Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tale of Two Cities: First impressions
The main concept taken from today's lecture for me at least being the emphasis on Dickens authenticity, this quality in his writing was blatantly evident in his opening to Tale of Two Cities as he spits out an exposition like it was homework. Being the voice of the people in his writing, Dickens depicted the England and France of his story as he saw it in his own life, two nations filled with violence and paranoia over crime, the paranormal, and their rebellious cousins across the Atlantic. Immediately beginning with a highway robbery scare, Dickens shows just how real the problem of crime was during his time.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
From Pent-Up Aching Rivers - Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.
18. From Pent-up Aching Rivers
FROM pent-up, aching rivers;
From that of myself, without which I were nothing;
From what I am determin’d to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men;
From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus,
Singing the song of procreation, 5
Singing the need of superb children, and therein superb grown people,
Singing the muscular urge and the blending,
Singing the bedfellow’s song, (O resistless yearning!
O for any and each, the body correlative attracting!
O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body! O it, more than all else, you delighting!) 10
—From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day;
From native moments—from bashful pains—singing them;
Singing something yet unfound, though I have diligently sought it, many a long year;
Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random;
Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeem’d her, the faithful one, even the prostitute, who detain’d me when I went to the city; 15
Singing the song of prostitutes;
Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals;
Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my poems informing;
Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing of birds,
Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves, 20
Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them chanting;
The overture lightly sounding—the strain anticipating;
The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect body;
The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or motionless on his back lying and floating;
The female form approaching—I, pensive, love-flesh tremulous, aching; 25
The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one, making;
The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot, and what it arouses;
The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter abandonment;
(Hark close, and still, what I now whisper to you,
I love you—-O you entirely possess me, 30
O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go utterly off—O free and lawless,
Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in the sea not more lawless than we;)
—The furious storm through me careering—I passionately trembling;
The oath of the inseparableness of two together—of the woman that loves me, and whom I love more than my life—that oath swearing;
(O I willingly stake all, for you! 35
O let me be lost, if it must be so!
O you and I—what is it to us what the rest do or think?
What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other, and exhaust each other, if it must be so:)
—From the master—the pilot I yield the vessel to;
The general commanding me, commanding all—from him permission taking; 40
From time the programme hastening, (I have loiter’d too long, as it is;)
From sex—From the warp and from the woof;
(To talk to the perfect girl who understands me,
To waft to her these from my own lips—to effuse them from my own body;)
From privacy—from frequent repinings alone; 45
From plenty of persons near, and yet the right person not near;
From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting of fingers through my hair and beard;
From the long sustain’d kiss upon the mouth or bosom;
From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk, fainting with excess;
From what the divine husband knows—from the work of fatherhood; 50
From exultation, victory, and relief—from the bedfellow’s embrace in the night;
From the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips, and bosoms,
From the cling of the trembling arm,
From the bending curve and the clinch,
From side by side, the pliant coverlid off-throwing, 55
From the one so unwilling to have me leave—and me just as unwilling to leave,
(Yet a moment, O tender waiter, and I return;)
—From the hour of shining stars and dropping dews,
From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out,
Celebrate you, act divine—and you, children prepared for, 60
And you, stalwart loins.
18. From Pent-up Aching Rivers
FROM pent-up, aching rivers;
From that of myself, without which I were nothing;
From what I am determin’d to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men;
From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus,
Singing the song of procreation, 5
Singing the need of superb children, and therein superb grown people,
Singing the muscular urge and the blending,
Singing the bedfellow’s song, (O resistless yearning!
O for any and each, the body correlative attracting!
O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body! O it, more than all else, you delighting!) 10
—From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day;
From native moments—from bashful pains—singing them;
Singing something yet unfound, though I have diligently sought it, many a long year;
Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random;
Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeem’d her, the faithful one, even the prostitute, who detain’d me when I went to the city; 15
Singing the song of prostitutes;
Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals;
Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my poems informing;
Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing of birds,
Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves, 20
Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them chanting;
The overture lightly sounding—the strain anticipating;
The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect body;
The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or motionless on his back lying and floating;
The female form approaching—I, pensive, love-flesh tremulous, aching; 25
The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one, making;
The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot, and what it arouses;
The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter abandonment;
(Hark close, and still, what I now whisper to you,
I love you—-O you entirely possess me, 30
O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go utterly off—O free and lawless,
Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in the sea not more lawless than we;)
—The furious storm through me careering—I passionately trembling;
The oath of the inseparableness of two together—of the woman that loves me, and whom I love more than my life—that oath swearing;
(O I willingly stake all, for you! 35
O let me be lost, if it must be so!
O you and I—what is it to us what the rest do or think?
What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other, and exhaust each other, if it must be so:)
—From the master—the pilot I yield the vessel to;
The general commanding me, commanding all—from him permission taking; 40
From time the programme hastening, (I have loiter’d too long, as it is;)
From sex—From the warp and from the woof;
(To talk to the perfect girl who understands me,
To waft to her these from my own lips—to effuse them from my own body;)
From privacy—from frequent repinings alone; 45
From plenty of persons near, and yet the right person not near;
From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting of fingers through my hair and beard;
From the long sustain’d kiss upon the mouth or bosom;
From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk, fainting with excess;
From what the divine husband knows—from the work of fatherhood; 50
From exultation, victory, and relief—from the bedfellow’s embrace in the night;
From the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips, and bosoms,
From the cling of the trembling arm,
From the bending curve and the clinch,
From side by side, the pliant coverlid off-throwing, 55
From the one so unwilling to have me leave—and me just as unwilling to leave,
(Yet a moment, O tender waiter, and I return;)
—From the hour of shining stars and dropping dews,
From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out,
Celebrate you, act divine—and you, children prepared for, 60
And you, stalwart loins.
Monday, January 16, 2012
AP English essay response
Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest manages to create a character with such appeal, that the audience is able to overlook his negative features that society at least in the novel would deem condemnable or amoral. A hero even Randle P. McMurphy is portrayed as by the eyes of not only the patients of ward but the reader as well. Kesey is able to suspend our judgments on what would normally be seen as negative character traits by implementing universal values that not only rang true during the time of Cukoos publishing, but also today for any reader. Through the power of fiction, Kesey is able to weave together a story where a lazy, drinking gambler can be put at odds with a tyrannical Nurse to make McMurphy look like the favorable.
McMurphy certainly has his contemptible traits. He drinks heavily, associates with prostitutes, gambles regularly, and the reason he was in the ward to begin with was to get out of work. All these, which from a Western Judeo-Christian societal standpoint ( or most cultures really) could be looked at with disdain. Kesey , however through circumstance thrusts the established sinner into the role of leader of men against the authoritative reign of the head nurse. Audience and characters alike are to suspend their view of McMurphy as an unruly social outcast to look upon him with the more relevant view of freedom fighter. The fact that he takes a stance against the tyranny of the head nurse (and of course the incredible charisma of gambling conmen) creates such appeal in him that he wins over the allegiance of both the patients and the reader. The struggle between oppressed and oppressor is so universally appealing that McMurphy became not only a beloved character of fiction in the 60’s when the novel was published in the midst of a growing counter-culture movement, but remains to be today.
The fact that the point of view is of McMurphy or at least heavily focused on McMurphy is a device used in literature to create some sort of investment of trust by the reader into believing that there is some sound reason for our protagonist to be in fact worthy of the role. Point of view can play heavily in the manipulating of a readers view on a particular character whether that be the belief of a drunk conman being a noble hero or a nurse attempting to keep control of a psych ward being a dictator. Kesey is not alone in wielding the power of point of view, point of view is how readers are able to read through a whole story believing a whiny brat like Mr. Holden Caulfield wasn’t just a whiny brat.
Literature has a way of making the most seemingly unworthy figures into beloved protagonists with hearts of gold; however that’s just the reason, its literature. In fiction an author has countless tools in his disposal to create a story where the one who logically just simply shouldn’t be a protagonist into a hero. It’s almost the irony of it which makes these characters so appealing. Kesey through the circumstance created by him was able make the amoral yet lovable (also contrived for reader appeal) McMurphy into the hero of a classic tale of struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor.
McMurphy certainly has his contemptible traits. He drinks heavily, associates with prostitutes, gambles regularly, and the reason he was in the ward to begin with was to get out of work. All these, which from a Western Judeo-Christian societal standpoint ( or most cultures really) could be looked at with disdain. Kesey , however through circumstance thrusts the established sinner into the role of leader of men against the authoritative reign of the head nurse. Audience and characters alike are to suspend their view of McMurphy as an unruly social outcast to look upon him with the more relevant view of freedom fighter. The fact that he takes a stance against the tyranny of the head nurse (and of course the incredible charisma of gambling conmen) creates such appeal in him that he wins over the allegiance of both the patients and the reader. The struggle between oppressed and oppressor is so universally appealing that McMurphy became not only a beloved character of fiction in the 60’s when the novel was published in the midst of a growing counter-culture movement, but remains to be today.
The fact that the point of view is of McMurphy or at least heavily focused on McMurphy is a device used in literature to create some sort of investment of trust by the reader into believing that there is some sound reason for our protagonist to be in fact worthy of the role. Point of view can play heavily in the manipulating of a readers view on a particular character whether that be the belief of a drunk conman being a noble hero or a nurse attempting to keep control of a psych ward being a dictator. Kesey is not alone in wielding the power of point of view, point of view is how readers are able to read through a whole story believing a whiny brat like Mr. Holden Caulfield wasn’t just a whiny brat.
Literature has a way of making the most seemingly unworthy figures into beloved protagonists with hearts of gold; however that’s just the reason, its literature. In fiction an author has countless tools in his disposal to create a story where the one who logically just simply shouldn’t be a protagonist into a hero. It’s almost the irony of it which makes these characters so appealing. Kesey through the circumstance created by him was able make the amoral yet lovable (also contrived for reader appeal) McMurphy into the hero of a classic tale of struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is use of language as a mode of persuasion. Rhetoricians can often be described as "silver tongued devils" "Slick talking" and "lobbyists".. Some are so masterful in the art of Rhetoric that they can use language in such an influential way that they can convince entire masses that all there problems could be held responsible by a particular race of beings...
What makes music "classic"?
We have a definition for what classical music is, but what makes music "classic" in the sense that it stands the test of time and resonates in people for generations?
Thinking Outside the Box
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses the cave itself as a description as the limitation to our thinking and that it takes the journey to the surface (metaphor for education) to be able to reach enlightenment. The men shackled to the cave are the mentally narrow minded while their ability to only see the shadows before them symbolizes their inability to comprehend the ideas behind what's in front of them.
Sartre's own vision of Hell in of itself is a challenge to the way we think. His rather personal Hell was meant to challenge traditional views of Hell, presenting a radically different view of something we all thought we knew. Besides setting alone, while Plato uses an allegory to create a metaphorical vision of his concept, Sartre shows the limitations to thinking through the interactions of the three "damned", the three being unable to cope with each other if only because of the fact they serve as punishments to each other. The three's inability to stand each other could be seen as reflecting man's inability to cope with thinking outside of his own.
Sartre's own vision of Hell in of itself is a challenge to the way we think. His rather personal Hell was meant to challenge traditional views of Hell, presenting a radically different view of something we all thought we knew. Besides setting alone, while Plato uses an allegory to create a metaphorical vision of his concept, Sartre shows the limitations to thinking through the interactions of the three "damned", the three being unable to cope with each other if only because of the fact they serve as punishments to each other. The three's inability to stand each other could be seen as reflecting man's inability to cope with thinking outside of his own.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Literary Analysis 3: One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest
1. One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is the tale of the struggle between the free spirit Randal McMurphy and the authoritarian Big Nurse, told from the perspective of one of the acquitted, the Chief. McMurphy finds himself immediate at odds against the Big Nurse as his mere presence in the ward promotes change and incites reckless behavior in the ward attendees. In other words, he creates discourse in the Big Nurses otherwise smooth, carefully orchestrated production of a ward. He is ultimately what could be considered by some to be martyred in the attempts to liberate his friends from the firm grasp of the Big Nurse and in the end his friends are indeed capable of sticking up for themselves and what they think is right through the inspiration of their fearless leader's civil and at times not so civil disobedience.
2. It's too facile to place a theme of good vs evil on Kesey's work, as the struggle between McMurphy and the Big Nurse can be uses the symbolize a multitude of things: man vs woman (Kesey's writing does seem to reflect machismo, sometimes even chauvinistic behavior), the oppression of an easily manipulated masses. The struggle between an authoritative figure and the resistor has almost endless applications symbolically.
3. Kesey uses the Chief to almost be a metaphoric measurement of the effect of McMurphy's presence in the ward. Accordingly, as the novel progresses the tone of which the narrator speaks grows from solemn and almost hopeless, to ever increasingly more confident, defiant and noticeable cheerful.
"While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy."
4. Kesey makes use of several motifs in Cukoo's Nest, one in particular being the fog in which the Chief often would hide in. The fog itself, which I believe never actually existed, it was only referenced to by the Chief alone and I believe to be a side effect of the fact that he is mentally "not all there", is a symbol for the control held by the Big Nurse and the Combine (also fairly certain didnt exist). The fog which in the beginning was a regular presence was something that rendered him utterly helpless, however through the persistent presence of McMurphy, the fog ceased to appear.
As I alluded to earlier, I personally theorize that Kesey uses the Chief as a way of showing the audience the effect of McMurphy in the ward. Nothing exhibits this more clearly than when McMurphy restores the Chief to his former strength and "bigness".
Kesey also makes use of foreshadowing in that the many reference to lobotomy in the beginning of the story foreshadowed the ultimate fate of McMurphy.
2. It's too facile to place a theme of good vs evil on Kesey's work, as the struggle between McMurphy and the Big Nurse can be uses the symbolize a multitude of things: man vs woman (Kesey's writing does seem to reflect machismo, sometimes even chauvinistic behavior), the oppression of an easily manipulated masses. The struggle between an authoritative figure and the resistor has almost endless applications symbolically.
3. Kesey uses the Chief to almost be a metaphoric measurement of the effect of McMurphy's presence in the ward. Accordingly, as the novel progresses the tone of which the narrator speaks grows from solemn and almost hopeless, to ever increasingly more confident, defiant and noticeable cheerful.
"While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy."
4. Kesey makes use of several motifs in Cukoo's Nest, one in particular being the fog in which the Chief often would hide in. The fog itself, which I believe never actually existed, it was only referenced to by the Chief alone and I believe to be a side effect of the fact that he is mentally "not all there", is a symbol for the control held by the Big Nurse and the Combine (also fairly certain didnt exist). The fog which in the beginning was a regular presence was something that rendered him utterly helpless, however through the persistent presence of McMurphy, the fog ceased to appear.
As I alluded to earlier, I personally theorize that Kesey uses the Chief as a way of showing the audience the effect of McMurphy in the ward. Nothing exhibits this more clearly than when McMurphy restores the Chief to his former strength and "bigness".
Kesey also makes use of foreshadowing in that the many reference to lobotomy in the beginning of the story foreshadowed the ultimate fate of McMurphy.
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