#9 What I learned

The most meaningful information I learned was probably identifying the Gothic and how it flows through our daily lives. That it is such a part of society today. It was something that has always been there, but now I know what it is and can define it. It is a resistance to authority. It is being overcome with emotion. All of those people who "just can't" are Gothic and they don't even know it. It just showed my how much I actually love the Gothic. While I still think Classic is the better way to live your life you must always keep some Gothic with you. It is about balance. Not too much of one or the other. 

I am not sure if it could have changed anything it the past. Maybe I would have just been more informed and collegiate. Maybe I could have solved problems much faster than I did without the knowledge of Gothic. Or been able to read people better. Who knows?

This new information just gives me more of an understanding of how people and society function. How me adore the Gothic. How we look to the Gothic. But we still seek the comfort of Romanticism. Gothic is to be touched but never fully enveloped. People who do completely embrace either can be unstable and biased. 

I feel like now that this thing that lingers in our culture has been defined I can think more critically about it and its influence on our everyday lives. How we react to empire and power. How we seek emotion and feeling and how in modern literature and movies. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Divergent, The Maze Runner. All of these have many similarities that we love and we love these stories and we don't even understand that what we love about them is the Gothic. 

The identification of Gothic in our daily lives has given me a better world view and how and why people rebel against the empire that we all live in. 

Visual Essay Photos

#8 Getting that knowlage, knowlage.

New knowledge is just a lot about culture, society, and psychology. About how today's society is obsessed with the Gothic and the rebellion against empire. Also it is great just to learn about the Austrian Empire because it is something that is not largely studied in America. So I loved learning about the Franz's and Sisi. As well as touring the houses and learning that being royalty actually kinda sucked and most of them were inbred crazies. 

It a different style of learning because we are engrossed in the culture and the places we are learning about. Which is amazing. To be able to see exactly how they lived. It is so much more interesting than just trying to comprehend the concepts from readings only. 

My most important new knowledge I have learned on this trip is mostly social ones. People are crazy. Especially drunk people. And they make dumb decisions. And I've learned that I can actually be sort of organized and together sometimes. But from the classes I have learned what Gothic is and does. And why it was created in such contrast to the Empire. 

#7 Y'all got some attitude.

Attitudes that I have noticed is rudeness. Especially in Prague in Vienna and mostly from cashiers. Like. A couple of times they dug through my wallet to try and find exact change. It was a really odd experience and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The worst I think was the Asian tourists. Elbows, selfie sticks, and the masses. It was overwhelming. And they had no concept of waiting. They just push and shove and elbow me in the gut. Selfie sticks to the fave. Overall not a good time.

Assumptions were that I might have to deal with the cultural differences with the locals. But really it was only between the Asians and a few Australians that I befriended. So I was completely wrong. 

Insights are that the locals flee the area during peak tourist season. That's when the Asian immigration happens. And they're everywhere. It also let me learn about how China, Japan, Vietnam, or other countries may be if I ever thought about going there. 

Explain how Kafka's writing contributes to your understanding of the Gothic/Emprire

Kafka was creepy, weird, and confusing. He writing was totally gothic. He was jewish born and had an overbearing father. He trained as a lawer and worked in an insurence company in the castle. His life was very opressed. He wrote in German but spoke Czech. Which meant he was stuck in the middle. Also my theory was that he was also gay. Which adding in the opressive father figure and the jewish religion can create some major problems. That is why he writes of opression and the obsurdity of beuacracy of the castle.

The works we read by Kafka explain his life perfectly for me. The judgement was about an overbearing father who abused and opressed his son. The castle was about a man wandering in confusion trying to bypass the beuacracy of the castle but never able to reach his goal. My conculsion about Kafka was shown to me at the museam. There we learned about his life. Being strictly religious. Daddy issues. Many failed engagments. And best friends that he was really close to.

Although strangly enough it was not from reading that I made his connection, but from the pictures of Kafka and his actor friend. They just kinda look gay. Just the look in their eyes and something about their aura I guess. Not exactly sure. But it just explains why Kafka had so many problems with opression and depression.

Describe the Ossuary of Kutna Hora. Explain why it is creepy/sublime

The Ossuary is a bunch of skeletons and bones all piled and hung from the ceilings. I hated it. I do not like creepy things like this. I don't even watch Tim Burton because he is creepy. So this was frankly just terrible. The skulls were in massive piles at least 10 feet tall and shaped like pyramids. And bones were draped across the ceiling. It was very cold inside and it gave me the chills. The bones were put there by a mad monk who said the bones cried out to him. They wouldn't rest until they were stacked as such. So he dug up all the bones and brought them to the Ossuary.

It is creepy because it is a bunch of disturbed graves. All of these skulls stacked on top of one another and hung from the ceiling. They were the peasents who died from the plague. It is sublime because of the shear amount of bones. Thousands of them. The whole place gave me goosebumps and I left early because I did not like it in there. I thought one of the most interesting parts of it was the crest of the empire. Because all of these peasents were ruled by the empire in their life and even in death, they make up the empire.

Konopiste as a classic Gothic/Empie location and why its important.

Konopiste can be called a Empiric location because of those who lived there. Franz Ferdinand, archduke and crown prince to the Austrian empire. Konopiste held the future of the empire. It was where their hope lay and then that hope died. It was a place of refuge and hunting. Not balls or events. It was solitary.

Konopiste can be called Gothic because of the man who lived there. It is covered with animal trophies. Thousands upon thousands of them. It is a place of death and suffering. But each of those deaths meant something to the killer. Which is ironic seeing as the killer became the hunted. And his death is one that changed the world.

It is important because it was held the future Emporer of Austria. Yet it was situated in the Czech countryside. Which is interesting.