Stitch in Time Save Nine Essay Example for Free

Stitch in Time Save Nine Essay The history of copyright law starts with early privileges and monopolies granted to printers of books. The British Statute of Anne 1710, full title An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned, was the first copyright statute. Initially copyright law only applied to the copying of books. Over time other uses such as translations and derivative works were made subject to copyright and copyright now covers a wide range of works, including maps, performances, paintings, photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures and computer programs. Today national copyright laws have been standardized to some extent through international and regional agreements such as the Berne Convention and the European copyright directives. Although there are consistencies among nations copyright laws, each jurisdiction has separate and distinct laws and regulations about copyright. Some jurisdictions also recognize moral rights of creators, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright are exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory right to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Uses which are covered under limitations and exceptions to copyright, such as fair use, do not require permission from the copyright owner. All other uses require permission and copyright owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to othEarly developments The earliest recorded historical case-law on the right to copy comes from ancient Ireland. The Cathach is the oldest extant Irish manuscript of the Psalter and the earliest example of Irish writing. It contains a Vulgate version of Psalms XXX (10) to CV (13) with an interpretative rubric or heading before each psalm. It is traditionally ascribed to Saint Columba as the copy, made at night in haste by a miraculous light, of a Psalter lent to Columba by St. Finnian. A dispute arose about the ownership of the copy and King Diarmait Mac Cerbhaill gave the judgement To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy. [1] [This story comes from an author much more interested in a good story than an accurate one and so one can question whether this was the actual decision, or even whether there was a case at all. However the story is quite old and so at least gives us some idea of opinion in the days before the printing press. Modern copyright law has been influenced by an array of older legal rights that have been recognized throughout history, including the moral rights of the author who created a work, the economic rights of a benefactor who paid to have a copy made, the property rights of the individual owner of a copy, and a sovereigns right to censor and to regulate the printing industry. The origins of some of these rights can be traced back to ancient Greek culture, ancient Jewish law, and ancient Roman law. [2] In Greek society, during the sixth century B. C. E. there emerged the notion of the individual self, including personal ideals, ambition, and creativity. [3] The individual self is important in copyright because it distinguishes the creativity produced by an individual from the rest of society. In ancient Jewish Talmudic law there can be found recognition of the moral rights of the author and the economic or property rights of an author. [4] Prior to the invention of movable type in the West in the mid-15th century, texts were copied by hand and the small number of texts generated few occasions for these rights to be tested. During the Roman Empire, a period of prosperous book trade, no copyright or similar regulations existed, copying by those other than professional booksellers was rare. This is because books were, typically, copied by literate slaves, who were expensive to buy and maintain. Thus, any copier would have had to pay much the same expense as a professional publisher. Roman book sellers would sometimes pay a well regarded author for first access to a text for copying, but they had no exclusive rights to a work and authors were not normally paid anything for their work. [5]

Analysis of Alexander Popes An Essay on Man -- Pope An Essay on Man

Analysis of Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man    There are three main issues that Pope talks about in his long poem "An Essay on Man." First, the poet evokes a timeless vision of humanity in which the universe is connected to a great chain that extends from God to the tiniest form of life. Secondly, Pope discusses God's plan in which evil must exist for the sake of the greater good, a paradox not fully understandable by human reason. Thirdly, the poem accuses human beings of being proud and impious. Pope feels that man claims more insight into the nature of existence then he possesses. In "An Essay on Man" Pope is trying to make clear the relationship of humanity to the universe, himself, society and also to happiness. He states "For me health gushes from a thousand springs; seas roll to waft me suns to light- me rise; My footstool earth my canopy the skies" (330). Pope implies that the universe is created for man's pleasures and needs and so therefore we are all connected to the chain of universal order. Through this connection man realizes that all are part of one stupendous whole. He then suggests that this order extends further then we know; any interference with it could destroy the whole. Pope asks in the poem,   "Is the greater chain, that draws all to agree,   upheld by God or thee?" (327). Here he explains that by conforming to the order of the universe we can all agree on and connect to one goal. Through this connection, we would then reach the purest form of humanity. The belief in this poem is that although things do not turn out well for some individuals, everything falls into place in the great chain of the universe. In the long run everything works out for the best, Pope argues. Because humanity is ignor... ...m with these words: "Whatever is, is right" (333). This implies that things are done or happen for a reason. When humanity tries to change things for individual gain rather than the improvement of the whole it weakens the chain, which in turn affects the rest of the universe. I believe we are all individuals who are connected to a higher power, whatever that power may be. The beauty of humanity is exactly that individuality. I agree with Pope in the sense that we are all connected somehow, but I do not agree with total submission in order to achieve total unity. Rather than total submission, I believe our mission is to connect with the universe by using the special gifts given to us by the power that unites us. Works Cited   Pope, Alexander. "Essay on Man." Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces 6th ed. Ed. Maynard Mack et.al. New York: Norton, 1992. 326-333

Psychological Terror in “the Minister’s Black Veil”

I think that, as a general rule, humans love to categorize things. We like to organize things. We like things to fit into our neat, little organized view of reality, whether it’s a can of soup we buy, a movie we watch, or a person we meet. Everything needs to fit into some sort of category and if it doesn’t fit, we create a category for it to fit into. Categories give us certain expectations about the thing we are dealing with. Stories are no exception to this idea. For example, a romance novel should be romantic, obviously; but we would assume that it also contains some sort of conflict for the hero or heroine to overcome, which eventually leads him or her to their true love, or some sort of happiness at the end. But what effect do these expectations have on our interpretation of a story? Since my goal with this essay is to attempt to categorize the â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I will need to investigate what characteristics are present, in hopes that these characteristics will lead me to some sort of definitive answer about the genre of this story. First, we must look at the elements of the story; tone and diction are very important when trying to categorize a story. The tone of the story is somewhat gloomy, and quite isolated. We are drawn into this small town’s world, as they become increasingly terrified of Minister Hooper and his strange veil. And the way the congregation of Hooper’s church see the veil when he first wears it makes it seem as though it was something much more sinister than a â€Å"simple piece of crape† (938). As he preaches about â€Å"secret sin, and those mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest† (938), no one can see his face, and thus everyone feels as though Hooper is looking at them, directing his sermon at them: Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought. Many spread their clasped hands on their bosoms. There was nothing terrible in what Mr. Hooper said, at least, no violence; and yet, with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked. 938 The congregation is so unsettled by this strange addition to the Minister’s visage that they cannot stop thinking about it during his sermon; â€Å"[s]o sensible were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister, that they longed for a breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost believing that a stranger’s visage would be discovered, though the form, gesture, and voice were those of Mr. Hooper† (938). No one is immune to the terror that this black piece of crape invokes. The entire town is on edge and speculative as to what the veil means. And the words used to describe the veil and its effects are definitely indicative of this fear; â€Å"terrible thing† (939); â€Å"ghostlike† (939); â€Å"horrible† (940); â€Å"gloom† (940); â€Å"dismal shade† (941). This piece of fabric has separated Hooper from his beloved congregation. While they thought him a happy and benevolent man before, they now feel fear and distrust when they see him. One lady of his congregation remarks, â€Å"I would not be alone with him for the world. I wonder that he is not afraid to be alone with himself† (939). But Hooper is not immune to the sinister effects of the veil. At the wedding he officiates later the same day, he sees his reflection, and what he sees terrifies him: At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness. For the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil. 940 If we take â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† as a horror story, it leads us to certain conclusions about the nature of the veil and Hooper’s refusal to take it off. If horror is something that centers upon the horrifying or macabre, especially concerning the supernatural, one can see that this story could belong. Hooper never divulges the exact nature of the veil, and we are left to speculate about what it could possibly mean. Several possibilities present themselves if we think of this story as a horror story; it could be that the veil is covering Hooper’s face to be a constant reminder to his congregation and all who see him of secret sin. It seems that the idea that he could possibly know someone’s secret sin is terrifying to the townspeople. Indeed, this veil does give Hooper â€Å"awful power over souls that were in agony for sin† (943). Sinners fear him, because they feel that the black veil is a reference to their own personal secret sins. And the veil gives him an association with the dead and ghostly qualities; after the girl’s funeral at the beginning of the story, one woman remarks that she thought she saw Hooper walking hand in hand with the ghost of the dead girl. Such things would not have been imagined if he had never donned the veil. But however terrifying the veil is, I think this story lacks any visceral or shocking scenes. The idea of the veil hiding sins, the image of it on Hooper’s face is incredibly creepy, to be sure. But I think horror stories especially rely on the supernatural and the unknown to make them unsettling. And while this story does use the veil as an unknown, and it is unsettling, I think that the part of the story that really gets to me is the psychological torment and uneasiness that the veil casts not only on the townspeople, but on Hooper himself. Let us take the definition of a psychological story as something that focuses on the mental and emotional aspects of the characters. The terror in this story, then, is largely in the way that this simple piece of fabric gets under everyone’s skin. It isn’t a horrifying object in and of itself, and I think that is what draws me away from thinking of this as a horror story. This black piece of crape is enough to turn people against Hooper. They avoid him, stop inviting him over for dinner, picture him capable of all sorts of acts that they never would have thought him capable of prior to the veil. And imagine Hooper’s existence. He has vowed to wear the veil until death! No one knows why, although when explaining to Elizabeth why the veil must always be kept on, he says that â€Å"I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil† (941). What sorrows these are, we never find out. This again plays a large role in the psychological aspect of the story: we never know exactly what drove Hooper to end his days with the black veil on his face. Perhaps it is related to the girl that died at the beginning of the story; he first wears the veil the same day as her funeral, and in Perkins footnote to â€Å"The Black Veil†, Hawthorne is shown to have made reference in his own footnotes to Joseph Moody, a clergyman in New England who accidentally killed a friend of his in his childhood. After his friend`s death, Moody wore a black veil until his own death (Perkins and Perkins, 937). Perhaps Hawthorne`s reason for detailing this true story with â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is a clue; if we take Hooper’s black veil as a sign of his own personal sin, and he is wearing the veil as a reminder to himself that he is a sinner, and can only be redeemed after death, then all of the effects that the veil has on the townspeople are unintentional. I think that this idea is very plausible. Hooper was generally thought to be a pushover by his congregation, who thought that it must be a phase that he would get over and take the veil off. But Hooper’s strange dedication to the veil does seem to indicate some sort of personal attachment to the idea of secret sin. Perhaps he did have something to do with the girl’s death, or was in a relationship with her before she died. Either way, the presence of the veil seems to indicate that he feels guilty about something, and feels that it is necessary to always live behind this veil as a result of that guilt. That it has an effect on other people is secondary; or at best preventative: maybe Hooper is attempting to thwart other’s sins by making public that he has his own. (1487) Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil. † The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 12th Ed. Vol. 1. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 2009. 937 – 945. Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. Footnote 1 to â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil†. The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 12th Ed. Vol. 1. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 2009. 937 – 945.

Essay on The Contrast Between Life And Death Is A Very...

A candle in a dark room, the red coat in that black and white film, the energy, the emotion and the symbolism of these scenes can make apparent to any reader the abyss that there seems to be between the beginning and the end. But what happens when these contrasts between life and death are blurred? When two seemingly unarguable ideas contradict each other? The School, by Donald Barthleme and The Road out of Eden, by Randall Grace are examples of such conundrums. The texts use contrasting structure-styles, irony and differing thematic ideas to explore how various aspects of death impact individuals. The simplistic style in â€Å"The Road out of Eden† is used to emphasise the childish aspect of the narrator as he tells his story. His use of†¦show more content†¦His narrating style is disorganised, repetitive, out of order, thematically disorderly, making awkward sense and a little drawn out with its observations. Sentences stop unconcluded at times. The use of ellipses ads points of uncomfortable pause like with â€Å"and the salamander . . . well, now they know not to carry them around in plastic bags.† The text is in short awkward, unfocused. It reflects the mind of someone in shock and incapable of dealing with death. The style presents an idea of how people cope with death and embeds in the very structure of the idea that those who have been subject to loss â€Å"require an assertion of value†. It’s an interesting subject present throughout â€Å"The School† it is however also present in â€Å"The Road out of Eden† where after the murder of Joe Ron the narrator begins to expressing doubt as in his use of uncertainty in â€Å"we weren’t best friends after that, I guess.† This mirrors the use of uncertainty in â€Å"The school† but also points out very big difference between the two texts. While confusion and hence death is present from the beginning of â€Å"the school† this co nfusion only come in â€Å"the road out of eden† in the very last paragraph. This can be understood when looking at the basis of the arguments of death in both texts. In both texts the authors use age to explore uncommon aspects of death. In â€Å"The Road out of Eden† the age of the main characters is usedShow MoreRelatedThe Forest Of Gombe By Jane Goodall1165 Words   |  5 Pagesmysterious phenomenon. However, as science becomes advanced, people gradually lost in the relationship between it and religious beliefs. In the essay â€Å"In the Forest of Gombe†, Jane Goodall spends long time with chimpanzees in the forests to recover from her husband’s death. During this period, she learns new ideas from the chimps and finds herself back, and understands the complicated relationship between scientific ideas and religious beliefs. 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One of the greatest love stories in English literature, the love-hate passionate relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff ignitesRead MoreThe Ethos Of Art Nouveau Across The Arts And Architecture1656 Words   |  7 PagesThe Ethos of Art Nouveau across the Arts and Architecture. Art Nouveau – ‘A style of art and architecture of the 1890s, characterised by the swelling sinuous outlines and stylized natural forms, such as flowers and leaves.’ (The definition of art nouveau) The name derives from ‘Maison de ‘Art Nouveau’, an interior design gallery in Paris in 1896 however the movement had multiple names throughout Europe, such as ‘Jgendstil’ in Germany; in Italy Stile Liberty or Floreale ; in Spain ModernistaRead MoreEssay on Comparing The Soldier and Dulce et Decorum Est644 Words   |  3 PagesComparing The Soldier and Dulce et Decorum Est The Soldier by Rupert Brooke and Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen were both written during world war one. 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