Wednesday, February 27, 2008
QuarterLife
Hi everyone! I just heard about this new show called QuarterLife. NBC just picked it up, but it was originally an internet series. The episodes are like 10-15 minutes long, but it's pretty good. It's about a girl who blogs (like that LonelyGirl chick on YouTube) and gets into the nitty gritty of her friends lives. You guys should check it out. It's the first internet series to be picked up by a major broadcast network.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Death or Evolution?
Hello everyone! Well I'm not so stressed anymore, but I still have a ton of reading to do. I'm posting one of my class blogs because I thought that you guys might think it was interesting. For years there has been the debate that the novel is dying. This article that I had to read is about the anxiety of obsolescence in terms of our beloved paper novel. I disagree completely, but you'll see that in the following class post.
Death or evolution?
Blog #9: Initial ideas on Three Discourses on the Age of Television
It’s evolution, evolution I say! I think that Barth says it perfectly in Fitzpatrick’s excerpt: “I’m inclined to agree, with reservations and hedges. Literal forms certainly have histories and historical contingencies, and it may well be that the novel’s time as a major art form is up, as the “times” of classical tragedy, grand opera, or the sonnet sequence came to be. No necessary cause for alarm in this at all, except perhaps to certain novelists, and one way to hand such a feeling might be to write a novel about it” (Fitzpatrick 23). After I read this I felt pretty good about my analysis on the claims about the death of the novel. I had written something similar, though not as eloquently, in the margins of my copy on page 20 when I first noticed the word “blame”. I wrote: “Why does there have to be blame? What if this is the ‘natural’ evolution of the novel? Like Global Warming could be natural… there is no way to disprove it.” Hah ha! That was me! Pretty smart huh? Anyway, let me explain my Global Warming analogy. Even though I’m just as prone to pinning horrible weather on Global Warming as the next person, I’m not so sure that Global Warming really exists. This is simply because there is no real PROOF that the emissions that this day and age emits to the atmosphere has the ultimate effect on the world. Since this has never happened before there is no way for scientists to prove or disprove that Global Warming really does exist. Yes, there are some ice caps that are rapidly melting, but then again there are other places where the ice is thicker than ever. How are we to know if this is just the way that the earth’s evolution is supposed to take place?
Likewise, since the novel is a relatively new form of literature, how do we know that the novel isn’t destined to follow the path of technology and economy? As we know, previously everything was printed on paper because that was what was available. Now the option of the internet has expanded the resources that the novel can use to expose itself. I think that in twenty years, maybe even less, Amazon.com’s Kindle will be in everyone’s bag like Blackberries and Ipods are right now. I mean seriously, why wouldn’t you want something that is the size of a mini legal pad. No matter how many pages the book that is uploaded into is, the Kindle will always be the same weight at 10.3 ounces. Okay, so Amazon isn’t paying me to advertise for them, but do you get my drift? I think that the “death” of the novel isn’t really a “death” but more of a growing spurt. The novel is becoming a teenager and what better way to celebrate its growth but with a new 4-level grayscale screen? I’m being slightly sarcastic here, but really, I think this technology is going to change the way people read—possibly even get people to read more. Like I sadly said in a previous post, Borders and Barnes & Nobel are going to become novelty stores.
Before you chew my head off about my claims on Global Warming, try to find me an actual scientific piece that isn’t influenced by the media that says that it actually exists. Like the novel, everyone wants to blame something or other. Why does there have to be blame? Can’t we accept that the earth/novel is changing, perhaps for the better. For the record, I do think that emissions are ruining the Ozone layer and ice caps are melting (among having other horrible effects on nature) because of it. There just isn’t any solid proof out there for me to shout from the roof tops “Damn you Global Warming!”.
Death or evolution?
Blog #9: Initial ideas on Three Discourses on the Age of Television
It’s evolution, evolution I say! I think that Barth says it perfectly in Fitzpatrick’s excerpt: “I’m inclined to agree, with reservations and hedges. Literal forms certainly have histories and historical contingencies, and it may well be that the novel’s time as a major art form is up, as the “times” of classical tragedy, grand opera, or the sonnet sequence came to be. No necessary cause for alarm in this at all, except perhaps to certain novelists, and one way to hand such a feeling might be to write a novel about it” (Fitzpatrick 23). After I read this I felt pretty good about my analysis on the claims about the death of the novel. I had written something similar, though not as eloquently, in the margins of my copy on page 20 when I first noticed the word “blame”. I wrote: “Why does there have to be blame? What if this is the ‘natural’ evolution of the novel? Like Global Warming could be natural… there is no way to disprove it.” Hah ha! That was me! Pretty smart huh? Anyway, let me explain my Global Warming analogy. Even though I’m just as prone to pinning horrible weather on Global Warming as the next person, I’m not so sure that Global Warming really exists. This is simply because there is no real PROOF that the emissions that this day and age emits to the atmosphere has the ultimate effect on the world. Since this has never happened before there is no way for scientists to prove or disprove that Global Warming really does exist. Yes, there are some ice caps that are rapidly melting, but then again there are other places where the ice is thicker than ever. How are we to know if this is just the way that the earth’s evolution is supposed to take place?
Likewise, since the novel is a relatively new form of literature, how do we know that the novel isn’t destined to follow the path of technology and economy? As we know, previously everything was printed on paper because that was what was available. Now the option of the internet has expanded the resources that the novel can use to expose itself. I think that in twenty years, maybe even less, Amazon.com’s Kindle will be in everyone’s bag like Blackberries and Ipods are right now. I mean seriously, why wouldn’t you want something that is the size of a mini legal pad. No matter how many pages the book that is uploaded into is, the Kindle will always be the same weight at 10.3 ounces. Okay, so Amazon isn’t paying me to advertise for them, but do you get my drift? I think that the “death” of the novel isn’t really a “death” but more of a growing spurt. The novel is becoming a teenager and what better way to celebrate its growth but with a new 4-level grayscale screen? I’m being slightly sarcastic here, but really, I think this technology is going to change the way people read—possibly even get people to read more. Like I sadly said in a previous post, Borders and Barnes & Nobel are going to become novelty stores.
Before you chew my head off about my claims on Global Warming, try to find me an actual scientific piece that isn’t influenced by the media that says that it actually exists. Like the novel, everyone wants to blame something or other. Why does there have to be blame? Can’t we accept that the earth/novel is changing, perhaps for the better. For the record, I do think that emissions are ruining the Ozone layer and ice caps are melting (among having other horrible effects on nature) because of it. There just isn’t any solid proof out there for me to shout from the roof tops “Damn you Global Warming!”.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
School is canceled!
Current away message:
St. Rose is closed due to severe weather conditions. I'm jumping for joy. No hour and a half Renaissance presentation for me! Woo hoo! Now I have to finish reading a book for tomorrow's class.
I am so happy! My friend Cassie and I put together our outline for the presentation tonight, but the campus is closed starting at 2:30pm. I think this means that we'll share a presentation day with someone else and maybe it won't have to be so long! Yippee! Anyways, I have high hopes for today. I want to finish The Member of the Wedding for my Southern Women Lit class so that I can have my discussion board submission up by 2pm. Hopefully I can at least get the post up. The book isn't that good. Then I want to attempt some writing, but I have some reading to catch up on so we'll have to see.
St. Rose is closed due to severe weather conditions. I'm jumping for joy. No hour and a half Renaissance presentation for me! Woo hoo! Now I have to finish reading a book for tomorrow's class.
I am so happy! My friend Cassie and I put together our outline for the presentation tonight, but the campus is closed starting at 2:30pm. I think this means that we'll share a presentation day with someone else and maybe it won't have to be so long! Yippee! Anyways, I have high hopes for today. I want to finish The Member of the Wedding for my Southern Women Lit class so that I can have my discussion board submission up by 2pm. Hopefully I can at least get the post up. The book isn't that good. Then I want to attempt some writing, but I have some reading to catch up on so we'll have to see.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Biting off more than I can chew?
Here is my first paragraph/intro/thesis statement to the midterm I just finished.
The notion of love at first sight is a reoccurring theme in many of William Shakespeare’s works. Creating worlds teeming with naïve youth and scheming villains, Shakespeare skillfully sets his characters up to fall madly in love as soon as their eyes meet. My critical analysis will consist of the deconstruction of romantic love and the objectification of the female counterparts via the institutional love within the realm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Othello the Moor of Venice. Here, I will look closely at the relationship between the two sets of lovers and expose the use of love as a method of belittling the female.
This essay has to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words. By the end of my first draft I ended up with 1,820. Looks like I have some trimming to do. Perhaps the topic that I chose to write on is more than can fit in a three to four paged essay. NOTE: Mine is three pages single spaced. Love is a big thing in the world of literature and can't be thrown out there on four sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of crisp white copy paper. People write entire dissertations on this stuff and I'm trying to cut it down to 1,500 word midterm paper. The fact that it is a midterm and not even a final paper is a little disconcerting for the loaded notion of LOVE. So the big question is: am I butchering/disgracing the realm of institutional love or is everyone else completely nuts?
My current away message says:
Yay! I finished my midterm! Now onto:
1. Writing 576 blog
2. Posting 2 comments on other 576 blogs
3. Preparing this weeks dinners
4. Finish reading the last 400 pages of Spacial Topics in Calamity Physics
5. Finish reading dryer than dry Eudora Welty stories
6. Start reading The Member of the Wedding
7. Post initial response to The Member of the Wedding
8. Prepare hour and a half presentation
9. Read all secondary criticism assigned
10. Regain my sanity
...This is the life of an english major
The notion of love at first sight is a reoccurring theme in many of William Shakespeare’s works. Creating worlds teeming with naïve youth and scheming villains, Shakespeare skillfully sets his characters up to fall madly in love as soon as their eyes meet. My critical analysis will consist of the deconstruction of romantic love and the objectification of the female counterparts via the institutional love within the realm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Othello the Moor of Venice. Here, I will look closely at the relationship between the two sets of lovers and expose the use of love as a method of belittling the female.
This essay has to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words. By the end of my first draft I ended up with 1,820. Looks like I have some trimming to do. Perhaps the topic that I chose to write on is more than can fit in a three to four paged essay. NOTE: Mine is three pages single spaced. Love is a big thing in the world of literature and can't be thrown out there on four sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of crisp white copy paper. People write entire dissertations on this stuff and I'm trying to cut it down to 1,500 word midterm paper. The fact that it is a midterm and not even a final paper is a little disconcerting for the loaded notion of LOVE. So the big question is: am I butchering/disgracing the realm of institutional love or is everyone else completely nuts?
My current away message says:
Yay! I finished my midterm! Now onto:
1. Writing 576 blog
2. Posting 2 comments on other 576 blogs
3. Preparing this weeks dinners
4. Finish reading the last 400 pages of Spacial Topics in Calamity Physics
5. Finish reading dryer than dry Eudora Welty stories
6. Start reading The Member of the Wedding
7. Post initial response to The Member of the Wedding
8. Prepare hour and a half presentation
9. Read all secondary criticism assigned
10. Regain my sanity
...This is the life of an english major
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
I think I'd make a good mom...
I think that I'd make a good mom just because I'd read to my children. No, this isn't me telling you all I'm having a baby. I realized that I read A LOT to Emmy. She is probably one of the best versed doggies around. From Eudora Welty to JK Rowling, she's heard a little bit of pretty much everything that I've read since we got her. It started on the first day that we got her. She was pretty freaked out so I read her The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian. I figured that her mommy's voice would sooth her. Now when I read to her she completely flattens out and falls asleep. Even her cousin Sweet Potato Pie relaxed (well he's always relaxed) when I read to him. They fell asleep together to John Katz's A Good Dog. So purely on the basis of my reading aloud to my little dog-ter (daughter), I'd make an excellent mom. Maybe this is why she's so smart!
I went to bed last night at 5 30AM so this thought popped up out of my delirium. I haven't even finished all of the reading I've been assigned. I pulled a Hermione and read/wrote for seven hours straight and I'm still not done. Aiya.
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