I claim them all.

When I saw a poem about death written by a man with the last name “Graves,” I really could not resist using it for my blog.

“The Cool Web” is very unique in that it combines elements of water with speech, leaving a murky and dark undertone as a result. Graves explains that “children are dumb to say how hot the day is,” demonstrating the apparent futility of complaints in his first quatrain. He goes on to say that “…we have speech, to chill the angry day, / And speech to dull the rose’s cruel scent,” referring to the idea that although ostensibly futile, language does in fact have a personal effect on the speaker, dulling pains and easing fears (“We spell away the overhanging night”). In the 3rd quatrain Graves begins his ocean references when saying “we grow sea-green at last and coldly die / In brininess and volubility.” It is very interesting to note his chosen diction when describing a typical death: that it be “In brininess and volubility”. This mix of ocean reference and language reference indicate a relationship between the two, perhaps that one can drown in one’s own words and thoughts or even more likely the depressing comparison of a pathetic watery death with the ineffectiveness of words–essentially that our words do nothing to hinder our inevitable death. Graves admits, however, that should we cease to speak, we will indubitably fall into madness and suffer an equally cruel death.

Talk about a no-win situation.

After reading more than half of this novel, I am still attempting to piece everything together. Morrison blazes through Milkman’s life so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up with his age! So far, I have established that Ruth is incredibly odd (although she does succeed in offering at least some explanation for her unnatural sexual and emotional antics), Macon Dead is a jealous and proud man who has disowned his sister along with attempting to torture and kill his wife and baby, and Hagar is absolutely insane in her monthly attempts to murder Milkman. Just like Milkman does, I wish SOMEBODY in his family could be normal. Even his seemingly educated and practical friend Guitar has revealed himself to be one of the “Seven Days” who murder randomly selected and innocent white individuals. Poor Milkman’s life seems so unstable with him constantly uncovering the upsetting identities of those who are close to him.

Morrison complicates “Love” in the novel, warping it and bending its meaning constantly. Ruth’s lust for sexual satisfaction has mixed with her dependence upon her father and love for Milkman–it is hinted that she participated in sexual acts with her father and Ruth even admits that Milkman was merely conceived due to her need to have sex, leaving him to be symbolic of Ruth’s passion for Macon. Hagar’s twisted idea of love leads her to stalk and try to murder Milkman, while Reba’s idea of love is giving everything she owns to the current man she is sleeping with. Love seems more problematic and dark in Morrison’s work than this idealistic pure version we prefer to see. I certainly admire her for having the bravery to create such risque and dare I say sinful characters in her book.

Well, Hamlet never ceases to surprise me. Ostensibly an incredibly slow-moving play from the get-go, I have been pleasantly amazed that certain twists have been revealed along with interesting character development (which I suppose I was not expecting altogether after the lack of “deep” characters in Twelfth Night). The play has picked up speed faster than I could have ever predicted, and I find myself actually becoming enveloped in the dramatic scenes of the tragedy. I love how King Claudius reveals signs of regret, but at the same time refuses to repent even in a state of utter weakness and remorse. Shakespeare reveals a more complicated villain than, say, Iago from Othello, as the King displays human traits of regret along with the dark qualities of envy (of the late Hamlet-then alive), lust (for the Queen), and greed (for the riches and power that come along with the crown). This makes the overall feel of Hamlet very realistic–the most believable play I’ve read by Shakespeare.

Some scattered thoughts that have been lingering: I was genuinely astonished when Hamlet jumped into Ophelia’s grave and began to fight Laertes–from Hamlet’s previous speech, it seemed that he was feeling compassion for Laertes, seeing that another individual has suffered the tragedy of the loss of a loved one as he did. I basically thought Hamlet was jumping in to “hug it out” with Laertes, half expecting a confession from Hamlet himself for the murder of Polonius. Was I ever wrong. Seemingly unprovoked, Hamlet starts a brawl with Laertes right in the middle of Ophelia’s grave out of pure…jealousy? utter emotional confusion? The scene evokes a mixture of moods, appearing comically ridiculous and emotionally powerful at the same time.

Also, I have to mention the blatant irony in the Queen throwing flowers onto Ophelia’s grave seeing as Ophelia had recently drowned in a stream, surrounded by floating flowers that she dropped.

Although it was difficult to choose between Invisible Man, Huckleberry Finn, and Catch-22, I ended up deciding on–you guessed it–Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. There was no intense research involved in picking this particular novel, and I found myself making a choice by listening to my parents argue over which book I would find the most interesting yet full of substance. Unfortunately, the fact that my household does not own a copy of Invisible Man seemed to eliminate it as a contender, and while my mom argues that Huckleberry Finn is a classic that I need to read sometime during my career as a student, my dad insists that Catch-22 is a unique novel in which many situations are intertwined. The thought of multiple scenarios being related to each other and creating a complex plot made me content, so here I am, ready to start Catch-22. I have no idea what is in store for me during this epic reading adventure, but I am sure I will find a wealth of paper topics within the text.

On another note, the book must have created some substantial impact due to the fact that it generated the phrase:

Catch-22.

Well, it certainly has been an intense couple of weeks in Hartfield – Emma believes she has feelings towards Mr. Frank Churchill (and is certain that he is in love with her), and she makes a new “friend”–Mrs. Elton. Things are starting to heat up and I can already tell that Emma is going to get herself into quite a bit of trouble concerning these two characters. I feel that Emma is making the same mistake on herself that she did in attempting to matchmake Harriet and Mr. Elton–that is, she interprets every word and action of Frank Churchill and bends it to fit this imaginary scenario in which he loves her. Who knows, maybe Emma is right this time, but I still have my suspicions that Frank likes Jane Fairfax (I believe he sent her the piano). I sound like a gossiping teenager talking about who likes who, but that is essentially what Emma is on a more complex scale:

people trying to read other people.

A quick note about Mrs. Elton before I talk about the class poetry: I think that Emma already had her mind made up that she was going to detest her, which I find amusingly ironic because she bends some situations to convince herself that she is loved while she only takes specific information out of other scenarios to develop bad relationships with other characters (first Jane, now Mrs. Elton? Really, Emma?)

Reflecting on the steamy “Seduction Poems” that we perused and analyzed in class, I was listening to some of the interpretations of my classmates and actually found my own opinions of the poetry shifting toward the views of my peers (which I suppose is the point of class discussion). But it got me thinking about how a personal mindset affects the meaning of the poem. For example, the poem where the author is reflecting on what he likes in a woman: if you read it with the viewpoint of the poet describing what he loves about a SPECIFIC woman, the poem fits; however, if you interpret the poem beforehand as what the man likes GENERALLY in women, the poem also makes sense. This one poem carries two different interpretations, and within these interpretations lie two different messages.

I thought this made the poem very “agreeable”.

After a hearty four-hour reading of Emma, I can merely say that my thoughts are extremely jumbled.

So much has happened, yet at the same time nothing has really happened. I’m over the fact that there will be a lack of action in the book and since the start of the novel have enjoyed the style of writing and the uniqueness of the characters, but I must say too much of Emma in one sitting can make a person go mad! Jane Austen keeps me sharp by throwing a bunch of minor characters into the mix, such as Mrs. and Miss Bates, Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston, Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley, Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Goddard, Mr. Perry, Mr. and Mrs. Cole, and so on. Granted, characters such as Isabella, John Knightley, and Frank are important in shaping the novel, and I’m sure that Jane had reasons for inventing all of these characters, but the reader has to admit that it can get a bit messy. Aside from critiquing an aspect of the book on a very superficial level, I am enjoying where the plot is starting to take me as well as the character development of Emma Woodhouse.

It came as no surprise to me that Mr. Elton was in love with Emma, yet his blatant disregard for Harriet shocked me and made me lose all sympathy towards him despite Emma essentially rejecting him. I am curious to see if his new bride is truly somebody that he has fallen in love with or if Mr. Elton is simply using her to get over Emma or perhaps try and show Emma a lesson. Speaking of Mrs. Woodhouse, I have much more respect for her after she actually admits to herself that she should not play with the relationships of others–although with the recently raised suspicion of Mr. Knightley being in love with Jane Fairfax (I consider her to be Emma’s arch-nemesis), I seriously doubt Emma will stay out of other people’s business for long. I learned a lot about characters I previously thought useless–such as Jane Fairfax, who has proven to have an extremely interesting history as well as a seemingly rough future ahead of her. The biggest mystery in the novel at this point is who has sent the piano to Jane; although Mrs. Weston suggests Mr. Knightley and she seems like a very prudent woman, I feel like it may have been Frank, who had recently gone to London just to get a haircut (yeah, right!). Following the unorganized and jumpy style of my writing in this blog post, I must end with a final note about Mr. Woodhouse: although at first he amused me with his eccentricities, he is beginning to get on my nerves, at one point actually remarking how he sat by a fire, the fire was hot, so he moved back and therefore was less hot. He has good intentions, but he is really starting to frustrate me by making the most stupid and superficial remarks in the novel.

After watching the less-than-enjoyable movie “Pride and Prejudice” a couple months back, I expected the dialogue in Emma to be nearly as painful and slow to read as some of Shakespeare’s more difficult play. However, having just finished Twelfth Night, Jane Austen’s text is actually not too difficult to get through in small bursts. I have to admit that unless I take a break between every one or two chapters my attention wanders somewhere else, yet I really do appreciate the language that the characters use and the incredible abilities of the characters to express themselves so eloquently.

So far, the plot seems pretty bland, although I see things brewing up quickly in future, especially with Mr. Westin’s perhaps unanticipated proposal and Harriet’s rejection. The first few chapters are excused from being boring, as it is necessary to introduce characters before progressing the plot too much–however, I still feel like not much is happening and I can only be entertained by this kind of literature for so long. Let’s hope Emma gets herself into a difficult situation for the sake of my interest in this book! On the subject of Emma Woodhouse, I think that she is witty, yet uses her abilities in a sort of cunning and mischievous way by essentially manipulating people’s relationships and playing matchmaker. I hate this quality about her, as at this point in the novel she holds the fate of poor Harriets future in her hands and I find Harriet to be “a rather agreeable” character.

Some quick final observations and thoughts on what I’ve read so far: I’m curious about Harriet’s past and the status of her family, because unlike Emma’s sureness of Harriet’s high social status, I feel like only a poor family would leave their daughter in the hands of another family. I like Mr. Knightley because he is not afraid to defy Emma every once in a while, and I feel in a way this keeps Emma in check. They are intellectual equivalents, yet different genders and therefore have interestingly different views on certain situations. Also I love the peculiarities of Mr. Woodhouse when it comes to his paranoia of getting ill or weak, especially the story of how he tried to keep anybody from eating the cake at the wedding! Lastly, I think that either Mr. Knightley or Mr. Elton will fall in love with Emma, perhaps leaving Harriet alone or running back to Mr. Weston, but all of this relationship business is getting complicated and I’m sure Jane Austen is only getting started.

I just finished a play about love triangles, please Jane, don’t make me go through this again!

Well, after finishing this surprisingly short work by Shakespeare I can honestly say that I have a newfound appreciation for his style of writing as well as the uncomplicated plot that he has presented in Twelfth Night. Of course there are underlying themes such as the discussed juxtaposition of madness with heaven and hell as well as the glaringly obvious issue of gender identity/identity in general. I think the fact that I toiled over Moby-Dick for countless hours, days, and weeks during the summer–only to be full of questions, thoughts, and frustration because of the massive amount of underlying themes and philosophies in the text–made this play sort of an easy read for me, but nevertheless delightful. As they say, quality over quantity.

Playing off of our discussion of madness today in class, I noticed a rather sudden change of mood from utter confusion and frustration to understanding and even bliss. As all the questions are eventually answered, the only character left angry is the mistreated Malvolio who almost serves to make the scene more happy and comical by playing the role of the stubborn and left out personage. As Viola and Sebastian reunited, thus answering the countless questions by Orsino and Olivia, I smiled, amused at the thought that the whole time the scene is taking place Malvolio is still stuck in this dark room like a prisoner, no doubt still cross-gartered and still clad in yellow stockings. Shakespeare manages to create a scene in the reader’s mind apart from that being shown on stage, which is very impressive.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this particular work by Shakespeare is relatively easy and quick to read, allowing to me to stay focused and actually enjoy the story.

I appreciate the subtle humor disguised in serious matters, and in turn serious points displayed through jokes – in particular, the Fool tends to have a reputation for not being particularly witty, yet he somehow manages to make me laugh while bringing up good points. When he tells Olivia that her brother is in hell and Olivia denies this statement, “Feste the Jester” then questions her as to why she is mourning a soul in heaven. His answers can be eloquent as well as curt, and I find that of all the characters I enjoy hearing what he has to say the most. Perhaps ironically the fool is the voice of reason in this play?