. The reason for this is because people are constantly writing and editing information on it everyday. However, by the end of her essay, she raises the point that even though Wikipedia’s information simply comes from our peers, the mainstream media, etc., and may not always be accurate, it is something that allows people to express themselves and their passion for knowledge. Although there may be some flaws in the system now, on a more positive note, Wales has definitely led us in the right direction for the future of online encyclopedias. Each of these authors has a different way of expressing this idea of imperfection existing throughout the world. Imperfections are not things that human beings hope for by any means, but the essential idea is that life is full of them and it is our job to cope and make the most out of what life has to offer.

Milton, Shakespeare, and Schiff

The distinct realities and oppositions of perfection and imperfection are analyzed in the poems "When I consider how my light is spent," by John Milton, and "My mistress` eyes are nothing like the sun," by William Shakespeare, as well as in Stacy Schiff`s magazine article titled, "Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?" Although each work presents its respective argument from wholly different perspectives, a commonality emerges amongst the three. Essentially each work recognizes that perfection, whether it be physical or scholarly, is unattainable while simultaneously commending the pursuit of the best possible, or accepting that what may be viewed as a severe impediment is actually a mere bump in the road.
First, Milton`s poem talks of his own blindness and how it has affected his life. He resolves that despite this handicap, he is no less obligated to contribute to society, and especially to the work of God. This poem is appropriate to Jesuit education in that it incorporates the idea that one should offer what they have to improve the world rather than to dwell on setbacks. Milton mentions the parable of the talents, demonstrating that we should use what we have.
Milton`s theme of acceptance in the face of imperfection is mirrored in Shakespeare`s work, which describes one`s love for another, despite serious flaws in their physicality. The speaker describes a love that is so rare, that it does not depend on physical qualities whatsoever. This is the love makes the relationship unique. Despite possibly being a serious detriment, the speaker is able to look beyond imperfection, and view something that is actually perfect.
Schiff`s article takes a less personal approach to the discrepancy between perfection and imperfection. However, it is extremely relevant from a societal standpoint in that it describes the necessity of accurate yet flexible and up to date information. The popular internet information database, "Wikipedia," is discussed in depth. The founders of Wikipedia began the project as an attempt at perfecting a resource that was universally accessible, factually accurate, and limitless in capacity. Although they did eventually reach these goals, to an extent, the site remains far from perfect. Universal accessibility and a limitless capacity of information have been relatively successes. However, it is the factual accuracy of the information that is lacking, perhaps because of the successes in the other two aspects. Wikipedia has become a battleground of collective discernment. Unfortunately, too much subjectivity and immaturity plague the information. The most outstanding virtue of the site, which is the ability for any user to create or edit an article, turns out to be its greatest vice. Ironically, as the site became more universal, more restrictions, rules, and moderators had to be put in place in order to police the site and ensure that its ultimate goals are accomplished.
Unfortunately, like any attempt at perfection, Wikipedia is far from successful. The article cites research finding that for every 3 errors in Encyclopedia Brittannica, there are 4 on Wikipedia. Perhaps this is a lesson in discernment, that we need to learn how to incorporate the good from both sides. Although it is great that anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, this leaves too much opportunity for vandalism of truth. To go from the specific to the general, just as our informational sources are constantly striving to attain the perfect medium between flexibility and accuracy for the betterment of society, the Jesuit call for the development of the whole person for the common good echoes in the distance. Ignatian discernment is central to Jesuit and Catholic life, and an inexpendable resource in our daily lives, whether choosing how to get our information, or how we judge other people and ourselves.

9.24 Blog

John Milton’s “When I consider how my light is spent”, William Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, and Stacy Schiff’s “Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?” all connect with the idea of dealing with the reality of life and what we as humans make of it. John Milton and Stacy Schiff both concern their writings with how human life is spent. William Shakespeare develops the idea of human life even further and expresses his ideas on the realities of human life. Schiff talks about these realities, and how things can go faulty in this world. All readings draw influences from different human perspective, to express their ideas and concerns of the evolving and imperfect world around them.
In John Milton’s sonnet, he looks back on his life and is worried he has not done all he has wanted. He feels that being blind has impaired him. Stacy Schiff’s essay talks about the life work of Wales and other anonymous users. Metaphorically the anonymous users are blind and even though you can not see the user on the Wikipedia site, they have found worth in the site more then Milton has because of his impairment. In Shakespeare sonnet, he comments on impairments or faults. In this sonnet, Shakespeare does admit that those things do exist but in the end his love for his mistress is true and that is all that matters. He is saying that actions are more important than dwelling on your faults. Schiff also talks about this when Wales describes the problems he has with Wikipedia but; how the site is overcoming these problems to be bigger and better in the long run. Each Author deals differently with human faults and the living of human life. In the end it is clear through the readings that each reading is illustrating one way to tackle existence.

Can I kiss you?

Can I Kiss You
This Monday, a lecture was given on what is respectful relationships. The lecture was called “Can I Kiss You”. The man, who gave the talk, Mike Dormitz, was a captivating speaker. He understands a great deal that being in a relationship is important, but it means a whole lot more if there is mutual respect between the couple.
Mike Dormitz lecture was interesting and he asked the audience to contribute their ideas about why it is important to show respect in a relationship. In our society, people watch too many movies and are influenced by negative images of relationships. In some aspects, this lecture coincided very well with the Jesuit ideals because it was all about being respectful and strengthening lines of communication.
One of the reasons that the lecture was so good was because Mike Dormitz has a great deal of knowledge about the subject of abusive relationships. Earlier in his life, his sister was the victim of rape. As her younger sibling, it was very hard to deal with this, and evidently he has spent a great deal of time considering how he can move on from the trauma and pain that he felt, and travel around educating younger generations in the subject. Once again, this is a great parallel to the Jesuit ideals of education because they also want to educate the younger generations so they can become better.
Personally, I grew up with an older sister who is one year older than me, and I can understand where the speaker is coming from. When I was young, I would learn a lot more about how to be in a respectful and beneficial relationship from her, than I would from being with my friends. From early in life, my sister always looked out for me, and when I grew up, I did the same for her. I can also identify with the impact that his sister’s rape had because that would be really painful to me as well.
This lecture was very intelligent. The speaker was an excellent example of how Jesuit education can be teaching us. He said that people must always be true to the morals, and that if we see something suspect happening, then go get your drunk friend and don’t let anyone take advantage of them. Also, when you’re dating, remember to be a respectful and treat others how you would want to be treated. Good communication is essential and sometimes people forget this.
Overall, this lecture was excellent because it presented a relevant subject matter. Mike wants us all to remember the importance of having a respectful relationship. His lecture had Jesuit morals and ideas presented in it, with the fact that we all learned something about how to become a smarter community. This lecture was enjoyable and was a great speaker to have at a Jesuit College.