Friday, December 31, 2004

The Hedgehog and the Fox

We spent couple of days in NJ. First there was a wedding then a get- together, after that visiting some relatives and then we were counting down to midnight and waiting for the New Year.

Yesterday, while walking around Princeton campus, next to the massive area of construction work, I saw three huge metal sheets which reminded me of Richard Serra's work. I asked and it was Serra's. We walk through it. It was my first close experience with the Serra's art piece. It was strange and mysterious to walk around it, through it and by it. I like it the most when I waked through it, looking up at the sky is suddenly became the most hopeful activity.






Serra is considered one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, and perhaps the most significant American sculptor to emerge since the 1950s. His work, standing 94 feet long and 15 feet high, was erected between Peyton and Fine halls on the Princeton campus and is a major contribution to the university’s well-known collection of modern outdoor art. Three vast ribbons of rust-colored steel, is named
"The Hedgehog and the Fox"

It refers to an essay by Isaiah Berlin, who quotes from the Greek poet Archilochus: "The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one great thing." Serra explained, "It points to how scholars either become free thinkers and invent or become subjugated to the dictates of history. This is the classical problem posed to every student."*

*http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2000/11/09/arts/1726.shtml

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Day After Day

Thursday: Pain in throat, finals over, painfully happy, applying for 3 programs

Friday: Sore throat, shopping, cooking, people over for dinner, no washing dishes for me

Saturday: Fever, angry, more fever, more angry, I wish I had exams, I hate everyone

Sunday: Pain & fever, miss my mom, my brother’s exams, people over for tea, painful sleep

Monday: Freezing, library, library, library, library, freezing cold, why I am not dying by my sore throat

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Tea

Last night at 8:05pm I handed the Blue notebook to Prof. M. Then I grabbed my research paper from the table next to him and in the darkness of the slide room I opened it to see my grade. It was A-. I looked around, 6 other students were still struggling with the last slide one of them asked me with an expressive face what is it? I analyzed the situation:

If I answer him it will be morally wrong, against the school’s principles and law, if I don’t respond, it will also be morally wrong, against the friendship principles and human-relation’s law! Trouble in both cases! I whispered Louvre. He wasn’t satisfied yet; he asked WHO? Oh God more trouble: Louvre, the famous museum, and before, the palace of the kings of France, has passed more than 800 years of history; more than 3 architects worked on it only in the Baroque period. I moved toward my seat to gather my stuff and with my fingers I showed 3 and with my face I showed devastation. (It is my famous face when I get devastated).

I packed and left the Slide room. Outside, I waited a little bit. I was thinking and realizing that it was my Last Exam. I got happy, and then I saw a coffee machine at the end of the corridor; so I got happier. While I walked toward the machine I was choosing between Tea and Coffee. Tea won. I got my cup of tea and I thought:

Do I love tea or I got used to it? This question came out about other things like:
Did I love my boyfriend or I got used to him? Am I going to love my kids or I will get used to them? Do I like my outfit or I got used to it? And so on.
It was horrible and scary. After a while I couldn’t feel a difference between them:

“Loving something or getting used to it”

By the time I came out of the train station in New Haven, and I saw my husband I knew that I know the difference.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Halfway through...

Somehow, I finished my paper for "Art Theory and Criticism" class on "Orientalism: Edward Said" and I gave a presentation yesterday for another class about "Racism in Early Cinema: Study of two Asian actors".

I still have one more paper and my Final exams to go. After that I really don't know what to do: It is going to be a long-time vacation; it seems so faraway right now. I'm getting a headache.