Mrs Dalloway owes me Advil

Sure i've gotten a headache for thinking to much, but having to listen to the thoughts of multiple characters will do the trick too. I dont mind the stream-of-consciousness technique, I've used it myself, but i limit it to one character. I dont really understand Mrs. Dalloway enough to appreciate it yet. Its a challenge. I have to put the pieces together myself...and its no mystery puzzle....its just a "ok whats going on" puzzle. The different perspectives of the story are interesting, but it is so hard to keep up with. I think the perspectives mimics reality; we all probably think just like that....incomplete thoughts but we know what we're talking about.

The Dead

That was the first of anything ive ever read by James Joyce and honestly it was hard to get to the end. I was incredibly bored until the last 1/3 of it. I had no idea where it was going, and maybe that was the point. Everything seemed so ordinary as it was for Gabriel. And then at the end I'm hit with Gabriels sudden anticipation and passion for his wife. Im not completely sure how Gabriel changed by the end of the story, but atleast i think his character changed in that we see a new side of him because we couldnt have really expected it the way the story was going. I'd probably have to read it through a couple more times to get any real appreciation for it, or basically just to understand it more.

Taking chances

Before I read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", I had been thinking about taking chances myself. I dont really take enough....atleast the everyday kind of opportunities...that...who knows?...could have turned out far greater than that. I have finally figured out what i want to do with my life...and i have been trying to figure out a way to go about getting there. In my position it would be stepping outside my comfort zone, and the norm around here. Its not a career that i am personally familiar with, because no one around me has ever taken that career path. I am having to go about it all on my own, and its kind of scary. People tell me I am one thing, and then when they hear me say what i really want to do, they question me like they've never done before. "You should be an artist though, you're good at that", "You should be a geologist like me. Starting pay for someone like you would be very high,"...and not just questions like that...but i've never been grilled so much as if my family doesnt believe i will stick with this decision...as if its just another career choice phase.

I'm glad i read this poem. It put my choices into perspective for me. I love life...i believe the speaker of the poem did too and longed to do much more with it...i think he saw more potential in it than doing the same thing every day, and following the norm...I need to do more with life. It is too routine for me right now. Lately i do notice the things i do every single day that make it seem like im not really progressing towards anything...if i were like this the rest of my life...it would be sad to suddenly realize how old i am like the speaker did.

Yeats, and alittle old business

Even though I probably suffered through Great Expectations in highschool, I've made my peace with it officially. It really is rich in language, and I thought it was really humorous the way it was written. I dont think it was blatently funny, but the "matter o factly" tone in which Pip's observations were made, made it funny for me. i dont know if anyone else feels the same.

The world needs plenty of Joes.

Well, moving on from that book now, I think I have enjoyed Yeats more than the other authors we've covered, even though I dont really know what I think about "Sailing to Byzantium." Its one of those i read over and over again, not to read between the lines or what not, but just to comprehend what I just read. I still liked it though. For me, Yeats is just one of those authors that can just imprint some kind of feeling in me in anything he writes. i might not know the feeling. I might not know what i just read. But I like the feeling that lingers.

Hm...to tap into alittle old business. . .Frankenstein. A friend of mine came up from Tulsa this weekend with her new boyfriend, and he was inquiring a bit about my major. i got on the subject of Frankenstein and my disappointment. Ok first i have never seen any Frankenstein movie but Young Frankenstein and bits and pieces of the one from the 90's (i think). BUT what thing that prevails every time is the creation scene. . .big dusty lab, lightening, Igor, giant switches and such...big moment in the original movie I'm sure. . .anyway that really didnt exist in the book at all and i was incredibly disappointed. I felt the book went from explaining the Docs anticipation, his experiment is on the table, the monster moves, and the doc is outta there. Microscopic suspense. Hollywood just had to do alittle fill in, and it turned into the most infamous part of the story did it not?

I wrote my friend an email to show her what i meant. She thought it was hilarious, so I just feel like blogging it too. Yes its stupid. . .but i still think its funny. Just keep in mind I hadn't finished the book yet.

"It was on a dreary night of November that i beheld the accomplishment of my toils. with an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, i collected the instruments of life around me, that i might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. it was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, i saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

Then I ran away like a wuss, cuz 'it breathed hard' and convulsed, and I'm too mentally unstable to own up to my dumbass mistakes right now. How did i not FORESEEEEEE that i really didnt want to father something that had DIED not too long ago, and that was intentionally made to be 8 ft large everything. It was scary. I ran away. My career is ruined. The end."

Great Expectations

When I read this in highschool, i didnt really care for it...ok well in highschool the only thing i cared about were my day dreams. I've tried hard to suppress them since but its. . .well, hard. This time around, i've noticed more i didnt before, because I have a new perspective on literature as a writer myself. I don't think that i could ever be that detailed in a novel. Honestly i dont really want to write a novel nearly 500pgs long. But i really enjoy Dicken's (as Pip) commentary on all walks of life. I've actually found plenty of it humorous, and that was unexpected.

I've realized how much i hate people who are so arrogant they're blind. I feel sorry for Pip and I'm not too bothered by the fact that he thinks he should rise up through the classes. . .god knows he didnt get any respect before he had money. So sad though he was so determined for getting what he wanted he was naive. And poor Joe. . .unhappy marraige, and his best friend (Pip) walks out of his life. He's the most selfless and content character, but if there is one character i pity as much is Estella. I believe she'd have to start her whole life over to figure out who she really is. Who would she have become if she wasnt part of Havisham's dark and pathetic plan?

Ah, romance

Ive never defined romance before today, nor have i needed to. when i think something is romantic it is just that. When i read Elizabeth Browing's "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . ." I had to really think about what traditional expressions of romance really is. Saying "i love you" everyday, or often, becomes casual, and even so I could say "Aw he is just romantic like that." But its really not...there is no fire when he would say that daily, and there is no fire when i would think he's being romantic...casual phrase...casual response...a smile is wonderful to have everyday, and love is even more wonderful to feel everyday...but anything "every day" lacks a fiery passion, and thats why romance isnt thought of as an "every day" item. its special and it shouldnt be thought of as a everyday thing...and if it happend every day...it wouldnt be romantic after a while would it? So i have defined the expression of romantic love to contain sexual love, exitement, glamour, and expectations...

That poem above was endearing but didnt in anyway satisfy that romantic need. Its lovely, its desired, and even if it is passionate and desired it doesnt have to be expressed with exitement, expectations...sexual love. It can be written by a romantic, but there is a clear difference between the endearing side of love and a romantic side. If you want to call something romantic, hopefully it had made ur blood pressure level rise. I think that poem was more soothing than anything...if your spouse tells you anything like that, i could imagine your two hearts should beat as one, and not as if you just ran a marathon.

I think the most ideal love is endearing love, because its more likely to exist every day of your life.

Frankenstein

Im glad im finally going to know the real story of Frankenstein...all that talk we've been having of what Frankentstein is to pop culture is making me all the more curious because im consciously aware now how silly Frankentstein really is to Halloween, movies, etc. If the book had been recently written, i dont think it would have been any bit controversial. Fiction today has taken hundreds and hundreds of directions. I'd certainly like to rave over fiction again, instead of hearing constantly about biographies, memoirs, political novels, anything from Oprah's book club...i need some good old fashion classic literature. Honestly the only places i hear about the classics are in my english classes. I just dont see them around anywhere else...sometimes in movies...but so many are so altered its disappointing...like Dracula. Not one movie has done the book justice. "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is not Bram Stoker's Dracula. Major plot alteration. Today we're making these classic horror stories so cheesy. I'd like to see them represented in their true form. I cant help but think Boris Karloff when i think Frankenstein. I dont consider the question of reanimation of life, I dont consider the different perceptions of what is beauty, I dont consider the definition of a real monster. I just think halloween, costumes, green face and neckbolts...and black and white movie...this isnt Frankenstein...not the real one.