Mythology of the Vampire VSs Interview with the Vampire essays

Mythology of the Vampire VS's Interview with the Vampire essays Vampires have always been a major concept in literature, mythology, and legend. Vampires may possibly be one of the most notorious, and romanticized monsters in fiction. Throughout the history of vampires, the mythology of their powers, limitations, and ways they are created have changed with each culture, movie or piece of literature that has adopted them. In the movie Interview with the Vampire a new set of vampire mythology is cunningly created based on the use of, and the rejection of previous mythology. The movie is based on the first book of Anne Rices Vampire Chronicles which was published in 1976.The movie begins in 1791 as the vampire Lestat finds a young man named Louis in a pub. Louis has lost his wife and daughter and has nothing else to live for when Lestat offers him eternal life and everlasting youth. Louis agrees to be with Lestat because anything has to be better than the life he lives now. Louis soon finds out however, that the vampire life is not for him. Lestat very much enjoys taking lives and feeding on other people. Louis does not enjoy the killing and therefore starts feeding on the blood of rats and other animals to stay alive. Then when Lestat creates a new fledgling Claudia, he gets more than he bargained for. Claudia kills lestat, and her and louis set off for an adventure to find other vampires, so they can learn what they are, and why they exist. In most of vampire mythology, a vampire is created when a vampire feeds upon a victim. The victim dies and then rises from the dead as a newborn vampire. The myth has been around for quite a while, certainly in ancient Greek and Rome, and ranging from Assyria to India to Malaya. The legends are diverse, though all involve humans returning from the dead, needing fresh blood to survive. (Konstaninos 5) In this movie vampires are created in a much more elaborate manner. Vampires can feed on victims even to the point of death and not create a new ...

12 High Paying Entry Level Jobs

12 High Paying Entry Level Jobs Just starting out, but disheartened by the measly pay at most entry-level positions? Daunted by the amount of time it would take you to become financially solvent and start living the life you really want? While it pays to remain humble, realizing you’ll have to work hard to ascend any ladder, there are a few jobs out there that pay surprisingly well, even for someone just starting out.Here are 12 primo examples.Video Game Design – Starting Pay $60KLove video games? DREAM CAREER. You might not even need an undergraduate degree, just design sense and coding mastery. If you’ve got both the artistic and technical merit (a hard-to-come-by combination!), you can be rewarded from the get-go, with a salary upwards of $60k.Air Traffic Control – Starting Pay $64KYou might be resigning yourself to a career of at times excruciating stress, but the pay starts high and can more than double in the course of your career. If you’re comfortable holding hundreds of t housands of lives in the balance every day you go to work, you might be looking at as much as $64k in your first year.Nurse Midwifery – Starting Pay $80KLove healing? Not squeamish? Being a nurse midwife might be a great career for you. It does require an advanced degree, but it’s much less intense than full-blown med school. Plus, the starting salary is over $80k, so loans aren’t quite so daunting. The demand is extremely high; salaries will continue surging as you build your practice.Hardware Engineering – Starting Pay $65KAgain, you have to have the skills. Computer technology is geeky, intricate, and extremely demanding. But the compensation is high. $65k will turn into closer to $100k in just a few years.Podiatry – Starting Pay $116kSure, you have to get your doctorate. And not be weirded out by feet. But you might be looking at six figures in your first year of practice- more if you specialize. Your med school loans shouldn’t be a prob lem with that kind of cash.Dentistry – Starting Pay $180kYears of training, then an astronomical income. School, school, and more school, plus four years and a handful of professional exams for licensure and certification. But the money is a dream: think about $180k in the first year.Psychiatry – Starting Pay $80kYou’ll need med school, a residency, licenses and certifications- years and years of expensive training, but you’ll make about $80k a year to start. And that will continue going up.Actuary – Starting Pay $60kYou can make up to $60k a year at the entry level- provided you can synthesize math and statistics skills with financial theory and find work for an insurance or pension company.Landscape Architecture – Starting Pay $60kThis is not  just a fancy way of saying â€Å"gardener.† Landscape architects usually have at least one degree in the field and know a lot more than how to prune a rosebush. It’s a great career fo r someone who loves the outdoors and the environment, and has that extra aesthetic sense to make things beautiful. First-year salaries hover around $45k, but with bonuses usually tip the scales at $60k.Pharmacology – Starting Pay $100kThe lady who fills your prescriptions might be just about your age, but chances are she’s making twice the money. After undergrad, there’s a four-year â€Å"PharmD† program to get through, but starting salaries are over $100k.Market Research Analysis – Starting Pay $50kYou can easily net over $50k in your first year if you can work with numbers, patterns, trends, and work with focus groups to read markets and corporations. This job requires at least a bachelor’s degree.Pharmaceutical Sales – Starting Pay $50k – 85kIf you’ve got charisma and can sell, it hardly matters what you’re selling. You might not even need a degree if you can supply prior (and successful) sales experience. Youà ¢â‚¬â„¢ll have to travel quite frequently and memorize a bunch of scientific and financial details, but you can make between $50 and $85k right away.

Genetics Science Fiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Genetics Science Fiction - Essay Example You would think that by the year 2000 they would have worked out a way to keep down the noise of trains at night. He crept forwards, feeling his way along the rough brick wall until he reached the metal door at the end. The keypad number Jimmy had sent him by email that morning was etched into his brain. He had to use the torch to illuminate the keypad, but in five quick seconds he punched in the numbers and the door slid almost silently aside. Once in the building, Jason closed the door with a satisfying â€Å"click† and looked around. He was in an ordinary corridor with several brightly colored steel doors labelled â€Å"LAB F†, â€Å"Compressor Room†, â€Å"Lab G† and one door that had no label except a hazard warning sign. At the far end of the corridor there was an unusual oval door under a large black sign which said â€Å"Maximum Containment†. It had a metal wheel and rubber seals all around it like the entrance to a submarine. Along the wall s ran a series of colored pipes. Jason headed for the oval door, turned the wheel and entered.

Reflective Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Reflective Review - Essay Example In the process, they critically analyse strong and weak points as well as asses the opportunities and threats that can improve or compromise their professional achievements. Ignorance of the reflection stage in one’s life is a common mistake based on the misguided notion that reflection is a stupid activity similar to soul searching which is largely subjective. On the contrary, reflection is a very objective and very specific process through which we contemplate our past, earn form our mistake through a deliberate observation of our lives through the disinterested eyes it requires we use. Therefore, one of the models of reflecting one can assume is an imaginary dialogue with younger version of themselves. I selected this particular model so that I could consider my growth in the eyes of the person who originated many of the ambitions I am striving to achieve. My career pathway was very clear to start with, I knew I wanted to work in marketing because I had been inspired and me ntored by my father who had been a successful marketer for as long as I could remember. After high school, I applied to study business in college with the intention of majoring in marketing. College has taught me invaluable lessons both from inside and outside the classroom about how to improve my chances of success while am on the business pathway, especially the many skills that I need to acquire so as to improve my employability and make me more marketable in the corporate world. For one, I have come to appreciate the need for taking the initiative in whatever I do, as opposed to waiting to be directed or instructed. Today’s business world requires innovation and creativity, therefore I have learnt to think outside the convectional parameters, and otherwise when by simply doing thing according to the textbooks you will likely only produce mediocre results. Social work is a vital part of my business-oriented pathway considering that business involves interacting with people and convincing them to visit in the product you are selling. This often requires that one presents himself as trustworthy and dependable, in the words of one of my lecturers who introduced me to marketing and finance, when one markets products, he or she has to put themselves in the market first and if the client decides that they are a worth investment, they can risk putting their money on them. Therefore, in addition to my business classes, I enrolled to a few sociology classes; moreover, I spent some of my free time volunteering to do social work and community service in our local church fund drive. These excursions provided me with numerous opportunities to learn interpersonal interaction, when you talk to people even especially when you are not trying to sell them something. I developed confidence and even more importantly gradually learnt how to make people trust me, it not difficult really, all one needs to do is to be sincere and passionate. This is because once people beli eve what one is saying; they are more inclined to believe him as opposed to when they think you have an ulterior motive. In addition, I have come to realize that business and politics are inseparable, no matter how talented or bright one thinks he/she is, they must recognize the hierarchy that exists. One’s seniors must be respected and even when one sometimes feels

The Effects of Advertising Essay -- TV Media Television

Every time we open a newspaper or we turn on the TV, we see sellers of almost identical products spending huge amounts of money in order to convince us to buy their brands. Every year, each typical American watches 1550 hours of TV, listens 1160 hours on radio, and spends 290 hours reading newspapers and magazines. So every day, each American watches 100 TV advertisements, 100 to 300 ads through other mass media, and in one single year receives 216 pieces of direct mail advertising, and almost 50 phone calls from telemarketers (Pratkanis and Aronson 2). All these, because sellers of everything, from computers to detergents, believe that advertising is essential to the product. Ed Ney, ex-chairman of the Young and Rubicam American agency, refers to the mid seventies when many firms still had as a debatable issue if they should advertise or not. Those days have passed. As Ney says, that has happened, because it has been proved that advertising is beneficial to the firms (Clark 16). The critics state that advertising is really beneficial to the consumers: They believe that advertising â€Å"creates† consumers that are better informed about the characteristics of the commodities, and that it does not alter the way in which the companies evaluate their products. Also, they believe that advertising creates price sensitivity for the consumers that buy the best products for their value. Finally, they think that with advertisement, entries for new brands are much easier because of the communication with the potential consumers that commercials offer (Haefner and Rotzoll 87). Advertising, collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling, employed wh... ... the information that could probably be associated with. Although this problem is not very important in deciding which breakfast cereal to buy, it is very dangerous and sneaky in presidential elections, where the consequences are more conspicuous (O’Barr 205). That is because each candidate has created propaganda that might distort the beliefs of the voters. That is why advertising is appealing to the government. Making an advertising campaign against heroin use as the best way of spending money is debatable, but it enables the administration to be seen caring (Clark 31). So, I believe that advertisements exist only in order to return profits to the advertisers by many tricky ways. Some of these are the use of persuasion at the consumers, the faulty – logic messages, and the influence on children. All these acts, definitely, are not for the benefit of the consumers.

Hidden messages of objects of African art Essay

In our modern world works of art play a role which is quite different from the role they used to play in the past. Indeed, in ancient times the craftsmanship of masters who produced utensils necessary for daily needs was already the source of art, because their products were among few vehicles of self-expression. As the result, many of the objects of the ancient art were simultaneously the objects of use, like vessels for liquids, different decorated tools, etc. However, with time and along with the social developments at least since Hellenistic culture art in the Western world was becoming more a means of self-expression of man and of our human striving for beauty. This process, while preserving the attraction to objects of practical utilization endowed with artistic qualities, also led to the separation of decorative art into a means to achieve aesthetic satisfaction. At a certain moment, art began to be integrated into the approaches towards creation of living spaces of human beings, and, importantly, the works of art began to be valued for their own sake. Since the industrial revolution, when technologies enabled mass production of products, the role of art in the Western world underwent further transformation art because capitalism initiated â€Å". . . the bringing of art . . . into subordinate relation . . .†[1] Since those times there appeared a tendency to perceive works of art as a kind of modern icons enclosed in museums for public viewing. Thus, â€Å"the religion of art . . . was born†[2], and art as a consecrated phenomenon has been by now somewhat isolated from our everyday lives. In this regard, one of the most important tasks of museums is to find the most effective ways to immerse people into artistic environment and to teach them not only to contemplate objects with their eyes, but as well to feel them with all their senses, as if reliving experiences of those human beings who created artistic objects. This task becomes especially challenging when it comes to the presentation of artifacts of cultures that significantly differ from our own. To see such challenges we may turn our attention to art of Africa, which contains a lot of exotic elements for modern viewers. One of the most important qualities of art in African cultures is its focus on immediate human experiences. In addition to racial differences among the ethnic groups of Africa that are reflected in their approach towards depiction of human beings, works of African art in most cases also look so strange for modern viewers because they represent world views and unique experiences (already fixed by addition of â€Å"and unique experiences†) of their creators which are really different from ours. Indeed, African art builds upon heritage of several millennia of various cultural traditions embodied in such diverse artistic artifacts as sculptures created for ritual purposes, wooden and golden monuments, ornaments made of silver and gold, unique garments, masks, and other artifacts. On grounds of this diversity, it is very hard to make generalizations about the African culture. However, there are some common elements that can be viewed as main motives and themes of African art. For example, it is a well known fact that African natural environment is very harsh in comparison to other regions of the world. Consequently, for African denizens the answer to the need to maintain population has traditionally been the bearing of numerous children. Therefore, African women are primarily associated with the symbol of life, because the existence and integrity of families and clans depends on one hand upon ability of woman to give birth to children, and on other hand upon her role as supporter of old parents and upon her mission in many African societies of contacting with spirits of the ancestors through prayers and ritual offerings. On ground of this, many themes in African art are in one way or another linked with symbols of fertility of women, of soil as another source of life, and of animals and plants. For example, many African shrines are dedicated to spirits that are believed to provide fertility, and they often contain some sculptures or other art forms that symbolize fertility. In a more direct fashion, in many African cultures there is an abundance of art objects that directly depict pregnant women. In this way we can see that African art has traditionally been influenced by specifics of its environment. However, one of the Western approaches to African art lies in our attempts to find out whether Africans make art for its own sake, and this approach may be somewhat misleading. At this point we may recall our considerations of the development of art in the Western world when until relatively recent times art was not meant to be placed in museums as it is often the case today, but rather was integrated in the life of society, for instance in religious and even political practices. In this connection, African art seems to have retained the ability to keep itself close to everyday concerns of people as far as it aims to reflect upon the most urgent concerns of African people. The objects of African art bristle with expressive emotions of their masters who with the help of objects of art try to investigate their relation with the world, and who through art communicate their striving to survive in a tough environment. Therefore, African art can hardly be separated from the lives of people who created it, and this unity seems to be stronger than in the Western artistic tradition.[3] One of the very exciting exhibitions where we can find beautiful exemplars of African art is the exhibition devoted to Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Let us with the help of this exhibition explore how modern viewers perceive objects of quite a different culture, and whether this exhibition manages to make the displayed objects of art speak to spectators in their native language. For this task we may pick several objects representative of the African culture as far as they reflect upon the main traditional themes of past and present African art. It must be pointed out from the outset that very often there are no firm dates for many of objects of African art. This is because African artists neither signed nor dated their creations. However, as many pieces of African art are made of wood, which is not a very long-lasting material, especially in African environment, it is thought that most of the wooden pieces of African art can probably be dated as belonging to the end of the nineteenth or the beginning of the twentieth century. Of course, aside from wood many objects are made of stone, clay, bronze, silver, gold, ivory, and terracotta. Such objects are long-lasting and those of them that have been found in known archeological contexts and in properly investigated archaeological locations have more or less fixed dates attributed to them. I propose to choose the following objects for the further research: A seated figure of a male from the thirteenth century, which offers an impressive image of anxiety that speaks directly to viewers` emotions (figure 1 in Appendix). This object originates from Inland Niger Delta region, the site named Jenne-jeno, which is the most ancient known city of sub-Saharan Africa. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired this object in 1981 as a bequest from Joseph Pulitzer, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Rogers Funds. (already fixed) A memorial head of a ruler of the Akan ethnic group from Western Africa from the seventeenth century that reflects idealized notions of African people (figure 2 in Appendix). This object`s origin was Hemang city in the Twifo region of Ghana, the land of the Akan ethnic group. It was initially a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was given to museum by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1967. A pendant mask dated of the sixteenth century, which has an interesting history and therefore can enhance our understanding of the role of art in African cultures (figure 3 in Appendix). This object originates from Benin, a culturally important region populated by Edo speaking people that is a part of southern and northern The mask has a rich history of ownership, as it belonged to Brenda Z. Seligman, Prof. C. G. Seligman, and Sir Ralph Moor. In the end, it also became a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was gifted to museum by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1972. (I`m afraid that if more detailed info is needed on provenance, the only way to get it is to visit the museum and find out, because officially Metropolitan Museum states only what we have mentioned above, i.e. that â€Å"it belonged to Brenda Z. Seligman, Prof. C. G. Seligman, and Sir Ralph Moor. In the end, it also became a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was gifted to museum by Nelso n A. Rockefeller in 1972†) Of course, there exists a diverse and comprehensive body of research dedicated to such a complex phenomenon as African art. Most of the books dedicated to this topic attempt to integrate African art with social and ethnographic peculiarities of African cultures. I believe that this is a rightful path to follow, because if we try to comprehend the meaning of African objects of art while ignoring their context we risk not grasping their true meaning that was assigned to them by their creators. Among books that provide such an integrated approach to the research of African art we may highlight several. One of them is the work History of Art in Africa by Monica Blackmun Visona and numerous co-authors. This book is not that much a strictly formal research but rather a detailed guide that increases our understanding of artistic forms created in different regions of Africa by different peoples and cultures, especially those of the Sub-Saharan areas. From the academic point of view, by means of a combination of modern research of various forms of African arts and their attempts to apply those findings to different geographic regions and different times of African history authors had made a significant contribution to the literature devoted to the history of art. Another relevant work that deals with African art is the book edited by Tom Phillips Africa: The Art of a Continent. It is one of the most thorough general works on African art that provides detailed overview of art forms and styles, and at the same time gives extensive description of African tribes and their influence on regionalized art forms. In this way, this book is helpful as a reference for those who would like to systemize the knowledge of African art that one already has, and to localize cultural centers of African art. In addition to the mentioned books, the work of Sidney Littlefield Kasfir Contemporary African Art is the worthy piece of reasearch that treats the transformations in African art in the latter half of the 20th century. It is a very helpful direction of research because, among other things, it shows how the traditional forms of African art are reevaluated by contemporary African artists themselves. The high level of scholarship of the author and his masterful ability to tie modernity with history co-operate to paradoxically make this book relevant for those who aim to better understand not only modern African art, but its traditional forms as well, which is the important achievement for this author. Each of the mentioned books contains some outstanding points, but at the same time none of them can pretend to be a fully comprehensive guide to African art, if it is at all possible to make a such a guide. But as all those books cover somewhat different aspects of African art, I believe that our task is to try to combine their findings with our immediate impressions from the contemplation of the objects of African art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to achieve the highest possible level of comprehension of the uniqueness of African cultural heritage. This aim leads me to a more general task which I will try to accomplish, namely to see whether it is possible for a museum as a kind of â€Å"modern cultural church† of our society to present objects of an unfamiliar culture in such a way as to enable viewers to really penetrate beyond the objects` material form and recreate in their minds experiences similar to those of artists who embodied their feelings in artistic creations. This task presupposes some psychological research, of which my own impressions from the exhibition will be the object, and also considerations about the general level of successfulness of the exhibit as measured by visible impressions of its other visitors. The first object of our analysis is a seated figure of a male. Due to the age of this piece of art and the fact that African artists did not inscribe their names on their creations it is impossible to know who exactly was the author of this object. However, we know that this sculpture originates from a location known as Jenne-jeno, which was the most ancient known city of sub-Saharan Africa. This was a center that thrived around the ninth century AD, but declined by the beginning of the fifteenth century leaving numerous artifacts made of forged iron, cast brass, and clay. While performed archaeological digs give only a vague glimpse of the true role of art in that region, the available heritage of the old culture of Jenne-jeno definitely shows that artists of the urban society of that time possessed highly sophisticated artistic skills. For example, this particularly impressive figure, with its legs crossed, its chest almost pressed against a leg, and its head touching its knee, transmits the sensation of anxiety and stress, or, alternatively, of a full immersion in a prayer. This frozen emotional load of the sculpture bespeaks the motives of a creator of this piece of art that apparently were aimed at expressing intense emotional experiences that could arise from such events as ritual commemoration of the death of loved people. The method of direct portrayal of emotions as if written on the face of the figure serves to actually dissolve boundaries of time and make this object universally understood. (well, sometimes we have to defend our position, and in this case it actually could be both that the figure is tense or relaxed in prayer, and it`s not a contradiction. In fact, I checked the website of the Metropolitan and, ironically, there it is also said that this figure â€Å"simultaneously suggests the knotted tension of anxiety and the sublime absorption of deep prayer†) At the same time, sculptures like this one despite their concreteness of representation could simultaneously serve as a symbolic image of ancestors or mythic heroes, in this way existing in realms of both the material and spiritual, and therefore most probably were employed in ritual ceremonies. Indeed, the shaved head of this figure and its state of self-immersion are somewhat symbolized and remind of mourning practices that are still used by many cultures of sub-Saharan Africa.[4] In this way, this object enables us to suppose that such practices were as well common 700 years ago among peoples of the Inland Niger Delta. But, of course, due to the mentioned scarcity of our knowledge of the true role of art in the region of Jenne-jeno we cannot convincingly limit the role of this figure exclusively to mourning practices. In terms of materials used, this object is made of terracotta, a brownish baked earth clay that is a durable and easily workable substance. Usually, found terracotta figures have a lot of detail, because this material was widely used in African art for production of bodily ornaments and jewelry. This sculpture is not an exception as can be seen from its physical appearance and its surface qualities. For example, the technique used for the creation of this object enabled the author to make the parallel lines of knobs and dots on the back of the figure in such a way as to give it a heightened sense of relief. By the way, such knobs and dots were employed in African art quite often, sometimes covering the whole space of human figures. It is thought that this element in art was supposed to stand for signs of some kind of sicknesses that abound in African environment. [5] Combining the mentioned aspects of this object of art, I have to admit that I was greatly impressed by its overall look, and I noticed that the general response of other museum visitors was similar as people were apparently staying near this object for a longer time than on average. I believe the reason for this is the skillful work of the artist who managed to embody in the material shape a lot of emotional load, and therefore reached a powerful effect. But what made me especially excited about this object was the realization of the fact that for the author of this work its message was most probably personally experienced, and therefore this object conforms to one of the most important tasks of art, which lies in the creation of universal space of communication that transcends bounds of time and cultures. The second object of our research is a memorial head of a ruler dated of the seventeenth century, and for which we also do not know the author. This terracotta object is a decorated portrait that depicts a serene man with accurately balanced facial features and striped long neck. This form of African art belongs to what is called in some West-African cultures as â€Å"mma†, an idealized image that depicts the positive qualities that were expected from a ruler. Therefore, one of the main motives for the creation of this object was its involvement in ritual procedures. In fact, it is known that such portraits were crafted posthumously and were left along with similar images of preceding rulers in special sacred cemeteries and shrines called â€Å"mmaso† that had to keep the memory and the history of lineage of noble members of African societies. Additionally, this practice of posthumous pictorial commemoration of rulers also extended to members of his court and his servants, who were supposed to continue their service for their ruler after his death as well. â€Å"Mmaso† cemeteries were the places of regular offerings and prayers aimed at the constant support of the deceased ancestors.[6] On these grounds, it stands to reason that artists who created portraits such as the one we are studying were adding a great deal of symbolism to their creations. Indeed, the general appearance of this object is such that for me it was hard to imagine the person who it was intended to copy, and I suspect that the exact physical resemblance might not have been the main concern of the author of this memorial portrait. This head is also made from terracotta, and is decorated with fragments of quartz. But in contrast to the previous terracotta object that depicts a figure in a very plastic and emotional way, this object looks as if it was consciously processed by the artist without excessive modification of the original terracotta sphere. It seems that the facial features of the man float above the rough material they are inscribed on, and radiate a kind and positive irony, which to my judgement testifies to a very subtle technique used by the artist that is on a par with the best recognized masterpieces of fine arts. At the same time, it seems to me that this object of art retains some mystery, as if the closed eyes of the man say that we cannot see the world that his eyes had seen, and that we might have to become one of his contemporaries to fully perceive the world view of this ancient ruler and the artist who immortalized him. (Hm, it`s really hard to say what the professor meant by putting â€Å"!† along this portion of the text. . . Do you know exactly?) Interestingly, many people in the museum behaved as if feeling in some subconscious way the ultimate futility of efforts to fully comprehend the message of this object, because I noticed that in most cases visitors did not spend much time near this memorial head. But I believe that with this work the artist reached perhaps the most important artistic effect, that of its ability to intrigue truly attentive viewers, and therefore make them wonder about the hidden aspects of the culture that gave birth to this object. The last target of our research is a mask, the object strongly associated with African art. And, indeed, this mask had a special meaning for its creators. It is dated of the sixteenth century, and in contrast to previous anonymous works this artifact can give us some hints as to its artistic origin. In fact, this mask is thought to have been created in the beginning of the sixteenth century for the king of Benin Esigie. The mask depicts the elaborated and thoughtful portrait of the mother of the king, and it was probably used in rites that honored the king`s mother. From this we can guess that this mask was created by some court artist specifically for the ritual purposes, moreover that even today in many African cultures similar pendant masks are always involved in yearly rituals of spiritual purification. To reinforce this assumption we should point out that this mask is primarily made of ivory, the material that in Benin is associated with the white color that symbolizes ritual purity of the god of the sea named Olokun. This god was also viewed as a spiritual guard of kings, so this mask could bear several meanings.[7] In addition to ivory as a primary material, this mask is decorated with metal mosaic, has carved superficial incisions in the skin of its forehead, and holds below the chin beads made of coral. Interestingly, the collar and the diadem of the mask contain images of mudfish and bearded Portuguese. Mudfish live both in the water and on land, and thus it stands for the dual nature of the king who is simultaneously human and divine. On the other hand, Portuguese, who arrived from the sea, were perceived as coming from the spiritual realm. In this way, this mask integrates in it numerous symbols of the African culture. In general, this object of art conveys a somewhat different impression than previous ones. First of all, its high level of detail draws attention and begs for an especially careful inspection from the side of a viewer. On the other hand, despite having many types of decorations this mask nevertheless looks very integral and thematically complete. Moreover, among the objects of our research this mask is the most realistic one in terms of its resemblance to an actual human being. But at the same time it seemed to me that maybe because of its portrait-like look many people fail to notice the depth of its symbolical meaning of which the facial form of the mask is merely a small part. Thus, we can see that African artists already long time ago fully possessed the skill of integration of multilayered symbolical messages in a work of art, which uncovers the richness of their world views. On ground of our observations, we may conclude that museum exhibits can really give visitors a chance to relive experiences of cultures as different from ours as African ones are. However, the expansion of our cultural awareness is a task that perhaps to a larger degree depends on a viewer himself. Indeed, if a viewer just walks by the exhibit, she may get only a very limited impression of African art which may only confirm some formulaic notions that many of us have about it, like that there are a lot of masks, that objects of African art are of a strange look, etc. Even I must admit that without the deeper investigation of the history and hidden messages of the objects of African art that we had researched I would most probably also fail to see the true meaning of the works of African art, because a superficiality of judgement reduces the artistic creations merely to their material form and ignores their spiritual connotation. On a more practical side, I would recommend that in relation to exhibits devoted to exotic forms of art, of which African art is a good example, museums should not merely provide a passive presentation of artistic objects, but rather should take more proactive steps in terms of attraction of visitors` attention towards hidden aspects of art that may defy superficial attitude. For example, this purpose may be achieved through organization of publicly open regular thematic seminars on new historical, ethnographic and iconographic research devoted to African and other exotic forms of art, and through advertised presentations of new objects obtained by museum. All of this would help put what otherwise might be perceived as isolated individual objects of art into a larger cultural context, and therefore might increase public awareness of the specifics and values of art of different regions of the world.    Bibliography: â€Å"Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas†. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste. The Tribal Arts of Africa. Thames & Hudson, 2002. Brettell, Richard R. Modern Art 1851-1929 : Capitalism and Representation. Oxford University Press, 1999. Drewal, Henry John, Pemberton, John III, Abiodun, Rowland, and Wardwell, Allen, (Ed.). Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. Harry N Abrams, 1990. Ezra, Kate. Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Kecskesi, Maria, and Vajda, Lazlo. African Masks: The Barbier- Mueller Collection. Prestel Publishing, 1998. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. Contemporary African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2000. Mills, C. Wright. Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills Oxford University Press, 1967. Phillips, Tom, (Ed.). Africa: The Art of a Continent. Prestel Publishing, 1999. Thompson, Robert Farris. African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katherine Coryton White. University of California Press, 1974. Turner, Victor Witter. Revelation and divination in Ndembu ritual (Symbol, myth, and ritual). Cornell University Press, 1975. Visona, Monica Blackmun, Poynor, Robin, Cole, Herbert M., Harris, Michael D., Abiodun, Rowland, and Blier, Suzanne Preston. History of Art in Africa. Prentice Hall, 2003. Willett, Frank. African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2002. Works Cited: Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Kecskesi, Maria, and Vajda, Lazlo. African Masks: The Barbier- Mueller Collection. Prestel Publishing, 1998. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. Contemporary African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2000. Mills, C. Wright. Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. Oxford University Press, 1967. Paz, Octavio. Convergences: Essays on Art and Literature. Harvest/HBJ Book, 1991. Phillips, Tom, (Ed.). Africa: The Art of a Continent. Prestel Publishing, 1999. Visona, Monica Blackmun, Poynor, Robin, Cole, Herbert M., Harris, Michael D., Abiodun, Rowland, and Blier, Suzanne Preston. History of Art in Africa. Prentice Hall, 2003. (As you could see, I already have removed Paz from Bibliography)

French Expressions Using Vouloir

The French verb vouloir literally means to want and is also used in many idiomatic expressions. Learn how to hold a grudge, only half want something, wish someone well, and more with this list of expressions with vouloir. Possible Meanings of Vouloir to wantto claim, assertto expectto need, require Vouloir has a different meaning in certain verb tenses and moods. Expressions with Vouloir vouloir à   manger/boireto want something to eat/drinkvouloir absolumentto be dead set on, determined tovouloir biento really want toVouloir, cest pouvoir (proverb)Where theres a will theres a wayvouloir de food/drinkto want somevouloir direto meanvouloir du bien à   quelquunto wish someone wellvouloir du mal à   quelquunto wish someone ill/harmvouloir faire quelque choseto want to do somethingvouloir que quelquun fasse quelque choseto want someone to do somethingvouloir que quelque chose se fasseto want something to be donevouloir quelque chose de quelquunto want something from someonevouloir sans vouloirto only half wanten vouloir (informal)to want/be raring to goen vouloir à   (informal)to be mad at (someone), be after (something)ne pas vouloir blesser quelquunto not mean to hurt someonene pas vouloir quon se croie obligà ©to not want someone to feel obligedne pas vouloir de quelquun/quelque choseto not want someone/somethingne plus vouloir de quelquun/quelque choseto no lon ger want someone/somethingsans le vouloirunintentionally, inadvertentlysans vouloir te/vous vexerno offensesen vouloir de infinitiveto be annoyed with oneself forÇa va comme tu veux? (informal)Is everything all right/OK?comme le veut la loiaccording to the law, as the law requirescomme le veut la traditionaccording to traditionComme tu veux / vous voulezAs you like/wish/please, Have it your way, Suit yourselfComment voulez-vous que je sache  ?How should I know?, How do you expect me to know?Comment veux-tu / voulez-vous que subjunctive  ?How do you expect (s.o. to do s.t.)?faire de quelquun ce quon veutto do what one likes with someone, to twist someone around his/her little fingerLe feu na pas voulu prendrethe fire wouldnt light ou catchle hasard voulut queas luck would have it... en veux-tu en voilà   (informal)tons of...Il y a des problà ¨mes en veux-tu en voilà   (informal)There are tons of problemsIls en voulaient à   sa vieThey wanted him deadJaurais voulu que v ous voyiez sa tà ªte  !I wish you could have seen his face!Jaurais voulu ty voir  !Id like to see what youd have done!Je men voudrais  !Not on your life!Je ne ten veux pasIm not mad at you, No hard feelingsJe ne voudrais pas abuserI dont want to imposeJe veux  ! (familiar)You bet! Id love to!Je veux bienYes, pleaseJe veux bien le croire mais ...Id like to believe him but ...Je voudrais que vous voyiez sa tà ªte  !I wish you could see his face!Je voulais te/vous dire...I wanted, meant to tell you...Je voudrais bien voir à §a  !Id like to see that!Je voudrais ty voir  !Id like to see you try!Le malheur a voulu quil subjunctiveHe had the misfortune to...Moi je veux bien, mais...Fair enough, but ...Ne men veuillez pasDont hold it against meNe men veux pas (informal)Dont hold it against meQuand on veut, on peut (proverb)Where theres a will theres a wayQuest-ce que tu veux / vous voulez  ?What can you do?, What do you expect?Que veux-tu / voulez-vous  ?What can you d o?, What do you expect?Que voulez-vous quon y fasse  ?What do you expect us/them to do about it?Quest-ce que tu veux que je te dise  ?What can I say? what do you want me to say?Que lui voulez-vous  ?What do you want with him?Quest-ce quil me veut, celui-là  Ã‚  ? (informal)What does he want from me?br/>quil le veuille ou nonwhether he likes it or notsavoir ce quon veutto know what one wantsSi tu veuxIf you like/want, If you willSi tu voulais bien le faireIf youd be kind enough to do itSi vous le voulez bienIf you dont mindSi vous voulez bien me suivreThis way, pleaseTu las voulu  !You asked for it!Tu lauras voulu  !Itll be your own fault! Youll have brought it on yourself!Tu ne men veux pas  ?No hard feelings?Tu veux bien leur dire que...Would you please tell them that ...Lusage veut que...Custom requires that...Veuillez agrà ©er/croire... (business letter)Please accept...Veuillez croire à   toute ma sympathiePlease accept my deepest sympathyVeux-tu (bien) infinitive   !Will you (please) ...!Veux-tu que je te dise/raconte pourquoi...  ?Shall I tell you why ...?Voudriez-vous avoir lobligeance/lamabilità © de...Would you be so kind as to ...Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir  ?Do you want to sleep with me tonight?se vouloirto claim to be, to be supposed to beVouloir conjugations