Dreams...

There is one dream, or I guess a nightmare is what you would call it, that I had when I was young and for some reason I have always remembered the dream. I can't really recollect any other dreams or at least to the clarity that I still can recollect this one. Before the dream begins a little background information on my day before this night, at least to the extent that I can remember. I had watched the movie the Burbs with Tom Hanks as the lead actor.

In the movie Tom Hanks (spoiler report!) is living next to a bunch of murderers that have killed a bunch of people and are cremating them in their basement and burying them under the foundation.
In my dream I am being carried by a bunch of small men. The men were really small, and resembled a cross between the Ewoks in the movie Star Wars with the sand people in the movie Star Wars. So these small men were carrying me, about 6-8 of them, and they are carrying me to this huge grill, probably big enough to roast 3 children, and the grill is situated in the back yard of the murderers house in The Burbs. And then right when they were lowering me on I woke up.
I am not sure why I always remember this dream, possibly because when I woke up I was so freaked out that it was real it, in a way, burned itself into my mind. It is still kind of scary for me to this day.
I think this might be why we have dreams, in my notes from Nov. 7th I wrote down that "terror into art, only way to deal w/ terror." When looking at my dream it seems that this is what happened. My mind was so terrified about these killers, possibly because it was happening in a relatively safe neighborhood like where I was living that it turned it into a dream, a 'dealable' option for me so I could cope with it in a way. If dreams and art are connected it seems that all of the themes through the class could be connected, art-dream, coincidence obviously ties in with those two, so three out of five isn't bad.

Here's a link to a clip from The Burbs, it seems like a much funnier movie now...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik4fILNVdRE

More than just true...

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

* G.K. Chesterton


I love this quote. It says so much and still says it in an exciting way. The message it gives is a central message in this class, that through experience, through ideas where dragonslayers take down these great beasts is where the truth lies not in just the fact that they exist; a situation has to be present where a story doesn't just tell us its true it shows it. This seems almost a way of getting your readers to believe, to not just tell but to show. How much am I suppose to believe that Bluebeard is such a bad man? You show me. This vision of the imagination that fairy tales present is the basis of fairy tales, making us imagine and then believing the imagined.

Notes for November 17th

His Dark Materials

--Can't get to far from Daemon
--Naggy; needy
--a part of its human
--Willing suspension of disbelief to enter book... needed to be able to suspend reality at a wim and believe what your mind is reading if only for a few seconds.

--Pullman talking about teaching people to write; no rules, willing suspension of certainty (changes Coleridge's willing suspension of disbelief)

--Lyre- wind plays instrument... Lyre= Lyra, the central character in His Dark Materials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHq1H5cmL5w
Hopefully this link works... it is a link to a man playing the Lyre, he is claiming that the song is from 1300 B.C. in some of his playing.

--Get rid of the notion that the text is going to teach us anything.

-- 6 degrees of seperation

--"Its a pour memory that only goes one way."
-Aleithiometer
+leith- Lethe- rive in Hades where you drink the water and you forget.
-Aleithiometer= takes away the forgetfulness; 'un'-forgetting
--Glen Gould- "32 short pieces of Glen Gould"
-haunted by the idea of 'the north.'
--gold bug variations...
--Central metaphor at the basis of the trilogy is the Aurora Borealis
-I have seen the Aurora's. Growing up in North Dakota they were usually visual in the winter at some times throughout the winter. The following is a picture that I found that most closely resembled my memory of the Aurora's, this picture is close except they were slightly more red.

--Wallace Stevens Poems- about idea of 'North.'
--
Domination Of Black

At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry -- the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?

Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks. -Wallace Stevens

--Nobazembla- try to find it in text and reality...
-I found some pretty interesting facts on Nova Zembla
--Nova Zembla
+Novaya Zemlya is the proper name; it is only known as Nova Zembla in Dutch. It is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe. The indigenous population consists of about 100 Nenetses who subsist mainly on fishing, trapping, polar bear hunting, and seal hunting.

--the Aleithiometer is a guide to symbols and the importance and many meanings or level of meanings in them... such as a portmanteau.

Scharfanugal

I think one of the most enjoyable and fascinating things to me about reading Pullman's trilogy (or any young adult literature for that matter) is the use of made up or 'new' words. Here are a few: aerodock, anbaric (a type of electricity or power), and since I started writing this blog I found an interesting page on the terminology of His Dark Materials, here it is; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials_terminology. I like how Pullman says things, and not just what he is saying. He creates a world that is different; one that is strange to the everyday person, yet because it is different it stimulates the brain to a greater extent than an everyday read. We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. 'Thou shalt not' is soon forgotten, but 'Once upon a time' lasts forever.

* Philip Pullman

Quiz notes

Subject Matter: Tatar-endings, Talbout pages, Alice: Humpty-Wool & Water-Tweedles-Caterpillar-Question of Morals.

Questions from class:

Classic illustrator of Alice-Tenniel
Virtue-last word of B&B
Who wins after death-the worms-yet, "We triumph over worms through art" (Groucho Marx)
Oscar Wilde-life imitates art
5 themes of class: myth dreams coincidence, art, history
White Knight is? Carroll
Parody: counter part to Alice: Crocodile moral counterpart to Bee
Food mock turtle sings of? soup
Mad Hatter's answer to Raven and Writing desk riddle: no clue
After Shakespeare: most quoted author: Carroll
The White Rabbit drops a fan...
myth is a depersonalized dream and dream is a personalized myth.
Come up with portmantaeu of Humpty Dumpty.
Who is the rudest of all the flowers? The violet
Where does Alice live in all of us? the unconscious
When Alice first shrinks how tall is she? 10 in.
Deleted chapter of Looking Glass? The Wasp and the Wig
How does Alice offend the mouse? Talking of her cat and dog
During ref. main intent of child lit? instill moral values
What 2 animals sparked curiousity in evolution? Monkey and mammoth
Gutenberg press
Mercury making Hatters Mad is what? misplaced concreteness
What do Beauty's tears turn into in the Cocteau movie? Diamonds
Trust the tale and not the teller.
Carroll's nickname, du-du... cause he stutters.
1st Bible published in U.S. was in Algonquin.
Tatology
Goody-two-shoes is an emblem of perfection that adults lack.
Alice Pleasance Liddell
Re-create last line of Alice.
What is contained in the ending poem of Looking Glass? Acrostic
Walter Pater said: All art aspires to the condition of music.

Flowers in Fairytales

I seem to keep running into the idea of smelling flowers as a meaning for something. In the Wizard of Oz, the lion, Dorothy, Toto, and even the mice all fall subject to the powerful properties of the Poppies. And then in Carrol's Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the original manuscript, the rabbit doesn't drop a fan but a type of flower (Nosegay) that makes Alice shrink. Nosegay means gallantry and Red Poppies means consolation. (Go to if you want more flower meanings)

I have been debating over the significance in each piece of work. In the Wizard of Oz the poppies play a key role in almost stopping the group. I have looked at this scene, using consolation as my guide, and I feel that the Poppies are a type of hinderance but also a type of motherly love. They are a hinderance because they stop the travel of the group, but why do the poppies actually stop them? This is where my idea of motherly love comes into play. If the poppies mean consolation, or an alleviation of grief, couldn't the poppies be looked at as a mother, possibly even 'the mother,' the Blessed Virgin Mary.



The way I see it is that the poppies are the womb or the mother's embrace. Dorothy, lost with no way home, and the lion, without courage, are so affected by the embrace that they can't make it out of the field. (An important note I think is that if the tinman and the scarecrow were human at the time, God's children, that they would be equally effected) The poppies are the motherly embrace by trying to keep these people within its clutches, holding them, comforting them, letting them forget their problems. The slipping into sleep is a symbol of the warmth and comfort found by a child in his/her mothers arms. This point is especially relevant when looking at how scared Dorothy must be in a different place, and how scared the lion is because he lacks the confidence that mothers (parents) instilled in their offspring.



In Alice in Wonderland the possible meanings behind the flower are more concrete (I am not sure if thats the word I want). Gallantry, or heroic behavior, the meaning of Nosegay, is seen in Alice. The first thought that came to mind was the fact that she was so quick to follow the rabbit, not worrying about what might happen, and then not worrying about getting hurt while falling for a long time. I haven't thought as much about how flowers perform in this text and hope to expand on some ideas when I have more time.

Is anyone's 'last' work, actually the last?

In class on Friday we were talking about Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest. But is this really his last play or piece of writing? Or is anyone's last paper their last, Plato's Laws, or Carrol's The Hunting of the Snark?
If everything is a displacement into something else, wouldn't Shakespeare's last work actually be a beginning into a web work of Shakespeare or Shakesperian influenced writing? So by saying it is his last work, wouldn't you also be saying that his work isn't timeless and ceases to have connections with another piece of writing?
I think one could argue that by the direct or indirect subjection of The Tempest that in a sense Shakespeare's last work just plain isn't. Through the collaberation of Shakespeare and whomever decides to use him as a basis or idea starter, wouldn't Shakespeare take on the title of a type of co-author? What I am trying to say is that since The Tempest Shakespeare has lent a hand from good writing to bad and everything in between.
By looking at his 'last' work this way would be a claim that The Tempest is really the beginning. After something has been written it isn't finished or complete, but has just started its perilous journey with no end in-sight.
The following is a small excerpt of how I came to my conclusion:
I think an important thing to note here is that on citations. If someone cites a work, in either works cited or works consulted, isn't the author in essence giving credit to that author? If they are giving credit, they must have felt there was some impact that could possible be seen by readers/critics as not independent. If the author feels that his work was created not only by his own ideas,but by building off of previous ones, wouldn't we consider these 'citations of impact' as actually co-authorship?

Notes for November 7th

Themes of the class: history, myth, dream, art, coincidence

Terror into art, only way to deal w/ terror; like fairy tales in Tartar book.

Shakespeare...
The Tempest; the last play he wrote. (see Shakespeare post)

"A Mad Tea Party"

When the question came up in class on which chapter was my favorite in Alice in Wonderland I knew right away which one I enjoyed the most: A Mad Tea Party. There are several reasons why I enjoyed this one, but mainly the riddle which I will get to in a bit.
I want to start off with the actual tea party, which includes the Madhatter, the March Hare and a Dormouse, at least before Alice arrives. I wanted to dwell on what the March Hare says to Alice in the beginning of the tea party, "Then you should say what you mean," The March Hare went on. "I do," Alice hastily replied;"at least-at least I mean what I say-thats the same thing, you know." "Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. This distinction in sentence structure is intriguing where the sentence is made up of the same words yet it has quite different meanings. It almost seems as this is a lesson, a necessary lesson in life-it seems as if Alice is growing up, learning. For a college educated reader the difference in the two sentences might seem quite obvious, yet I feel that as a child the recognization as these two sentences thought 'one' execute different meanings. It seems to be emphasizing the power of words and how you can manipulate them into doing what the user wants.
Right before this confrontation is when the Riddle is asked..."Why is a raven like a writing desk?" I was intrigued by this passage not only because riddles are intriguing but because the use of the raven in it, the portmanteau of meanings. The raven is used as a portmanteau throughout not only children's lit but life and the stories told throughout. I have been debating over possible answers to this riddle and the only thing I have been able to come up with is kind of a stretch. A raven is like a writing desk in that both are looked at with the power of knowledge, the raven for seeing everything that happens, an onlooker from the sky, whereas a writing desk absorbs everything that touch it, the subtle pen strokes that etch the knowledge into the wood frame. They both are there at the creation (the raven in Native myth) of a masterpiece-nature, a book, anything. My answer delighted my senses well enough, but I had to find what Carrol felt the answer was, which I found in the preface for the 1896 edition where it says, "enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: 'Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!' This Riddle, as orginally invented, had no answer at all. First off, for the record, I like my answer better, and secondly, the orginal riddle had no answer? What? I felt a wierd tingle when I read that line, a riddle with no answer? I have contemplated over this idea quite a bit and this is what I have come up with... he gave us the riddle to only think. To think, to imagine what possible connection could these two entities have? I feel that his answer isn't right just as my answer isn't right to him. The answer to the riddle is whatever you feel like it is, it is personal to the person doing the answering.
Also at the end of this chapter is when Alice finally makes it into the garden, the place she had been trying to get to since the beginning. Also here is where Alice makes one of the key remarks to the whole book; "Now, I'll manage better this time..." This quote is outlining the existence of a trial and error childhood, where one road will lead you down a path, possibly not the right path, but an experience is still felt on this path; after the experiences start to build up a greater sense of the world, of knowledge is acquired. Even though Alice hasn't recieved/reached what she yearns for, she is still content with the adventure she is on, making her more curious and curious as the book goes on. It almost seems as if she is on a path from innocence to experience.

The Raven

I was scanning over some notes I had on My Book and Heart Shall never Part and I came across one note where I wrote that in the movie it is said that the "Raven was the master of Capital words." I find this interesting because I am taking a class right now called Studies in a Major Author where we are concentrating on a Native American writer, Louise Erdrich, who comes from the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Indians in North Dakota. This is an interesting connection in that the raven is a key figure in Native storytelling and tales. Extraordinary beings like the Raven emphasize the importance of a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. I feel this would help to expand my some what weak answer early on my blog on what is nature, child, book... I feel this is what nature is, something created by mankind but is only inherently real when the relationship between the mind and the made-up (nature) is in a type of symbiosis or state of grace. I think this statement yields to the reason why it is so hard to define a term like nature because we (by we I am stating anyone who is growing up in the age of technology like we are) aren't living as symbiotic as we once were so to find this relationship is harder than finding the relationship between nature and man that doesn't work. I am regressing, I feel that the Raven is an important figure in any society, yet known for his trickery the Raven is also known for knowledge and wisdom, something I feel more closely connected to a Raven than with trickery. So in Native stories the Raven is almost seen as a master of capital words, but instead of capital words he is the master of trickery, of delight.