Blogging Around

First, I commented on Cordelia's "Best of the Week" piece about "Form is Content". She made interesting connections between that idea and other aspects of life, and through doing which helped her reader achieve a deeper understanding of that idea and how it is rooted in human expression and behavior.

"Cordelia,

I had never even mentally related the idea of "form is content" to definite theories based on reason, such as science, but the fact that this idea only applies to writing, art, music, and such, truly attests to the abstract nature of writing and the art of human communication.
The main goal of advertising, as you discussed in your blog, is to capture your emotions and attention for the duration of the commercial; they know that our memory is more persistent when we are under the influence of our feelings. This expresses the idea of "form is cognition", which fits right alongside the topic of your blog. I also see this concept in art and music; the same song played by an orchestra and by a band has very different emotional impacts on the audience. Similarly, the same song played by a middle school orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will surely strike the audience in different ways.
In the end, your blog inspired me to think about how "form is content" attests to the abstract nature of human expression, on a very down-to-earth and realistic level. The first thought that came to my head was want and desire; when we want to ask someone to do what we know they would never agree to, we must use our "form" to manipulate the "content" and how the other person feels emotionally, or their "cognition". This can be seen in various politicians in the past, or better yet certain world leaders and dictators, who acquired followers through manipulating and deceiving their people into wanting what they wanted. With this it becomes evident that greed perhaps, for money or fame or both, has also been a driving force behind manipulating form."

Second, I commented on Elizabeth's blog, in which she cites a connection between the use of kites in the book and the cycle of power, a literary theme/concept.

"Elizabeth,

I read a lot of blogs last night, and this has to be among the most original. It presents an angle, a perception of the story buried deeply within Hosseini's craft and storyline. It makes the significance of the fictional part of the story more prominent, through uncovering the connection to the "cycle of power", a literary theme/concept that has been used in other works.

In your blog, before greed came into play, you described flying kites as an activity that bound Amir and Hassan, and symbolized both their individual and collective power. I also thought about how it symbolized the unification of Baba's two halves, the societally-accepted half, and the underprivileged half, who may not have had many personal traits in common, but shared Baba's blood. On page 359 it says, "I looked at Hassan, showing those two missing front teeth, sunlight slanting on his face. Baba's other half. The unentitled, underprivileged half. The half who had inherited what had been pure and noble in Baba", (359).

Towards the end of your blog, when opened up a new angle to the symbolism of the kite running at the end of the book, I was very surprised. I had simply seen that as a role reversal between the loyal and the dependent, as Amir's final gift to Hassan, and as Amir's happiness at finally having been able to come to terms with himself. However, seeing the kite running as being possible only because Amir restored his power through coming to terms with himself, and because Sohrab balanced out the power, is a very unique and deep understanding of the book. It represents a degree of closure barely visible among many intellectual individuals, and makes me feel more strongly about calling Hosseini a talented author, although there are a few missteps he took while writing the fictional memoir."