Great Jones Street

I don't have much time to read things that I especially want to read anymore. Which is sad, but that's life in college I guess. But I did manage to get into reading another one of Don DeLillo's books, Great Jones Street. I'm only about halfway through it so far, but I've already formed some opinions about it.

I don't like it nearly as much as I did White Noise. DeLillo's writing style is very much the same in both novels, but there are some things that make the styles different that affect the experience of the reader, and in my opinion, makes White Noise far superior. This novel I'm reading is about an ex-rock star named Bucky Wunderlick, who decides to take a break from, or perhaps permanently leave the business in search of a life away from the insanity. The book explores Bucky's thoughts and relationships while following him in his journey to change. I guess it's a lot about the price of fame, and about the common human desperation we all experience, even the famous. Although, I definitely had a lot more trouble reading closely into this book, as it didn't catch my interest nearly as much as White Noise, so I don't feel like I really understand the deeper meanings in the book yet. But maybe I'll catch on as I read more.

Random Thoughts

So I know this doesn't really have anything to do with stuff we've read and this doesn't have to count as part of my 15 posts, but I'm just wondering if anyone else feels really isolated being an English major at Case? I don't know if it's just the people I surround myself, or if it's the general consensus at this school that if you're not a BME or pre-med you're a complete waste of space... Anyways, I was just curious if anyone else has experienced this...

:)

Suggestions

I'm actually going to miss taking this class. I think I enjoyed it more than I thought I did, because I'm kind of sad about leaving it. I liked the small class and everyone in it. And I looooved the books we read. The only one I can say that I could have done without is the Angela Carter short stories. I had trouble getting into most of them. I thought her writing style was far too wordy for a writer from so recent an era. I liked that her stories were original interpretations of old fairy tales; that was pretty interesting. However, I felt that it was the least interesting text that we read as a class.

I also think the blog idea should be kept for future classes. I really liked having to think about things I wanted to write, and working my way through my thoughts about the works we read. I feel like having to put my thoughts down in writing helped me better understand exactly what conclusions I wanted to form about the books and other things involved in class. So I don't think the blog should be gotten rid of. I do think that it would be more effective for a broader range of students if direct questions were posted first for the students to address specifically. This would also help everyone have something in mind to talk about for discussion the next day, and people wouldn't have an excuse not to speak up because you know they have already put thought into the topic. Just a suggestion...

School Daze (Wrote this one day when I was in a class bored.....not this class though...lol

School Daze
I’m tired,
Sleepy,
Stressed,
But I’m trying to make the best of it.

School is getting boring,
I wanna go home,
But I guess that I am better off,
Than other folks I know.

I hate school sometimes,
On my very bad days,
But today will be okay,
As long as the day passes away.
Tiarra Thomas

In Memory of You

In Memory Of You

Reminiscing on the days that passed,
Back to the time I saw you last,
Remembering what having you was like,
Until that day you lost your life.

I constantly call your name,
But it is to no avail,
I look around corners that wind and curve,
All in hopes of finding what’s not there.

Thinking back, days that have ever since passed,
Trying hard to remember when I saw you last,
Remembering the fun that you never seemed to lack,
Or when I would get in trouble with mom and you always had my back.

The rain and chill of that fateful unhappy day,
Surrounded everyone there,
But that was not the focus of the unhappiness and gloom that day.
It was the last day I saw you, but you are no longer here.

Tiarra Thomas

Expectations (Poem I wrote in my spare time...)

Expectations

Tiarra Thomas


There are 2 kinds of expectations,
Those that you expect of yourself,
And those you expect of others.
It's easy to reach your own expectations,
But expecting something from others can be a waste.
You expect people to reach a certain level of maturity,
Especially as they grow older,
But in the end you finally see,
That expecting something from others was never meant to be.

Finally you grow and learn,
That you can expect what you want only from yourself.
Never rely on others to get what you want,
Because all you have is you and God.
In the end he is the only 1 you can truly expect something from.

Feminist Presentation

The presentation of Danyel, Bethany, and Jocelyn was, I think, the best. The information they presented was very interesting, and the group seemed to have a genuine interest in the topic. I was interested throughout the entire presentation, and I learned a lot about feminism. I liked that they didn't just talk at us, they conversed with us, and they used more than one technique to teach the class. The information on the handout and the powerpoint was interesting, and I really liked watching the Buffy vs. Edward video, as I am personally a huge Buffy fan. The article that went along with the video was also quite humorous. And I liked the trivia questions and the candy and cookies. They were delicious.

Fairy Tales

I must say, I'm glad that we had to read the fairy tales along with The Bloody Chamber. When you are young, you hear about these fairy tales all the time, and I never even read them until now. The original fairy tales and their other renditions were great reads!

Danyel, Bethany, and Jocelyn's Presentation

Today's presentation was VERY insightful; I had no idea that Feminism occurred in such a large span of time. I also never knew that feminism was divided into "waves". This gave a very thorough explanation of Feminism; we talk about Feminism in my Language and Gender all the time, but I don't think I really got a clear understanding of what it was until I listened to this presentation. These guys touched on the basics, while adding more, all the while not making the presentation harder to understand than it needed to be. Great job!

ps-Jocelyn, did you make those cookies? They were SOO good... :)

Angela Carter, feminism... why the, ergh, sex?

I haven't read alot of fairy tale stories that are 'twisted' like Carter's, the only other instance is when I read Neil Gaiman's books where he usually uses Norse and Greek gods to create a wholly different story (usually deriving away from the original stories and putting the gods into his stories as characters with different personalities based on their lore). The common thing that I noticed in the two is the use of sexual intimacy to describe some part of their story.
Well, it would be interesting and smart if I pulled up sources of studies regarding the implications of sex in literature, but I'm a lazy guy so I'll just come up with my own theory regarding to the use of sex in these stories.
Fairy tales are about innocence; all the Grimm fairy tales describe in one way or another of an instance where an innocence of a character is glorified and triumphs over the evil 'crone' of the story (sometimes in really brutal manners), even more modern 'myths' like "Count Dracula" shows the innocence of the wife of the main character and in the end the evil who tries to corrupt such innocence is defeated.
Carter strips away this idea, she wants to depict the bare-bone society that she saw in her time by emphasizing the pure idiocy in the concept of innocence, she gave the fairy tales... 'reality' by implementing sex. Sex is, well, impure and wrong in many eyes, so Carter puts it in every one of her stories to show the true colors of what-it-would-have-been-like-if-it-happened-today. The biggest shocker and most weird instance where sex is used is probably in "The Company of Wolves" where the little red riding hood seduces the pinnacle of masculine object (in the story), the wolf, and survives her consumation. Carter uses the 'consumation' in different term (instead of literally devouring) by using the wolf (the male figure) consuming the woman (the feminine) by taking away her virgin innocence. Is carter saying that womens today can only survive by offering their innocence? by seducing? Personally I believe Carter is trying to say how ridiculous the women's survival mechanic in the society was; Carter uses fairy tales, a world also portrayed with innocence, and stains it with blood, violence, ambiguity, and other extreme methods to show her message.

On a side note: I also think Carter wasn't exactly an avid Christian, as I mentioned in class, the parallism between the original bloody chamber story and the eve story is broken by the rationality of the woman's decision, and in the case of "the company of wolves" the grandmother who gets consumed is seen as a very very devout christian (I laughed abit when the red riding hood finds it surprising the grandmother/wolf-in-disguise didn't have the bible in his hands).