Monday 4.26.10... THE FINAL BLOG

This class has been very fulfilling for me, even if it was hard to grasp concepts at times. I will look at life and my surrounds in a whole new way now, relating everything back to literature and retellings. This class opened my eyes up to the world of literature and how it surrounds us in our every day lives.

Wednesday 4.21.10/Friday 4.23.10

The other groups presented these two days. The one that really stood out to me was the group that made the cookies out of elements of stories. I thought it was really clever. Plus, getting a cookie in the end didn't hurt either :)

Monday 4.19.10

We presented our group project today in class. It was a story about Cinderella from the Sister Uglies point of view. I think it went pretty well - we had a powerpoint background and props that added to the effect. And we had Garrett, who seems like he knows more about lit than all of combined.

Friday 4.16.10

Group projects are coming up..we're in the process of getting together and getting a presentation together. Group projects aren't my favorite thing to do..it just seems like a lesson on what we were suppose to learn in elementary school - how to work together. N0t that I don't enjoy working with anyone in my group - you guys were awesome :) - but I just prefer to be an independent worker.

Wednesday 4.14.10

For my paper thesis, I'd like to discuss the occurrence of retelling in all forms, not just literature. You can find retold stories in paintings, music, sculptures..the possibilities are endless. I chose this as a thesis because I'm an art major and have seen many connections between art and literature and would like to discuss that in my paper.

Monday 4.12.10

Well my Graphic Design portfolio review is coming up in less than 10 days and its rather nerve racking. I'm planning on spending the next week and 1/2 staying up until 3 a.m. to get this thing done. Bring it on.

UPDATE: Sadly, I didn't make it into the program. I know there's a couple graphics majors in this class and my advice to you for next year is not to procrastinate. I didn't procrastinate as much as I usually do, but it still wasn't enough to get into the program. Hope I have better luck next year :(

Friday 4.9.10

Today we had the test, which didn't go that well for me again. I'm just not that strong of a test taker. When I have to take them, it seems like I always have mental blocks and forget the stupidest answers that I could answer any other time.

I think another reason I'm bad at test taking is because I rarely have to take them. Since I'm an art major, I rarely have to take tests. I think I've taken less than 4 this semester and I'm a full time student.

Wednesday 4.7.10

Professor Sexson brought up the book The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. In it, a town is very happy, but holds a deep secret that is told to you when you come of age - that, for your happiness, a child is tortured and is suffering.

This story reminded me of a game I played when I worked at a camp on Flathead Lake a couple summers ago. We'd sit around the camp fire and play this game similar to Would-You-Rather. We'd make up things like if you could have a new pair of socks every day for the rest of your life if a small child got punched in the face, would you do it? Then we set up rules like if you knew the kid, if you had to watch, etc. It kept us entertained for hours.

Monday 4.5.10

I was actually gone for this class, but my reason for absence works out perfectly with the theme of this blog. In class we talked about how Sexson's friend always travels places but never reads books. Sexson said that the fufillment of reading a book can often be as rewarding as traveling to the place, if not more. I agree that reading books can be personally rewarding, but sometimes you just have to go to the place to actually experience it.

I was in Seattle this weekend visiting my boyfriend. We've been trying to date long distance for about three months now, seeing each other about once a month. I don't think any kind of reading could substitute actually going there to visit him. I think that's where the grey area begins in the controversy of reading books vs. visiting the real thing. If you're visiting a place to experience something that wouldn't necessarily take place in a book, then I'd say that going to that place is more rewarding then reading a book about it.

Wednesday 3.30.10

A while back, when were reading Antigone, we discussed how women and children with deformities were brought up to the top of a mountain and left to die. For the most part I agree with this but at one point in greek history, around the time of Alexander the Great, Greeks were fascinated with deformities, especially dwarfism. You can find the subject matter in many works of art from the period.

Monday 3.28.10

In class we discussed tragedies we've personally experienced. I haven't experienced a loss of a family member since I was around three, so I don't remember much. Something that really affected me recently is the loss of our van, Big Red. I grew up driving Big Red. She handled anything great - snow, rain, mud..anything. I have many fond memories in Big Red - from using her as the "party bus" to driving up to Glacier Park to go fly fishing. Big Red was special to me...she almost had a mysterious power behind her - I've never gotten in an accident and I think that's partly because of her. When my mom called to say they had taken her to the junk yard I actually stared crying. Not only was it the end of great memories, but the end of an era.

Friday 3.26.10

This week we discussed the true sense of tragedy and how are lives are all tragic. We were suppose to talk about a terrible day we've experiences recently. For the most part, my life hasn't been tragic. I've grown up in a good family and haven't suffered any major losses in my life. The only events of semi-tragedy that I think of revolve around relationships. When ever relationships have gone south, it seems like I'll fall into a bout of depression for a couple of months afterwards. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that initially you think that your life isn't a tragedy but when you think about it one bad even leads to another and you just have to live through the tragedy.

Wednesday, 3.24.10

Dostoyevsky claimed that Dmitri took on a life of his own as he was writing the book. He said that it was an iteresting experience; almost uncontrolled. I'm not sure if I believe this experience completely. I feel like Dostoyevsky said this to justify something that he couldn't flat-out say. You can use your writing as a portal to something that you wouldn't be able to say on your own.

Monday 3.22.10

In class we discussed how we've become boring, not our literature. This was in response to some people in the class claiming that the Brother K is a "boring" book. I think for the most part, that we have become a boring, impatient society. It's not really our fault though. We've been raised to find a faster, easier method to everything. The exercise of reading was not pushed enough in schools when I was growing up. I hated reading when I was little and elementry school didn't do much to help change that. It wasn't until junior high that I decided I enjoyed reading. I don't think it was one particular book or anything, but I just realized that it was really relaxing and intellectually stimulating to sit down and enjoy a good book for a couple hours. Hopefully when I have kids, the joy of reading won't be completely lost in school.

Friday 3.12.10

Today, Sexson asked us to look up the meaning of 'theodicy'. Here's what I found:

Theodicy is an answer to the problem of evil. Specifically, Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy which attempts to reconcile belief in God with the perceived existence of evil. As such, theodicy can be said to attempt to justify the behaviour of God (at least insofar as God allows evil).

In The Brother K, I believe it was Ivan that said "It's not that I don't accept God, I just don't accept the world he created."

This book has one of the biggest questionings of God in literary history.

Wednesday 3.10.10

In class, we discussed works of literature that have changed the way we think. I thought back at the books I've read over the last couple years and the one that stuck out the most was Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I'm a very realistic thinker. I stick to what makes me feel safe and I don't often venture out of my comfort zone. This book got me to realize that if you want to live a full life, you have to step out of your comfort zone and explore the world around you, even if it's dangerous.

We also discussed how found poetry can be addictive. Everywhere you look, you'll find it. I'm a graphic design major and find occurrences like this in my major. I often find myself looking at billboards or other advertisements thinking of what they could have changed to make it better. It drives me crazy going down the interstate..I can't concentrate on anything else.

Monday 3.8.10

In class, Sexson brought up that we need to write our sonnets the best we can because they're going to our significant "otter". This an interesting concept, and I know I participate in it on a regular basis: We make/do thing the best when someone we admire is around. Why don't we just do it because we can? Just do it for ourselves? I'm going to keep this idea in the back of my mind from now on..

Friday 3.5.10

I'm writing my sonnet to my boyfriend who lives in Seattle. Hw moved there about a month and 1/2 ago, but we've decided to continue dating long-distance.

Though you've been away for over forty days,

It almost feels like a year or maybe more.

I miss your company in so many ways;

Miss what we had together to the core.

While you are all the way in Seattle,

I'm still here in Bozeman, Montana.

The space between us has been a battle,

Distance doesn't matter, know we can-a.

I really miss waking up next to you,

After dreaming all night of your cute face.

I know you miss that as much as I do.

Know this is hard, but we can win this race.

One day we will be together again,

No matter the amount of time its been.

We were also making found poems with what we found around us. I used a container of fish food, because it was with reaching distance of my bed, where I'm blogging :)

TetraFin Goldfish Flakes.

Diet nutritionally.

Gold water.

Gold health.

Gold fin.

Optimal color health.

Water flakes.

Garantee water flakes.

Gold.

Friday 2.26.10 & Monday 3.1.10

For these two classes we discussed what version of Lady With the Dog We preferred - Either the original by Anton Chekov or the newer version by Joyce Carol Oates. I liked the second one better even though it was a little harder to understand than the original. I liked it because it showed the emotional side of the story, not just what was on the surface. I think women sympathize with the emotional aspect of events rather than the physical.

Wednesday, Feb. 24

In class we were talking about archetypal female character. She's either the platonic ideal or the temptress. Sexson was asking the class (gearing the question to the boys) if anyone has had an infatuation to another person without the other person really knowing that the admirer even exists. I guess I don't understand why its suppose to always be that the boy is infatuated with the girl..I think it definitely goes the other way around...I'm saying this from personal experience.

In seventh grade, I had the biggest crush on a kid in my class..lets call him "Jimmy" because there are people in this class who I went to high school with. So my infatuation with "Jimmy" got a little creepy..like boarder-line stalker...I would even watch "Jimmy" in the reflection of a compact mirror while he played basketball during lunch recess. I think he knew I existed...but I was never actually able to attain the boy...and based on my actions..I think it was better that way.

This has happened to me again in college. There was a boy in one of my major classes that I thought was the cat's pajamas. Well everyday during this class I would imagine what it would be like if me and said boy were a couple. Every time I'd see him, my heart would flutter a little. I doubt this kid knew much more than my first name.

What I'm trying to say is that girls put boys on a pedestal just as much as guys do it to us. I think that guys are just more verbal about it.

Friday, 2.19.10 & Monday, 2.22.10

The test went pretty well for the most part. For next time I think I need to focus on other peoples blogs more and ready every reading assignment completely...perhaps even twice.

On Monday, we discussed what it would be like to explain to a blind person what it's like to see. Sexson compared us to blind people in that we're blind to literature and he's the one who teaches us what its like. I thought that was a great analogy.

There are two kinds of blind - people who are born blind and people who become blind after being able to see part of their life. I was trying to think of what situation would be better and I decided that they both have their pros and cons. If you're born blind, you would have never experienced that sense and not have known what you're missing. But if you become blind, especially later in life, then you would have had a chance to experience sight and some of those images might be able to stay with you.

Monday, 2.15 & Wednesday 2.17

So we read and discussed A Good Man Is Hard To Find. This story didn't bother me as much as it should have. For some reason I can see why the Misfit killed the family. He could see right through the entire family. They thought they were all innocent but in reality, they were insensitive (the kids were going to throw their garbage out the car window??) and two-faced - the grandmas always seemed in a sour mood and was preoccupied with material good like wearing her fancy clothes and regretting not marrying a financially successful man. She seemed rather racist as well, making unnecessary comments about people on the street. Then, at the end of her time, she pulls the "Jesus-card" to try to persuade the Misfit into not killing her...he saw right through her and killed her anyways.

Class 12/13 - 2.10/12.10

Since I was gone on Friday (I was on my way back to my home town for the long weekend..) I decided to combine these two posts. On Wednesday Sexson had us read A Good Man Is Hard To Find and The Lottery. After reading these two short stories, something hit me. I realized my senior year in high school I took a literature class and we have read a lot of the same short stories, including Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, and The Lottery. I'm not sure if this is coincidental or if these are the basics taught in every into to lit class, but I thought it was cool. It's nice to have some background knowledge behind what you're re-reading. We went into great depths discussing these works in high school and I've definitely benefited from it in this class.

Class 11 - 2.8.10

We learned about the three stages of life: the "hunky dory" stage where everything is completely innocent and without complication, the "split world" when you go through a time of trials and hardships, and the "return" stage where you go back to where you began.

I think that the first stage could almost not exist...it all depends on the circumstances. Some might say the "hunky dory" stage only exists in the womb, some would say it lasts through childhood. In an ideal world it would. But in reality, innocence can often be nonexistent. Think of why one is in the womb in the first place...was it because of a accidental one-night stand? That, I think completely takes away the innocence. Innocence is definitely situational.

Class 10 - 2.5.10

I found this piece by Henri Matisse on page 842. This piece stuck out to me because its unlike any other in the anthology. Its a modern piece created in the late 1940's. As far as I could find, all of the other works featured in our anthology are works done in the Renaissance or earlier. While pondering this, something hit me. Not only are storied always retellings of other storied, but works of art are always retellings and re-renderings of previous works. Some one has already rendered the same idea in some sort or articulation. If you wanted to be really abstract about it, you could also think of it like this: You have paint - but where did it come from? someone collected the pigments and binder, which each have their own story. Your brushes may have experienced other pieces, or they may be brand new. Essentially, everything is a retelling of something else.

Class Nine - 2.3.10

My earliest memory is still very vivid - I was around four years old and my dad took me fishing over on a neighbor's dock (I grew up on a lake). We used Power-bait because I think it pretty much guaranteed us a fish. We ended up catching 2 decent size rainbow trout, and we brought them both back to the house to clean. My mom took a picture of me holding the fish in front of our house (which I still have). I was wearing a pink turtle neck and some goofy pants. My dad and I cleaned the fish together, and I remember when we cut their stomachs open to examine the contents, we found a bunch of corn, which I found strange..I didn't understand how the fish had gotten the corn in the first place.

This positive experience of fishing with my dad really stuck with me. As I got older, I used to spend hours on our dock fishing. My dad and I didn't always get along during my childhood, but when we were fishing together, we put that all behind us. I'm still an avid fisher today!

Class Eight - 2.1.10

So our assignment was to remember everything that happened to us between 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Feb. 2....here's what I did:

woke up at 6, hit the snooze button, went back to sleep, actually got up at 6:45, got dressed, brushed my teeth, did my make up, ate a yogurt on the way out the door, walked to Kinko's, printed my graphic design assignment ($2.00 for each color copy...can you believe it?!), went to the Daily and got a cup of coffee and a lemon bar, walked back to campus, went into the graphic design room to finish up assignment for class at 9, get to class with seconds to spare, critique every one's work, go back into the lab and rework my design, go back into the classroom and get next class' assignment, walk home, prepare to take a nap, decide that 25 minutes isn't long enough to take a nap, play on Facebook, text my friend, grab a clementine and eat it on the way to my Energy & Sustainability class, get to class, fill up my water bottle, see that we have a guest lecturer, listen to said guest lecturer about the effects of green house gas on climate change, receive a text from friend and respond, walk to work (Hannon Dining Hall), clock in, put an apron and gloves on, go out and check the salad bar, fill up a couple thing, look busy without actually doing anything for a while, prepare the breakfast bar for the next day, periodically check my phone for another text from friend, check the temps on the salad bar, re-ice everything, check out, run into my roomie on the way out, chat with her for a second about not receiving text from the friend, tell her I'll see her at 6:45, go home and take a nap from 4:15 to 6, get dressed and head back to work, stop at the library to drop off DVDs that I checked out, arrive at work, sweep and mop the back rooms, sweep and mop the main room, periodically talk to my roomie (who also works there) about not receiving a reply to friend's text, dump mop bucket and get checked out, eat dinner there, walk over the the library to get new movies since a certain friend has yet to text back, get home, talk to my ex-boyfriend and other friends on Facebook, finally receive text from friend, make plans to hang out later that night.

I really enjoyed this activity. It made mundane, everyday events seem like something special because I was actually paying attention to them. I think I might actually do this more on my own time.

Class Seven - 1.29.10

Has any one ever experienced a lucid dream? When I was little, I could lucid dream almost anytime I slept. For the most part I've grown out of it, but occasionally it still happens to me. For anyone who doesn't know what lucid dreaming is, here's a link that explains it in detail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

I also frequently have reoccurring dreams. It seems like the older I get, the more often these dreams occur. I seem to always have a dream about a ski resort I've imagined up. If you asked me to, I could probably draw a trail map of it - that's how familiar I am with it.

Class Six 1.27.10

In this class, we discussed the differences between "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and Smooth Talk. Like I'm sure a lot of other students said, I perfured "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" over Smooth Talk because Smooth Talk didn't leave anything to the imagination. I didn't like that I was spoon-fed the ending in Smooth Talk instead of leaving it up to my imagination, like was done in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Class Five - 1.25.10

Today, we brainstormed other stories that have the same underlining idea as "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and we came up with a couple examples: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Demon Lover ballad, Demeter & Persephone and Lolita.

Earlier this year, I checked out and watched a newer version of Lolita that I found at the MSU library. I had no idea what the movie was going to be about because when I get movies at the Library I often don't look at the summary on the back. I watched the movie and thought it was really well made. Today in class some students brought up the fact that the idea behind Lolita was sick - that an older man being attracted to a much-younger girl was wrong. Any sane person would agree, without watching the movie first. If you watch the movie, you learn that the man who was attracted to Lolita tragically lost a childhood girlfriend that haunted him until he was adult. He saw something in Lolita that he missed from this childhood relationship, and I think he was just trying to fill in the empty pieces of the puzzle.

Another thing to take into consideration in Lolita and any other Innocent/Evil stories is if it's always the evil side that is doing the antagonizing. In Lolita, the man wasn't the only one initiating contact - it was equally Lolita's initiation. Same with "Where Are You Going..." Connie enjoyed the attention of the boys - obvious by her actions and the way she dressed. Arnold Friend preyed on Connie's insecurities.

Class Four - 1.22.10

Today we discussed the meaning behind "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and we came to the conclusion that there is an underlining story of innocence encountering evil/death in many well-known stories. Little Red Riding Hood is one. The wolf (evil/death) lures in the innocent Little Red Riding Hood with his charm. This theme has been around since the beginning of storytelling it seems.

Class Three - 1.20.10

After reading "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", I read the newspaper article that Joyce Carol Oates used as inspiration for the piece. When I had only read "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" it puzzled me that Connie reacted to Arnold the way she did. Why didn't she just go into the house and lock the door? Why didn't she call 911 as soon as he started acting weird? But then after reading the article from the newspaper I realized why Connie hadn't taken actions into her own hands - she was mesmerized by Arnold - his mysterious, older qualities, his mature, suave nature. I remember when I was Connies age - if an older guy talked to me, I went with it, even if I knew deep down it was complete B.S. Older guys often have that power over younger girls and I think that's why he preyed on them in the first place.

Class Two - 1.15.10

So I'm running a little behind on this blog thing - its a pretty new concept for me so I'm working on getting into the hang of it. I was really impressed that Prof. Sexson had all 40-some of our names memorized by the second day of class. In this class we discussed the piece "Where Are You Going, Where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. I read this piece my senior year of high school but couldn't remember how it ended. After reading it again, I have mixed feelings about the ending. One one hand, I like how it ended because it left the rest of the story open to the interpretation of the reader. On the other hand, the sick, twisted side of me wanted to know what actually happened to Connie... where did he take her? Did he kill her? Regardless of my mixed feelings, in the end I think that Oates choose the best ending to the story.

Class One - 1.13.10

First day of class was like most - going over the syllabus, taking roll.... the usual. I though Professor Sexson had a good idea of taking everyone's picture with their name to become familiar with all of us more quickly. I'm excited to get back into reading after being so busy with my major last semester. Hope the semester goes well!