Edison's Blog

  SpongeBob SquarePants is a Nickelodeon TV show about aquatic creatures who live very human lives, but in an underwater world known as Bikini Bottom. The show first aired its pilot episode, "Help Wanted", in 1999. In "Help Wanted", the main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, gets hired at the local fast food establishment called "The Krusty Krab" after saving the workers from a mob of anchovies. This episode sets the scene for the entire SpongeBob universe. The creator of the show, Stephen Hillenburg, was a marine biologist who worked as an educator before pursuing his true dream of becoming an animator/artist. Hillenburg's first iteration of SpongeBob came in 1994 when he got the idea to create a show where sea creatures live in a small town and behave more like humans that fish. He borrowed the character named "Bob the Sponge" from the show The Intertidal Zone  and further developed it into the SpongeBob we know today. Hillenburg's visi...

"Happily ever after" is a phrase that seems to be thrown around in almost every children's story or fairy tale. In fact, I had known this phrase way before I became fluent in English, simply from hearing it so many times. For my whole life, I had a general sense of its meaning: The characters involved end their story at the same time that I see them end it, and they continue some sort of pseudo-existence in a happy state, doing whatever they were doing at the very end of their story. However, I am now tasked with defining "happily ever after" as I see it, so let's break it down. Of course, in a fantastical world, characters may truly be able to achieve a state of never-ending happiness. As I wrote about previously, happiness derives from having purpose in life, rather than a single experience or action. I believe that even in a fairy tale, this principle still holds. For example, if the plot of a fairy tale involves two characters falling in love, the "...

When the pandemic started, I was not anxious, stressed, or depressed. Rather, I was somewhat relieved. Senior year was shaping up to be an incredibly busy time, and even after getting into Duke ED it felt like second semester was dragging, with no point in going to school or putting effort into my extracurriculars. Quarantine sort of gave me the break that I had long desired, and I took full advantage of that. However, I quickly became extremely bored at home. Unlike most of Gen Z during the pandemic, I did not turn to binge watching my favorite Netflix classics, get hooked into Tiger King, or endulge in an entire series of movies. I have never been a big movie person; I tend not to seek emotional rollercoasters or unpredictable storylines when I attempt to relax. I like to be in control of my story, not let the story control me. Therefore, video games became my go-to quarantine relaxation activity. Minecraft had seen a resurgence on YouTube earlier in 2018/2019, which pushed many play...

Happiness, like with most feelings, is an abstract concept that humans have created to categorize a certain intangible emotion that occurs under certain conditions. An extraterrestrial alien - who does not experience feelings in the same way humans do - could learn about happiness, understand it is a good thing to humans, and pass every exam on the biology of what happens to our bodies when we are happy, yet still never actually feel happiness. What do we need to be happy? Well, in a literal sense, we need regulation of hormones such as serotonin and dopamine in our bodies to be happy.  To answer the question correctly, I argue that humans need to have a sense of purpose for their existence. This purpose can be anything, as long as the person believes in it and operates under it. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World , people in the lower castes are spawned and trained to not only operate on a lower societal level, but believe that they are destined to be that way. To people in the h...

Hi, I'm Edison and I'm a first-year student at Duke taking WR101 Decoding Disney.  My favorite Disney movie is probably Cars 1, but the Toy Story movies are pretty close behind. In general, I enjoy movies where animals or inanimate objects live in a human-like world and have interactions with humans, whilst still meeting the requirements of their anatomy. Disney is very good at making these kinds of movies, and I would love to do a deeper analysis of these movies throughout the course. Cars perfectly encompasses these aspects. Lightning McQueen speaks with the other cars in English, has emotions, and competes in spectator events just like humans do. While doing all of this, he and the other cars are responsible for getting their tires changed, refueling, and other car-related tasks. Beyond these amusing details, Cars also contains many thrilling, clutch moments, and a heartwarming underdog story that ties it all together into one masterpiece of a movie.