Varun's AP English Blog

"We're all trapped in Barbie's world".  What an interesting thing to say.  The person who designed missiles also designed the culture that we live in today.  His eccentric creativity led to the barbie like the expectation that was being described by Prager.  Even if you look to the song that was later put out by Universal Studios - Barbie Girl by Aqua - It reinforced the same idea that was created 40 years prior. "I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world Life in plastic, it's fantastic" The children who played with this toy imagined themselves as Barbie and put themselves in her world.  Later in the song, one of the lyrics sung by a male singer was "Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky" That about sums it up from my perspective of Barbie.  I never thought my perspective of a toy could shift so much in such little time.

"the unexamined quest for knowledge is hemmed with peril" is one of the statements we discussed this week which I thought was really interesting.  The way I interpreted it was that fear of discovery is what is holding science back.  According to Google, hemmed means to "surround and restrict the space or movement of."  So peril or fear is restricting the quest for knowledge because no one knows what will come.  I think it's interesting but I also think this mentality is dangerous.  As science continues, if there is no restriction by morality and general judgment, unintended consequences could occur.  There's this one video put out by Call of Duty that does an amazing job showing this. In this video, it shows how the rapidly improving technology is dangerous to humanity.  It's something to think about, let me know what you think! "This is happening. The only question that remains is how far will we allow it to go."

This week, we read about The Fearless Girl and how it appropriated what the Charging Bull meant.  I found it really interesting how a simple insertion of a statue of a girl standing completely appropriated Charging Bull's meaning from a forceful allegory of market optimism to "aggressive threat to women and girls - a symbol of patriarchal oppression."  This is the first real-world art piece that I have read about where the piece was challenged and in a sense, it lost.  After thinking about Arturo Di Modica's complaint to remove fearless girl, I would have to disagree with it because his art was challenged... and he lost!  After this week, as odd or cheesy as it sounds, I've found a new appreciation for artwork and the ingenious thinking that it requires. Quite an amazing combination of art that makes you think!