Reading the Sparknotes of The Brothers Karamazov is like...

getting to 29,029ft on Mount Everest and discovering it's height is now an eternity.

spanking a baby for speaking its first words.

failing at a challenge.

jumping out of an airplane in your birthday suit.

finding a pot of gold under a rainbow and taking only a few coins...

Alice in 3D

Did anyone else notice how in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, That most of the names and a few words were spoken in the language of dreams. I have been infatuated with discovering meaning and reasons for what ideals we speak of everyday in class. Unfortunately like in my dreams, I can never remember the words or names to recall on them but only the vision of the person saying the word. The movie really continued on the entire theme and idea of the original book by Lewis Carroll and the previous Walt Disnified version.

3/3/10 The Lady with the Pet Dog

The lady with the pet dog definitely hit home to me. Both versions were similar but in my honest opinion, completely different experiences. I love reading excellent words flowing. Sentences looping in and out of one another, with an image being painted along the way. These stories make it hard to argue the fact that the guy was a misogynist. Yes indeed he was, but was doing harm to the woman? It seemed as if he was actually bettering her. He made her feel alive and human. He never pushed her or hurt her like her husband might have on a daily basis. She had a reason to cheat, she was not happy. and this man made her happy. Had she been madly in love with her husband and her husband truly being the man for her, she would have not been intrigued no matter how tempting the man was. Women are special in this way. They can put their logic before their sexual desire where as men often have trouble seeing the logical path due to excess blood in the one of their heads with out a brain. The story depicted the man as two-faced but all in all he knew she was married and he did not give her the image she needed to be with him. He was a savior and a rude awakening to the lady in my opinion.

misogyny - men who think the female race is inferior

sturgeon
watermelon
the lace was like scales on the skin
test- Gurov suffers an epiphany, surrounded by philistines when guy says something about sturgeon

features- told naturally, exact and rich characterization, no moral or message, based on a system of waves of moves, contrast of poetry (watermelon), the story does not end (people will alway be around, storyteller goes out to show trifles.

class discussion

Listening to the professor speak about these different types of women in history gave me yet another example of just how intertwined humans are. Since the dawn of literature and story telling the same perceptions of women have been used. From the blood sucking negative transformatives to nursing mothers of the positive element.

The hero pattern

Looking at and reading the 22-point hero pattern written out by Lord Raglan was quite interesting as it really in more than three or four ways related to every hero ever written about. Analyzing the pattern shows that "Hero's" struggle and overcome fear, rising and falling their entire life. We see and love Heros and always want to be one but the true definition of a hero is someone who often fails with spurts of great success.

This pattern is based upon The Hero: A study in Tradition, Myth and Dreams by Lord Raglan

Incidents which occur with regularity in hero-myths of all cultures:

1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. he is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill,
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchres.


taken from http://department.monm.edu/classics/courses/Clas230/MythDocuments/HeroPattern/default.htm