Is Judy Jones another Lady Ashley?

After reading through, "Winter Dreams," I saw many similar traits.  One is their interest in usually masculine events.  Brett enjoys watching all of the bullfight, and Miss Jones wanted to play golf.  They also share a masculine like promiscuity and cheat on their man constantly.  They both also have a man-pet that is wholly in love with them and reveal their insecurities to.  Brett confides in Jake, and Judy in Dexter.  Jake is told by Brett all of her social woes and problems with the men she is with, while Judy does the same thing and cries in front of Dexter multiple times, each time admitting something massively personal.  They both also entertain the idea out loud of the lives they could have had with their respected man-pet.

Babylon Revisited

After reading through The Sun Also Rises, I found the picture painted of Paris to be much different.  There is parties and drinking throughout Paris in Hemingway's book, but the world Fitzgerald paints is far from that.  Right off the bat it explains that this is a different Paris.  The stock market crash made the expatriates scatter and the tourists simply did not have the money to go there anymore, and the people who are there are out of money as well.  It's gives an, from what I can assume, a very accurate picture of the time. The way it deteriorates from the swinging 20's to the crushed early 30's makes the event seem that much more severe.  Granted, people from Hemingway's perspective were very disillusioned, but at least they could afford booze.

Fitzgerald's well crafted story poses and interesting, "what if," question to the readers.  How far will people go to gain wealth?  The impact of this question my not be as interesting now, but back in the day I'm sure it was a shocking idea to have.  It was the beginning of the industrial age and everybody was making money hand over fist.  But this does not dissuade Fitzgerald to still ask this question in a clever way.  People actively keeping others in the dark about the real world and keeping them slaves?  Novel for the time I'm sure.  Specifically though, its the picture that it paints of wealthy people that strikes me as well, striking.  The lengths that they go through to keep their money and their power perpetual seems to stop at nothing, even to go as far as to kill people and blow up the biggest diamond ever, instead of sharing a beautiful item with the world, or having their profits suffer.  While some characters escape, showing how far their allegiance goes with money, other decide to go down with the ship.  What does everybody else think?  Could you picture this being a shocking story of the time?

Wharton's Contemporaries (Kinda)

I was thinking recently about what exactly could a contemporary of Edith Wharton be?  I found myself scratching a hole in my head because I think society has changed so much that it isn’t really possible for one.  Our culture nowadays seems to vilify the wealthy much more than they possibly did in her day.  Yes, Wharton doesn’t always paint the best picture of the lifestyle and the people of the upper-upper-class, instead analyzing and critiquing the social norms.  Instead today, most people who are rich in creative media are one-dimensional characters that are placeholders for the villain.  Rich somehow has become a stigma of bad character, instead of just having a bad character that just happens to be within the society, or good characters trying to break free of society.  One example I can think of, not because of its critical merits but because of its popularity, is many of the reality T.V. show on the Bravo network: Real Housewives of Where ever, Millionaire Matchmaker, Shahs of Sunset, etc.  The people on these shows, from the little I have watched over at my neighbors, paint these characters to be bickering, nagging, complaining, simpletons.  They seem to, intestinally or not, criticize this lifestyle and how silly their problems are.  Another modernish example is the movie Arthur (the one with Dudley Moore, instead of the wacky leather-pants-wearing Russell Brand [even if they are the same story, I just loathe Russell Brand]).  Arthur has to not only get over his own drinking problems, but also overcome the issue of the societal expectations that are unwillingly placed upon him.  Something that relates to Ethan Frome: Arthur initially chooses his money over Liza Minnelli, showing his ability to decide and follow through much better than Ethan, who doesn’t run away with Mattie out of fear of losing his money.  That being said, the tone and style of the story and how it’s told is completely different from Wharton.  However, one movie of recent memory does, what I think, parallel the style of Wharton, is the Italian film, I am Love.  I am Love is a story about a wealthy industrial family, which starts to split at the seams under a crushing standard of expectations and manners.  The film is subtle and straightforward; there isn’t any flowery music or any close-up emotional shots.  It all takes place as if you were just standing in the room, watching.  It takes attention from the observer, and makes its points with a fine drill, instead of a sledgehammer, much like Wharton does in her finest work.

Wallace Stevens

I thought I would do the in class assignment that we were given today, focusing on the poem, "The Plain Sense of Things." 

My initial interpretation was that the poem was about the importance of imagination.  He is saying that essentially everyone who is living imagines, "Yet the absence of imagination had itself yet to be imagined."  The only way you can actually experience this was through death, and if not death something like it. 

The best interpretation came from Gary C. Gibson.  The best quote to sum up would be, "It is in this grim outlook, the time of year when the sun has not just set low in the sky to add a surreal context for colors-when the sun is approaching its most vacating presence and colors have turned gray, when our constructions seem tawdry, that the plain sense of things becomes evident."

The most inventive interpretation that I found online was from Barbara M. Fisher.  This line was a very clever way to describe the feeling of the poem,  "It is not the great cloud of tragedy but an unresolved diminished seventh."  Being a musicy kind of guy I know what that could sound like.  Something is just, off, which is a perfect description of the feeling this poem gave.

I did find most of the interpretations to be pretty solid, but if i had to choose it would be the one by Anthony Whiting.  Could have been because they took only a small clip of his argument, but I was only partially convinced of his points.

One thing I found on youtube that had to do with this poem was another grey moustached man wearing woman's glasses reading poetry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBt26u_1nIw

I also found this on the interweb.  Wish I had found it sooner, it was a massive help, and it makes it much easier to see the brilliance in Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry.
http://www.paullaurencedunbar.net/antebellumsermon.html

Sources:

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/sense.htm

http://www.helium.com/items/1676699-wallace-stevens-life-and-works

Jack London

One aspect of, "The Mexican," that kind of went over my head was the allusion to Rivera being, "dead," or, "not human."  I'm not sure if that was just placed in there to throw us off that he was actually a good person or contain some sort of deeper implication, but it seemed a little strange to me.  I saw that the spark in his eye made him more human than most.  Any thoughts?

The Wife of His Youth

One thing I was trying to get from the story, "The Wife of His Youth," was whats the point?  Chesnutt always had a point to make in his work, and for a while it eluded me.  But I think I cracked it, and I think that it is a statement about how you cant hide from your past.  Even though Mr. Ryder had done everything in his power to shed away his past, it ended up right at his door step.  But the way that he dealt with it was how any reasonable and civilized person would, even thought it took a while, by addressing it head on.  I think this is a statement about how the past, no matter how different it maybe, needs to be embraced and remembered.  It does not mean it should drag you down, but any attempt to forget it or bleach it from your memory is futile and you would be lying to yourself in the process.  Thoughts?

Dave's Neckliss

The thing that struck me as the most crucial theme of the story was the effect labels can have.  The allegory with Dave and the ham illustrating this point rather well.  He held strong in his beliefs at first, but after relentless verbal abuse from the people around him, coupled with the physical ham being tied around his neck, he broke down.  He became so used to the label, that he became it.  He even missed the ham around his neck.  The fact that he could read and was a preacher makes the fall even more drastic, and the statement even more powerful.  The whole story also makes you sympathise with Julius' point of view about ham, and feel the effect of labeling as well.  I know that, for a while at least, I will be reminded of this story whenever I see a ham.

The Long Arm

First of all, what a great story.  I love the style of narrative where the first part of the story is an account after the fact, then the last is segmented into days like a journal (even though I doubt anybody could remember conversations in such accurate detail).  As soon as it made that switch to the journal entries I became very concerned that Miss Sarah Fairbanks would not come out of this story alive.  The red herrings were well placed and fequent enought to keep my attention. 

I must say though, did anybody else figure it was Phoebe Dole immediately after she bossed Maria around?  That expression of power struck me as such a telling clue, and got my mind racing about how her being the murder would be the most interesting outcome by far. 

One question on the sheet that was handed out today that I felt that needed answering was about the heterosexual vs. lesbian relationships in the story.  The heterosexual ones are viewed as just fine and dandy.  Even though there are some forbidden and secret relationships going on in the Fairbanks household, both parties are consensual in their love.  While the lesbian relationship on the other hand seems to be controlled completely by Phoebe.  Maria did not seem to have mutual feelings for her, but Maria's timid nature and fear of Phoebe pushes this aside.  So the only homosexual person in the story, is also capable of murder.  I chalk this up to Wilkins staunch religious upbringing, giving her the perspective that she does on homosexuality in general.  Does anyone else share this viewpoint that I have or am I just a little crazy myself?  Either way, the story was well written and a fun read.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

     After hearing about Thomas Wentworth Higginson in class I was fascinated by him.  What was the relationship like between him and Emily?  Who was he as a person?  And what was the reasoning behind editing Emily's poems? While this isn't an essay and I'm only scratching the surface, I did come across some interesting information about the man.

     Being one of the very few people that Emily kept in contact with, it must be assumed that Thomas had to be an interesting person, which is accurate.  He was a Captain of a Union regiment during the Civil War. This group was one of the first to enlist African Americans into their ranks.  Being a Minister before the war was another one of his occupations.  He also read a poem by Emily Bronte at Dickinson's funeral.  

     His relationship with Emily was one, as she would call him her, "preceptor."  He was also referred in one article I read as, "her only critic."  He advised her on her writing, and had much to do with her works finally being published.  His reasoning behind editing Emily's poems as far as I found out, is because it couldn't be classified, making them difficult to publish in his eyes.  While at the same time referring to her as, "wholly new and original poetic genius," he chopped up some of the critically best works of poetry in the English language.  I'm not saying that he has bad taste or could not write, quite the opposite in fact, but I find it interesting that he, along with Mabel Loomis Todd, found her works in a way, needing polishing.  After looking at some of the decisions they made when editing in class, I cannot say that they were completely wrong, and I can say any of the poems were completely butchered.  They were just, different.

Does anybody agree with the decisions they made?


Sources:

http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/ed/node/70

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/308

Weblog Post #1

            After reading Twain’s selected readings I feel like I gained a good amount of perspective on the man’s sense of humor.  Two stories in particular struck as something only a very intelligent comedian would do: Letters From Earth, and The War Prayer.  

            While Letters I found to be very funny by playing with expectations and turning preconceived notions on their head, War Prayer is in its construction one big joke.  A joke essentially is a setup, and a punch line.  The set up was a church in the midst of a rousing, patriotic prayer from the preacher is then deflated by the observations of an aged stranger.  The stranger posits that, in a nutshell, praying for victory is praying for failure for somebody else.  The punch line is in fact the last line of the story: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.”  I found it to be paralleling the same kind of thought process as George Carlin.  He drops a new idea on you, and then to break the tension pops in a punch line that makes the whole thing hilarious.  But while it makes you laugh, you feel like you are learning something important as well.  As well as juggling with such taboo topics as religion and war also put him in familiar territory with Carlin.

Or am I misinterpreting his sincerity with sarcasm?  Is his tone more dreadful and serious?