James McBride Seminar

       James McBrides seminar was both comical and informative. He spoke about how we as college
students should not be so scared of failure. We feel like the world is ending if we fail a test or even a class when really this is just the dress rehearsal for success. McBride comforts the audience with the fact that most of what he writes doesn't make it, and even the book he was speaking about was one of his few successes. After his lecture, I had the pleasure of meeting him and making conversation. I asked him about some of the symbolism in his memoir, The Color of Water, and his answers clarified my curiosity on a more personal level I would never been able to experience otherwise. I am very honored that I got to meet a New York Times best selling author and one that I got to study in such great depth.

Essay #3 Final

Olivia Nyhammer

Professor Young

English 110

November 3, 2014

What is Beauty?

When asking yourself what is beauty, it’s important to consider the words true definition, which is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. For example, since the beginning of mankind our ideas about what is beautiful have remained generally universal.We, without even realizing it, describe a wide range of art, people, sceneries, families, and especially skills as beautiful on a daily basis, mainly because we find any of the items listed above as aesthetically pleasing. Our natural reaction to describe these things as beautiful can only be rooted to our natural and sexual selection meaning it, for the most part, completely beyond our own control. Denis Dutton, a philosophy professor and editor of Arts & Letters Daily, presented a compelling speech about how beauty is a part of human nature entitled “A Darwinian theory of beauty” at Ted Talks in 2010. Based on Dutton’s persuasive slant on what beauty really is, one cannot help but conclude that the fascination in the well acquired skills it takes to create something so close to perfection will be beautiful until the end of time, and ultimately is derived from our psychological and cultural influences.

Primarily, Charles Darwin introduced the theory of natural selection which stated that organisms who have certain skill sets better enable them to adapt to different environments, avoid predators, and dominate competition for food and mates will survive and reproduce more than other organisms, thus ensuring those favorable traits in the future generations. To illustrate, Dutton uses natural selection to explain our basic revolutions such as fears and the stench of rotting food but elaborates, “Natural selection also explains pleasures -- sexual pleasure, our liking for sweet, fat and proteins, which in turn explains a lot of popular foods, from ripe fruits through chocolate malts and barbecued ribs.” (Dutton, par. 4) In general, natural selection subconsciously attracts us toward more favorable qualities in people, places, food, and even movies. It is embedded in our culture and our ancestors, and then handed down to us. One’s taste for an aesthetically pleasing, beautiful dish is generally influenced from our natural selection, with a cultural reinforcement. For example, Indian cultures have consumed very spicy foods for centuries so the taste of the spices have become embedded into their genetic cultural palate and thus more favorable.  Natural selection proves we cannot help but admire anything that has been beautifully constructed, and because our genetic cultural influences are so dominant in our everyday lives, it is clear that we inherit cultural views of beauty and can’t deny our psychological tendencies making beauty forever timeless.

That is to say, sexual selection is a certain aspect of natural selection which occurs when organisms with more favorable qualities produce an exceeding number of offspring because they mate more in comparison to other organisms of the same gender and as result, promise the survival of the more inclined genetic traits. Dutton analyzes, “...the experience of beauty is one of the ways that evolution has of arousing and sustaining interest or fascination, even obsession, in order to encourage us toward making the most adaptive decisions for survival and reproduction. Beauty is nature's way of acting at a distance, so to speak.” (Dutton, par. 5) We cannot help but conform to what our mind and surroundings subliminally choose for us. When examining the result of timeless beauty in families and groups of people all over the world, sexual selection is the only logical answer.

Even seeking answers from the animal kingdom, looking at Dutton’s example of peacocks and sex dimorphism, it is evident to see the attraction and beauty in a natural element. A female peacock will select the male with the most desirable feather display, this in and of itself is an example of natural selection and sexual selection. Dutton argues, “It's women who actually push history forward.” (Dutton, par. 5) the female peacocks cannot help but select to mate with the males who have more aesthetically pleasing feathers, therefor making the peacocks beautiful feathers last for centuries. This provides an example of both natural selection because the male peacocks are not all the same, one is more decorated than the other, and an example of sexual selection, because the female would want to mate with the male with better features making the beauty in their feathers timeless.

With this in mind, it is apparent that tremendous quality in one’s skill is key to the creation of beauty, but especially in art. When studying the history of art, most would assume that the earliest known works were the ancient cave paintings which are roughly 32,000 years old when in fact, our race discovered aesthetic pleasures about 1.4 million years ago. As an illustration, The Acheulian hand axes were a very popular tool for centuries, until homo erectus began crafting it into slim stone blades that represented the shape of a teardrop. (Dutton, par. 8) These hand axes where found virtually everywhere early human life existed, scattered throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa, yet the compelling thing about this tool is, the scarce number of them they found globally, as well as the lack of wear on the blade, indicating that the Acheulian hand axes could not have been for hunting use. While pondering upon what these ancient artifacts could have possibly been used for, Dutton explains, “The best available answer is that they were literally the earliest known works of art, practical tools transformed into captivating aesthetic objects, contemplated both for their elegant shape and their virtuoso craftsmanship.” (Dutton, par. 9) For that reason, it is undebatable that the beauty of the stone was not only in the stone itself, but the expertise it took to hand craft it. The Acheulian hand axes stands as an archetype to why skill is the key to success in forming something beautiful, and why even today, the rarity of the elite skill it took to create one is seen as captivating.

Correspondingly, what is so mind blowing to people today is how the hand axes was communicated throughout the land when there was no language. It’s almost unbelievable, but the hand axes was made approximately 50,000 to 100,000 years before language was even developed. This furthermore explains why these skills were so glorified and Dutton points out, “Over tens of thousands of generations, such skills increased the status of those who displayed them and gained a reproductive advantage over the less capable.” (Dutton, par. 9) As noted, advanced skill sets contribute to sexual selection due to its way of heightening a person’s status. Therefore, we cannot help but see beauty as timeless because the assets we use to achieve beauty are what are being considered in potential mates for procreation which is being taken with us generation, through generation.

Going back to the ancient cave paintings, consider this, when we see these works of art in museums we gawk and gaze at each individually beautiful piece when in reality, a six year old could have drawn a better animal. It is important to comprehend that personal interest is not in the symmetry of the lines and design, but in the articulate abilities it took to create these works of art prevalent to it’s time. Our aesthetic taste is not only what's on the surface, but what is deep in our psyche. Evidently, beauty is, should, and always will be timeless due to its ability to be recreated based on culture, skill, and ability.

                 Works Cited

Dutton, Denis. "Denis Dutton: A Darwinian Theory of Beauty | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, Nov. 2010. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

Essay #3 Rough Draft

When asking yourself what is beauty, it’s important to consider the words true definition which is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. For example, since the beginning of mankind our ideas about what is beautiful have remained generally universal.We subconsciously consider a wide range of art, people, sceneries, families, and especially skills beautiful on a daily basis. Therefore, beauty is derived from natural and sexual selection meaning its, for the most part, completely out of our control. Denis Dutton, a philosophy professor and editor of Arts & Letters Daily, presented a compelling speech about how beauty is a part of human nature entitled “A Darwinian theory of beauty” at Ted Talks in 2010. Based on Dutton’s persuasive slant on what beauty really is, one cannot help but conclude that the fascination in the well acquired skills it takes to create something so close to perfection will be beautiful until the end of time.

Furthermore, Charles Darwin first introduced the theory of natural selection which stated that organisms who have certain skill sets better enable them to adapt to different environments, avoid predators, and dominate competition for food and mates will survive and reproduce more than other organisms, thus ensuring those favorable traits in the future generations. To illustrate, Dutton uses natural selection to explain our basic revolutions such as fears and the stench of rotting food but elaborates, “Natural selection also explains pleasures -- sexual pleasure, our liking for sweet, fat and proteins, which in turn explains a lot of popular foods, from ripe fruits through chocolate malts and barbecued ribs.” (Dutton, par. 4) To clarify, because natural selection subconsciously pulls us toward more favorable qualities in people, places, food, and even movies it is embedded in our culture and our ancestors, and then handed down to us. Natural selection proves we can not help but admire anything that has been beautifully constructed and because the more dominant traits reproduce more, the beauty will inevitably remain timeless.

That is to say, sexual selection is a certain aspect of natural selection which occurs when organisms with more favorable qualities produce an exceeding number of offspring because they mate more in comparison to other organisms of the same gender and as result, promise the survival of the more inclined genetic traits. Dutton analyzes, “ ...the experience of beauty is one of the ways that

evolution has of arousing and sustaining interest or fascination, even obsession, in order to encourage us toward making the most adaptive decisions for survival and reproduction.” (Dutton, par. 5) We can not help but conform to what our body and mind subliminally choose for us. When examining the result of timeless beauty in families and groups of people all over the world, sexual selection is the only logical answer.

With this in mind, it is apparent that tremendous skill and quality is key to the creation of beauty, but especially in art. When studying the history of art, most would assume that the earliest known works were the ancient cave paintings which are roughly 32,000 years old when in fact, our race discovered aesthetic pleasures about 1.4 million years ago. As an illustration, The Acheulian hand axes was a very popular tool for centuries until a homo erectus began crafting it into slim stone blades that represented the shape of a teardrop. These hand axes where found basically everywhere life roamed, scattered through Asia, Europe, and Africa but the compelling thing about this tool is, the scarce number of them they found in each area and the little to no wear on the blade indicates that the Acheulian hand axes could not have been used for hunting. As a result, when wondering what these ancient artifacts could have possibly been used for, Dutton explains, “ The best available answer is that they were literally the earliest known works of art, practical tools transformed into captivating aesthetic objects, contemplated both for their elegant shape and their virtuoso craftsmanship.” (Dutton, par. 9) For that reason, it is undebatable that the beauty of the stone was not only in the stone itself, but the expertise it took to hand craft it. The Acheulian hand axes stands as a solid model of why skill is the key to success in forming something beautiful, and why even today, the scarcity of the competency it took to create one is seen as captivating.   

Correspondingly, what is so mind blowing to people today is how the hand axes was communicated throughout the land when there was no language. It’s almost unbelievable, but the

hand axes was made approximately 50,000 to 100,000 years before language was even developed. This furthermore explains why these skills were so glorified and Dutton points out, “Over tens of thousands of generations, such skills increased the status of those who displayed them and gained a reproductive advantage over the less capable.” (Dutton, par. 9) As noted, advanced skill sets contribute to sexual selection due to its way of heightening a person’s status. Therefore, we can not help but see beauty as timeless because the assets we use to achieve beauty are what are being considered in potential mates for procreation which is being taken with us generation, through generation.
Going back to the ancient cave paintings, consider this, when we see these works of art in museums we gawk and gaze at each ones beauty when in reality, a six year old could have drew a better animal. It is important to capture that your interest is not in the symmetry of the lines and design, but in the articulate abilities it took to create these works of art prevalent to it’s time. Our aesthetic taste is not only what's on the surface, but what is deep in our psyche. Evidently, beauty is, should, and always will be timeless due to its inability to be recreated based on time period and expertism.

Darwinian Theory of Beauty

Denis Dutton, a philosopher of art,  gave the speech A Darwinian Theory of Beauty at Ted Talks. He speaks extensively about what is beauty is and how our vision of what is beautiful has been culturally and biologically programmed in our minds since the beginning of mankind. While beginning by stating beauty is a very passionate topic of his, he notes that it is also a very complex topic since the things we consider to be beautiful are all so different. Although most people would say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Dutton argues that beauty is in the culturally conditioned eye of the beholder. Music, movies, paintings, and sceneries are all things every culture agrees is beautiful despite their differences. When proposing how this universality can be explained Dutton uses the Darwinian theory as an example. He examines our prehistoric aesthetic and artistic preferences. Ourpleasurable experience with beauty can only be derived from our evolved human psychology. Due to our psyche, natural selection and sexual selection are what form our definition of beauty. Dutton then vividly describes a beautiful savannah landscape, the kind you see everywhere from doctor's offices to postcards all across the globe. This pull toward the appearance of the landscape is because this is where we evolved as humans, therefore its almost inviting us in. This proves that every culture is intrigued by an inviting visual experience.
Since some people might say that a savannah landscape is only an example of natural beauty, Dutton explores artistic beauty as well. As an example, he explains how the hand axel was created over 100,000 years before language yet was so popular. Due to its convenient tear drop shape and convenience it was seen as aesthetic and a status booster for those who had one. This was the oldest artistic tradition in history because it was seen as beautiful. Dutton concludes with explain how the next time you're in the mall and see tear drop shaped diamond earrings in the window its your biological intuition attracting you to them, not your preference. Our powerful automatic reaction to things we are programmed by our ancestors to view as beautiful will continue for as long as the human race shall exist.

Essay 1 revision

Olivia Nyhammer

Professor Young

September 20, 2014

English 110

Essay #1

Identity Speaks

Picture this:You wake up in a hospital bed with no one around. You dont know where you are or why you're in a hospital. The doctor comes in, explains you hit your head and are suffering from memory loss. He asks what your name is because you are in another country so they don't have your information on file. You have no idea what to do or say because you can't remember your name, where your home is, or anything for that matter. What do you do? When you ask yourself who you are you have nothing to identify with, no way to explain yourself. Your identity is like your own personal logo composed of all the things that makes you, you. Being able to identify yourself through your roles, religion, and community is very important. It’s importance can be seen as an example in James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, as James struggles to find his place as a mixed boy with a white mother in a segregated society.

Furthermore, most people identify themselves through their roles within society. Roles are a huge part of everyday life, hence why we tend to identify through them sometimes without even realizing. Fulfilling the duties associated with one's role gives a sense of purpose which is very crucial to happiness encouraging one to identify through them. For instance, parents generally feel like their life is centered around their children and identify themselves as a “Mom” or “Dad” because it is a very important role they take on daily. During the times of segregation blacks and whites had definitive roles in society. The expected and the norm back then was that the whites were basically obligated to have the best of everything and often identified the blacks with poverty and ignorance. McBride explains what it was like when his mom took him and his siblings on the subway, “...sometimes laughing at us, pointing, muttering things like, “Look at those little niggers.” (McBride 31) It is unfortunate America had these segregations at one time but it is a clear reflection of role status.  This emphasizes how critical one’s role in society can play in shaping their identity and why it is so important to society and oneself.

In addition to roles, people often choose to identify themselves through religion. There are so many different types of religion and despite the fact that ultimately we should respect each other’s love for

a higher being, we are sometimes labeled and discriminated because of them. Religions that require you to dress and behave a certain way are at a higher risk of being targeted. As James grows up throughout the novel, he begins to see how his mother's faith in God allowed her to see equality amongst both races while their society made them so separated and concludes, “As a grown man, I understand now, understand how her Christian principles and trust in God kept her going through all her life’s battles, but as a boy, my faith was not that strong.” (McBride 33) Having both parents build up the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church, it is clear that she not only is strongly identified through religion, but it has solemnly got her through one of the toughest times in US history. Religion is a very important part in forming one’s physical and emotional characteristics making up their identity.

Furthermore, it is natural for one’s community to influence the formation of their identity in a powerful way. We tend to pick up on things we see and hear from the people around us, specifically in our communities. Slang and accents are a great example of ways we identify with one another. People also commonly identify themselves with the groups within their community. For instance, McBride explains, “...she herself occasionally talked about “the white man” in the third person, as if she had nothing to do with him, and in fact she didn't, since most of her friends and social circle were black women from church.” (McBride 32) In the community James lives in white’s were seen as stuck up and although his mother was white herself, she chose not to identify herself with purely

based on the way they acted. It is so easy for one to identify themselves with their community and the groups within it that it happens subconsciously. It is very important that one has an identity and your community is the first thing that begins shaping  it.

Without an identity we are unexplainable. Roles play an important part in shaping our identity by giving us purpose. Religion also provides definition to our identity physically and emotionally because most utilize their spiritual values in every decision they make. Lastly, one’s community can make a lasting impression on their identity by the groups they associate themselves with and all around getting exposed to different ways of life. All of these examples of what forms our identity and why it is important can be seen in James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water. Identity is essential to our happiness and society.

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Color of Water. New York: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.

Aimee Mullins Overcomes

             Aimee Mullins is an empowered woman who conquered her disablity by making it beautiful, and taking advantage of it. Instead of having regular prothetic legs she made hers into high fashion. Mullins can make herself as tall or short as she

wants and has really turned her prosthetics into art. She has appeared on numerous covers and has walked in high fashion shows such as Alexander McQueen. She believes its good that beauty can be constructed. Beauty is overcoming. It's finding a way to make your flaws beautiful and becoming confident in them.  She is an amazing example for men and women around the world that beauty is confidence. 

Problem within community

Olivia Nyhammer

Professor Young

September 28, 2014

English 110

Issues in Community

            Mike Bowe once said, “We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist.” The education system here in America is broken due to the scarcity well-paying jobs for college graduates who spend four years dedicated to studying, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars towards a bachelor’s degree.  Little do they know the Bachelors Degree is becoming the minimum requirement for jobs that do not require college skill level. This is a rising issue that began when our country first started to struggle economically because there were higher rates of unemployment and fewer jobs. In Valerie Kinloch’s essay, “Harlem, Art, and Literacy and Documenting ‘“Harlem Is Art”’/ ‘“Harlem As Art’” you are taken on a walk through of Harlem’s progressive gentrification. Gentrification is positively influencing our broken education system by providing more professional, and up-scale job opportunities for college graduates. Colleges can resolve this issue by giving more realistic expectations of jobs needed in today’s society pertaining to one’s major, having stricter criteria for acceptance into college, and bank lenders can also contribute by giving more realistic quotes on loans.

            Because of more demand for jobs, companies are sorting through 800 applications at a time causing them to treat a bachelor’s degree as an equivalent to a high school diploma. For example, a law firm in Atlanta, which has become a more college-educated population, only will higher applicants with at least a bachelor’s degree for office jobs. Even the office “runner”, who makes only ten dollars an hour, is required to have a degree. Companies validate the sense in their selection because obviously they are going to take the best that they can receive even if that skill set is not required because it shows the students dedication to their work.  Adam Slipakoof, the firm’s managing partner explains, “College students are just more career-oriented.” Colleges give us so much assurance that we will have a place in the work field after graduation, but the unemployment rate of people with just a high school diploma is only two times that of students with a bachelor’s degree when one would expect it to be five times higher considering all of the work and money that goes into that certification. We do not end up being paid for the quality of work we are capable of producing. Though through gentrification, we can flourish run down business’s and provide more appropriate job opportunities for graduates with specific skill sets.

            Here at Fairleigh Dickenson University, the campus of Florham, tuition for the four years that is required to obtain a bachelor’s degree is $220,000. Most students will be paying their loans back until it’s time for their kids to go to college, and 20% of graduates, which is one in five, end up working a job that is unrelated to their major. Megan Parker, a graduate from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2011 with a bachelor’s in Fashion and Retail Management, by 2012 settled for a job as a receptionist which is completely unrelated to her major, making only $37,000 because it was all she could find and is still $100,000 in debt from student loans. Parker admits, “I will probably never see the end of that bill...” Her college should have given her more realistic job opportunities that were based off her major, and the bank lender should have devised a plan that could have prevented her from being in a life time of debt for a certification she didn’t need.

            If colleges had stricter criteria for acceptance, less of the population would have degrees and those who did would be more valuable to the work force. Due to society’s lack of jobs, colleges should review their standards for acceptance and raise them.  Colleges are failing to realize that they are putting so many “average” students in the work force with degrees they shouldn’t of paid for because only the students who graduated with all A’s are actually receiving the jobs that require college skill level, leaving the others to settle for jobs a high school graduate used to be able to fulfill. By raising their criteria for acceptance, colleges are avoiding making “average” graduates get degrees just to not use them.

Now that gentrification occurred, Harlem today is a flourishing community filled with an abundance of job opportunities. Kinloch quotes Khaleeq, “Yeah, like the way the old Apollo was before the glitzy lights and expensive tickets. You think we [Black people] can afford to go there now?” (Kinloch 152) By remodeling the old businesses, they can inflate their prices giving them more money to pay their shareholders and workers.The more affluent a business is, the more competitive the salary. The more companies that come into the community, the more jobs that become available resulting in less debt and more opportunities for college graduates. 

            This is a very relevant problem in my community considering I am a college student myself. We as a community on this campus are all stakeholders in this problem. We are all paying for our education; working towards degrees we pray society will still have demand for when it’s our time to enter the work force. A lack of jobs for college graduates is a problem in my world and in my community. Will your son/daughter end up struggling with college debt? Will there be demand for work in his/her major? Will this problem still one day affect our grandchildren? What if the economy just gets worse? These are all valid questions hopefully colleges and bank lenders will start to ask themselves so we can finally put this problem to rest and gentrification can help create opportunities for graduates.