Money > Love

So while I was watching Gossip Girl with my roommate earlier, I realized that Lily van der Woodsen seems to have some of the same views as Lily Bart. They both choose money over love. Lily van der Woodsen was threatened to loose her inheiritance if she stayed with Rufus, so she left him. Although Lily Bart wasn't losing money, she wouldn't be gaining much money by marrying Seldon, so she tried to marry both Percy and Rosedale instead.

Tao Te Ching Is A Socialist

I was rereading the second poem in Tao Te Ching and there is a part of it that sounds like something Marx would have written if he were to write in that same style. The last few lines of the poem are "Lives but does not own, Acts but does not presume, Accomplishes without taking credit. When no credit is taken, Accomplishment endures." To me, it sounds like what Marx was hoping to accomplish by eliminating ownership of private property. Maybe there are even more similarities between all the books we had to read for CORE this semester than we realize.

Accident or Not??

While reading the end of The House of Mirth, I believed that Lilly purposely killed herself, but after the discussion we had in class, I've been thinking about whether it really was an accident or not. I still have not come to my own conclusion, but I wonder if Edith Wharton even knew, and even if she did, I think what matters more is how each person interprets it. There is evidence to support both conclusions, it really just matters on what you want it to be, an accident or not.