diversevioces

Bastard Out Of Carolina

2006-05-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

We didn't discuss it in class and I thought the following passage was very interesting...on page 73-74 Anney tells Glen, "I was never gonna have my kids know what it was like. Never was gonna have them hungry or cold or scared. Never, you hear me? Never!" ..."Mama put on a clean bra and one of the sleeveless red pullover sweaters she'd gotten from her friend Mab down at the diner-the one Mab joked was made to show just how high her tits could point" Bone goes on to describe Anney putting on "bold red lipstick" and "shiny black patent- leather high heels." Later,around midnight, she picks the girls up at Alma's, takes them home and cooks for them. Allison doesn't really say that she prostitutes herself in order to feed her children, but the implication is clearly made. I thought this part of the book was especially interesting, given the end. She puts her children first early on in her marriage to Glen. I don't know if she just gets defeated by the end, or what but I was so disgusted with her at the end. I know that Dr. Wells said that we are not meant to hate her at the end but I find myself doing just that. Did anyone else notice this passage in the story? What do you think...did she prostitute herself?

Dickey Poems

2006-04-26T15:48:00.000-04:00

We didn't get to the poem "Sun" in class. It's about two people who are badly sunburned making love. As in other Dickey poems we read, he does a lot of contrasting...light/dark, heat/cool, brutality/gentleness, sun/moon. He writes this in the first person and I definitely get the feeling that this really happened to him. You can almost picture the couple having spent the day at the beach and tending to one another at the end of the day and ending up having sex. My favorite line is "a smeared suffering woman came merging her flame-shaken body halo with mine." One very notable difference between this poem and those we read in class, is the absence of animals. Also, there are no children mentioned in this poem and nature only in the power of the sun and moon. This poem has a rather intense tone, starting with "O lord, it was all night consuming me." This wasn't my favorite poem we read by him but we discussed my two favorites..."A Dog Sleeping OnMy Feet" and "Cherrylog Road." Overall, I thought this was a nice departure from the other things we have done in class.

Revelation

2006-04-19T16:55:00.000-04:00

The O'Connor readings are so bizarre. I find it interesting that she makes the characters who are "doing God's work," so strange. The Misfit, the Displaced Person, and Mary Grace are all characters who are out of place and not obeying society's conventions. They are all flawed characters who lead to the redemption of the protaganist(who is also very flawed in each story). Not that I've read much religious fiction, but it seems to me that the characters who God is usually portrayed through are much more angelic. I wonder why O'Connor chose to structure her stories the way she did. Maybe the whole "God works in mysterious ways" argument applies. I thought Mrs. Turpin's vision of Judgement Day was quite interesting. "A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black niggers in white robes, and batallions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs." She sees that these people are leading the procession and "people like her" are at the end.

Presentations

2006-04-12T19:53:00.000-04:00

I think everyone did a wonderful job. Unfortunately, I was not in class today, so I can't comment on those. However, based on those I saw, the one on Maya Angelou and Rosewood were my favorites. I liked the personal comments on Angelou's life and her effect on the presenters. I felt like their impressions of her and the impression she made on them really made the presentation. The other I found most interesting was the one on the film Rosewood. While it was presented well, I found it so interesting because I had really never heard anything about it. Isn't it amazing that something like that could happen and be forgotten? I am going to watch the whole movie at some point. I found it very interesting. It was evident that everyone put a great deal of work into their topics and I learned so much. It was nice to hear about some contemporary Southern things (family and religion) after spending so much time talking about the past. It was also interesting to see the themes we've been discussing in class, repeated in films and other works. All in all, I felt like the presentations were a very effective way to learn more about the South.

Flannery O'Connor Readings

2006-04-05T18:17:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed the story "The Displaced Person." I found the character of the priest very interesting. I was raised Catholic but have not practiced in years. The fact that O'Connor was a Catholic is sort of surprising, given her portrayl of the priest. He is senile and she says "the old man was in his second childhood." Maybe this was supposed to show his child-like wonder (think the peacocks) but to me, he just seemed ineffectual. Throughout the story he is more taken with the birds than with the people. On page 211, Mrs. McIntyre askes him for advice but he responds "indifferently" and "pays more attention to the turkeys than to her." Is this how O'Connor wants us to see this man, or is she just showing him to the reader through Mrs. McIntyre's eyes? Is it because he's a foreigner that it is okay to portray him this way? I realize, through our class discussions, that O'Connor's thing is showing God's grace through unlikely characters. Yet, even though I realize this, I can't quite get past the priest being a bumbling, senile old man obsessed with peacocks. I would think her Catholic readers would be offended by this portrayl. Even at the end of the story, where the priest is the only one who visits her, it is made clear that he is there mostly for the birds. Does anyone else see this as problematic, or it it just me?

Play vs. Film

2006-03-29T18:07:00.000-05:00

I have read this play and seen this film before. However, what struck me this time was how drastically the film differed from the play in Scene One, where Stanley takes off his shirt in front of Blanche. The scene in the movie is so charged with sexual tension. However, Williams puts none of that into the stage directions. Stanley says: My clothes're stickin' to me. Do you mind if I make myself comfortable? ( He starts to remove his shirt) Blanche replies : Please, please do.
There are no directions as to her reaction. It really is up to the director to interpret her reaction in this scene. I think Kazan complicates this situation even more by having her appear attracted to him. It is easier to think of Blanche viewing Stanley as an animal and being disgusted by him. By adding this element of extreme sexual awareness, Kazan is making a hypocrite of Blanche somewhat. Blanch professes to not notice Stanley's "animal magnetism" several times when questioned by Stella. By setting their relationship up in this way when they first meet, Kazan complicates the story line further. It's interesting to see how the decisions made by the director color the story in unique ways. Can you think of other instances where the director changes the story somewhat with his interpretation?

Streetcar

2006-03-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

I am late posting this! I have read this play (and seen the movie) many times before. However,
I found myself looking at Blanche and Stella's relationship in a very different light this time around. Any woman who has a sister can appreciate the complex relationship between Stella and Blanche. It sort of makes me wonder if Williams patterned their relationship on one he was very close to. He writes their dialogue and interaction so well. We've all talked about the ability of someone to write about something they don't know firsthand. Williams does this very convincingly. While the characters are all sort of "stock characters" (the Southern belle, the dumb Polack, the mama's boy, the permissive housewife...) the sentiment and tension between the two sisters is very convincing. I think we especially see this when Blanche makes Stella leave the apartment after Stanley hits her. It's that sort of universal feeling, I can be rude(mean, petty etc. etc.) to my sister but no one else better try it!!

Their Eyes Were Watching God

2006-03-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

The way Hurston writes reminds me very much of Kate Chopin. They both address female sexuality in an interesting way. I love how she describes the pear tree and Janie's reaction to it. "She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation (pg 11)." She lives with her Grandmother and seems very sheltered. She doesn't have parents to show her what a marriage is but she seems to find her answers in nature. She is sixteen at this point in the story and waiting for life to really begin. "She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her(pg. 11)."
Her grandmother is described as looking "like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by a storm. Foundation of ancient power that no longer mattered(pg 12)." Janie is green and new and her Nanny is old and worn. Her Grandmother overreacts to Janie kissing Johnny Taylor and insists she get married right away. However, her marriage to Logan Killicks is nothing like the union of the tree and the bees. Her union with Jody seems full of promise but that quickly fades away. She does not experience the give and take she witnessed between the pear tree and bees with either of these men. She is using that moment from when she was sixteen as an ever-present yard stick with which to measure a marriage. I really hope she finds that with Tea Cake. Although I don't necessarily think she needs a man to be happy, it would be nice to see her fulfilled in that way.

midterm

2006-03-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

Since I commented on the Porter readings last week, I thought I might talk about the midterm a little bit. I'm interested to hear what other people thought of it. I thought Dr. Wells did a good job of preparing us for the questions that were on it. I chose the second one, comparing three characters to the Southern ideal of a lady or gentleman. However, I felt like I could have answered any of them if I had to. I thought this format was good for our class. I was so glad it wasn't multiple choice with questions like, " How are Carothers McCaslin and Isaac McCaslin related?" Some English professors do that and it is torture!! How do you think you did? Did you think it was a fair test?

Porter readings

2006-02-22T16:55:00.000-05:00

What a welcome relief after Faulkner. I really enjoy the female tone of the stories. Porter is much more concerned with interaction between characters and women are not merely part of the scenery. The character of Grandmother is so well developed and complex. The friendship between her and Nannie sort of mirrors that of Molly and Mrs. Worsham but is so much richer. I find that most male writers do not write female characters very well. I was sort of reminded of this sentiment when, in class, Tenesha talked about the fact that White writers can't write African-American characters very well. Obviously, it is difficult to write from a viewpoint that you don't really understand. I'm reminded of the old saying "write what you know." Can anyone think of an instance(in our class readings) where a writer wrote about a character foreign to them in a convincing manner? The understanding between the sexes and the races was worse then than it is now and I think it shows in the character development of the works we've read.

The Bear

2006-02-15T17:34:00.000-05:00

In The Bear, you see why Ike rejected the McCaslin legacy. When Old Ben is killed and Lion dies (and I think Sam dies), I think that would be very powerful for a young man. You saw earlier in The Old People that Ike's hunting experience and interaction with Sam changed him. He identified with Sam and the Native-American view of nature. Lion and Old Ben are both personified throughout the whole story. I think Ike and Sam both see the animals as having a spirit. I'm not sure if Major de Spain has the same sentiment about the bear and the dog but he also refers to them as he would a man. When Old Ben kills de Spain's colt, his reaction is one of disappointment. "I'm disappointed in him. He has broken the rules. I didn't think he would have done that. He has killed mine and McCaslin's dogs, but that was all right. We gambled the dogs against him; we gave each other warning. But now he has come into my house and destroyed my property, out of season too. He broke the rules(pg 205)." The bear and the dog are held up to unrealistic standards. Ike tells Sam that it has to be one of them that kills Old Ben and it does not turn out that way. It's so anticlimactic when Boon kills Old Ben. It doesn't seem as though justice was served on any front. I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

Faulkner - The Fire and the Hearth

2006-02-08T17:13:00.001-05:00

Wow...the family tree certainly makes this easier. I read this chapter a few days ago but understand it so much better now that I can make the connections between family members. I liked this chapter. The plot and dialogue were so much deeper and richer than they were in Was. I love the part where Lucas goes to murder Roth and they talk about Molly and family history. They go back and forth with words and with the threat of voilence. "I give you your chance," Lucas said. "Then you laid here asleep with your door unlocked and give me mine. Then I throwed the razor away and give it back. And then you throwed it back at me. That's right, ain't it(pg 55)?" This sparring goes on throughout the whole chapter and it gives the feeling of true affection. The characters are all so flawed but I find myself genuinely liking all of them. When Roth agrees to let Lucas stop and get the candy for Molly after the aborted divorce, it shows that he truly loves those people. Every family has their problems but with the "mixed blood", they have more than their fair share. I am anxious to see how things resolve themselves, if they do. Dr. Wells hinted at violence later on in the book. Maybe the sparring will be in more than words before the story ends...

Faulkner - The Fire and the Hearth

2006-02-08T17:13:00.000-05:00

chopin readings

2006-02-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

I read The Awakening years ago and really enjoyed it. I liked these two short stories also. I don't know if the fact that these two pices were written six years apart accounts for their completely different feel. I find it interesting that The Storm was not published until 1969. I guess this must have been pretty steamy in that day and age. Both of the stories have a very sexual feel to them but she is much bolder in the sequel. "When he touched her breasts they gave themselves up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips. Her mouth was a fountain of delight. and when he posessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life's mystery (pg 307-308)." That seems fairly tame by today's standards but I can see how it would have been shocking at the time. The Storm has a much more real feel to it. The actual storm is taking place in the story. As opposed to the cyclone in At The Cadian Ball which took place in the past. I also like how she tidies things up at the end. Clarisse and Calixta are polar opposites, as are Bobinot and Alcee. The affair during the storm helps to even the scales in both relationships. No one is sorry it happened and "So the storm passed and every one was happy (pg 309)."

Poe 's The Fall Of The House of Usher

2006-01-26T14:45:00.000-05:00

I'd never read this work by Poe before. However, I was sure I would really enjoy it given my past experiences with his work. The Raven and Tell-Tale Heart are two of my favorites. I was disappointed to find that I really did not like this story. I don't know if it would have been more affecting if told by Roderick Usher. I just felt that the third- person put you too far from the events. We see this "bleak", "dreary" house with the inhabitants to match. However, I did not come away with any feeling whatsoever for the twins or their houseguest. "We have put her living in the tomb!" Who cares? I didn't. I did find it interesting, given our class discussions, the number of times Poe refers to sentiment and feeling in the story. "There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition -for why should I not so term it?-served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis." Usher is like emotion personified. Is the story-teller reason personified? I don't see that as clearly. Maybe though. After they bury Madeline alive, she escapes the tomb and then dies at Usher's feet. The narrator "fled aghast." That is the only response to this very disturbing turn of events. I think if I would have played a part in burying someone alive and then watched them die after clawing their way out of the tomb, I would have done more than flee aghast. Either way, I'm not adding this to my list of Poe favorites!

does this work?

2006-01-19T09:54:00.000-05:00

Just checking to see if I have this thing working!!!