Undergraduate / Bard Essay "Civilization Ends" [3]

Hey guys! This is my essay for Bard College, and I would really appreciate any feedback you might have. I'm a little worried it might be too short--it's only about 460 words. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

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Prompt: "One hundred years ago, in 1912, the Austrian writer and social critic Karl Kraus, famous for his provocative aphorisms, wrote "Civilization ends, since barbarians erupt from it." Write a short commentary on what you think this might mean from your perspective 100 years later, and whether it makes any sense."

"Fin de Siecle": The Birth of Progress

In the heart of Montmartre, a young man's fragile frame hugged the easel before him. With calloused palms and skin black with ink, he studied the couples' angles-crisp and acute when the metallic chill of her bracelet brushed his naked skin. The artist found a softness in the folds of her dress, crinkled and crimped, to contrast the boy's sharp wit. His thinning brushstrokes had stripped the pair of all the glamour of Paris, and left them in unabashed intimacy. Fascinated by the lights of gaudy cabarets, the artist made the reprobates of France his landscapes. But the critics did not take warmly to his bold recreations. They dubbed him a drunk, a degenerate, a social outcast, and deemed his paintings a disgrace to the art. Only a century later would society grant Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec the admiration he deserved as one of the most elegant and provocative artists of his time.

Much like the art critics of nineteenth century France, modern intellectuals often disregard their own culture's artists, poets and philosophers as primitive, debauched and even barbaric. Social analysts bemoan the apathy and crudity of today's youth, as yesterday's civilization approaches its demise. They drown themselves in nostalgia for an earlier time, an age which they have deemed the "good old days", and bitterly regret that culture simply "isn't what it used to be". But what many pundits fail to recognize is that, through the death of one society, another witnesses its birth. At the same time aphorist Karl Kraus lamented that "civilization ends since barbarians erupt from it", Joyce was penning "Dubliners" and Frank Lloyd Wright was designing Chicago's Midway Gardens. Blinded by the turmoil of World War I and fear for his own survival, Kraus, like many others, turned an eye to the pioneers of his era in hopes of preserving the familiar.

It is human nature to cling to tradition, to smother ourselves with reckless nostalgia, and to constantly criticize the novel and unconventional. But with these precedents comes the alternative-which is to say that is just as much human nature to push society's boundaries, to challenge the standards and chase progress. Those who adhere to the latter mark the pages of our history books. Regardless of how barbaric one generation considers the next, each era is remembered and revered for its outcasts and revolutionaries. Those deemed uncultured are often later regarded as the curators of culture-they are the Hemingways, the Feynmans, the Gaugins and the Wittgensteins. Like that of his peers and contemporaries, Toulouse-Lautrec's passionate eccentricity proved not only his biggest obstacle, but his greatest attribute. So as it seems, Kraus stands corrected. Civilization does not come to end because it breeds barbarians, but rather because it fosters visionaries, who seek endlessly to create a new one.

Undergraduate / 'mirror the ideals' - Why UChicago Essay [3]

I tried taking a more creative route with this one. Let me know if it works.

Question: "How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago."

In determining whether University of Chicago would satisfy my intellectual, academic and artistic appetite for the next four years of my educational career, I employed Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's "Picture Theory of Meaning" to compare my proposition of an ideal college experience with the reality of UChicago. Wittgenstein's theory suggests that an idea or statement is only meaningful if it can be pictured and represented in the real world. I chose, therefore, to address the statement "The University of Chicago is the best fit for me."

As I picture it, my perfect college would fulfill my desire for both breadth and depth among various academic interests. Emphasizing a strong but broad core curriculum, the university would introduce me to a variety of subjects through both canonical and novel works. As both a literary fanatic and self-proclaimed poet, I would take great satisfaction in a program designed to address some of the most essential philosophical questions via the careful examination of history's fundamental texts. The classes would engage me as a reader, writer and theorist, whether it be through a course like "Flux Americana: Tramps and Tramping in American Literature" or an in-depth study of Nabokov's "Lolita". Geography would be key-a city steeped in history, designed to foster academics and artists alike. I would take full advantage of a thriving music scene, neighboring educational institutions, paradigms of world-class architecture and globally renowned museums. My classmates would recognize the worth in spending Saturday nights crowded around a laptop watching classic Doctor Who episodes and discussing the reality of time travel or parallel universes. The university would not just encourage eccentrics, but breed them.

In order for the previous statement to be true, to hold any absolute meaning, The University of Chicago must mirror the aforementioned ideals. The graphic representation of the language in my proposition must be exactly congruent to the reality of the college. And when I hold a picture of University of Chicago to that of my ideals, both Wittgenstein and I agree, it is a perfect match.