Too Many Lit Courses

2011-02-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

This poem is a lovely piece about Bradstreet’s husband. In it, she declares how strongly they are bound, “If ever two were one, then surely we.” What I find interesting is how at points she is almost bragging about her husband, like he is a prize won that other woman could not hold, “If ever wife was happy in a man,// Compare with me, ye women, if you can.” It’s funny because it’s objectifying the man to a degree when this was an age where women were like objects. It places the woman is a position of ownership, which wasn’t something exactly smiled upon at the time. Then she starts comparing her love of her husband to great treasures, like “whole mines of gold” and “all the riches the East doth hold.” Afterward, she pulls back, trying to show that yes, her love is great, but obviously her husband’s love is more. The husband is the superior being, “The love is such I can no way repay,//The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” This shows her concession not only to her husband, but to the male poets of her times as well, however ironic it might be. In the end, she says she hopes that they’ll forever live through the love they have for one another. I find Bradstreet to be exceedingly human and a beautiful crafter of words. I feel they show her great passion and humanity well.

D.H Lawrence vs Franklin

2011-02-15T22:03:00.002-05:00

When Lawrence says that Franklin is the first "dummy American," he means that Franklin is disregarding God, creating his own deity for his own purposes. Which is funny, because Lawrence is doing the same with Franklin's words. Franklin wasn't telling people not to go to Church and to believe in God when he said they should be "master unto himself, and don't even let the Lord put His spoke in." What was obviously meant here was to not let oneself be bogged down by such things. The reason many people came to America was religious freedom and quite a few found more prosecution when they went to an area that wasn't pleased by their ideas. Franklin was obviously a forward thinker and far from a dummy.

Bradford vs. Morton

2011-01-17T18:45:00.002-05:00

In a paragraph of approximately 200 words, explain the major conflict between William Bradford and Thomas Morton. Why did Bradford want Morton arrested and deported? Why do we modern Americans have at least some sympathy for Morton?

Bradford came to America as a Separatist who settled at Plymouth. These people went to the new land looking to be free of judgment and persecution based on their beliefs. Bradford was a leader, elected to office after the original governor, John Carver died. Though he obviously had to be an intelligent man, his religion molded him into someone who had little tolerance for other religious view points. This is little surprise as his writing is scattered with Biblical verse. This is likely why he had difficulty and understanding Morton. Morton came to America with a group of other men looking for a new start and new funds. As the leader of his own men, Morton was scene is an offense just by how he existed when compared to the pious Pilgrims. He was terribly punished, sent back to England more than once, and then wrote a book about his experiences in America before returning there where he died. Obviously, even though this man had trouble with the likes of Bradford and others, he must have held some love for this new land with how he just kept returning and wouldn’t be displaced by his enemies. I find that admirable.

2010-05-13T18:44:00.001-04:00

While Nichol’s works from what’s she’s experienced in the Caribbean, her poems I feel still hold a lot of fun and interesting stories for all children. I loved “Banana Man” personally. Lots of kids love bananas and this is a silly way to talk about it, referring to bunches of bananas as hands. Here the rhyming isn’t a regular line by line pattern. The rhymes themselves are repeating still and they show another sort of rhyming instead of the classic ABAB or AABB styles. The language is more relaxed, less formal and as many of Nichol’s poems, it’s almost a sort of slang that can be relaxed into. Kids can have fun reading these! For a fun activity after, you can discuss favorite fruits and maybe how different fruit looks like different body parts or different things in general.

See mt comment above on the language/culture thing, but cute idea with this poem.

Any (brief) idea for a poetry month exhibit in the children's section of a library?

2010-05-13T18:43:00.000-04:00

Something I found significant an interesting about Clifton’s poetry is that she kept to one main character, Everett Anderson. While none of the previous poetry we touched on here made specific mention of race, these ones make specific mention of Everett and his family being African American. I think this adds to the character and gives us as teachers and parents something significantly different from the heavily British lot we had just been reviewing. The introduction says that Clifton wishes to express the “pain and fear experienced by a young African American child” but at least in these excerpts, I feel these poems could relate to many children regardless of race.
“Tuesday All Day Rain” is a silly poem about Everett Anderson leaving his umbrella at home instead of taking it out to protect himself from the rain because he doesn’t want to lose it. The idea is so child-like, the best way to keep yourself from losing your umbrella is to simply leave it at home. The rhyming here is a little different; the lines are choppy, but this adds to the flow of things, the quick movement of the words.

“Rain or shine,
he doesn’t whine
about ‘catching cold’ or
‘summer showers.’

Sad or merry
he doesn’t carry
the thing around
for hours and hours”

We see it’s carried into the next stanza at times instead of all being self contained in one stanza and merely carried over into the next one. I think this pulls the poem together nicely and makes you feel like you need to finish the poem and say it all together. Of course, this leads you to think I normally don’t read poems all together as one piece, which no, I don’t always. Kids can talk about times they’ve left their things at home instead of taking them with them and what happened in the end.

Good reading of this poem, and nice realization of your own tendencies when reading poetry. There are other collections that focus on one character. On the race thing, coudn't these poems also be used, like the Mora (missing these) and Nichols, to introduce kids to other cultures?

2010-05-13T18:41:00.001-04:00

These poems are all rather interesting. Something I find might be a hindrance at times is when poetry comes off as too British and too old fashioned. This doesn’t hurt the sound or the meaning, but it makes it unrelatable to the children that might be learning about it. This is just my feeling though, I feel like more updated writing would work better in schools and teachings today. While these are more up dated than others, I feel that these are still a bit too British. “Mrs. McPhee” I think would be a fun read for kids. This woman eats duckling, ducklings! That’s scandalous to a child, who would likely never eat a duckling. The women’s transformation is fun though, like a punishment for eating poor little baby ducks. The poem even plays with the sounds, especially at the end, “Said Mrs. Mac, Mrs. Quack,//Mrs. MacPhee.” It’s a fun poem and for a learning exercise, perhaps they could try to think up silly or not silly names that rhyme with duck sounds, like Mark Bark or something like that. With a more fun thing, maybe try cutting out paper feathers to glue to a cape so mommy or teacher could become Mrs. or Mr. MacPhee.”

Cute ideas here, but isn't Causley's language a bit more accessible than, say, De La Mare's?

2010-05-13T18:39:00.001-04:00

De La Mare brought us another story previously, with his telling of a vane Little Red Riding Hood. Some of his other poems are also sort of dark, which shows a similar voice to what we saw with his previous story. I found his poetry sort of dull, I feel like it lost something in time. The rhyming does flow still, but many of the topics I feel kids would have more of a fun time just saying than actually knowing exactly what it’s about. “The Penny Owing” almost sounds like some sort of reaper or ghost coming with a final penny for blind Tam. Beggars are something we have today as well, so they could understand this enough, but I don’t think they’d see the same meaning as I do, which is fine still. Some of the words aren’t common ones for children, like “abide” and “grudged” so it can work for extending vocabulary as well. Again, maybe this could also introduce children to the idea of money and counting change, suggesting they save their pennies and such.

Aren't some of his poems a little lighter? Good, if general, on the vocabulary benefits and differing interpretations.

2010-05-13T18:38:00.000-04:00

For Stevenson, I enjoyed his “Bed in Summer” because I feel that the topic is still very relatable to kids and people today. Many of us, especially children understand what it’s like to go to bed in the summer when it’s still light out when we would rather be outside playing. It’s a fun and easy poem that gives you the impression of a child bored in bed trying to force them to sleep, but not really succeeding at it. Anyone can relate. The flow of the language adds to the whimsy, with each stanza having rhyming pairs, a simple way to introduce kids to poetry because the sounds are so close together. “In winter I get up at night//And dress by yellow candle-light” Then the children could talk about their morning routines, maybe attempt to make up a rhyming couplet about it.

2010-05-13T18:36:00.000-04:00

This collection is full of short but sweet poems. The author I’ve met earlier with her “Goblin Market” story that was an interesting and fun read in itself. Rosetti has a fine ear and the short poems have a lovely flow to me. The themes of motherhood and infant mortality mentioned in the introduction do ring true and do give pause, but I feel that for children’s poetry, they don’t always notice or take things as jarringly as we as adults might.

“Our little baby fell asleep,
And may not wake again,
For days and days, and weeks and weeks;
But then he’ll wake again,
And come with his own pretty look,
And kiss Mamma again.”

Here a child sleeps, but does not wake for weeks and weeks. Perhaps this child actually has died and the child that comes “weeks and weeks” later in his place is actually a second child “with his own pretty look”, but then maybe the child is actually terribly ill and returns to health again, which I can’t imagine was terribly common in the Victorian era, or in the least the awakened child would be greatly weaken and not live longer beyond this.
To actually use with children, I’d rather use something like “1 and I are 2-“ because as it also shows language skills, it can help with early math skills too. I recall using poems and rhymes to help with my math skills growing up, and I know those things are often hard for children to pick up. My mother and I were always on the search for pneumatic devices for remembering. Admittedly, some of the terms aren’t exactly commonly used these days, but they’re not entirely obscure. Also numbers are something children learn alongside their letters, so those are words they are already very familiar with. To make it more interactive, you can also insert other phrases. Instead of “3 and 3 are 6-//Barley sugar sticks.” Maybe try something like “3 and 3 and 6-//Sugar coated Kix.” Like the cereal!

Might the reawakening be in heaven? Rossetti WAS a devout Catholic.

Lullabies and Baby Songs

2010-05-13T18:32:00.001-04:00

On all, which do you remember from your own childhood? Others?
Which do (or would) you read to/with your own children and/or students and why? What would you want them to learn from these, and how would you help them learn it? (For teachers, again, objectives and activities.)

I've actually heard "All the Pretty Little Horses" in a movie at Busch Gardens, the scary 4D film that was about the children going to the lighthouse. One of the ghosts sang it. I haven't heard any versions of it myself growing up though. If I had any lullabies growing up, it was "Rock-a-Bye Baby" or as they call it, "The Cradle Song".
It seems to me that the heavy repetitions in many of the lullabies, say “Sleep, baby, sleep!” is to help lull the child into a peaceful state. For the matter of storytelling, to show kids different tales I would use this because I like it. It’s a good example of the rhythms you see and the hint of darkness some have in the dog biting. This and “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” because I did actually learn this one when I was in school years and always found it a fun adventurous sort of story. To actually use for my hypothetical child, I’d go with something calmer because honestly I think there’s plenty out there giving kids bits of fear in the media that it’s not as needed to tell a baby to be quiet or they’ll be bit by a dog. Maybe an older child who you could gently pinch and tease, who would find it fun. Not that “Cradle Song” isn’t dark, it’s a falling baby, but I feel like it’s more imaginative, further from the child’s realm of experience. Everyone falls at some point, sure, but eventually you'll learn from it and be less bothered each time. I don't feel like it's the same for dog bites.

Interesting focus here on the content of these (aside from the one remark about the repetition--and also other sounds--as calming to infants) and whether or not they'd scare children. All of these here are or were one time read or sung to infants--even those which made reference to disturbing things. Ay thoughts on this?
Also, any thoughts on how these might help infants with early language development?

Well, it was suggested in the introduction that the darker images were meant to frighten away the nightmares from the child's slumber. This I could believe and even embrace, but these days I'm not sure if it's still needed. Then again, it's the darkness of something that puts a little fear into a child's existence. And considering my term project, maybe I should touch on these as well?

When kids hear things enough, they learn them, pick out sounds and words eventually. I mean, that's part of why kids first words are thins like mama and dada, because it's basic sounds they hear constantly and eventually learn to associate properly with the indicated source.

On the first here, let's remember some of Bettelheim's ideas about the more disturbing situations and characters in fairy tales--the way they objectify fears or issues children already face (even if subconsciously) in a way that makes them safer to confront.

Good on the other, but extend that beyond mama and dada--further along the language development continuum.

Riddles and Wordplay

2010-05-13T18:30:00.001-04:00

On all, which do you remember from your own childhood? Others?
Which do (or would) you read to/with your own children and/or students and why? What would you want them to learn from these, and how would you help them learn it? (For teachers, again, objectives and activities.)

I wish they had more in this section honestly. The ones they have are sort of old and not well known I don’t feel. Also I don’t think they make much sense, but riddles and word games are a thing of time. Even things I knew growing up have changed, or at least for kids. “What’s black and white and red all over?” I’d say a newspaper, but a site for kid’s riddles told me it was “a zebra with too much lipstick” But there are still classics like, “Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9! (Seven ate nine)” I wouldn’t use the ones from our book and I wish I could find the books I remember from when I was in elementary school. I’d want fun ones that would get kids thinking. I’d indulge in a little potty humor, “What’s brown and makes a sound like a bell? Dung” but the main purpose would be to get minds moving, maybe even making up their own riddles!

Didn't you like any of the ones here? Yes, most are pretty tiime-bound, but the idea is pretty timeless--the what-am-I type of riddle goes back to Medieval literature.
LOL on those you mention here--especially that humorous twist on the newspaper one. I'll add another: What did the 0 say to the 8? Nice belt!
LOL on the potty humor, too.

Not really. I didn't find them very engaging.

This topic brought out some silly discussion in my house. I asked my mom "What's black and white and red all over?" because the answer I had found when googling was not "A newspaper" as I know it, but "A zebra with too much lipstick" and I had to stop to laugh. A silly answer works better for kids I guess. An old friend of mine told me when I asked her that riddle "A zebra with a sunburn." Now my mom showed her dark sense of humor with it and told me "a nun falling down the stairs" which blew me away. She knew the newspaper answer, but she swore to her that's what it had always been. It's crazy to see things change or get taken to strange and silly extents.

LOL on these. Yes, the silly stuff appeals to kids--a reason why nonsense verse also appeals.
Here's a grodey one: What's green and hangs? Elephant snot. A sillt one (two-parter): What did Tarzan say when he say the elephants coming? "Here come the elephants!" What dod Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming wearing sunglasses? Nothing. He didn't recognize them.
Too bad you didn't like the ones in the book.

Playground Verse

2010-05-13T18:27:00.002-04:00

“Cinderella, dressed in yellow
Went upstairs to kiss her fellow
But goodness sake, it was a snake!
How many kisses did he take?”

And then counting out the jumps. Even that’s a little dated in my opinion, but that’s what I associate these with. I was terrible at jumping rope, but I loved watching. I think exposing kids to different versions of these sort of things is fun and could be interesting to them. It shows different cultures and what’s going on in some time periods. One of the clapping songs I still can’t find a good version of has different versions that involved Michael Jackson and King Kong.

If you can find that Michael Jackson/King Kong clapping song, post it.
Brian posted a longer version of the Cinderella song.
Actually, all of these were always jump rope, clapping or other activity-based rhymes, and, as Carrie notes, the activities, tied to the rhymes, get the brain as well as the body moving.
They ARE interesting from a cultural perspective, too--good material for ethnographic research.

I saw that! After googling around, I'm wondering if I'm recalling wrong or if my group of kids was just strange or mixing stuff up themselves. As soon as I posted this, I kicked myself for not bringing up my favorite clapping song, Miss Mary Mack!

I think the version I played was this one:

"Ooooh,
Down by the banks
Of the Hane-key Pan-ky
Where the bull-frogs jump
From bank to bank-key
With a hip, hop, soda pop
East side, west side
KER-PLOP!"

And we sat in this big circle with lots of kids. Everyone would sit cross legged with their hands on their knees touching the other kids hands, all palm up, everyone with a hand over lapping the kid next to them. On each syllable, one kid would clap their hand against the next kid, who would then do the same. When you were the last kid you had to move your hand out of the way, or you would be out. If you succeeded, then the kid that should have slapped your hand would be out. It was fun and got us all laughing and interacting.

The other version I found definitely shows more of the time period this came around. Or at least this version.

"Down by the banks of the hanky panky
Where the bull frogs jump from bank to bank
singin' Eeeps ipes opes oops
silly will ding dong
I pleage aligence to the flag
Michal Jackson makes me gag
Pepsi cola burt my butt
Now were talkin' 7 up
7 up has no caffine
now were talkin billy jean
Billy Jean is out of sight
now were talkin dynomite
dynomite blew up the school
Now were talkin' really cool
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1"

COOL clapping songs! Any thoughts on how they helped you--or might help other kids--develop language skills? See/hear any connections to rap here?

2010-05-13T18:25:00.002-04:00

How do you think young readers might benefit from reading stories of adventure--one in which a character or group undertakes a journey, facing and overcoming obstacles along the way? If you can recall an adventure story you read when younger, use that as an example.

This is something young readers might often find themselves doing in one form or another. The first day at school, going to a playground that’s unusual and eating lunch with strange kids that you don’t know, then later in life things like your first car trip driving alone or learning to socialize, these could all be situations in which you could relate experiences from adventure novels. Thinking of these brave individuals, like Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin off looking for honey and helping their friends or Robinson Crusoe living on his own on an island though he came from a good family back in York, it makes our more everyday tasks seem easier. When I was little I read The Boxcar Children. These were four siblings who all lived in a boxcar and had to take care of each other. I would play things out and say that our porch was my boxcar. Then at school after my friends and I watched X-Men or Power Rangers, we’d play around as if we were them. I feel like it helped us all learn to socialize and interact together better.

The best post so far on kid's tendencies to go on imaginary adventures and how that might make them "take" to adventure stories, AND on how adventure stories and make us see and approach life AS an adventure.
As I asked others,however, how does this differ from the benefits of literature in other genres (such as fantasy or sci fi) which contain (both group and individual*) adventures? What make adventure stories, in themselves, differ?
* The socialization thing also applies to any text in which characters depend on each other.

2010-05-13T18:23:00.001-04:00

For all three stories, our regular questions in one prompt: Pretend you're a teacher or parent (unless you are one). For what age groups are each of these stories most appropriate and why? How would you teach these stories to or share them with your students or children (for younger kids, focus on the Defoe or Milne; for older--but not too old--focus on the Konigsberg)? What would be your objectives? Activities to fulfill these?

I don’t feel like I’d want to work with Robinson Crusoe. While it’s a good story, I don’t like it because its form is so different from other writing that I would introduce to young people. The lack of separated dialogue really bothers me, but that might be personal choice there. The basic adventure of it is great and remarkable, there is something to be said for it being the first of its kind and one of the earliest examples of a novel with appeal to the young adult market, but I feel this telling is out of doubt terribly. If I wanted to use something like it, I’d probably go more for “The Swiss Family Robinson” which was inspired by DeFoe’s novel, while being written to teach the author’s children morals and self reliance. Not that children in this day and age will need some of the lessons that might have been more literal in the early 1900’s, but still. As an adventure book, its fine and good, just I feel there are better materials out there.
Having said that, all things considered I feel like it would be appropriate for children of maybe the 6-12 age range. This is when the child is learning their limits, how far they can take something and at what point they fail. The adventure story reinforces the independence they have already understood between 3-6 (version of this story might be good for that age range as well on the subject of independence.) and can encourage discussion of taking different methods to get to a certain end. What could Crusoe have done differently? How could he have handled the situation with Friday better? I really feel the story could use an update to be truly useful though. It can easily be used as a stepping stone to other adventure novels, like “The Swiss Family Robinson,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Johnny Tremain” and book series like “The Boxcar Children.”
Winnie the Pooh is definitely excellent for the 3-6 age range. That’s when I recall Pooh being introduced to me. Many of the characters are very much like children themselves. Obviously Christopher Robin is a child, but he takes the lead here. Pooh is also like a child, but one that is almost younger and needs to be taught and explained to by Christopher Robin. The characters are similar to different parts of the child’s own feelings. Pooh is loyal and tries very hard, Rabbit is sort of grumpy, but he means well like a parents, poor Piglet is always frightened and is to be protected. Within these stories, a child could easily take on any role they wish safely. Pooh has such a rich history and it still well known today (I think it is at least!) so I feel like this would be easier to work with. Pooh is a kid friendly, lots of animals that you know and I feel it harkens back to the animal fables with a little less moral basis maybe. You could relate these characters to others from those stories, picking favorites and making suggestions for other characters, like maybe a Fox character or something fun. Children could draw out their favorite scenes or write their own song about their adventures.

Were you perhaps also put off by the racism in this version of "Crusoe?" (BTW: The designation of "Crusoe" as the first novel in English is shaky.)
You spend a LOT of time on this, and I'm curious as to why you didn't hook into the survival-on-a-deserted-island element.
LOL on Pooh being like animal fables with less of a moral message. Thing is, aren't these also Christopher's STUFFED animals? So how about getting young children to write about their adventures with those, especially since most of them have such imaginary adventures?
Sorry for not giving you a librarian prompt on these, but I bet it'd e easy to think of a library display ad/or activity with Pooh.
I'd like your response to the Konigsberg as well--maybe a lbrarian one, linked to the art: the Metropolitan Museum has a website.
BB tends to be "obnoxious" between midnight and 4 A.M.--they do backup--but initial posts in this class are always due on Wednesday.

The Long Rain

2010-05-13T18:21:00.000-04:00

So I'm unsure what's going on with the player you posted because it shows up as a black bar, but then I don't use compatible browsers more often than not so maybe that's just me.

This started off so slowly. When the monster/storm came in, it was more interesting. I don't see why it took so long to name Picard. I also wonder the time period when this was written because I have trouble imagining men on Venus that weren't wearing space suits or something. The idea seems so novel today. When they got so excited, I knew something was going to be wrong in the dome. This isn't just sci-fi, it's like the end of the world for these men. Honestly, at the end I was pretty invested, I was raelly worried that he was just dreaming.

I'd rather read to someone than be read to I feel. I used audio books to put myself to sleep when staying in hotels and when I had my eye surgery a couple years back, so this is just what I've gotten used to. I feel like I might have liked this more in writing. I usually love short stories.

How'd you finally get to hear it? Sorry you didn't get full enjoyment, due to your prior experiece with audio books.

The slow start discussion here is interesting, but isn't that Bradbury setting the sci-fi scene?

On the ending--deliberately ambiguous, to leave the reader thinking--as it obviously did all of you.

This was actually written in the 60's--and a lot of that earlier sci fi is rougher than the stuff you've read.

He does set the scene. It almost seemed warlike, but I guess it's more nature vs. man than man vs. man. Or even alien vs. man in a sense, since even the nature of the planet is alien to the men.

Ah, yeah, true. I mean, Asimov seemed to cover his bases when it came to protection and such from his "I, Robot" stories, but I think that was also partly to really put the robots to work as he intended to be seen. I've decided I can manage with this, but a part of me is still blown that these men didn't even wear hats or something covering their heads if they knew they'd be in the rain.

So you played it in Windows Media Player? The most comprehensive work-around is to install and use Mozilla Firefox as your browser.

Interesting thoughts on the conflict here, but you get that the "slow" part is exposition--and setting it up as sci fi.

On the other thing, nice (and careful) contrast to Asimov, but isn't the lack of protection integral to the story? This gets off the sci fi as future elements, but Bradbury published the story in the late 40's, and the situation the characters are in mirrors in certain ways that of soldiers in the Pacific conflict during WWII.

2010-05-13T16:32:00.004-04:00

For what ages do you think his (and McIntyre's) writing is appropriate and why? What do you think children of that age might learn (or how might they otherwise benefit) from reading this material?

The use of snakes was a little creepy, but interesting as I read. These creatures are treated with respect and that's a good example for children. The fact that there were three parents was a little confusing to me, but it's honestly easily glossed over. I feel like this story could help children learn to accept others that are different from themselves as they see more tolerance in the child, Stavin, than in his family. Considering the suggestion of more than just a friendship between Snake and Arevin, I feel like this reflects a stronger rating, but since nothing actually happens and she only noticed his body then that also weighs in.

I feel this could be acceptable for maybe about 10 or 11? I mostly base this off of my own reading as a child though. That was about the age when I started reading series, such as Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. The former could get rather violent at times and the second had light violence and implied sexuality. This is the same area i'd place this story in.

You and Tamara were the only ones to hit on what I see as the main theme of the McIntyre--acceptance of and respect for difference.
The hints of adult material you see here become actuality later in this novel, so I'd go with that stronger rating:-)
Like you, I read sci fi early on--mostly Bradbury and Heinlein at 11 (I've read Card and McCafreey since).
Any thoughts, given your familiarity with the genre, on its benefits in general as the literature of the possible?

Well, sci-fi introduces ideas that because of their position they seem as though they could actually be attainable. Heck, looking back we can see people dreaming of things that we ourselves have since attained or are currently working toward. It sets people to dreaming and thinking. Cellphones, computers, laptops particularly, even robotic endeavors were inspired by science fiction to some degree. The idea of robots was actually around long before the technology could even be properly dreamed of. The very term "robot" was first a term from a play written by Karel Čapek in 1920.

NAILED it--and it's possible that those who read sci fi as kids were inspired by that to go on and create these inventions. Doesn't sci fi, in part, also drive all who dream of and work toward space travel and colonization? And how about sci fi and quantum physics?
Good on the reference Capek, though the IDEA of robots/automatons goes much further back.

[The except from Dreamsnake can be found here.]

Book Banning Sci-Fi

2010-05-13T16:15:00.003-04:00

As far as science fiction novels for young adults, I'd want to any young adult I know to read the same book I've recommended to so many people and have even bought copies for it as gifts. Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game". The author has some politics that I don't agree with, but honestly, I've gotten to a point of when I enjoy a book I try not to worry about that. A six year old boy, a Third in a society where you're only allowed two children unless sanctioned by the Government, is taken from his family to be trained as the commander of the world's forces against the Buggers, aliens that had tried to attack the Earth in the past. These are very intelligent children and they learn how to deal with growing up, bullies, situations that are out of their hands with logic and cool minds. I would have children read this and discuss ways they would use to solve the problems that Ender faces, choices that he's made.

This week I'll throw this link at you guys: Scifi Books That Have Been Banned in the 21st Century

I'm always saddened when I see books like The Giver on the list. I mean, it's a good book and it shows us things growing up that we might not have even thought of before. His Dark Materials I see the reason for banning it, but honestly I feel like it could just as easily be taken as an enjoyable story as well. Not child is going to sit there and examine a novel and then start questioning their religion because of it. Frankly, young adulthood is a time when lots of children question well, everything. A book series isn't going to be a deciding factor.

It also disturbs me that you see "reasons for banning" His Dark Materials--though I don't think you meant it that way:-)
Good poit about young adulthood as a time of questioning, but is that the best defense of sci fi that you can come up with

It's more being able to see where they take their ideas from than actually agreeing with their ideas.

Well, as a genre it gives kids a safe place to see strong issues, like racism, that otherwise might be pussy footed around in a regular novel. They see a world that could be, like in The Giver, and it gets them thinking if they want this or if they don't, and what they can do about it. It introduces new ideas that aren't easily introduced.

Thought so--just wanted to make sure--and to get you to clarify:-)
Okay on the rest--but true of many forms of literature. I'm talking about the nature of sci fi as a genre, as the literature of the possible (possible futures, mainly).

Banned Books

2010-05-13T16:12:00.002-04:00

50 Banned Books That Every Should Read

I'll say the most shocking reason I've found given for books being banned is that they "show disobedience toward adults." I'm sorry, but isn't that called being a child? Aren't we all disobedient at times? It'd be a sad state if children only acted up because of reading one book where the children acted up. These books have so much to offer. The Golden Compass's protagonist is precocious and willful, but she's bright and she's a loyal friend. Harry Potter goes through so many hardships, from the death of the parents he never knew, to this strange all powerful wizard that pursues him, and the loss of mentors and friends along the way, and though he doesn't always deal well wit it, who would? Though the story is based in a magical realm, his character is the hero on a quest which we all know very well and frankly I've always loved.

I also came across this interesting article about banned fantasy from Vivian Vande Velde!

I haven't actually heard of Vivian Vande Velde, but I love her opinion on this. Parents should certainly be involved instead of just poopooing something they've never touched and have only been told about. When something gets labeled as taboo, it becomes more enticing just as she's said. A good friend of mine told me before that she doesn't want to be some nosy parent, but that she would be reading the novels her children read and I told her there was nothing wrong with that. Honestly, fewer books would be banned if parents and teachers took the time to give an appraising eye instead of just going with a hard of naysayers. I'm going to pull a quote on one of the author's own books here:

"Dragon's Bait is about a girl who gets accused of something she hasn't done. Just about everyone has found him or herself in this situation at some time or another. I wanted to explore her reactions, I wanted readers to connect with her, but I didn't want people to connect so closely that their own experiences got in the way. So I had her be accused of something I figured the majority of my readers had probably NOT been accused of: being a witch. So they can recognize her problem, they can relate it back in a general way to their own lives, they can judge her actions, but they aren't so caught up in the specifics that they lose track of the fact that being accused of something you didn't do is a universal theme."

This is absolutely true. We've all been there and fantasy is a safe way to experience it. We're disconnected enough to not feel embarrassed or worried, to feel safe still, but we can watch how this character takes a situation and handles it while wondering what we'd do and relate it to our own lives. That's the point of good fiction I feel. To connect. The books that stay with you are the ones you connect best with.

Good links, and not a disjointed rant.
Agreed that more parents should read these books with their kids--that way, they'd see the things you (and Van de Velte) see in them, rather than the things their churches and other conservative advisors tell them. (Good on the disobedient child idiocy here, but these folks object to much more, including fantasy and magic in and of themselves.)
However, the question becomes HOW to get them to do this.
Libraries could play a role here--maybe oanel discussions on these issues.
Back to "Summe Reading" for a second: any ideas on using that story in a library setting--or ideas for libraries better supporting summer reading assignments?

Alice Vs. The Time Warp Trio

2010-05-13T16:07:00.001-04:00

How might young readers respond to and benefit from reading Alice in Wonderland and "Summer Reading is Killing Me"?

I think young readers would enjoy the fun of both stories. Alice involves such turn around talking that it could be confusing, but has a fun flow and I think that young readers, children who know the story from movies could really enjoy Alice's adventures and wandering. As I said elsewhere, I don't think teens would take to Alice very much because I feel that they might feel condescended to when they're told Alice's reasoning for thinking things or even just following Alice herself as the girl tries to sound much wiser than she is at times and that could get annoying. Most people can still relate to Alice though in theory. We've all been in positions where we had no idea what was going on and felt like the rest of the world knew exactly what it was about.

With the Time Warp Trio, I think it's more contemporary and would be easier for anyone to get into. The language is plain and easy to flow with. The three boys are easy to relate to yourself or your friends. Even you you aren't the Joe, we all know a Sam and Fred. Kids can read this and feel connected to the characters, but in this particular one they can also meet characters that could draw them to other books in an easy and safe way. The Girl character that combines so many is brave and where this seems like a set of books that young girls could also be interested in though it's aimed at boys, that character is a perfect set up to draw them to other books series and classics as well.

AS Carrie's reply to this suggests, I wish that everyone, like you (though you're already a fantasy fan) got that this stuff IS fun.
I need to remind myself to change that "young readers" to "independent readers." :-)
On the Alice/Scieszka (language) thing, think it's a matter of the Alice books being Victorian? Seen charcters like Alice anywhere else in the fantasy lit? On the language/appeal of the Alice books, might those independent readers (or younger) benefit from the nonsense stuff?
LOL on the paranoid thing here.
Good on why contemporary readers might relate more easily to the Sciezka, and good (as Carrie notes) on the Girl as hero, but what I ike best and would like to hear more about is how the story might draw readers to other books--and how about the humor in this?

2010-05-13T15:44:00.002-04:00

Pretend you're a middle to high school teacher or that (if you don't) you have kids old enough to read these. Which of these two works would you cover in your classroom or your kids? What would be your objectives? Activities?

Young adults in this day and age I don’t think would take well to Alice in Wonderland as it is. Perhaps in another format, but not the original story I feel. The language and attitude toward children reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia with how it addresses the child’s mind. It’s a manner of explaining what the child was thinking or their reasons for acting as they have that I liked as an adult but was always unsure about as a teen because I would think “No, I know this character and I know why they are doing this. Why are you telling me?” But it’s for that sake I lean toward the Time Warp Trio. I’m unsure though whether this is an example of modern children’s thinking or the dumbing down of children’s literature because I just feel that Alice should be introduced to a child when they are younger, maybe elementary school. Also while I feel Alice is classic, I think teens especially tend to like more contemporary novels, just looking at what’s popular today can indicate that.
I also feel that “Summer Reading Is Killing Me” is a great segway into more advanced novels and any reader would get excited when they recognize a character from other readings! They not only involved classic characters, but also the kids from the Wayside School which was a favorite of mine in youth and the concept of “The Girl” blending together for them was sort of hilarious. As a female reader though, I would have liked to see novels that The Girl’s various faces actually came from on that reading list included at the end of the story. As much as I loved to read,m I used to hate summer/assigned reading because I didn’t like being forced to read, but books have become more fun over the years and schools are more open I feel.

On dumbing down: the Alice books appeal to different readers differently at different ages, and a lot of fantasy-loving teems, tweens and younger independent readers were exposed to fantasy through them; fewer since Harry Potter.
Why do you feel "Summer Reading" might lead young readers to read more advanced fiction?
Do you think you might've enjoyed summer reading more had you read this story to prepare for it? Why or why not?

Theseus

2010-05-13T15:40:00.001-04:00

Which myths would you cover in your classroom or share with your children? Why? What would be your objectives and what activities would you use to reach these objectives?

I’d have no issue with sharing the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur with children, though of course the age of the child would impact which telling I would use. I always felt something shorter and more concise was more drawing to children. Chapter books to be handled in a chapter a sitting and so on mostly because that’s how I still read myself when I have the chance. Limiting my reading time and cutting off at author approved pausing points, cliffhanger or no, is best when you’re busy I’ve always felt, but that’s neither here nor there.
Theseus’s adventure with the Minotaur is exciting and fine for young children. The Minotaur is a little scary maybe, but again that depends on the telling I feel. Godwin’s telling was short and sweet. He didn’t go into great detail, but that leaves more to the imagination at times. The death of Aegean in the end was sad, but that sort of thing does happen in fairytales as well and few bat an eye.
Hawthorne's telling is more interesting and more like a story than a simple summary. Here we actually see the process of Theseus being brave, we see the action as opposed to being told about it. We actually truly meet Ariadne, who in one version I've read in the past he took her with him back home and another he took her, but left her on a nearby island. I rather like this ending instead, it shows her to be a strong female in her own right. I feel this would be the telling I would deliver to children.
Kingsley also told a story. He worked in the story of Icaros (or Icarus) flying too close to the sun with his wax wings that melted and led to his death. The story again runs the same, though here we see Ariadne and Theseus developing feelings for one another and she leaving with him.
I do wish that there had been more variety and less a matter of presenting the same myth told differently though. I know there were still the other two, but there are so many myths out there and not just Greek! I feel that I'd want to promote as much mythology as I could, though I admit that I would mostly use Greek tales to bring in children who have heard or seen references to such things in their shows, movies, and cartoons. I love displays, so maybe during a mythology week, there could be an event where kids could get worksheets with mazes or maybe large maze on a dry erase board they could take up and get a free bookmark for playing. I'd also involve things that would be readily recognizable, such as Hercules and Pegasus.

Agreed that myths in certain versions are as fine as fairy tales to young kids; also agreed that myths are a great way to introduce kids to many cultures, and I'd include these, as well as other Greek myths, during Mythology Week at your library.

Legends

2010-05-13T15:37:00.001-04:00

To which of these or other legends would you expose your students or children? Why? What would be your objectives and what activities would you use to reach these objectives?

Legends are really wide spread, even if we don't always call something a legend. Maybe because I'm American, but I didn't realize that Robin Hood and King Arthur were actually considered legends. It makes good sense, just not something I had previously thought of.
My personal favorite was always King Arthur and the various versions of it. I feel like there are so many different re-tellings that almost everyone could find a version they like, adult and children. While "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is good, I feel like I'd rather share something like "The Sword and the Stone" to children because Arthur is still a child and isn't yet king until he pulls the sword from the stone. And yeah, technically I'm working off of the movie but I know there is a book of it.
I'd love to have a big display like a castle to hold the books with a stone with a sword in it in front of it. Of course, all fake. Then have a big poster or easel with paper where kids could write down something they'd like to decree if their were suddenly king or queen.

Nice idea for a library display on Arhurian literature--and maybe on all those fantasy works based on it.
The Sword in the Stone is a section in my favorite retelling of the Arthurian legends--T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Might have done this last semester, but I REALLY recommend that.
You shou;d also recall the discussion of the SArturian material in 243--it IS all legend, and one of England's founding myths.

2010-05-13T15:31:00.001-04:00

From the text:
Do you interpret the whole and then the parts, or the parts and then the whole? And if the process is sequential, what determines the sequence? Where do you look first? What do you see first? How do you construct the meaning of the picture? (Actually, one might substitute "the child" for "you" here, IF you know how a child might see your picture or can get a child to answer these questions.)
Also: What are the schemes of color and/or of light and dark in your picture? How about layout: how things and people are positioned? How about arrangement of people and objects by shape and size?

This video is of a little girl reading my favorite picture book, "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans out loud. She can be difficult to understand and she gets a little loud at certain points, but there are also subtitles. I don't know the little girl, but I figured this would be good. The note for it said she had it memorized, which is more noticeable at sometimes than others. I found myself remembering a lot of the lines myself.
I'd present the parts and then want it to be taken as a whole after the fact. You can't rush a child and each page has a different rich image on it so go along with the text beneath, so each page should be taken as its own. I'd say picture first, it draws the eye, though hopefully soon after the text and than maybe revisit and talk about the pictures. This is me, of course. I do have a niece and nephew, but not regular access to them. Remembering what I used to do, the pictures always drew my attention first and from past experiences with my nephew, Tyee also likes to jump to pictures first.
The thing about Madeline books is the repetition. You knew whatever was going to happen, there would be the "twelve little girls in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline" And we would follow this brave little girl that would say "Pooh-Pooh" to tigers and frighten poor Miss Clavel like crazy! They almost always started the same way, so you could sit back and enjoy the art as well.
As the pictures go, there are two main types. The first we see is much like the cover, outdoor scenes with Paris landmarks that show the girls in their two straight lines. The illustration style reminds me of old paintings, I can't pinpoint by whom. The second type of image is mostly with indoor scenes, times where we need to pay attention to the actions of the characters (especially Madeline) so the background is a plain yellow, much like the yellow of the dresses the little girls all wear. Probably one of the most interesting things I noticed revisiting this is how the little girls' lines only seem to go wrong when the page is about Madeline, though not always, it did happen very often.

Thanks for this--I read this as a child, so it brings up memories for me, too!
On the parts vs. whole thing, I meant individual pictures rather than books--doing this here will help if you ever serve as a children's librarian, not only sharing books with children, but in choosing and designing posters/online images that will engage small children.
Good, but I'd like more, on the interaction between pictures and text.
The artwork reminds me of early Impressionism.
Interesting on that last remark--do you mean the text or the images?

Plays: Peter Pan

2010-05-11T00:36:00.002-04:00

Peter Pan is also a fantasy, so consider how seeing it might affect or benefit a child of a particular age.
How would you present this play in your classroom or share it with your children? What objectives and activities would you associate with the play?

Children soak in everything. With plays, they see another world played out in front of them. I’m a firm believer that plays should be seen and not read. I was fortunate enough that my grandmother agreed with me so I went to see Cats and Annie with her when I was growing up, along with Evita, Taming of the Shrew (in the round! It was amazing!) and plenty others thanks to school programs. I feel Peter Pan is appealing to a good range of kids, and young ones would love to see it performed. With a library setting, I’d have not a fully cast performance, but maybe a shadow puppet or regular puppet show performed for the kids. Kids should always be encouraged to participate and have fun, so were I working in a school program I would gladly help them put on Peter Pan with child actors. I feel that middle school is getting too old or this, but elementary seems good to me. I always loved Peter Pan for being interactive and younger is better here because I feel that children can suspend their belief more easily as they are younger. Whether you believe in fairies or not, it’s difficult to not want to clap for Tink to live when the play is done well. It’s infectious!
The play itself is fun and good. Wendy, John, and Michael and mostly just playing pretend throughout. They learn that though you should remain a child as long as you’re permitted, there is a time to grow up and take up responsibilities. Wendy especially, and young girls through her, finds that the role of mother while fun can be trying and that she really isn’t a mother yet, but she certainly is aging. Peter on the other hand doesn’t learn and he never will. He isn’t unhappy, but he is alone in the end. I'm sad for Peter in the end because other versions he does go back and one I swear he fell in love with Wendy's granddaughter or daughter or something. I found that very sweet.

Like a few (too few:-() others, you has the experience with live theatre that most kids have--it's much more interactive than movies.
Cute idea for the library.
Not sure middle (or even high school) is too old for this--my nephew (in the picture) was in late middle school when he played Peter, and the audience ranged in age from 2 to 70--and all loved it, nit to mention clapping for Tink:-).
Good on the themes.
I recall the version you mention--might it have been the Mary Martin?

It is really hard to beat theatre first hand. Something my wife and I are trying to do is expose our children to such. We know it will only benefit them and help give them an appreciation for something other than movies and tv.
Shadow puppets. Now that is an intersting concept and I do believe the children would love it.

The Convergence of the Twain

2010-05-10T22:32:00.000-04:00

"The Convergence of the Twain" is about the event made famous for us in the movie Titanic. Focus on the way the events unfold in the poem, and try to articulate the point the poem makes about it.

This poem is beautifully worded. The style is different, simpler than the other poems we’ve read from Hardy. The image presented is that of the Titanic being almost not savaged as much as artistically and naturally overtaken by the sea, like it was being accepted into this different world. The idea Hardy wants us to see is that even this was supposed to happen. That the moment this ship came into creation, it's companion iceberg was already out there somewhere, waiting.

“Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent will that stir and urges everything

Prepared a sinister mate
For her- So gaily great-
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.”

The Ruined Maid

2010-05-10T22:31:00.000-04:00

"The Ruined Maid" isn't on the Schedule, but I think some might want to respond to it. What is the poem's attitude toward the "ruined" Amelia--"ruined" meaning that she's a prostitute.

The attitude toward prostitution doesn’t seem a bad one. The primary speaker talks about Amelia’s changes for the better, how Amelia dresses more fashionably, speaker properly, even her skin and hands are finer, softer and her attitude is even brighter. The speaker, Amelia’s old friend even comments on how she wishes she could be like Amelia and have these nice things, but Amelia tells her, “My dear- A raw country girl, such as you be,//Cannot quite expect that. You ain’t ruined.” I feel that Amelia doesn’t want the two lives to cross. Her answers are simple, all saying that she’s “ruined” without further discussion. Her friend, the speaker doesn’t seem to quite understand this, only seeing her for her finery. The speaker accepts her and almost seems in awe.

The Darkling Thrush

2010-05-10T21:44:00.001-04:00

As the note to "The Darkling Thrush" points out, the poem was written (or at least dated) on the eve of the 20th century. As with "Neutral Tones," focus in your response to this on the speaker's tone as it is reflected in the imagery, paying particular attention to the description of the thrush (a type of bird).

Here it is winter. Our speaker is leaning on a gate in a forested place, seemingly alone, checking out nature around him. He compares the landscape to the ending century, “The land’s sharp features seemed to be//The Century’s corpse outleant” Which is a scary image, a corpse leaning out of its coffin. Maybe as though it was watching its final moments pass by. The whole night seems to be as lacking in zeal as the speaker, or so he thinks, “And every spirit upon earth//Seemed fervourless as I.” Then comes the thrush. In all this drabness, the thrust is this sudden sort of jolt of joy.

“At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illuminated”

Though the thrush is not a young and fresh creature, but “aged… frail, gaunt, and small” so it doesn’t represent the newness of the coming century. I’d say that his song was the possibility of hope for something new and incredible in the future.

“That I could think there trembled through,
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.”

What did you think of the poem?

Neutral Tones

2010-05-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

I (and others) find "Neutral Tones" to be the bitterest poem in the English language. Focus in your response to this mainly on the speaker's tone and on how it is reflected in the imagery.
--
At first I thought the term was bittersweet, but no, bitter is fitting with this poem. The speaker is one of a pair, likely lovers considering the final stanza. The speaker is recalling this scene, this lover, though he admits that other happenings have colored the memories since these events.

"Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves."

The poem is set in winter, which can be beautiful, but is not described as such here. Where the sun could have been white like fresh snow or something pleasant, it’s instead “white, as though chidden of God” the grass if “starving sod” the leaves were “from an ash, and gray” which I feel was just to heighten the drabness of this scene. It’s richly drab if that’s anything. Even the way his lover looks at him. “Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove//Over tedious riddles of years ago” Where she is obviously studying him, he gives the image age and a sort of boredom or tedious nature. One would eventually get bored of studying ancient riddles or at least tire of it. Even her smile and grin were remembered foully. Her smile was “the deadest thing//Alive enough to have strength to die” then her grin was “a grin of bitterness thereby//Like an ominous bird a-wing.” One wonders if this was a foul and dark memory before the pair obviously turned out poorly with hatred at least from his side.

Hap

2010-05-10T21:33:00.001-04:00

In explicating "Hap," focus on the ways in which it represents what I say above about Hardy's view of the world being ruled only by happenstance, chance, and situational irony.

The whole poem is about chance, that being the meaning of its name even. The speaker is unhappy due to some sort of misfortune in chance. In the first stanza, he says that if a “vengeful god” would just tell him that “thy sorrow is [my] ecstacy” that this god might take some joy from the speaker’s own pain, then he could bear the hard, being “Half-eased in that a Powerfuller then I//Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.” Meaning that he could then bear it because it meant that someone had gotten pleasure from his sorrow. However, he then says that this is not so. He doesn’t believe that he has been given his lot by gods, but by time and chance and that “The purblind Doomsters had as readily strown//Blisses about my pilgramage as pain.” Which leads him to believe that his bad times could have just as easily been good times, but for the matter of chance.

What stood out the most for you?

A Room of One's Own: Judith Shakespeare

2010-05-10T21:10:00.000-04:00

What does Woolf's story of Judith Shakespeare say about women writers in the Elizabethan era? Throughout history up until Woolf's time?

...

Musee des Beaux Arts

2010-05-10T20:39:00.002-04:00

"Musee des Beaux Arts" is one of several poems based upon Pieter Brueghel's painting The Fall of Icarus. The other most famous one is by the American poet William Carlos Williams. Auden's speaker here (like those in many of his poems, suave, understated, ironic--here, as often, in spite of the horrors or desolation he describes) begins by describing several other paintings by the Dutch Old Masters in this imaginary Museum of Fine Arts, using what he says of them to lead into the remarks on the Bruegel painting. In responding to this poem, consider how it relates to the painting, but also discuss its broader message about human suffering.

The poem talks about the continuation of life. How it’s only human to continue on toward the next birth instead of simply mourning the pain and suffering of the time, though the younger generation will never appreciate this while they are young. “How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting//For the miraculous birth, there always must be//Children who did not specially want it to happen” and how the Dutch masters understood this process well. “About suffering they were never wrong,//The Old Masters: how well they understood//Its human position” Then the speaker concentrates on The Fall of Icarus. The painting is well described and truly, no one is watching the man’s failure. Though his failure was important to him, a situation of life and death that ended in death, it wasn’t important to the average man. “the ploughman may//Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,//But for him it was not an important failure” There is a ship that likely saw the man fly, but no face shows towards Icarus in the water as they still have their own business. “and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen//Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,//Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly away.” Even the sun only showed on Icarus only because it must. “the sun shone//As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green//Water” I feel that the speaker is trying to say that suffering is inevitable and we must take it in stride and look forward to the positive things as opposed to the negative. Though the aged were looking forward to the next birth, they could have just as easily been awaiting their own death.

You get hung up on the age thing (and first painiting) in this reading--isnt the poem more about the "human position" of suffering, about how we all, wrapped up in our own lives and concerns, tend to overlook the suffering of others?

In Memory of W.B. Yeats

2010-05-10T20:37:00.001-04:00

Auden wrote (or finished) "In Memory of W.B. Yeats" shortly after Yeats died as an elegy to Yeats (and it is one of the best 20th century elegies). However, like Yeats' "Under Ben Bulben," it's also a poem about poetry. Consider in your response how the poem addresses BOTH things.
Also, after reading "In Memory of W.B. Yeats," go back to Yeats' "Under Ben Bulben" and see if you see any similarities or hear any echoes between the two poems; if so, note those in your response.

The poem starts off with beautifully crafted imagery. It’s as though the whole world mourns Yeats. “The brooks were frozen, the air-ports almost deserted,//And snow disfigured the public statues;//The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day” It’s useful to the speaker that this death did happen in winter as it lends itself so easily to a world in mourning. The next part involving the river flowing and the wolves running however, contradicts this. This then suggests that things continued on, outright calling out that his poetry would continue on regardless of Yeats’ death. “The death of the poet was kept from his poems.”
One of the noticeable points that this and “Under Ben Bulben” seem to have in common is the commentary on calling people to the arts, something Yeats had done at other times as well and is likely an homage to him in this piece as well as a continued call.

With a farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress

A man can only do so much in his life, and should reach for greater, something I recall from “Ben Bulben.” The final lines truly call this to mind: “In the prison of his days//Teacher the free man how to praise.”

Good (and funny) on the setting/mood, and good on one of the main echos of "Ben Bulben," but don't both address and give advice to poets?
Doesn't this poem also say other, more subtle things about the poet and his work than that the work lives on, and what do you think of what this poem says of poetry?

Fern Hill

2010-05-10T20:34:00.001-04:00

In reading "Fern Hill," it might be helpful to keep in mind Wordworth's "We Are Seven" and Hopkins' "Spring and Fall"--for this poem, like those, is about our obliviousness to death in early youth. Focus on how Thomas gets this idea across, paying close attention to the words and images. Also, read this poem ALOUD, and focus too on what makes this unrhymed poem so powerfully poetic.

The poem still had an interesting rhythm to it without the rhyming. I feel like it might relate to their being similar sounds, alliteration, but subtly and the repeated use of certain words. “Trail with daisies and bar’ley’…. And as I was green and care’free’…. Time let me play and ‘be’….” Then there is the repetition of certain words, like green. Green here shows both the green and pleasantness of this scene as well as the naivety that goes with youth. In the end, green is mentioned in relation to death and time, so perhaps there it’s more relatable to the green of eroded brass like on a watch. Golden is also repeated, expressing the joy of youth and the enjoyment of naivety. You can’t be brought down by things you don’t know about. Unlike the other two poems we’ve read, this is the narrator looking back at their youth and seeing it with new eyes. He sees the joy he held, and he says the carefree state. While the others suggest that one day this state will change, for the speaker here it already has.

Decent on the poetics here, but also note the syllable counts in the lines:-)

Decent, too on the green and golden, but on the "tarnish" thing, not--see the last lines.

Great on the different focus/adress of this as compared to the others.

BUT--how does this poem affect you?

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

2010-05-10T20:33:00.001-04:00

In responding to "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower," discuss how it illustrates what the Editors say on p. 2444: "Thomas saw the workings of biology as a magical transformation producing unity out of diversity, and again and again in his poetry he sought a poetic ritual to celebrate this unity." Also discuss the meaning of the repeated phrase, "And I am dumb to tell."

You can see the fusion easily here. The speaker takes scientific explanations and gives them an almost magical air. He does not say why such a thing is so, just that it is so and it does this. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower//Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees//Is my destroyer.” This natural force that brings flowers to grow and bloom he equates to the natural forces that age the human body. The concept makes excellent sense, as a plant doesn’t just bloom, it must age first from a seedling. “And I am dumb to…” I feel suggests that the speaker feels almost silly making these suggestions, that such natural things could not be so related to the human body or condition, and yet they are. The final two lines sum this up I feel. “And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb//How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.” Suggesting that the speaker is still aging and already in a sense decaying much like the already dead.

Interesting on the science angle here--definitely 20th-century stuff, but in an almost Biblical tone.
Good on the life force angle, but see my replies to Ash and Erica (and all) on the "I am dumb to tell."

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

2010-04-29T16:13:00.002-04:00

After reading "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and making some notes on it, click on this link to hear Yeats reading the poem. Focus in your response on how his reading confirms, adds to or alters your understanding of the poem.

As I read the poem, I felt it was a longing. The footnote I feel agrees with this. This is his ideal wish, to create this home for himself in Innisfree. The first stanza has him describing the place, “And a small cabin will I have there, of clay and wattles made” He even says he will have bean rows and bees, perhaps things he had growing up or that help him recall his joyful days there. The speaker feels he’ll find peace at this place, “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,//Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the crickets sings” He feels peace can be found in this sort of place because it’s not some maddening fast paced environment. The speaker even feels pulled to this other place, as he heard the sound of the lake he missed where ever he went, sort of haunting him.

"I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core."

Listening to it, I feel my opinion and his agree on this poem. He sounds like a sad old man when he reads this poem.

No Second Troy

2010-04-29T16:12:00.002-04:00

"No Second Troy" almost HAS to be read as authobiographical, containing pretty clear references to Maud Gonne. (Another poem Yeats wrote to/for her, which the ladies might find touching, is "The Folly of Being Comforted".) Interestingly, however, Yeats transcends the personal by identifying Maud Gonne with Helen of Troy. Focus on this in your response.

The references to Gonne are for her passion as a revolutionary activist and her strength in that. The similarities between herself and Helen of Troy make good sense when thinking of it from Yeats’ point of view. He loved her as men loved Helen, leading to the infamous war. What I suggest though, is that the speaker’s Helen is not just some great beauty, but a woman of strong passion that can make things for herself. The speaker asks, “Was there another Troy for her to burn?” which suggests many things. Would this woman be the downfall to great nations, perhaps by way of revolutional inspirations? To me, I feel she is as the title suggests. “No Second Troy” meaning she will not be one to be used and an item to be stolen.

Yes, the speaker (or Yeats) sees her this way, but Gonne also turned many other men's (and more politically involpved ones) heads.
On the title, maybe you're right, but maybe it also means she does what she does BECAUSE there is no second Troy for her to cause to be burned--that she's a Helen outside of her proper (heroic) time?
See Yeats' other poems on the Irish Rebellion--he was pretty ambivalent about it.

I enjoyed reading this poem there were times when I felt like the speaker was describing Maude and there were other times when the speaker was describing Helen. I especially felt that the first half of the poem was specifically about Maude and the second half of the poem was specifically about Helen. What do you think?

Easter 1916 & September 1913

2010-04-29T16:08:00.002-04:00

Before you read "Easter 1916," read "September 1913." In responding to these, focus on the different views of/attitudes toward the Irish expressed in these poems, and speculate (having read the intro to Yeats in the book) about what caused this difference.
I feel that “September” could be better set to music than “Innisfree” because of the repetition of that final line. Not overly relevant, just a thought there. “September” is about what Yeats sees as a lack of passion in his countrymen. Here specifically, the speaker speaks of a lack of passion for the arts at first, with the reference to the lack of care the middle class held for the possibility of housing a collection of French impressionist painting when all that was asked for was a place to put them. Later the speaker brings in mention of prominent figures in the fight for Ireland’s freedom. He suggests that if they could go back and “call those exiles as they were” that people would still say they were made mad by “some woman’s yellow hair” lured into their behaviors by means beyond themselves. That is just dismissive and disrespectful of them, which I feel is what is being expressed in this poem. His repeated line, “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,//It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” is I feel the simplest sum of this poem.

In “Easter” we see Yeats taking back his previous words. The speaker here talks of knowing these men, these people likely when he held the opinions expressed in “September”, but that they have since changed, “All changed, changed utterly://A terrible beauty is born.” as he repeats here. He again lists of people who fought, most who were executed, then goes on talking about the change. The speaker here sees that the people have changed; they don’t just sit idly by and allow things to happen around it.

You only get the first poem at the end--how does that refrain relate to what the speaker is saying of the Irish in the first?
Better on the second, but how would you characterize the tone of it (especially that "A terrible beauty is born")? See an attitude toward the Uprising developing between "No Second Troy" and this?
If you want a poem that REALLY should be set to music, respond to "Who Goes With Fergus." (actually, though, "Down By the Salley Gardens" is the one poem of Yeats that has most often been set to music).

Under Ben Bulben

2010-04-29T16:06:00.002-04:00

"Under Ben Bulben" is a self-epitaph, written in anticipation of the poet's own death.It begins (first three parts) by transferring an ancient sybil (female soothsayer) to Ireland, and goes on to talk of Irish history and the Irish.
We’re set off with mystical images: Sages and the Witch of Atlas, horsemen and fairy women, a company of immortals that travels through the dawn by the mountain, Ben Bulben. I feel with this presentation, these are all the same people. The next stanza speaks of the mortality of man. The speaker suggests that no matter how a person might die, it is not death they fear, but “A brief parting from those dear” and once dead their burial carries them along to their final eternity. I find this suggestion interesting; it involves no mention of Heaven or Hell, simply eternity and what waits there, being your loved ones. The third stanza goes on to reference John Mitchel, Irish nationalist, who called men to arms with his line, “Send war in our time, O Lord!” It almost reads as standing to fight is a natural position to man,
“Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind
He complete his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease.”
Also saying that all men feel this at some point of time, “Before he can accomplish fate//Know his work or choose his mate.”
I can see the soothsayer business in the first part, the sybil being part of the company at the start. I don’t personally know Irish mythology, but the belief that when you’re put into the ground it you pass along into eternity was also slightly mentioned in “Dead Man’s Dump”, though Rosenburg did not specify eternity, he say that the dead soldiers had returned to the earth, making me feel that the burial of a body might be a key factor in their mourning and passing process.

In part 4, the speaker addresses the Irish poet, tracing the history of art from Michaelangelo to the unsatisfactory present, which he calls upon the present Irish poet to improve.
This continues in part 5, where the speaker gives more specific direction to the Irish poets.
This section is a plee to the artists (including writers I’m sure, but here most named are especially of artistic merit) to continue creating, to make great works like Michaelanglo’s Sistine Chapel that has lasted the ages can continue to be creating and give a beautiful meaning to life and representation of a further purpose. The second artist he mentions, Quattrocento created works of dreamy images that also gave the speaker thoughts of the eternal. Then he calls up artists and poets, which both include Blake and more than one are followers of Blake, which makes good sense in this context. Blake was not only a master, but his strong faith and works of faith fit in perfectly. The speaker doesn’t just want art for art’s sake, he wants it to have meaning, to show people that there is more beyond this existence and to give a spark to life.

Finally, in part 6, the poem focuses on Yeats himself, his life, his grave and epitaph. In responding, expand on these notes, quoting to support your commentary. As I say in the schedule, we'll come back to this poem when we get to W.H. Auden's "In Memory of W.B. Yeats."
It’s rather morbid honestly, I couldn’t imaging writing something about my grave like this. I feel here again, he wishes to push for a lack of vanity in himself. He wants his grave simple, “No marble, no conventional phrase” At his grave he wants the words, “Cast a cold eye/On life, on death.//Horseman, pass by!” I feel that he is still pushing for us to think about more than just living and existing, to actually work to make something of oneself and to give a meaning to life. Also I feel he suggests we should not fear death, as possibly the speaker no longer does. By this point, I know Yeats had buried many friends, so I feel he has come to accept it in this.

On the first 3 parts, isn't Yeats' speaker actually focusing on the continuum of Irish history and culture, placing that within the context of the whole of history, and suggesting that when Irishmen dies, they become a part of that history, that culture? And isn't he tracging Irish history to his time? Doesn't this tie it better to the next part, on the history of art, placing Irish art within it?
Also, on the directions to poets, isn't he adressing Irish poets, calling on them to preserve and promote Irish culture?
Also rethink/reread the ending in this context.

The Second Coming

2010-04-29T16:05:00.001-04:00

"The Second Coming," as I said above, illustrates Yeats' theory of history repeating itself in a rising and narrowing spiral, on different planes of reality. Use this (and the footnote) to discuss what the poem suggests (and how) about the (1919) present it represents--about the way in which the speaker sees this age as a repetition, with difference, of the advent of Christ.

His suggestion of the Second Coming at this time makes good sense. The whole of Europe is recovering from one World War and have little clue of the one to follow it soon after. Ireland itself has gone through some Hellish times by way of the rebellion shaking things up and were at that time dealing with the Anglo-Irish War itself. “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” sounds like a good way to put it. The world at Christ’s birth was also rather chaotic and much of the power (I believe, from what I recall of history) that much of the power was held by one empire (Rome) which maybe at this point he equates with England not purely because they are a super power (they took a big hit in the war and I think this is about the time America was coming into its “super power” status), but also because England has such a hold on Ireland and wishes to squash out rebellion and not allow questioning. This is a time of change, as was the time of Christ. The speaker feels like this is all building up to something, and his idea of this something is the Anti-Christ.

Decent reading of the poem's inspiration, though I think you get a bit too much into the England/America thing here. Aren't the most interesting aspects of this the view of history as a spiral and the poem's prophetic nature: the view of what's coming as the work of an antichrist (history repeating itself as tragedy)?

The Wild Swans at Coole

2010-04-29T16:04:00.001-04:00

The "poem idea" of "The Wild Swans at Coole" is a return. In it, the speaker has returned to a place 19 years after his last visit. What has changed (in the scene and the speaker)? How does the speaker feel about this?
--
It’s interesting that he visits in the fall as that is very much a time of change in itself. That isn’t actually a change for his view, however, considering his original visit was also in the fall. The primary change in the place he’s visiting is the swans. His first visit, he couldn’t count everyone before they flew off. Then this time he gets an exact point, 59, which we can assume is less considering he was able to make the point. Though perhaps the swans are also older and more subdued in age, not skitting off in fear of some stranger. The speaker sees his own aging and changing though as he considers the change in the amount of swans. He recalls that he had “trod with a lighter tread” then and now that there are fewer swans, and says that “my heart is sore” suggesting it’s simply or them, but ti is for everything, how things all change. At first I thought his wondering where the swans would go when they had left him had meant his death, giving the impression of his own immortality, but I feel now that it’s a matter of lose. He takes it well though, knowing his lose is another man’s gain, even though he might not be exactly pleased with this.

I can tell you're not up to snuff from the spelling in this, but good on that the poem is really about the speakers' sense of loss, and VERY good on the last part--minus quotes.

The Mark on the Wall

2010-04-29T16:03:00.001-04:00

"The Mark on the Wall" is an excerpt from a collection of autobiographical essays titled Monday or Tuesday, which Woolf published in 1921. I include it here, because it's the best example in our book of Woolf's use of stream of consciousness. In responding to it, focus on the way the narrator's mind flits from impression to thought to memory to impression, and so on.

The stream of consciousness writing is interesting. I learned about this process in poetry when I was in high school and wrote some terrible terrible things that I don’t care to look back on. But I’m familiar with this! Woolf does it beautifully. Without considering who we’d be reading, when I saw that it would be a matter of stream of consciousness, I expected it to be a pain and difficult to read because of jumping from thought to thought. But Woolf is a master of it. She flows from talking about this unknown mark on the wall into an idol daydream she’s had since childhood, the past residents of the house, things she’s lost in her lifetime, babes and giants even, but continues to return to this mark. With all this thinking, all these ideas that came from some smudge on the wall, the end honestly is so startling that I laughed out loud. Of all the things she’d thought of what the mark could be, all the ideas it inspired in the speaker, it turns out to be a snail and this is told her by someone else entirely. Frankly, if this is truly how Woolf found her mind working, it’s no wonder she was such an excellent writer.

LOL on those "terrible terrible things":-)--but that showed you how hard it is to carry this off, and you see, too, that Woolf is a master (mistress?) of it.
We'll see this again in Joyce. Thinking of it as a fiction technique, how does it compare for you to the style, for example, of Dickens?
Here and in your reply to Aden, you focus on that very sudden and down-to-earth realization about the mark--but isn't the mark mainly a device which she uses as an occasion for the stream of consciousness?

A Room of One's Own: Women

2010-04-29T16:02:00.002-04:00

What does Woolf say a woman needs in order to be a writer? What is the larger meaning of this?

In order to become a writer, Woolf feels a woman needs her own money and a room of her own. I feel this means that a woman writer must be sure she is in a position in which she can provide these things without either being hindered. This is a statement of independence, privacy, and revolution. As she, or Mary of her tale rather, was leaving to write something down after a fine thought had occurred to her, when her path was interrupted, she lost the inspiration. Then Mary heads to the library of Oxbridge while again differently inspired, and is turned away because she is a lone woman and needs either introduction or accompaniment to make use of the facility. As the story progresses on, Mary finds that woman have been and still are quite limited in rights. With this, I feel that Woolf wishes women of her time to pursue what rights they have above their past generations and to strive for more for the next. How can a woman be a writer of any repute to do for herself if she cannot do for herself?

A bit hurried/slightly incoherent on this, but isn't it because she uses stream of consciousness here, too?
Good on the title and the 500 pounds as representing independence, on her creating the character of Mary (Seton, Beaton, etc.) as her example, and on the limited access of women to higher ed at the time (might have included the women's college here, too). Good, too, that you extend this to women's rights in general, but isn't her focus mainly on women as writers?

What did you think of the tale of Shakespeare's imaginary sister? I felt she described the consequences of what would happen should one not have a room of their own quite well. It was also neat that she enveloped a tragedy out of a family that produced tragedies. Also, what did you think of her views on money? I felt that she made a valid point that without money one may be bitter. If you are treated as an unequal, you would be drawn to write about your inequalities. With money, you may be inspired to write more fictitiously.

Good on the money thing, too, but see how that relates most to women?

A Room of One's Own

2010-04-29T15:56:00.001-04:00

Why does she include the meals at the two Colleges? What do they show about the status of women in her time?

The two meals show the great contrast in the two schools quickly and in a manner that can be easily related to. Everyone eats and it’s not difficult to see the difference in such things. Oxbridge has grand food and a fancy desert that she can’t even give a name to as “to call it pudding and so relate it to rice and tapioca would be an insult.” The whole dinner was leisurely, though the lose of something was evident when comparing the discussion to times before the war, that maybe people cannot relate to each other and artistry in general the same way as what was then new is not as flowing, but darker and with in more simple speech without flowery beautiful language. Then at the Fernham we see a different sort of dinner and discussion. There was no desert, the biscuits were dry, and the soup so thin that “one could have seen through the transparent liquid any pattern that there might have been on the plate itself. But there was no pattern.” I feel that properly describes the dinner. Then there was no talk of leisure, only leaving to allow the dining hall to be made ready for the morning meal. This makes me feel there was little discussion or relaxation, this was a meal to feed the stomach and not the mind. This seems very unfair when comparing the two meals. The inequality in the sexes is glaringly obvious here.

Good here on the contrast between the meals, and especially good on the lack of conversation at Fernham.
See my reply to Ash on this about the historical context, with regard to women and higher education.
I'd really like your reaction/response to her Judith Shakespeare story.

Tradition and the Individual Talent

2010-04-29T15:55:00.001-04:00

"Tradition and the Individual Talent" is about what the title says--how and how far the modern poet (Eliot's target audience) is and should be influenced by the entire literary tradition. Focus on this in your response.

Eliot feels there is a lack of tradition unless it’s taken to be compared with what I’ll call modern or new, as in “this is too traditional” or “so-and-so’s work is traditional”, however, the old and dead poets still have their presence known in more modern works. Should we approach a work looking for what makes it more independent of its predecessors or inspirations, we would often miss out on what might truly give if live and individuality, that being what in it that harkens back to those very predecessors. Meaning that these modern poets have taken what they’ve learned, perhaps even from tradition sources, and while it is still very much their own, the inspiration or backing of the technique or word usage, or something makes it obvious that the poets of the past have been studied. However, one cannot just stand on the shoulders of great poets, one much Take in the source material and truly learn and understand it. I think one of the most significant points made here is this: “Someone said: ‘The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.’ Precisely, and they are that which we know.”

Good grasp of Eliot's two takes on tradition in this, and especially of his more postive (and difficult) take--and very good quote at the end:-).
Any thoughts on what he says of the necessity of the poet extinguishing his personality in his poetry?
How about how the first applies to Eliot's own poetry and the second to both Eliot's and Browning's, whom Eliot admired? Also, can you see how the second point hearkens back to Keats' idea of the "cameleon poet?"

Endgame

2010-04-29T15:54:00.001-04:00

As for the prompts on this, simply make notes on your evolving reaction to the play as you read it, and then post these and your overall reaction.
I read Godot in high school, and I can certainly feel this is the same writer. The play starts strangely, with Clov checking out what’s outside the windows and in the trash cans. Knowing Hamm’s parents are in them, I sort of understand the humor in looking in, but I’m hoping to understand that better when they come in to play. The interaction between Clov and Hamm is fun, you can tell Clov is used to this treatment, but he still doesn’t care for it. Hamm seems to not know the proper state of things. He forgets that the world is changed at times, but other times he recalls clearly. Nell and Nagg are oddly endearing. They still feel for each other, trying, but failing to kiss as they do. They’ve also forgotten much and are assumedly in worse shape than their son and his servant considering they’re physically in trash cans. The trousers story was funny in a very dry sort of way.
When Clov examines the outside with a telescope, we learn that they are near the sea, but that there is nothing there really. No waves, no sun, all grey. It’s bleak, but makes good sense for this. It’s some sort of end of times where everything isn’t leaving in vibrant explosions, but just ceasing and rotting away. When Clov finds a flea, Hamm says “But humanity might start from there all over again!” and then he insists it killed. This makes no sense. But then, Hamm must not want humanity to renew, he must want it to complete and end as it is doing.
We come to find that Clov has served Hamm since he was small. Yet he will still leave if he had the combination to the cupboard. Hamm tells him to kill him that he’ll give him the combination, but Clov won’t kill him though he still insists he’ll leave. Which then leads to the confusing question of how would Hamm know that Clov had left instead of simply dying.
Hamm’s story feels disjointed, but that’s because of him more than the story itself I feel. He gets distracted mostly by criticizing how he puts things “Nicely put that” “A bit feeble, that.” His story is about a man asking him for bread and then corn for his boy. Hamm denies him this and goes on about how things won’t improve. Use your head, can’t you, use your head, you’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!” “But what in God’s name do you imagine? That the earth will awake in spring?” Instead he offers to take the man in as a servant, but the man asks if he will take on his son as well. Perhaps the boy was Clov?
This entire time Hamm is terribly rude to his parents. He tells them to quiet down, promises his father a sugar plum when there is none. His father understands that it’s like a role reversal for them, but he also feels that things will reverse once more. Considering Hamm is stuck in the chair, I feel this is very possible. When he picked up talking again in another monologue after Nell turns out dead, he suggests that maybe he’d crawl along the floor on his stomach to escape and plead for help, mirroring the image of the man that had gone to him before. He even says he will call for his father and son, though what son? Maybe Clov, considering he had earlier said he’d been like a father to him.
In the end, Clov did leave after spotting another person outside. Hamm was left alone, when he called to his father the man did not appear, so he was quite possibly dead as well.
This is a strange but interesting play. It’s sort of different from Waiting For Godot in that that one was about waiting for the action, a great deal of action has happened already. We are also waiting for someone to get up the nerve to leave. I’d love to see this performed or be involved in a production of it. There so much going on without anything really going on at all. The relationship between Hamm and his father is strained dreadfully, even in this decomposing state, Nell and Nagg still love each other and wish to be with one another, especially Nagg because we can see that Nell is getting towards her end and is the least lucid of the lot. Then the relationship between Clov and Hamm is strange. Clov threatens to leave constantly and Hamm doesn’t always believe him, or so he says. They are not just servant and master, but like father and son and vice versa. While Hamm took Clov in, Clov is the one that takes care of Hamm.

Good reading of the play, especially on the post-apocalyptic--though long after the apocalypse--setting, the relations between the characters, their various states, Hamm's (non)sense, and the hints at the backstory.
Good on the humor in it, too--Becket was a Vaudeville fan.
Having gotten all of this, as I asked Ash & Erica, what, if anything, does this play say about the human condition and human relationships in general?
Your comment about seeing the play in performance: couldn't you see the video?

The Journey of the Magi

2010-04-17T18:27:00.003-04:00

"The Journey of the Magi" is Eliot's take on the birth of Christianity, so for this, I want you to go back and reread Browning's "Karshish" and Swinburne's "Hymn to Proserpine." Then tell us how this poem compares to those in terms of perspective (speaker, location, time) and attitude toward the event. Be careful about identifying speaker and author here: Eliot was a DEVOUT Anglican Christian.

The speaker is one of the Wise Men, the three kings that were to have witnessed the birth of Jesus Christ and given him presents. The trip was hard at times, but he does not regret it when looking back upon it. Seeing the Birth has changed him, called him to a different god from that of his people. This is why when he returns to his home, “[He] should be glad of another death.” I feel he was referring to his own when he will go to Heaven and be united with his God. Of course, maybe it’s a reference to Jesus’s later death that saves all of them.
I feel that this is very different from the previous pieces. “Karshish” took the point of view of an educated man who was taking Christianity with the logic of such a character. “Hymn” felt that this new religion was going to just leave out one day. I feel that the speaker in “Journey” has already accepted Christianity on to himself by the point we as the reader meet him. He might have almost felt forced into it by what he had witnessed with the Birth, feeling a sort of Death within him for his former beliefs. The speaker of “Hymn” wouldn’t hear of giving up his beliefs for some new religion trying to slip into his life. Then with “Karshish” I don’t think it was as much him feeling any one way on the religion itself as much as the facts of the situation.

First, take another look at at least the last lines of "Karshish"--isn't he INTRIGUED with the Christ idea?
Decent on "Hymn."
On this--interesting that you say this Magus was "forced into" his belief: what makes you say that? I didn't ask Ash or Erica about this, but what do you think of his rather lukewarm reaction to the Nativity?
An otherwise good read of his conflicting emotions: as I DID ask Ash or Erica, what do you think Eliot, a devout Christian, was trying to say or do with this poem?

The Wasteland: The Burial For The Dead

2010-04-17T17:03:00.002-04:00

"The Wasteland" is a difficult (highly academic) poem, but I think you can get the general idea and mood of it. Click here to listen to (and read along with) Eliot's reading of the first section, "The Burial of the Dead." Then pick ANY section of the poem and tell us what it says, what it describes, and the mood it conveys. Remember that this is a primary document in literary modernism.

“The Burial For the Dead” I feel isn’t as much about burial as it is about death and the disturbance of such a state, maybe something like resurrection. The first lines “April is the cruelest month, breeding//Lilacs out of the dead land” illustrates this thinking well. The spring is breathing life into the dead land, but no one has said this dead land wants for it. “Winter kept us warm, covering//Earth in forgetful snow” The speaker preferred the state of death to the state of life that the spring time is known to bring about. The speaker had good memories from this season, like drinking coffee and chatting for an hour and staying with their cousin and sledding. The images he presents also associate with death, but the one that rings clearly to me in the end in relation to death and resurrection is when he asks Stetson, “That corpse you planted last year in your garden,//Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?//Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?”

Very clever quoting here on the death/ressurection theme you see (and it's there, but see the end of the poem--not a simply Christian take on this): I chuckled at your use if the last lines.
However, aren't there several different speakers here? And what does the poem say about modern life and society?

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

2010-04-17T16:23:00.001-04:00

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is, as we can tell from the title (the name of the "singer"), a VERY ODD Love Song. Click here to listen to Eliot reading the poem as you read along. Once done, tell us about the speaker in the poem: What is his mood? What causes it? What does he tell us of his inability to act on his passions--or perhaps to HAVE passions?

I have a long standing relationship with Eliot and this particular poem, so here's hoping I can to this thing justice. Prufrock was a Forensics piece for me in my Senior year. A strange selection for an 18 year old girl at the time, I know, but my teacher helped me choose it and I liked it.

The poem is from an aging man observing his surroundings. He and his partner are wandering alone. They are restless, or at the very least he is, "The muttering retreats//Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels" He asks her not to question what they have and what they do, "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'//Let us go and make our visit." I feel his restlessness comes from his age and insecurity of it. While he can not stay still himself, he knows "indeed there will be time" for all things. Again we see his restlessness, "And times yet for a hundred indecisions//And for a hundred visions and revisions." He feels he will be judged in these times of his aging, "They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!'" "They will say: 'but how his arms and legs are thin!'" because he feels they all notice and they all will judge him for how he has grown old. Even for as how he worries about his age, he acknowledged that he is old, that he has seen many things. "For I have known them all already, known them all-//Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons". One of the most vivid examples of Prufrock's fear of being judged is here:

"And I have known the eyes already, known them all-
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase.
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?"

How should he start to explain his life and his feelings or thoughts? How will his life add up to others? He doesn't know what's expected of him when he is there being judged by the world. Still, he knows that these concerns aren't important in the long run. "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,//I am no prophet- And here's no great matter." He knows in the end, he is insignificant . "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,//And I seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,//And in short, I was afraid."

Yes--odd for a young girl's forensics exercise, but glad you liked.
Good reading here, except in the identification of the audience--gender is not specified, and isn't the audience whoever reads it?
Again, I have no other bones to pick with your reading, though I'd like your thoughts on what this poem says about modern (circa 1920s) love and romance, or whatever else you think Eliot was trying to do/show in writing it.
OH--and how about the final lines and his self-comparison to charaters in Hamlet?

Ulysses

2010-04-16T12:44:00.001-04:00

TRY to trace what Stephen thinks and feels, sees, hears, smells through this. Read first WITHOUT the footnotes.

This is the most intimidating piece of work in the textbook yet. I just wanted to mention that. It’s all for the footnotes, which are necessary and I did my best to avoid them at first. I was too confused by that though, but I tried not to concentrate on them.
The imagery is interesting and it makes things feel sort of strange and dreamlike. It starts off that way at least. He’s walking on a beach, “I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot.” He sees these sights and these colors, “Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs.” He closed his eyes to better take in the sounds there, “his boots crushing crackling wrack and shells.” In doing this his mind wonders if the world might have left him or if he might find himself suddenly over a cliff were he to open his eyes again. He takes in the sounds still, “Crush, crack, crik, crick.” I liked that he didn’t simply take one word and repeat it, instead he expressed the variety of the noises with his words. He imagines others walking on this stretch of sand. The visit to his aunt and uncle is choppy, you can tell he sees it clearly, but he doesn't linger long on what they might be thinking, but then how would he know truly? The imagined version of his uncle doesn't seem very sympathetic at times and is rather flighty to me, but again, this is what Stephen is imagining. You can tell who he sees as the primary person in that house, though later he refers to it as "aunt Sara's."
He gets lost in his own thoughts so easily, thinking about Virgin Mary having no naval, how he’ll never be a saint or how his family thinks so at least (his uncle most likely), books named by letters. He almost entirely misses his aunt’s home altogether. The jumping here throws me off. I can’t follow him easily. I can’t tell what he’s dealing with and what he is just thinking.

On that first remark, you read (or posted on) this AFTER Finnegan's--is this really more intinidating than that?
Not given how much you get of what's happening here--good job!
How does this compare for you to Woolf's stream of consciousnes in "The Mark on the Wall?"
It might help to realize that Stephen is a sholar of languages ad philosophy who teaches in a boys' school and is a lapsed Catholic--all like the young Joyce!
I hope you read the whole novel later on (there are several guides to it)--it's not all like this, and as you see, Joyce's use of language is AMAZING, and often amazingly BEAUTIFUL.

Finnegan's Wake

2010-04-16T12:10:00.001-04:00

Click on the link below to hear Joyce reading the first part of the passage from Finnegan's Wake in our book. Read along, and then tell us what you think.

This would have been entirely lost on me without the recording. I’ve had awful issues with Ulysses that I’m hoping to work out. This whole section caught me by surprise. I thought I wasn’t in for this sort of trouble after reading The Dead, which I liked a lot. When he reads it, there is this beautiful flow to much of it. You can see the conversation of it and the words that look like nonsense, “Lord help me, Maria, full of grease, the load is with me!” When you hear him speak it aloud, you hear “Lord help me, Maria, full of grace, the Lord is with me!” which makes far more sense. He also threw in a couple different lines I noticed from what we have. I understand it’s a parting for the topic, assumedly a death considering the title. The writing is stream of consciousness, and not as lucid as we read with Woolf at all. He jumps about, but it’s interesting to see the words inserted for the spoken word to sound as he wished it to.

As I told Ash and Erica, few, if any, "get" this work, and most think Ulysses, let alone Dubliners, is more coherent.
Finnegan's IS stream-of-consciousness, but the mind in which it takes place is that of the whole of humankind, and its theme is the history of the world: the "novel" opens, "Rivverrun past Eve and Adams."
Good catch on the punning nature of the writing--and many of those puns are in other languages: scholars have identified over 80!

The Dead

2010-04-15T18:44:00.003-04:00

What is the significance of the title to "The Dead"? How does this title relate to the story? Base your response on a CLOSE reading of the story, as well as the parts of the intro to Joyce in the text that have to do with Dubliners and with Joyce's attitude toward Ireland.

The story goes between people and the way it starts it seems like it will mostly follow two sisters, Julia and Kate, and their niece Mary Jane that are all living together and throwing a Christmas party. They’re anxious for the coming of two people, their nephews Freddy and Gabriel. This is when we meet the man that the story truly takes stick in, Gabriel Conroy.
He seems like a good man, well liked, who means well, but he doesn’t seem to be fully aware of himself and his actions. He missteps in asking in speaking to Lily, a servant of the house, when he suggests they’ll be going to her wedding one day and she responds negatively about all men. Really, asking her such a thing is rather presumptuous and rude if others had known. Then he gives her money for Christmas, which she finds far too rich for her position.
While dancing, he is teasingly accused of being a traitor by Miss Ivors because he writers a literary column in The Daily Express. The situation embarrasses him, though it’s mostly unnoticed by other party go-ers. Gabriel sees no issue in his writing a literature column because he feels it has nothing to do with the politics of this paper and everything to do with his own love of literature and the reward of free books along with his small pay. Yet he stills keeps his writing a secret, letting this column be printed under his initials and not his actual name. Obviously he knows there’s some sort of deeper implications there. In those of tumultuous times, given the opinions of the Irish on Ireland and the British, it’s impossible for him to not think he’d be judged in some way for his writing for this paper as opposed to something solidly Irish. When the same woman suggests that he and his wife vacation in Ireland, their own country, he comments that he’s tired of his country. She pushes for a reason, but he has none or at least cannot give one. Then when his wife brings up talking to Ivors and he tells her about the suggestion of vacationing in their country, his wife loved the idea and he still did not.
His later toast speech that he delivers also touches on the topic of rebellious Irish. Gabriel saw, as Yeats saw, a reemergence of passion in this new generation that was coming to be. However he went into how he found it misdirected and feared it would take away from the hospitality and humanity of the generation he includes himself within. He must have scanned for Ivors before speaking on this as he felt quite specifically that it applied to her. Gabriel finds himself in the norm, so he thinks. He also says how while they all come with sadness and pasts, that he “will not linger in the past” for the night. Not to say that he commonly thinks of his past sorrows.
After he sees his wife in her tender thoughtful state as she mourns the man the song made her think of, Gabriel doesn’t know what she’s thinking about, but is inclined to want to protect her. When she tells him finally, it’s a shock. While he’d been thinking of all their sweet loving times, she was mourning this boy. He’d never thought of her past, never contemplated their might be more than just their time, or that she’d ever dreamed of another. It also says something that in their marriage with two children, he had never before heard of this other man. It makes him realize that he’s never felt so strongly about another women in his life, and he knows he’s missing out. Though Gabriel made earlier mention of his dislike of the direction of the passion of the new generation, that meaning in rabblerousing as we see personified in Molly Ivors, he longs for the passion they show (seen in his wife crying herself to sleep over the boy who died for her) and knows it’s not something he can capture, much like he will not be the sole inhabitant of his wife’s heart.

Nice summary of the story and of Gabriel vis-a-vis his fellow Irish, but it doesn't answer the prompt. Why do you think Joyce tited this story "The Dead?"
You're on track, in part, with the mention of Gabriel's realization (of his lack of passion), but what of the decison he takes at the end to venture "westard"--i.e., to the Aran Islands?

The Windhover

2010-04-05T20:37:00.000-04:00

In "The Windhover," the bird (a kestrel) is described in its flight. With this one, focus on how the speaker's emotions color the description of the bird.
The poem is also subtitled "To Christ our Lord." If you wish, discuss the bird as a metaphor for Christ.

The speaker projects the image of the kestrel as this majestic thing. He talks about the creature’s mastery of the wind in how he flies, or how he hovers in midair rather. He describes him as a “Brute beauty” and is awe of his abilities. The language used here is so grand, “the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion//Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!” It’s as though he thinks this bird is defying nature, like he’s some amazing thing that acts against nature with how he flies. The speaker’s adoration for this bird is something like what one might hold for Jesus Christ. The speaker even declares this bird “morning’s minion king-//dom of daylight’s dauphin.”

Journal: May 18, 1870

2010-04-05T20:20:00.002-04:00

In the journal entry for May 18, 1870 (pp. 1525-6), Hopkins uses the terms "instress" and "inscape." How does his use of them here help you to understand what the editors tell us about these concepts? How does it help you to see what he attempts to do in his poetry?

In the introduction, the editors give us some information on “instress” and “inscape” already. “Inscape” is “the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity” which seems to be to be the thing that defines a work, or a poem in this case particularly. It’s about the individual feeling of the poem. “Instress” is the “apprehension of an object in an intense thrust of energy toward it that enables one to realize its specific distinctiveness” which I think means the understanding of something, in this case a poem, in such a way that you fully understand its uniqueness. So it seems from this, we’re meant to get the instress of the inscape. One solves the other rather.
With this journal entry and Hopkins’ use of the word, I feel that “inscape” reminds me of “landscape.” “I do not think that I have ever seen anything a more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it. It[s inscape] is [mixed of] strength and grace, like an ash [tree].” It’s the image, the picture painted by the poem to the audience. Hopkins felt that understanding and seeing this, or instressing the inscape, would bring one closer to God. In his poetry, he wants others to share in what he sees and feels and that is why he puts these images, or this inscape, into his work.

Pied Beauty

2010-04-05T20:17:00.001-04:00

"Pied Beauty" (p. 1518) praises God for many things. What do all these things have in common? Also, how does the speaker say God differs from these things He created? As with the others, focus on the language and imagery Hopkins uses to "paint his pictures."

This poem specifically applauds “dappled things” or things with mixed colors. “For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;//For rose-moles all in stipple upon upon trout that swim” These are all things of nature, things that change in time or simply by man’s own hand. The inscape I see here is a rich forest in fall with leaves still changing colors. Hopkins wants us to see here that we should appreciate our ever changing world and the God that in his constancy provides it, because while the world changes and is imperfect, its creator is not. “He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change.”

Spring and Fall

2010-04-05T20:06:00.003-04:00

What does the speaker first ask of her, and what does he tell her? Again, look also at the language and imagery. (You may, if you wish, compare this poem to Wordsworth's "We Are Seven").

The speaker is asks Margaret at first if she is mourning over Goldengrove, “Margaret, are you grieving//Over Goldengrove unleaving?” The speaker wonders if she loves the leaves like she loves the “things of man” thus we’re given the impression that this girl is young and possibly naïve. The poem being addressed “to a young child” also adds to this impression. He, the speaker, tells her that she will age and return to “such sights colder” as the forest, assumedly Goldengrove, will pale and change to her aging mind. Still, he says she’ll mourn the loss of the place she knew; here is where I first see the reference to the Garden of Eden. Goldengrove is Margaret’s Garden of Eden, a place that she could no longer visit after she had grown older, though aging is nothing like the Original Sin. The childish innocence of loving something so strongly as a place does remind me of the sweet child of “We Are Seven” who refused to allow that her and her siblings were no longer seven. With the final lines though, “It is the blight man was born for,//It is Margaret you mourn for.” I feel links the two girls more closely. Margaret didn’t wish to give up her beloved place that she loved more than people’s things, and the other girl simply refused to let it go of her belief. Both characters held strongly to something that seemed silly, but still the strength of their convictions was worth envy.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

2010-04-02T18:57:00.002-04:00

"Dulce Et Decorum Est" is perhaps the most famous (anti)war poem in English. Read the note on the Latin phrase to get the full irony of the poem. In responding (YOU MUST) to this, consider how the horrors it describes is turned to ironic use at the end. How does the poem affect YOU?

This poem gives us the war with a very honest account, one not concerned with pretty metaphors. These are not happy soldiers, these are real men that have undertaken hardships. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” Some had even lost their shoes. They were numb to their surroundings, barely even aware when the bullets flew. One is lost as they neglect to fit on their gas mask quickly enough, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” The dying man comes at the speaker in his panic, a frightening sight, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,//He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” An image like this will stay with the speaker, haunt his dreams as he has said. The detail he goes into about the cart where they carry the dead man is disturbing to say the least. For me, this poem is horrifying. It clearly illustrates the reality of war. To me, it’s like the exact opposite of “The Soldier” which speaks of death at war as something to take pride in. There is no mention of pride here.

Good on the horrors presented here, and, yes, very different from the Brooke, but you might, again, compare this to other poems on the horrors of the war.
An easy one (I think): how does the title relate to the poem?

Dead Man's Dump

2010-04-02T18:41:00.003-04:00

"Dead Man's Dump" is a very graphic poetic description of its subject. Focus on how the speaker makes us see, hear, and almost feel what the poem describes.

“Dead Man’s Dump” sure paints a picture. A cart is carrying barbed wire and is rolling over dead bodies, “The wheels lurched over sprawled dead//But pained them not, though their bones crunched”. The fighting continues and the bodies of both sides mix together in death as it unifies them all as human as opposed to fighting forces, “They lie there huddled, friend and foeman,//Man born to man, and born to woman”. The speaker feels that in death, these men’s bodies have returned to the earth, “Now she has them at last!” but possibly not their souls, “Earth! Have they gone into you?” Rosenburg creates some interesting metaphors here, like when he speaks of the dead men getting shot, the speaker says, “When the swift iron burning bee//Drained the wild honey of their youth.” I found this metaphor perfect in how it contrasts the image of war, making it more like nature.

The speaker asks, “What of us?” the men who live and suggests they feel immortal for having lived when others have died, but that there is still a great fear within them that they will join their friends and enemies. Then the speaker goes on to describe the fighting, the metaphors are appropriate and work beautifully to show the harshness of war, “The air is loud with death” I found especially excellent with how simple it was to start off this stanza. What did he mean by death? Not just those dying men receiving their final wounds, but the explosions he goes into detail about further down and the gunshots exchanged between each side. Then the speaker describes seeing a stretcher-bearer taking a body to the load of others. When the man looks back at his dropped load, “The drowning soul was sunk too deep//For human tenderness.” The body was already too dead to warrant sympathy.

Good reading of how this poem presents the horrors of war and fear on the parts of the soldiers.
On the last part of your first paragraph, do you think that, by making death in war seem more natural, the speaker here is diminishing the horror? Why or why not?
You really NEED to see the last two stanzas of this--the closing image/experience.
Might also compare this take on the horrors of war to Owen's in "Dulce."

They

2010-04-02T18:37:00.002-04:00

In responding to "They," focus on the two different meanings given to the idea that the soldiers will not be the same when they return from the war.

This poem takes two different points of view that are both true. The Bishop explains to “us” as the speaker puts himself on the level with the reader, that the “boys are changed” in which he means they’ve been changed by the horrors of war. They have seen their friends die and have killed other men. “They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.” They could have easily died, but they have not. “Their comrades’ blood has bought//New right to breed an honourable race” The boys have gone to war and as they have survived where their friends hadn’t, it’s as though they have been given this second great chance and their children will be children of honorable men. The boys see their return differently. Yes, they are changed, but they are changed from injury and illness. “George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind” One man is “shot though the lungs and like to die” while another caught syphilis. So the boys are certainly changed in more ways than one. The soldiers are surely changed as the Bishop suggests, mentally altered by the war, but the fact that the men don’t speak of this and concentrate on their physical changes is pretty understandable. Those are far more obvious.

Good on the differing points of view about the changes, but which change does Sassoon want us to see as the more real (and valid) one? Why? And how can we tell?

The Soldier

2010-04-02T18:36:00.003-04:00

Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" was a British patriotic favorite during World War I and remained so long since. Focus in your response on what the speaker says and how he says it about war, glory, and England.

This poem is very nationalistic. The speaker is a young English soldier. He isn’t just proud of what he’s doing, he’d happy to be of service to his country. There is no fear of death, only pride that he had been able to fight for his country and bring his strong English blood to another land. Obviously he feels that if/when he is to die his love for his country will take him to an “English heaven.” He himself carries the country with him in heart and spirit so much so that “If I should die, think only this of me://That there’s some corner of a foreign field//That is forever England.”
Had Brooke survived his dysentery and blood poisoning, then I feel that yes, he would probably not viewed the war and his time within it as positively. Maybe he didn’t have the same experience as other poets because he had died when he did. This poem is positive and like a love poem for the soldiers or perhaps for the English fighting spirit in general. This is not a man jaded by death and war.

VERY nationalistic, and (LOL) you mention England in your response almost as often as the speaker mentions it in the poem!
Agreed on the rest.

I know! He as really drilling that home.

"Drilling" is a good way of describing the repeated references to England and things English.
Beside the naivety about war, this poem is an interesting contrast of the nationalistic thing to Sassoon's "Glory of Women."
Still, I think we all regret, by now, that Brooke didn't live long enough to contribute his takes on the horrors of war.

The Critic As Artist

2010-03-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

"The Critic as Artist" is, in large part, a satiric response to such texts as Arnold's "Function of Criticism" and Pater's Preface to The Renaissance. Discuss it in relation to these texts, but also consider it as an Art-for-Art's-Sake (again, the belief that art has no purpose beyond itself) manifesto.

Maybe it’s just the cold, but I’m struggling through Wilde’s language. Gilbert, the obvious main speaker even though this is a dialogue between Gilbert and Ernest, seems like he’s going on and on to make this point and I feel like he could easily lose said point in it. Maybe that’s “art for art’s sake”? Going on with additional language because it’s interesting and he can. Wilde’s characters are obviously educated males that could only come off this way if Wilde himself was intelligent enough to know about the topics of which his characters speak. Ernest feels that criticism is a lowly ranking craft, “Because the best that he can give us will be an echo of rich music, a dim shadow of clear-outlined form.” Meaning that a critic does not create his own art, but something based off of the works of others. Gilbert on the other hand says that criticism is actually an art in itself, “The critic occupies the same relation to the work of art that he criticizes as the artist does to the visible world of form and colour, or the unseen world of passion and of thought.” Meaning that the critic is not just imitating others, but the art which he critiques is simply a base for his own sort of art. Here Gilbert’s opinions on criticism (and possibly Wilde’s) work with Arnold and Pater’s again. They all feel that the critic is to be used to find the good things in art. As Gilbert goes on about his long-winded opinion on criticism on art, Ernest only questions him here and there to encouraging him to continue on until he feels he could find a hole in the argument (or that’s my assumption at least, there’s not really proof of it). Even Gilbert seems to doubt his own point when as the two men are about to pause for supper, Ernest suggests that Gilbert is actually coming to his own point, about art for art’s sake, “Ah! You admit, then, that the critic may occasionally be allowed to see the object as in itself it really is.” Gilbert seems unsure and suggests they revisit this after supper.

The Stones of Venice

2010-03-14T18:15:00.002-04:00

Ruskin defines three kinds of ornament, then goes on (top of 1327) to praise Gothic (Christian) ornament. Consider why and for what he praises it. Then consider what he says of modern English architecture and manufacture, its effect on the worker, and the rules he proposes for modern manufacture. If you like, also try to relate it to some aspect of present-day manufacture, art or business.

The three types of ornaments are servile, constitutional, and revolutionary. “Servile ornament, in which the execution or power of the inferior workman is entirely subjected to the intellect of the higher” Servile he attributes to Greek , Ninevite, and Egyptian methods of thinking. With the Greek style, imperfections could not be bared, so this often involved geometric shapes, like balls, ridges, and symmetrical foliage. This was because the lines could be more appropriately measured and regulated. The Assyrians and Egyptians were less concerned with perfection and either gave lesser workmen work they could not hope to do properly or else work that is lessened in skill required and therefore easy to complete. Both of those systems still made the workman a slave, thus them being counted as servile. “Constitutional ornament, in which the executive inferior power is, to a certain point, emancipated and independent, having a will of its own, yet confessing its inferiority and rendering obedience to high powers.” Here the worker is given more independence, every soul has an individual value, but they still report back to a higher power, which came from Christianity. “Do what you can, and confess frankly what you are unable to do; neither let your effort be shortened for fear of failure, nor your confession silenced for fear of shame.” Morris likes this and sees this as a fine example of the Gothic style as it takes the imperfections and presents them as perfectly acceptable. “Revolutionary ornament, in which no executive inferiority is admitted at all.” Though Morris feels the Modern English mind and the Greek mind had something in common in how they strived for perfection. Morris points out though that this is silly. “This is a noble character in the abstract, but becomes ignoble when it causes us to forget the relative dignities of that nature itself, and to prefer the perfectness of the lower nature to the imperfection of the higher.” He even mentions how in looking for perfection as perfection, one should prefer wild animals to humans because of lower creature is of a more refined perfection.
I feel Morris liked the imperfections of the Gothic architecture because they didn’t force strain on the worker. He didn’t think you should question a worker who is doing a fine job, asking him if he thinks he can better it because in his attempts he might simply hesitate and foul up the job he had been doing. You need to just be accepting of the imperfections. He suggests that you shouldn’t force a perfected finish and discourage imitation of others. Workers should just do their best. This is something that I feel is in the workplace today. I read about “millennials” which are young people in their twenties and thirties that have been rewarded for mediocrity throughout life and are expecting more of the same. This is ridiculous. If anything is rewarded, it should be greatness, striving to do your best even if your best is not perfect, but not rewards for doing the minimal and that’s it. I relate these two because I feel that in a Socialist workplace, the sort that Morris promotes, that would take place today would fall into this trap. You completed what you set out to do, huzzah! But did you really do your best? Maybe that’s just me though, I think equality is a nice idea, but I always fear someone will take advantage of the system.

Goblin Market

2010-03-14T18:15:00.001-04:00

"Goblin Market" was very popular in Victorian England as a cautionary tale for children. How do you think parents today might feel about this? Why?

Cross over prompt? Heh! I think that parents today would find this story useful. I mean, maybe refresh it a little, modernize it. But my reasoning is that the tale is one that can easily be taken today for simple disobedience. Laura did not obey her sister or the cautionary tale of Jeanne. Because of this, she desperately suffered, longing for the fruit of the goblin men. After Lizzie's stand to the goblins when they ridiculed her and tried to force her to eat their food, Laura was saved by her sister's kindness. There is also the lesson of taking things from strangers, a good moral for anyone to take. Then Lissie's bravery is very admirable. Her and Laura have a sisterly bond much like other literary sisters, such as the March's and the Bennets. Family was important and frankly that would be something excellent to remind people of in this day and age.

The Blessed Damozel

2010-03-14T18:12:00.001-04:00

In responding to this poem, consider the speakers and situation. Also consider BOTH the religious and sensual elements in it.
I have included the painting (also by Rossetti) here, so you can, if you wish, relate it to the poem:

“The Blessed Damozel” is a woman who was died. She is in the heavens longing for her lover who still lives and missed her as well. At times she leans over in the sky to watch him, and he swears he feels her hair on his face, “Surely she leaned o’er me- her hair//Fell all about my face….//Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.” Later she spoke out and he thought he heard her, “She spoke through the still weather//…. Ah, sweet! Even now, in that bird’s song, Strove not her accents there” She cannot understand why he cannot come to heaven with her, though it seems that the only reason to me is that he isn’t dead yet. Both of them prayed. She seemed to have no question of his acceptance, but her lover worried that God would not take him to unite with her. The only thing he saw in common between himself and her was his love for her. “But shall God lift//to endless unity//The soul whose likeness with the soul//Was but its love for thee?” At the end though, after she says what she shall do when he joined her, he says he can see her smile and heard her weeping. Perhaps he’s dying?

After Death

2010-03-14T18:11:00.000-04:00

Explicate (using the Explication Worksheet in Course Documents) "After Death," focusing mainly on the speaker, situation and mood.

There is no reference to the gender of the speaker, but I’ll say she as the poet is a she and other poems are written from a feminine perspective. Though of course that doesn’t mean this is the poet. The speaker is in bed, dead or asleep. I’d venture to say that unless the use of sleep is a metaphor for death, “He leaned over me, thinking that I slept//And could not hear him…” because throughout the poem it seems the speaker is dead. The title of the poem is even “After Death” then there is the ending “He did not love me living; but once dead//He pitied me; and very sweet it is//To know he still is warm tho’ I am cold.” Cold, as in death. Still, this man, certainly someone dear to her though the relation is unclear, came to the speaker after her death. He leaned over her, spoke to her “Poor child, poor child” before he turned away and the speaker “knew he wept”. The speaker specifically mentioned that the man made no move to touch her dead body or to fully see it. This is understandable to me as the man is mourning and had obviously felt that he couldn’t show her his love in life. “He did not love me living”. The mood of the poem is sad, but bittersweet. In death the speaker knew that this man did care for them, though perhaps she could have doubted it in life.

How I Became A Socialist

2010-03-14T18:09:00.001-04:00

In responding to "How I Became a Socialist," consider how what he says of English society and Victorian progress relates to what Carlyle or Ruskin say about them.

Morris is particular about what sort of Socialist he is here. To him, Socialism is where there is "neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master’s man, neither idle nor overworked" which is what I thought Socialism always was. All men were equal in this society, their proper skills would be put to use, "no brain-sick brain workers nor heart sick hand workers." This was the belief he had always held on Socialism since he had first taken up the ideal. This is his "practical Socialism".

Ruskin was out for the workers, the people, and I feel Morris has a similar mindset. That was what I felt socialism was about, the equality of the people. Ruskin wanted the people to not be servants and Morris wants all people to be of equals. Carlyle though was looking for strong leaders, someone to rally the people to change the world so that every man could have a fair chance. He believed moreso in an equal start for every man to do with as he wants.

Hymn to Proserpine

2010-03-14T18:08:00.000-04:00

Keeping the above in mind, consider what the speaker says of Christianity, of why he prefers paganism, and of what he now wishes for. Also, since these two poems (and later, Eliot's "Journey of the Magi") focus on "outsiders'" views of Christianity, TRY to draw some comparisons to Browning's "Karshish."

The poem is from the point of view of a speaker that obviously has a preference for the Rome gods as opposed to the Christian God. The speaker here is a poet himself, “I am sick of singing; the bays burn deep and chafe.” It seems that he’s more concerned with losing the old religion. “O gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day!” He’s stubborn about this, “Wilt thou yet take all, Galilean? But these thou shalt not take-//The laurel, the palms, and the paean, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake” It’s almost as if he expects to wait this out, “Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend,//I kneel not, neither adore you, but standing look to the end.” Browning’s “Karshish” took more of a scientific approach to the concept of Christianity. There the author was an educated man of science as opposed to stubborn poet. The poet speaker of Hymn was in denial and almost mourning the loss of his religion, while Karshish took a more hands off point of view, something I’d call a true outsider because he didn’t seem to take the growing Christianity as some sort of invasion.

Preface

2010-03-14T18:06:00.001-04:00

Read the first five paragraphs of the Preface, and, keeping in mind that Pater is here discussing AESTHETIC criticism, compare what he says of the critic's purpose and methodology to what Arnold says of these in The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. (Also, keep this in mind when reading Wilde.)

Pater insists that before you know how to criticize art, you need to understand how it makes you feel. “What is this song or picture, this engaging personality presented in life or in a book, to me?” You can’t criticize something without knowing your own opinion of said art, be it book, painting, or what have you. Pater felt that what you felt about the art was just as important as any lighting or moral feedback you might receive. The critic isn’t someone that must know exactly what beauty is, but he should be someone who understands it takes many forms and can take pleasure from such a thing. I feel that Arnold and Pater basically agree on the role of the critic. They both feel that a critic needs to find the good of a work and not just sit there tearing down the bad. Pater says of Wordsworth, “The heat of his genius, entering into the substance of his work, has crystallized a part, but only a part, of it; and in that great mass verse there is much which might be forgotten.” Criticism is meant to help “crystallize” the good, while the bad or even the mediocre will be left by the wayside.

The Slave Ship

2010-03-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

Consider both the section titled "A Definition of Greatness in Art" and the one titled "The Slave Ship" here. How does Ruskin define greatness in art? How does his discussion of "The Slave Ship" relate to this definition? I've reproduced the painting below, so you can see how closely Ruskin considers this painting and how well he expresses what he sees.

Well first you take his definition of art, which is that he feels it is a “great language” and equates art to literature and fine writings. I find this perfectly acceptable because I myself equate fine writing with art. Someone who is considered a great painter has “done just as much towards being that which we ought to respect as a great painter, as a man who was learnt how to express himself grammatically and melodiously has toward being a great poet.” Ruskin’s idea of greatness doesn’t reflect the medium, but the subject and what is contained and expressed in the painting (or writing), “It is not by the mode of representing and saying, but by what is represented and said that the respected greatness… is to be finally determined.” That is to sat artwork that expressed something, a particular and drawing point of view the affects the viewer, “which conveys to the mind of the spectator the greatest number of great ideas”
In Ruskin’s description of “The Slave Ship” he speaks of the violence in the image, the two swells on either side dividing the ocean in two, the fiery and bloody sunset, and the burning clouds. What I found interesting was that there was never any mention of the subject, but the feelings and images expressed by way of colors. He notes there “is not one false or morbid line” which is true in theory. The colors are just so vibrant. Ruskin obviously feels that this image matches up with his opinion of “great art” which it does. He not only sees the actual subject, but the violent story told in colors as well.

Ever Changing Little Red Riding Hood Part 2

2010-02-28T22:35:00.003-05:00

How does each version differ in its view/representation of Red or the main character (and, by extension, children/girls)? What lessons do the different versions offer?
---
We encounter several versions of this take in our book, and I'll take each one by one to make this hopefully simple in organization at least.

...Continued from Part 1...

Tomi Ungerer paints a completely different picture of a story in his "Little Red Riding Hood." This Red Riding Hood is not wearing a cloak by choice, but by the suggestion of her mother to find the girl more easily. She's said to be a child at several points, but then also is referred to as "damsel" and "lady" at times, and considering Duke (the wolf) takes her off to marry her, I feel like she isn't as young as the other Red Riding Hoods. She's described as sensible, and it's true. She's kind in delivering food to her cruel grandmother, but she understands the woman is cruel and seems justified to the reader in her shying away from finishing that journey. When Duke approaches her, she does not immediately accept his offer, which speaks well for her. Then she doesn't even know the term "reputation", so she's obviously not supposed to be the brightest of girls. When she does give in, there's no suggestion of negative repercussions. She actually marries the wolf and lives "happily ever after" though her mean granny doesn't. So the moral here? The tale honestly feels like a shallow romp, but is by no means poorly written. The usual theme, warning against strangers is missing, as the stranger sweeps her off to a better life. Perhaps the moral here is obedience and doing for those who might not appreciate it can lead to good things in the end? I'm honestly quite iffy. This I think might be the start of fairytales being dulled down. Though Polly's story involved it as well, she was more self-aware I felt than muted. Though using familiar characters, I almost feel like this was a completely different story entirely from what we've been reading, even more so than Polly.

Tony Ross gives us another version with "Little Red Hood: A Classic Story bent Out of Shape." The style is drastically different and very dated with slang like "turkey" and bits of Yiddish even. Considering that Granny, or "Crazy Carmela," lived in Jersey, I'm thinking that Little Red Hood is out of New York, and I'm not surprised. She's sassy and strong, but she was still eaten along with Carmela. I thought it was funny that everyone got a name, mother "Linda," father "Rocky," granny was already mentioned, everyone except for Little Red Hood and the wolf. Then Little Red wasn't just for her hood, but for her father calling her a "commie" after she said she was going on strike. This is a Little Red Hood that wants to be independent, but still have that parental safety net. She's lucky for it in the end of course. The moral here harkens back to our previous stories: Don't stop to chat with strangers, and honestly, don't tickle strange dogs either.

"Ruby" by Michael Emberly I'll note wasn't officially intended to be a retelling. He said it had sounded like one so he "ended up just riding that wave to the beach" (pp 368). In this tale, Ruby, our heroine, is actually a little mouse. She doesn't want to visit her Granny, but does still as her mother asks. As most Red Riding Hoods, she disobeys direct orders by reading as she walks and talking to cats. The "wolf" who is a cat here actually rescues her from a reptile mugger. The cat is suave and Ruby tells her Granny's address, but she then calls her Granny's neighbor instead of the old woman, and the dog makes quick work of that cat when he arrives. Ruby is interesting because there's no real attention made to the red cloak, though she does wear one it's never spoken of, only shown. The contemporary feel it has with being placed in the city I think makes it appeal more to children from more modern days. This story does relate back to previous Red Riding Hoods, where the moral is about not trusting strangers, even strangers that act kindly to you and to mind your parents.

Francesa Lia Block's "Wolf" is the final spin on this tale. From the first paragraph, this is not a story for young children. It's from the first person, so again, she has no name and no physical hood. She tries to be strong for her mother who she also feels is her best friend. The "wolf" is her mother's boyfriend and he raped her regularly. She never told her mother because she was scared her mom would hate her. This to my understanding is common in this situation. She smokes, she swears, but when she describes her best dream involving a bed of puppies and kitties with a party full of balloons and so on, she's still very much a child. In the end, she takes matters into her own hands and deals with the attacker herself when she's scared he's after herself and her grandmother. She is the one that pulls the trigger and ends her pain. This story isn't about the wolves in the wild, but the ones that can enter our homes that we must watch out for. Many young girls end up like this one, maybe not killing a man, but keeping this all to themselves and not talking about their pain because they're scared. I enjoyed this story; it's a modern and sobering tale.

The Red Riding Hood stories have evolved and changed drastically over time, but many things stay the same; the girl going to grandma's encounters a wolf. How she deals with it is up to her. As Red Riding Hood has progressed though, she continues to take actions into her hands.

Alphabets

2010-02-27T20:47:00.001-05:00

What do alphabets tell us about the values of the times/places in which they were written? The view of childood in those times and places? How have alphabets changed over time? Which kinds of alphabet works would be best for which kinds/ages of children, and why? If you were an early primary school or kindergarten teacher or were planning to be one, which alphabet books would you use in your classroom? Why and HOW? If you're a parent or planning to be one which alphabet books would you use (or did you/would you have used) with your children? Why and HOW?

The alphabets have changed in presentation greatly over the years. Originally a strip placed in view of all the students to be repeated and memorized almost mindlessly. As writing and reading became more a part of things, with primers and hornbooks, I feel like the value of the education improved. Children were actually having to do some physical work to be associated with that big bunch of letters. The addition of rhymes and pictures I think also made things better. Instead of simply learning letters, they also learned sounds, "A Was an Archer" and "Andrew Airpump asked his aunt her ailment" it's not just memorizing, it's also hearing the sounds in repetition. Children don't just learn by memorizing and repeating and in so hearing, though it can be helpful. Some children need visual queues as well, pictures to associate with what they learn.

I think I'd use several methods to teach my child. I'd use something colorful with pictures and words that I would read aloud. The Dr. Seuss alphabet would be good, as children will encounter his work often and I know I used to love Dr. Seuss books. The only draw back is while the sounds are massive, the words are often made up which can be fun, but I would want to also use a source with real words that children could relate to better. That would depend on the child I think. I wouldn't use something that seemed as difficult as Anno's Alphabet for teaching, but maybe for improving a child's skills as they learn more, just not for a a first effort.

Primers

2010-02-27T20:39:00.001-05:00

What do primers tell us about the values of the times/places in which they were written? The view of childood in those times and places? How do primers develop/devolve over time (here, consider the differences betweeen the Mcguffey and Fun with Dick and Jane). What primer (first readers in school) did you read? If you are (or were) a primary school teacher or (are/were) planning to be one, and you were given the choice, what would you use as a primer in your classes? What would be your objectives? How would you achieve them? If you're a parent or planning to be one, which primers would you use (or did you/would you have used) with your children? Why and HOW?

The improving status of primers shows the improving of the times. Childhood became more and more a time in which we are to learn. When education to the age of ten became both free and compulsory in 1880, I feel like that was one of the earliest steps in the proper direction. Literacy was obviously increasing in importance when the right to vote in Britain was extended to the people.

Primers I feel devolved to a degree, at least between the McGuffey and Dick & Jane. The McGuffey read like a story in a children's book, which it actually is. I've heard Chicken Little growing up for years, though I've never heard this ending. There is an actual story there for children to learn from, but with Dick & Jane it's sort of dull and more repetitive. Neither Jane nor Chicken Little can understand what they are getting wrong, but where Jane gets it wrong, she laughs and fixes her mistake. Chicken Little gets eaten. The issue I find with Dick & Jane is the language. It's stiff and robotic.

"'Oh, oh!' laughed Jane.
'Where is one for me?
I will get one for Jane."

I doubt children in this era even spoke in this manner. It sounds awkward and like someone's trained words. Chicken Little also uses older language, but as it's a fairytale and from a time where we accept and almost expect that kind of language.

I wouldn't use Dick & Jane for my children. I don't like the language and though it's good that Jane can laugh at her mistake (which is a fine lesson!), I feel like Dick almost mocks her with how repetitious he is in pointing out her mistake. I'd be more likely to use something with fairy tales, stories that I've told my child in earlier times. My parents read the Frog and Toad stories to me as a child, which I felt were very laid back with the layout of the text to the pictures helping to show what's happening. I feel like I'd also want to use books like those. First I'd read them to the child aloud, sitting beside them and using my finger to follow the words to let them see them as I speak them. We'd discuss any strange or large words or actions that the child might not understand. Eventually, I'd offer for them to read with me. Ideally, the child would eventually take over reading the books to me or just themselves.

Animal Fables

2010-02-27T20:29:00.002-05:00

Animal Fables are also sometimes (when illustrating a moral point or offering a moral) didactic works; they are UNLIKE fairy tales in this, but let's not oversimpliy them--especially modern ones like the Hoban. What sorts of ideas and values (if any) do these seek to instill in their readers? Consider at least three fables from different times.

Samuel Croxall's The Fox Without a Tail has a strong and useful moral. The fix, having lost his tail to a hunter's trap tries to talk his fellow foxes into ridding themselves of their own tails. This fox is vain and thinks by having the others conform to his new appearance that he'll feel less silly. After the first fox tells them of all the advantages and how nice it is to be without his tail, another who knew it was not the first fox's choice to lose the tail called out that maybe he did like not having a tail and were the others to get stuck, then maybe they'd like it too. The moral here in about vanity and conforming. Croxall disagrees with vanity when it gets to extravagant and silly proportions, specifically making mention of women with enormous petticoats. That message would probably be useful to young men and women who find themselves within the age to go out and socialize. Peer pressure has always been quite a real thing!

Walter Crane's version of The Crow & the Pitcher was another good one. The crow cannot drink the water because it's too low in the pitcher. He took a smart way about things and dropped pebbles into the water to make the level rise so he could reach it. Like the fox, the crow had a problem but he did not try to solve it in a selfish way, like spilling the water. Instead he was careful and still got his drink. This story shows us that thinking and not just doing the first thing that comes to mind is the way to go about things. This sort of story would be good for the younger children learning how to think things out for themselves. Really, these are useful to any age and a good reminder as many people often act to quickly and foul things up. The thing to notice about Crane's is how the illustration is the fable. The actual story and short and simple, with a line at the end expressing the moral to reinforce it. This method screams younger learners to me.

Russel Hoban's The Sea-Thing Child is greatly different from the other two fables I've written on. For one it had no illustrations in the text, though I did look up the cover and found the image of the Sea-Thing Child different from what I had been imagining. The Sea-Thing is tossed out of the water during a nasty storm and fears to return, though he never really states that he fears it, we learn this through his interactions with the eel and albatross when he asks these creatures if they fear the sea and no, they don't because it's where they belong. After much thinking and his friend, the fiddler crab's own decision to actually try to make a bow and play his fiddle as he's been meaning to, the Sea-Thing child opens his wings and is swept up into the great sky where he finds what he's been missing before he returns to his home, the sea. This is a case of fearing to attempt something, perhaps similar to learning to ride a bicycle or walk to school. it could also be something far greater as actually attending school where the child will then be a small fish in a great big ocean with others. Here, the reader is learning about independence. I especially like how his fears are not voiced by the Sea-Thing Child, but by the Fiddler Crab who fears losing his friend.

Graphic Novels and Libraries

2010-02-27T19:57:00.001-05:00

As far as public libraries, there's a decent amount of choice when it comes to comics. It seems at least at my local branch that graphic novels are awarded their own area, which makes it convenient, yes, but only once you find thing thing. It's set aside within a pair of shelves that's supposed to be their "Young Adult" section. It's on the opposite side of the library of the Children's section and actually set very close to one of three sets of racks of Romance Novels. I was surprised that this designation existed, though happy. However, I entirely missed it upon entering. All I saw in the catalog was "YA Graphic Novel" as the designations, then it was separated by author's names. The shelf itself had a lot of American graphic novels along with a few manga (Japanese graphic novels) mixed in. The selection wasn't awful I guess, including work by Neil Gaiman, the first book in the "Maus" series, a splattering of super hero books, and several from the "Bone" series as well. I personally didn't care for the style of organization, however my particular branch is a rather small one.
As a reader, I prefer college libraries for organization of graphic novels. Admittedly, they don't have the same concerns for a children's section and such. At my community college, there is a long line of shelves against the wall with fiction of various sorts. You can find graphic novels mixed within the rest of the shelves though, I believe around the art section. They actually house "Watchmen" as well as most if not all of the "Sandman" series, among other well known titles.
Something I've seen at book stores, but not so much as libraries has been a collection of graphic novels that sort of retell classic works, like "Hamlet" in comic form. I think that sort of thing would appeal to young people. I mean, Shakespeare is hard for a lot of us and (in my opinion) is better to see acted out or hear out loud. I feel that seeing it in the form of a comic could easily draw people in though, and make use of images that were only alluded to even on stage.

May 2009 Spotlight

2010-02-27T18:42:00.002-05:00

The first Spotlight author for Shojo U is Neil Gaiman! A group favorite, many of us have read at least one of his works. We've been showing his BBC aired six episode mini-series Neverwhere (which brought about his book of the same name) and we plan on showing the movie Stardust based on his stellar novel at our May 29th meeting.

Gaiman has been in the game for a couple of decades now. He started off as a music journalist, writing and networking to get himself a step up into the world he hoped to join. His first published short story was Featherquest in 1984, while surprisingly his first book was a biography for the band Duran Duran in that same year. Still inspired by music and musicians today, obviously his former bread and butter was also an early love.

His first foyer into the world of comics was picking up Miracleman after the famed Alan Moore was finished with the series. This led to many other projects with one of his main collaborators and illustrators, Dave McKean, including eventually their own spin on a DC heroine, Black Orchid with an origin swing that even touched on other plant oriented DC characters including Alan Moore's handling of Swamp Thing. However, Gaiman's greatest work in this field and some may say of all is The Sandman series which started in 1989, ran until 1996, and was published by DC until picked up by DC's more fantasy and horror oriented imprint, Vertigo. Sandman follows the Endless, beings who have lived longer than humans, gods, even time. The lead character is Dream, also called Morpheus, the Shaper, and countless of other names. He's a mournful man with black eyes who can be both kind and uncaring; kind when it comes to the poor souls that are abused within and without his realm and uncaring when it comes to those who hurt him, like a former lover of his that he condemned to Hell for forsaking him. Gaiman has also done work with the Spawn series which led to issues between himself and series creator Todd McFarlane over character copyright when McFarlane used characters that Gaiman created for the series without permission or paying royalties. This dispute was settled in a 2002 hearing where the McFarlane and Gaiman were granted joint custody of the characters. Other comic works of Gaiman have been various illustrated versions of short stories, a colonial take on the Marvel heroes in "Marvel 1602", and a two part Batman story titled "Whatever Happened to the Cape Crusader?" that followed "Batman R.I.P."

Stepping away from comics and into a more traditional medium, Gaiman's made large contributions to the literary world. His first real work in the serious world of fiction was a collaboration with Terry Prattchet of Disc World fame to create a humorous take on the end of the world called "Good Omens". The 1990 novel featured characters, demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale who find themselves dealing with the coming of the Anti-Christ that went just a bit awry. His second novel was based off of the mini series Neverwhere released on BBC in 1996. A normal man is thrown into the London Underground, a place full of dark beings and magic goings on that you and I don't even notice. It was actually released in tandem with the series, though having a number of differences. Following this was "Stardust", which was published in 1999 in novel form and was illustrated into a storybook style novel with the drawings of Charles Vess. Another man thrust into a strange world, but for love and adventure more than simple mistakes. The next novel is likely his best known in this format, the best-selling and multi-award winning "American Gods". The 2001 novel won the 2002 Hugo, Stoker, Locus, Nebula, and Geffen awards, not to mention being nominated for numerous others. An ex-con finds himself lost in the world of mythology that has taken hold with the immigrants fairy tails and stories along with the local lore of America. His next adult novel in 2005, "Anansi Boys" even takes a supporting character, Mr. Nancy (Anansi) and follows his sons, one who is for lack of better term normal and the other who is the exact opposite.

Gaiman has also published successful novels for youth, including "I Sold My Father For Two Goldfish", "Wolves in the Walls" which was adapted into a play format, and "Coraline". A novelette about a little girl with a big imagination and an "other mother", "other father", and other more interesting life on the other side of a little bricked up door. As with Gaiman's other works however, nothing can be as good as it seems in those creepy black button eyes. A story for his eldest daughter that was completed for his youngest, it was made into a stop motion movie in 2009. It was also turned in to a graphic novel, a musical, and a video game. A big feat for a bedtime story. His most recent writings for children were "Blueberry Girl," a poem put to pictures and words that was written for the daughter of singer Tori Amos and "The Graveyard Book," a take off of the classic "The Jungle Book" set in a graveyard. While yes, a children's book, but like Coraline is contains a bit of darkness. Don't be mistaken, these as other books aimed at kids are easily readable to adults as well.

Stepping into yet another area of entertainment, Gaiman has done a lot of work in films, including scripts and directing. His Neverwhere series started the trend and was followed up by writing the English language script for famed Hayao Miyazaki film, "Princess Mononoke" as well as co-writing the script for Beowulf and an episode of science fiction series, Babylon 5. His own work as previously mentioned has been made into film, such as "Stardust" and "Coraline". Along with these comes 2005 Mirrormask, a film about a girl who wants to run away from the circus and the lie she leads there with a Jim Henson feel like old cult classics such as "Labyrinth" and "The Dark Crystal", but absolutely standing apart from those films given Gaiman and Dave McKean's co-writing flair, the latter's directing, and not to mention the updates to technology since those older films. It's also notable that "Death: The High Cost of Living", a short spin-off of The Sandman graphic novels that follows Death instead of Dream, and the more recently published "The Graveyard Book" will both be hitting the big screen.

Though fans come and go, Neil Gaiman is a constant in some way, shape, or form. Once you've finished everything, there should be something new or maybe something old hiding out in the shelves or even the big screen. His heavy use of strong females is what's given him the position as this club's spotlight author. In "Neverwhere," Door surges through all the hardships and the frightening world beneath the streets even leading about some stranger along with her guard which includes the best guard in the London Underground who certainly fits into our strong females as well. With "Stardust," Yvaine is willful and speaks her mind, giving poor Tristam a run for his money. "Coraline" gives us a curious little Coraline who finds adventure in unlikely places and saves the day even though she's scared of what's happening. Even going back to his graphic novels, we see Death who is essentially the Grim Reaper by our definitions as a sympathetic soul who knows people fear and hate her, but she also knows and accepts that people just don't understand her and what she means. Black Orchid too, in the form of Black Orchid, Susan, even little Suzie are strong women who surely have their moments of doubt and naivety, but could they be honestly called weak? No. So here's to Neil! Keep them coming, we'll keep paying your bills or hopefully at least buying you a drink or two.

Victorian Era

2010-02-26T23:50:00.003-05:00

The Victorian period was distinct in time as a time of change. Many advances were being made during this time period and it’s suggested that it was more than had been made in the two thousand years before. Sure, this might be exaggerating, but it could pretty close to the truth as well. This was a period of industrialization, when nearly everything that could run on steam power was altered to do so. People were urged to “close the Byron; open the Goethe”, meaning to set aside their introspective romances for the higher moral purposes found in other literature, such as Goethe. The initial idea is surprising in a period of invention, but makes sense as science was practicality were big players. Each period within the Victorian period is made distinct even upon itself, though this may be due to the books clean set up. The first period wasn’t a good time; women and children were at hard work with children as young as five working in mines, the representation of the people in Parliament was not as it should be with the population having shifted from where it was when the system was first created and there being no update. The Reform Bill of 1832 was the first step in remedying this as it gave the vote to all men owning property up to 10 British Pounds in worth. This still excluded many, but it was just the first step on the path to improvement. The Mid-Victorian era was full of people attacking the social system of the time, misgivings coming from the first period. The improvements of the era were evident here though. Industry was booming beyond just the railways of the first part of the Victorian age. Religion was evolving, which made sense as science was also bringing about new ideas and at least to me those two fields often like to counter each other. One of the important theories of the time was in fact evolution as though by Charles Darwin and pushed by Thomas Huxley. Many thought this was an addition to their beliefs, taking the meaning to be figurative and not literal. Men of science then were taking the Bible not as a sacred book, but a tome of history for examination and many religions didn't care for this. Toward the end of the era, things were obviously changing. While the first era could be considered one of unrest and politics, the middle of change, religion, and science, perhaps the last is of war, mutiny, and change. Mutiny and war came more from the colonies than England itself however. America having just gotten through its own civil war was becoming more of a rival. Labor was becoming a powerful force and many of its leaders were being influenced by things such as the writing of Karl Marx. Even the writers of this time were taking shots at those from the Mid-Victorian era. Obviously things were trying to head in a different direction.

The following generation after Queen Victoria’s death almost went out of their way to distinguish themselves from the Victorian era. Literary critiques of the next era would treat Victorian writers as “stuffily complacent prigs” and how very different literature had become since those writers. As always, the following generation was still built on the shoulders of its predecessors.

Victorian Era: The Novel

2010-02-26T23:47:00.003-05:00

The novel was huge during this time period. They often appeared in three volumes as opposed to simply one book, which explains why some classic literature is separated even today within one book as different "Books". This books were an attempt to cover a large amount of life and society as it really was. Each novel showed each author's own views of what life and their world was about in this time in very realistic fashions, though they might not all seem to show the same world in their individual realism. Victorian novels showed a main character who was trying to define their position within society. This was also an era of many strong women writers, considering the common topics of the novel were of daily life, society, courtship, family, and marriage.

It's interesting the reading speaks of the Victorian heroine, the representation of the human condition. While this is a model of women very familiar to me, from my experience these novel were still not without their Byronic males. Of course, they weren't quite as romantic as in the previous era of Bryon himself perhaps.

Liberal vs Useful

2010-02-26T23:45:00.001-05:00

How does Newman define "Liberal" and "Useful" education? Which of the two does he promote? How and why?

Newman feels there are two different types of knowledge and education, "Liberal" and "Useful". Useful knowledge is more technical and practical. This is the scientific knowledge of creation, and thus especially useful during this age of technological advances. In reference to "useful knowledge", Newman feels that, "Knowledge, in proportion as it tends more and more to be particular, ceases to be Knowledge" Though Newman finds this type of knowledge to be good and of it's own sort of use, but he feels eventually it becomes so specific that it is no longer knowledge. I feel he means that it becomes so specialized that it can only be useful for something in particular and not a knowledge good for discussion and sharing. Liberal knowledge is more philosophical. This education is much more generalized and rounded out. Newman I feel prefers it because this is what he himself shares in. Of this type of knowledge he feels, "...that there is a Knowledge, which is desirable, though nothing come of it, as being of itself a treasure, and a sufficient remuneration of years of labor." Liberal knowledge is something to expand upon and be discussed and furthered. It will never not be knowledge, even if it were to become a book as then it would simply be relayed knowledge.

I get what he's saying, but it seems a little silly. He obviously respected "useful" knowledge, but he finds himself working in liberal knowledge and so favoring it.

On Liberty

2010-02-26T23:44:00.001-05:00

What concerns about conformity and democracy does Mill express in the selections from On Liberty? How do YOU feel about them?

Mill feels that the people are becoming meek in that they are doing only what is expected of them. Instead of doing what they want and feel, they are conforming to the ideas and arguments of other people. “If the grounds of an opinion are not conclusive to the person’s own reason, his reason cannot be strengthened, but is likely to be weakened, by his adopted of it” They are not making their own plans, they are not forming their own independence, which is the meaning of having liberty. “But it is the privilege and proper condition of a human being, arrived at the maturity of his facilities, to use and interpret experience in his own way.” This meant that we as humans are educated to allow ourselves to make our own way, our own experiences and to not just melt into the background. “He who lets the world, or his portion of it, choose his plan of life for him has no need of any other facilities than the apelike one of imitation.” For all the education and living in the world, if a person lets himself be controlled his environment, then he’s no more use than an animal.

Subjection of Women

2010-02-26T23:25:00.002-05:00

In The Subjection of Women, Mill bases his argument against the subjugation of the female to the male on a very interesting foundation: that we don't KNOW women's nature, and that the concepts of womanhood and the gender arrangements we assume are natural are, instead, entirely traditional and habitual, rather than based in nature. Focusing on these parts of his argument, discuss whether and in what ways (if any) the assumptions Mill questions are still true today.

I personally think things have greatly improved since Mill's times. Women got the vote, they can work most any job that men can work, and there's even men staying at home and raising children. However, I feel like the expectation for women to obey their husbands and to be the caregiver and housewife are still underlying. "The general opinion of men is supposed to be, that the natural vocation of a woman is that of a wife and mother." Women of a certain age are expected to get/be married and have children, it's seen as unusual in some circles if you're not. Married life these days is not the equivalent of slavery though, it's a partnership. Wife no long equals housewife.

Ulysses

2010-02-26T23:23:00.002-05:00

In "Ulysses," the speaker is the Ulysses (or Odysseus) of Homer's The Odyssey. Tennyson imagines what this hero would feel like after having spent some time at home in Ithaca after all his adventures, his 20-year quest to return home, and his triumphant driving out of his faithful wife Penelope's suitors. Again, this is a dramatic monologue, so (I've told you who the speaker is), what is the situation, and whom is he addressing? How does he feel about his wife, his people and his son? What does he intend to do? One tip: the poem is in three verse-paragraphs: consider them separately and together.

Ulysses has been back from his twenty year journey for some time now. He is again ruler of Ithica with his beloved wife and strong son. Here, he is the speaker and is addressing perhaps not just those men who had traveled with him solely, but the whole of his people. He feels useless “an idle king”, just repeating the same actions to a people who don’t know him and so he feels do not care, “I mete and dole//Unequaled laws unto a savage race,//That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know me not.” Perhaps he just feels so disconnected though. Ulysses wants to life live and feels he must leave to do it. “I cannot rest from travel; I will drink//Life to the lees.” He lists of past experiences and says how they are a part of him, “I am part of all I have met” So obviously he is planning on leaving again. The island will be left to his son’s care, who he trusts to handle the job. “This is my son, mine own Telemachus,//To whom I leave the scepter and the isle” Ulysses hopes that Telemachus can change the people, make them more gentle than they had become. “by slow prudence to make mild//A rugged people, and through soft degrees//Subdue them to the useful and the good.” Which shows us that right now, Ulysses doesn’t find his people to be mild and good. The thing I find interesting is that he doesn’t speak much of his wife. Ulysses says at the start that she is “aged” but nothing else. In the final section I thought perhaps he spoke to her when he said “you and I are old” but the more I look at it, the more I feel like he’s talking to the sailors he spent his time with.

Mariana

2010-02-26T23:20:00.001-05:00

Again, "Mariana" is one example of Tennyson's exceptional skill with image and mood. In responding to this, remembering our earlier discussion of the effect of setting in Gothic fiction, identify/describe the MOOD of this poem, and discuss how the images (consider here those which appeal to the senses of sound and feeling, as well as that of sight) create this mood.

The mood here is morose and dreary, as the woman keeps saying of her life, “She only said, ‘My life is dreary’”. The way things are described, the reader feels as though they are dragging through the time alongside this waiting woman. We are with her in the “moated grange” or farmhouse. A farmhouse with a moat is already a strange image to us today, though perhaps not in these times or in Shakespeare’s time during which this woman, Mariana, is plucked for this poem. Everything about her is aged or unkept, “With blackest moss the flower-plots//Were thickly crusted, one and all” Even the thatched roof of the grange is grown over with weeds “Weeded and worn the ancient thatch//Upon the lonely moated grange” This is not a cheery place. Not even the coming of the day improves things, “Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn//About the lonely moated grange” The light coming with the morning isn’t sunny and bringing blue skies, it is grey and chilly. She can hear the sound of the water nearby, “A sluice with blackened waters slept” Or perhaps she didn’t is the “sluice” had “slept”? Either way, again, the water is murky, black. Further on, creepy quiet noises abound, “The doors upon their hinges creaked;//The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse//Behind the wainscot shrieked” Nearly everything is called old and though the woman is beckoned or thinks she is so, she still sits in her depression, “Old faces glimmered through the doors//Old footsteps trod the upper floors,//Old voices called her from without” I personally think the most downcast things of the whole poem is Mariana’s repetition, “She only said, ‘My life is dreary,//He cometh not,’ she said;//She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary,//I would that I were dead!’”

Porphyria's Lover

2010-02-26T23:18:00.001-05:00

In "Porphyria's Lover," we overhear the title character speaking of how he murdered his beloved Porphyria. You take it from here, but be sure to try to explain the last line.

The poem starts off almost sweet. This woman, Porphyria, loves the man, the speaker. He watches her as she enters the place, locking up behind her, and then sheds her clothing that had grown wet from the storm outdoors. “Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,//And laid her soiled gloves by, untied//Her hat and let her damp hair fall” She even released her hair, which from what I know of this time period these two must be intimate considering most ladies would never do such a thing in male company. He does not answer her when she calls, but she seemed unphased and just places his arm about her waist. The speaker says she’s too weak to do the things she wishes or he expects her to want. “Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor” With what she is doing to him, however, it would seem she expects him to be weak as well. She loved him, “worshipped” him even. He wanted her to be his though, “That moment she was mine, mine, fair,//Perfectly pure and good” So he killed her. “In one long yellow string I wound//Three times her little throat around,//And strangled her” He didn’t regret it, not at all and swears she didn’t feel it, “No pain felt she;//I am quite sure she felt no pain.” Then he shifted her body to sit with him. I feel he might be an invalid or nearing death himself perhaps. She obviously trusted and loved this man, and he loved her as well, but he loved her so much he wanted to keep her with him forever. But there has come no punishment, no angel in the night to deliver either him nor her from each other. He is happy about this. “And all night long we have not stirred,//And yet god has not said a word.”

The Duchess

2010-02-26T23:15:00.001-05:00

Characterize the Duchess, and then tell us how the way he sees her differs from the way you see her.

The Duchess is portrayed as a sweet woman. She took compliments all too well, even things that weren’t always intended as compliments per say. “Sir, ‘twas not//Her husband’s presence only, called that spot//Oh joy into the Duchess’ cheek” Her husband felt she was too easily made happy by little things. It almost seems that he thought she was simple and flighty.

“Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ‘twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace- all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech”

He didn’t find this at all fair, of course. The Duke felt that his Duchess took the gifts of other men to be equal to the gift of being wed to him and his “nine-hundred-years-old name”. He hated this so much that he “gave commands” and “the smiles stopped altogether” which leads one to wonder what exactly he has done to his first wife now that she’s passed.

In Memoriam

2010-02-26T23:14:00.002-05:00

My selections from the poem show the speaker's (we can say Tennyson's) whole grieving process. Trace this through the selected sections. Note especially the Christmases and the two "Dark House" sections (7 and 119). TRY to relate sound to sense in doing this.

Start – 19: Here, the speaker starts off sort of addressing God and/or Jesus. “We” means not just him, but all of mankind. Here he is talking about the meaning of life, as man “thinks he is not made to die” It seems the speaker believes in God, but has less faith in religion, saying “Our little systems have their day;//They have their day and cease to be;//They are but broken lights of thee” The speaker seems to still trust in this higher power though, and asks it to forgive him his grief.
As we continue, the speaker talking about ways in which others deal with death, such as in Stanza 1, where he says “That men may rise on stepping stones//Of their dead selves to higher things.” Essentially taking what work we see from our predecessors and use it to help us learn. Then he asks though “But who shall so forecast the years//And find in loss a gain to match?” Meaning with all the great losses through the years, does what we gain from them really even out in comparison? The speaker feels that it doesn’t. The speaker is looking for ways to cope with his loss.
He envies the yew tree, Stanza 2, which never changes in its resting place amongst death.
Stanza 3, he considers accepting sorrow as it is, or “crushing” it, which to me means ignoring or denying it.
Stanza 4, he again talks of denying his sorrow, “’Thou shalt not be the fool of loss!’”
Stanza 5, he admits to “sometimes hold it half a sin//To put in words the grief [he] feels” He doesn’t even want to talk about it.
Stanza 6, “One writes, that ‘Other friends remain,’//That ‘Loss is common to the race’” and while the speaker finds this true, he finds it no comfort. There are other friends, but those are not his lost friend.
The speaker actually visits his friend’s old house, “Dark house” in Stanza 7. He awoke early to visit it and think about the man he will never clasp his hand again. He notices that “He is not here; but far away//The noise of life begins again” Life keeps going on.
Stanza 8, he compares missing his friend to a man missing his lover. He resolves however to continue with a poem “since it pleased a vanished eye”
Stanza 9 is about the sailing of his friend’s body back to England. Something I really like here is how he called Hallam “my Arthur” showing a great loyalty as Tennyson is a man who obviously enjoyed the Arthurian legends. What’s curious is what role does he feel he takes to his Arthur?
Stanza 10, keeps on about the boat and how it brings many things to the country, including “a vanished life”.
Stanza 11, keeps talking about calm and peace, but again references the ship carrying his dead friend. Even the speaker’s own calm, “If any calm, a calm despair” Which makes it seem consolable at least.
Stanza 12, again mentions the ship, this time the speaker takes the form of a dove metaphorically and searches out the ship where his friend lies. He asks “Is this the end?” he must be ready to see the burial and try to mend his heart. Not to say the mending will happen quickly.
Stanza 13, he obviously very much wanted this ship to come so the burial could finally happen. This time as he waits he compares his lose again with a man having lost not just a lover, but a wife. We can clearly see, this Hallam was like a brother to him.
Stanza 14, he doesn’t believe his friend will return to him alive, but he admits that if his friend walked off the boat fully alive and just as he’d last seen him, “[He] should not feel it to be strange.” This shows us that he is still deep down holding out some hope.
Stanza 15, here I wonder if he isn’t suggesting that nature itself is mourning now.
Stanza 19 compares his keeping his feelings inside of himself to the dammed Wye river. When it becomes vocal, he allows himself to as well.
I think part of the reason he kept wanting the ship to come related to him thinking that once the burial happened, that he could really get over his mourning or truly start to mourn instead of simply miss his friend badly.

28 – 30: Here the speaker has reached his first Christmas without his friend. The songs do not cheer him, “Swell out and fail, as is a door,//Were shut between me and the sound.” The bells make him want “no more to wake” almost. He hates that they’re still keeping Christmas even as in mourning. He has no urge to please the spirits of Christmas as “They too will die.” It sounds like the whole family is faking it through this Christmas, “We gamboled, making a vain pretense//Of gladness, with an awful sense//Of one mute Shadow watching all.” This is the first time it seems he mourns with others.

50 – 56: The speaker seems to be accepting that his friend is gone, hoping the dead man can be with him in spirit when he needs him, “Be near me when my light is low,//When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick” Again, he revisits the concept that nothing was created in vain, “That not a worm is cloven in vain” and everything has some reason to exist. The speaker does not see his reason however. He questions his faith, but considers whether it’s God or Nature who is doing him wrong. “Are God and nature so at strife,//That Nature lends such evil dreams?” He purposes that man was made by Nature and not of God so life actually has no purpose, “O life as futile, then, as frail!”

70: He seems scared of forgetting his friend. “I cannot see the features right” but he also realizes that his vision is hindered by the depression he’s feeling. “When on the gloom I strive to paint//The face I know” But when he looks within himself, he can see his friend clearly.

78 – 83: Another Christmas time, they play their games and the speaker feels that they do all still feel “the quiet sense of something lost.” This time, no one cried or showed pain any longer. It seems like they might all be dealing better, realizing they have mourned long already, “with long use her tears are dry.” The speaker does not blame Death for his friend’s passing, as such things are natural. “Nor blame I Death, because he bare//The use of virtue out of earth”. Then the following Spring, he talks about the flowers and the new year “Delaying long, delay no more” The speaker thinks that his sadness cannot follow him into the spring months. “Can trouble live with April days?//Or sadness in the summer moons?”

95: In this summery time, the speaker was struck to read old letters from his dead friend. He still felt a same connection to the man, “And all at once it seemed at last//The living soul was flashed on mine.” This seemed to actually fill him with joy. It was to him as though his friend was still there with him.

104 – 108: We start this section with another Christmas. It seems like he is in a different place from the past holidays mentioned. The family lapses on their holiday customs, “tonight ungathered let us leave//This laurel, let this holly stand” Though it isn’t said to be out of mourning, but that the family seems to have fallen out of practice. With the ringing bells at the New Year, the speaker hopes to be able to set let his mourning go, “Ring out, wild bells, and let him go.” When his friend’s birthday comes, the celebrate it instead of using the day to mourn, “With festal cheer,//With books and music, surely we//Will drink to him, whate’er he be.” It seems the speaker is starting to step back out into the world now. “I will not shut me from my kind”

119 – 120: Again we visit the house of his lost friend. It isn’t quite the same dreary visit, this time he hears “a chirp of birds” and sees “Betwixt the black fronts long-withdrawn//A light blue lane of early dawn” as though the world is awakening again and not just moving past. He leaves it, giving his friend a blessing as he goes. He comments on science and Darwin’s theory of evolution, but it seems our speaker as gotten himself back to his faith, “Let him, the wiser man who springs//hereafter, up from childhood shape//His action like the greater ape,//But I was born to other things.”

126 – Epilogue: He is obviously much more secure in his thinking and is past the pained depression of his mourning. The speaker talks of his love for his friend and how this love makes him more secure and happy. He feels that though his friend is gone, with his love for him, the man will never truly leave him, “I prosper, circled with thy voice;//I shall not lose thee tho’ I die.” In the end, we come back to the marriage of the speaker’s sister, his dead friend’s wife. The speaker expresses no ill will toward the couple and even wonders about the children their union will bring. “For all we thought and loved and did,//And hoped, and suffered, is but seed//Of what in them is flower and fruit”

Fra Lippo Lippi

2010-02-26T23:12:00.001-05:00

How does Lippi talk himself out of this rather sticky situation?

Lippo is caught out on the streets where it’s thought he shouldn’t actually be. I’m assuming it might have something to do with it being past midnight and his location, “And here you catch me at an alley’s end//Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar?” “Sportive ladies” sounds like a nice way of suggesting they were prostitutes. I’m not sure the legality of these things at the time as the only indication of Lippo being in the wrong is that he’s caught by the men on rounds. He explains that he is a monk from Carmine, which doesn’t seem to quite do the job of getting him free. We see he is still being held when he continues on into his high friendships, “Aha, you know your betters! Then you’ll take//your hand away that’s fiddling on my throat,//And please to know me likewise.” Mentioning his acquaintance seemed to be the trick of it though, “Who am I?//Why, one, sir, who is lodging with a friend//Three streets off-he’s a certain…how d’ye call?//Master-a…Cosimo of the Medici” Saying precisely where the man lives to further the truth of it. This seemed to get the men to ease off of him so he in turn mocked them, “Remember and tell me, the day that you’re hanged,//How you affected such a gullet’s gripe!” “Zooks, are we pilchards, that they sweep the streets//And count fair prize what comes into this net?” “He’s Judas to a tittle, that man is!” Though he then says he’s not angry and regales them with his stories of life. I think the story telling also took them far off the subject of his unknown doings about in that hour and place, but really he was fine before it.”

The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point

2010-02-26T23:11:00.002-05:00

In "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point," a dramatic monologue, she takes aim at slavery in America. In responding to/explicating this, treat it as a dramatic monologue. Who is speaking? What is the situation? How do we know? Also discuss whether and how this is an effective way of arguing against slavery.

The speaker is a slave on the run. She has made it to Pilgrim’s Point, or Plymouth Rock, in Massachusetts. The woman addressed the spirits of the long dead pilgrims, “O piligrim-souls, I speak to you!” She seemed to think herself and her race lower than the whites that make them work, as she says that she knows God made her, but “He must have cast his work away//Under the feet of his white creatures”. It looks like she questions this position she’s been placed in, “And yet He has made dark things//To be glad and merry as light”. She speaks of her own life, the love she was given by another slave, “And tender and full was the look he gave-//Could a slave look so at another slave?” and the freedom she felt from that, “And from that hour our spirits grew//As free as if unsold, unbought” This man she loved so much was killed, or at least beaten and taken away, but considering “They wrung [her] cold hands out of his,//They dragged him-where? I crawled to touch//His blood marks in the dust” we as the reader at least see that this man is out of the picture. The men that took him away also raped her, “Wrong, followed by a deeper wrong!//Mere grief’s too good for such as I://So the white men brought the same ere long” Which led to her pregnancy with a mixed child that appeared more white than black. “And the babe that lay on my bosom so,//Was far too white, too white for me” Because of this and she killed her baby. She carried the dead body about with her still though, until she ran off to bury it. Once buried, she considered the child black now that the dead body was covered in dirt, “All, changed to black earth,-nothing white,-//A dark child in the dark!” This is the point where we come to the present, where the women had first been addressing the ghosts. Now she is addressing the reader, who is placed amongst the white men. They hang her, thinking she is mad, but she knows she’ll see “the white child waiting for me.”

The speaker is strong and a good voice against slavery. Her story is utterly sad and easy to sympathize with. I think it’s a fine argument against slavery. Toward the end, she appeals to Christianity and essentially says that slavery goes against it, “Two kinds of men in adverse rows,//Each loathing each; and all forget//The seven wounds in Christ’s body fair” which if that didn’t hit home for at least the educated Christians reading, I’d be surprised.

You get the speaker and the situation, but you still don't get the (present) audience in the poem: her pursuers.

The screwy time frame sometimes throws me off. As best I can determine, her pursuers don't really know or care about the situation of her dead child which she had killed. They were likely more concerned with her being a runaway than any other action she'd taken up on this journey. They were just sent to deal with her and find her mad. Truthfully, they wouldn't be wrong, but it was the white men handling of her and the pale skin of her child I feel that drove her to that.

Not as influential as "Cry of the Children"

True. I know someone else said it before and I'm going to guess Ash, but don't quote me on that, but someone had said it was difficult to sympathize with the speaker because while she is in a sad and desperate situation, she still murdered her child. I think it's the shock of that and how she loves it more once it's in the ground that made me feel for her more. I can see what you mean about the poem addressing slavery in America and therefore not hitting home with the English as much. It's true, their situation in England is much different and it makes good sense for the plight of the children to be more hard hitting.

The Cry of the Children

2010-02-26T23:07:00.002-05:00

In "The Cry of the Children," she paints a wrenching picture of the plight of child laborers, alternating appeals to the reader with the children’s' own descriptions of their conditions. In responding to/explicating this, consider both the appeals and the children’s voices.

The poem is spoken by an adult, someone amongst those who might not have seen the plight of the children at first and wishes to educate about the problem. They ask “Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,//Ere the sorrow comes with years?” These children are suffering and there is no comfort, “They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,//And that cannot stop their tears.” These children are being denied the same freedoms that other simpler creatures are permitted, “They are weeping in the playtime of the others,//In the country of the free.” The speaker is expecting to be questioned, for others to ask why the children are crying. While the speaker does respond, it is left to the children to do so as well. They are young and feel weak, they do not understand why only the old are expected to die and they are not, “‘Ask for the aged why they weep, and not the children,//For the outside earth is cold,//And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,//And the graves are for the old.” They feel like death could almost be a blessing compared to what they’re going through working, they talk specifically about one girl, Alice who they are sure is better off dead as “merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in//The shroud by the kirk chime.” Then they feel for themselves that it’s better to die early, “‘It is good when it happens,’ say the children,// ‘That we die before our time.’” The children say when told they should go out and play in the meadows, that “‘cannot run or leap;//If we cared for meadows, it were merely//To drop down in them and sleep.’” These are children forced to work and not permitted a childhood. They don’t know the joy of running in the meadows or picking flowers because they’ve never done such things. This piece is tragic and really expresses what Barrett Browning was going for I feel. That being sorrow for these poor children and outrage that such things were ever so.

The Function of Criticism at the Present Time

2010-02-26T23:06:00.001-05:00

What (and how) does Arnold argue about the importance of criticism in his time? Consider here what he says about BOTH literature and society.

It sounds like critics have almost been left by the wayside at his time with the way he takes it. Arnold thinks this is a travesty, using a quote from himself stating that “almost the last thing for which one would come to English literature is just that very thing which Europe most desires- criticism” The funny fact of this though is that criticism was almost too harsh in the past era and has seemed to of gone to another extreme from the way Arnold puts it. I mean, I’m drawing a blank on whom, though I want to say Keats, but I remember specifically that it was thought that harsh criticism it what weakened him and lead to his death. We know how much he respects Wordsworth, but this prose shows his honesty as he blatantly disagrees with the man. He mentioned Wordsworth feelings against criticism, “Wordsworth holds the critical power very low, indefinitely lower than inventive; and he said today that if the quantity of times consumed in writing critiques on the works of others were given to original composition… it would be much better employed” but Arnold counters, bringing up that Wordsworth himself was a critic as well as poet. Arnold suggests that Wordsworth wasn’t again criticism as much as harsh criticism, “However, everybody would admit that a false or malicious criticism had better never been written.” Arnold is very much in favor or criticism, but I feel he wishes for honesty, rather than simply harsh words meant to injure. Again, he also mentions Goethe as a fine critic, which considering the opinion of him mentioned in Memorial Verses makes excellent sense. Arnold felt that Goethe could pinpoint problems easily and tell it how it was. I think Arnold felt that proper criticism and a wider range of reading experience during the previous era would have helped the writers of the time. He doesn’t dislike the writers, he specifically says of Wordsworth that “I admire Wordsworth, as he is, so much that I cannot wish him different; and it is vain, no doubt, to imagine such a man different from what he is, to suppose that he could have been different.” It doesn’t stop him from wondering what Wordsworth could have done were he a more read man or what he might have taken from criticism were he again a more read man. Really, much of society could have been changed for the sake of being more well read.

Culture and Anarchy: Ch 1, Sweetness and Light

2010-02-26T23:05:00.001-05:00

In the "Sweetness and Light" section, Arnold takes aim at the Puritan element (of Dissenting, or Independent, Christians) in middle class English culture.
What does Arnold argue is wrong with the "Puritan" element in English society, and how does he argue this? How does he contrast this (consider here the way he SORT OF allows religion its positive value) with the "sweetness and light" which men of "culture and poetry" try to promote?

Here Arnold proposes that the Puritan's Independents organization holds their faith "The Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion" which Arnold relates to his concept of perfection, "sweetness and light". What Arnold says was being suggested is that one has no need for poetry or reading, but only of religion and the church, which is given to us in the language that "is in our mouths every day." He understands others respecting their religion, as it's something they believe in, that has done so much for them and started them down the road of "perfection" though it "wears such a brand of imperfection on its forehead as this." He feels the good of it, even just supposed good, can blind people to the imperfection. These people "can only be reached by the criticism which culture, like poetry, speaking of language not to be sophisticated, and resolutely testing these organizations by the ideal of a human perfection complete on all sides, applies to them." The only way people can see the downfalls of this religion is by knowledge brought to them via criticisms and poetry, which their religion puts down. It seems that Arnold is disgusted by the good things of the Puritans being so applauded, while the good side of regular educated men are not. Men who have many faults as well as many positive points are only seen for their faults, where as the Puritan church is seen only for it's positives and ideal of perfection. "And they have been punished for their failure, as the Puritan has been rewarded for his performance." But obviously these men still have Arnold's respect for their ideals, while the Puritans do not.
"They have been punished wherein they erred; but their ideal of beauty, of sweetness and light, and a human nature complete on all sides, remains the true ideal of perfection; just as the Puritann's ideal of perfection remains narrow and inadequate, although for what he did well he has been richly rewarded."

Literature and Science vs. Science and Culture

2010-02-26T23:03:00.002-05:00

In your opinion, who "wins" this debate? Why and how?

Huxley has a good point. He’s tired of science not garnering respect as a field of study. Considering the newness of the subject at this time, I can’t say I’m exactly surprised. He comes off insulting almost, suggesting that “practically men” are extinct in his current era. Huxley is obviously a well read man himself, easily referencing Milton and Shakespeare. He specifically calls up Arnold as well, specifically his thought of criticism and literature. He agrees on the factor of criticism being necessary, but he disagrees on the factor of literature being the only source. I feel that Arnold wins this debate. He takes a better stance of the argument, covering Huxley’s side as well as his own. Again, he shows respect for both sides of the battle. What he suggests is that Huxley felt that a knowledge of literature was wrong in that it was a person’s only knowledge. That they did not learn from it, but only memorized it and could run about quoting it as they pleased. Arnold disagrees with it, saying that “I mean more than a knowledge of so much vocabulary, so much grammar, so many portions of authors in the Greek and Latin languages, I mean knowing the Greeks and Romans, and their life and genius” so it seems as though Huxley had over simplified the argument on his side. So of course Arnold wins.

Dover Beach

2010-02-26T17:01:00.004-05:00

Describe the situation, and discuss what the speaker says (and HOW he says it) to his beloved about faith and love.

The speaker is looking out the window at the view. He beckons another to join him, a lover. The speaker isn’t so much admiring the view as he is observing it and wishing to share it with this lover. It seemed peaceful and nice at first, “The sea is calm tonight,//The tide is full, the moon lies fair//Upon the straits” The further we get, the more agitated the ocean seems to become. “Listen! you hear the grating roar//Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling//At their return, up the high strand,//Begin, and cease, and then again begin” This could be a comment on the repetition of life or the constant back and forth arguments of things, such as faith and love versus science. Faith, the speaker suggests, is crumpled and collected in a confusing state, though it was previously spread out and open, easy to make sense of. “The Sea of Faith//Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore//Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.” He fears faith is leaving, or he himself is losing it, which is a statement on the times as faith was a big question as science was explaining more and more, changing the way people think and causing greater questions.

“But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.”

Love, the speaker has greater belief and hope in. He wants to at least. He begs his lover, “let us be true//to one another!” because he has no faith in anything outside of love. The speaker doesn’t trust the world and feels he can only trust in himself and his lover, but only if she did the same.

“For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath neither joy, nor love, not light,
Nor certitude, not peace, nor help for pain”

They are alone with each other, which harkens back to the Marquerite poems with the feeling of isolation. “And we are here as on a darkling plain//Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,//Where ignorant armies clash by night”

Arnold has a excellent grasp of the age! There's no denying that. His writing I felt had a sort of realness, something that I thought Wordsworth also had and I personally liked.

Good connection to the speaker in the "Marguerite" poems--again, maybe "reduced" Byrons?
Certainly! Arnold's speakers are less bad and put on the front of not being stoic with their great love. They are not as much self-outcasted as they are self-isolated, but instead of doing it because of judging society or some past hurt or whatever reasoning a Byronic hero might use, they have lost faith in anything but their love.

As a love poem: how would you feel if a guy addressed you like this?
I do feel can be a love poem. He wants to trust her and have her trust in him, each other being the only thing they can depend on. If a guy said that to me though, I'd feel incredibly overwhelmed. He basically says that the world sucks, so we can only trust in each other. That's extremely pessimistic and needy.

Memorial Verses

2010-02-26T16:00:00.003-05:00

"Memorial Verses" (pp.1358-60) can be read as Arnold's own reflections on the poets of the previous generation, primarily Wordsworth, to whom this is an elegy. Arnold, as a young man, knew and looked up to Wordsworth. What does he say (and HOW does he say it) about Wordsworth's value? About the other poets?

Wordsworth is such a focus for this poem that frankly it could almost be called Wordsworth and be gotten away with. The speaker refers to Wordsworth of “the last poetic voice” which makes good sense as he was the last of his generation of poets to pass on. The speaker talks about Wordsworth as a calming introduction to darker things, comparable to the song of mythical Orpheus, singing from Hades:

“For never has such a soothing voice
Been to your shadowy world conveyed,
Since erst, at morn, some wandering shade
Heard the clear song of Orpheus come
Through Hades, and the mournful gloom.”

The speaker feels that Wordsworth made a big dent on the literary world. Wordsworth took us from the “iron time//Of doubts, disputes, distractions, fears” suggesting a time of coldness and many problems back to a time where we could appreciate the earth around us.

“He found us when age had bound
Our souls in its benumbing round;
He spoke, and loosened our heart in tears.
He laid us as we lay at birth
On the cool flowery lap of earth.”

The speaker goes as far to say that “our youth returned; for there was shed//On spirits that had long been dead” meaning that Wordsworth was revealing to people an almost childlike joy in his writing at times, which I fully agree with. Wordsworth’s appreciation for children and innocence was often evident. The speaker though he respects other poets that he knows and likely feels too were great at times, he has such appreciation for Wordsworth and love of what the man has created that he sets him on a higher pedestal. “Again find Wordsworth’s healing power?... But who, ah! Who, will make us feel?”

Wordsworth was well respected, though he does mention others in passing. Goethe and Byron are both mentioned. The speaker says that Byron “taught us little; but our soul//Had felt him like the thunder’s roll.//With shivering heart the strife we saw//Of passion with eternal law” Which to me feels that while he enjoyed Byron’s work and was touched by it at times, as he knew many were by the man’s deep passion, the speaker himself did not feel he learned from Byron. As for Goethe, a German poet (I believe?), he seems to have a deeper respect for his work, calling him a “Physician of the iron age” and appreciate his almost painful accuracy, “He reach each wound, each weakness clear;//And struck his finger on the place,//And said: Thou ailest here and here!” That Goethe was a man who could identify problems of society. The speaker does belief that there could be other Goethe-like or Byronic poets, “time may restore us in his course//Goethe’s sage mind and Byron’s force” though he doubts this is likely for Wordsworth. Considering he lives in an era which demanded readers to “Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe" it’s actually interesting he mentions these two specifically.

Isolation: To Marguerite & To Marguerite--Continued

2010-02-26T15:21:00.002-05:00

Characterize the speaker in these poems, focusing on the language he uses to express his views on love.

The speaker is in love and wished to remain so. He longed for her and wanted to only miss her and not open himself up to others, “I bade my heart be more constant” and “grow a home for only thee”. Being away from his love for so long though has made him shut his heart away from others and grow lonely, “The heart can bide itself away” Through that, he still retains his love of this woman and only this woman, “and thou, thou lonely heart,//Which never yet without remorse//Even for a moment didst depart//From thy remote and sphered course//To haunt the place where passions reign” He compares his love not with one passionate and outlasting time, but with one notoriously unrequited. “Back with the conscious thrill of shame//When Luna felt, that summer night…When she forsook the starry heights//To hang over Endymion’s sleep” The speaker has no real hope for his love to be returned to him. “Or, if not quite alone, yet they//Which touch thee are unmating things-//Ocean and clouds and night and day” Then in the second part, the speaker compares life to the sea, “Yes! In the sea of life enisled,//With echoing straits between us thrown” He and the woman he loves are on opposite sides, even going as far as to say that all people are alone, “We mortal millions live alone.//The islands feel the enclasping flow,//And then their endless bounds they know.” These islands, us or our very souls, still recall being a part of a whole, though, and long to return to it. “For surely once, they feel, we were//Parts of a single continent!” This is like his longing to be one with his love, though again, he knows he never can be because of essentially the grace of God.

“Who ordered that their longing’s fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cooled?
Who renders vain their deep desire?-
A God, a God their severance rules!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.”

John Donne's Meditation 17--"No man is an iland?" Hear a contrary echo of this here? Why do you think Arnold did this?
Where Donne felt that man was not alone, "All mankind is of one author and is one volume", Arnold felt the opposite. Almost absolutely opposite, which is why I think he might have used this sea and island reference. Though he didn't mention the island sentiment as much as in "Dover Beach", but the separation by the sea and the yearning for them to rejoin as if from "one continent" are still calling up the same images. I think he did this because Donna gave a strong message, "No man is an island" is still well known even today.

What do you think of the speaker Arnold creates here?
The speaker is longing and it's sweet, but sad. He loves so strongly, but he's content to just long after this woman for the rest of his days. I'd much rather read this than experience it or know someone who does.

Sandman Analysis

2010-02-25T15:01:00.002-05:00

Using one of the comics or graphic novels in the text or one of your own choice, analyze/discuss the relations between pictures and text, and how the story develops between frames and from frame to frame.

A favorite graphic novel of mine was mentioned in the text, though I was unsure if I should tackle it. Since it came up, I figured, why not? I’ll be using Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as my example. I highly recommend it to adults, as it tackles some very adult-style situations and has its fair share of graphic images. As the series is rather long, I’ll just pull from the first issue, "The Sleep of the Just". The story of this issue is June 6, 1916, an English man named Roderick Burgess and a cult of men try to summon up Death, but instead they get Death's brother Dream. Through different matters and after decades of waiting, eventually Dream gets free of his enchanted prison. He punishes those that trapped him then starts going about fixing what has been injured by his absence.

As you read a comic, you eye is drawn to read as you might normally do so, left to right and from the top to the bottom. This is much the same for this comic. With this, text isn't always required. As we see in the first page there are are 8 panels and 7 word bubbles, with 4 of the bubbles being paired. We can still this this man is nervous about entering this house. The concentration on the elaborate knocker, the eye peering from a cracked door, we can see why. There is obviously something afoot, though the text has not revealed as much to us, the reader. The second page really gives us more information with the text, but little through the images. Here, they're more used to convey a certain feeling. You can tell that though Burgess has used his mission of trapping Death to get what he needs by influencing others with it, you can tell by his looks that he doesn't care about other people's feelings or interest. He wants Death under his thumb for his own reasons. This page takes a different manner of vision, as we see things from Dream's point of view from within his glass prison. The world is warped, and it's interesting to notice that Dream's thoughts appear with a black background, like the night sky. As the series continues, all of Dream's siblings (As seen with Delirium ) also have their own special style of text and speech bubbles. Then here is the page where Dream makes his escape. The previous page had the guards discussing whether or not he was dead, and here we see he has tricked them. There is not one text block on this page, the only words appearing are to show sounds and emphasize actions. But the story here is clear. Finally, a technique I personally like! Though we've seen progression of action via frames, here we see progression of time. The characters don't move, but they age and even without the year at the top, we would still understand that they were aging. Gaiman I've seen use this technique more than once and I personally rather like it.

The Lady of Shalott

2010-02-16T22:52:00.003-05:00

Tennyson, as our editors point out, was early on told by his friend, R.C. Trench, "Tennyson, we can't live in Art." Discuss how Tennyson might have had this in mind when writing this poem.

Living in art was exactly what the Lady of Shalott was doing. The woman was cursed to only be able to do this exact thing. “There she weaves by night and day//A magic web with colors gay,//She has heard a whisper say,//A curse is on her if she stay//To look down to Camelot.” She cannot watch out the large window down to Camelot or she would be cursed. Instead she must sit and work at her loom, only watching the land through a mirror. She cannot stop her working, she cannot go out and interact with the people. One day, she spies Lancelot and straying to the window to watch him, the curse inacts! “Out flew the web and floated wide;//The mirror cracked from side to side;//’The curse is come upon me,’ cried//The Lady of Shalott.” The Lady lived in the art and forsaking it, it left her and she died.

What did you think of the poem?
The flow is beautiful. I did Forensics competitions in high school and this poem was a favorite competition piece. I had one friend who delivered it with such eloquence! The story is sort of bitter sweet as well. Though she never met her knight, Lancelot did meet her in a way and even commented on her beauty. Tragic but lovely.

Child Development with Hansel & Gretel

2010-02-13T22:22:00.003-05:00

The various sets of sequences within childhood is interesting. I've only heard of Freud's theory in the past, but not the others. Between the ones we're currently studying, I think I most enjoy Erikson's and Kohlberg's. Erikson progresses as one might naturally expect and I appreciate how adulthood is also involved here. It's not as though you reach 18 are stop changing after all. Kohlberg is a different beast entirely, seeming to tackle moral levels as opposed to actual age versus behavior. I like to look for morals and lessons in stories aimed at younger readers, so this table caught my interest in that way.

Given these different systems, I'll take the story of Hansel and Gretel to take a stab at showing examples with. We all know Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm brothers. I'll be using the exact version from our textbook considering there are other altered versions of some of these stories. I'll start with Freud. The Phallic stage can apply here in a way. Though there's no overt affection for the daughter for her father, the two are both related. Both are the weaker of the pair they are placed in (Father and Mother, Hansel and Gretel) to the point where the father can't argue against his wife and Gretel is left to entirely depend on her brother for her survival after they're abandoned. Later both characters are champions, as the father welcomes his children happily and Gretel tricks the witch into the oven, saves her brother, and even returns with pearls and jewels to save the family from being tempted to leave the children in the woods again. Hansel obviously has more of a relationship with the witch that wants to eat them than he does with their mother, though both women are portrayed in a wicked light. The witch lusts after him in a way because she wishes to eat him. Hansel doesn't have much visible interest in her though, only her food.

Since the two are similiar, I'll move on to Erikson's 8 stages. His third stage speaks of initiative and guilt. We see Hansel showing this trait, where he thinks ahead after over hearing his parents talking about leaving the children in the forest. Instead of just crying in defeat like Gretel, he fetches white stones that he drops as his parents lead them off to show the children the way home. Of course this only worked the first time.

Now Piaget's is different and easier in a way. The stages are much simpler in concept which makes this exceedingly easy. The Concrete Operational stage works well into this story I feel. We see it from three points of view, the parents', the children's, and the witch's. The problems that everyone encounters are simple though difficult in a moral sense. A child might not agree with the decisions made consider several include murder and attempted murder, so they could think about other possible solutions as well. Though this could be closer to Formal Operational.

Finally the Kohlberg stages. The moral stages are very useful for this particular story. I'd identify much of this with the Preconventional level and the first stage within that. The children obey the parents who they know are taking them out to die. They obey the witch because they think they'll only be further rewarded. The mother has no consideration for anyone besides herself when it comes to the lack of food and honestly I feel if she could get rid of her husband as easily as the children, that she wold do exactly that.

Can you add on to this the child reading the tale (or having the tale read to her or him)?

As for the child's investment in the story, I think they might not take away everything I've mentioned, but I'd think given certain stages of development, they'd at least take away valuable lessons put into print: Don't accept candy from strangers, not everyone in the world has your best interests at heart. For younger children being read to, it might be good to explain to them the unlikelihood of the situation and how mom and dad have no intentions of leaving them out in the woods to starve. I always felt like this and other Grimm brothers' stories were a little too much for younger kids that may think that sort of thing.

Articles on Child Development

2010-02-13T20:34:00.006-05:00

"Factors Influencing The Development of The Idea of Childhood in Europe and America" by Jim Vandergriff & Chris Livesey on Childhood

Both articles were rather interesting, though I found myself partial to the Vandergriff article. I found it interesting how children working in factories and mines seemed to come about. Though it still has obvious glaring flaws, the logic of keeping children busy to "save their souls". The appeal of a younger work force is also logical, but I'm curious of what sort of problems this caused in the creation of literature for children. You can see why children's literature took time to truly occur considered that children were needed to work and bring income into their families. The invent of Sunday schools surely helped it out. That's just the lower classes though. All things considered, it's easy to see how children were viewed as "little adults" up until the 15th century.
I think it's crazy for children to of had to endure this, but frankly it doesn't seem like they knew anything else during this time. I was happy to see as things progressed that the hours changed, school became a bigger part of life, and children were even dressed differently than the adults they practically mirrored. That to me seems like the birth of true childhood.
Childhood has changed from the past to modern eras, even compared with our grandparents. My grandmother who would have been 98 this past December was of a similar mindset along with my grandfather. Though they were kind and nurturing people, they didn't understand why their grandchildren acting like little crazy beasts and their great-grandchildren even moreso. It's exactly as you say, they didn't have the same freedoms. I think the cause may be because this was during the age when consumption was back down (The Great Depression!) as well as early on in the process of childhood actually occurring. The definition between parent and child was almost too strong I think, and there was little respect for the child and their own freedom. I wonder if the changes in the economy these days will have any noticeable effect on childhood when people look back on us in the future.

Isn't it also interesting to consider how much longer childhood has become?

It's amazing to think about. Not just the evolving of childhood, but also the growth of of parenthood after those times as well. The change in the way the parents behaved toward their children also changed the length of the childhood period. There were honestly many factors as well though, and in the end I feel like maybe the official cap was the creation of the nuclear family which gave the child a definite different role from their parents within the family. It's shocking to realize that childhood can almost extend to as late as 18 or older in some cases. That is if you count "childhood" as anything that isn't yet "adulthood", which is honestly very simplistic.

Isn't the evolution of parenthood dependent upon the evolution of the idea of childhood?

I think they definitely evolved together since the one sort of created the need for the other. I mean, there were always children and parents, it's just that the roles have become more distinct in time.

On the "simplistic"--it is, but how else might we define those states?

Well yeah, that's the problem of it. In my mind it gets to a "do or don't" sort of situation. I like to lean toward do personally, at least by sorting terms. I'd rather not see Dr. Seuss hanging out with books like Judy Blume's "Forever". Which I've never heard of as being bad, just definitely not for the same age group of readers.

The idea of the Seuss/Blume connection is a good one--some libraries and book stores--mainly bookstores--already do a "If you liked this, you'll like this" thing, and its a way of getting kids to read stuff that might otherwise be "beyond their level."

This is exactly the sort of thing I'd like! With the huge popularity of books like Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, young adults at least are in a good position to be shown other interesting books. Edward is the Byronic hero at his best and worst. He isn't dangerous for his personalty, but for his species. He forces himself to not have what he wants most and when he does have it, he can't feel right about keeping her and changing her to what he is. This is perfect for placement of Victorian and Romance era classic novels. The author is honestly trying to hard as she even has the characters, high school students, reading "Wuthering Heights", but I'm really going off on a tangent if I start going in to that.

Also, other Blume novel would be great, but "Forever" is too much unless it's beside "Oh The Places You Will Go" perhaps. But I still agree with the idea you brought up from that!

Defining Children's Literature (Preface)

2010-02-13T19:37:00.003-05:00

We learn many things from the preface. One such item is the origins of children's literature. Readings for young people started off as books teaching Latin, manners, and morals. The first book to be truly considered a children's book is "The Orbis Sensualium Pictus" by Johann Amos Comenius, a latin picture book. The genre was further assisted by the Puritans who wished to use the books to instill their religion in the young minds. This included John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" in 1678 which is actually referred to in a favorite book of mine, "Little Women". While 'Pilgrim's Progress" was also religiously educational, it was an adventure story! Then John Newberry's "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" in 1744 was published where amusements were used instead of religion and an industry was slowly born. After this, everything started snowballing with "Robinson Crusoe", "Swiss Family Robinson", works from Williams Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, and Lewis Carroll. As literacy raised, so did the amount and quality of books.

The problem with children's literature is how to classify it and what exactly counts as children's literature. Literature in general has a great many books that appeal to many audiences, so it's difficult to pin-point the exact limits. Then there's also the genre known as young adult literature. where would something like Harry Potter fall? The books start with an 11 year old orphan, but at the end of the series you have a 17 year old man who has faced loss, love, hatred, and death. How do you define that? Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials is a lovely series that has some very serious religious themes. The difficulty of creating antholgies is entirely understandable.

You mention Dickens and Wordsworth here--younger children read them into the early 20th century than do so today. The dumbing down of children's lit is one topic we can discuss as the course progresses.

I noticed that. It's funny how few pieces of "classic" literature children are read to or read in general these days. The closest thing I think my parents read to me or that I read on my own was "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Enjoyable, but big for it's britches when put against other books I remember like the Ramona series or The Boxcar Children. Not that either weren't good of course! I think the closest thing we have that's a little more modern is probably the Harry Potter books, though they're a controversial little can of worms in certain company. I'm currently remedying my lack slowly. I'm reading "Little Women" right now and loving it.

Past and Present

2010-02-12T18:52:00.004-05:00

"Love of men" vs. "Love of money"

Thomas Carlyle feels strongly that the love of man should be greater than the love of money. However, at this time he feels this is not so and has not been so for far too long, and understandably.
The examples of human kind treating each other poorly are clearly stated. "Descending, accordingly, into the Dumb Class in its Stockport Cellar and Poor-Law Bastille, have we not to announce that they are hitherto unexampled in History of Adam's Posterity?" In this quote he refers to both the workhouses for the unemployed masses as well as a situation in Stockport where parents poisoned their children so they could still collect the insurance benefits from a burial society. "Never before did I hear of an Irish Widow reduced to 'proving her sisterhood by dying of typhus-fever and infecting seventeen persons'" This was a situation he mentions later as well. This was a lecture on the sanitation system of the times. A necessary comment as sanitation and civilization go hand in hand as the former keeps the latter healthy and clean. Carlyle feels that even as a servant or underling, others can be given a fair lot, as seen in his example of Gurth from Scott's Ivanhoe. Gurth served Cedric and was born his thrall, but this was acceptable because Cedric treated him well. Gurth still got his fair cut of things. With this, though he was a thrall, Carlyle felt he was happy. "Gurth is now 'emancipated' long since' has what we call 'Liberty.' Liberty, I am told, is a Divine thing. Liberty when it becomes the 'Liberty to die by starvation' is not so divine!" Here Carlyle compares the awarded freedom of a man who has worked for his living and has thus gained the respect of life to the freedom of people who do not work, are not permitted it outside of workhouses, cannot manage jobs, are not compensated properly for jobs done, and who thus find themselves dying in the streets or, as previously mentioned, murdering their children for the money.
The clear thing we take from this is how much Carlyle despises "laissez-faire" the sort of hands of method of business at this time. The meaning of the phrase is essentially the pursuit of wealth without concern for others. Considering the grief this has caused the poor people underfoot, it's obviously not a good method for all.

Is Carlyle's argument here more socialist or fascist/authoritarian?
I'd say he'd rather a more socialist society. He wants more freedom for the people to be able to get what they need. He wants people to have a fairer chance than they've been allowed thus far. Which I agree with and he makes a good argue for. Carlyle doesn't want things made easy, he just wants people to be allowed the chance to find their "right path".

Any thoughts on his language?
His phrasing was sort of smooth. He used some more I'll say poetic phrases at times. Carlyle also makes several Biblical references which I feel probably helped get the message across in his day. Even though he turned away from his Calvinist upbringing, it was a smart move. He has no issue repeating his point in different ways to make it clear, he obviously wants to be understood in his thinking.

incomplete

2010-02-09T11:56:00.000-05:00

1) How does Newman define "Liberal" and "Useful" education? Which of the two does he promote? How and why?
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Newman feels there are two different types of knowledge and education, Liberal and Useful. Useful knowledge is more technical and practical. This is the scientific knowledge of creation, and thus especially useful during this age of technological advances. Newman finds it to be good and of it's own sort of use, but he feels eventually it becomes so specific that it is no longer knowledge. I feel he means that it becomes so specialized that it can only be useful for something in particular and not a knowledge good for discussion and sharing. Liberal knowledge is more philosophical. This education is much more generalized and rounded out. Newman I feel prefers it because this is what he himself shares in. Liberal knowledge is something to expand upon and be