Bababa, says the sheep.

Silly Antiques

I find antiques fun to own.
They rather shine the room
they can be old or new
for no one will ever know.
I drop by the antique shop
to enquire on a new product
new, they do say they have
delighted, merchandise I seek
I see a beautiful vase
sitting on the window sill
I enquire, oh i do enquire
'what is that' I ask
they say they know
and look for a price tag they do
not finding they panic
manager to the rescue
And lo, he says,
'I do not know, how strange.'
I purchase the vase despite
and ponder its beauty two times
I put it on my window sill
fitting it was
almost too fitting it was
blend it did, to the world outside
the world blend it tried too
and was it so to say
the beauty beheld i say
I was tired of day forgone
and replaced it with a lamp
And cry did the world
I almost heard it cry.

Puss-In-Boots

I have never heard the real story of Puss-In-Boots, so I really have nothing to compare this story to, but wow. This might have been one of the most obscure tales I've ever read. Firstly, I was extremely confused as to who the speaker was at the beginning, and it took me rather a long time to figure out what was going on at all. The blatant sexual content in the story was a bit surprising, as well. It was, to say the least, more than a little risqué... anyways, I'm curious as to what exactly the author's intentions were in writing such explicit versions of the original fairy tales. I'm still forming conclusions on that topic myself, but so far I haven't got too many ideas. But I will keep reading...

Chris' dream and our perception

In chapter 229 of Mark Haddon's book, we are introduced to Christopher's dream.
It is a world where nobody but people 'like' him exist. He describes it as a world where "special people like me" (pg 199) are the only ones left in the world and the people who have emotions (described with an array of faces displaying emotion) are gone.
This chapter made me feel very disconnected from Chris' world. The world Chris described is an envisionment of a post-apoacalyptic world, to us that is. This is the difference between me and Chris, we have different dreams in life (literal and figurative).
The funny thing I observed about Chris' world is that his 'dream' world would also be a sort of reality in terms of achieving utopia: people without emotion or 'wrong' judgements is the only case in which, I believe, a utopian society could work.
The fact that I judged Chris instinctively upon reading about his dreams shows how flawed our minds can be. Just when I thought I was figuring out Chris' persona and his humanly qualities, we are introduced with this chapter then again puts us out of Chris' 'shoe'. In fact, I find it a relief that I can't see through Chris' eyes, it's still a horrible thought to find an apocalyptic world as 'heaven'.
This is what I reflected from this short chapter.
On a side note... I had a question that got stuck in my head: is Chris' mind an evolution of humanity's flaws? I mean, if nature saw it fit... Wouldn't Chris' almost primal and alien mind be the answer to the problems we, as humanity, caused on the world?

The Tiger's Bride

Okay, so I changed my mind about Angela Carter.
Not about the Bloody Chamber, I really think she overdid the whole imagery thing in that one.
But I really enjoyed the Tiger's Bride, which I just finished (I'm a tad behind...). I think her descriptions actually work quite well in the context of this story. I was actually pretty surprised by the ending, when the girl becomes some sort of animal, at least figuratively. And unlike in the Bloody Chamber, I found myself very intrigued by the events that took place, and wanting to read on and on. I found it particularly interesting that at one point in the story the girl actually becomes aware of her innate inferiority that being a woman gives her. In traditional fairy tales, women are portrayed as sort of limp, weak beings, there simply to please the men in their lives, to be saved by a prince or something. While the female in this version of the story is indeed portrayed as being something of an object, at least to the men in her life (as her father loses her in a card game...) she becomes aware of her femininity and what that means to her.
"I certainly meditated on the nature of my own state, how I had been bought and sold, passed from hand to hand. That clockwork girl who had powdered my cheeks for me; had I not been allotted only the same kind of imitative life amongst men that the doll-maker had given her?"
Here she experiences a moment of self-aware recognition of her inherent state as a human woman. While she does not appear to continue thinking on the subject, or noting any particular unfairnesses with the situation, the fact that Angela Carter puts this realization in her text is somewhat momentous, and rather changes the focus and point of view of this classic fairy tale. It also colors the perspective of the girl throughout the rest of the story.
I found it really interesting. And now looking back at the other two stories, I can definitely see that the role of females is something that is discreetly highlighted throughout each... Hmm...

Question for everyone...

Those of you who are/plan to be English majors... what is it that you plan on doing with your degree?

The Bloody Chamber

After finishing the first of Angela Carter's short stories, I'm not sure I like her writing style very much. The plot of the story was very interesting and rather horrific, which held me in suspense. In that sense, I think Carter has some talent for suspenseful writing. However, I noticed that contrary to Mark Haddon's A Curious Incident, Carter uses an excess of adjectives and descriptive words in the telling of her story, and while some people may appreciate this style of writing, I find it highly unnecessary. Her use of similes and metaphors is well done, yet it seems like a lot of overkill.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the story itself. It had my heart racing at some points, which takes some skill. The highly descriptive way in which Carter describes the torture chamber is rather disturbing in a wonderfully chilling way. Carter clearly has a skill for horror writing, however verbose her style may be.

Short ... story?

The woman knew the risk, and she savored on the knowledge that the risk was soon approaching. The woman’s hunger was unquenchable; she covered her mouth as to stop her salivating. She had delicate hands, with frail thin fingers and beautifully rounded nails. Pale as bone her skin, as if the sun was too humble to touch her bare skin. A footstep is heard. The woman bows now, a courtesy, saliva escapes between her teeth, the translucent liquid splashes to the ground. The woman gasps, and gurgles as she tries to apologize, her pale small face suddenly covered by apple red embarrassment. She stops her eager shaking; she grasps her host to apologize. The host merely smiles and lifts her bowed head, and looks into her eyes. He whispers gently into her hears, and the woman… the girl couldn’t help but shake again, for joy overcame her. She replies, “I am yours.” The host nods and smiles, its smile ever burned into the woman-child’s mind; it was salvation.

note: I know it sounds dirty.. kinda... but I had in mind a more mystical setting when I was writing it...

Poem..

Tinkling shards

A tearful cry

Far reaching hands

Cradling soft tearful hands

A thousand shards, sound resonates

Crashing below

the broken sigh

Tis a wonder

The sound echoed

Almost soft

to bend one's ear

to twitch his nose

a careful melody

ascending lullaby

descending tears

oh

tis a wonder

the crystals shone.

Twelfth Night, the play.

It is kind of late to really say anything about it, but here comes my review from recollection.

I have never watched a Shakespearean comedy before, and I am grateful that it was Twelfth Night that allowed me to explore the writer's creativity in his plays. The first thing I had noticed when watching the first few scenes was that it was related to a movie I had watched before, allowing me to understand the play's overall plot in a less confusing manner. I laughed alot.
The point when one of the people on stage stated that it was the mystical land of Illyria, I thought it was a pretty cheap way of creating a world where a culture can be very alien- thus allowing the writer to create whatever he wanted... I was wrong. Illyria becomes a setting in which all these different characters are able to express the power of the play freely. We can relate, we can see the total ridiculousness of the whole story, but we can relate. The question of love, perception and the defining qualities of genders becomes a blur in the play- thus allowing us to enjoy a perfectly weird play without really being offended somewhat (unless you were French). I personally loved the Fool, who played with words with a quick silver-tongue, and did not hesitate to take sides on both sides of ambiguity; he knew love, but he did not know it- he knew what was happening, but yet he did not really acknowledge it.
The play left me with a good mood and a postive view on everything, it was a good way to spend a night and I'm eager to catch more plays if possible in the future.

The Bloody Chamber

Carter's first story, 'The Bloody Chamber' was an interpretation of the original 'Blue-beard' tale. The original tale talks about the antagonist as a man who was characterized by his blue beard, and people avoided him because all the women he married never came back out again. So after his newest victim, he goes out into the town and tries to take in one of the two sisters of a lowly house to be his bride, and the younger one reluctantly agrees and goes to the castle as his new bride. The bride discovers the bloody chamber, the key is dropped, the stain doesn't dissapear, 'Blue-beard' finds out and swears to kill the bride, the bride goes onto the highest tower, locks herself in and calls for help, blue beard breaks down door with sword and when he's about to kill the woman the woman's two brothers come in and save the day and all the money gets passed to the woman and they live happily ever after.

uh huh


It's not the best tale, and it has a sour-note to reading it (as does most tales in the past), it's as if the writers wanted other authors to create their own version of the fairy tale.

I am a personal fan of authors who can twist old legends, fairy-tales and myths into a world that has these character's evolved into a fully fledged human being with emotions. Carter, Instead of putting us at a distance and letting us read the story with a very shallow perspective, allows us to see through the perspective of these characters. Being able to feel the bride's almost desperate state of confusion between the loyalty to her husband and with her own instincts, the horror of discovering the corpses of the husband's previous wives; it all comes alive with much more poignancy and I loved that. Being able to put in character's or shift character's to create a symbolism of the feminant and the realistic, but preserving the mystic with the blood-stained key... I could go on about it, but all I can say is that Carter's work was a very fun read.

Fun reading vs. 'Serious' reading

The first English book that I read that was over a hundred pages was a fantasy book called, "Dragon Lance". It was a series type book with several different stories that intertwined and created a very enjoyable read. Ofcourse, that was then. Being the first book that I read seriously, I was hooked onto the fantasy genre for a long time- I read series that ranged from the more dark and serious (Dragon Lance was abit dark, and other fantasy that tend to kill off its protagonists more than giving them a good ending was considered dark to me, especially the 'Assassin's Disciple' series) to the more lighter fantasies (Pratchett's discworld is a brilliant example).
The first English literature book was probably a Tom Sawyer book, ofcourse back then I really had no desire to finish the book and mostly skimmed across the content with little interest. The first literature that I really took interest in reading was Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club", which I read quite late into my middle school years, it was THE book that inspired me to discover the depth as which these books that are considered 'literature' went. I proceeded to read "Catcher in the Rye", "The Great Expectation", "Death of a Salesman", and so on.

The fundamental difference between a 'pick-up' book and a literature is length, the immersion factor, and the depth.

'Pick-up' books are easy reads, it's ability to quickly immerse you into the character's world and deliver a quick punch into a world totally alien or relatable, is very very fun. You do not need to decipher the author's intention or message in these books, there probably is a scarce amount of it- if not any (with exceptions). The length of these books can also vary greatly: we can pick up a book that has only one book in the total 'series', or it could be spread out into several books that can expand generations of the characters within the story (even Narnia books do this).

'Serious reading' is abrupt and sometimes it's a cold shoe that you have to step into. The characters can be stale, or perhaps too realistic, and it destroys the 'fun', at least for me, in reading. But it does something more brilliant than the generic plot-device existent in alot of lighter reads. For example, I dreaded reading "Madame Bovary". I hated the characters: the woman was a dream-chasing lady in 'distress' who couldn't look at what was given to her, the main 'man' was a coward who was ignorant to his wife's dredge and lived in an illusion of a perfect life. But int the end... It works! Although it was a terrible feeling, I could relate to Madame Bovary's fantasy-filled world where she day-dreamt more than pursueing what was more realistic, I can relate to Charles Bovary's cowardice to accept reality, and the author had a very clever use of shifting perspective that brought all these different characters into reality.

Fun reading, serious reading... who cares? Drop books that are supposed to be 'fun' if they don't fit with you, read the 'serious' literatures with a pencil in hand and try to interpret the messages the author writes down. I personally love both types, although sometimes biased against some books, I still acknowledge the power each writing possesses.

-Yoon

Bethany, Bryden, and Kristen's Presentation

Today's presentation regarding Deconstruction and Postmodernism was very interesting and beneficial because it clearly explained the concepts of postmodernism and deconstruction in literature. Their presentation especially gave me a better understanding of postmodernism, and helped me to see that more often than not, I participate in what can be considered postmodernism. I form my own beliefs about a story according to what I have experienced or what I believe, and sometimes that does go against whatever the author may have intended. I like that they ended with the Hansel and Gretel story. It pulled everything learned from the presentation together, and you could see deconstruction and postmodernism pulled together before your very eyes. I enjoyed their presentation.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This is a VERY fun book to read. Christopher tells the story well, giving details so that the reader can have their own interpretation of what is going on. He states his opinion, but he also realizes that everyone does not think the same way he does. He is determine to find out what happened to Wellington, but along the way he discovers a lot of information that he had no clue about, such as his mother's affair with Mr. Shears (I also find it intriguing that he does not use periods after prefixes such as Mr). In his search for the person who murdered Wellington, he finds out a lot about his own life along the way. While I do not blame his father for some of his actions, there are some actions that he must take responsibility for, like killing Wellington. I'm not sure if I'm too fond of him keeping Christopher from his mother either. That is not fair to Christopher. Otherwise, good read!

Twelfth Night

So, after seeing Twelfth Night, I found that it was much easier to read the play after seeing it first. Yes, the first two scenes are switched, but other than that knowing what happened in the play made the book much easier to follow, especially with all the Shakespearian language. The play was fun and lively, and remembering how fun and lively the play was probably helped me to get a better grasp on the actual text. It was a fun play and a fun story, and the play can definitely be done well if you have creative individuals to star in it.

The Curious Incident

So. I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. And let me just say, that is a phenomenal book. I really enjoyed it, largely in part to the fact that I've never read anything like it before, and I'm always down for some innovative writing. In class today we discussed what Christopher's idea of a "proper novel" is. And while he doesn't specifically talk about it, I noticed some other things about the book compared to "proper novels". I suppose it is implied that "proper novels" are supposed to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. In this sense, The Curious Incident could be considered proper. While Christopher himself does not seem to notice the various segments of his story (beginning, middle, climax, resolution, etc.) as they are happening, or even afterwords, they are definitely identifiable to the reader. Christopher writes what he does and sees happening around him. Yet he does not divide up his story or describe the events that happen in ways which suggest that they are meant to be the beginning, middle, end, etc. In this way, the readers are not told what happens, but rather they are shown. I don't mean this in the typical way that writers show readers, for example using large quantities of descriptive words and lots of metaphors and wordplay and such. Rather, while Christopher is literally telling us what is happening around him, he does not tell us or even imply that these events are part of something bigger, because he cannot notice this. Thus, we can infer our own meanings from the story by being shown what happens.

This is probably very confusing but it was on my mind a lot while reading this... =]

Caskets at Walmart?

Thought the fact that Walmart is now selling caskets online sounds like it comes directly from White Noise.

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=caskets&Find.x=0&Find.y=0&Find=Find

Listen to White Noise

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on "white noise." There is a ten-second clip where you can hear it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise

A Link to an Old Review of White Noise

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956269-1,00.html