Can you describe Jane Austen’s contemporary literary reputation?

What makes authors great is the fact that they continue to
be  relevant across different periods of time. This is because their work  has literary
merit and deals with basic and perenial concerns of life. Jane Austen is  part of the
literary canon and included in  literature courses  across various universities even
today, precisely for this reason.

On the other hand, people
like Mark Twain's disdain of her work are widely quoted. There has been this tendency to
belittle her work as being nothing more than soft romances but serious study shows a
perceptive mind that was adept at mirroring human nature, 'warts and all". Her books are
as relevant social critiques of society today as they were of her time. Her basic themes
of how money makes the world go round and how financial security overrides pasion can be
applied to modern day society with equal
justification.  

Her contemporary reputation is only
growing, evidenced by the way more and more TV serials and film makers are using her
novels as a base for their work. For example, the very successful "Bride and Prejudice"
made by Gurinder Chadha is a rivetting rendition of Pride and Prejudice. Similarly
Paramount Pictures "Clueless" and Bollywood's "Aisha" are adaptations of Emma. There are
references galore to some of her charaters like Elizabeth Bennet, Mrs Bennet, Darcy and
Emma being the most popular. As in the Hollywood movie, "You Have Got Mail",  Darcy
comes up for discussion between the lead pair.

Jane
Austen's contemporariness was in the news recently again! It appears that Kate
Middleton, the new wife of Prince William and now the new Duchess of Cambridge is a
descendant of the writer. To qoute Anastasia Harman, lead family historian for
Ancestory.com,    "Catherine is the modern Jane Austen herione: a middle class girl
marrying the future King of England."

That is one more
reason to negate the view that Jane Austen is dated. As Elizabeth Langland, dean of
ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences says, "If you strip away the
costumes and time period, you will see your own world
in Austen."

What conflict rages in Macbeth after he hears the witches prophecy? What resolution to this conflict does Macbeth express in his aside, in Act 1,...

The conflict is that Macbeth is eager to become king, as
the witches prophesy, but he sees no ready way to this achievement - except murder: the
murder not only of the present king Duncan but his son and designated heir to the
throne, Malcolm, named as Prince of Cumberland. 

Macbeth
abhors the idea of murder to achieve his ends yet cannot put it aside. This is the
terrible conflict that takes place within him. He admits in an aside that he has been
shaken to the core at the thought; his hair stands on end and his heart beats hard as he
contemplates this unnatural deed (I.iii.134-138). Yet, because his ambition is so
strong, he does contemplate murder. And he actually appears to reach the resolution that
he will indeed commit murder to achieve his ambition, as evidenced in his aside in Act
1, sc. 4:

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Stars, hide your
fires;

Let not light see my black and deep
desires.

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that
be

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
(50-53)

This means that
although he is terrified to witness his own deed of murder, he will nevertheless perform
it, while averting his gaze from it ('the eye wink at the hand'). He will be ashamed to
look upon it but he still wants it to go ahead ('yet let that be/ which the eye
fears').

It is interesting to note that Macbeth appears to
reach this resolution of his own accord, before his wife appears on the scene. Lady
Macbeth certainly urges him onto murder, but at this stage he seems resolved to perform
it even without her encouragement. 

How does the temptation scene in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel resemble Satan's temptation of Eve in Milton's Paradise Lost?

The temptation scene in John Dryden's poem
Absolom and Achitophel (230-302) resembles Satan’s temptation of
Eve in Milton’s Paradise Lost (9.532-566) in various
ways.

Both tempters, of course, obviously employ a great
deal of flattery.  Thus Satan begins his temptation of Eve by calling her “sov’reign
mistress” (9.532), while Achitophel begins his temptation of Absolom by calling him
“Auspicious prince” (230). Likewise, Satan soon calls Eve “sole wonder” (9.533), while
Achitophel calls Absolom a “second Moses” (234).

Each
tempter also praises the beginnings or birth of the person he flatters. Thus Satan says
that Eve is the “Fairest resemblance of [her] Maker fair” (9.539), while Achitophel
tells Absolom that at the latter’s birth, “Some royal planet ruled the southern sky”
(231).

Each tempter additionally claims that he merely
expresses a widely held admiration for the being he tries to tempt. Thus Satan tells Eve
that “all things living gaze on” her (9.539), and Achitophel likewise tells Absolom that
he is

The
people’s prayer, the glad diviners’ theme,

The young men’s
vision, and the old men’s dream.
(238-39)

Satan tells Eve that
she is “universally admired” (9.542), just as Achitophel tells Absolom that “stammering
babes are taught to lisp [Absolom’s] name” (243).

Satan
tells Eve that she deserves to be more widely seen and more widely appreciated
(9.545-48), just as Achitophel tells Absolom that he should not be “Content ingloriously
to pass [his] days” (246).

Various other similarities
exist, but these should be enough to suggest the strong resemblances between the two
pages and even the possibility that Dryden may have had Milton’s Satan partly in mind
when he created his own Achitophel.

In The Kite Runner, is the reason why Hassan keeps sacrificing for Amir because he loves Amir deeply (not in sexual way)?

Hassan better understands the relationship and social
standing between the two boys than does Amir. Hassan recognizes his position as the son
of the household servant, Ali. Though Ali and Hassan are treated with great kindness by
Baba (and we find out later in the book one of the reasons why), they do not live in the
family home; instead, they reside in a mud hut on the property. Both Hassan and Ali are
reminded regularly by others of their lower-class Hazara ethnicity, so they have no
illusions about their place in Baba's home or in society. Hassan loves Amir for a
variety of reasons: He is proud to be a friend to the son of a man with such power and
wealth as Baba; he appreciates the time that Amir spends with him; he enjoys the stories
that Amir reads to him; and for Hassan, Amir is his closest friend. Because he is a
servant's son, Hassan has an innate sense of service, another reason he is always
willing to run Amir's kite.

Suggest some ways to deal with uncertain conflicts constructively?The Tylenol CrisisIn the fall of 1986 a Consumer Products company, was confronted...

When you say "uncertain conflicts" I assume you are
talking about unforeseen crises like the one that Tylenol faced.  If so, the only
generic advice (as opposed to specific advice about a known situation) that can be given
is to say that the company needs to have a flexible and open corporate
culture.

By definition, a company cannot plan for
unforeseen crises.  This means that all a company can do is to have a culture that deals
well with surprise.  This means that the corporate culture cannot be too rigid.  It has
to be able to deal with sudden change.

Just as importantly,
the corporate culture must be open in order to deal with a crisis like this.  If a
company tries to close itself off in a crisis and deflect blame, it ends up looking very
bad in the eyes of the public.  This happened, to some extent, to BP with the oil spill
last year.  By contrast, Tylenol was very open about its efforts to deal with the
tampering crisis and did not try to deflect blame.

Crises
cannot be predicted so plans cannot be made for dealing with specific crises.  A
corporate culture that handles problems well and is open in its responses must be in
place before the crisis begins.

What are the conflicts in the story "The Rememberer" by Aimee Bender?

Aimee Bender explains that the idea for her story “The
Rememberer” came from a dream. After having ended a relationship, her thoughts were
constantly on the loss of a lover. Her story pushes the realm of realism by relaying
what seems impossible in a straightforward way. 

The
setting of the story is the home of the protagonist, Annie, who also serves as the
narrator of the story.  The time is the present.  The basis for the story comes from the
idea of evolution but with a twist.  Instead of showing how man has evolved from a lower
species, Annie’s lover suffers from an accelerated form of reverse
evolution.

Conflicts

Annie
faces an unusual problem.  She is facing the loss of her lover. Her
conflict stems from her inner turmoil in the forfeiture of
her mate. Strangely, rather than fight the process, Annie begins to cover for Ben, her
mate, by saying that he has a peculiar illness. 

What does
she do?  First, she checks the scientific basis of the problem.  There she receives no
help; in addition, she receives wrong information.  The process should take about a
year.  It has been a month. Ben is sitting in a bowl functioning as a sea turtle.  As
she tries to communicate with him, he stares at her, and she cries into his
bowl.

What are her emotions? Her responsibility has become
caregiver for the changes that Ben has gone through. She feels intense loss for the
person she loved, and this consumes her every thought. Her role is now to keep alive the
memories for Ben who has lost the ability to think because he has evolved to a lower
specimen.

In addition, the story’s plot circulates around
man versus nature.  As Ben de-evolves, each step
illustrates what man has gained as he has become a human being.  He sheds about a
million years per day.  

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It was evident that Ben had become sad about the
world.  On his last human day, he said, “Annie don’t you see? We’re all getting too
smart.  Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger and the world dries up and dies
when there’s too much thought and not enough
heart.”

Each day as Annie
returns from work, she wonders what changes she will see in
Ben.

The steps of the de-evolution began with Ben, who
loved to talk and discuss, saying that he hated talking. Then, he decided to start
sleeping outside.  One day when Annie returns from work, she discovered that Ben was now
an ape.  They sat outside and played with grass.  He spent time as a turtle. His last
stage is as a salamander.

Continuing to talk to him at
every stage, Annie finally realizes that Ben is no longer there.  Her conflict endures
when she realizes that she must return him to the ocean before he becomes no more than
an amoeba.  She releases him and watches as the salamander swims out. Some place in her
psyche, Annie thinks that someday Ben will return to her having
revolved.

Annie’s function has become not only Ben’s
caregiver but his memory.  Ben will never be lost because Annie remembers everything
about him and their relationship.  She remembers his smell, the feel of his arms, and
the way that he talked.  She is his rememberer. 

The
conflict within Annie is unresolved because she has no closure.  Despite Annie releasing
Ben into the ocean as a salamander, she still hopes that someday he will wash back up on
the shore as his old self. She keeps her phone listed; she reads the newspaper searching
for news; and finally, she keeps all of the memories locked inside her head and
heart. 

How does Sophocles use foreshadowing to hint at Oedipus's downfall in Oedipus Rex?

The question of foreshadowing in any Greek tragedy strikes
me as a little bit difficult to deal with because almost all of the audience would have
known the basic plot of the story before the play even began. Still, Sophocles leaves no
doubt in his play that Oedipus is going to fall and fall
hard.

For example, in the play's prologue, the Priest urges
Oedipus to take action regarding the plague unless he wants to be king "in
a desert" (Ian Johnston translation). I find in this statement some irony
because by the end of the play Oedipus will no longer be king of Thebes and he will have
to wander as an exile far from the society of his fellow human
beings.

Later, after learning from Creon that they must
expel Laius' killer from Thebes, Oedipus again ironically foreshadows his own demise as
he urges his fellow citizens, "Ban him from your
homes."

Likewise, in the same speech,
Oedipus ironically foreshadows what befalls him at the end of the play when he
unwittingly calls down upon himself the same curses that he invoked upon Laius' killers.
Oedipus says that even if the killer turned out to be an "honoured guest" in his own
home, he prays that he himself "suffer all those things I’ve just called
down upon the killers."

So, from the
beginning of the play, Sophocles leaves his audience numerous indications that things
will turn out badly for Oedipus.