I have to say thank you to you Dr. Sexson because sometimes as a senior I walk into lower division classes thinking that there is nothing new that I can learn. Whoops, I got set right and I wish I had taken this class earlier because now I am looking back on the things I have read and find that everything I have ever learned connects to this class. I don't need to say it because I've beat it to death, oh what the hell, all that is the past possesses the present. I didn't put phrase in quotation that time though, because I've made it mine. I've made my own connections now and the phrase is mine, not all mine, but mine. Everyone who has taken this class is truly blessed.... and cursed, it makes sense. Now everything I read I'm going to have to listen to Dr. Sexson saying, "now do you see the connection?" And therefore Dr. Sexson will live on forever, in the eternities, and now I will always be reading the eternities. Thank You Sir for a wonderful and entertaining semester.
P.S. Sorry I didn't post any pictures my computer is still acting funky.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Shoni's Blog
Reading through peoples blogs I came across Shoni's blog about death and the beauty of death. As I scrolled down the page I found her talking about her favorite childrens story that her mom used to read to her when she was young. Her blog about the sidewalk combined with talking about the books her mother read her as a child made a poetry book, my mom read me, stick out. Shel Silverstien's Where the Sidewalk Ends came instantly to mind. So I started thinking about how the poems link to class and I realized that the poems in Where the Sidewalk Ends are very mythological. A boy who falls in love with a tree!!!! If that doesn't scream English 213, nothing does.
I Can't Stop Now!
Okay so I might be beating the whole "past possesses the present"idea to death but I can't stop now and anybody who knows me knows that my life is consumed by baseball; you name it, if it has to do with baseball I will study it. So I thought I would connect a little of baseball's past with the present for some of you, watch out you might learn something. First, the is something that was originally done that has been repeated, in 1908 the Cubs won a World Series and they haven't done it since, ha! Cubs fans. Of coarse there are similar stories so it's not completely original, I just like to take a crack at Cubs' fans every chance I get. Was it "the curse of the billy goat" or is that the Cubs are just choke artists? Every year I hear it and every year I laugh, "this is our year" really well last year the Cubs were sporting the best record in all of Major League Baseball, better than the record they acheived in 1997. The Cubs then proceided to fall to the Los Angles Dodgers, an under acheiving team that squeeked out of one of the worst division in Major League Baseball. Ouch! Cry me a river, and this year as usual the St. Louis Cardinal have grabbed the reigns of the Central Division. Wait another 100 years Cubs fans, oh and don't forget to have a "scapegoat" like Steve Bartman when you fall flat on your face again. If none of you get these references I'm tossing out there please look them up so you can laugh along side of me. Thank You, and go Cards.
I Sing My Group Eternal
Hey dudes and dudettes I just thought that while I'm sitting here blogging my face off I would take the opportunity to thank my whole group for their efforts in bringing our project together. Everybody came over to Zach's pad and everyone was very punctual(high five). Why did everything go off without a hitch you ask? Due to the awesomeness of everybody in the group, and when I say everybody I'm not talking about myself, everybody probably got sick of me asking for favors or grab me this or grab me that. Or my usual holywoodesque temper tantrum. That never happened, just for the record. But back to why things went so smoothly, things went well because everyone worked hard and we all got along beautifully. And so there is nothing left to say but, THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH.
What in the Hell am I Thinking?
So I'm writing my capstone paper and I'm kinda cruising through my Neruda poems that I have selected, and suddenly a song comes to my mind and I can't get it out. I try and I try but I just can't shake it. Here it is the past and the past fighting in my mind in the present. Sound stupid? Well it is, but I can't get this fight to stop and so as I wrap up my conclusion of the Canto General I decide I must put part of this song in my paper so that my brain doesn't explode(what's left of it). The song is called Last Resort and it is performed by the Eagles. Some of you may not know who the eagles are and that's okay, wait no it's not listen to the Hotel California album, anyway here's a piece of the song I couldn't get out of my head and if you've ever read the Canto General you'll probably see the connection. If you haven't read the piece of literature or heard the music, well something is wrong with you! In short go read it or listen to it.
…They even brought a neon sign, Jesus is coming. Brought the white man’s burden down, brought the white man's rage. Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine. There is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here, we satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds in the name of destiny and in the name of God. And you can see them there on Sunday morning they stand up and sing about, what it’s like up there. They call it paradise, I don’t know why, you call some place paradise kiss it goodbye.
…They even brought a neon sign, Jesus is coming. Brought the white man’s burden down, brought the white man's rage. Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine. There is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here, we satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds in the name of destiny and in the name of God. And you can see them there on Sunday morning they stand up and sing about, what it’s like up there. They call it paradise, I don’t know why, you call some place paradise kiss it goodbye.
More Connections
As I did research for my Scandinavian research project I found another poem, by Eeva-Liisa Manner that relates to class straight up, her is the poem:
Kassandra I
Are you angry because you don’t understand me?
I insult you, because you don’t understand me?
Divinely inspired is my prophetic madness,
I’m filled with it,
but I control myself and speak plainly.
Towers that you built to woo the gods
have fallen down.
Who’re you wooing now? Helen’s no longer handsome.
To own female beauty, you dreamt a form for marble,
you gave stone an opaque complexion, a virgin breast,
but the eyes for ever empty repulsed you.
Whatever you achieved, you gained only emptiness.
And now, Orpheus too is dead, thrown to animals,
head for monkeys, sex for dogs to share,
and Greek’s only fit for birds,
the beasts appear,
Knowing sensing
from damp warm woods
for which he gave peace, with the music of his mind,
beasts that have broken loose from the lyre’s reins
sneak like spirits into chambers,
cry for glowing dreams on perfumed beds, in milk baths,
in the atrium, by the fountain or the book, by cool and
lovely style
claiming an empire. Aren’t you afraid?
And so if you recall the first of her poems that I posted you will she that Manner truly does believe, much like we do now, that "the past possesses the present."
Kassandra I
Are you angry because you don’t understand me?
I insult you, because you don’t understand me?
Divinely inspired is my prophetic madness,
I’m filled with it,
but I control myself and speak plainly.
Towers that you built to woo the gods
have fallen down.
Who’re you wooing now? Helen’s no longer handsome.
To own female beauty, you dreamt a form for marble,
you gave stone an opaque complexion, a virgin breast,
but the eyes for ever empty repulsed you.
Whatever you achieved, you gained only emptiness.
And now, Orpheus too is dead, thrown to animals,
head for monkeys, sex for dogs to share,
and Greek’s only fit for birds,
the beasts appear,
Knowing sensing
from damp warm woods
for which he gave peace, with the music of his mind,
beasts that have broken loose from the lyre’s reins
sneak like spirits into chambers,
cry for glowing dreams on perfumed beds, in milk baths,
in the atrium, by the fountain or the book, by cool and
lovely style
claiming an empire. Aren’t you afraid?
And so if you recall the first of her poems that I posted you will she that Manner truly does believe, much like we do now, that "the past possesses the present."
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Emily's a Honey
As it is the end of the semester I have three books that need to be read by tomorrow, of course they do why wouldn't I have to have things like that done with just one week left in school. So I'm reading some of Emily Dickinson's poetry as well as her letters, I hope you're ready for this quote and I know I'm not going to have to explain this connection: "God is sitting here, looking into my very soul to see if I think right tho'ts. Yet I am not afraid, for I try to be right and good, andhe knows every one of my struggles. He looks very gloriously, and everything bright seems dull beside him, and I don't dare to look directly at him for fear I shall die" (Emily Dickinson, Heath Anthology of American Literature 3164).
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