The Real Last Blog

In class today, listening to people talk, I realized that there are some people in this class that I just can not stand. Even though I can not stand them, I still listen to them and try to respect what they say. I just believe that a class should be about learning, not about messing around and getting off topic. I plan on reading the book Sexson was talking about today- Zen of the art of motorcycle maintainence. After listening to him, I believe this will be a good book to read during my travels this summer. I have taken a lot out of this class and will constantly think about it when reading, even if I do not want to! Reading the Brothers K was hard but it is a must because it is one of the most important books in literature (says my mother). She was thrilled when she found out that I was reading this book, she decided to take it out of the bookshelf and read it also. I am hoping that when I finish the book, it will make me understand more about life. This class has opened up my brain and my eyes. Thank you.

Fairy Tales

After reading all three of the Cinderellas, it has made me reflect on other fairy tales. I am pretty sad about the fact that all of the fairy tales are not original. I grew up loving the princess stories and it was all I knew. Everything I had had to deal with the disney princesses. Now that I know they are not original, it makes me bummed out. In a way, I wish I did not know that they were not original but in a way I am glad I know. It will help with my teaching career and I can tie all types of stories together knowing that they are all linked in some way.

Lots Wife

I know the story of Lots Wife very well. I first read it in sunday school way back in the day. However what they left out in sunday school was the part where the daughters have sex with their father to preserve the family line. But after the angels said not to look back, his wife does. After she looks back, she is turned into a pillar of salt. It reminds me of adam and eve. God is putting temptation into the path of people and some choose to give into temptation. This reminds me of the story in the Grand Inquisitor. In this chapter, Ivan talks about all of the temptations Christ could of taken but he did not. Ivan says that Christ should of taken the temptations though so people would have security instead of freedom.

No boring books, just boring people

I agree but at the same time disagree. This is because it can be both. There are some books that I have no interest in reading and that I personally would think are boring but others would not. What this statement comes down to is really how the person percieves the book. I could think a book is super boring but there would be atleast one person out there that would think differently... this makes that book not boring. So yes there are not any boring books, but I disagree with the boring people aspect of the saying. Just because I think a book is boring does not mean that I am a boring person, because trust me, I am not boring atleast that is what I have been told. I guess this saying comes down to the person interpreting it.

Worst Day Ever

After going through my notes, I have realized there are a few blog topics that I did not blog about. One of those topics was the worst day ever. I have had many bad days growing up but I do not feel comfortable talking about them because they are really personal and happened when I was under the age of 8. But after that when my life calmed down, I remember a truly bad day. Most people would not think of this as a bad day, but to me who is addicted to shopping, it was truly BAD! It was around 8pm at night and it was raining out. I was going to my neighbors because her mom was going to take us shopping and there was a huge sale that was over in an hour! So I put my shoes on half way and ran down the front steps. However, because the steps were slippery, I fell down the steps and hit my head on a garden pot and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. It was horrible! I was so mad I could not go shopping! It was terrible and I missed an amazing sale. :(

The Last Blog

I have truly enjoyed this class as a whole. There have been parts where I do not like it but for the most part it was good. I have read the stories that I have always wanted to read and I feel like I have become a more knowledgeable person. There are lessons that I have learned that will stick with me, like "you do not know what you think until you see what you say" and "every story is a retelling of another story". These have been two of the biggest points in this class that I will never be able to forget. This class has done alot for me.

Unnamed

In class on Monday, the professor commented on someone's paper after they presented and said that no the narrator is the first character and is unnamed. As I went back through the book to see if this was true, I realized it actually was! The narrator tells the story as if he is there or is watching everything happen. He also refers to himself as "I". Having a narrator is normal, but what is not as common is that the narrator is refered to as I. This really does bother me at times because it is not something I have seen/noticed before. Every time I will read a book from now on I will look for this and it will remind me of this big hard long book!!

My Paper

Retellings

I will take away from this class something I will personally enjoy in my life and rely on in my teaching career—the context of literature. When I first signed up for this class, I thought it would be another required class where my passion level would be moderate to none. After the first two days, I realized I was wrong, very wrong. This class immediately wrenched me from my customary way of reading stories and showed me how to perceive and understand with a different eye.

The class gave me the context for understanding literature. For me, it is like a closet in which I can hang every thing I read from now on in its order and in appropriate relationship with every other story. By focusing on the theme that every story is a retelling of another story, this class revealed to me how the great literary characters and great stories repeat themselves and merge into one broad retelling of the human condition.

In literature, different characters ask the same questions about how to live life, and writers for centuries have been attempting to answer those same questions. Stories build on one another. Full enjoyment and understanding come when the reader can catch all the allusions. It’s like standing before Monet’s Water Lilies, experiencing the immediate emotional impact, and then stepping back to analyze the meaning of this painting and knowing where it comes from.

Hamlet stands out in our literature. But he did not come suddenly into the mind of William Shakespeare in 1599 as a new being. Shakespeare instead took the archetype of the killing of the king to journey into the Prince of Denmark. Hamlet stands as one of the most important characters in English literature as well as world literature because Hamlet is universal and represents a certain type of human character. The Russian Dostoyevsky modeled The Brothers Karamazov after Hamlet.

Hamlet’s story is so widespread that it even reappears in a Disney animated movie, The Lion King. In both of these stories, the father is killed by his brother and the son comes back for revenge. These stories have very similar plots, but the endings are very different. In Hamlet, Hamlet ends up dying from poison making it a tragedy. In The Lion King, Simba, the son, regains the throne and all is well in the end, hence creating the “fairy tale ending.” Interestingly enough, both of these stories are very popular. One reason I speculate this is because they have the same plot and archetypes. As humans, we tend to like the things we know. We like the familiar. From before Hamlet to the late 20^th century premier of Lion King, the killing of the king archetype continues to pick up momentum.

This class has let me become the reader I have always longed to be. Something always held me back. It was not just socializing, which is something that comes quite naturally to me. Now I see how all stories connect to create layers of meaning about the questions we ask on how we are to live. It is as if I have been given the missing bricks in my literary foundation.

As a teacher, I am going to use what I have learned in this class to help my young readers develop their reading closets of context. For example, I will encourage them to see that when they watch the Lion King, they are immersed in a story thousands of years old and that knowing the details and the questions of the old stories only adds to the richness of the new story. Through this, I want to embed in my students a certainty of their own place in the great retelling of the human story.

Overlooking things.

Writing the paper for this class has made me look back at the past semester and pick my favorite stories and how it has affected me. I think that this class has made me look at things with new eyes and appreciate literature more.

Brothers K

I have been going back through the book looking at the characters and have come to realize I strongly dislike the step-brother. When the step-brother was at the monastery in the beginning he seemed like a very shady sly person. I strongly dislike people like this. They are the type of people who give humans a bad reputation. AND in the end when he kills the father, it just hints at he is not a good character and has issues. Yes, killing the father was a main part of the book but still it just does not seem right in my eyes.

Paper

I have changed my mind and I am doing the basic topic. "What I know now that I did not know before...... and how it has made a difference..." With this I am apply stories I have enjoyed and using the idea of every story is a retelling of another story. This topic has been the most interesting topic in the class for me. When I leave this class, this will be one of the things that I will remember forever. Now that I have realized this, I have been noticing that everything is a retelling and my world has been changed. Nothing is original which bums me out!

BK

Ever since class on monday I have been thinking of thesis to write about.  I have not found one yet but I have been looking into characters to get a better idea.  One of the characters I have found to like (well more then others) is Grushenka.  This is because everyone thinks she is someone she is not.  She portrays the "slut" but never truly gives herself.  She is a headstrong woman.  Just because others view her in a certain way, does not mean that she truly is.

BK

I am half way through with the Brothers K and well I have been slacking and bought the sparknotes.  I know everyone thinks that it is not good (it lacks the details and the gripping-ness of a story).  I am still reading the big book, but the sparknotes helps me get the main ideas and the themes easier.  

Hamlet

I have just started to read Hamlet and look over it.  I grow up with my mother always talking about Hamlet and how wonderful it is.  I am only a few pages in and so far it is ok.  It has not gripped me yet but I think that maybe it will after some more reading.