#5 philbrick & fightclub: opportunity & hope

Nantucket: the power of community
The Essex was described as a "vessel opportunity" for the people of Nantucket. Because Nantucket was "governed" by a force of terrifying unpredictability of the sea, the Essex was a way for the Nantucketers to gain back control over the community, land and the sea. They needed the Essex and all of its promises to feel empowered in the place that they lived.


Also, Nantucket was a Quaker community and a  "community that was as carefully controlled as that of any New England Society." Everyone is Nantucket was spiritually and intellectually equal; there was little--if any--difference between men and women. Everyone in Nantucket has the same opportunities. Even Pollard and Chase had the same opportunities and therefore the same possibilities. All of the men at sea and all of the men and women on land were both equal and free. This equality allowed for the collective support of the Essex because the whole community was able to come together in support of something that offered prosperity to the town. There was nothing to separate them.


The Essex offered hope to the Nantucket people because it symbolized all realms of success- individual, collective, and communal. The success of the Essex was crucial to the success of the community. Would Nantucket have been so hopeful if it were not for the Essex?



Essex: Means of survival
When the men are trying to survive on the sea, they keep true to the values that sent them to sea. They are full of hope and trying desperately to maintain the level of optimism that they left with. Even though a large part of them feels doomed, lost, defeated and unsuccessful, they still carry with them a mindset of an opportunist. And this mindset, I believe, is directly related to the communal backing, expectations and dependence. Even if the opportunity is gone, the men still feel a responsibility to carry on. Do we not feel a sense of obligation to fulfill an opportunity even if it is no longer possible?


Further, we described Chase and Pollard in class. Chase is democratic, sloppy, weak, emotional and absent. Pollard is daring, legal, fishy, bragging and flexible. In what ways to these characteristics helpful in the struggle to survive? how are they harmful? Both have personalities that drive them to continue their quest (democratic, emotional, daring, flexible), and both have characters that would discourage them (sloppy, weak, absent, legal, fishy, bragging). Who is more hopeful? Who is more hopeless?




Fight Club: Jack, Tyler and hopelessness

What does Jack mean when he says: "losing all hope is freedom"? Like mentioned in class, I think losing all hope means accepting a reality or the conditions you live under in order to completely liberate yourself. I'll say now, that I believe in hope and the power of being hopeful and the possibilities that it lends itself to. I think a new kind of reality is possible when one is hopeful. But, obvious a new reality is also possible when one is hopeless. When Hester Prynne lost hope, she became free of her constraints and limits and began to have power over her life and situation. Jack, too, when he gave up his his need and desire and hope to achieve an unrealistic life, he began to be exactly what he wanted to be. Tyler was a version of Jack that was both hopeless and realistic. And Tyler's hopelessness made it more possible for him to be free in his own world--both literally and figuratively. He literally lived free, not paying for a place to sleep; he escaped through Fight Club.

Like I said, I'm a hopeful person and believe definitely in the power and possibility of hope. I mean, I even have it tattooed on my wrist. I also see hope as a way to liberate and free the mine, while aiming to achieve a higher, more certain sense of personal reality. And, honestly, until reading Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea and watching Fight Club, I have never seen hopelessness in such a positive way before. I definitely think that both can be liberating and freeing. But which one more so?


What is it like to want to sleep? what is the experience like? what causes insomnia? relationship between body/mind, consciousness/unconsciousness? 
In class we described insomnia with some key characteristics: dissatisfaction, hopelessness, unsteadiness, no dreams. In terms of Jack's restlessness: sleep is too risky; he doesn't want to sleep because he doesn't want to wake; he is avoiding the suppressed. Vianca mentioned a really awesome point-- that we are never "more ourselves then when we are asleep". I think there is a lot of truth in what Vianca brought up in class. I believe that our subconscious has a lot to do with who we are or who are "true" self is. I think a lot of our fears, thoughts, beliefs and realities are held in our subconscious, and therefore in our sleep or dream states.


In class we were asked to write about insomnia and answer those questions I bolded above. For me, insomnia has always been about an absents of a present. What I mean by that is-- an urgen feeling and a need to have something that is no longer there. Even when I was little, if someone or something left my life it made me so anxious that I just could not sleep. There were times when I night terrors every night for weeks, always being afraid of losing something I've already lost. Also, insomnia is caused by an anxiety about sleeping and a belief that being awake is more important than sleeping. Somehow, if I sleep, I'll miss something.