the bird on fire

The Palm Valley School Student Blog

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Introspection, or Epistemology?

by 3 Comments

By James Zheng

To give a standard explanation of Epistemology, it is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. To make this statement more general, it is primarily just about how mankind gains knowledge, or perceives everything. It could be the knowledge of knowing how to read and write, or it could be the knowledge of knowing how to walk and run. So, the simple discussion within Epistemology is just a pursuit towards one question: how do we know?

First, what does Immanuel Kant, a German pioneer of philosophy, say about knowing in his Critique of Practical Reason? All knowledge is based on judgment (judgment is a process of knowing). Sometimes, it does not matter whether a single representation or concept is true or not, such as “this is a flower.” Only when two representations or concepts are connected to form a judgment, such as “this flower is red,” there may be a problem on what constitutes knowledge. Judgment can be divided into two categories: one is analytical judgment, and the other is comprehensive judgment. The so-called “analytical judgment” explains what has already been contained in the subject, such as a “triangle has three angles.” Obviously, this kind of judgment has universal necessity, but because the object is only the interpretation of the subject and does not add to the content of knowledge, it is not strictly knowledge. The so-called “comprehensive judgment” refers to such judgment where the object is not included in the subject but is added to the subject through experience, such as “objects have weight.” Obviously, this kind of judgment can expand the content of the world’s knowledge and help the world understand the world, so only comprehensive judgment is the real knowledge. It does not have to be scientific knowledge. 

I do like his sophisticated theory, but I would like to make things easier. Here is a starting point and a basic question: what is knowledge? Let’s consider three sentences:

1) I know my bike is under the building, but my bike is not there.

2) He never believed that she liked him, but he knew that she liked him.

3) He knew he would win the lottery because he thought he was lucky.

All these three sentences make people feel that something is wrong. It makes people feel that the first half of the sentence and the second half of the sentence can not be true or established at the same time. In all three cases, there seems to be no real knowledge. The three sentences that are more intuitive are as follows:

1) I thought my bike was downstairs, but my bike wasn’t there.

2) He didn’t believe it and never knew that she liked him.

3) He thought he would win the lottery because he thought he was lucky.

Or three sentences like this:

1) Now I know my bike is downstairs because I saw it when I went downstairs.

2) He knew she liked him, and he believed that all the time. She does like him.

3) After seeing the winning result, he knew that he had won the lottery.

The above examples contain the most crucial factor of what constructs knowledge and three similar types of analysis of knowledge. They are called justified true beliefs. 

Therefore, how is this simple but incomprehensive post going to relate to “introspection?” If you consider that our process of obtaining knowledge is a type of introspection, it makes sense. Still, the three examples show us the transformation of information in our minds. At the first attempt, we would like to know the knowledge though our intuition, but by receiving some other vague information that may affect the final result, we go to a further stage, which refers to examination. And through introspection, we may question “how do I know” and “how do you know” which is also introspection. That is what makes me think that introspection is linked with Epistemology.  

Sources:

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BC%8A%E6%9B%BC%E5%8A%AA%E5%B0%94%C2%B7%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7/2631177?fromtitle=%E5%BA%B7%E5%BE%B7&fromid=5618&fr=aladdin
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/20451407

Introspection Editor: Luke Langlois

If We Were a Full-Course Meal: Me Menu’s

by Leave a Comment

Writer Lynne Tillman, in 1975, wrote a story for Wallpaper magazine in which she “wanted to write a story and fit it all on a menu and call it ‘Myself as a Menu.'”

Poets & Writers developed the idea into a writing prompt: Write a story inspired by the menu form, perhaps using a real restaurant menu as a template or launchpad. Create a persona by choosing certain “courses” or “sides” to elaborate on your personality.

The Blog Class responded to the prompt, writing themselves as menu’s. Then, Editor Doreen Yuan compiled the “courses” and “sides” into one menu. The following is her Big Menu o’ Blog Class.

So what’s on the menu? Doreen asks.

*For Appetizers:

Chef Renée brings us an “Assortment of identities” and “Insecurity salad of the day (ask the server for selection).”

Chef Chelsea offers “Pokemon Pancakes” ($10), Dazai Osamu homemade tofu” ($5 no safety guaranteed), and “Sadao Maou fries” ($7).

Chef Katelin features “Mac n cheese because i am childish,” “Issa potato,” “Golden apple,” and a “Strawberry gumball.”

*For our Main Course:

Chef Luke cooks up “Pepperoni Pizza” (because my grandma’s Italian).

Chef James features soup with noodles. You may add “Fish cake,” “Edible fungus,” “Edible seaweed,” “Egg,” “Bamboo shoots,” and Pork slices.”

Chef Doreen features a “Spicy hot pot with enthusiastic soy sauce” ($50), “compassionate glutinous rice cake” ($26.5), “Stir-fried potatoes” ($13.33), “Brave eggplant” ($21), and “Frank lotus root and rib soup” ($16.8).

*For Dessert and Drink:

Our suggested beverages include . . .

Ms. Zachik’s “A Tall Drink of Water”

Ms. Zachik’s “Whine–Red & White”

Quintus’s “1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild”

Quintus’s “Shanghai White Wine”

Quintus’s “Blood Mary”

Luke’s “Root Beer (Because real beer is for undisciplined losers–Luke is a disciplined winner)”

Langlois “Chocolate Milk (Breaking bones is lame. Regular milk is also lame. Have bones that are as strong as Luke’s.)”

For Dessert . . .

Ms. Zachik’s “Desert Sunset Mochi”

Ms. Zachik’s “Scooby Snacks per request”

Doreen’s “Eternally fervent heart” ($0)

*We reserve the right to refuse the wearing of tight-fitting clothes.

The Science of When You Have a Crush on Someone

by Leave a Comment

Editor Quintus loves to talk about love. So, he assigned the staff write about it. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Katelin explains what happens physiologically when we crush.

By Katelin Slosky

Having a crush can be a wonderful thing. Remember the feeling of butterflies, the nervousness when you are around the object of your crush, or the fact that they make you smile? Also, having a crush can be a dangerous thing. Your moods are less likely to be stable; you may make irrational decisions because of them, and you will most likely feel much more anxious. Here are the reasons for these emotions.

Four key chemicals increase or diminish in our bodies when we’re in a state of infatuation:

  1. Cortisol: This is your body’s main stress hormone.
  2. Dopamine: This is one of the chemicals that makes you happily seek out pleasure.
  3. Norepinephrine: This chemical improves your memory and makes you highly excitable.
  4. Serotonin: This stabilizes your mood. A lack of serotonin can cause such things as depression or anxiety

When you have a crush on someone, your serotonin drops, your cortisol increases, your brain makes dopamine, and in return, produces norepinephrine. All the chemicals that make you anxious and energetic flow, and the one that keeps you stable ebbs–which explains why you feel jittery, happy one moment, sad the next, like not getting out of bed, and then like dancing out the door.

Love Editor: Quintus Ni

Walt Disney’s Hand-Drawn Animation

by Leave a Comment

Editor Chelsea directed the Blog class to write about one of her favorite topics: animation. Katelin combined the directive with the recent hoopla regarding last night’s Academy Awards. Did you know Snow White received an Oscar, and seven miniature ones?

By Katelin Mei

The 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was revolutionary for the film and animation industry. It was the first film ever to make use of a multiplane camera and was awarded a special Oscar, along with seven miniature ones. Here is how this special film was made.

Image result for snow white and the seven dwarfs oscar

First, the writers made a story and illustrated the high points of that story. Then, the story was taken to a music director, where he timed out the score for each scene carefully. Then, the animators drew out each scene carefully using a light table. After, the pencil drawings were sent to the inking department, where they would be traced over with ink on sheets of celluloid.

Afterwards, the pictures were painted. The studio had more than 800 shades of colour carefully made for this purpose. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs required 250,000 celluloids painted in such a way.

In another department, artists painted the backgrounds for every scene using watercolour. Then, the celluloids and backgrounds would be photographed by a camera, one plane at a time. After one photo was finished, the technicians moved on to the next one, until the whole film was photographed. For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this had to be repeated more than half a million times.

Afterwards, the sound effects were recorded. Finally, an orchestra was recorded, playing the score. Then, the film was featured in Hollywood. After, it was released to theatres, where it made a million and a half dollars.

Source Referenced:

Animation Editor: Chelsea

Ice Skating: Injuries on Ice

by Leave a Comment

By Blogger X

Hello guys, this time I am going to share with you the story around my ice skating injury. Ice skating in general is a very dangerous sport, and it can cause serious life-long injuries if you don’t practice the right way. So please, let this act as a reminder of how sports can really be.

It all started like a normal day. I went to school, ate lunch and went to the rink for ice skating practice. My dream was to become a famous Olympic ice skater. But, I was in a bad mood that day. I didn’t feel like ice skating that day. I’d fallen off my skateboard and scratched my knee on the ground earlier–to make the situation worse; but I couldn’t exactly say, “I don’t feel like ice skating today” out loud because I was afraid I’d be scolded by my parents about “not wanting to train hard.” So, I kept the feeling inside me and went to the ice rink.

That day was not my day. I fell out of many jumps, and I could already see my mom’s frowning face at the other side of the ice rink. I didn’t know why, but I felt my throat tighten and fought the urge to cry after failing on my latest Double Lutz jump. I felt so useless and tired, wanting to go home instead of being here shaming myself. I didn’t feel like standing up either. I wanted to keep my emotions under control. One of the clips that was supposed to keep my hair in place fell off onto the ice. Just as I was trying to reach the clip I heard a sound coming toward me, fast. The moment I realized what it was, it was already too late. I crashed with another skater who literally fell over me and landed on the other side. For a second, I couldn’t breathe; as I was trying to get my breathing under control, I felt a paralyzing pain coming from my left leg. I was on the ice, unable to move, and I did not have any ideas as to what was happening to me. I heard my coach yelling. He immediately rushed to my side and picked me up and then immediately skated off the ice. The parents outside of the rink were also panicking because they saw some blood on the ice from where we had crashed. It was unknown if it was mine or the other person’s; just to make sure it wasn’t mine, my coach started to pull up my ice skating pants from the bottom to check for any injuries. He and the parents checked my right leg; it was fine. And then, they moved on to pull up my left leg’s pants; just as they did, they gasped, and my coach covered my eyes right away the second he saw the cut. It was at that moment I knew the blood was mine. My head started spinning, and so was everything around me. I didn’t know what to do or what would happen to me.

By then my parents had rushed to my side; originally they thought it was not a big deal, so they didn’t come over to check on me. But I saw their faces when they arrived at the scene. It was a mixture between shock and agony. My coach handed me over to my mom, and we instantly rushed to the medic room. I was even panickier than before; my thoughts were “Am I going to die?” or “Am I going to the hospital?” The medic had patched my left leg with bandages and said, “It’ll do for now; go to the hospital straight away.” My parents nodded and thanked the medic. A few parents suggested that we call an ambulance, but my parents said it was unnecessary, they’ll get me to the hospital. The parent of the skater who crashed into me let us borrow their car so my parents could drive me to the hospital since their car was parked closer than ours.

On the way to the car I was panicking and didn’t know what to do; it felt like a dream, a painful one. I didn’t feel like I was in the real world; it seemed so fictional. But with my conscious mind I choked out the question for my mom as tears started rolling down my face, “Am I going to die?” She didn’t answer; I panicked as a wave of my emotions swam over me, “Mom! Am I going to die?!” “Shut up! You are not going to die!” She yelled back; I could clearly see her worrisome expression. I stayed quiet for the entire car ride, but I can still hear my dad’s calm and comforting words, “You are going to be fine.” It had given me at least a little comfort as I closed my eyes. 

The next thing I knew that I was lying on the hospital bed. The nurses had checked on me and said this isn’t too serious. My mom called the best surgeon she could find and informed me that he was on his way here. Once the surgeon arrived he immediately set into action. He said the cut was not big in size, but it was deep. It was only a few inches away from affecting my tendon under my knee where it could do some real damage–luckily it did not; or else I’d have trouble exercising my entire life.

And without a second word, the surgery began. My dad was with me for the first half of my surgery. But he got nauseous because of the amount of blood on my skin as the doctor stitched step by step into my flesh. So he had to go outside to get some air before he could possibly pass out. My grandpa was with me for the rest of the process. And for some reason, I did not cry during this whole process.

When it was done my vision had all become a blur. I passed out due to mental exhaustion soon after and couldn’t remember the rest of it. I was eight at the time.

What I remembered was my dad telling me to, “Be strong,” as he was holding my hand while the surgeon was doing his job.

Be strong. As I will forever be.

Health and Disease Editor: James Zheng

My Introspection

by 2 Comments

By Quintus Ni

In my world, the dark night blinds me from stars all over the sky and deprives me of the vast universe. Only cool breezes blow me awake.

Looking back, my life over the past dozen years knows no dramatic ups or downs; it has only consisted of ordinary memories. I have been undistinguished all along, which tires me tremendously. I do not revolt by grand rebukes, but I write it down and lock it away along with stories that are hard to tell, of course. Meanwhile, I rely on fantasies, dreaming of things that I desire badly that cannot be achieved in reality. After a moment of enjoying the imaginative possession, I inevitably fall to reality. This repeats again and again.

I have a pair of sharp eyes, but I can never see my current situation clearly. Everything seems splendid to me, without knowing that keeping the status quo is followed by thorough darkness. All of a sudden, I find myself good at enduring but poor at controlling myself. When I am alone, I always decorate things that touch my heart with a little bit of fantasy and then keep them under wraps. But, if someone touches upon them unconsciously, I will collapse in public and fall into the abyss that will never return. I will console myself after falling back to loneliness. I know this will not bring me any thoughts or behaviors to improve myself, but I am always too lazy to accept it.

It may dawn on me in one instant, but I usually dispel my insights in the next moment. In helplessness, I finally understand that the word “negativity” is enough to generalize my life. Now, fantasies and silences are also retreating because my “real” self is too far away from reality!

Introspection Editor: Luke Langlois

Quintus’s Guide to Staving Off Diabetes

by 1 Comment

By Quintus Ni

Recently, Quintus saw a family member diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. He has researched ways to avoid and better the situation of Type 2 Diabetes. Some of his recommendations come from Western Medicine, some from Eastern.

Diabetes can be divided into several types: Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, and Gestational Diabetes. Type 1 is genetic. Type 2 Diabetes accounts for 95% of all diabetics and is acquired through many factors, such as stress, diet, lack of exercise, and disposition, etc.

Here are some suggestions I recommend to stave off Type 2 Diabetes:

Eat nutritious food first after getting up every morning. It is best to eat some millet porridge and rice dumplings. After eating, let the stomach settle for 5 minutes, during which you can clean up the table. Next, exercise. This promotes the important production of insulin. It is best to do aerobic exercise, that is jogging and walking, etc. The exercise does not have to be strenuous. I suggest, at least, you walk in the yard or house and take in some fresh air, which is very beneficial to your health. In addition, you can practice clapping while walking backwards. All the muscles in the whole body will exercise. Moreover, I think it is important for the patient to pay attention to putting on more clothes or taking off some clothes to adjust their temperature. The climate in the northeast changes frequently; sometimes it can be very cold and sometimes hot, and diabetic patients can’t stay in a too cold or hot climate for long.

Relatively speaking, diabetics can not eat sugar. They can not eat sucrose or glucose in their daily diet, but fructose, that does not need insulin to break down in the body, is edible. However, honey is mainly composed of fructose and glucose. So it is best for patients not to eat honey. People say that each medicine has some kind of toxin, but comparatively, the side effect of Chinese Herbal medicine is much lighter. The effects of Chinese Medicine come slowly, which requires the patients to be patient and of good mentality. Good mentality is required at any time. Physical health is of great importance, and of course mental health is also important because it is also a factor in the healing of diseases. There are a lot of hormones, antibiotics and other substances in western medicine and they are extremely harmful to an unhealthy person. For these people, I think, Chinese Medicine is beneficial.

Additional suggestions to keep the diabetic healthy include–

1. In order to reduce the chance of developing retinopathy, don’t turn off the light when diabetics sleep. (Check out WebMD on this.)

2. Stop smoking.

3.When it is too hot or cold, diabetics should avoid exercising. And they should also develop the habit of checking their feet before going to bed and after exercising every day to see if there are injuries, broken skin or long blisters under their feet. Diabetics need to be vigilant protecting their feet due to poor circulation.

4. Diabetics should maintain appropriate and healthy weight.

5. Diabetics should eat each meal on time and according to the planned portion that can not be increased or decreased arbitrarily.

6. Eat less fried food, fewer puff pastries and foods with high oil content like skin of pigs, chickens, and ducks .

7. Use steaming, boiling methods when you cook; dress cold food with sauce; scald thin slices of food in boiling water; roast; stew; and use halogen ovens when you cook. The food should not be too salty. And salt consumption should be less than 6 grams each day.

8. Eat less food with high cholesterol, such as scallop-shaped pork/lamb kidney, animal livers, animal kidneys and other animal internal organs.

 9. Use vegetable oil to cook because it is suitable for cooking.

10. Long-term and appropriate exercise, medication and diet control should be combined.

11. Often choose to eat foods with high fiber like unprocessed vegetables and fruits.

12. Foods with high starch content and Chinese and Western-style snacks to stave off hunger should be eaten as the amount planned. Do not eat at will so as to avoid excessive absorption.

13. Eat less food with refined sugars like condensed milk or preserved fruit.

Health and Disease Editor: James Zheng

To Teleport or Not To Teleport

by Leave a Comment

thebirdonfire.org staffers were given the following prompt:

“You can teleport–but only if there is no way for you to be fatally harmed if you can travel to the desired location. You just tried to teleport to the living room from your bedroom, but couldn’t.” What is stopping you?

Editor Katelin Slosky choose and compiled the following excerpts from our bloggers.

Renée Vazquez: “Foreboding Teleporter”

My powers are like those of a few people on earth. We can teleport anywhere we want, anytime we want, except in cases where teleportation would lead to almost immediate fatal injury. I just teleport when I’m tired and I lead a pretty safe life. So you could imagine my concern when I was lounging in my bed and then tried to teleport to my living room, but couldn’t. At first, I was just annoyed, but then it hit me. What is in my living room that could kill me? In my house. Just down the hall. Death waited for me.

Luke Langlois: “Teleporting”

Thirty years ago, Barack Obama came up to me and said, “Luke, you are now granted the power to teleport unless there is fatal harm waiting for you at the destination.” I was surprised that President Obama had the power to bestow upon me this power, but I wasn’t complaining. I was left with great power. . . and great responsibility. I’ve been feeling sick recently. So, being lazy and sick, I tried to teleport to my living room from my bedroom but I couldn’t. Why? I remembered the one condition of this power, but what could possibly be fatal about my living room? . . . . Oh well, I’ve got to move on and do what I have to do for today. The Homeowners Association said something about a possibly dangerous mineral in the walls. Asbestos, or something?  

Katelin Mei: “Teleporting”

I was in my bedroom minding my own business. It was 7:30, and I was starting to get hungry. I teleported to the kitchen to make myself dinner. Well, I tried to teleport, but for some reason I couldn’t. I knew that there must be danger, because my ability prevents me from teleporting if I could become fatally injured by doing so.

However, when I crept from my bedroom, through the hallway, and into the living room and kitchen, there was no one and nothing there. Everything was normal. I just thought it was a glitch in my abilities, as I could still teleport outside of my house, and into other rooms, except for my living room and kitchen. I made myself dinner, and put on a show for myself to watch.

I had dinner. I drank, and went to sleep. I never woke up.

James Zheng:

I tried teleporting to the living room; it does not work. The feeling of anxiety grew inside me; I attempted to figure out a way to check out what is there in my living room that could kill me.

It is a risky action for others to do, but I called a food delivery and left the notes ”I cannot move downstairs to get it, so please come in and put the food on the table in the living room.” The delivery guy was reluctant to do it, but I told him I would give him a one star and negative comment if he did not follow my instructions.

So he called me when he arrived at my house.

“Hey Sir, the door is locked.”

“The window in the kitchen is usually open, go there.”

“But sir, this is outside the duty as a delivery.”

“Just do what I say, I will pay you extra after this.”

“Are you sure this is your house, there is nearly nobody…”

“For God’s sake, just put the food in the living room and I will pay you ten times the money.”

Then I heard a sound. He was trying to get in. I heard his steps.

“Ok sir I put your food right here… woah..”

“Hello? What’s wrong? What do you see?” Then I heard chaotic shouting and multiple conversations going on, . . . .

But the signal is cut, the only thing I could do is teleport to the outside of the house and take a glance at the internal situation. So I did it, and then I see those tall guys in black suits with the dark glasses. And they are holding the gun pointing at the delivery guy. As I tried to crawl down and hear the talking.

“You have two seconds to tell us whether you are associated with anything about the host here.”

“I am completely confused by this and I will get out here like right now if you wish.”

“We have heard the host disappeared in this house, we receive the command to arrest anyone who comes here and maintains the obligation to shoot anyone who interferes with our operation.”

So I think they have probably known about my power. But how did they know? When did they know? And also why is there a fatal implication on me when I attempted to teleport if their objective is just arrest me? . . .

I stopped thinking and teleport back, and said to myself.

“Maybe that’s what I need to find out now.”

Chelsea Xu: “Teleport”

Something is in the living room. I do not know who or what, but I can sense it. The smell of death. But there’s no way out, no windows, no way to run. I shakily turn the doorknob, take a deep breath and step out. But there’s no one there, an empty hallway, yet the smell of death strengthened. I do have the ability to defend myself, but I do not dare to teleport to the living room just yet. Something is not right. The house is silent, I cannot hear even the slightest sound. It’s quiet, so quiet that I can hear my breathing and the pounding of my heart. I start to think, if I use my ability to teleport to the living room and then run, using my full speed to the kitchen then I’ll win this game. It’s now or never, kill or be killed. Isn’t this the rules of living? Takes a deep breath and close my eyes. 

I never stood a chance in the first place. 

In an instant, I ́m there, standing in the center of the living room. In a blink of an eye, I’m lying there in a pool of blood, my blood. The figure is standing before me now, so I can finally see their face. I smiled and said, 

¨̈Happy now? My dear self?¨

Doreen Yuan: “Teleporting”

I have the ability to transmit, but one day, I found that I couldn’t transmit from the bedroom to the living room, but because the living room and the kitchen are in the same place, so I went to the kitchen first, and found that the gas in the kitchen leaked, the gas entered the living room with the air, and there is a furnace in the living room, if I come to the living room, I will turn on the fire, and then because carbon monoxide and gas are combustible as a result, the whole living room will explode, and I will die, so my transmission ability will not allow me to go directly to the living room, only to the kitchen, where I will find gas leakage, I will not light up, but I will open the window to breathe.

Quintus Ni:

. . . He was warning me, “If you try to teleport your grandfather, I will kill all of your family.” I was scared. I don’t know what can I do. My third vision mind was back to my head. I was screaming, while I heard an evil voice say, “The sacrifice begins now.” “Ahhhhhh!”

   Finally, I wake up, “Just a nightmare. Don’t worry about that, Quintus.” I was talking by myself.




What’s Your Perfect View?

by Leave a Comment

Ms. Zachik asked bloggers to describe their “perfect view.” James Zheng curated the responses.

When recalling our precious memories, there are plenty of moments worthy of sharing with others. And, when it comes to the perfect views we’ve had or wish to have, we have either visualized or gone within the mind to gather the memory shards, and written out the spectacles we admired.–Wednesday Writing Prompt Editor: James Zheng

Quintus’s Perfect View:

Hundreds of flowers blooming, thousands of animals lying in the sunshine. During the night, fireworks run into the sky, people watch fabulous shadow play, children eat cotton candy.

Renée: My Perfect View

Colors, mountains, water flowing

Skies free of pollution

Life quiet but abundant

Doreen: My perfect view is . . .

. . . when I stand on the stage, when the spotlight shines on my body, and there are all people at the foot of the stage. . . . There is a clear little light powder floating around in front of me, like essence. Spirit. At that moment, I felt like I was in a mirage, and I was trapped in the darkness, only I was illuminated by elves in a small piece of light, and only I alone could see these tiny elves.

James: My perfect view . . .

. . . is the view from the Earth. The galaxy is a silver-white ring that goes around the heavens. The wonderfully beautiful sight is the result of countless stars. It was once a fanciful picture within my imagination, but when I actually viewed a picture of the galaxy, it was one of the most absolutely perfect views I had ever seen.

Chelsea: My perfect view . . .

. . . is when I’m on the top of the mountain feeling the wind passing beside my face. I’d love to take a picture of the view and paint it afterwards. . . . I always have a feeling that I want to freefall.

Luke: In my perfect view, I’m sitting on my luxury Yacht in the arctic ocean approaching my secret skyscraper situated on the North Pole. An Adélie penguin from the South Pole is hopping and waving at me. That’s my pet named “Green Alien from Toy Story.” In the background, I see the STARS and Santa’s place of business (shh, don’t tell).

Katelin:

I am standing on a hill facing a forest. I am only allowed in the forest on Wednesdays when the class walks through the forest and the teacher teaches us to appreciate the trees around us. I turn to the right, and there is a parking lot. Cars pull in and out as parents drop their children off at the school. I see my mom and dad leave school, headed to their work. I turn to the right again. There are woods in front of me. The tree trunks of the woods are larger than the trees of the forest; they have been there for a while. We call these woods, “The Bunny Woods,” because someone from a few grades ahead of me claimed to see a rabbit in the woods. I can see the soccer fields just past the woods; there is no wall between the school and field yet. If I turned right again, I would see the playground. It is something I cannot remember in full detail, but I remember the swings. They were a set of 6; 4 were painted black, and 2 were painted blue. To the right and straight ahead was a small school. The hill I am standing on freezes over during the winter, and children at school bring sleds and slide down the hill.

The Review of Fate/Zero

by Leave a Comment

James’s response, when Editor Chelsea ordered him to “Write about animation!” was to turn to Fate Zero (or FZ for the cool people).

By James Zheng

FZ is one of the most outstanding works in the modern anime realm. Many kinds of fictional elements in its works are beloved by the audience, making it a pioneer in the early fantasy-themed animation. After the publication of this work, the Fate series came out as a hit and became one of the most influential works in the animation industry. Its follow-up also extended the game in the basic concept of Fate.

FZ is originally written by Urobuchi Gen. Gen is famous for his unique style of script writing. His works such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Psycho-Pass have an exceptionally high rate in the animation forum and realm. Gen’s works will always give people an immensely eye-catching feeling, as well as a completely unexpected story turning point. The extent of story innovation completely captivates the audience and the audience wants to see one episode after another. In 2011, Ufotable produced FZ and released Aniplex. With its overall quality guaranteed, FZ is made into two seasons.

FZ was written before fate / stay night and serves as a sequel, and its story revolves around a crucial object, the Holy Grail. Its power can realize anyone’s wishes. In order to fight for the capture of the Holy Grail, seven participants are required to summon their servants to fight each other. Only one survivor can get the power of the Holy Grail. These servants are all designed based on real historical figures in history, like Alexander the Great, King Arthur, Gilgamesh. Each has different abilities. Due to distinct backgrounds each participant shares, they fight only for their own purposes and beliefs. Kiritsugu Emiya, the protagonist of the story, has a stronger desire for the Holy Grail than anyone and vows to use any means to win it.

The most extraordinary feature of FZ is not only the 3D fighting scenes in which it invested a lot of money, but also it has the gorgeous special effects that make every battle and action scene give people a strong visual enjoyment and an intense sense of reality. Every movement seems to be dynamically smooth. 

There is one moment in the story of FZ that contains thought-provoking content that feels like bringing a new dimension. Kirei Kotomine, the antagonist, accidentally participated in the war, but he doesn’t know what he is fighting for. He grew up in a religious family where he was extremely restricted and chained mentally and physically, which caused a defect in his personality. He is numb to everything around him and has a hollow heart. As the twist appears (which is when Gilgamesh, his mentor’s servant convinces Kotomine to find his “essence”), his nature and pursuit of “pleasure” is enlarged. Kotomine eventually betrays his teacher. 

FZ has achieved great success in depicting each character. Its borrowing of images of characters from history, such as Alexander the Great and Gilgamesh, achieve an unforgettable impression within the audience.

But the content of FZ is not meant to be fit for everyone. Some of the elements express both transparent and metaphoric satire on humanity and society, and some of them are controversial. But that’s why I recommend it; the whole story could be philosophical. I also think that it’s just a show after all, and we shouldn’t take it seriously. Just enjoy what they bring to us visually.

*Just a reminder Fate/Zero contains occasional violence content and is recommended for those who are seventeen or older.

Animation Editor: Chelsea