Box 3, Spooollllll 5. Talking To myself

I was hoping my blog would end up being a blog which analyses, Krapps Last Tape, but after watching the piece all I could do was form opinions and thoughts. The man kept his opinions and thoughts recorded throughout his life. This old man listening (to what I assume) to his younger self creates those emotions to rebuild inside him, he is once again living those memories. Much like I mentioned about memories for the Father from The Road, the character does not relive those memories physically, but instead mentally. Those emotions he had when he met various women are still seen on his wrinkle lines, and he cries for his past. He cries about his past stupidity’s, but even finds himself agreeing with things he used to say.

Although he now has wrinkles, and his hair has gone white, it appears that he still does much of the same things he used to do when he was younger. At the start of the piece, we see him eating bananas, he has trouble eating those bananas. The recording talks about eating four bananas every day, and that he just so happened to have trouble, like his older self, eating some of the bananas. His younger self calls his even younger self foolish, and that he doesn't know what he is talking about. His now older self records his "last tape" and he almost says the exact thing, "Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was ever as bad as that. Thank God that's all done with anyway." Like his younger self he is still mesmerized by one specific woman’s eyes.

Younger self: “I asked her to look at me and after a few moments--(pause)--after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare. I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened."

Older self: "The eyes she had!"

His life is a constant reflection on his past and his past is constantly reflecting on both his past and his future. The old man talks about what he was like when he was young, and the young man talks about what he will be like when he is old, "Old Miss McGlome always sings at this hour. But not tonight. Songs of her girlhood, she says. Hard to think of her as a girl. Wonderful woman, though. Connaught, I fancy. (Pause.) Shall I sing when I am her age, if I ever am? No. (Pause.) Did I sing as a boy? No. (Pause.) Did I ever sing? No."

In reality, he is just talking to himself. Whether it be a future self or a past self, he is just analyzing his life and trying the comprehend different events. He still cries about the death of his mother, and still laughs at his old jokes, he even laughs in the same manner.

At the very end of the tape, he gives us a final reflection about his life ,"Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back." Now I have one question, does this mean he was satisfied with is life?

Box 3, Spool 5.

To Dream, Or Not To Dream?

Watching the Introduction to Hamlet, by Kenneth Branagh, was like my emotions taking a time machine back to the emotions I held each time I watched a trailer for a new Disney movie when I was smaller. I have never watched or really known the story of Hamlet, just like I never really knew who Mulan was untill I watched the Disney version(although most films tend to be only semi accurate).

The Introduction produced an excitement that most happy, up beat Disney Trailers created for me. It was colorful, there was adventure, there were great lines shot out at us, and there was romance.

It was especially Kenneths overall excitement of the play which has now interested me in Hamlet. He said he has been intrigued by this peice of work ever since he was 11, and has portrayed the character Hamlet himself, several times. It appears that Hamlet is a character who can be discovered time and time again.

What do I expect from Hamlet? Well, hopefull a new wonderful experience on the learning curve of Highschool. Hopefully this will be a more positive play. So far I have only read three of Shakesperes plays, and they all depressed me: Macbeth, Othello, and Romeo and Julliet. Supposedly, Hamlet is one of the most challenging and most exciting characters for a male actor to portray. That makes me wonder, what is the most exciting female part to portray?


And now for a little entertainment:




Rehersing our own version of Hamlet in class? Oh dear, I better start studying!

Barren, Silent, godless

Although the topic, about God, is not mentioned as often in the book The Road, like the relationship bettween the father and the son, or survival. It is still an interesting topic to look at, for how little it appears.

A reason why the appearance of God in the book is relevant is because the whole entire book is about the end of the world. Not quite the apocalypse described in the Bible, but all the same, pretty darn harsh. We have the classic confusion and the asking of God what is happening in ones life,"Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God." It is human nature to ask why something is happening to us, but perhaps God isn't even taking part in the end of the world. He is no where to be found for the Father, his world is."Barren, silent, godless." The father is demanding, and he is silently in search for what god wants for him and his son, "He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke." This might also show that the father is uncertain if God actually excists. Never the less, he always mutters "God" when he is uncertain or frightened. He also calls to God when something miraculous happens to him, for example, when he finds the house with all the food he calls out , "Oh my God", in complete amazement.

God is not the only powerful being which is described, like in a previous stated, gods are also present in this world. But they are powerless, they no longer have a world which shows thier marvelous powers, "Tattered gods slouching in their rags across the waste" instead, they are now viewed as weak, and they can do nothing to change the worlds state but suffer in thier own creation, which is now falling apart.

Cormac McCarthy did not make the imprtance of God, or the gods, very grand in his book The Road, but God was still very much present in the lives of the Father and the son. Although the son may not know it, he does an action which has been done by many people before him: Pray.

"Dear people, thank you for all this food and stuff. We know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we wouldnt eat it no matter how hungry we were and we're sorry that you didnt get to eat it and we hope that you're safe in heaven with God."

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."- Revelations 22:13

What if Fitzgerald Wrote The Road?

Original Line By McCarthy: "The mumied dead everywhere. The flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taut as wired."

Fitgeralizied: "The twig like figures sparsed out across the land like lifeless yellow leaves at the end of fall. Thier corpses the only remaining memory of thier long gone history and their forgotten dreams. Their frozen identities still screaming with the decayed faces of their bodies."

by Rachel, Daniella, and Annamaria

Is it The Real World? Or Is It The Eyes Of memory?

I have only read up to page 150, but only from that portion of the book, I can clearly see all the main memories that affect why the father does certain things. His memories are much like the ones we see in a superhero comic book, or tv show. The Flashback into the past, and they remember every detail, which than affects whatever they do next,plus the people surrounding them. This is what happens to the father in "The Road", and he may not realise it, but it also affects his son.


His memories are sparked by familiar objects, or by a dream. The first one we encounter is with a phone, an object which was used in the world he use to know, "Then he picked up the phone and dialed the number of his father's house in that long ago." It was almost natural for him to want to call his father, it was a memory which was vivid, and being replayed physically. Both in his mind and in his body, he was back in time, calling his father, until his son brought him back to reality, "what are you doing?"

We find him remembering the things he had, his past, "He pushed open the closet door half expecting to find his childhood things" he is still living in the past, even though he is needed at present. Different objects spark different memories, "Some money, credit cards. His driver's license. A picture of his wife." He holds on to them like a treasure of gold, because they are objects that hold what he once knew.

Although a lot of his memories deal with a distant past, it also deals with a more recent past. The one about his long gone wife, "In his dreams his pale bride came to him out of a green and leafy canopy. Her nipples pipecalyed and her rib bones painted white. She wore a dress of gauze and her dark hair was carried up in combs of ivory, combs of shell". It is only in memories that the writer, Cormac McCarthy, truly allows himself to be descriptive. He drops all the senses, the colors, the thoughts on the Father, and its where we can truly compare the world of before to the world he is in now. The memory of his wife, is one of the most important and repeated memories, "What is it? she said. What is happening? I don’t know." He even holds on to her every word. It’s her memory which kills him, but also keeps him alive since his son is part of her, "He coughed till he could taste the blood and said her name aloud." He disagrees with what his last moments of her tell him about life " Death is not a lover. Oh yes it is. Please don't do this." and its might be what keeps him alive. The promise to never do what she did, even though he keeps this promise to himself, he sometimes falls into her arguments and starts to believe her, "you will not face the truth. You will not."

The past is always with the father, but he is also forgetting it, "The color of it moved something in him long forgotten. Make a list. Recite a litany. Remember." This show that the life he knew is getting farther and farther away, and perhaps less important. He even begins to realize that the world, which is now gone, is also being destroyed in his mind, "The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already?"

Okay. I know.

The Road. Blogger: read up to page 150. *note, blog contains original text along with added phrases* No other way to describe thier feelings for one another, but through specific pharses, and then some.

Child: Father, you reached out and touched my hand one night. Why?

Father: Wanted to make sure you were safe. *No, I had a nightmare of a horrid creature, and was hoping you were not dead. I had to know you still excisted outside the dream world*

Child: Okay.

Child: I am alright. I am still here. *No need to look at me. I am alright, even though I want to stop, cry, and die*

Father: *Son, I hope you are alright. No need for you to see this terrible world I see through these binoculors, maybe your mom was right, she was always right*

Child: Can I See?

Father: * No! You should not be seeing these things, your only a child! Children are easily traumatized! There is no hope in this view!* Yes. Offcourse... What do you see?

Child: Nothing.

Father: (sighs) Yes, I know. *There is nothing, but a hope for no hope*

Child: Can I ask a question? * This time PLEASE answer it truthfully dad.*

Father: Yes Offcourse.

Child: Are we going to die?

Father: *Ouch* I would have died if the boy didn't excist, he is all I have* He won't die,I can't let it happen* Sometime. Not Now.

Child: Okay *His voice quivered. Maybe dad doesn't know.*

Father: Okay What? *Son, don't losse hope. I might, but your the one item containing my hope*

Child: Nothing.* We are going to die! At least dad is confortimg* Just Okay.

Child: What would you do if I died?

Father: If you died I would want to die too. *For that would mean all hope would be lost in my life. If all hope is gone, than my life is meaningless*

Child: So you could be with me?

Father: Yes. So I could be with you. * God, I have to be with him*

Child: Okay.

Father: Here, Its a treat. For you.

Son: What is it, Papa?

Father: Go ahead, taste it. **you will never taste the world of before, but this is the closest I can get for you.**

Son: Its Bubbly.

Father: Yes, I know. * I know of a world you will never know of*

Son: You have some. * We must share memories that I do not know of*

Father: You drink it, I want you to have it.

Son: Its because I won't be able to drink one ever, isn't it?

Father: Ever is a long time. * darn, he read my mind*

Son: Okay.

Father: *He Whispered to the sleeping boy* I have you *showing he does not hold on to anything else. There is no later, this is later.*

Father: You mean you wish to be dead?

Son: Yes.

Father: Don't say that, its wrong to say that.

Son: How do I stop?

Father: I don't know. * I am in the same position. I can do nothing. I am worthless. Hopefully you have something to hold on, like I am holding on to you.

The Road By Cormac McCarthy: Review Based On First Reaction

! WOAH!

A Snow Flakes Story

The story begins when I was brand new,

My heart is cold, but the story is true.

Falling, falling, on a cold winter day

"Father, Father! Snow!," the boy did say.

He gave me a name, just like a mother.

"I know, go to sleep," said his dear father.

"Father?"the boy said, "are we going to die?"

A fire burned, and I began to fry.

The father turned and on me he stepped,

"Sometime, not now" he half sadly said.

The fires, red, soon turned to a gray hush,

the boys enlarged wonder still, did it crush,

and in the darkness words formed as he lay,

"What would you do, if I passed away?"

"If you died, I would want to die too."

And with that speech, we will have to make do.

In the dark I could sense the man was down,

his soul, slowly, beginning to drown.

Diving into his thoughts, all alone,

his mind thought, "if only my heart were stone."

For in the cold and the silence he prayed

Dear God, Oh God, why do you always fade?

Danm you eternally, have you a soul?

Oh God, he whispered why this danm hole?

You think you got all the Gold? Nah, Read It Again. You Left Half The Treasure Behind

Read a Blog, Analyze Blog, Blog about Blog.
The Great Gatsby Revisited!

1st read through: The writer, Sonya Chung writes an interesting blog on her experiences of re reading pieces of work like "The Great Gatsby." She lets readers know what she found most interesting, and how she learned something new each time she read the book. She analyzes certain facts about the book and lets us know why she thinks they are important.

2nd read through (but first, dinner, a nice break to refresh the mind)...

Reading the blog for a second time I was able to read it slower and appreciate more what the writer was saying. This is probably a reason why she admires people who reread books "over and over again" and finds it to be very important to teach to the common high school student like me, "there knowing something, and then there's knowing something."

She also analysis how rereading a book lets the reader understand it more and get more out of it. She herself experienced this transformation when she read "the Great Gatsby" at three different moments in her life: high school, college, and now as a teacher. She describes the book as a "literary treasure", which I suppose could be said about any great book, if we just get to know it.

From all the possible things she has discovered while rereading "The Great Gatsby", she has only given us four which amazed her, and analysis them. She tells us that the story is not just about the elite and wealthy but instead is about us (would have never interpreted it in that way, but then again, I have only read it once). She escapes from the story and tells us about the indescribable beauty of the flowing sentences Fitzgerald has created. Going back to the story she tells us about what haunted her and what excited her, and how the movie completely ruined parts of the book.

All in all, this is just a blog with another opinion on it, off course it has a valuable lesson: To understand, the story at hand: read read again! By doing this we learn to think for ourselves, and provide ourselves our own opinions without confusing it with other peoples opinions and not letting ourselves be amazed by the mysteries of the book in our hand... although I will still turn to those summary websites, just to make sure I understood what I missed, because I did not reread.

My Soul Shall Be Lifted- Nevermore

( PS: I DID NOT LOOK AT THE COMIC RELIEF LINK BEFORE TYPING THIS BLOG. THE VIDEO I POSTED IS A SIMPLE COINCIDENCE)


The Poem, "The Raven", by Edgar Allan is a poem of darkness and whispers of death, which may take the modern reader several read through and analysis to understand. The poem deals with several characters: the narrator, Lenore, and the raven. From the poem we can assume different things about each character.


Lenore: By reading the text, we can assume that she is the narrator’s lover. She is "lost" and is dead, which is perhaps why the author write, "For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
The rest of the poem deals with the narrator and how frightened he is about what is happening around him, “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor", this sets the mood for what is happening. He is afraid of the mysterious tapping and noises.
The poem reflects how most people would react to a frightening situation. We are frightened, and they we try to convince ourselves that it is not scary one bit, for example while watching horror movies, "So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;— This it is and nothing more.” At this point we can predict what will happen: what the narrator dreaded most will occur and it will be his end. The narrator continues to push away how scared he is:
"Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”
It is at this point where he hear a version of the repeated words, "I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there and nothing more. "
When the raven first appears, the narrator just views it as a normal bird and attempts to get rid of it. But it only mutters "nevermore". What does the raven mean by this? Perhaps the raven is a symbol and signifies death. Could the narrator be dying? Was death knocking than flying through the door? Perhaps it comes to remind him of the death of lenore and that he will never see her again "nevermore". The raven is a symbol for the end of his life, it can be physically or emotionally, "nevermore". The raven sits at the top of his chamber door and is described as "demon eyed", a creature that never stops staring.
The "perfume" the narrator smells is another sign for death. The perfume is actually incense, which is used when people die. The raven sits at the top of his chamber, and since the man cannot leave his chamber anymore (nevermore) it is as if he is sealed inside a tomb. He is dead, and he and his soul will live "nevermore."

"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted - nevermore."

(My favorite reading)

Tale As Old As Time

“Wommen desiren to have sovereyntee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie hym above.”

The Wife of Baths story asks us and then gives us the answer of what women want most. To be able to understand what point she is trying to make with her story, we first have to understand who the wife of Bath is.

Who is the Wife of Bath, we ask? She is a woman who is probably close to the age of 50. A fifty year old woman, who tells tales about her past husbands. She had three rich husbands and 2 bad husbands, but she especially loved her last husband, who was younger than her. She tells us why women marry and why men marry, and she questions the many marriages in the bible. Then she tells us a love story of her own. The knight (yes another knight) and his quest to find what women really want.

In truth, her story resembles the story "Beauty and the Beast", in terms of learning to love another for who they are inside, instead of the outside. Her story tells us about a Knight who commits a terrible crime and is told by the queen that the only way to save his life is if he finds out what a woman wants (the beast commits a crime of judgment, and must learn to love another or have his life ruined forever). The knight finds an old woman who promises to help him (the beast meets Belle, who helps him). He then must keep a promise to the old woman in exchange for his life (Belle has to remain with the beast forever in exchange for her father). He has his life but then he must learn to love the old woman, since they marry (Belle and the beast must learn to love people for who they are.)

The knight learns that women desire to be in charge of their husbands or lovers, but he learns so much more than this, in the following scene.

"Choose now," she said, "one of these two things:
To have me ugly and old until I die,
And be to you a true, humble wife,
And never displease you in all my life,
Or else you will have me young and fair,
And take your chances of the crowd
That shall be at your house because of me,
Or in some other place, as it may well be.
Now choose yourself, whichever you please."
At this point the Knight is being tested to see if he learned from his year long experience. He has the choice between young and foolish, or old and true, sweet wife. It is a choice he has to make, or so the reader thinks at first glance.

This knight deliberates and painfully sighs,
But at the last he said in this manner:
"My lady and my love, and wife so dear,
I put me in your wise governance;
Choose yourself which may be most pleasure
And most honor to you and me also.
I do not care which of the two,
For as it pleases you, is enough for me."

"Then have I gotten mastery of you," she said,
"Since I may choose and govern as I please?"


"Yes, certainly, wife," he said, "I consider it best."
He has learned his lesson, and allows his wife to choose! This shows that the wife of bath believes that bad men can become good if they are directed in the correct direction.

"Kiss me," she said, "we are no longer angry,
For, by my troth, I will be to you both --
This is to say, yes, both fair and good.
I pray to God that I may die insane
Unless I to you be as good and true
As ever was wife, since the world was new.
And unless I am tomorrow morning as fair to be seen
As any lady, empress, or queen,
That is between the east and also the west,
Do with my life and death right as you please.
Cast up the curtain, look how it is."

And when the knight saw truly all this,
That she so was beautiful, and so young moreover,
For joy he clasped her in his two arms. .
His heart bathed in a bath of bliss.
A thousand time in a row he did her kiss,
And she obeyed him in every thing
That might do him pleasure or enjoyment.

The old lady becoming beautiful and true to her husband shows that there is a reward for all good that we do. It also shows that the wife of bath believes that women should have a choice (just like in beauty and the beast, Belle has a choice in who she will give her heart to)
"What makes a beast, and what makes a man?"- The Hunchback of Notredam

A Story Teller Telling A Tale Of A Story Teller Telling a Tale of a Tale

The Millers Tale

In the Millers Tale, we are first introduced to the miller in the prologue. We have not met any narrators in the previous story of "The Knights Tale." In this tale, the Miller is our narrator, or so we are told by the narrator. We have a narrator (Geofrey Chaucer) introducing the previous narrator (the host), and then tries to introduce the Monk as the next narrator, but is then interrupted by the drunk Miller. The Miller becomes our new narrator and begins to tell us a tale about a carpenter and his wife.

3137 But first I make a protestacioun
But first I make a protestation
3138 That I am dronke; I knowe it by my soun.
That I am drunk; I know it by my sound.
3139 And therfore if that I mysspeke or seye,
And therefore if that I misspeak or say (amiss),
3140 Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I you preye.
Blame it on ale of Southwerk, I you pray.
3141 For I wol telle a legende and a lyf
For I will tell a legend and a life
3142 Bothe of a carpenter and of his wyf,
Both of a carpenter and of his wife,
3143 How that a clerk hath set the wrightes cappe."
How a clerk has set the carpenter's cap (fooled him)."

We supposedly have one narrator, the Miller, throughout the whole story. But Chaucer continuously interrupts Miller adding in his own comments. He basically says sorry to the reader for such a terrible tale, because it does not compare to the greatness of "The Knights Tale".

We can attempt to compare "The Knights Tale" and "the Millers Tale", but there is not that much to compare. There is no godly intervention in "The Millers Tale." There are two men that are fighting for the love of the woman, and there is a competition in both. But either than those two things, they are not identical in the slightest way. The Millers Tale is just a crazy romance, and "The Knights Tale" is a fight of Love VS Victory. "The Knights Tale" is more romantic than "the Miller" which is brusquer.

Chaucer presents the story of the carpenter and his young wife, as a second best story to the story of Arcite and Palamoun. Nick and Absoloun are fools just like Arcite and Palamoun, but are chasing after an already married woman. This story is not a proper one, instead it parody’s the one told by the host.


Vocabulary in the Millers Tale:
Talisman:


Primrose:



Paternoster:

All Is Fair In Love And War

The Knights Tale Part 3 and 4.

Here we see three different parts of humanity: love, war, and sex. Palamoun prays to Venus so that he may live his life with Emeyle, Arcite prays to Mars for victory, and Emeyle prays to Diane for her virginity. Emeyle ends up asking for the man who loves her most will end up marrying her.

This part of the tale is the passion of love versus the want for victory, and both appear at the end. In a way the gods appear imperfect. They twist the prayers around so that they can please both sides. The temples, of Mars and Venus, also show that imperfection. The temple of Venus is supposed to represent all the perfections of love, but instead it shows all the pain, jealousy and lust that is found in the twisted confused ways of lovers. We also see a twisted idea in the temple built for Mars. When we think of war, at least in history, we usually think of the glories of battle, and all the brave heroes. But instead we are presented with traitors, wimps, and hypocrites. We are shown that the imperfect world reflects its masters; the gods.

But the gods do grant one person's desire (in its own twisted way), although Emeyle is not permitted to remain single for the rest of her life, they grant her last request: to have the man who loves her most passionately, have her. In reality, the gods complete the tasks requested by each person. Palamoun acquires Emeyle as his wife, Arcite receives "victorie" and Emeyle has the man who loves her most.

All is fair in love and war (especially with the added gods).