Bean’s Weblog

#1

Prose vs. Poetry eh? I’m rooting for prose! I believe the main differences between prose and poetry is that prose tend to state its “point” fairly explicitly and tend to be more like regular speech, whereas poetry can be far less easy to interpret and sometimes seems almost as though the author has simply vomited the words onto the page. That’s not to say I don’t like poetry or anything like that… I just like prose better. I believe McKay switches over to prose because it simply made more sense to do so! McKay clearly didn’t see the need to make the reader deeply analyze the stanzas describing Icarus’ flight, and chose a simpler way to do so. And he did a good job too!

#2

Wikipedia says:

A dystopia is the vision of a society that is the opposite of utopia. A dystopian society is a state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution.

P.S. Sorry these last 3 entries were late! The end of the term is always pretty hectic and I lost track of what I needed to do!

Almost done…so close!

#1

Okay…I can’t seem to find anything about the poem’s inspiration on the internet, and I was told by another student that we went over it in class…apparently I was absent. Shame on me! BUT, from reading other people’s blogs I have come to the conclusion that the poem was inspired by the actual experiences of Susannah Moodie, whos son died by drowning.  I also found that the poem expresses Moodie’s resentment for losing her son and her resentment towards the country that took his life (canada?).

#2

I believe that Auden uses the myth of Icarus to show how life doesn’t stop every time something tragic happens to someone, and furthermore that something tragic to one person may not be tragic to another. The poem shows how Icarus’ plunge into the ocean wasn’t a huge tragedy to the sailors or people who saw it happen. It’s an exageration to say that today people wouldn’t care about someone falling from a great height into the ocean…but certainly some people find some things more tragic than other. As far as Icarus being associated with male experience…that’s a tough one! Perhaps the myth of Icarus could represent how young males can be very eager to do things and be free, but must learn not to get too carried away with life, and need to learn the limits of their abilities.

Sorry these are so late!

#1

The title “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is very misleading, and is quite apparent from the start of the poem. The title makes the reader believe the poem will most likely be a happy poem about love, but from the first stanza it is quite obvious that this isn’t your average love poem, or perhaps not a love poem at all. The wording used in the poem creates very dark and dreary imagery, again not very common in poems about love. The language also seems to be set up almost is if it has no set path, like how people think. Lastly, there is not much of a rhyming scheme, which isn’t a very common occurrence in love poems. After reading the poem, the reader is left thinking “Is this a love song?”. Even after a second reading the answer still isn’t known, and only after much analyzing does the reader get begin to understand what the poem represents.

Hmmmm…interesting!

#2

I imagine that the poem could be about Margaret Atwood’s son drowning perhaps, but that’s obvious.  Perhaps it could have been about someone else’s son…who happened to be a lumberjack? More than that…I don’t really know! some of the lines of the poem don’t really seem to agree with my theories, such as “on a landscape stranger than Uranus / we have all been to and some remember.” We obviously haven’t all be lumberjacks…so this is somewhat strange. I suppose I’ll figure out what its about soon enough!

1)

Whoa! call the poetry police! The accuracy of the poem is under dispute! Pssshhh…who cares?! Who ever said poetry had to be filled with facts? If you want to read facts, go read an essay. So Plath stretched the truth in “Daddy.” So what? As if Picasso’s paintings looked like what they were supposed to be! An artist or author shouldn’t be forced to adhere to reality or facts. So she lied about her age, and her father wasnt a vampire… Plath used specific wording and misinformation deliberatly in her poem, and who are we to question that? Now, as far as why she misinforms the reader…who knows? She might have intended for us to sympathize with her, not just think she was some crazy old bat with issues about her daddy, and deliberatly making things seem extra crappy for her might just make that happen.

2)

Modernism…damnit, I hate defining ‘isms, there are too many! Modernism essentially sought to break free of the realist thought pattern that had prevailed for the majority of the 19th century. Essentially they attempted to rebel against some aspect of tradition or the status quo (thank you Wikipedia!). Stream on conciousness writing essentially mimicks the helter-skelter thought patterns of the human mind. It tends to be somewhat like…well your stream of concious thoughts! In “Prufrock” the lines read almost as if they are our own thoughts. I guess this is different from other forms or narrative in just that, the narration reads much like it is our own thoughts, not so much a story being told to us. Hmm…interesting stuff…

Sorry its late! But as they say, better late then never…

1)

Does Oedipus the King teach us an important lesson? Besides the obvious don’t sleep with your parents lesson, I believe that the story does contain some fairly important lessons that can still be applied in everyday life. For one, a sort of Murphy’s Law (Oedipus’s Law?!?!) is introduced. Not so much that if something can go wrong that it will, but more that things can be more than they seem to be…so its a good idea to not get cocky and proclaiming that you shall avenge the death of your city’s dead king by bringing his murder to justice, because in the end the gods could play the ultimate prank on you and you could end up being the murderer. Another good lesson in Oedupis the King is that sometimes the truth hurts, so suck it up and deal with it. Throughout the play Oedipus has several opportunities to learn the truth, but he chooses to ignore it. Then when he is out of options, and all clues point towards the truth which was right in front of him the whole time, then the truth stings just that much more. So, lesson learned: don’t lie to yourself because you don’t want to believe the truth.

2)

Sylvia Plath was born in massachusetts and raised by her mother and father. Her father died just after she was eight, and his death obviously scarred her quite a bit. she attempted suicide in her college years. She later married Ted Hughes, had a not so happy marriage and divorced him after a few years. She then attempted suicide in her 30s and this time succeded.

Part 1:

A binary that permeates the play Oedipus the King is the contrast of light and dark. Light tends to be more present in the beginning of the play, and darkness more so towards the end of the play. As far a light goes, Oedipus could be considered light because he solves the riddle of the sphinx, thus saving the city of Thebes. As the play progresses however, Oedipus’ darker side (although unknown to him) begins to slowly show itself, as the fact that he murders his father and married his mother becomes apparent. Another example of darkness is at the end of the play when Oedipus puts out his eyes, thus blinding himself, reducing a good part of his senses to darkness. These binaries represent, to a certain extent, the overall mood of the play. The beginning of the play starts out with Oedipus being revered as an excellent ruler of Thebes and things are light and happy(well…sort of) When Oedipus’ sins are brought to light (har har har.) however, the mood of the play turns towards the dark side. This binary as well as others are central to Oedipus’ struggle, as well as being central to the theme of the play.

Part 2:

Hamartia: A mistake or error in judgement. Can be either known or unknown to the character. Is this present in Oedipus the King? Absolutely! Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and then marries his mother. What better example of hamartia!

Hubris: Hubris is similar to hamartia, as it is a sort of error in judgement; however this one has to due with pride or arrogance. Is this shown in Oedipus the King? Yes. When the sage tells Oedipus that he is responsible for the death of the previous king, Oedipus tells the sage that he is fool.

Catharsis: Catharsis is a climax of emotion, whether it is happy or sad. Does this happen in the play? Why else would we be asked to define it! When Oedipus finds out that he was in fact the one that killed ex-king Laios he stabs out his eyes, defiantly an emotional climax.

Peripeteia: A sudden reversal of circumstances, or turning point. In the play, when Oedipus finds out that he killed his own father and married his mother. Going from a respective figure to a resented incestuous murderer, that is a reversal of circumstances if ever there was one.

Anagnorisis: A discovery or realisation. In the case of this play, the discovery resulted in Peripeteia for Oedipus, as he realises that he killed his father and married his mother.

Part 2:

Oedipus, former king of Thebes, loving son and husband of Jocasta, and father and brother of four, passed away near the holy wilderness outside Athens early Friday morning. He leaves behind two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, and two sons, Etocles and Polynices, both afflicted with the curse passed down from Oedipus. Life played a lot of tricks on Oedipus, he was crowned king after unwittingly murdering his own father, and also unknowingly married his own mother. Oedipus also achieved many great things in his lifetime, such as deciphering the great Sphinx’s riddle to save the city of Thebes from certain peril. He was buried near the holy wilderness outside Athens and his funeral was attended by his close friend Theseus and the gods.

Part 1: What I have learned in English 160 so far….

Hmmm… A good question. So far I believe that I have learned to appreciate literature, or at least short stories, quite a bit more. I have also learned that my distaste for writing essays hasn’t diminished any since the last time I took an english class. I’m surprised to find that the group exercises are actually quite useful in helping me understand the story, etc. that we are reading, which is a strange contrast to most other classes with group exercises. As far as what I would like to learn from now until the end of the term…hmmm… I can’t think of much, perhaps how to better understand stories and literary terms and the like. Or perhaps how to get out of having to write essays? Hahahahahaha, seriously though

Part 2: I’ll continue part 2 sometime before the 15th.

Part 1: The word “stones” could have many meanings in various contexts, however I believe Timothy Findley used the word specifically to describe the narrator’s father’s personality as well as the degeneration of the his father’s mental state from the beginning of the story to the end. In the beginning of the story the narrator describes his father as being a pleasant, dutiful, and all around happy person, being tough as a rock essentially. Furthermore the father’s act of joining the army and going to war furthers his persona of being (or attempting to be) strong, a cornerstone or foundation for his country and doing what is considered “right” and dutiful. As the story progresses however, it is evident that the effect of going to war had a massive effect on him. Like a rock being frozen and warmed rapidly, stress fractures developed in his mind and personality. The invasion of Dieppe was what finally “cracked” him into pieces, the utter hopelessness of the situation drove him over the edge, and what occurs in the rest of the story was what turned him into dust. Furthermore, when Ben takes his father’s ashes to the beaches of Dieppe he notices the stones seem normal yet disturbed, like any other stone, but stained by the bloody battle which took place there. I believe this is an excellent metaphor for what happened to his father. He refers to his father as a “stone among stones,” inferring that his father’s experience in war have forever stained his kind and strong personality, and that the demise of such a strong personality is as tragic as the loss of all those who died at Dieppe.

Part 2: Metafiction is essentially a work of fiction that attempts to create a fictional world that one might think of as being more “real” than a completely fantasy world. Often in books and movies(or video games!) the fictional work contains one or more mentions of something that is not in fact a fictional person, story, etc., such as the mention of a book or movie that already exists, or perhaps mentions the book or movie itself. Another metafictional occurrence is when the author of a story/movie, etc. puts him/herself into the story, either as the person that they are in reality, or perhaps just a character with the same name. My favorite metafictional event is in the movie Space Balls, when Dark Helmet attempts to see where Lonestar is trying to escape to by watching a pre-pre-released edition of Space balls that comes out before the movie is even finished. Another good example of metafiction is in the “Ender’s Game” series of novels. The original Ender’s Game has a character named Ender, and he meets another important character named Bean, and one of the later novels is actually another version of Ender’s Game, but from Bean’s point of view. As mentioned earlier, an author could write metafictionally(is that a word?) in an attempt to create a more convincing fictional world.

A) I believe that the way that the narrator depicts the bedroom is an excellent metaphor for how the she feels about her mother’s work in the kitchen and her father’s work in the barn or field. When the narrator describes the bedroom, she explains that it isn’t a very pleasant place to sleep. “We were not afraid of outside though this was the time of year when snowdrifts curled around our house…We were afraid of inside, the room where we slept.” This holds true to the way she feels about the barn or the fields in comparison to the kitchen where her mom worked. The way the narrator describes the kitchen and the back porch, where the fruit is piled up, makes the narrator’s mother’s work seem very hectic, cluttered, time consuming and all around unpleasant. She doesn’t describe any pleasant smells, like cooking peaches, or tastes such as jams or preserves, she only describes the gross flypapers hanging from the ceiling. In contrast to this, her fathers work outside seems almost glamorous, as she describes the beautiful coats that the foxes have, the calm, structured method of giving them water and shading them in the summer, etc. In addition to this the naivety of never having witnessing the killing of the horse furthers her belief that his work is glamorous, or at least more desirable than cooking in a hot kitchen all day long.

B) This one I couldn’t really find too much on…but from what I did find on the internet, and from other people’s blogs I know that Eustacia Vye drowns. Ham Peggoty also drowns, trying to rescue someone from a shipwreck. In Moby Dick, everyone dies except for Ishmael, the narrator. What else was I supposed to do with this one?