So... I Took the Weekend Off

I think it's going to be hard for me to blog on the weekends.  Perhaps I should just focus on trying to get a few posts in from Monday to Thursday.  It seems the weekends are when I do the most studying.  Anyway, on to Lit!

So far, I think I like the men better!  We have a wide selection of authors in this Pod, I'm going to try to read all of them this time around.  I would like to be exposed to more variety than the last Pod.  I was trying so hard to get through Twain I missed out on a lot of other stuff.  But... summer is coming! :)  I won't curse my instructor by doing *all* of the discussion questions or papers, I just want to do the reading.

It seems almost to be a prerequisite for great authors, or authors of note to have a hard childhood or a rough life.  The story I am reading now "White Heron", was written by a woman who's childhood was actually nice.  I can't wait to finish the story to compare how one's cynical views of life stack up against someone who has a more even keeled worldview.

So far, I can make one comparison between stories.  "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Yellow Wallpaper". I liked both for the same reason, they were different.  I like "Occurrence" for the same reason I liked movies such as "Angel Heart", "Memento", and "Pulp Fiction".  (A word about "Pulp Fiction", I didn't like the movie for it's content/story, but for the way the story was told).  I liked "Wallpaper" for the same reason I like many of Stephen King's stories.  He has a way of taking an average, ordinary person and completely turning his/her world upside down.  I don't want to get into any more detail about "Wallpaper" in case my classmates start blogging and replying this week before they get the story read.  I will say, however, it was almost like watching "The Snake Pit" in reverse :)

Day Two

In my excitement to create my very first blog, I forgot to give the link to the cool little piccy I have of the bird I'm using as my avatar. No, this in not an excuse for my lack of attention, but rather an opportunity to correct my oversight.  So here it is:

http://weedoom.com/tag/nom/

This is where the picture originates from.  I could not get the link to open, so please beware if you intend to open it, for I do not know what sort of site it is.

Now that business is taken care of, on to Lit!

Last night I read Editha. It's a good thing too, as I thought I only had to read through CH. 24 in Huck Finn! Imagine my surprise when I realized I was 4 chapters short! Not as if Mr. Twain won't get a thorough reading, it just can not be done in the time allotted.  Catastrophe averted!

We also received An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge from Net Flix yesterday. Seldom am I impressed by what is created for the screen from what should be created in the imagination.  I believe this has only happened once, that being Pet Cemetery.  Although the movie was extremely close to the book, one just can not convey some of the thoughts of a doomed man outside of his own head.  All in all though, it was good dinner entertainment.

I've already begun to work on the next Pod.  So far I've read all three stories by Kate Chopin.  I believe I was introduced to her in ENGL 111, unfortunately I do not recall the title of her story, but I remember it was about a woman who died when she realized her freedom had been cruelly snatched away by the survival of her husband.

Personally (as if I can speak for anyone else :) ), I loath tragic stories.  I gripe all the time to my husband about the sad endings to his beloved Martial Arts movies.  If I want to read tragedy, all I must do is read a newspaper.  Relating that outlook to Kate Chopin, of the three stories, the last, Désirée's Baby was the best.  The characters just seemed a bit deeper to me.  They had actual feelings outside of their own britches.  As I read some of these stories, I suspect some may find my comments a bit more prudish than Clarisse :)

Very First Blog Ever

This is the beginning of my Midterm Project for ENGL 223.  So far this class has been the most fun I have had since coming back to school.  The teacher is awesome and my classmates are suppah-cool :)


I know I am supposed to keep my blog posts to the subject, so this may be my only opportunity to share my two most favorite poems :)

Ultimate Haiku

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then

- Author unknown

The other is by Edgar Allan Poe:

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

 

And with that shared, I have come to the end of my very first blog post ever :)