9tailed Fox

Presentations

2010-04-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Amy Hatch had some intriguing points about feminism within the texts we have read.

Heather had some interesting points on the growth women showed with what Fuller was trying to convey in her text.

Kristi talked about some interesting points with Dorian Gray and homosexuality tendencies.

Meredith linked local color and Transcendentalism using the American Scholar as her starting point.

Jenel is linking Transcendentalism using Emerson’s circles, and The Transcendentalist, with Dark Romanticism. I like how she's talking about how they are creating new ideas and challenging new ideas as well.

Deb had a very interesting topic about the Civil War Era and linked together texts like Chesnut, Whitman, and My Contraband. She is saying that the war shaped the writing and the topics of these texts. Should be a great paper to read and see how the Civil War shaped the different texts.

Caitlin is talking about the British and American societies and connecting local color with regionalism, discussing feminism and naturalism.

Sara is linking together The Gothic, Naturalism, and Realist texts and how each text has elements of each other within the different groups.

New Proposal

2010-04-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

In my final paper I will be looking at Gothic and Dark Romanticism examples of literature such as Edgar Huntley, The Vampyre, a tale, Ulalume Berenice, and Young Goodman Brown. Both genres of literature were reactions to the formalities and rigidness of society during different times. I will be looking at how each changed their respective genres rigidness or formalities at the time. I will be looking at what was each genre preceded by such as Romanticism, and Transcendentalism? What specifically makes each story or novel Gothic/Dark Romantic and how they might have been written if not developed in their genre? For example, what would Edgar Huntley have been like if it was written in the Romantic or Transcendental and Gothic was never developed? So basically I'll be arguing how each genre broke from their predecessors, and whether or not it really was a break away at all, or if it would have made a different impact being written in previous genres.

Sources

http://www.virtualsalt.com/gothic.htm
This will be used to discuss elements of what makes up Gothic works and changes that distinguish it from Romanticism.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1603/the_dark_romantics_of_literature.html?cat=38
I'll be using this to talk about Dark Romanticism and how it stood apart from Transcendentalism.

http://www.lycaeum.org/~maverick/romantic.htm
I'll be using this to discuss the history of Romanticism tying it to the development of the Gothic.

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html
I'll be using this to discuss Transcendentalism leading up to Dark Romanticism.

http://www.joelpeckham.com/transcendentalism.html
I'll be using this as a resource discussing difference between the Romantic and Transcendentalism movements as a whole.

Proposal

2010-04-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Out of Her Element

2010-03-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

When reading The Gossip of Gold-hill, I was amazed that Amy stayed there when she had no one to care for her and no skills necessary to survive in the rough frontier. Maybe she was poor and was stranded after spending all she had to get there and had no other means for survival except to wait for the arrival of her man. Along with her sick child, the moment when she went seeking for companionship in this one woman, and was rejected by her saying she didn't like people like her, it made my heart sink and I could only imagine what it must have felt like to be all alone, have a sick child and have no one in which you can befriend or rely upon for aid in one form or another.

I expected what came next because nothing seemed to be working out for her. It was sad to see her child die, and then her go off and kill herself as well; the saddest part about it was that no one really seemed to care and went on with their lives. The people were there to get rich and seemed to care only for themselves. Those who couldn't take care of themselves were ignored until they passed away, or moved on. If this had happened anywhere back east, she surely would have been taken care of along with her child and not been left to fend for herself or pass away. It was a sad reflection of the reality of the time and the difference in location in the states and the mentality of the gold rush.

Zombies Promoting Levi Jeans???

2010-03-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

The first time I saw these commercials, I was really confused as to what they were trying to say. In regards to what they do with Whitman's poetic project, I would have to say it looks like it is using it to celebrate what the brand of Levis stands for. Like several comments said, commercials seem to take on the role that past poets did in regards to forming relationships between consumers and certain products. For me, the commercials seem to form a relationship saying that wearing their jeans celebrates the pioneers of America and make you free. I might possibly buy that if they were actually made in America. But, most likely they are made in some foreign country like China, India, or even Africa. So, seeing them use that as an add for their product in actuality would be a misuse and a distortion of Whitman's poetic project when viewed in that way.

Now seeing these commercials, I am a little appalled by the display of a jeans company using Whitman to promote their product. I don't see wearing a certain type of jeans as a comparison of being free, pioneer, or anything particular for that matter. I just don't get the comparison between Levi's and a great poet of the past. Using a dead guy's voice is an exploitation of a passed celebrity and a cop-out way of avoiding to have to pay someone for advertising a particular product. I see a lot of different companies nowadays using dead celebrities in their advertising. It's disrespectful to me to see deceased individuals being used that way. If you were to buy a pair of Levi jeans based on the commercial as a symbol of rebellion, freedom, or pioneering in any way, than you have no need to worry about being eaten by zombies, because like the picture says, they're only after people with brains, but your OK, no problems with that particular predicament.

"I Can't Believe It's Not Butter...I Mean, A Photograph"

2010-02-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

Albert Bierstadt: El bajo Valle de Yosemite

"...the landscape painter must always have two great and distinct ends; the first, to induce in the spectator's mind the faithful conception of any natural objects whatsoever; the second, to guide the spectator's mind to those objects most worthy of its contemplation, and to inform him of the thoughts and feelings with which these were regarded by the artist himself"(Ruskin 45). I think this is a great place to start off when looking at this painting and thinking about the elements that stand out to me when I first looked at it. Like the quote said, the two great and distinct ends of a landscape painter are to induce realism of the natural object and induce the same feelings the artist himself felt upon seeing and painting what was right before him. I'd say with this painting, mission accomplished. I had to look at it closely after first seeing it and not believing it wasn't a photograph. The attention to detail with the lighting and atmospheric disturbance is phenomenal. You get the great sense that you are standing right there and looking through a window into the landscape before you. The majesty and overall greatness of the scene comes out and you feel the awe and wonder the painter must have felt when he stood there and painted the sunrise before him.

"To make us understand the space of the sky, is an end worthy of the artist's highest powers; to hit its particular blue or gold is an end to be thought of when we have accomplished the first, and not till then"(Ruskin 73). We definitely understand the vast space that exists within the sky of the painting. The colors are rich and deep in the foreground and fade and almost dissipate as they dissolve into the atmosphere and light that is coming forth from the rising sun. We believe that is what the actual sky looked like when the artist painted the scene because it makes us think to ourselves, yes, that is what the sky looks like when the sun rises. You almost hesitate from staring into the rising sun because you know it can blind you if stared at too long.

I wouldn't doubt that if we went to that same spot today and waited for the sun to rise, that it would still look as magnificent and as glorious as it did almost 150 years ago. Just like a photograph might have captured that moment in history, so too did Albert Bierstadt capture this moment through his paint brush. The greater difference is that along with the painting, the feelings of emotions were captured as well and are permanently there to be displayed for all those who look and think about what he must have felt as he stood there long ago and painted this scene.

Is a Dragon Poodle Scary?

2010-02-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

The Minister's Black Veil would not have been a Dark Romanticism piece of literature if it had only left out the one symbol that engulfed everyone's attention and resulting fears. The black veiled face of Mr. Hooper is the definitive symbol that creates a fit of curiosity, fear and even avoidance in the hearts of the citizens who look upon his veiled face in wonder. At first, Mr. Hooper carries out Sunday service like normal, with only the one exception: a black veil covering his face above his mouth concealing his eyes from mortal view. When he conducts the normal sermon, his veiled face seems to take upon new meaning as the topic is of secret sins and how that no sin is hidden from God's omniscient, all seeing eye. This sermon, mixed with his veiled face, makes everyone consider the reason for his veil is because of his own secret sin. So here, Dark Romanticism is evident when an ordinary situation is twisted by the element of mystery and supposed darkness of hidden sin incorporated by the ever present black veiled face of Mr. Hooper.

Mr. Hooper even becomes fixated on never removing the veil and avoids places where he can see his reflection such as mirrors and fountains. This fixation of his and that of others to discover what's beneath his veiled face is what leads to the one track mind of what's behind the veil? This one line of thought lasts even up to his death of people, children and others avoiding him for the fear he instills just by being present behind a veil. This sense of mystery and fear of the unknown could be another element of Dark Romanticism. An ordinary minister's life is altered, changed, and feared with only the application of a black veil. His actions, words, and life never changed, only his outwards appearance. I kind of think about it like taking a cute, harmless puppy like a poodle for instance; put some fake horns, teeth etc., and now it appears menacing and dangerous; (or just plain sad, depending upon your point of view). It's still the same small, harmless poodle, only it's outward appearance has changed. Just like Mr. Hooper still cared for his flock and tended to them until he died, the only thing different about him was the black veil. It made him appear more sinister and dark than he really was, and he was feared and avoided as a result of his outwardly expressing an inner dark feeling of sin he may or may not have actually committed. Maybe it was all an experiment of his to see if people would judge him on outward appearances? Who knows; but we do see the town taking the route that most would likely take. Fear the unknown, and avoid it; and that's exactly what the townspeople did.

Not everyone likes onions

2010-02-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

I think the epigraph explains the meaning of the text itself quite well:

Nature centres into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew they what that signified,
A new genesis were here.

The words ball and sphere both allude to the circles described throughout the piece. For example, the very first line says: “The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.” It is stated that throughout nature, the figure of the circle is repeated without end. That’s a perfect description of a ball, sphere, or circle. These figures have no beginning and no end, so are eternal and can be found repeated in all forms of nature. I kind of view it as well as our knowledge of nature; we kind of start with a certain small circle of our understanding how nature works, but there’s always more outside of that circle surrounding it, and so on and so on. There isn’t a limit of knowledge of Nature, there’s always more waiting to be discovered.

Another line in the third paragraph that supports this view is: “Permanence is but a word of degrees.” Thinking of circles, or spheres, here it seems to say that past knowledge in a certain circle of Nature is not permanent. In the same paragraph it talks about how past societies are long gone, decayed, and new ones built on top of them. In the same way, a certain circle of knowledge back then that was pertinent is not certain to be so in future societies. To me, it’s like the caveman discovered fire, but now we not only can create fire, but have discovered sciences and research in thermodynamics to enhance the uses of fire as well as our knowledge of how it works and how to improve upon it. The knowledge of thermodynamics still existed during the caveman’s time; we just have increased the circumference of that circle of Nature since its first discovery.

The circles of Nature are infinite and many have yet to be discovered or expanded upon. To end in the words of Shrek and Donkey:

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes. No.
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry.
Shrek: No.
Donkey: Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs.
Shrek: NO. Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
[sighs]
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.

Even Ogres have words of wisdom for comparing things of Nature in a transcendental kind of way.

Harmonious Opposites

2010-01-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

The first thing that stood out to me was lines three and four: “Sunshine and Storm, whirlwind and breeze, all in one duteous task agree.” These are obviously opposites at opposition to one another, and yet it says they agree with one task. At first thought, I was wondering what exactly is the task in which they all agree upon? If we look back at the first line: “Harmonious Powers with Nature work,” it explains exactly what this task is: these forces of opposition work together harmoniously to be the driving power of Nature.

Another part that caught my attention was the fourth stanza: “There berries ripen, flowerets bloom; There insects live their lives -- and die: A peopled world it is; in size a tiny room.” This was a very poetic part for me describing the beauties of Nature. The way it describes fruits growing, flowers blooming, and how insects live and die, brings out the fragility of each one. For though fruit ripens, it must rot, and flowers bloom and then inevitably will wither away; harmonious opposites of one duteous task. All of this as grand as it may be, is yet portrayed as only being the size of a tiny room.

Along these same lines, the last two lines discuss what is to become of this floating island of Nature. “Yet the lost fragments shall remain, To fertilize some other ground.” It goes back to the beginning of the poem’s statement of harmonious opposites: Through the fragments of a once beautiful part of Nature remains and has withered from its former beauty, it shall now perform its duteous task and contribute towards the rising up of a new part of Nature becoming magnificent once again. It is the harmonious cycle of nature: birth-death-rebirth.

Supplementary Curiosity

2010-01-22T12:28:00.001-08:00

Though Charles Brockden Brown didn’t always use much description in certain scenes within Edgar Huntley, his writing still did inspire some picturesque scenes nonetheless: “We turned from the road into the first path, and proceeded in silence, till the wilderness of the surrounding scenery informed us, that we were in the heart of Norwalk. We lighted on a recess, to which my companion appeared to be familiar, and which had all the advantages of solitude, and was suitable to rest. Here we stopped” (Edgar 33). This is at the point after Edgar has confronted Clithero on suspicion of his sleepwalking episodes and inquired if he was guilty of some crime. They walk through the woods and Clithero leads them to this spot to tell him about his past. The author probably intended to induce some suspense on account of the awkward silence and non-description of the surrounding environment. Though this is achieved in some part, I think if it was written with more description of the woods at night, sounds heard in the silence, or more description of the thoughts going on in Edward’s head, it would have produced even more suspense on our end of reading it.

When staying at Inglefield’s home one night, Edgar thinks about how this was the place where his friend Waldgrave died. He would not think of sleeping on the same bed and how these thoughts only rekindled the grief and pain of the memory (Edgar 109). While we do get some idea of the environment he is in, a more descript depiction of the room may have helped us picture the room and its contents to an even greater extent. Had it been written how he remembered the pillow or bed was soaked in the blood of his deceased friend, or had he recalled Waldgrave’s last words or something more along those same lines, it would have added a lot more to our mental image and the importance of this being a hard experience for Edgar to be put in again.

One other place where more description would have benefited the reader would be on page 280 when Clithero learns that Mrs. Lorimer is still among the living. His words towards Edgar and actions are very peculiar: “Thou hast ratified, beyond appeal or forgiveness, thy own doom. Thou hast once more let loose my steps, and sent me on a fearful journey…So saying, he darted out the door and was gone in a moment.” A little more description here on Clithero’s inner thoughts, or explanation on why he acted in this manner, would have contributed to a better understanding of his actions and remarks. We really don’t expect this reaction from our overall experience with Clithero’s background and are caught off guard by all of this, or at least I was. Not explaining why this happens is not a good way to end the book. It leaves the reader questioning why, what motivated this. In this case, more description certainly wouldn’t hurt at all.

Though there are picturesque moments throughout the novel, a little more description couldn’t possibly have hurt; and in these few cases, would have certainly added a bit more to the overall feeling or mental image received on our part as readers.

The Absolute Horror!!!

2010-01-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

I was looking up the differences between terror and horror and could not think of a film at the time. So, I went looking for a film or image to put up for an example and came across this picture that instantly inspired me to understand just what the difference was between terror and horror. This image is a great example of Gothic terror and horror. I don't know Spanish, but can see that the movie is based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe, so it probably is a dark story. Aside from that, it describes terror and horror perfectly to me just seeing the image of the cat sitting on the girl missing an eye.
At first, I feel a sense of terror when I start to think just what has happened? But what is terror? Did this cat stumble across a murdered woman and pluck out her eye as a late night snack, or did something more sinister happen? Is the cat responsible for her death? It must have had some hand in it due to the blood dripping down its claws. Did she have a fear of superstitions and run away from the cat to avoid it crossing her path and then somehow was killed in the process? These questions I found asking myself helped describe terror to me: the sense of what exactly led up to her initial death and what was the exact cause, or the anxiety I felt as I imaged the different ways in which she was murdered. All the emotions, feelings, and actions that lead up to the actual murder are what causes or describes the word terror to me.
Then there's the horror! You look closely at her face and notice her eyeball is missing, and then see the cat's paw and see blood dripping down them across her face. The expression the cat is giving seeming to take pride and glory in its accomplishment, or the expression of shock and lifeless expression she gives, are what induces horror as well. The shock and awe of gore and dismemberment is what is the horror of this scene.
Anyway you look at it, a cat sitting on a woman with her eye missing would freak just about anyone out in real life, causing us to wonder just what kind of cat it really was? Demonic cat or no, If I saw that cat anywhere I would not stop and think what had happened, but would run the hell away in hopes that my eye wouldn't be next on the menu.

New Semester, New Goals

2010-01-12T17:02:00.001-08:00

Hi, I'm Michael Finch and for those who don't know me, this is my second semester here at WSU TriCities. I am an English major and plan on graduating this December. I enjoy reading a lot and learning different points of view from fellow classmates that help me better understand the subject matter at hand. I find that often times when I have a question about something, it is usually answered by someone in class or by our esteemed teacher Julie with her plethora of literary knowledge. My goals are to write and illustrate books and I already have a book in the works being published that I illustrated for a friend last year. By the end of this year I hope to finish a novel that I began writing over Christmas break that I am almost ready to begin writing the dialogue for. Right now I have all of the main events, character studies and almost half of the story time-line flushed out. I love art work and you can see the blog post previous to this one to see my illustrations that I did for last semester's final project in Julie's class. I also am an avid watcher of Anime, enjoy a good suspense/mystery movie, highly recommend Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. if you already haven't seen it, and I love chocolate. I look forward to learning from everyone this semester.

Final Project

2009-12-18T14:06:00.001-08:00

Sources of Madness

I found it interesting studying the novels we read throughout the semester, how those who were involved with colonization, or afterward, ended up being affected in one way or another by some form of madness, whether self-inflicted or imposed upon them by some outside source. I was excited to be able to do a creative project for my final because as I read the different novels, I had images in my head surrounding the behind-the-scene mechanization of madness working itself upon the various different characters. It was in studying the sources that contributed towards each individual’s own form of madness that the symbolism and imagery of their cause for madness came into my mind and inspired each of my illustrations, each in a very different and unique way. I drew inspiration for each illustration from the novels of “Heart of Darkness,” “Wide Sargasso Sea” and “Ha Jin: A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find.” The characters I chose to illustrate are Kurtz, Antoinette, and Wang Huping.

The first illustration I did focused on the character of Kurtz from “Heart of Darkness.” The inner working of his mind is what caught my interest and we learn a great deal about the nature of his character from different accounts of people who have met him. A Russian man recalls his interactions with Kurtz and gives us a sad glimpse into what has become of the European, colonial man since he had been staying in the jungle. He states: “[Kurtz’s] expeditions had been for ivory…[he] raided the country…[and] got the tribe to follow him…They adored him…he came to them with thunder and lightning…they had never seen anything like it…He could be very terrible” (Heart of Darkness 55-56). From this description of Kurtz I imagined the inner-workings of his mind. The cavern in the illustration represents this in a dark way. It represents his obsession for expeditions for one thing, and one thing only: ivory. He is obsessed with it and when he is dying expresses this obsession in a miserable and bleak way: “I had immense plans…I was on the threshold of great things” (Heart of Darkness 65). Even when he knows he is dying, he still only thought of ivory.

So, with that in mind, I illustrated representing his mind consisting of his conquered village going out on expeditions and working and storing only one thing: ivory. The people represent his thought process of seeking out and obtaining ivory. Each stall is meant for receiving the ivory and dispensing it to the large pile of ivory in the bottom right corner of the illustration. As we go towards the center of the cave, there is a shrine with candles, and a gong made from ivory tusks representing the focus and worship of the entire village. Underneath the looming dark figure is a caravan of workers carrying in ivory in carts, backpacks or even hand. Above them all in the upper left is Kurtz himself, a looming dark, and red-eyed, frenzied figure. He is in darkness because he has lost his former self-image of a colonial European, and has become a god-like spirit, who rules over his own thought process, sending out and receiving people with only information on obtaining that with what he is most obsessed with. His hand is formed like a cluster of ivory, because his whole being has become fixated on grabbing as much ivory as he can. This is the mind of Kurtz with only one thing on the agenda: ivory. He has lost himself, and become an orchestrator bent on his own obsession.

The next novel I chose to illustrate another case of a character driven towards madness was “Wide Sargasso Sea.” It revolves around the character of Antoinette whose family history derives from former colonial slave plantation owners. This history is at the root of the many problems with former slaves that she encounters. Frederick W. Hickling illustrates her predicament quite well:

“Learning to see oneself through the eyes of others; believing that to be civilized is equivalent to being European. All of these ideas originated in the colonial encounter and have had enduring psychological effects. In a social environment where economic and political disenfranchisement gives tangible expression to one's powerlessness it was easily possible to result in behavior that would be deemed sheer madness” (Post-Colonialism).

Antoinette struggles with the fact that she is European, yet lives in the Caribbean. She is now considered an outcast, because she belongs to a former slave plantation family, and is looked down upon by the former slaves she now is surrounded by. This is where her mental state is becoming to be affected by the stress from enduring the psychological effects of now becoming the outcast in her newfound society. Laura E. Ciolkowski also discusses the struggle with identity after colonial rule is disbanded in this area: “The competing narrative frames, authorial voices, and shifting points of view that characterize Wide Sargasso Sea reenact the struggles over meaning that are embedded within the fictions of colonial identity and English imperial control” (Navigating the ‘Wild Sargasso Sea’). Without English imperial control, what was the purpose of being there, and what was their role? These could be questions for former colonials that still lived there. On top of all of this, we discover that her confidant, former slave caretaker Christophine, moves away from her, and begins destroying her mental state and marriage out of resentment towards colonials. She gives Antoinette mysterious drinks with alcohol and who knows what else all throughout her life. These further destroy Antoinette’s marriage and send her into a frenzied state, where she is taken back to Europe and is “taken care of” by more drinks and isolation.

Antoinette’s final narratives of her surroundings are what I drew upon for inspiration in this scene:

“It was then that I saw her-the ghost. The woman with streaming hair…I knew her…As I ran or perhaps floated…I called help me Christophine help me and looking behind me I saw that I had been helped. There was a wall of fire protecting me…Someone screamed and I thought, Why did I scream? I called “Tia!” and jumped and woke” (Wide Sargasso Sea 111-112).

Her vision before her own drugged suicide is what is depicted in my illustration. Antoinette seems to float as she is holding a bottle of some mysterious concoction. She recognizes the ghost who is Christophine and is screaming. Christophine appears as the ghost in Antoinette’s vision and is holding a bottle with dark smoke coming out of it trying to envelope Antoinette, and also coming out of the bottle Antoinette is holding showing the connection that she had in Antoinette’s mental downfall and addiction to drinks. Christophine is symbolically trying to drag Antoinette down while also trying to wrap her ghostly limbs around her enveloping her in her rage and hatred for former colonial slave holders. Between them is a collection of various bottles that show the influence of potions and drinks Christophine used on Antoinette throughout her life. In the background is the wall of fire that represents the hatred of her childhood friend Tia who was black, as well as the literal fire Antoinette unknowingly starts that leads to her jumping off of the burning building in the end. This is a dream which Antoinette will unfortunately never awaken from.

HaJin’s: “A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find” was a compelling tale about Communist China and their quest to represent ancient history as realistically as possible in film. I would like to portray this story first by accurately depicting the Chinese Film Industry:

“China produces three main kinds of movies: commercial films, propaganda films and art films. They sometimes go through a similar screening process but are produced with different goals in mind and different relations with the government. China also has one of the last remaining Communist film industries. State studios still produce and widely distribute numerous patriotic, propaganda films, known among Chinese film makers as “main melody.” Film scripts must also be approved by the China Film Co-production Corporation, the Ministry of Broadcasting, Television and Film and, lastly, by the Ministry of Truth and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Depending on a number of factors the process can take anywhere from weeks to years. The actual shooting of the film has to follow a strict schedule” (Chinese Film Industry).

Now that you know a little more about Communist film making, the actions of the movie director may now seem a little more understandable, yet still lacking in proper judgment in my opinion.
This film crew has been ordered by the governor to reshoot their film to more realistically depict the hero Wu Song fighting the tiger and beating it to death barehanded. The director is pressed with a very strict schedule and a seemingly unrealistic task in his hands: dealing now with a live tiger, and finding a real life tiger-fighter. He obtains both items on his agenda, but is in for a surprise with his prized tiger-fighter Wang Huping. Wang is fed a lot of inspiration from the director and he feels confident to perform the task asked of him. Time and time again, they fail at getting the right shots and after drugging the tiger too much, and their star actor turning into a baby climbing up the tree and refusing to come down, they consider alternatives and getting a new actor. Wang is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is still allowed to act the scene after they realize they are pressed for time and cannot find anyone else.

This is where my attention was grabbed. The choices the director made by encouraging Wang several takes to really fight a live tiger, getting scared out of his mind and climbing a tree, being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and still being used is poor judgment on his part. Then, to go as far as killing the tiger and putting a live man underneath to act like a real one while being beaten alive by a schizophrenia infected, frenzied, man, is beyond me. Though Wang’s madness is in a way self-inflicted by genetics, I would have to say it was encouraged and even heightened to a deeper state by the misjudgments of the director who cared more about a film schedule and achieving realism than he did for the health of his actors and film crew. The crew’s realization didn’t even persuade the director to think otherwise:

“In private…clerks, assistants, [and] actors complained about the classic novel…Why would an author write such a difficult scene? It’s impossible for any man to ride a tiger and then beat it to death bare-handed. The story is pure fabrication that has misled readers for hundreds of years. It may have been easy for a writer to describe it on paper, but in reality, how could we create such a hero” (Tiger-Fighter 60).
It is the film crew’s realization that the scene was impossible to depict realistically, that inspired my illustration of the scene where Wang is up the tree.

I chose to model my illustration after traditional Chinese paintings depicting the human figure and landscapes as ideal subjects (Chinese Painting). They usual have a lot of negative (open) space, so I crafted the design of the illustration with that in mind as well. I chose the scene where Wang is scared after the tiger attacks him and he runs up in a tree as my subject. Here, I depicted him as a cool, calm, nerdy guy who is contemplating other things outside of the reality that is right in front of him. Just like the crew realizing the unrealistic events of the traditional story, and the director ignoring it, so too is Wang oblivious to reality. No one in real life could kill a tiger bare-handed, just like no one in real life would be sitting calmly in a tree mere inches away from a life-threatening tiger. This is a comedic depiction of the cold reality that the director, pressed for time and production, valued making a work of fantasy come to life at what could have been the cost of both his star actor’s and most of his crew’s lives instead.

In the end, it was studying the sources that contributed towards each individual’s own form of madness that the symbolism and imagery of their cause for madness came into my mind and inspired each of my illustrations, each in a very different and unique way. Whether their madness was caused by lust for power, revenge on someone else’s part, or in recognition for one’s own work while the mental condition of their actor was overlooked, they were each driven to madness in one form or another.

Works Cited
Hickling, Frederick W. Post-colonialism and Mental Health. Psychiatric Bulletin, The Royal
College of Psychiatrists. 2000. http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/24/3/94
His idea that acceptance can be symbolized with the attainment of Whiteness being nothing new and the continued sale of skin bleaching creams in Africa and the Caribbean illustrates that negative perceptions of Blackness among Black people still persist today. This goes well with Antoinette's problems of reverse discrimination and how she was treated after colonialism ended by former slaves just because she was of European descent and her family owned a former plantation. Both her and former slaves, were affected negatively as to self identity and where did they actually belong?

Ciolkowski, Laura. Navigating the 'Wide Sargasso Sea': Colonial History, English Fiction, and
British Empire. Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 43. 1997 http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000589793
This is useful because it discusses Wide Sargasso Sea inquiring into the production of knowledge about Englishness and, in the process, puts Englishness itself into crisis. This article is about the making of Englishness in the early nineteenth century, both before and following emancipation. It fits well with Antoinette's predicament being caught between two worlds where none really accept her.
Hays, Jeffery. Chinese Film Industry. 2008
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=245&catid=7&subcatid=42

I included this because it gives us a sense of what it's like to produce a film in China and gives us a glimpse into what might have been on the agenda of the director's mind that led him to ignore Wang's mental condition.
Wikipedia: Chinese Painting. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_painting
I used this as a resource to illustrate after the tradition of traditional Chinese figure and landscape paintings.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. 2006.

Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom: “A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find”. Vintage International Vintage Books. Random House Inc. New
York. 2000. 54-70

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Wallace Literary Agency. New York. 1999.

Proposal

2009-12-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

I am taking the creative project route and am doing an illustration of characters and symbols on the themes of madness and colonialism being a contributor towards those characters affected with madness as a result. I will be drawing from the novels of Heart of Darkness, Wide Sargasso Sea and Ha Jin: A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find. The characters illustrated will be Kurtz, Antoinette, and Wang Huping. I am doing this because I found it interesting studying the novels, how those who were invovled with colonization, or afterward, ended up being affected in some way or another by some form of madness, whether self-inflicted or imposed upon them by some outside source. With the case of Kurtz, it was his obsession with ivory that caused his descent into madness. Antoinette of course, was inflicted upon her by her surroundings and behind the scene means of Christophine and her potions and drugs. Wang is a particularly interesting case where it could be said it was his mental state that led him towards madness, or it could even be said that it was the director, who while ignoring Wang's condition only made it worse and led it to becoming even more of an issue and a danger for those involved with production.

5 Scholarly Sources:

1. http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/24/3/94

Hickling, Frederick W. Post-colonialism and Mental Health. Psychiatric Bulletin, The Royal College of Psychiatrists. 2000.

His idea that acceptance can be symbolized with the attainmentof Whiteness being nothing new and the continued sale of skinbleaching creams in Africa and the Caribbean illustrates thatnegative perceptions of Blackness among Black people stillpersist today. This goes well with Antoinette's problems of reverse discrimination and how she was treated after colonialism ended by former slaves just because she was of european descent and her family owned a former plantation. Both her and former slaves, were affected negatively as to self identity and where did they actually belong?

2. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000589793

Ciolkowski, Laura. Navigating the 'Wide Sargasso Sea': Colonial History, English Fiction, and British Empire. Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 43. 1997

This is useful because it discusses Wide Sargasso Sea inquiring into the production of knowledge about Englishness and, in the process, puts Englishness itself into crisis. This article is about the making of Englishness in the early nineteenth century, both before and following emancipation. It fits well with Antoinette's predicament being caught between two worlds where none really accept her.

3. http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=245&catid=7&subcatid=42

Hays, Jeffery. Chinese Film Industry. 2008

I included this because it gives us a sense of what it's like to produce a film in China and gives us a glimpse into what might have been on the agenda of the director's mind that led him to ignore Wang's mental condition.

4. http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/madness-nineteenth-century-literature

5. http://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/French_16178.html

Dubliners: Araby and Eveline, short and to what point???

2009-11-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

I want to talk about the first two short stories we read: Araby and Eveline. They were obviously short, but what point were they written for? I find the way in which both of the stories were ended to be a big disappointment. To me, I found Araby to have no real meaning at all. I can see a little meaning in Eveline, but not much.
First let's look at Araby. It's about a boy who likes a girl and wants to go to a fair, but she can't go with him, so he promises to bring her something back. He eventually gets to go at closing time, and when given the opportunity to purchase something for her, puts the money back in his pocket and walks off empty handed, the end. What's the point? Why did he do that? Did he even have a reason! This was a big let down to me. I wanted to know why he just went home. To me, this makes the author look like a lazy guy, who had this idea, got to a certain point, and then gave up trying to develop it and just ended it abruptly. Why include it, unless the author was making a statement that Dubliners did things for no reason at all, and trying to understand their reasoning was beyond others outside of their culture?
What to say about Eveline? Well, she must have loved misery, because that's what she went back to. She had the opportunity to choose happiness and go to a far away country with a sailor, and at the very last moment she clings to the railing of the dock and says go on without me. She lived with an abusive father, and must have been delusional in telling herself to stay with that over her new option to escape. She must have been abused so much as to believe that anything other than that life would be scary to her. She must have been afraid to leave the comforts of her misery on account of being possibly disappointed with her new life away from everything that she knew. I guess that's the only point I got from it other than her just jumping ship at the last second on a voyage to possible happiness. Abuse and misery was her life and anything else must have been seen as foreign to her.

Lahiri

2009-11-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

Out of all of the cultural diversities we discover within the short stories of Lahiri, one stood out to me as the most peculiar and bizarre one of them all in terms of cultural beliefs. The Treatment of Bibi Haldar had a very interesting story to tell of a diseased woman whose lengthy diagnoses prescribed her to have relations as the cure to what ailed her. She was apparently overexcited, and she was told to go and get married, have sex, and that would calm her blood, and cure her once and for all. Seriously? Sex was the cure-one-cure-all prescription that would cure her lifelong illness of what is supposedly epilepsy? As strange as this sounds to us, it is apparently not news to everyone else and is accepted on most everyone elses part except Bibi's caretakers.

Indian medical techniques are supposedly far from related to western medicine as you can get. If a doctor here prescribed sex to someone as a treatment, maybe we would have over a billion people in our population as well. But, in reality, most likely the doctor would end up being sued for malpractice or sexual harassment. What really seems unlikely and downright strange, is that later on, when Bibi is kicked out and her cousins are run out of business, it is discovered that she is four months pregnant. Not only that, but apparently she delivers her son, and is cured from all of her ailments and lives an ordinary life. Sex really did cure what ailed her.

Hey, maybe next time I have a headache, or stomach ache, or several seizures, I'll just go have sex and miraculously be cured. If it worked for Bibi, surely it will work for me, or anyone else for that matter. Or, maybe that could be a nice line to use next time I'm at the hospital and I am asked by the nurse what I did for my ailments. She'll ask if I took any medication, and I can say "no, I had sex several times, but my symptoms didn't get any better. I don't understand why? Maybe you can prescribe that I try again and have more sex?"

I'm sounding pretty cynical at this point I know, but really, sex cured Bibi??? I'm sorry, but it's highly unlikely to me that she was cured by those means only. There has to be some logical explanation to her cure. Oh, wait, no it doesn't. It's a work of fiction and anything is possible. I'm all for works of fiction, but when someone plagued for 27 some odd years is miraculously cured by having sex and a son, I find it really hard to swallow.

Broken Mirror

2009-10-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

Spivak says: "There are...many images of mirroring in the text" (242) involving Antoinette and Tia. While I would agree there are some similarities between the two, I would say that Antoinette breaks away from Tia's mirrored similarity after the incident of the rock throwing.

"Then, not so far off, I saw Tia and her mother and I ran to her, for she was all that was left of my life as it had been...as I ran, I thought, I will live with Tia and I will be like her" (27). Antoinette was looking for support where she had previously found it. She was looking for acceptance in a world where that was hardly ever found. The rock throwing incident shows the racial discrimination accepted by Tia. This is where the mirroring stops. Antoinette continues to grow and is surrounded by black workers and has an affectionate relationship between Christophine, however one-sided that may be. She does not hate black people even though they obviously hate her.

Where Tia accepts the brutal reality that exists between her people on the island, Antoinette lives in a somewhat unreal world of her making where she and former slaves get along, if only in her mind. She forms an island around herself. An island that she loves more than anything else. Where no acceptance was to be found, Antoinette in the end found the acceptance she was looking for. Sadly, it turned out to be an illusion. While jumping off of the building, she screams and sees her past friend Tia. Her dream to have things they way there were and be accepted by her friend was finally realized, if only for a brief moment in her mind from her descent off of the roof.

Mental Whirlpool of the Sargasso Sea

2009-10-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

When we begin reading Sargasso Sea, we are already introduced to a somewhat mentally unstable mother figure of Annette. Being left alone with her children after the emancipation of slavery left her in a very difficult situation. She most likely was in the beginnings of a deep depression, and as such, was distancing herself from at least her daughter Antoinette. An event that likely starts to drag her further down a spiraling descent is when she persuaded a doctor to examine her son Pierre. We don't know what he said to the mother, but afterwords we are told: "she changed. Suddenly, not gradually. She grew thin and silent, and at last she refused to leave the house at all" (Sargasso Sea 10). What ever she was told, it crumbled her hope for the future even further.

Shortly after, Antoinette sees that her mother is sad and tries to comfort her. She recalls: "she pushed me away, not roughly but calmly, coldly, without a word, as if she had decided once and for all that I was useless to her" (Sargasso Sea 11). Here, we find that her mother is so devastated about her son, that she distances herself from her daughter. This causes not only her to delve further into the darkness of her depression, but most likely causing the beginning of her own daughters depression and cracking her sane mental state as well.

Later on, there is so much contention caused from the blacks towards Annette's family, that they form a mob and set fire to their house. This is a crucial breaking point for Annette. We find out that Pierre was caught in the fire and Antoinette is hit in the head by a rock thrown at her by her apparent best friend Tia. This causes her to pass out for six weeks. When she awakens, she is told that Pierre died on the way, and that her mom is resting in a home. She goes and visits her mother: "I put my arms around her and kissed her. She held me so tightly that I couldn't breathe and I thought, 'It's not her.' Then, 'It must be her'...I could not say, 'He is dead', so I shook my head. 'But I am here, I am here,' I said, and she said 'No,' quietly. Then 'No no no' very loudly and flung me from her" (Sargasso Sea 28-29). Her mother is so devastated over the death of Pierre, that she utterly rejects her own daughter as a result. We don't know what she is thinking, but one possibility might have been to reject her child that reminded her of having a child that was dead. Either way, it appears as if Antoinette is dead to her mother and she never visits her again.

Eighteen months pass, Antoinette is seventeen now, and we learn that her mother has died. I imagine she died of grief and either passed away from that or may have even committed suicide. Either way, she started out hopeful, only to have spiraled further and further down her whirlpool of depression until she drowned herself from the real outside world in a pool of despair. Given these circumstances, who is to know what we would do in the same situation. Would we too give way to despair and grief, or remain hopeful that things would get better despite all of the opposition and acts of hate? I'm just glad I wasn't in that kind of situation. I probably wouldn't have known what to do.

The fire that turned to ashes

2009-09-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

When Okonkwo was pondering how he could have begotten a son like Nwoye, his: "eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash" (Achebe 89). This expression explains a lot to me pertaining to a possible insight from the title "Things Fall Apart." One could say that the fire within Okonkwo was what lead to the "ashes" of his son, his village, and ultimately himself in the end; where things really just fall apart.
What exactly can be used to describe the fire that Okonkwo has that leads to all of this? One thing comes to mind: obsession with not becoming like his own father. It is this obsession of his that leads to Okonkwo not being true to his own self. He kills his adopted son just so he doesn't appear weak towards the rest of his clan. He didn't even want to do it, and would probably much rather kept him as his own son. It's how he appears in the eyes of his fellow peers, that really drive his character and actions that he chooses.
After the long exile and returning to his village, he is bent on obtaining titles as much as he can. His obsession really catches fire and it was after his son joined the Christians, that he thought about how fire leads to ash. Soon after, he realizes he probably can never regain his titles or title over everyone, and begins to become depressed. His fire is slowly turning himself to cold, impotent, ash, and now he sees just how much his village has changed.
In his last attempt to return things to how they were before he left, he calls a meeting, and finally realizes that all hope at rekindling the fire that was once there, can never return, and he hangs himself on a tree. His fire of obsession turned his life and those around him to ash, all because he couldn't be true to his own feelings, and cared more about how he was viewed in the eyes of others, more so than his own family.

Should we read Heart of Darkness?

2009-09-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

We should definitely read Heart of Darkness. The greatest reason that I could find can be found in Miller's explanation of how we should perceive the book: "In just what way does Heart of Darkness invite reading as literature rather than, say, as a historical account or as an autobiography? The most obvious way is the displacement from Conrad to two imaginary narrators, neither of whom is to be identified with Conrad" (465). To me, this is the biggest problem with the lecture by Achebe. His first problem with calling Conrad a racist is that he assumes that the views and actions that take place within Heart of Darkness, are directly linked to his own ideals, and thoughts about the African people. But, just as Miller points out, this is a grave error. The book is told through an imaginary character, and simply cannot be taken out of context and be assumed to be Conrad's own words.
Even if some opinion is raised against it, Heart of Darkness still is an important piece of literature that should be read. It is a very important portrayal of lifestyles on both sides of the impending parties. On one side is the Colonial perception of the natives lifestyle and their treatment towards them in varying degrees, and then there is the key character of Kurtz who takes things to an extreme. Whether you like what happens or not, Heart of Darkness is a good piece of historical fiction and gives us a glimpse into the past of what is was like to might have been a colonial in Africa over a hundred years ago. Miller said it best: "If it is read, however, as I believe it should be read, as a powerful exemplary revelation of the ideology of capitalist imperialism...then, I declare, Heart of Darkness should be read, ought to be read. There is an obligation to do so"(474). If we don't read just because we think the author was racist, or that it portrays people the wrong way, we are denying ourselves the knowledge of history. Whether it be good or bad, we should learn how people lived and were treated a long time ago, or else make the same mistakes and return to a life of ignorance and malice on account of being fearful of the unknown.

Alfred Russel Wallace and The Heart of Darkness

2009-09-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Wallace discusses the topic on whether or not humans are one race or many. The main subject he discusses is based upon natural selection and how we differ in those terms as compared to the animals. One key difference he discussed was that our physical differences are due to living in different environments.
Another difference of natural selection with humans verses animals is that humans are social and sympathetic. Actions that would change animals and change limbs, are otherwise kept in check due to our adaptability as a species. He also talks about the changes of the body being transferred to changes of the mind and that is how natural selection acts upon the human being today.
It is through this "natural selection" that races and cultures have dominated over each other by intelligence, and apparently it has always been from North to South in retrospect.
He ends by saying that if man was not truly man until his higher intelligence became active, then there were many distinct races of men; yet if there was an original being closely related to ourselves, then we can say there was a common origin of man.
In "The Heart of Darkness" there is a correlation of "higher intelligence" and natural selection through the guise of Colonialism that is used to dominate and subjugate the indigenous population of Africa. "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking of it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much...An idea at the back of it...and an unselfish belief in the idea-something you can set up and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to..."(7 Conrad). It is through Colonialism in Africa that we can see one races use of their supposed higher intelligence being used to dominate over another. Conrad said it best: "conquest of the earth...is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much"(7 Conrad).

Who is Michael Finch?

2009-08-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Michael Finch, 26, happily married, and have an 18 month old son. I have been in college now for 5 years, been through 3 different majors, and just this summer I finally figured out what I would like to major in. I started off being a music major, then moved on to an animation major, and just when I thought that's what I would like to do, I got involved with a creative writing club and it rekindled my love and interest in writing. I have read a lot of books recently within the past year or so and they have directed me to further pursue the English major and become a writer. I eventually want to write and Illustrate my own books, and am currently trying to get a book published that I finished illustrating last month for a friend of mine that wrote a childrens book. I would like to write novels, graphic novels, or childrens books as well. I have really enjoyed reading the Diamond Age and am already half way through the book. Science-Fiction is one of my favorite genres and I find the technology described throughout the book to be very interesting and almost ahead of thought due to the time in which it was written just at the dawn of the internet age. I am ecxited to read more books from authors around the globe and throughout the past century this semester and be globaly linked to other students from around the globe as well. This image is a sample of an illustration I did for the book my friend wrote.