The Ghost Map (summary,pg.57-109)-SoniaS

In The Ghost Map, following the death of Sarah Lewis and her baby, by the end of August ten percent of the Soho neighborhood had already passed away from the disease. As more and more people suddenly begin dyeing, Dr. John Snow is determined to find out why these people are dyeing. Steven Johnson accounts John Snow’s daily enduring attempts to find out the cause of these deaths by trying to find out how this epidemic is being spread. Snow didn’t believe in the miasma assumption. He believed that cholera epidemic was spread through contaminated water rather than miasma. He couldn’t trace these illnesses and deaths to things that smelled bad. He didn’t make out how sewer men that were surrounded by smells while working their whole lives could have lived to be so elderly, he was persuaded that this plague was being spread through the water. Snow puts plenty of effort into his investigation, as he also risks his own life to try and establish the basis of the spread of this deadly plague.

The Ghost Map (summary,pg.1-55)-SoniaS

Steven Johnson begins the book, The Ghost Map, by describing London as it was in the middle of the 19^th century (1854). The first chapter mainly discusses the contaminated conditions in England at the time as well as how the cholera outbreak began to broaden and he also discusses the people that reside there. In particular, he begins the book by painting a picture of the scavenging lower class of that part of London at the time. He depicts these underclass groups of people as bone-pickers, rag-gatherers. Pure-finders, deredgermen, myud-larks, sewer-hunters, dustmen, night-soil men, bunters, toshers, and shoremen; they all made their living dealing with waste. He said there were so many of these types, at least a 100,000, that they could form there own city and easily be the fifth-largest in all of England. The book then goes to talk about Sarah Lewis, a working class women living in England at the time. Her and her baby both end up dying from what is thought to be the epidemic of cholera. And sooner than later, more and more people were falling ill and eventually dieing as well. These deaths began to occur around people that drank from the neighborhood water pump. Cholera was known to be nearly non existent until these occurrences, and it was continuing to spread.

17-Jekyll and Hyde transformation-SoniaS

The image of the transformation scene from the Mansfield and Sullivan dramatization is somewhat comparable to that of the 1932 film as well as the 1st transformation scene in Stevenson on page 80. I think its least fascinating to read the portrayal of the transformation in the book than it is to see it in this photograph. Although the photograph does show the basic idea of what’s happening with the character of Dr, Hyde coming out of Dr. Jekyll body which is showing Dr. Jekyl’s transformation to Mr. Hyde, I think that overall to actually watch it in the movie because it gives a clear detailed visualization of what’s actually going on.

Chicago World Fair-Interesting Items-SoniaS

Items covered in the documentary I found interesting and potentially worth writing about in my paper: Chicago auditorium; Court of Honor; Statue of Republic; and the Carl Hall.

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Paper- SoniaS

In the past several hundred years as well as in Doyle’s The Hound of Baskervillesboth scientific explanations in addition to supernatural explanations have been contrasted. Watson and Holmes come across a certain happening which has brought about this topic of conflict between science and the supernatural. Charles Baskerville is found dead in an alley at the beginning of the story. Shortly after he is found, Dr. Watson and Holmes have a visit with Dr. Mortimer, who had quickly come to visit them from London for help in taking the appropriate procedure for their new heir.

Though they say Baskerville had passed away from a heart attack, people are convinced his death had more than to do than a heart attack: “Since the tragedy, Mr. Holmes, there have come to my ears several incidents which are hard to reconcile with the settled order of Nature.”…”For example?”,,,”I find that before the terrible event occurred several people had seen a creature upon the moor which corresponds with this Baskerville demon, and which could not possibly be any animal known to science. They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these men, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night.” (Doyle 22-23). Dr. Mortimer read an old document while visiting Holmes, about the Baskerville family curse; it was about a hound that killed Hugo Baskerville and has been a threat to the family since. Dr. Mortimer has a strong belief that the death of Baskerville had to be associated with this myth regarding this evil spirited hound that is acknowledged to roam and haunt the moors and seeks revenge against the family. It is known that Sir Charles had waited at a gate, in the dark, before his death. And quite a few people have seen a huge, ghostly hound. A small distance from the body in the moors, there were footprints found, footprints of a hound, which is a very vital piece of evidence.

Dr Mortimer proposed that this death needed to be investigated as soon as possible and Holmes and Mortimer feel this may be a threat to the heir of Baskerville Hall’s life, Sir Henry, so he had to be kept safe and sheltered to keep him from this Baskerville curse. Holmes agreed with Sir Henry Baskerville’s decision to go to the hall, he also was adamant that he wasn’t going to be able to go with him for he was going to stay at his home on Baker Street, and in his place he had proposed for Watson go as his representative. Watson gladly agrees, and he knows he is responsible reporting everything to Holmes after examining all the clues himself. It was rather peculiar that Holmes had Watson go in his place, but after a few weeks, we came to find out that Holmes has been in Yorkshire the entire time doing his own investigations for the case: “My dear fellow, you have been invaluable to me in this as in many other cases, and I beg that you will forgive me if I have seemed to play a trick upon you. In truth, it was partly for your own sake that I did it, and it was my appreciation of the danger which you ran which led me to come down and examine the matter for myself. Had I been with Sir Henry and you it is confident that my point of view would have been the same as yours, and my presence would have warned our very formidable opponents to be on their guard. As it is, I have been able to get about as I could not possibly have done had I been living in the Hall, and I remain an unknown factor in the business, ready to throw in all my weight at a critical moment.” (Doyle 183-184).

Even though the murderer turned out to be a man and a hound that did the crime, his description of physical appearance fits the image of a wicked creature. “The words were hardly out of my mouth when we both saw him. Over the rocks, in the crevice of which the candle burned, there was thrust out an evil yellow face, a terrible animal face, all seamed and scored with vile passions. Foul with mire, with a bristling beard, and hung with matted hair, it might well have belonged to one of those old savages who dwelt in the burrows on the hillsides. The light beneath him was reflected in his small, cunning eyes which peered fiercely to right and left through the darkness, like a crafty and savage animal who has heard the steps of the hunters.” (Doyle 96).

Throughout the story the hound is seen to be supernatural, and the moor too, along with the fog and swampy land around it also added to the bizarre scheme. The anticipation of the supernatural phenomenon of the hound is left suspenseful, as more people are introduced and more clues are found. After numerous clues and much time spent investigating, it is known that Baskerville died from a heart attack indeed, but it was brought upon the sight of a hound. The killer, who has heard of the tale and knows plenty about it, took benefit of Baskervilles superstition and made a replica hound to resemble that of the hound known in the legend. He then anticipated luring Sir Henry onto the moor at night and setting the hound upon him to kill him. He did this so he could get a hold of the Baskerville estate.

Although Holmes’ personal viewpoint from the start is opposing the supernatural idea; he believes that that every set of clues points toward a valid, real world explanation. However, he doesn’t stay close minded by agreeing to consider the supernatural explanation and decides to reflect on all other options before jumping to the conclusion that this death is because of supernatural reasons.

Works Cited
Clark, Alexander. SparkNote on Hound of the Baskervilles. 27 Feb. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hound/>.

Kirk H. Beetz.  ”The Hound of the Baskervilles: Overview.” Beacham’s Guide to Literature for Young Adults. Ed. Kirk H. Beetz. Vol. 5. Beacham-Gale, 1990. eNotes.com. January 2005. 27 February 2008 <http://www.enotes.com/hound-baskervilles-qn/overview>.

Kirk H. Beetz.  ”The Hound of the Baskervilles: Themes.” Beacham’s Guide to Literature for Young Adults. Ed. Kirk H. Beetz. Vol. 5. Beacham-Gale, 1990. eNotes.com. January 2005. 27 February 2008 <http://www.enotes.com/hound-baskervilles-qn/themes>.

Kirk H. Beetz.  ”The Hound of the Baskervilles: Characters.” Beacham’s Guide to Literature for Young Adults. Ed. Kirk H. Beetz. Vol. 5. Beacham-Gale, 1990. eNotes.com. January 2005. 27 February 2008 <http://www.enotes.com/hound-baskervilles-qn/characters>.

The Hound of the Baskervilles pg.53 to 109-SoniaS

Although both were written by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of Baskervilles is much more attention-grabbing than the Sign of Four story. After reading up to page 109, the interaction between Watson and Holmes is less that what I thought it would be for the reason that while Holmes agreed with Sir Henry Baskerville’s decision to go to the hall, he also was adamant that he wasn’t going to be able to go with him, and in his place he had proposed for Watson go. Watson gladly agrees, and he knows he is responsible reporting everything to Holmes after examining all the clues himself. This was the main reason there dealings with one another was limited, and I was shocked that Holmes has Watson go without him, because it seemed like this was a rather tricky task compared to others.

The Hound of the Baskervilles Initial Reaction-SoniaS

From the very opening of the story Holmes shows his keen observation skills. He solves a small mystery with his examination skills right at the beginning. Holmes has his back facing Watson as they are sitting in the office. While sitting there, Watson notices a cane left in that office by a visitor who happens to be unknown. Out of the blue, Holmes states “Well, Watson, what do you make of it?” And since Holmes had his back to Watson and he had given no hint what he was doing, Watson says “How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head.” And then Holmes says, “I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me” , so he observed all of this through the reflection in the coffee pot, which shows that his observation skills are rather perceptive.

The Years of Rice and Salt:Book 1-SoniaS

For The Years of Rice and Salt in Book 1, the two main characters were: a boy named Kyu, an African slave in the story, and Bold, a Mongolian runaway hunter. After fleeing his own land because there were concerns from the King that he may have the plague, Bold is captured when searching for new grounds and he is quickly forced into being a slave, here he eventually meets Kyu, who is also a slave at the time. Historical references in the story consists of the discussion of religions, the plague, Beijing, the capital of China and which was also the capital of the Ming dynasty, and it also makes a lot of references to slavery. The story was rather difficult to follow, but basically, in the story 90% of the population, which consists of mainly Christians and Europeans, is wiped out by the plague, it describes what life was like there for everyone, including the slaves and it also shows way they tried to survive.

Industry and Science: Day World Took Off-SoniaS

Part III (250 Years) of the film The Day the World Took Off, shows the development of the import export age. It goes back 250 years ago and talks about how such a small country came to take over trade. It stated that at the end of the 16th century one wouldn’t have guessed that Britain was going to become the king of global trade and that Holland would have been looked at as a much better contender. But with the Ottoman Empires wealth and sophistication in addition to all the goods they had to offer which is what put them at a place as the core of trade, they were looked at as much more promising candidates than either Holland or Britain at this time. The film also talked a lot about the Dutch, and their wise habits with money and spending,where instead of spending money, as an alternative they reinvested it, and in addition they later created a banking system, which later other civilizations had also made use for as well as made modifications to it. On the whole, although the film wasn’t as engaging as I expected, this film was still instructive as it made quite a few points I wasn’t familiar with prior to watching.

Industry and Science: Macfarlane-SoniaS

In the movie we watched in class on Thursday, January 31^st, Alan Macfarlene discussed many points on the science and industry in the Islamic world. In he first point, reasons for statistics in Islamic science, Alan Macfarlene discusses come reasons why Islamic science failed to switch its dominance after its early brilliance. He stated that they didn’t have universities, and religious schools weren’t the same, and he also said that Islam also draws the line of too much asking of questions of why this and why that. The next topic Macfarlane discussed was the topic of why an industrial revolution had not occurred in the Ottoman Empire. There were natural resource shortages, which was among reasons of the lack of development in the empire. There was also no grain, and no vegetables, in Islam, whereas the West had new methods of raising crops in addition to rich soils and great plowing. Another topic was on the nature of Islamic religion and civilization, here Macfarlene discussed the ways in which the Islamic religion saturates all aspects of civilization, and puts limits on scientific and industrial development. Next, commercial sophistication was discussed, it discussed the market systems in the Ottoman Empire and reflected on the factors which made it difficult to take this towards a modern industrial civilization such as the fact that they don’t produce anything there, they simply buy and sell goods. The nature of power in the ottoman empire was discussed, and in this portion Macfarlene reflected on the nature of the political and social power within the Ottoman Empire, in Islam there is no diversity of groups, and there is a strong conservative argument that’s based on the idea that the strength of society depends on its diversity with lots of different groups. Lastly, Macfarlene discussed science, religion, and technology in Islamic civilizations; he went over the differences between religions and technologies and their effects on the development of thought. All in all this film was very informative, as it clearly described key characteristics in Islamic culture.