Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Pondering a possible thesis or two...

Hmmm. What do I want my term paper to be on? I can't really think of just one thing because, as is inevitable, that topic leads into another and another. Intertexuality at work my friends. In fact, maybe I'll look at Intertextuality. Northrop Frye talks about it in his "Educated Imagination" and I feel like I notice it everywhere I look. Just today in fact, I was reading a book called Reading Lolita in Tehran and the author, Azar Nafisi, started talking about fiction in real life, Shaherezad, and fairy-tales. I was excited. Interestingly, I think that intertextuality and weaving can be easily pieced together because of the care and forthought that go into both to make good things. One cannot just throw in an allusion to Philomela without a carefully reasoned and ingenious connection behind it, just as in weaving one must always know the next move to get the desired end product. Also the relationship between signature and archetype is lost without the connections between and the evolution of texts. I don't know how a good thesis will come out of all of this...oh, well.

I also was thinking about some of my ponderings on Catcher in the Rye. I had been questioning Holden's last few statements regarding the act of telling and the subsequent act of missing someone. Does that mean that the one missed is forgotten? or just that once a story has been told, a representation made of that person in story, that the real memory can never be rekindled. I don't know how I'd argue that because I'm not sure what I'd use for evidence for or against...plus, I'm not sure of my own stance.

I was also quite intrigued by the concept of nostalgia and "home" within The Wind in the Willows. Grahame's language itself makes me feel nostalgic even though I've never been to the places that he is describing. I want to go there. Maybe desire is key here too.


Those are just some initial thoughts...I'll try to get a good thesis out by the 30th.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Exam Feedback

The exam on Thursday went well I thought. We formulated some good questions and I thought that the test we were given in class accurately reflected what we talked about in our prep day. I am eager to see the results on Tuesday and to hear the rest of the class' memorizations.

We're getting close to the presentation deadline...I'm excited about it but the pressure of having to entertain the class is huge for me. I'm not a naturally hilarious person so I'm relying on the more comically gifted members of "Cinderella" to guide us in that department.

Anyhow, we're getting down to the wire for the semester. It's gone so fast. :O)

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Catcher in the Rye

I had never read Catcher in the Rye before this class. I knew that it was not a favorite of most people, but that my mom loved it. Mixed reviews are always confusing so I wasn't sure what to expect. I, however, loved it!

On the first day that we discussed the book I was only on page 25 so I wasn't quite ready to talk about anything yet. It was, however, interesting to hear people's interpretations of Holden and then keep those in mind as I read the rest of the novel.

On our first day of discussion for Catcher, people used these words to characterize Holden: angry, depressed, confused, angst ridden, misdirected, smart, fabricator. Yet as I was reading, the character I saw was more sympathetic than that. He is certainly confused and he does make things up, but I think that he is genuinely sympathetic and kind. The scene with the nuns stands out to me most. He gives them his money because he knows that they will put it to better use than he will, and, as he says after the nuns depart, he really enjoyed talking to them. He has a good heart. He cares what others think of him. If he were just out to be a jerk I don't think that the character would be as interesting. Also, he's quite a lot more sensitive to women than the other men in the novel. He explains that he stops when a girl asks him too while most guys continue on. He has a conscious that most others don't and he's really honest with himself. I like him.

In the section where he looks for his sister at the Museum I thought it was interesting that he went into so much detail about his experiences there in the past. I think that his love of the Museum stemmed from the fact that nothing changed there. Salinger writes, "The best thing...in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish...the only thing that would be different would be you." I think that Holden has had to deal with a lot of changes in his life and that he would have maybe preferred more stability. It's difficult enough to be an adolescent but to be that age and having to move away from your home and shipped from school to school is even worse. His parents don't seem to be the most concerned people on the planet either. Why do they insist on prep school? Why not keep him in NYC?

Holden ponders religion a lot and I love his discussion of forgiveness on page 100. It's just after he's talked with the prostitute and I think he's feeling weird. He knew that having sex with her would have been a bad choice but I think he still feels guilty about it. He explains that Jesus would never have sent Judas to Hell and although it isn't directly said, I think that he is thinking about how he can forgive himself and how he hopes that his family will forgive him for his occasional screw-ups. His sensitivity makes me really feel for him. He wants to be a good guy and I think that he genuinely is. I wonder what happens between the time at the zoo and his committal to the mental institution. Also, the scene with Mr. Antolini is weird. Did that happen? Was it a hallucination or just him misconstruing a kind gesture as a sexual advance?

Those last two pages are so sad. He's so lonely. I think that his last lines are interesting. He says, "I sort of miss everybody I told about...Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." It seems that to him, the act of telling, putting the experience and the person into language, takes something away from the teller. I'm not quite sure what to make of it all. Maybe just that telling is always an acto of remembering and therefore it is always removed from the original place and people. The recollection makes one's distance from it all that more hard to bear. That's how I used to feel about missing Alaska in my first year here. When I wasn't thinking about it, I didn't miss it. But when I told stories or looked at pictures, I was sad. Hmmm...

Finnegan's Wake Memorization

I picked my piece to moemorize a long time ago, but I had not sarted to memorize it by our last class period. Here's what I'm doing though, it's on page 418:

The thing pleased him andt, and andt,
He larved ond he larved on he merd such a nauses
The Gracehoper fered he would mixplace his fauces.
I forgive you, grondt Ondt, said the Gracehoper, weeping,
For the sukes of the sakes you are safe in whose keeping.
Teach Floh and Luse polkas, show Bienie where's sweet
And be sure Vespatilla fines fat ones to heat.
As I once played the piper I must now pay the count
So saida to Moyhammlet and marhaba to your Mount!
Let who likes Lump above so what flies be full 'un;
I could not feel moregruggy if this was prompollen.
I pick up your reproof, the horsegift of a friend,
For the prize of your save is the price of my spend.
Can castwhores pulladeftkiss if old pollocks forsake 'em
Or Culex feel etchy if Pulex don't wake him?
A locus to loue, a term it t'embarass,
These twain are the twins that tick Homo Vulgaris.
Has Aquileone nort winged to go syf
Since the Gwyfyn we were in his farrest drewbryf
And that Accident Man not beseeked where his story ends
Since longsephyring sighs sought heartseast for their orience?
We are Wastenot with Want, precondemed, two and true,
Till Nolans go volants adn Bruneyes come blue.
Ere those gidflirts now gadding you quit your mocks from my gropes
An extense must impull, an elapse must elopes,
Of my tectucs takestock, tinktact, and ail's weal;
As I view by your farlook hale yourself to my heal.
Partiprise my thinwhims whils my blink points unbroken on
Your whole's whercabroads with Tout's trightyright token on.
My in risibke universe youdly haud find
Sulch oxtrabeeforeness meat soveal behind.
Your feats and enormous, your volumes immense,
(May the Graces I hoped for sing your Ondtship song sense!),
Your genius its worldwide, your spacest sublime!
But, Holy Samltmartin, hwy can't you beat time?

In the name of the former and of the latter and of their holocaust. Allmen.

I don't know if I'm doing all of it, only the first half, or only the second half.... For some reason the second half seems to be sticking better. It's way over ten lines though so we'll see what I do. :O)

Monday, November 08, 2004

Goody Two Shoes Rocks!

I just thought I'd comment briefly on our discussion of Little Goody Two Shoes" from last week's classes with Dr. L Sexson.

I'm glad that I now know the story behind the name because the story and the connotations of "Good Two Shoes" are quite different. She was actually perceived as a subversive character while her name really, for us, means a little teacher's pet type of kid. But her name screams sugar... "Margery Meanwell". Oh goodness. I loved the connections that Dr. L Sexson drew with Nature, child, and book because they were the same that she drew on Tuesday with the Bible. I love connections. It's interesting though that Margery's involvement with children, her compassion to animals, and her teaching of reading would constitute her as a witch. That seems unfounded and drastic. But as Dr. Sexson suggested, independence in women was always viewed with fear and suspicion.

I love the idea of the considering cap. I really think that we should get those and make the candidates use them in elections. She's brilliant.

Then ending was good, too. I had totally forgotten about the brother until the wedding and I was quite excited to see them reunited and her childhood and memories restored to her. If she had just gotten married, I don't think she would have retained the same level of kinship with children. Her brother keeps from getting too far away from her inner child.