One Hundered Years of Solitude

Hello,

Hope everyone had/is having a good Halloween. So about 100 Years of Solitude. One thing that stood out to me as I started to read this book was that it didn't feel like it was required--that sounds bad. But basically I really enjoyed reading this book because it's themes and the way it was written. Although I do respect and like William Faulkner and The Sound and The Fury, it was pretty rough getting through the first section as well as other parts. This was not the case with 100 Years of Solitude. However, after I finished reading it I did pick up on some similarities between it and TSATF. One major similarity was that although it flowed clearly there were a couple of times in which I said wait, when is this taking place. Other things that stood out to me were the themes of family and story telling. Symbols or what I believed to be symbols also kept popping up, such as ice, money, and birds.

oops! ...let's talk about sartre too

Sartre states that Faulkner could not tell the story in any other way... I found this statement to be pretty powerful. Initially, I disagreed. Though it would leave out the motif of the human construct of time, I thought the story could be told chronologically and produce a similar outcome. However, giving it greater thought, does the confusion make the book? Is it specifically done to make readers work harder and get lost in the present in the Compson family? I personally think it is specifically and effectively crafted. What do you guys think? What's Faulkner's reason for distorting time?

On Symbols

Today in class we were told to talk about the symbolism of various objects. I will talk about trees. There are several important trees in the first section. The first is the tree that Caddy climbs when trying to find out what is going on inside. The second is the tree(s) where Caddy meets boys when she is older. In both cases, the tree is a symbol for a loss of innocence. This is somewhat ironic, as trees are often viewed as something that is stable and can be turned to for comfort. There is a certain irony in Caddy, who Benjy turns to constantly in his life, distancing herself from Benjy when she is among the trees, even though she has lost her earthly scent (in the perfume scene).

William Faulkner Fun Fact

Since some people were not pleased with my previous "long" post, ill keep this one short. One fun fact about William Faulkner I discovered while during some research is that he was unable to join the United States Amy because of his hight (about 5' 5''). Subsequently, Faulkner joined the British Royal Flying Corps.

That is all.

Song of Songs which is Solomon's

Hi everyone:

The Poem in the Bible seems to be closely linked to T-Mo's Song of Solomon. Let's start off with the obvious connections:

1)The Name...

just kidding. That's too obvious.

But it is a love story between King Solomon and a Shulammite woman (she's black). And in many ways, it closely parallels the relationship between Milkman and Hagar/Pilate. It's a story of desire in which a Bride seems to be searching for her ideal bridegroom (Hagar awaiting Milkman). When she gets him (Ch. 2) she begins to think of him endlessly, in an almost obsessive manner, much like the mutual passion and lust in SOS. Chapter 3 of Song of Songs closely parallels T-Mo when the bride awaits her groom on her bed, but he is not there. This is strikingly similar to the story of Hagar's source of misery. Ch.4 of the biblical text is heavily centered on lust - essentially superficial love. This too is a direct parallel to Milkman and Hagar...

Then as it continues there is mention of other significant parallels:

- navel

-breastfeeding

-carnal love

Archetypes in SoS

Hi everybody. Looks like I get to take the lead on this one too!

I realize that there a lot of archetypes out there (Milkman as outcast, Ruth as unfaithful wife, etc.), but I am only going to comment on one. This is Pilate as the earth mother. The first time we meet Pilate, she offers Milkman and Guitar food. Significantly, she offers eggs, which are a symbol of life. Also, her feet point outwards, symbolizing how she gives direction to Guitar throughout his life. Finally, there are many indications of her being connected to the earth (i.e. gravelly voice, collection of rocks, traveling the earth, etc.).

Well, there you have it. I have now started 3 out of the 6 blog discussions. Hope y'all are happy.

(As a side note, does anyone else pronounce guitar gee-tar? Or is that just me?)

Readings and Song of Solomon Take 2

Sorry about the blank post...

I, probably like most of you, was hoping someone else would write the initial blog post. However, it seems this will not happen soon, so I will take the plunge. Probably the most interesting part of the readings is the myth of Oedipus and the oedipal complex. You might be wondering how this applies to Song of Solomon. One of the interesting parts of SoS is Ruth's obsession with her father. Although Ruth's obsession does not lead to quite the dramatic events of the Oedipus myth, there are parallels. Mainly, both stories have major negative events caused by a lack of knowledge and communication among the main characters.

As much as I would love to continue, it is dinner time. Any comments? I think my comments above certainly need some fleshing out.

Murdering the Innocents

Things I noticed in Chapter II of Hard Times -

McChoakumchild's name is a very obvious means of personifying him as somebody who is unpleasant to children, somebody who murders innocents. If this were not clear enoguh, Dickens even directly criticizes McChoackumchild and his teaching approach: "If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more!" (8).

Dickens introduces the third gentleman as a "pugilist". From watching the most recent Sherlock Holmes, Fight Club, and Snatch, I imagine that fist fighting would be of dubious legality as it is today and carry negative connotations. It is also brutish, violent, destructive, and not very intellectual, so Dickens may be casting this gentleman and his philosophy in an immediate negative light.

The gentleman scolds the children for agreeing to paper a room with horses. He suggests that horses never walk up and down sides of rooms in reality, but this is in fact a truth to Sissy, whose father works with horses in the circus. This, along with the other things mentioned in class, shows the irony in Gradgrind's and Bounderby's philsophy: what they assert as Fact is actually not so.

Dickens also says that this gentleman "had it in charge from high authority to bring about the great public-office Millennium, when Commissioners should reign upon the earth" (5). This is a clear reference to the Biblical Judgement Day. As we said in class, it shows that Fact is the religion of Coketown, an irony in itself.

Dickens uses the vessel metaphor throughout the whole chapter. This might be to emphasize the fact that children are malleable, empty to begin with. Compellingly, at the end, McChoakumchild compares himself to Morgiana in the Forty Thieves and the vessels as weapons of boiling oil, implying that this education is turning the children into weapons, much like Gradgrind is a weapon, "a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge" (3).

What in the Dickens?

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

As we discussed in class, satire is the literary are of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation. Satire does not attempt to harm or damage by ridicule, but rather to shock to gain attention and begin social change. The themes of satire are maintenance of standards, reaffirmation of values, and the necessity of reform. That being said, I asked you each to take a literary device, define it, and explain why/how it is used in satire. These devices are: tone, irony, exaggeration, distortion, understatement, innuendo, ambiguity, catalog, simile and metaphor, oxymoron, parable, and allegory. I'm interested to see your answers below. I'd also love to see what you have to say in response to Plato's Allegory of the Cave in comparison to the world established in Hard Times.