In response to our in-class definition for the two terms, penance and penitence, used in The Scarlet Letter, I did a little research. After staring at the entries on dictionary.com and getting no clearer picture than we had already reached in class, I decided to take a more direct approach and google "penance vs. penitance" in the hope that someone had already written an article about the subject.
In the very first link, I found an article that suggests that we were interpreting the lines incorrectly:
"You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you, in the days long past. . . . Is there no reality in the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works? ... No, Hester, no! ... Of penance I have had enough! Of penitence there has been none!" (Hawthorn 188).
We interpreted it to mean that the two words were completely separate in their meaning, and indeed we finished the discussion in class asking how it even was possible to have one and not the other. On the other hand, the writer of the article says that Hester's use of the word penitence was incorrect, and she was confusing it with penance. Dimmesdale's response is intended to correct her. He's saying that what has happened is penance, not penitance.
Since John Parker, the writer of the article, seemed to have it right so far, I decided to trust his definitions of penance and penitence as well. Penance, he defines as "works one does as punishment for sin and in attempt to atone for sin". Penitence, as he goes on to explain, involves confessing to your crime and repenting for it. Applying this to the story, Hester mistakenly says that the good work he has done has achieved penitence. Dimmesdale corrects her and says that his self punishment and acts of good fall under the definition of penance. He has not yet confessed to the public or repented for it which would achieve penitence.
The article then goes on to say how god is forgiving and everything, you should follow god, and cleanse yourself of all unrighteousness; the usual religious nonsense. I'm an atheist for god's sake (lol, had to include that oxymoron). Anyway, the article is here: http://www.mtjuliet.org/sermons/archives2/002883.html
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
What now?
I sense an upcoming quandary in which I'm going to run out of new english ideas to write about. Some could argue that this has already happened since I'm no longer talking about class; I'm talking about talking about class. I have no end of ideas that are more science based, as displayed by my previous entry, but honestly, the only changing topics in our class are the current chapter of the text.
I don't like to fall into that kind of pattern. A chapter by chapter analysis of puritan text is hardly colorful by any standards, especially for this audience which, as yet, is mostly comprised of students. These blogs are mostly intended, I presume, to merely allow us to extend and enhance our writing style. Therefore, unless Mr. Brenick objects, I'll continue with my slightly off-topic discussion points, but only if the discussion points available are scarce.
This leaves open many possibilities for future blog topics: Schrödinger's cat for one. There's an interesting paradox for later discussion. These are fields where I feel I can be more comfortably analytical. Besides, if I gave up, and did book analysis every week, I'd lose interest. My blog would come out as "Puritan society was often what we could consider a pretentious society. It is so defined by their belief's in a pure society, in contrast with the society they actually created". Now while I can do a decent job of spouting that in an essay, it's certainly not the casual writing that these blogs are intended for, nor is it going to be fun for either the audience or myself.
I don't like to fall into that kind of pattern. A chapter by chapter analysis of puritan text is hardly colorful by any standards, especially for this audience which, as yet, is mostly comprised of students. These blogs are mostly intended, I presume, to merely allow us to extend and enhance our writing style. Therefore, unless Mr. Brenick objects, I'll continue with my slightly off-topic discussion points, but only if the discussion points available are scarce.
This leaves open many possibilities for future blog topics: Schrödinger's cat for one. There's an interesting paradox for later discussion. These are fields where I feel I can be more comfortably analytical. Besides, if I gave up, and did book analysis every week, I'd lose interest. My blog would come out as "Puritan society was often what we could consider a pretentious society. It is so defined by their belief's in a pure society, in contrast with the society they actually created". Now while I can do a decent job of spouting that in an essay, it's certainly not the casual writing that these blogs are intended for, nor is it going to be fun for either the audience or myself.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Now, I've been trying to find a way to squeeze in this blog entry since I started this blog, but due to the requirement that we only write about something pertaining to our class, I've had trouble getting a chance. I wanted to explain my blog title (you know, all the rediculous 1s and 0s? What's up with that!?) so that it has some meaning to readers.
The string of 1s and 0s are part of a code or number system known as binary, the prefix bi- meaning 2. this means that it only uses 2 characters combined in different ways (0 and 1). Our number system, the decimal system uses 10 characters (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, but not 10, because 10 is a combination of 1 and 0 remember?)
This is the tricky part. All systems of counting are based on place values (ones place, tens place, hundreds place, etc). Since decimal is base 10, that means that it follows the following pattern for place values:
Thousands place Hundreds place Tens place Ones place
10³ (1000) 10² (100) 10¹ (10) 10° (1)
Each place value increases by one exponent to raise its quantity.
The same is true for binary. Since binary is base 2, it follows the following pattern:
Eights place Fours place Twos place Ones place
2³ (8) 2² (4) 2¹ (2) 2° (1)
Now how does this apply? Take for example the number 1011. In the Eights place is a 1. So there you have 1x8=8. In the fours place is a 0. This means that 0x4=0 is represented by that place value. Next is a 1 in the twos place so that is 1x2=2. Finally in the ones place is a 1, so that is, of course, 1x1= 1. Now you add those together: 8+0+2+1=11, so 1011 translated into normal decimal is 11 (it's just a coincidence that it only has 1s).
Next, to put this into use for the blog title. Computers store binary numbers in 8 character sequences such as
00000000 or 10011101. Therefore if you take the blog title (011011010111100101100010011011000110111101100111) and split it into 8 character sequences, you get the following:
01101101
01111001
01100010
01101100
01101111
01100111
Now if you translate these into decimal you get:
109
121
98
108
111
103
Now these digits correspond to characters in what is called the ASCI system. Follow this link to view the chart. Each number corresponds to a character, so if you translate out all the numbers you get:
m
y
b
l
o
g
Thus, my blog title is the phrase "myblog" in binary code. Please respond if you have any questions, It's the first time I've tried to explain it in text, so if I didn't do it justice, I'd like to rectify it.
The string of 1s and 0s are part of a code or number system known as binary, the prefix bi- meaning 2. this means that it only uses 2 characters combined in different ways (0 and 1). Our number system, the decimal system uses 10 characters (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, but not 10, because 10 is a combination of 1 and 0 remember?)
This is the tricky part. All systems of counting are based on place values (ones place, tens place, hundreds place, etc). Since decimal is base 10, that means that it follows the following pattern for place values:
Thousands place Hundreds place Tens place Ones place
10³ (1000) 10² (100) 10¹ (10) 10° (1)
Each place value increases by one exponent to raise its quantity.
The same is true for binary. Since binary is base 2, it follows the following pattern:
Eights place Fours place Twos place Ones place
2³ (8) 2² (4) 2¹ (2) 2° (1)
Now how does this apply? Take for example the number 1011. In the Eights place is a 1. So there you have 1x8=8. In the fours place is a 0. This means that 0x4=0 is represented by that place value. Next is a 1 in the twos place so that is 1x2=2. Finally in the ones place is a 1, so that is, of course, 1x1= 1. Now you add those together: 8+0+2+1=11, so 1011 translated into normal decimal is 11 (it's just a coincidence that it only has 1s).
Next, to put this into use for the blog title. Computers store binary numbers in 8 character sequences such as
00000000 or 10011101. Therefore if you take the blog title (011011010111100101100010011011000110111101100111) and split it into 8 character sequences, you get the following:
01101101
01111001
01100010
01101100
01101111
01100111
Now if you translate these into decimal you get:
109
121
98
108
111
103
Now these digits correspond to characters in what is called the ASCI system. Follow this link to view the chart. Each number corresponds to a character, so if you translate out all the numbers you get:
m
y
b
l
o
g
Thus, my blog title is the phrase "myblog" in binary code. Please respond if you have any questions, It's the first time I've tried to explain it in text, so if I didn't do it justice, I'd like to rectify it.
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