Ode to God of Tetris

#Something you should know before you read: 'God of Tetris' is a title that you achieve when you reach the maximum level in a Facebook game 'Tetris Battle'. 



Dear ‘God of Tetris’

     It has been nearly 2 years since I started my grand Tetris journey to reach you. My courage and hope once crashed to the ground when I could not find an end to unremitting challenges from opponents. My resolution often wobbled when people jeered at my recklessness. They simply could not accept the idea that such an untalented man like me would someday stand next to you and shine the world of Tetris. My keyboard became weather-beaten and stared at me as if it was no longer able to accompany me on my adventure. But I continued to carry on. I closed my ears to worthless snorts that may weaken my resolve. I have relentlessly pursued your trace despite unremittingly accumulating assignments and teachers’ acrid accusations. I have persevered countless rank-downs and defeats. I have persuaded myself that there would be an end to this harsh journey whenever my fingers and spirits swayed. I have overcome my fear and continued to challenge more competitive opponents to reach you.

    

     But my dear, I have to confess that I once decided to abandon you. It was not because my patience reached its limit. It was not because my keyboard could no longer sustain my fingers. It was not because of my heavy work load. It was because of you. The moment I heard the news that you fled to rank 110, my heart was pierced by ineffable disappointment, misery, and sorrow. Furthermore, I was afraid to stand beneath the sky, for I thought it would crack into pieces and collapse upon me. I was afraid to breathe, for the air I once jovially breathed in became too bitter. I was afraid to meet people, for I may unconsciously express my extreme anguish on those who are innocent. I could not believe the reality I was facing. I felt your scent becoming thicker, I felt your effulgence becoming brighter, and I felt your splendor becoming more intense as my rank continued to soar up. But they were all suddenly gone. Your scent, effulgence, splendor, everything. All gone. What you left were 10 more ranks to go up with 50 stars required to achieve each rank after rank 101. I thought you refused my love. I thought you refused to love me. Thus, with great pang in my heart, I left you.

     

     After I left you, I dragged my mouse cursor to find someone that would fill my heart again with excitement, someone who is worthy enough to set out a long journey to be with. I thought I could easily find someone like you. But my thought proved to be wrong. I attempted to pour all my enthusiasm and passion into Ninja Battle or Cart Rider to forget you, but I never could. Every night I closed my eyes for sleep, I saw colorful Tetris blocks falling gracefully to produce powerful combos.  I guess could never push you into the pit of oblivion no matter how much I desired to do so. Then one night, in my dream, you appeared in front of me out of nowhere. You looked splendid and grand as you always had been, but you had sadness and disappointment in your eyes. Then, I had sudden epiphany that important thing was to love rather than to be loved, just as what W. Somerset Maugham stated. The important thing was to love you rather than to be loved by you. I should have felt happy for being able to love you and invest all my efforts and passion to reach you. After I had that sudden realization, I decided to restart my grand Tetris journey again.

     My rank is now 109, and I have only 16 stars left to grab your hands. I can feel your growing presence, and I can feel my growing affection towards you as I step closer to your effulgence. The momentous day of union between you and me is not so far away. Wait for me, my dear ‘God of Tetris’, and do not run away ever again. 

Human nature embedded in Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected

Each short story in ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ is seemingly bizarre and may appear to have no relationship between each other. However, under the grotesque and strange storyline of each different story, there lie repulsive aspects of human nature. In fact, though the stories of ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, ‘Skin’, and ‘Man From the South’ are three separate stories, they share the subject which they portray: a monster that lurks within human mind, ready to manipulate fragile human heart whenever it attempts to satiate its evil greed. This ‘monster’ can be both interpreted as obsession and duplicity of human heart, which are parts of human nature that Roald Dahl attempted to explore in ‘Tales of the Unexpected.’

Individual’s tendency to obsess with certain value or subject is one of human nature that Roald Dahl illustrated in ‘Tales of the Unexpected.’ Why did Mary Maloney kill her own husband with a leg of lamb in the story ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’? It is because of her obsession to seize her husband. Mary Maloney’s obsession towards her husband is implied when she killed her husband when he said “Don’t make supper for me. I’m going out.” This phrase indicates that her husband’s affection towards her was slipping away from Mary’s grip. Therefore, Mary, who was desperate to retrieve her husband’s love and attention, decided to kill her husband instead of letting him escape from her life, since her obsession with her husband was so intense and incontrollable. Why did the woman of Carlos in the story ‘Man From the South’ have only one finger on her hand and a thumb? It is because her strong obsession with materialistic values was strong enough to overwhelm her fear of losing most of her fingers. Why did the stranger trick Drioli in the story ‘Skin’ to peel the tattoo off Drioli’s back? It is because of the stranger’s inordinate obsession with aesthetic value that made him neglect moral concerns. In other words, seemingly absurd and immoral decisions of the characters in each story imply individuals’ nature to succumb to their own desire and obsession. 

Duplicity of human mind is another aspect of human nature that is portrayed in ‘Tales of the Unexpected.’ One of the common aspects of ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, ‘Skin’, and ‘Man from the South’ is that these stories have characters who behave in the manner that belies their intentions. For instance, cheerful and courteous manners that Mary Maloney showed in front of Sam at a grocery shop or detectives investigating a murder scene were all feigned behaviors intentioned to hide her guilt and evidence of murder. Carlos’s woman in ‘Man From the South’ displayed duplicity when she forcefully stopped Carlos from further engaging in his unusual bet, since she was actually the one who most eagerly participated in Carlos’s bizarre bet to win his assets from him. The stranger in ‘Skin’ that faked Drioli to attain the tattoo on his back is another flagrant example of human’s ability to belie his or her real intentions. Alluring suggestions that the stranger made to Drioli superficially seem to be a persuasion to induce win-win situation for both Drioli and stranger, but those were actually critical death traps that the stranger had set to garner only his own profits. By portraying characters with extreme duplicity and excellent skills in concealing their true intentions, Roald Dahl managed to emphasize untrustworthiness of human nature.  

Roald Dahl successfully reveals the ‘monster’ hidden inside human mind to the surface by blending obsessive and duplicitous human nature with interesting story lines. Roald Dahl is commendable for his brilliant talents in humorously and interestingly combining rather dark and grave subjects pertaining to human nature with unique story lines. With his prominent talents, Roald Dahl made ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ into a book that is more effective than a series of didactic words and complicated philosophical teachings in inducing readers to contemplate about human nature.

Claim about Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray'

At first glance, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ appears to be a novel that attempts to deliver deprecation of an individual's morality due to excessive pursuit of aesthetic pleasure. After all, Dorian Gray plunged himself into moral collapse once he began to crave for eternal youth and aesthetic pleasure. For instance, Dorian Gray cold-heartedly abandons Sybil, a woman who seemed to be sincerely loved by Dorian Gray, and feels only a slight repentance when he received the news of her suicide. Though Dorian Gray himself claimed that he was deeply in love with Sybil, he abandons her after she lost her skill and talent as a graceful actress, since it was her artistic ability that Dorian Gray loved, not Sybil herself. For Dorian Gray, Sybil primarily existed for satisfaction of his aesthetic desire. In other words, Dorian's inordinate pursuit of aestheticism made him to put moral concerns aside. Through Dorian's moral deprecation, Oscar Wilde seems to deliver a lesson pertaining to morality and conscience.

However, Oscar Wilde did not attempt to link his novel with morality. In fact, he believed that art and morality exist in separate boundaries. For example, he stated in the preface of 'Picture of Dorian Gray that "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." In addition, when Oscar Wilde was repudiated by the Scots Observer due to his insufficient concerns and preference for moral values in the novel 'Picture of Dorian Gray', Oscar replied that “If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame. It will be to each man what he is himself. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” In other words, while Oscar Wilde opened rooms for several possible interpretations of his novel, his original attempt was to create a piece of art that should be primarily judged by aesthetic criteria instead of moral criteria.

Therefore, it is not accurate to assume that 'Picture of Dorian Gray' is a novel that mainly focuses on corruption of morality of Dorian Gray. Instead, it should be viewed as a book that allows several moral interpretations but has its main purpose on illustrating refined and nearly-perfected aesthetic beauty. Many readers may spot moral concerns and conflicts between Victorian moral values and aesthetic values exist to complement beauty to the novel. Still, they should remind that such contents pertaining to morality exist to complement aesthetic beauty of the novel, not to make the novel a morally didactic book.