Coming Soon

Les Miserables.

You should get excited. This post is going to be epic. Just like the book.

I JUST CAN'T STOP BLOGGING! (or procrastinating)

Am I supposed to be packing? Well, yes. Am I? No. Am I going somewhere tonight that takes me away from packing? Yes. Will I be packing tonight? Yes (veryverylate tonight). So, I'm here instead to tell you about what I wrote about for my paper.

MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE

heard of her? probably not.

Why? She's a 17th century kind of feminist who challenged societal norms mostly in the battle of the sexes.

She wrote a book called A Description of a New World, called, The Blazing World. Or something like that. Summary of the book: woman is transported to magical land via a scurvy plot to hurt her honor. This world is aptly named The Blazing World in a symbol of brightness, happiness, and flaming passion. She becomes the Empress, once she marries the emperor, and proceeds to examine all scientific societies there (while laughingly mocking such scientists as Newton, Hooke, etc.) and lets women in on church. Feminist? Kind of. Tory feminist? kind of. Antifeminist? Kind of. She's really complicated. Actually, I liked the woman more than the book. She was the first to enter the royal society in high style and attracted attention wherever she went. She was (as I gathered) hopelessly in love with her husband. A letter that she wrote him shows how grateful she is for him and his tolerance with her writing plays and books and essays on government and dabbling in scientific theory and yields to him that she would not be such a woman if not for him. It's absolutely adorable, but really not feminist. In my essay, I looked at how the 3 genres of the work (romance, scientific, feminist utopia) reflected her personality, views, and life in general. There is an absolutely weird court scene in the book - if you don't know the background. If you do, it's adorable. She wrote this scene in because it's her fantasy about what would have happened. In real life, she was given the opportunity to defend her husband's possessions and property in court but chickened out. In the book, she gives a passionate and eloquent speech about her husband's strength of character and a defense of his actions (mind you, they were royalists in just post-civil war era, this would have been a legitimate reason to defend someone.) If you don't know what it's talking about, it seems weird, but once you do, it seems so sweet...

Anyhow, I love Margaret Cavendish, the little duchess that no one cares about anymore. You can tell, because it's really hard to get research on her, especially in a smallish university in America. Anyhow, do you remember the original purpose of this blog? I barely do. It was to read all of the books on that list...and look at me, by Christmas reading list is full of amazing books that aren't on the list. Shame on me. I am, however, very excited to start reading. Here they are:

Les Miserables (SO EXCITED I"VE ALREADY READ 2 CHAPTERS!!!!

A Prayer for Owen Meany (strongly recommended by a friend and a venture into American authors (gasp))

Searching for God Knows What (I'm halfway through and can't seem to finish it..)

Redigging the Wells (a wonderful book by my grandfather that I haven't read yet, but I have a copy)

and possibly, though doubtful:

On Writing (by stephen king, also strongly recommended by several people)

Do you see the problem? or rather, the oddity? 3/5 of this list is nonfiction. WEIRD. But then again Les Mis counts for bout 10, so it's really 3 /11.

Can we call this studying for finals?

So, there's coffee brewing in the pot and my Norton split open face down on my desk pleading with me to read Oroonoko finally. Funnily, having mentioned that I hadn't got around to reading this work by Aphra Behn yet, several students berated my failure because it is so good. Actually, I'm about 10 pages into it and I have to agree. My Lit final is tomorrow, so I figured I should probably get onto that. It's the only work I haven't read because the day I tried to read it was opening night for Wales. Oops. The author is Aphra Behn and yes, she is feministic. I learned in class that overly-intellectual feminist women like her were called Bluestockings and I almost laughed out loud. That was the same day I decided to wear my bright blue knee high socks. hahaha.

Speaking of, I would like to draw attention to the mysteries of life. I have encountered two in my short life span. The first was in 10th grade as some who read this blog might recall. My 7am teacher (oh dear, Coach Starks) handed back a Bible test which on the 3rd or 4th page prominently featured a big red heart drawn and colored with a red pen. I was confounded and I asked him about it. He said he didn't draw it but refused to give the name of the perpetrator. I was just curious.... Near my graduation, I asked him again and he denied all knowledge of the matter and evaded. I suppose I'll never know. My second encounter occurred this Sunday. The same day that I had worn my blue stockings, the day before opening night, I lost one of my bluestockings in the dressing room backstage. Despite a lengthy search, the second sock remained elusive. I gave up hope. On Sunday my suite had a christmas party just the 5 of us, and I opened my stocking. Among candy and other assorted treats, was one of my bluestockings. There are two parts to this mystery. The first is, I'm still not sure whether it is the one that I lost or the one that I already had. The second is, how did it end up in my stocking!!!!!? I can't even explain how it might have gotten from my clean laundry to hanging up on the wall, let along from the Ulrey to my wall!!! Aiaiai!

As I said, I do have an exam in Lit tomorrow. It will cover the general poems, Satires, and Holy sonnets of John Donne (swoon), Volpone by Johnson, PARADISE LOST by Milton, Mac Flecknoe, by John Dryden, A Pilgrim's Progress by Bunyan, Oroonoko, A Modest Proposal by Swift, Elegy by Gray, The Rape of the Lock by Pope, and The Vanity of Human Wishes and preface to his dictionary by Ben Johnson. It promises to be exciting. I've also completed a research paper in this class since I last posted, but it will have to retain a post to itself. And I'll probably write it tomorrow while avoiding studying like the plague. Oroonoko is calling!

SHAKESPEAREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

I. Love. Shakepeare. Pure and Simple. In class, we read selections from the sonnet and Twelfth Night. LOVE. There is also King Lear in our anthology....which is giving me ideas for a reread...

If you aren't familiar with the basic plot of Twelfth Night (comedy, by the way), it's veryvery simple.

FIRST. Viola and Sebastian (twins) shipwreck off the coast of Illyria and get separated and fervently hope the other isn't dead. Sebastian wanders around for 3 months while Viola (sensible, right?) decides to lay low and turn into a man for a while so she can get a job as a page while she waits for Sebastian to show up. Duke Orsino (her master fellow) is in love with Olivia (fair maid) who's sworn of guys while Sir Toby Belch (her uncle) tries to clear things up by marrying her off to Sir Andrew (fair courter). While she's rejecting Andy, they make fun of Malvolio (the Puritan Steward) with the help of Maria (wily chamber maid) 'cause he's in love with Olivia. Feste (fair clown figure) weaves in, out, and everywhere. Here's the catch: Viola (AKA Cesario) has to wooooo Olivia for Orsino, meanwhile falling in love with Orsino her/himself. While wooing, Olivia flashes eyes at Viola/Cesario and decides that maybe celibacy isn't so awesome. Several yellow, cross-gartered stockings later, Sebastian shows up and starts getting punched. And then wooed. Or was that Viola/Cesario????

Got it?

Good.

While you are figuring that out, read the sonnet I memorized for my midterm:

When in the chronicle of wasted time

I see descriptions of the fairest wights,

And beauty making beautiful old rhyme

In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,

Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best

Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,

I see their antique pen would have expressed

Even such a beauty as you master now.

So all their praises are but prophecies

Of this our time, all you prefiguring;

And, for they looked but with divining eyes

Had not worth enough your praise to sing,

For we, which now behold these present days,

Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

I love Shakespeare. (Oh, and btw, I have fresh defenses against the claim that Shakespeare was gay. So don't even start with me.)

Before sinking into Tolkein oblivion...

I have an announcement to make. WATCHMEN IS LITERATURE. Pass out if you dare. I didn't enjoy Watchmen much while reading, but the end product was surprisingly good and worthy of its esteemed title. Honestly, I kind of want to watch the movie. Alright, let's look at this modern novel an old-fashioned way.

GENRE: Technically, there were two, but the first could be written off as style. First and foremost, it is a graphic-novel, also known as a really long comic book. Secondly - and this one, I am ashamed to say - didn't click in my mind until the last few pages, it is a dystopia. Like many of this genre, portrays an imperfect world (our own) and compares it to what does happen in the last few pages - a real dystopia. Or utopia. Or whatever. Really, the recurring motif of the happy smiley face seen on all the movie posters should have tipped me off. It represents a perfect "utopia" in case you were wondering. All of you should know I have a weak spot for dystopias, and this book is just sitting on the periphery waiting to be let in. In case you don't know, I read more modern novels like this to give my reading a new scope and outlook and so I'm not fully ignorant of some new genre or something.

LITERARY TECHNIQUES: If you are like me, you look at a graphic novel and think techniques? No...there can't be any. But there are!!! I knew that there were certain levels of parallels in the plot beforehand, but my friend who forced me to read the book pointed out that one of the chapters titled "Fearful Symmetry" was very subtly symmetrical from front to back. On every page, either the coloring or the actions or the pictures were symmetrical.

The book was formed with a graphic section followed by a short "primary source" - a fictional newspaper article or some such writing. It broke up the surprisingly long book into shorter segments, which was pretty nice, I'm not gonna lie. All in all, I say not bad, but it's not a book I'll be looking to for rereads.

Such a guy book.

2 out of 3.

To explain the title, we have three parts to our Brit Lit Norton Anthology. And I can't believe it, but we've already moved on to the second part: The sixteenth century/Early seventeenth century. I think it was the amazing title that first attracted me, truly. I'm already enjoying the two assignments we've read from this book. First, I discovered my devotion to Sir, St. Thomas More. Yes, it's true that he ascended to sainthood in the early 1900s. Poor soul, he was martyred by King Henry the VIII because he was Catholic. Oops. Oh, well. He left us Utopia. And what a wonderful book it is. If ever you have a sudden need for inspiration or even just a simple social debate, read this treatise. I hate politics economics and debating about such things, but I love talking about society. In fact, our professor handed a basic list of Utopian/Dystopian literature and, as you can probably tell from this blog, some of my favorite books were on it.

We've also read recently some of the poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder. I must say, the more I read, the more I liked him. Unfortunately, he seems to get rejected a lot. I shall include one of his poems at the end of the post. :)

I also had to read Peace Like a River by Leif Enger for Communications. Although I will hopefully include a longer summary and outline later (I have to give a speech on it anyhow), if you believe in belief, this is the book for you. It is all about faith and miracles and sacrifice and surviving on the edge with really nothing before you. It's a really good book. More on that later. To conclude....

Madam, withouten many words

Madam, withouten many words,

Once, I am sure, ye will or no.

And if ye will, then leave your bordes (jests)

And use your wit and show it so.

And with a beck ye shall me call.

And if of one that burneth alway

Ye have any pity at all,

Answer him fair with yea or nay.

If it be yea, I shall be fain.

If it be nay, friends as before.

Ye shall another man obtain,

And I mine own and yours no more.

Haven't Been Devout, Have I?

I know I haven't been devout. I apologize. Really. :0

But I would just like to say several things about college.

First, relating to a previously posted book: A Brave New World is the favorite book of our communications and critical thinking class. In this class, we basically discuss ideas and philosophies, mostly social. So far, we have discussed libertarianism, utilitarianism, Kant, and a couple other awesome ideas about Justice. But in every class we end up talking about an" ideal" society, like the one in New World. Actually, one of the chapters mentioned "The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas"! I was very excited. Anyhow, as a member in our class once said, it seems like everything we talk about reminds us of New World! Which is definitive proof that A Brave New World is the dystopia to trump all other dystopias. Take that, 1984!!!

Also, I am currently involved (at least as much as I can be with play practice and all) with a little group called Souvenirs. Aka, we sit around drinking tea and reading each other poetry. When someone asks "Is that all you do?" I respond with, "Well, we poetry duel!" Which is totally true. We are the jedis of poetry. Actually, we've covered Shakespeare, Donne, Tennyson, Cummings*, Eliot, and next week is Frost! Sadly, I missed Cummings and Eliot. But I still memorized a Cummings poem just for fun. The Shakespeare week was possibly one of my favorites! We almost disbanded without reading Sonnet 116, but I solved that problem. One of the things that made me very happy, was that in my first 5 minutes, two guys started dueling out "To be or not to be," which I memorized like 2 years ago, and since one of them dropped out, I was able to finish it out in his place! It is a tribute to thinking fast. Souvenirs is so amazing, we are hosting an all day reading of Paradise Lost sometime this "winter" according to Claxton. Amazing group. And also, there are cute boys. Just sayin. :D

Thirdly, I am in Brit Lit, as you know which has turned out just to my expectations, though a little different of course than I imagined. Our teacher is Michael Claxton and he is so funny! If you ever catch the Bison from this month, read his article in the back about Twilight. We move so fast in that class. So far, we've covered general Medieval writings and history, Caedmon, Beowulf, Sir Gawain (my hero!) and the General Prolouge to the Canterbury tales as well as the Prolouge and tales of the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath - and I accidentally read half of the Miller's tale by mistake. I LOVE Sir Gawain and the Wife of Bath. Oh, and, did I mention? We are reading all of the Canterbury Tales in MIDDLE ENGLISH. Ok, it's not completely untranslated middle English, but it gives you what Claxton refers to as 'Footnote Whiplash.' I'm getting pretty good at it. Yep, it's exciting.

Well, that's about it, except for reading oodles for every other class. Currently, I'm also trying to read the Silmarillion, Watchman, and get my fill of Tennyson. Someone should tell me to slow down. Au Revoir!