Write two blog posts below. In one post discuss the main text you have been reading independently and in
another post discuss the supplemental text. It should be absolutely clear what texts
you are referring to.
This post should intelligently and insightfully
(but not necessarily formally) discuss the texts and the ideas you have
about the texts. Be bold. Be specific. Be thoughtful and convincing.
The purpose of this assignment is for you to share what you have been reading and thinking about with your peers.
For my independent reading project, the main text I chose to read was The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice. The novel is about the prince using sex to release the princess from her slumber. His reward is Beauty’s sexual enslavement to him. She is his slave until the prince decides to return her to her kingdom.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the novel, I noticed that the prince did not have a name. He is simply referred to as the “Crown Prince”. I think Anne Rice’s reason for never giving the prince a name is because he is simply not important. He is important in the aspect that he claimed the princess, but he never gives the princess the happily ever after that so many of us expect. I will discuss the ending later on in the blog post, but for now I want to get back to names.
Anne Rice chose to name the princess Beauty, not Briar-rose or Aurora. In the novel, the author emphasizes the princess’s beauty using the awe of the characters when they see her. Ironically, her beauty only contributes to bad things instead of good things.
Because of her beauty, the princess is a favorite among the court. Being the favorite is a bad thing because not only does the Crown Prince sexually exploit her, so does other members of the court, such as his mother, the Queen, and Lady Juliana. This means that Beauty is used as a constant plaything in her new home. I believe Anne Rice is trying to send a message to readers that there is more depth to people than outside appearances.
Control was a major theme in the novel. Beauty was forced to surrender all control to the Crown Prince as soon as he woke her up from her slumber. It is scary to think that somebody can take advantage of you while you are most vulnerable. It is even scarier to think that that same person who took advantage of you is the person who you have to look at for survival.
When Beauty is taken to his castle, she learns that there are many princes and princesses who are sex slaves for various members of the court. The purpose of the princes and princesses being enslaved is so that they will not be vain. This is despicable, because nobody deserves to be abused.
At the end of the novel, Beauty defies direct orders from the Crown Prince. Her punishment is to be auctioned off at the village. She is terrified of being auctioned off, but she is happy she took control of her life by defying orders.
I chose to read two supplemental texts. I read the Grimm Brothers’ story and the Disney version. In the Grimm Brothers’ story, the prince was just referred to as the prince. In the Disney version, he was called Phillip. Also, the princess had a name in both stories. It was Briar-rose in both stories, but in the Disney version, her name was later changed to Aurora. The princess’s name provided her with an identity separate from beauty.
ReplyDeleteBoth stories have happy endings. The prince woke the princess up with an innocent kiss. He did not take advantage of the princess when she was in a vulnerable state. They got married and lived happily ever after. My thoughts is maybe if the Crown Prince had not taken advantage of Beauty, then maybe they could have lived happily ever after too. But they did not.
For my main book I have chosen to read Mythology, by Edith Hamilton. I did such to create a control sample for the Greek myths I encounter, and the changes between them. Now although this is my main book I have not started to read it of yet. As it is my control sample, and I have not acquired a copy. However I have started my secondary source. I have been reading the Percy Jackson series, seeing as it is the newest retelling of the Greek myths. I am choosing to read a new telling of the Greek Myths, because I have a solid background knowledge in Greek mythology, having read the Odyssey, and books on other heroes such as Hercules, Jason, ETC. Having completed four of the five book series i am comfortable with saying that it is a creative retelling of ancient myths. The story puts all the old myths in present times, and gives a refreshing explains ion for all the gods, and why the same monsters are still alive. Percy Jackson fights all the same monsters as some of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, and does so while using what he knows about how those other heroes defeated said monsters. Yet he doesn't do everything the same, seeing as both heroes and monsters get smarter over time, Percy use's his knowledge to defeat the monsters in knew ways. Like in The Sea of Monsters, Percy runs into almost all the same challenges that Odysseus did, including Polyphemus the cyclops. Aware of how Odysseus beat Polyphemus, Percy used the name “Nobody” to enrage the cyclops, making it easier to trick him. He then sneaked into the cyclops’s cave by holding onto the underbelly of sheep, instead of how Odysseus used them to escape. This allowed Percy to save his friends, acquire the golden fleece, and escape from Polyphemus, which is more then what any other hero did at the same time. So Although it is a lesser standard of writing then the traditional myths, it provides a new exciting feeling to old stories; and if you can make something 2000 years old seem original then your doing something right. So from here on I will be comparing other books on Greek myths against both the traditional Mythology, and the modern Percy Jackson to see were they fall.
ReplyDeleteMy first main novel is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The first thing I learned was that Frankenstein is the name of the creator, and the monster does not have a name. Although initially one would think this is an important distinction, I discovered that the monster and Victor Frankenstein seem to be composed of a singular soul regardless. Their consciousnesses are similar, particularly in their speech and their want of both compassion and care, but also a need for temporary isolation. They both possess a very large capacity for learning, and Frankenstein's research is disturbing in the thoroughness of his investigations, particularly of death and the corruption of the body, while the monster seems to be more human in that aspect, reading novels like Paradise Lost and Sorrow's of Werter, which, based on his descriptions, dealt with human emotion and life. The fact that the monster is in fact a physical manifestation separate from Victor makes the "monster within oneself" parameter somewhat more symbolic in application, but the distance allows for a more individual evaluation of each. Probably the most important insight I gained from the novel is its message concerning the destruction of such a monster. It is not until Frankenstein's demise that the monster decides to take his own life. Only we can influence the monster within us, and in order to do so, it may involve extreme sacrifices, especially if the monster we hide is deeply embedded in the fabric of who we are.
ReplyDeleteI chose two supplementary texts: one is the afterword of Frankenstein written by Harold Bloom(including criticisms by various sources, as well as a discussion of the novel and its characters), and an article summarizing Freud's Division of Mind(http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/division.html). The afterword enforces, as strongly as I perceived, the two halves that are Frankenstein and his monster. One critic even says the monster is "more human" than his creator, and also insists that Frankenstein "flees his responsibility[to "raise" Frankenstein] and sets in motion the events that will lead to his own Arctic immolation, a fit end for a being who has never achieved a full sense of another's existence."(Bloom 218)Though for the purposes of my research there should be a clear "monster within" and person that the monster resides in, this novel makes it ambiguous. Frankenstein can be considered his monster's monster, or the monster could be Frankenstein's demon. At moments both are true, and for the rest of the time, it fluctuates. The difficulty will be in handling an approach that is somewhat conclusive about each.
ReplyDeleteThe article on Division of Mind gives thorough definitions of the Id, Ego, and Superego concepts suggested by Freud. It is difficult to pinpoint a definite location for a universal "monster within," and seems to depend on the demons an individual possesses. The Id is all about feeling good, so it seeks pleasure in the most base manner possible. The ego determines the reality of a pleasure goal, and formulates a way to achieve it. The superego includes the suppression of immoral goals, or goals that do not fit a given ideal, but also functions as a conscience(triggers remorse). These concepts are the closest outside source I have found thusfar that relates to the inner conflicts which characterize the monster within. Considering the ambiguity of who is the monster and who is the being, the combination of characters transitions throughout each one of those stages. However, remorse is extremely prominent in both beings, so the superego seems the most fitting. The superego seems to cause inner conflicts, whereas the id and ego would logically cause more external conflicts.
I am doing an author study of Jean Rhys, so I chose to read the gem After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie. Other than Wide Sargasso Sea, this novel is often regarded as Rhys’ best work. This isn’t entirely surprising to me, as her work is quite rich, well developed and enthralling. The novel I read is not lacking in any of those categories in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteI was immediately and completely struck by the imagery that Rhys was able to evoke with just a few carefully chosen words. This imagery was evenly distributed throughout the book, and never came across as bland, repetitive or simple. Although the sentence structure was seemingly rudimentary in some cases, Rhys requires you to look a bit deeper and puzzle out meaning and figure out why she chose the words that she ultimately did. While this may seem trivial and boring to some, if you enjoy a challenging yet rewarding and rich work, Jean Rhys’ After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, or any of her other novels, may be perfect for you.
I found myself to be very respectful, although that may sound strange, of Rhys’ ability to fully develop her characters in a fluid and complete manner. I found this to be quite true in both Wide Sargasso Sea and After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie. The characters had great depth, yet there was often more to discover through Rhys’ metaphors and allusions. Other authors often leave a lot of speculation for the reader regarding the characters they create, but this was not the case with Rhys, as she had a underlying message that was fulfilled through her character development.
This novel was strangely enthralling. It admittedly had no huge climax, no exciting action filled scenes, no dramatic break ups, as you might expect from the summary on the back of the book. But yet I was drawn to this book and read it in it’s entirety in two days. I credit Rhys’ ability to develop and depict as what kept me coming back for more and was generally happy with the choice I had to make in order to read this novel.
For my first choice, I read the novel Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire, a retelling of Snow White by the Grimm Brothers. Unlike the original fairy tale, Maguire tells the story in both third person and first person, and show perspective of both the “Snow White” and the “Evil Queen” of the novel. Although, it dominantly centers around the protagonist. Our protagonist is Lucrezia, the daughter of a spanish pope and the brother of a duke. And our “Snow white” is Bianca de Nevada, a pre-teen who is the daughter of a wealthy Italian farmer. The setting of this story is a farm, as well as the forest outside the farm in the early sixteenth century Tuscany. The relationship between Lucrezia and Bianca is quite different from the fairy tale. Bianca was suspicious and not very fond of Lucrezia from the moment they met, and Lucrezia was forced into being her momentary guardian while her father was away on a years long quest. In the fairy tale, Snow White loved her stepmother and never would have suspected that the Queen would ever want her dead.
ReplyDeleteIn the fairy tale, Snow White and the Queen somewhat compete for the Father’s attention for affection, and in some versions dare I say sexual affections. In the novel, they compete for Lucrezia’s Brother’s sexual attraction. Bianca does not want anything to do with the Duke, but Lucrezia has a reputation of being incestuous in the past and wants all the attention she could possibly get.
The dwarfs in the story fascinate me. Bianca finds a cave to take refuge in, unlike a little cottage in the middle of the woods. The dwarfs are more like sons on the earth, and when we first meet them, they appear to be stones and they eventually turn into little men as time goes by. And they have a missing eighth brother who had their magic mirror. The magic mirror as you would guess is under the ownership of Lucrezia at the current moment. I think the author decided to make the dwarfs stone men to represent protection for Bianca.
One of the biggest changes is the nonexistence of a Prince Charming. Instead, the huntsman who was meant to kill her under Lucrezia’s orders kissed her and had awoken her from her death-like sleep. I don’t believe the author thought the prince was necessary in the novel because she wasn’t a princess, and the prince only appears at the end and just automatically falls in love with just one look. I believe because the huntsman saved her before he would probably most likely be the only one would could save her again from Lucrezia’s schemes.
As I read the original story, I also watched a couple of adaptations of the story including the Disney movie, and even a Betty Boop cartoon. There were lot of differences between what you saw on the media compared to the fairy tale. Snow White dies many “deaths” in the story and in many adaptations, Snow White dies once before being brought to life with true love’s kiss. Which leads to the point that true love’s kiss did not save Snow White in the original story, but some how, the chunk of poison apple that got stuck in her throat popped out of her throat and she woke up.
From what I’ve observed, there has been a long line of adaptations and what happens in the story depends on what audience the author or director is targeting.
For my main text in my author study of Henry David Thoreau, I chose the infamous work Walden. It is a book based primarily on reflection of the time Thoreau spent living next to Walden Pond, a couple miles away from society, over the course of two years. The book is cut into different sections, including the most lengthy, Economy, and Soltitude, Sounds, Baker Farm, and Winter Animals, among various others. The sections contain Thoreau's personal insight into each topic and his experiences on a day to day basis at Walden Pond.
ReplyDeleteEconomy is the longest section at almost a quarter of the book. It delves into the necessity of living simply and frugally. Thoreau continuously warns of the dangers and poison of possessions, and advocates for living with as few material goods as possible. He discusses his experience living as close to nature as possible without sleeping under the stars - he lived in a simple, unadorned cabin a few miles from civilization.
Thoreau had strong viewpoints that are expressed repeatedly through his writing. I noted that he frequently preached of the right way to live, which was, of course, the way that he chose to live. He had a tendency to contradict himself, however. He would often state that he desired no one to live as he did, and instead preferred that individuals seek out their own paths. He also preached that it was important for all roles of society to be filled, though he frequently said everyone should live close to nature. These constant contradictions and steadfastly self-righteous manner of delivering information intended to improve others' lives caused endless frustration for me when I was reading the book. However, he eventually let up on his self-righteousness, especially when he was describing the natural scenes he encountered and the connections between nature and humankind.
The book was well-written, of course, but it was very dense and wordy. It was difficult to sit down and read, and required lots of smaller doses. It took me a while to find pleasure in reading it, but I eventually learned to take his writing with a grain of salt and then found more enjoyment in this definitive work of Thoreau's.
As a supplementary piece for background information, I read Life and Times of Henry David Thoreau by Elizabeth Witherell, with Elizabeth Dubrulle. It came from the University of California, Santa Barbara website. I found it to be extremely informative if somewhat dry. It gave the details of Thoreau's life, and made an attempt to delve into the connections between Thoreau's upbringing and early experiences and his ultimate convictions on how to live and the importance of nature. It discussed his ties to the early environmental movement and the abolition movement very briefly. It described in accurate detail his devotion to transcendentalism and his resolute opposition to materialism.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, the piece brought up many of Thoreau's works. It discussed key aspects of Walden, Civil Disobedience, and other reflective pieces and essays. The analyzations were somewhat static and less intuitive than I would have hoped.
Finally, the piece contained more direct quotes than I found necessary, which were less relevant without having read any of the works quoted. The passages used were too long too many to effectively serve to the benefit of the essay. Overall, however, I found the information to be accurate and relevant, and it benefitted me to read the text before reading Walden.
To increase my knowledge and exposure to the bildungsroman genre, I chose the book: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald as my first main piece. I found this book by simply looking up classic bildungsromans. Through some research, I realized that many considered this one of Fitzgerald's less impressive works. The novel was published in 1920, when Fitzgerald was in his early twenties and recovering from the infamous break up with Zelda.
ReplyDeleteThis Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine. It starts in his young childhood, continues through his years at a New England prep school, life at Princeton University, time served in World War 1, and ending in his mid-life. The story is a natural bildungsroman that ends with the quote, "I know myself, but that is all." Amory had eventually lost faith in the society that he had tried so hard to excel in. His whole life was structured and he spent endless hours focusing on him 'becoming' of someone.
Much like the other bildungsroman books we have read in class, the main character in This Side of Paradise is very interested in art and its affect on the world around him. I think that this novel will be very beneficial to the remainder of my research paper. I also enjoyed the reading and am glad I was exposed to such a classic piece of literature.
I chose background information from a few different sources. To start, I glanced over a Wikipedia sight of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was beneficial to obtain knowledge of his life and the times in which he lived. The 1920s were a time known for the Jazz Age and the literature and art that came with it. This lead into some reading about "The Lost Generation" and the writers that were considered part of it. I'm not sure quite yet, but I am interested in researching this further and possibly changing my research direction all together.
ReplyDeleteThe other source that I read was solely on the bildungsroman genre. It was the link off of the original Independent Reading and Research blog post (included by Mr. Cook). This source was a basic overview of the genre and the parameters of the works included within it. What I found interesting was the differences between these parameters and the "bildungsroman books" we have actually read. However, these differences are what have made these past books more interesting and complex.
I found it quite difficult to find a complete contextualizing source for Jean Rhys and her works. I came across an article in the LA times that was surprisingly helpful and gave me a great amount of insight into Jean Rhys’ life at the time she was writing novels.
ReplyDeleteThis source of contextualizing information was set up in a way that chronicled almost all of Jean Rhys’ writing career, beginning when she first broke into the tough and challenging author’s world. Rhys’ diary of sorts somehow fell into the hands of Ford Maddox Ford, who eventually took her under his wing in order to help her develop as a writer and put her talents to appropriate use. The source goes on to speak of all of Rhys’ majors works and the astounding effect they proved to have on the fiction writing culture.
This particular source focuses on the motives and substance behind Jean Rhys’ strange stories and her unique writing style. Rhys was often regarded as the town drunk, was once rumored to be dead, and wasn’t shy in starting confrontation. Although her works are regarded as fiction, due to her exceedingly interesting, exciting and unsettling experiences and encounters, the reader is given a glimpse into what Rhys endured in her lifetime. It’s clear that any sort of source that talks in detail about Rhys’ trials and tribulations during her life can do, at least, an adequate job of conveying where the foundation of these novels were built.
Although I’m sure that this source was not all encompassing, in that it did not cover Rhys’ early life and the life she lead after removing herself from the writing culture, I was pleasantly surprised to find how detailed and contextualizing this source ended up being. This source could most certainly act as a building block for higher investigation of Jean Rhys’ life.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/28/entertainment/ca-jean-rhys28
I choose to read Go Tell it on a mountain, by James Baldwin. John's family is poor and has many family issues. There is a scene takes place during breakfast on John's birthday. While John is complaining because he wants more food for his birthday, John's mother, Elizabeth, interrupts and explain how good his father is. His brother does not believe that his father is good because the family is poor, he beats his sons and they are hungry. This causes tensions throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteFor Supplemental texts, I read an article about my book, by Donald Barr a professor of English at Columbia University. Barr goes on to explain how it includes all but the most least joyful releases of human needs, Guilt. Characters like, Gabriel, Deborah, Elizabeth and the children are guilty. The guilt in this book wold be fixed by being born again, or baptism. The article also goes on to say that no matter what Baldwin will explain issues like guilt and religion. I also read a short biography that PBS made about James Baldwin. The biography shows how the character John is very similar to him. In fact, Go Tell It on the Mountain,was an autobiography about growing up where he lived in Harlem. Throughout the book he describes the passion with of the struggles of black Americans was unlike anything that had been written. One of the reason I pick books like this, is because the author likes to make the main character like him.
ReplyDeleteTo start off my postmodernism project I chose to read a book by a postmodernist author I had read before, Mark Z. Danielewski's “Only Revolutions”. The book is, to be blunt, really damn weird. Overall, it focuses two teenagers who fall in love, and in a way the book could be considered a love story, but the plot is of little consequence without the context of the book's unusual structure.
ReplyDeleteIt can be read from either cover, each telling the same story from the perspective of one of the main characters (Sam and Hailey, respectively). There are 360 pages total, each with 360 words on them. Each page contains 180 words of one character's story, and then opposite that and upside down is 180 words of the other character's story, travelling in the opposite direction (it is difficult to explain without showing someone the book). There are two page numbers on each page, one for each story. They move in opposite directions so page 1 on one story is also page 360 on another, and so on.
Accompanying that, the book is also written like free-verse poetry (with 36 lines a page), making it really hard to get into before you figure out how to decipher the language. Words are frequently misspelled, to draw attention and play up certain themes (such as “allone” which, when spelled so, can mean “all one”). Furthermore, each character's stories correspond page-by-page (so page 1 of one story is a similarly composed to page 1 of the other) and (usually) sentence-by-sentence, each mirroring the other in the themes with subtle changes in words and tone to make them distinct. If this is hard to understand when explained, that is because it is hard to understand when you are reading it.
I don't explain all of this just to reinforce my original assertion (that is, that this book is “really damn weird”) but also to support this: the book is as much about structure as story, perhaps more so. Danielewski is attempting to get the reader to think of the book as an object to be manipulated, turned, flipped, and felt as much as a word-delivery-system. This idea is increasingly relevant in an era where we can read online and get books on kindles. This book couldn't be comfortably reproduced electronically (which is was true for the other Danielewski book I read.) This is sort of metafictional thinking is common in postmodernist works, but is usually less explicit, making this a good starting point. Overall I liked the book, I just wish I'd finished, you know, before pumpkin time on Friday.
Now, I've technically read two things as a supplement to “Only Revolutions,” but the more official scholarly one is an introduction to postmodernism from Purdue University's College of Liberal Arts. It was extremely useful in contextualizing traits I found in not only “Only Revolutions,” but also other postmodernist books I've read, such as Danielewski's other book, “House of Leaves” or “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. The article puts forward 9 very common traits and focuses in postmodern art. Overall the information was helpful and was presented clearly and without resorting to obtuse language often found in scholarly sources.
ReplyDeleteThe second source I found mostly for my own sake. It was difficult to find analysis of “Only Revolutions” as Danielewski is not very well known, and I imagine a lot of people who would analyze his work are turned off by it's unusual structure. Eventually, I managed to find an online forum (from his own website, I think) that discussed his book exclusively. Just about everything there was six years old (which makes sense, since the book was published in 2005 or 2006). Though much of what was there was useless, and none of it was done in an official scholarly context, it was extremely helpful in developing my own interpretation of the novel.
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ReplyDeleteFor my project, I decided to read the book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. The main concept of the novel is of Tom Wolfe following Ken Kesey (the author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest")and his crew, the Merry Pranksters. The book shows how many different associations a person can carry. Kesey is called everything from a acid-head, hippie to a criminal running away from the CIA. The book allows us to feel as though we are involved with the movement, as if a time machine brought us to the early 60s. I loved the book, it allowed me to feel what each and every person was feeling at that time. “But it suddenly hits me that for the Pranksters this is permanent. This is the way they live. Men, women, boys, girls, most from the middle-class upbringings, men and women and boys and girls and babies, this is the way they have lived for months, for years, some of them, across America and back, on the bus, down to the Rat lands of Mexico and back, sailing like gypsies along the Servicenter fringes, copping urinations, fencing with rotten looks.” (Wolfe, 17) I absolutely love this quote, it perfectly defines how these people lived at the time, flowing and peacefully. My main thesis was to be about whether the people shaped the movement or the movement shaped the people. This book makes me feel as if it is a split answer. Some created the movement, whereas others just followed being shaped by the movement.
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For supplementary text, I browsed over numerous of pages, starting with Wikipedia. Almost every page I read stated that the book was not only the best book about the hippies but an essential book to read. The texts also stated that if a person wanted to learn about the sixties that this book was "the" book to read. The New York Times stated: “‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ is an astonishing book. It is to the hippie movement what Norman Mailer's "The Armies of the Night" was to the Vietnam protest movement…Wolfe is precisely the right author to chronicle the transformation of Ken Kesey from respected author of "And One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" to an LSD enthusiast, to the messianic leader of a mystical band of Merry Pranksters, to a fugitive from the F.B.I., California police and Mexican Federales.”(nytimes.com) Each page I read basically said the same thing; the book is fantastic and the best of the time. So I definitely recommend reading this book!
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