Alas, it is time to say goodbye!
I can see why literary criticism is a required course, as it gave me a gold mine of knowledge to take with me.
I really wished that time would have passed more slowly, because I always thought "oh, I can add that later to my blog.. what a great idea... I'll get to it later..."
I want to thank all of my classmates for sharing their thoughts and helping to make this class more exciting. Thanks for an inspiring semester!!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Notes for the final part 2
New criticism: Also called Formalism
Values technique, text above all else
Deconstruction: Affirms and deviates from New Criticism
Values Unity, like Donne's sonnet, The Flea but most especially Cleanth Brooks' The Well Wrought Urn
Coleridge's idea of satisfaction of parts
Frye fits here, as everything is partly rhetorical and hence literary.
Feminism: Reductive or expansive. Either examines the treatment of women to discard text or examines the systems of oppression at work to determine women's treatment ala bell hooks.
Reader response: Loves personal associations
Frost's Snowy Evening is both about Santa and about death
Cannot make a poem's meaning whatever you want, that's chaos
Psychoanalysis: Don't make fun of Freud too much, as he's given us a great deal of our modern vocabulary.
Tries to find the hidden truths, like looking through a glass darkly
Marxism: Dominant culture determines social truths
Also looks for hidden truths, especially class struggle
Fight Club is an example of each of the excellent pairs of glasses to use to examine a text/film.
Complaint v. criticism
Glenn Gould and Edith Grossman
Don Antonio's truth> The Enchanted Head
Don Quixote of the Stains, deconstruction of the name
Cave added years to life, periods of time dealt with in lit
Knight of the White Moon, Mirror> Knight of the Wood the bachelor Corasco
Of all literary critics, Frye puts on the most pairs of glasses
Values technique, text above all else
Deconstruction: Affirms and deviates from New Criticism
Values Unity, like Donne's sonnet, The Flea but most especially Cleanth Brooks' The Well Wrought Urn
Coleridge's idea of satisfaction of parts
Frye fits here, as everything is partly rhetorical and hence literary.
Feminism: Reductive or expansive. Either examines the treatment of women to discard text or examines the systems of oppression at work to determine women's treatment ala bell hooks.
Reader response: Loves personal associations
Frost's Snowy Evening is both about Santa and about death
Cannot make a poem's meaning whatever you want, that's chaos
Psychoanalysis: Don't make fun of Freud too much, as he's given us a great deal of our modern vocabulary.
Tries to find the hidden truths, like looking through a glass darkly
Marxism: Dominant culture determines social truths
Also looks for hidden truths, especially class struggle
Fight Club is an example of each of the excellent pairs of glasses to use to examine a text/film.
Complaint v. criticism
Glenn Gould and Edith Grossman
Don Antonio's truth> The Enchanted Head
Don Quixote of the Stains, deconstruction of the name
Cave added years to life, periods of time dealt with in lit
Knight of the White Moon, Mirror> Knight of the Wood the bachelor Corasco
Of all literary critics, Frye puts on the most pairs of glasses
Monday, December 8, 2008
Notes for the final part 1
New Criticism:
Came about because poetic interpretations were straying away from actual close readings of texts. I.A. Richards had a centerfold of poems which he had his students explicate-they didn't actually read the poems!
Focus in on the text only
Deconstruction:
There is no outside the text!
Stay inside the text. Everything is a text, that's making room for intertextuality or how texts speak to each other.
Feminism:
Don't discount DQ because there aren't strong females, but instead realize how different readings of the book can come about.
Reader response:
There are no "wrong" readings of a text. Personal associations are encouraged, as everything is relevant. Stanley Fish had his students explicate the "medieval religious poem" to great success, though it was really leftover notes from another course.
Most of these criticisms came about as reactions to New Criticism's exclusivity, which are like different sets of hats or glasses for critics to wear.
Anything labeled "random" or "chaotic" are simply forms of order we don't understand yet.
Came about because poetic interpretations were straying away from actual close readings of texts. I.A. Richards had a centerfold of poems which he had his students explicate-they didn't actually read the poems!
Focus in on the text only
Deconstruction:
There is no outside the text!
Stay inside the text. Everything is a text, that's making room for intertextuality or how texts speak to each other.
Feminism:
Don't discount DQ because there aren't strong females, but instead realize how different readings of the book can come about.
Reader response:
There are no "wrong" readings of a text. Personal associations are encouraged, as everything is relevant. Stanley Fish had his students explicate the "medieval religious poem" to great success, though it was really leftover notes from another course.
Most of these criticisms came about as reactions to New Criticism's exclusivity, which are like different sets of hats or glasses for critics to wear.
Anything labeled "random" or "chaotic" are simply forms of order we don't understand yet.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Presentations
I am really glad that I haven't been absent for any of the individual or group presentations so far. I really enjoyed Gabryelle's and Rosanna's original writings for them, as well as most everybody's personal touches. I feel like mine seemed a bit inadequate after everyone had finished, but also that I made my paper my own.
I do feel, too, that the beginning of the group presentations makes my own group's idea feel a little lessened, as we too have a game show theme. It made me ponder the past few days how much game shows and Saturday Night Live are very didactic, even as they seem somewhat derivative or shallow. Hm.
I do feel, too, that the beginning of the group presentations makes my own group's idea feel a little lessened, as we too have a game show theme. It made me ponder the past few days how much game shows and Saturday Night Live are very didactic, even as they seem somewhat derivative or shallow. Hm.
Monday, November 24, 2008
My Apology for Poetry
Jessica Pocha
Dr. Sexson
English 300
24 November 2008
My Apology for Being an English Major
"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" was a wise question, which I think drives me as an English major. My mind is formed and reformed by the words of others, and I think it is entirely a good game plan to learn from geniuses foremost in respect to what I've seen and will see in order to know what to think and say. Poets, the madmen and liars of the literary world according to Plato, may seem like the worst lot to trust. Poets, however, have much to say to those who choose to see, so they may actually end up being the ones to go to in order to gain knowledge and wisdom. I suppose it would be wise to move in somewhat linear fashion, for if nothing else, it will help to not slide or digress into chaos and turn my paper into purely chaos language.
According to Aristotle, imitation is an instinct of our nature. Even for this paper, I am forced into the mode of mimesis, so that I might pass this course in literature. English majors learn how to write by imitating those who have come before them, such that emulating their favorite authors becomes a way in which to learn how to learn. It becomes acceptable, and somewhat of a necessity, to imitate the style, voice or turn of phrase of a particularly "good" poet. What's "good" is completely a value judgment in the eyes of each literature student, with each successive choice being a reflection of each individual's set of personal favorites. I tend to love Chaucer, Milton, the Romantics like Blake and Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley, and also some poets from the time of the Renaissance, like Shakespeare, Marlowe and Donne. I do also like the postmoderns, with my taste ranging from Ginsberg, Craig Raine, Adrienne Rich to Eliot and Pound. All of these poetry tastes tend to mean that my mimetic style ranges from very loquacious to very succinct.
M. H. Abram's idea of the universe, audience, world and artist informs how I think about everything. I think of my style of thought as procedural, incorporating what the artist may have intended, audience reaction, participation and appreciation, the time period and impact of each work and how each element interacts with another and also gauging an importance of each aspect. For example, it's hard not to laugh when I read the New Frontier series by Peter David. He's a fan of the original Star Trek and The Next Generation, which causes him to include seeming endless references to both series (it is a spinoff Star Trek book series), and to make jokes at the characters' expense. He knowingly plays into the fact that pretty much all of his readers are Trekkies and writes for our enjoyment and edification. By knowing the characters, back story, ST plot conventions and something of authorial intent, a reader gains much enjoyment from reading in this fashion. This kind of procedural reading is like watching The Matrix and being able to know and appreciate that it as a retelling of the allegory of the cave.
Shelley's notion that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world really strikes me. Can I ever think of banned books without thinking about Fahrenheit 451? Or critiques of 9/11 without Fahrenheit 911? Can you ever extricate Shakespeare from English drama? Can Machiavelli be separated from notions about political rule? Can you think about dreaming and nostalgia without thinking of Don Quixote de la Mancha? I think the answers to all are No, because poets have everything to do with how people perceive the world. There are so many notions that seep into the consciousness, that after a certain point, certain comparisons and opinions are inevitable. The best example is that Shakespeare will always be the one and only major master of Elizabethan drama, or God as I call him as an English major. Hardly a class goes by that at least one of my professors reference one of his works, even beyond the single one focusing on 17th century drama. (He's even in Bloom's introduction to Don Quixote!) I don't think that his reputation will diminish, as his words have captured certain truths which are true for the human condition and therefore, for all time.
According to Arnold in his Study of Poetry, his "one great contributory stream to the world-river of poetry", the criticism of poetry is criticism of life. We find that the classic poets have much to say about how we live, but also what to take away from poetry, for "[i]f he is a dubious classic, let us sift him; if he is a false classic, let us explode him." My favorite touchstone lines of John Donne, "Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears / Men reckon what it did, and meant / But trepidation of the spheres / Though greater far, is innocent" are such, as I think they sum up how I think about poetry. The earth can move and inspire fear, and we can ponder what it all means, but the earth itself won't say anything. Poets must. We must reckon what anything did and meant, because people are natural critics. Criticism is the mode by which everyone functions. We need poetry to define and shape our observations of the world and without which, all is lost. I am an English major because I am compelled to reckon what I've done and meant.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poettran.htm
Arnold, Matthew. The Study of Poetry. http://www.bartleby.com/28/5.html.
David, Peter. Star Trek: New Frontier series. Pocket Books.
Donne, John. A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning. http://www.eliteskills.com/c/4546
Shelley, Percy. A Defence of Poetry. http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html
Dr. Sexson
English 300
24 November 2008
My Apology for Being an English Major
"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" was a wise question, which I think drives me as an English major. My mind is formed and reformed by the words of others, and I think it is entirely a good game plan to learn from geniuses foremost in respect to what I've seen and will see in order to know what to think and say. Poets, the madmen and liars of the literary world according to Plato, may seem like the worst lot to trust. Poets, however, have much to say to those who choose to see, so they may actually end up being the ones to go to in order to gain knowledge and wisdom. I suppose it would be wise to move in somewhat linear fashion, for if nothing else, it will help to not slide or digress into chaos and turn my paper into purely chaos language.
According to Aristotle, imitation is an instinct of our nature. Even for this paper, I am forced into the mode of mimesis, so that I might pass this course in literature. English majors learn how to write by imitating those who have come before them, such that emulating their favorite authors becomes a way in which to learn how to learn. It becomes acceptable, and somewhat of a necessity, to imitate the style, voice or turn of phrase of a particularly "good" poet. What's "good" is completely a value judgment in the eyes of each literature student, with each successive choice being a reflection of each individual's set of personal favorites. I tend to love Chaucer, Milton, the Romantics like Blake and Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley, and also some poets from the time of the Renaissance, like Shakespeare, Marlowe and Donne. I do also like the postmoderns, with my taste ranging from Ginsberg, Craig Raine, Adrienne Rich to Eliot and Pound. All of these poetry tastes tend to mean that my mimetic style ranges from very loquacious to very succinct.
M. H. Abram's idea of the universe, audience, world and artist informs how I think about everything. I think of my style of thought as procedural, incorporating what the artist may have intended, audience reaction, participation and appreciation, the time period and impact of each work and how each element interacts with another and also gauging an importance of each aspect. For example, it's hard not to laugh when I read the New Frontier series by Peter David. He's a fan of the original Star Trek and The Next Generation, which causes him to include seeming endless references to both series (it is a spinoff Star Trek book series), and to make jokes at the characters' expense. He knowingly plays into the fact that pretty much all of his readers are Trekkies and writes for our enjoyment and edification. By knowing the characters, back story, ST plot conventions and something of authorial intent, a reader gains much enjoyment from reading in this fashion. This kind of procedural reading is like watching The Matrix and being able to know and appreciate that it as a retelling of the allegory of the cave.
Shelley's notion that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world really strikes me. Can I ever think of banned books without thinking about Fahrenheit 451? Or critiques of 9/11 without Fahrenheit 911? Can you ever extricate Shakespeare from English drama? Can Machiavelli be separated from notions about political rule? Can you think about dreaming and nostalgia without thinking of Don Quixote de la Mancha? I think the answers to all are No, because poets have everything to do with how people perceive the world. There are so many notions that seep into the consciousness, that after a certain point, certain comparisons and opinions are inevitable. The best example is that Shakespeare will always be the one and only major master of Elizabethan drama, or God as I call him as an English major. Hardly a class goes by that at least one of my professors reference one of his works, even beyond the single one focusing on 17th century drama. (He's even in Bloom's introduction to Don Quixote!) I don't think that his reputation will diminish, as his words have captured certain truths which are true for the human condition and therefore, for all time.
According to Arnold in his Study of Poetry, his "one great contributory stream to the world-river of poetry", the criticism of poetry is criticism of life. We find that the classic poets have much to say about how we live, but also what to take away from poetry, for "[i]f he is a dubious classic, let us sift him; if he is a false classic, let us explode him." My favorite touchstone lines of John Donne, "Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears / Men reckon what it did, and meant / But trepidation of the spheres / Though greater far, is innocent" are such, as I think they sum up how I think about poetry. The earth can move and inspire fear, and we can ponder what it all means, but the earth itself won't say anything. Poets must. We must reckon what anything did and meant, because people are natural critics. Criticism is the mode by which everyone functions. We need poetry to define and shape our observations of the world and without which, all is lost. I am an English major because I am compelled to reckon what I've done and meant.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poettran.htm
Arnold, Matthew. The Study of Poetry. http://www.bartleby.com/28/5.html.
David, Peter. Star Trek: New Frontier series. Pocket Books.
Donne, John. A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning. http://www.eliteskills.com/c/4546
Shelley, Percy. A Defence of Poetry. http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Quixotic
"Shelby couldn't help but think that Calhoun was getting the lucky end of the deal at the moment. Why couldn't she have been smart enough to make some incredibly stupid and quixotic trip down to the planet's surface?" -From Gods Above by Peter David.
I think Peter David actually read Don Quixote from a literary critical perspective, because he actually uses the term "quixotic" in the context it usually isn't-correctly. I've always heard the term used to describe a dreamer's actions, which I don't think encapsulates what DQ is all about. Captain Calhoun is quixotic, because he heads into a volatile situation without regard to safety, because the world for him is the world he decides is one specific way. He takes the role of captain on in much the same way DQ does being a knight. They both see the world in their own original way, much to the chagrin of those closest to them. Quixotic for me as term means heading into danger to fulfill one's duty, more so than it means dreamy and romantic. I would even add blood and disappointment to the list as well.
I think Peter David actually read Don Quixote from a literary critical perspective, because he actually uses the term "quixotic" in the context it usually isn't-correctly. I've always heard the term used to describe a dreamer's actions, which I don't think encapsulates what DQ is all about. Captain Calhoun is quixotic, because he heads into a volatile situation without regard to safety, because the world for him is the world he decides is one specific way. He takes the role of captain on in much the same way DQ does being a knight. They both see the world in their own original way, much to the chagrin of those closest to them. Quixotic for me as term means heading into danger to fulfill one's duty, more so than it means dreamy and romantic. I would even add blood and disappointment to the list as well.
Monday, November 10, 2008
More specific Touchstone moment...
From my last post, here's a more concrete version.
A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
I like how romantic this sonnet is, especially since it also captures the fancy of a woman, me, when it's written by a man.
A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
I like how romantic this sonnet is, especially since it also captures the fancy of a woman, me, when it's written by a man.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Touchstone moments
All of the below:
When Mary's Secret Garden ceases to be a secret and heals not only her, but her cousin and uncle too. When the Little Women were each paired off to live happily ever after.
When the birds in The Best Nest figure out that home is their simple nest they tried to leave behind. When the Seuss characters Hop on Pop. When the Berenstain Bears were Bears in the Night. When the Boxcar Children always made something out of nothing, together as a family. When the Animorphs realized that they could fight an invasion as a group of young, scared kids.
When Willow the titular character of the 1988 film says "It was just my old disappearing pig trick," showing that the small people, the little ones, can change the world. When Luke declares that he's a Jedi like his father. When the Beast turns back into a prince for Belle.
I have soooo many touchstone moments, it's hard to even pick out just a few. And beyond that, it's hard to not include movies or TV as well. Most of mine don't involve canonical texts or Great Literature, but the little stuff is what whetted my appetite for books and learning in the first place.
When Mary's Secret Garden ceases to be a secret and heals not only her, but her cousin and uncle too. When the Little Women were each paired off to live happily ever after.
When the birds in The Best Nest figure out that home is their simple nest they tried to leave behind. When the Seuss characters Hop on Pop. When the Berenstain Bears were Bears in the Night. When the Boxcar Children always made something out of nothing, together as a family. When the Animorphs realized that they could fight an invasion as a group of young, scared kids.
When Willow the titular character of the 1988 film says "It was just my old disappearing pig trick," showing that the small people, the little ones, can change the world. When Luke declares that he's a Jedi like his father. When the Beast turns back into a prince for Belle.
I have soooo many touchstone moments, it's hard to even pick out just a few. And beyond that, it's hard to not include movies or TV as well. Most of mine don't involve canonical texts or Great Literature, but the little stuff is what whetted my appetite for books and learning in the first place.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Obama, bell and Pullman
Congrats to Obama for his historic win. But what's more impressive than the massive electoral win is the nearly 50/50 popular vote, which is the best voter turnout that I'll probably ever experience. I think young people especially felt compelled to get out there and make it count, whomever they voted for. I am especially proud of that.
My presentation tomorrow will include bits from this YouTube about bell hooks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s
And here's the bit about Philip Pullman that sticks with me: that he (an athiest) can retell and de-stigmatize the Eve myth, by giving Lyra a fall without sexual experience and giving all people the ability to shape the universe without an Almighty. It's a similar move for those that have seen the film, Dogma by Kevin Smith (though he's a Catholic critiquing Catholicism). The most important aspect of religion isn't the divine and adherence to a certain set of rules or credos, but how each individual chooses to believe or have faith. (I was going to include a portion of an essay on Pullman's His Dark Materials right now, but I have misplaced that book. Hopefully I will find it in the next few days.)
My presentation tomorrow will include bits from this YouTube about bell hooks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s
And here's the bit about Philip Pullman that sticks with me: that he (an athiest) can retell and de-stigmatize the Eve myth, by giving Lyra a fall without sexual experience and giving all people the ability to shape the universe without an Almighty. It's a similar move for those that have seen the film, Dogma by Kevin Smith (though he's a Catholic critiquing Catholicism). The most important aspect of religion isn't the divine and adherence to a certain set of rules or credos, but how each individual chooses to believe or have faith. (I was going to include a portion of an essay on Pullman's His Dark Materials right now, but I have misplaced that book. Hopefully I will find it in the next few days.)
Friday, October 24, 2008
My Book and Heart
I must admit, after spending two hours of my life to get to and watch the film, I am at a loss as to what I actually gained. I didn't learn much about primers that I didn't already know or could have guessed (that they're didactic tools for children, which as a genre are sort of lost.)
My burning question remained: the film was appropriately cute and well-narrated, but so what?
So I peeked at my classmates' blogs to figure out if I should recant my previous paragraph: Gabryelle says that there is a certain way in which as children learn to read they simultaneously lose their innocence.
Claire agrees, as there is also an element of danger in certain tales and limericks. She also said that there's a certain fascination that all book lovers have with old books and that's magical.
And Rosanna says that once a book is read, that it's a part of the reader forever; Reading also instructs our world.
I think that I have trouble with the idea that through the process of learning to read that children lose their innocence. I would argue that the excitement and hunger to learn that books inspired in me prolonged my innocence far beyond when I was 5 or 6 and still learning to read. I voraciously sought out many books to immerse myself in and as a result, I cultivated many naive and imaginary ways of thinking about my own place in the world. I still thought that once I was in high school that I could have some adventures similar to those of the heroines of Sweet Valley High. I thought that I could become an Animorph if perchance I could meet an alien some day. I fancied that I too could become Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, which is why I chose Anthropology as my initial major. I still dream that one day I can use my college degree to do something world-changing, beyond becoming a teacher at Bozeman High (which is my fear as I haven't made any definite plans post-graduation).
I do agree that old books are magical and command a certain reverence and respect and also that once a book is read that it becomes a part of me. For me, books and reading are the closest thing to a religion that I have. Tearing pages out of books (shame on that one woman in my Brit Lit I class who would attempt to lighten her load by tearing out the sections of her book as we went along), using pen to notate textbooks or book burning all incite me to a religious violence and fervor.
My burning question remained: the film was appropriately cute and well-narrated, but so what?
So I peeked at my classmates' blogs to figure out if I should recant my previous paragraph: Gabryelle says that there is a certain way in which as children learn to read they simultaneously lose their innocence.
Claire agrees, as there is also an element of danger in certain tales and limericks. She also said that there's a certain fascination that all book lovers have with old books and that's magical.
And Rosanna says that once a book is read, that it's a part of the reader forever; Reading also instructs our world.
I think that I have trouble with the idea that through the process of learning to read that children lose their innocence. I would argue that the excitement and hunger to learn that books inspired in me prolonged my innocence far beyond when I was 5 or 6 and still learning to read. I voraciously sought out many books to immerse myself in and as a result, I cultivated many naive and imaginary ways of thinking about my own place in the world. I still thought that once I was in high school that I could have some adventures similar to those of the heroines of Sweet Valley High. I thought that I could become an Animorph if perchance I could meet an alien some day. I fancied that I too could become Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, which is why I chose Anthropology as my initial major. I still dream that one day I can use my college degree to do something world-changing, beyond becoming a teacher at Bozeman High (which is my fear as I haven't made any definite plans post-graduation).
I do agree that old books are magical and command a certain reverence and respect and also that once a book is read that it becomes a part of me. For me, books and reading are the closest thing to a religion that I have. Tearing pages out of books (shame on that one woman in my Brit Lit I class who would attempt to lighten her load by tearing out the sections of her book as we went along), using pen to notate textbooks or book burning all incite me to a religious violence and fervor.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Word of the day
Ha, I love the Thesaurus.com word of the day today.
I was a bit disappointed with my test score, as I blanked 3 out of the 4 Greek terms that I should have known. Plus, partial credit would have raised my score a bit more, but I do understand why some of the answers didn't work well that way.
I am attempting to make my way through more Don Quixote and Frye, though not as successfully as I should be at the moment. I did feel that even though I'm not making a more useful post, that I should at least indicate somehow that I'm engaged in the class and this blog at least minimally.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Totally Behind
I apologize for not keeping up the past few weeks, which is completely my own fault for taking on too many classes with too many hours at my job.
Currently, I have a severely painful ear infection, which is NOT helping me concentrate or feel up to studying yet. I'm gonna do what I can tonight and hopefully I won't miss classes this week for this.
Currently, I have a severely painful ear infection, which is NOT helping me concentrate or feel up to studying yet. I'm gonna do what I can tonight and hopefully I won't miss classes this week for this.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Abrams and Idea of Order Poem
My chart would be as follows (chart because the poem could function on more than one level, as mentioned in class already):
Ramon Fernandez is described here:
http://udgewink.blogspot.com/2004/11/ramon-fernandez.html
Another photo of bell hooks, my critic:
Ramon Fernandez is described here:
http://udgewink.blogspot.com/2004/11/ramon-fernandez.html
Another photo of bell hooks, my critic:
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Don Q update
I just got to Chapter 10, page 70. I am 1) surprised by how much violence has occurred thus far and 2) the amount of meta-references to literature and criticism. Part of the latter is the frame narration, which I find confusing so far, at least inasmuch as to why it deepens Don Quixote's adventures.
I cannot fathom how the fact that Don Q and Pancho are repeatedly beaten the hell out of. I didn't realize how often this would happen, as they're basically 5 for 5 as far as I've read. That's a lot of beatings.
I got just past the windmill scene, which was as humorous as all the adaptations I've seen or read would suggest. I liked that.
I cannot fathom how the fact that Don Q and Pancho are repeatedly beaten the hell out of. I didn't realize how often this would happen, as they're basically 5 for 5 as far as I've read. That's a lot of beatings.
I got just past the windmill scene, which was as humorous as all the adaptations I've seen or read would suggest. I liked that.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Thematic ironic (pages 66-7)
Ezra Pound, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, as the "direct opposite" of Wordsworth are part of the vast number of modernists who write in the thematic ironic style of Frye's. Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust are also in this group, who tend to "avoid direct statement" and who are "simply juxtaposing images without making any assertions about their relationship." These writers also regularly ignore conventional punctuation, such as the use of apostrophes. They are "an initiated group aware of a real meaning of behind an ironically baffling exterior." Their texts are fragmented and more difficult to follow than more conventional writers, because plots are thin or hidden, characters sometimes never reveal their inner thoughts, and sentences can often last for pages at a time without a pause or period. The narrator or observer of the text can be unreliable or confused, not actually aiding in telling the tale, but complicating it further.
The ironic writer often writes of a return, the reincarnations of old ideas. Rimbaud's recreation of Promethius or Yeat's Lead and the Swan replacing the dove and the virgin. The ideas concerning apocalypse seeming overwhelming, but at the same time hint at a future renewal. Modern texts, especially, are the most confusing and fragmented out of all of Frye's Modes, but they can also be the most fun for an English major to wade through, then to conquer.
bell hooks
No caps, just wikied her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks
I am happy to have a critic to investigate who's still kicking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks
I am happy to have a critic to investigate who's still kicking.
bell hooks
No caps, just wikied her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks
I am happy to have a critic to investigate who's still kicking.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Poetics
I like that the beginning starts out with the thought that imitation is an instinct of our nature, and thus poetry was born. Like one of my professors last semester was fond of the quote that goes "Poetry is what was once thought, but ne'er so well expressed." Poetry is the drive that makes us aspire.
"Defective plots: Of all plots and actions the episodic are the worst. I call a plot 'episodic' in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence. Bad poets compose such pieces by their own fault, good poets, to please the players; for, as they write show pieces for competition, they stretch the plot beyond its capacity, and are often forced to break the natural continuity."
I actually almost laughed over this quote. I happen to enjoy modernist poetry very much, and it is by definition episodic and fractured and seems to please the poet more than the audience. I love the challenge, however, and I think it makes smarter readers by having plots that aren't so easy to follow.
"The second thing to aim at is propriety. There is a type of manly valor; but valour in a woman, or unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate."
Ahem. I enjoy being a woman and am not ashamed that I am pro-woman in most areas. This idea that women can or can't be certain types of characters is unnatural and untrue. I think this breaks his own next rule that characters types should be true to life.
"Defective plots: Of all plots and actions the episodic are the worst. I call a plot 'episodic' in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence. Bad poets compose such pieces by their own fault, good poets, to please the players; for, as they write show pieces for competition, they stretch the plot beyond its capacity, and are often forced to break the natural continuity."
I actually almost laughed over this quote. I happen to enjoy modernist poetry very much, and it is by definition episodic and fractured and seems to please the poet more than the audience. I love the challenge, however, and I think it makes smarter readers by having plots that aren't so easy to follow.
"The second thing to aim at is propriety. There is a type of manly valor; but valour in a woman, or unscrupulous cleverness is inappropriate."
Ahem. I enjoy being a woman and am not ashamed that I am pro-woman in most areas. This idea that women can or can't be certain types of characters is unnatural and untrue. I think this breaks his own next rule that characters types should be true to life.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
VPs and Schools of Criticism
I think what I got from class today was a lot of generalizations pertaining to criticism. Prof. Sexton summed up Frye by saying that "All literature is displaced myth." He also said that critic is an arbiter of taste, much like in Ratatouille. I take this to mean that on the whole, literary criticism is so multifaceted that it's going to take a team of a dozen diamond miners a dozen weeks to finally exhume the true essence, the perfect diamond truth of lit crit. Meaning very much that it's going to take a lot of persistence and patience to really get at what lit crit is, that it's going to take many approaches and attempts to understand.
In lit crit, rather than a being a question of taste or a popularity contest, Frye is calling for a system of analysis. What he calls "literary chit-chat" and "casual value judgments" should be far less weighted than identifying and appreciating archetypes, themes, use of language and relationships between an author, a work and the audience.
The example that came to my mind during class was the Everlasting Battlestar Galactica Debate at home. My mom is a fan of the 1978 series and I'm a bigger fan of the 2004 reimagining. Our argument is centered around her insistence that Starbuck is a man, Boomer is not an Asian female and the new one is too dark, while I focus much more on the intelligence and social commentary of the latter. None of these characteristics of the shows actually matter in reference to the actual shows. They are casual value judgments that aren't engaging true criticism. While the characters and tone are part of what makes them good or bad, this kind of viewer response isn't addressing archetypes, themes, or intentions on the part of the producers, actors, networks in order to understand why the shows are important or what meaning is contained therein.
Also, as a side note about the lipstick pig comment:
(Original reference here: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/obama-says-mc-1.html, as mentioned in class)
Links to the original webcomic (NSFW Language, but only minor):
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2918
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2923
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2924
In lit crit, rather than a being a question of taste or a popularity contest, Frye is calling for a system of analysis. What he calls "literary chit-chat" and "casual value judgments" should be far less weighted than identifying and appreciating archetypes, themes, use of language and relationships between an author, a work and the audience.
The example that came to my mind during class was the Everlasting Battlestar Galactica Debate at home. My mom is a fan of the 1978 series and I'm a bigger fan of the 2004 reimagining. Our argument is centered around her insistence that Starbuck is a man, Boomer is not an Asian female and the new one is too dark, while I focus much more on the intelligence and social commentary of the latter. None of these characteristics of the shows actually matter in reference to the actual shows. They are casual value judgments that aren't engaging true criticism. While the characters and tone are part of what makes them good or bad, this kind of viewer response isn't addressing archetypes, themes, or intentions on the part of the producers, actors, networks in order to understand why the shows are important or what meaning is contained therein.
Also, as a side note about the lipstick pig comment:
(Original reference here: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/obama-says-mc-1.html, as mentioned in class)
Links to the original webcomic (NSFW Language, but only minor):
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2918
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2923
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2924
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Aristotle, Dante, Sidney, Shelley
Poetics
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poettran.htm
Letter to Can Grande
http://www.english.udel.edu/dean/cangrand.html
An Apology for Poetry
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Defense_of_Poesy
Or
http://www.bartleby.com/27/1.html
A Defence of Poetry
http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poettran.htm
Letter to Can Grande
http://www.english.udel.edu/dean/cangrand.html
An Apology for Poetry
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Defense_of_Poesy
Or
http://www.bartleby.com/27/1.html
A Defence of Poetry
http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html
Archetypes of Literature, Frye
This immediately popped up before I got to the full text of Archetypes of Literature:
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/dherring/ap/consider/frye/indexfryeov.htm
Which is a visual of pages 104-110 of my version, which is extremely helpful.
I don't know if my link to the text will help, but here it is.
http://www.jstor.org.proxybz.lib.montana.edu/stable/pdfplus/4333216.pdf
If you can't find it otherwise, go to the MSU library site, click on Articles. Under J-L, JSTOR is there and you can access it via the library site if you have a library account set up online.
On to my first draft of my thoughts on the actual text so far:
"It is therefore impossible to 'learn literature': one learns about it in a certain way, but what one learns, transitively, is the criticism of literature" (Frye 92).
I think what Frye is driving at right from the beginning is that learning is done in most part progressively, systematically, except for with literature. Lit itself cannot be Learned as much as Inferred, via the process of literary criticism: criticism is the system for which you can learn from lit.
"He finds that literature is the central division of the 'humanities,' flanked on one side by history and on the other by philosophy [....] [F]or the systematic mental organization of the subject, the student has to turn to the conceptual framework of the historian for events, and to that of the philosopher for the ideas" (Frye 93).
Frye's really questing for a systematic and uniform approach to criticism, which he attempts to lay out for his readers. The first part borrows from other humanities, such as the mental faculties concerning events and time from history and others such as understanding and thought from philosophy.
"Criticism, like nature, prefers a waste space to an empty one" (Frye 94).
There are a bunch of unworthy works of literature out there, but as in life, in criticism, there is also the good and the bad. (At least in Frye's estimation, which sounds a LOT like his hated value judgments to me).
"I suggest that what is at present missing from literary criticism is a coordinating principle, a central hypothesis which, like the theory of evolution in biology, will see the phenomena it deals with as parts of a whole. Such a principle, though it would retain the centripetal perspective of structural analysis, would try to give the same perspective to other kinds of criticism too. The first postulate of this hypothesis is the same as that of any science: the assumption of total coherence" (Frye 96).
Frye addresses the central struggle of literary criticism by pointing out the basic tension, which is that there is no single approach to learning about literature. There are many generally accepted schools of thought, but even those divisions aren't strictly one or the other. There are so many approaches that the reader almost needs more than one approach to even learn about how to approach lit, which makes everything seem rather daunting.
"We may call the rhythm of literature the narrative, and the pattern, the simultaneous mental grasp of the verbal structure, the meaning or significance. We hear or listen to a narrative, but when we grasp a writer's total pattern we "see" what he means" (102).
I think this last bit sums up the recurring comment of Prof. Sexton, that "how do you know what you mean unless you see what you say?" As readers come to understand the underlying structures through lit crit, we can "see" how literature works and therefore, understand it better. This understanding is better and deeper than just hearing the words and liking them, because the pattern to understand is much clearer.
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/dherring/ap/consider/frye/indexfryeov.htm
Which is a visual of pages 104-110 of my version, which is extremely helpful.
I don't know if my link to the text will help, but here it is.
http://www.jstor.org.proxybz.lib.montana.edu/stable/pdfplus/4333216.pdf
If you can't find it otherwise, go to the MSU library site, click on Articles. Under J-L, JSTOR is there and you can access it via the library site if you have a library account set up online.
On to my first draft of my thoughts on the actual text so far:
"It is therefore impossible to 'learn literature': one learns about it in a certain way, but what one learns, transitively, is the criticism of literature" (Frye 92).
I think what Frye is driving at right from the beginning is that learning is done in most part progressively, systematically, except for with literature. Lit itself cannot be Learned as much as Inferred, via the process of literary criticism: criticism is the system for which you can learn from lit.
"He finds that literature is the central division of the 'humanities,' flanked on one side by history and on the other by philosophy [....] [F]or the systematic mental organization of the subject, the student has to turn to the conceptual framework of the historian for events, and to that of the philosopher for the ideas" (Frye 93).
Frye's really questing for a systematic and uniform approach to criticism, which he attempts to lay out for his readers. The first part borrows from other humanities, such as the mental faculties concerning events and time from history and others such as understanding and thought from philosophy.
"Criticism, like nature, prefers a waste space to an empty one" (Frye 94).
There are a bunch of unworthy works of literature out there, but as in life, in criticism, there is also the good and the bad. (At least in Frye's estimation, which sounds a LOT like his hated value judgments to me).
"I suggest that what is at present missing from literary criticism is a coordinating principle, a central hypothesis which, like the theory of evolution in biology, will see the phenomena it deals with as parts of a whole. Such a principle, though it would retain the centripetal perspective of structural analysis, would try to give the same perspective to other kinds of criticism too. The first postulate of this hypothesis is the same as that of any science: the assumption of total coherence" (Frye 96).
Frye addresses the central struggle of literary criticism by pointing out the basic tension, which is that there is no single approach to learning about literature. There are many generally accepted schools of thought, but even those divisions aren't strictly one or the other. There are so many approaches that the reader almost needs more than one approach to even learn about how to approach lit, which makes everything seem rather daunting.
"We may call the rhythm of literature the narrative, and the pattern, the simultaneous mental grasp of the verbal structure, the meaning or significance. We hear or listen to a narrative, but when we grasp a writer's total pattern we "see" what he means" (102).
I think this last bit sums up the recurring comment of Prof. Sexton, that "how do you know what you mean unless you see what you say?" As readers come to understand the underlying structures through lit crit, we can "see" how literature works and therefore, understand it better. This understanding is better and deeper than just hearing the words and liking them, because the pattern to understand is much clearer.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Ooops.
I had to work today, instead of being a model student (Sorry!!) I'm definitely catching up more here tomorrow, swear.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/song.htm
This is the John Donne poem I was referencing in class on Friday. The line about mermaids singing was the main part I meant to point out, as it's similar to the feel of the Wallace Stevens poem.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/song.htm
This is the John Donne poem I was referencing in class on Friday. The line about mermaids singing was the main part I meant to point out, as it's similar to the feel of the Wallace Stevens poem.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
WOO HOO!! I figured out where to make a blog!!
Well, here it goes. I haven't really been internet savvy, except on Gaia Online. If you know what that is already, then I think that this is the start of a wonderful friendship.
And thanks to Gabryelle for posting a link to the Wallace Stevens poem. That was awesome.
P.S. If you would like to know why I renamed my blog yet again, just watch the short show linked below.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog
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