Skip to main content

Trip to Archives and Special Collections

 I enjoyed spending time in the Archives and Special Collections on Thursday this past week. In particular, I liked looking at all of the texts and images associated with the texts using the magnifying glasses. It was crazy how I could see precisely how everything was laid out on the page with the high-intensity magnifying glass. It surprised me that some of the older texts were in as good condition as they were. I examined the difference between one of the pieces of parchment and the papers handed out in class to mark down our findings. Obviously, the papers handed out to us were printed out in the library fairly recently. The other text, however, was printed hundreds of years ago. What shocked me was how much cleaner the older piece of paper was than the new printer paper. Also, using the high-intensity magnifying glass, I could see that the ink was much neater and more precise on the older piece of paper than the handout paper given to us. I don't understand how people could print more efficiently manually than a machine could. It is really fascinating and amazing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biblical Names in Pachinko

I am a Catholic, but I haven't gone to Church in many years. I wouldn't be able to tell you about anyone in the Bible! However, after some research, I notice many similarities between Isak in Pachinko  and Isaac in the Bible. I chose to examine Isak's similarities to Isaac because I admire Isak for his refusal to conform to societal expectations. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Isaac is the only son of Abraham. Abraham nearly sacrificed his only son due to God's command. In Lee's Pachinko , Isak is not sacrificed against his will, but sacrifices himself for what he believes is right. He sacrifices his honor by marrying Sunja, a woman pregnant outside of wedlock. He also sacrifices himself for his religion when he chooses not to recant his Christian religion in favor of the dominant Shinto religion. 
3 comments
Read more

End of Literatures of the World

 I really enjoyed being in this class for the last two quarters. Originally, I was nervous and scared to be writing as much as we have because writing is not my strong suit. I was afraid I'd fall behind. While there was definitely plenty of initial struggle in the transition from high school writing to college writing, I feel like I have improved a lot as a writer. In particular, I have improved on writing research papers, something that was a serious endeavor for me in high school. Aside bettering my writing skills, I appreciated this class for all of the time periods we learned about. I also really enjoyed doing projects such as Neatline which incorporated map-based research. Learning about cultures from different time periods and different physical locations really widened my scope of the world. I was born in the United States when it was already considered one of the most powerful countries in the world. For that reason, my perspective is very limited and it is easy for me to b...
3 comments
Read more

Gender in Pachinko

 It is clear to me that gender plays a large role in Pachinko. Sunja has many social pressures that consume her life. Most of these social pressures are a result of her being female. For example, when she gets pregnant while being single, she is pressured to leave her life in Korea behind to find a man to marry and provide for her so that she is not judged by society. This demonstrates that society is not supporting women to live independent lives and/or pursue an education. The only expectations for women include being good mothers and good wives.  Another example of gender roles playing a big role in Pachinko  is women as part of the workforce. In Japan, it becomes apparent that women aren't encouraged to work. In fact, Yoseb takes it as a hit to his ego as a man when Sunja and Kyunghee tell him they wish to work. He is insulted because in Japan, a man is supposed to provide for women. 
3 comments
Read more