Thursday, January 19, 2006

Omens... I did a bad, bad thing.

Shakespeare tends to explore using the supernatural and the concept of fate particularly in his tragedies. Some of the ominous events in Macbeth include the owl killing the falcon, the horses eating one another, the earthquake, etc. Do you believe that there are signs and omens that foreshadow events? Have you seen any in life, history, or examples in movies or literature that you can discuss?


"Baby did a bad bad thing, baby did a bad bad thing.
Baby did a bad bad thing, feel like crying, feel like crying."
- Chris Issac "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing"

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes...i believe that there are omens...of course i have seen some things that forshadow events to come, such as one time, i saw an old tree, dead of course, and i was like, hmmm....this is forshadowing that one day this tree might fall down, and a week later...it fell across the road...and killed 3 chipmunks, a hedgehog, and a smurf

Anonymous said...

I do believe that there are omens in the world. They have created multiple movies called Omen and a bunch of sequels to it relating to that theme in general. I know that sometimes people will think of something because of something they have seen, which is an omen, and it later comes true, but sometimes it is too hard to put those things together until after the event has passed.

Anonymous said...

I really love Shakespeare's plays. I can't wait to memorize my lines. This is my 4th post so that is worth 20 points.

Anonymous said...

Yes there are bad omens. For example Friday the 13th is bad omen. The morning after friday the 13th I went canoeing and we flipped the boat in the middle of the lake.

Anonymous said...

Omens are simply people being superstiitous and transferring their own fears onto their psyche. What will happen is not set in stone, as people can always change their own futures; it is only when they lock themselves into a course of action that they have no recourse.

Anonymous said...

yeah I think alot of times you can see omens. However its usually only after said bad even happens that you look at the "omens" and tell yourself you knew something was going to happen. I've tried to examine omens at the present when i saw them but it usually turns out that nuthing bad happens. Its when I dont notice omens that bad things happen.
DING! 20 pts!

MrsC said...

To Griff, Levin, and others who want to display your dislike for blogging by posting irrelevant or ridiculous comments:

All comments from here on must be relevant and coherent to receice credit. Of course, those of you blog more often than the obligatory 4 times only need 4 of those. The other occasional response, funny comment, or interesting thought is invited. The 4 for a grade must follow some sort of guidelines.

Thanks... and happy blogging.

Anonymous said...

I don't really believe in foreshadowing and bad omens. I believe that unless you are talking about deciphering signs from a person to forshadow their true personality that signs are just what we use to explain things. We all look for explanations for things we don't understand.When something bad happens we like to try to understand why it happened but it all just has to do with fate.

Anonymous said...

No, I dont believe in omens. On the otherhand, I will not walk under a ladder, and I will pick up a penny if it's heads up. I guess I don't believe in them, but I won't do anything to bring on bad luck.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe in fate. I think you make your own destiny. I do believe in luck though, which can control your destiny. That is relevent and coherent and my 5th post.

Anonymous said...

No I don't believe in omens!! This one time a black cat crossed my path. OMG!! I was so scared that I would have bad luck, but I totally didn't!

Anonymous said...

No, I do not think that there omens. They are kind of retarded if you think about it. The kind of people I picture believing in omens are gay marriage supporters and crazy jungle natives.

Anonymous said...

hey bcal, so i think i'll still be getting 5 points off for another day, but heres a try. so omens. Omens are cool. I don't really believe in them. I think they are good for like stories, but in real life they don't really happen. Foreshadowing happens a lot, though. Like relationship problems leading to a break up or doing badly at work leads to being fired...but other than that..I do not really believe in omens! Thanks, Love Libby B!!!

Anonymous said...

I do believe that thereare omens. I can't think of one that i have seen personally. Although I can't think of one I still think that there are omens. The other stories on this blog seemed believable too so I guess there are.

Anonymous said...

aww I kind of liked Levin's post. But anyway I don't really believe in omens at all. I just don't really think that it makes much sense that something can really forshadow another event, assuming it appears to be an accident or an omen like Shakespeare would use; I'm not talking about it being overcast and that being an omen that it is going to rain. I do think omens can work well in forms of entertainment though.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing outside of God controlling our universe (superstitions, good or bad luck, omens, etc.). there is nothing about walking under a ladder, Friday the 13th, black cats crossing people's paths, or opening umbrellas while inside that will change people's fortune. I think that it is a great idea to use foreshadowing in literature because it makes the reader/spectator think and put themselves in the book/play.

Anonymous said...

No i dont believe that there are omens. I think that people just get worked up about things and so they take little things they see or hear and make it out to be something its not.

Anonymous said...

I didn't believe in omens until my grandfather chopped off 3 of his fingers with a chainsaw on friday the 13th. He has been in forestry all his life, coincidence, i think not. One of my friends also was talking about how he has never wrecked, within a week he totaled his car. Another of my friends spilt the salt at dinner, and he refused to throw it over his shoulder, because he didn't believe in omens. Well, lets just say that his night kinda sucked.

Anonymous said...

So that's why they cancelled the Smurf Show... Levin (or should I say, Gargamel) murdered Papa Smurf! Smurf-slayer! What did those poor creatures ever do to you so that you would chop down a tree, and make it fall on an innocent Smurf?

Anonymous said...

I don't think there are omens in real life, but I do see them in literature and movies all the time. In all of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling uses bad and good omens.

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I've never really had experience with omens before. Or if I did, I didn't notice. So I guess it would be most likely the latter. But consciously I never really notice them. I've stepped on cracks; my mother's back has never broken. Knock on wood. Wait a sec...holy crap. I just realized that I do believe in superstitions though. And if you censor "crap", then you're just plain not cool. Seriously. But now I'm starting to make this worse just by rambling on. And maybe this could omen for bad things to happen to me in this class. Hey, it's weird how everything connects. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. I'm bored. Originally I should have stopped 7 or 8 sentences ago. Is this annoying? Am I so off-topic now that you could just kill me? Hmm, maybe that's another omen for me.








But I don't really care, seeing as how I'm still going on. So how are you? I myself am doing quite alright. Although I am kind of hungry. I think I'll have some sushi. I wonder what kind it shall be. Let's ponder that for a moment.


Any ideas? I myself hope for California rolls, even though many people probably think they are boring. But you know what? I like them. It seems like we might be here for a while, so does anyone have any jokes? Anyone? No? Well me neither. You probably think I was going to say a joke. You would have been wrong though. You would be completely wrong. How does that make you feel? Actually, I don't care. I am actually starting to get hungry though. Canada sucks.

Anonymous said...

Smurf soup Jonathan, gah didn't you ever watch the show.

Anonymous said...

I do believe there are omens. Sometimes at the time that they occur, you don't really see them that way, but then later you realize that it was forshadowing something. Friday the 13th has a reputation for being a bad omen and a red sunrise is supposed to mean bad weather on the sea (or something like that).

Anonymous said...

Of course i believe in omens. I've seen them everywhere throughout my life and i most positively for sure believe in omens. Every day in my life i look for omens such as stepping on cracks or walking under ladders (those two scare me the most hahahah!!!!!!!!!!) Please respond to this blog and tell me how i should get past this problem.

Love
Griff Bridell

Anonymous said...

I do not think that the research paper is going to be that bad. I hope it is not as hard as the years past.

MrsC said...

Griff,
You should seek some counseling on this one. I think Dr. Phil could use you on his show. You could be an inspiration to phobics everywhere. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Anonymous said...

i don't believe in omens strictly speaking, unless it is a religious event. I agree with Ben that you can see them after a bad event happens, but you can always find somehting if you look hard enough. Only in literature do omens really exist because the author is in charge of the future.

Anonymous said...

Most of the time you won't recognize an omen until after the event happens. After something happens, usually bad, you see that it was actually forshadowed by a previous event.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure whether or not I believe in omens but I do belive in dreams that when you go to sleep and dream of something good or bad it has a purpose of being there for a reason

Anonymous said...

While I can't think of any specific omens in my life, I know they are present in this world because I have seen them happen to others. For example, when the sky turns black, it is foreshadowing that there will soon be a big storm. This is a small example of an omen in real life.

Anonymous said...

I personally do not believe in omens. It is all in your head. Like when some people believe it is a sign when you see the time 11:11, yeah you see it because it is a time of the day. I don't freak out when the clock hits noon. Regardless, this is just my opinion. It could all be in my head...

Anonymous said...

Hi, M.B. seniors... I'm a friend of Mrs. C's who lives in the real mountains of NC. Great discussion!

In his book "The Devil's Dictionary," the writer Ambrose Bierce defined "omen" this way...

OMEN, n. - A sign that something will happen if nothing happens.

Mr. Bierce was famously cynical!

John Norton

MrsC said...

Thanks for the post, John!!!

MrsC said...

Callie,
John is my colleague from North Carolina who is working with me on the technology fellowship I told you guys about. He writes for an educational journal and likes Macs. He is cool... nothing spooky about him.

MrsC said...

oh yeah

2. I posted this blog address on a discussion board with my tech fellowship peers

3. No, I am not pretending. Amanda, Dan, and Jorge really are people who stumbled upon this very public forum...

The web is so cool like that!

Anonymous said...

I am a strong believer in superstitions. I have always been told by my mom, “Listen to the little voice inside you”. A time where I found this most true was when I was at the Tuscaloosa Mall with my mom and I had a really bad feeling about the surrounding it's hard to explain but it was like a negative vibe. I told my mom and we left to head back to Birmingham. That night on the 10pm news the head line story was about a gun fight in the Dillard’s parking lot that killed one by standard. This happened at the same mall I was at, and the spookiest thing about it is that it occurred about 5 minutes after we left.

Anonymous said...

no i do not believe in omens. i think that they are real for people who search for too much meaning in things. i feel that some people need things like that to believe in because it helps them find meaning.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe that omens and superstitions foreshadow events to come. I think that people need a reason for bad things that occur, and so they use omens and superstitions to blame, wether then do nothing.