In the essay "Know It All," by Stacy Schiff, the hot topic is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a collaborative, online encyclopedia of sorts. It's an ever-expansive community where people of all ages, backgrounds, education and interests can come together and interact.
It seems as though, over the past several years, the words Wikipedia and Do Not Use go hand and hand. Since I was in high school, all of my teachers have been preaching against Wiki and how it is a useless pile of information that "just anyone" can add to or take away from. I have long understood the concept of Wiki and take it for what it is. It is a collection of information. Information anyone could probably find throughout the vastness that is the internet. At least with Wiki, it's all organized onto a page with a title.
While reading this article, I felt the historical perspective was an interesting spin on Wiki and the encyclopedia. It is interesting to see how Wiki and Britannica aren't too far off from one another when it comes to errors. (Even if they did refute it.) Also, to see how the Encyclopedie was a book that was able to "muscle aside religious institutions and orthodoxies to install human reason at the center of the universe" (4). When you think about it, that is exactly what Wiki is doing in modern times. It is shifting aside the traditions and normalcy of information distribution in society and creating a new, radical idea: information for the masses by the masses.
Out of all of the information in this article, I am most impressed with the vast reach of Wikipedia. I find it astonishing that one single source is able to transverse more than two hundred languages and reach over hundreds of thousands of contributors and even more viewers. Now to me, something that huge is certainly going to catch a lot of flack, but I feel that credit is due to it also. This project, started by Jimmy Wales, is a thing that is greater than just a pile of useless information. I feel that it's massive potential far outweighs the negatives it incurs. I feel that if used correctly, it has the potential to be a wonderful source that already reaches a lot of people.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Pygmalion Part 1
I have really enjoyed the first two acts of Bernard Shaw's play, "Pygmalion." I really like reading plays and have been looking forward to reading this selection for quite some time now.
Like Savannah, I found the use of language to be very interesting. The fact that Liza's language is limiting to her is no foreign concept. We find this to be true in modern society as well. Many people's employment ambitions can be restricted due to their language, or lack of it. There is definitely an emphasis on education and the need for it in order to improve one's status.
I really enjoy the writing layout of the play too. I feel the stage directions and the opening descriptions given before each act is very helpful. It gives the reader an insight into what the play could look like. It gives that added sense of dimensionalism, not sure if that's even a real word, that novels do not.
I am looking forward to the rest of the play and hope to find more interesting aspects as we go further into the play.
Like Savannah, I found the use of language to be very interesting. The fact that Liza's language is limiting to her is no foreign concept. We find this to be true in modern society as well. Many people's employment ambitions can be restricted due to their language, or lack of it. There is definitely an emphasis on education and the need for it in order to improve one's status.
I really enjoy the writing layout of the play too. I feel the stage directions and the opening descriptions given before each act is very helpful. It gives the reader an insight into what the play could look like. It gives that added sense of dimensionalism, not sure if that's even a real word, that novels do not.
I am looking forward to the rest of the play and hope to find more interesting aspects as we go further into the play.
Monday, March 14, 2011
"To His Coy Mistress"
Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," is one of many elements. Below, I will break down aspects of the poem.
I feel that the speaker of the poem is Marvell himself or possibly he is writing it as a man's perspective. The listener is either a mistress (a woman), as explicitly laid out in the title, or he is using mistress as a metaphor for life. I feel as though Marvell uses a lot of imagery throughout the poem. He uses a variety of metaphors to illustrate life, love and beauty. I feel that Marvell uses end-rhymes as heroic couplets. The ending word of each line rhymes with the one below it. If you look at all of the ending words, Marvell is creating comparisons between them. For example, line 39 and line 40 use devour and power. I feel that this was no accident on Marvell's part. He wanted the reader to draw a comparison between these two words. Maybe that power will devour? However, they may be as simple as line 11 and line 12 with slow and grow. It takes a long time to grow. I believe Marvell's poem is written in free verse, but I'm not positive. I don't feel as though it follows a strict set of guidelines as far as the form goes. Marvell also uses enjambment, meaning that the meaning of the sentence does not end with the line. He continues his thought onto the next line. I can honestly say that this is one of the challenges of reading poetry to me. I often find myself getting caught up in the rhyme scheme rather than actually reading through until the period or comma.
I believe that a main theme of Marvell's poem is life. I feel as though he is both preaching to the reader as well as warning the reader. The speaker says that one must seize the day, Carpe Diem. He speaks of "time's winged chariot hurrying near" (line 22) and warns that if you wait for too long, your life will flash by you before you realize it. This is how an example of why I feel as though he is both preaching and warning the reader at the same time. I also think that the mistress could be referring to life. I feel that this is a possibility because I feel as though Marvell may think many people have a mistress-type relationship with life. It is not something people fully commit to but they do occasionally have a miniature relationship with it. I feel that this may be really what Marvell is referring to when he says mistress because the major theme of the poem is to seize the day and not let it pass you by. He is telling the reader to have an out-in-the-open relationship with life. Do not be afraid but you can be cautious.
One thing that I really enjoyed in this poem is the fluidity of the words. Honestly, the first time I read it, i just glossed through a lot of the meaning because of the flow the words had. I felt as though it were a wave that just moved through the entire poem. However, after re-reading several times, I became less distracted by the fluid words and started focusing more on the meanings of the words themselves.
I feel that the speaker of the poem is Marvell himself or possibly he is writing it as a man's perspective. The listener is either a mistress (a woman), as explicitly laid out in the title, or he is using mistress as a metaphor for life. I feel as though Marvell uses a lot of imagery throughout the poem. He uses a variety of metaphors to illustrate life, love and beauty. I feel that Marvell uses end-rhymes as heroic couplets. The ending word of each line rhymes with the one below it. If you look at all of the ending words, Marvell is creating comparisons between them. For example, line 39 and line 40 use devour and power. I feel that this was no accident on Marvell's part. He wanted the reader to draw a comparison between these two words. Maybe that power will devour? However, they may be as simple as line 11 and line 12 with slow and grow. It takes a long time to grow. I believe Marvell's poem is written in free verse, but I'm not positive. I don't feel as though it follows a strict set of guidelines as far as the form goes. Marvell also uses enjambment, meaning that the meaning of the sentence does not end with the line. He continues his thought onto the next line. I can honestly say that this is one of the challenges of reading poetry to me. I often find myself getting caught up in the rhyme scheme rather than actually reading through until the period or comma.
I believe that a main theme of Marvell's poem is life. I feel as though he is both preaching to the reader as well as warning the reader. The speaker says that one must seize the day, Carpe Diem. He speaks of "time's winged chariot hurrying near" (line 22) and warns that if you wait for too long, your life will flash by you before you realize it. This is how an example of why I feel as though he is both preaching and warning the reader at the same time. I also think that the mistress could be referring to life. I feel that this is a possibility because I feel as though Marvell may think many people have a mistress-type relationship with life. It is not something people fully commit to but they do occasionally have a miniature relationship with it. I feel that this may be really what Marvell is referring to when he says mistress because the major theme of the poem is to seize the day and not let it pass you by. He is telling the reader to have an out-in-the-open relationship with life. Do not be afraid but you can be cautious.
One thing that I really enjoyed in this poem is the fluidity of the words. Honestly, the first time I read it, i just glossed through a lot of the meaning because of the flow the words had. I felt as though it were a wave that just moved through the entire poem. However, after re-reading several times, I became less distracted by the fluid words and started focusing more on the meanings of the words themselves.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Feminist Criticism and Wuthering Heights
In Lyn Pykett's essay, "Changing the Names: The Two Catherines," Pykett explains the mirroring and counter-mirroring of the two Catherines in Wuthering Heights. In the early parts of the essay, she says "the novel thus begins and ends with Catherine Earnshaw" (469). This is an illustration of the mirroring effect the two Catherines embody. Pykett ends the essay by contrasting the two Catherines by saying Cathy "reconstructs both herself and Hareton" while "Catherine is destroyed by her inability to reconcile conflicting images of herself" (477).
Pykett also explains how Emily Bronte's views that are expressed through the novel and its plot are contradictory to viewpoints of women during the period. One example that's given is the fact that Catherine's marriage to Edgar should resolve her issues but it only makes them worse. Catherine begins life being "an assertive child associated with the realm of nature, its freedom and power, rather than with the domestic and its constraints" (470). This is the first inner conflict that Catherine faces. By having this duality, Catherine is forced to create a double persona within herself. She has the Heathcliff part that always longs for him and she has the proper part that is in constant conflict with her other half. Pykett says that Catherine's character illustrates the "difficulties of trying to be the heroine of one's own life in a social and domestic milieu which cannot provide a theater for heroinism" (472). She also brings up the point that Catherine's sense of power does not cause her a feeling of self-fulfillment but leads and causes conflict within herself and between others.
Pykett says that Cathy makes the journey of Catherine in reverse. Catherine is said to have chosen Edgar to marry out of free will but Cathy is forced, against her will, to marry Linton. Cathy's plight mirrors her mother's in the fact that she must make a choice between two men. However, Cathy's outcome differs from Catherine's because she uses her experiences from the first "choice" to inform her second choice. Pykett also says that the Catherine/Heathcliff ploy is mirrored through Cathy/Hareton. She argues that Cathy chooses Hareton because it plays out the unfulfilled relationship Catherine never had with Heathcliff.
It is this act, Cathy choosing Hareton, that Pykett argues displays Bronte's true feelings of feminism. It is this act that illustrates these feelings because Cathy is able to freely and wholly choose Hareton for herself.
Pykett also explains how Emily Bronte's views that are expressed through the novel and its plot are contradictory to viewpoints of women during the period. One example that's given is the fact that Catherine's marriage to Edgar should resolve her issues but it only makes them worse. Catherine begins life being "an assertive child associated with the realm of nature, its freedom and power, rather than with the domestic and its constraints" (470). This is the first inner conflict that Catherine faces. By having this duality, Catherine is forced to create a double persona within herself. She has the Heathcliff part that always longs for him and she has the proper part that is in constant conflict with her other half. Pykett says that Catherine's character illustrates the "difficulties of trying to be the heroine of one's own life in a social and domestic milieu which cannot provide a theater for heroinism" (472). She also brings up the point that Catherine's sense of power does not cause her a feeling of self-fulfillment but leads and causes conflict within herself and between others.
Pykett says that Cathy makes the journey of Catherine in reverse. Catherine is said to have chosen Edgar to marry out of free will but Cathy is forced, against her will, to marry Linton. Cathy's plight mirrors her mother's in the fact that she must make a choice between two men. However, Cathy's outcome differs from Catherine's because she uses her experiences from the first "choice" to inform her second choice. Pykett also says that the Catherine/Heathcliff ploy is mirrored through Cathy/Hareton. She argues that Cathy chooses Hareton because it plays out the unfulfilled relationship Catherine never had with Heathcliff.
It is this act, Cathy choosing Hareton, that Pykett argues displays Bronte's true feelings of feminism. It is this act that illustrates these feelings because Cathy is able to freely and wholly choose Hareton for herself.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Marxist Criticism and Wuthering Heights
During the assigned reading, a great deal of time is spent explaining Marxist criticism. I feel that this in necessary in order to understand the perspective that is presented in the following essay. In the essay, "Myths of Power: a Marxist Study on Wuthering Heights," by Terry Eagleton, Eagleton goes into great detail comparing and contrasting, but mostly contrasting, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
From the very beginning of the essay, I get a feeling that Eagleton far prefers Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre. He begins his essay by stating, "Charlotte's fiction is 'mythical' in an exact ideological sense: it welds together antagonistic forces, forging from them a pragmatic, precarious coherence of interests. Wuthering Heights is mythical in a more traditional sense of the term: an apparently timeless, highly integrated, mysteriously autonomous symbolic universe" (Eagleton 395). After reading this, one can only assume that Eagleton's preference lies with Wuthering Heights. However, I do agree with him regarding Emily's work. She is able to capture a complete universe that seemingly functions on its own. (Unfortunately, I cannot compare it to the work of Charlotte because I have never read Jane Eyre.)
Another point I found interesting in the essay is when Eagleton is speaking of Heathcliff's appearance in the novel as well as the in the Earnshaw family. He says, "he emerges from that ambivalent domain of darkness which is the 'outside' of the tightly defined domestic system" (397). I liked how Eagleton used the word dark and outside because it mimics the arrival of Heathcliff in the novel.
I also thought it was interesting how Eagleton spoke of the relationship between Heathcliff and Hindley. "Just as Hindley withdraws culture from Heathcliff as a mode of domination, so Heathcliff acquires culture as a weapon" (399). This action, used to designate power, is used against Heathcliff. He overcomes that gap and uses it to his ultimate advantage in the end. It is mirrored through Heathcliff keeping Hareton unlearned. Hareton also overcomes this disadvantage and uses it to overturn Heathcliff in the end. I find it simply fascinating that a central idea in this novel is using knowledge, or learning, as power or a weapon.
However, I believe that Eagleton's main concept is a sense of struggle. There is a constant state of struggle waxing and waning in Wuthering Heights. Whether it's between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and the world of the Moors, or Heathcliff struggling with himself, there is always a constant and consistent state of battle in the novel. That is, until the end. "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth" (Bronte, 288).
From the very beginning of the essay, I get a feeling that Eagleton far prefers Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre. He begins his essay by stating, "Charlotte's fiction is 'mythical' in an exact ideological sense: it welds together antagonistic forces, forging from them a pragmatic, precarious coherence of interests. Wuthering Heights is mythical in a more traditional sense of the term: an apparently timeless, highly integrated, mysteriously autonomous symbolic universe" (Eagleton 395). After reading this, one can only assume that Eagleton's preference lies with Wuthering Heights. However, I do agree with him regarding Emily's work. She is able to capture a complete universe that seemingly functions on its own. (Unfortunately, I cannot compare it to the work of Charlotte because I have never read Jane Eyre.)
Another point I found interesting in the essay is when Eagleton is speaking of Heathcliff's appearance in the novel as well as the in the Earnshaw family. He says, "he emerges from that ambivalent domain of darkness which is the 'outside' of the tightly defined domestic system" (397). I liked how Eagleton used the word dark and outside because it mimics the arrival of Heathcliff in the novel.
I also thought it was interesting how Eagleton spoke of the relationship between Heathcliff and Hindley. "Just as Hindley withdraws culture from Heathcliff as a mode of domination, so Heathcliff acquires culture as a weapon" (399). This action, used to designate power, is used against Heathcliff. He overcomes that gap and uses it to his ultimate advantage in the end. It is mirrored through Heathcliff keeping Hareton unlearned. Hareton also overcomes this disadvantage and uses it to overturn Heathcliff in the end. I find it simply fascinating that a central idea in this novel is using knowledge, or learning, as power or a weapon.
However, I believe that Eagleton's main concept is a sense of struggle. There is a constant state of struggle waxing and waning in Wuthering Heights. Whether it's between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and the world of the Moors, or Heathcliff struggling with himself, there is always a constant and consistent state of battle in the novel. That is, until the end. "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth" (Bronte, 288).
Monday, February 7, 2011
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 1 - 10
I really enjoyed, as funny as it may sound, the introduction to Emily Bronte's novel, "Wuthering Heights." Kind of lame, I know but I am a nut for history/historical fiction/anything to do with life before my generation. I have found that reading the introduction prior to the actual story itself made a difference to me as a reader. I think that knowing that Bronte was from the moors that really made me appreciate how she spoke about the setting and how she created the characters to match what she grew up in.
I find it simply fascinating that these three sisters had to use non-gender determined names to get published and to have their work taken seriously. I have a hard time imagining a time like when women had to mask who they were when writing when there are so many popular, amazing female writers today. (Although I am fully aware that this was a very common practice until not too long ago, when you think about the time-line of the history of writing.)
I can honestly say that the complex narrative structure threw me for a loop. I feel that Bronte chose to use this structure to mimic the complexity of the beginning of the story. The vast majority of this section of the novel is spent explaining the complex relationships, histories, etc. of all of the characters, present and past, of the story. This was no mistake on Bronte's part to have this structure and story reflective of one another. However, after getting further into the book, I started liking the diary type entries. I think it gave it a more personal feel and made me feel more connected to the story, as a reader.
I can honestly say, that I am excited to read more of this story. :-)
I find it simply fascinating that these three sisters had to use non-gender determined names to get published and to have their work taken seriously. I have a hard time imagining a time like when women had to mask who they were when writing when there are so many popular, amazing female writers today. (Although I am fully aware that this was a very common practice until not too long ago, when you think about the time-line of the history of writing.)
I can honestly say that the complex narrative structure threw me for a loop. I feel that Bronte chose to use this structure to mimic the complexity of the beginning of the story. The vast majority of this section of the novel is spent explaining the complex relationships, histories, etc. of all of the characters, present and past, of the story. This was no mistake on Bronte's part to have this structure and story reflective of one another. However, after getting further into the book, I started liking the diary type entries. I think it gave it a more personal feel and made me feel more connected to the story, as a reader.
I can honestly say, that I am excited to read more of this story. :-)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Orwell "Politics and the English Language"
In George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language," I believe he brings up some important points. However, there are some things that he talks about that I do not agree with. First, I do not believe that our language is declining. I think that language changes and morphs to reflect the current society that is using it. For example, the word disrespect was not used a generation ago as a verb. Now, our generation uses this word as a verb all of the time. I would not say that it is a butchering of the word, the usage of it has simply changed over time. There are words that we use now that our children will use in a different way than we currently use it.
However, I do agree with Orwell's argument that the writing of our society today is declining. I feel that it is unacceptable that a student can graduate from high school and he is not able to write an error free paper. I do feel as though that today's youth (I'm afraid that I can not exclude myself from the group) rely so heavily on predetermined phrases they have heard before. Orwell says "if one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly." However, I think that one must think clearly in order to rid his writing of these habits. And so the argument commences, which comes first?
On a totally different note, I enjoyed the examples he outlined of common mistakes the modern writer suffers. I like finding these mistakes in people's writing myself. Honestly though, I think that it is a little much for a writer to follow all of his rules he outlined. As you can see, if you've read Orwell, I have already broken these rules. :-(
However, I do agree with Orwell's argument that the writing of our society today is declining. I feel that it is unacceptable that a student can graduate from high school and he is not able to write an error free paper. I do feel as though that today's youth (I'm afraid that I can not exclude myself from the group) rely so heavily on predetermined phrases they have heard before. Orwell says "if one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly." However, I think that one must think clearly in order to rid his writing of these habits. And so the argument commences, which comes first?
On a totally different note, I enjoyed the examples he outlined of common mistakes the modern writer suffers. I like finding these mistakes in people's writing myself. Honestly though, I think that it is a little much for a writer to follow all of his rules he outlined. As you can see, if you've read Orwell, I have already broken these rules. :-(
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