I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. - W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944)

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. - Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Idiot," or "That Claudius," or "Claudius the Stammerer," or "Clau-Clau-Claudius" or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius," am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the "golden predicament" from which I have never since become disentangled. - Robert Graves, I, Claudius (1934)

Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me. - GŸnter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959; trans. Ralph Manheim)
If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. - Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964)
Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605; trans. Edith Grossman)
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. - Raphael Sabatini, Scaramouche (1921)
He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. - Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900)

I am an invisible man. - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
Call me Ishmael. - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. —Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
This is the saddest story I have ever heard. - Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. - J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
You better not never tell nobody but God. - Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. - Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
For a long time, I went to bed early. - Marcel Proust, Swann's Way (1913; trans. Lydia Davis)
Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes' chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. - Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939)

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. - Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)
It was love at first sight. - Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)
In the beginning, sometimes I left messages in the street. - David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress (1988)
What if this young woman, who writes such bad poems, in competition with her husband, whose poems are equally bad, should stretch her remarkably long and well-made legs out before you, so that her skirt slips up to the tops of her stockings? - Gilbert Sorrentino, Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (1971)
Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. - George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872)
Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. - David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

Another Brick In The Wall

In Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”, the wall represents schisms of communication and cultural exchange. The title has a dual meaning: It signifies the action of mending the wall, as well as the wall that mends. We must also note that in the former interpretation, the noun ‘wall’ is vague. Is it plural or singular?; General or specific?

The “Something there is that doesn't love a wall” also has two possible approaches. The “something” can be the very narrator who begins to doubt the repairs he feels forced to complete, as we see when he inquires, "Why do they make good neighbours? / Isn't it Where there are cows? / But here there are no cows. / Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offence. In this poem with a predominant iambic pentameter meter, the other “something there that doesn’t love a wall” can also be a force of natural attraction. Maybe the wall is not destined to exist where and when it does. Even the narrator acknowledges the silliness in their efforts to keep the wall upright, for he or she says that “We have to use a spell to make them balance: / "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"” The poem questions the validity of comfort zones, for the wall represents a comfortable, yet invasive and ephemeral area that blocks a path. Where does this path originate? What is its destination?

The narrator analyzes the blind determination of his companion, when he “[…] see[s] him there / Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top / In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. / He moves in darkness as it seems to me, / Not of woods only and the shade of trees”. This darkness in which he moves represents the ignorance of his faith and effort. He does not know where he is going, or why, and yet goes without question, for “He will not go behind his father's saying, / And he likes having thought of it so well / He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours"”. Here we see a practiced custom, maintained by fear and repetition, which yields to a comfortable slavery. The poem seems to criticize those who blindly follow others to remain in their comfort zone. It praises the incentive required to inspire doubt, and the initiative employed in expressing it by rejecting the norm.

A Sunny Mourning

In Kevin Young’s “The Mission”, he contrasts light and dark imagery to portray the dichotomy of life and death. By employing elements of satire, he gives the comparison an ironic tone. The poem’s purpose is to find grim humor in the eternal cycle of life, grievance, and death. The fact that humor is present in a poem with death as a topic is ironic in itself.

Contrasting imagery first appears when Young writes “of cars, lights low / as talk, idling dark”. The other instance where this is seen is when he complains of how “The sun / is too bright. / Your eyes / adjust, become / like the night. Hands / covering the face— / its numbers dark / & unmoving”.

By saying, “Mornings or dead / of night”, he plays with the wording, and the expression “dead of night”. This is an ironic description, for the poem concerns death. Furthermore, the word “morning” is a homophone to the word ‘mourning’, which would be considered a pun if its spelling were different. Peoples’ existence, thus, is either spent mourning, or in a grave.

The statement, “He kept everything / but alive”, exemplifies a type of humor that manipulates the words ‘he kept everything’. On one hand, it can mean that the father maintained control over his belongings. Alternately, the second line establishes the humor by posing a secondary definition for the phrase, as “he kept himself everything but alive”, meaning that the deceased one fervently, yet pointlessly kept his health. This poses another irony, which satirizes the effort to preserve the body and avoid an unavoidable death.

Such satiric humor wishes to criticize a society of monotonous and continuous sorrow, for “I have come to know / sorrow’s / not noun / but verb”. We must learn, according to the poem, to regard death more lightly.

The 40-Minute World is Not Enough

In Adrienne Rich’s “Storm Warnings”, we see metaphors comparing hostile weather to inner tempest and unwelcome change. The title, “Storm Warnings”, represents the uselessness of predictions to cope with a challenging experience. These forecasts signal an uncomfortable, and unalterable event, one that “clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” (17).

The first line compares “the glass [that] has been falling all the afternoon” (1) to clear raindrops. The “instrument” (2) mentioned in the next line literally refers to a barometer or thermometer, commonly used to analyze weather. Metaphorically, we can also consider the news as an instrument for weather forecast, or any upcoming change in the surroundings. Because the narrator knows better than these instruments, he or she accepts that they undermine reality, and, thus, the narrator braces for the incoming change. This first stanza depicts a specific case of the repetitive phenomenon described in the last stanza. In a way, this organization illustrates an eternal loop.

The weather and its changes not only represent, literally, a storm, but they also metaphorically symbolize social unrest outside of the shelter that is the home. Likewise, the metaphor indicates inner turmoil.

Time is given a hazardous, aggressive, and mysterious personality, when Rich commands the reader to “[…] think again, as often when the air / Moves toward a silent core of waiting, / How with a single purpose time has travelled / By secret currents of the undiscerned / Into its polar realm” (8-12). The “single purpose” makes the change a determined one. The “silent core of waiting” describes the peace the such a change feels it must disrupt, and the undiscerned winds contrast with determination of its travels to give the change a “polar personality”.

We see the metaphor deepen when Rich writes how “Weather abroad / And weather in the heart alike come on / Regardless of prediction” (12-14). Here we see the futility of knowledge, hypotheses, instruments, and theories when faced against the actual event. Furthermore, the metaphor’s inclusion of inner discomfort is clearly seen in this citation. She emphasizes the ineffectiveness of preparation by saying how “Between foreseeing and averting change / Lies all the mastery of the elements / Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” (15-17).

The narrator exposes the prison of unheralded change by explaining how all the preparations are “[…] the things we have learned to do / Who live in troubled regions” (27-28).

BUZZZZZZ.

Never Blue Enough

During the few days that Pecola had her "bluest eyes" (203), she was undoubtedly in a state of ecstasy. The conversation she had with Claudia represents an existential debate over the meaning of happiness, beauty, and love. They question the source of joy when Pecola asked:

"But suppose my eyes aren't blue enough?

Blue enough for what?

Blue enough for . . . I don't know. Blue enough for something. Blue enough . . . for you" (203)!

Pecola considers a happiness dependent on external components. In her comparisons, and search for certainty that her eyes are, indeed, the blues eyes, she loses herself, only to find that "the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment" (204). Here we see a Hinduist component of the novel, where the journey is the destination, and dreams remain dreams. Soaphead Church never achieves to become a clergyman, just as Pecola remained without public appreciation, and Pauline Breedlove never encountered her ideal mate or home. This novel is littered with disappointment, and yet, curiously, some characters possess joy. The three whores, for instance, live without guilt or worry. This made me question what type of personality is needed to attain unconditional happiness.

This is a novel with many erotic scenes of varied nature. None of them are conventional, for we see Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove sustain violent acts of love, Soaphead Church display controversial sexual tendencies, Cholly suffer an unfortunate childhood experience involving an untimely flashlight, and Geraldine feel obligated to indulge in repulsive interactions with her husband, which contrasts to the fetish focused on her pet. We can conclude that "love is never any better than the lover" (205). This is a realistic (cynic?) line, for it removes love from the pedestal it holds in the emotional pyramid. It is usually coupled with the idealistic hope of a "perfect love". Being based on the lover, who is undoubtedly imperfect, love becomes an imperfect sentiment.

Beauty: A highly controversial concept throughout the ages. My sister is currently working on a semester-long research paper on the perceptions of beauty and how culture, religion, and environment shape its definition. I will not tire my readers with an extensive discussion on this matter, but I will say this: By the end of the novel, Morrison emphasizes the vagueness and pointlessness of some of mankind's fiercest quests; those of perfect love, happiness, and beauty.

The Creative Reader

In her interview, Tony Morrison discusses one of her techniques to describe her characters (minute 14). She limits the details she uses, to allow the reader's imagination to flow and construct its own imagery. Although oblivious to this method, I enjoyed forming specific physical characteristics on my own. As Morrison explains, when she leaves the creativity of the character to the reader, "he or she owns it" (14:14).

In The Bluest Eye, Morrison illustrates Geradline's personality by simply demonstrating her actions. For instance, "Geraldine did not allow her baby, Junior, to cry" (87). We see her characteristic reactions when she commands Pecola to ""get out," she said, her voice quiet. "You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house"" (92). With this simple statement, a complete figure blossoms in my imagination. She reminds me somewhat of Harry Potter's Professor Dolores Umbridge. Her cat obsession, coupled with a sterile personality and explosive, bizarre reactions dapple her with pure maliciousness. I loathed her each time her figure matured in my mind. I enjoyed finishing Winter, because I appreciated Morrison's dexterity in evoking such an intense emotion within me, employing few, expectably insufficient details.

Freud And Zombies

I recently stumbled upon an interesting link while scavenging for René Descartes' biography in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The link to 'zombies' drew my eyes and made me wonder how the world of philosophy views the mindless creature. I expected to find a description of a nightmarish animal. From the few apocalyptic films that show them (SHORT LIST), one learns to fear their thirst for blood, which lacks the elegance of vampires'. After reading how zombies are humans without consciousness (by definition), I couldn't help but recall what we have learned in class about Freud's ideas on the subject. We see a meditating Buddha, a puny mortal, and a mindless zombie depict the three states of mind.

Automated Creativity

For those who underestimate themselves, I found an internet-based software that revises text. This is not your every-day spell-check-word-processor. This gizmo has more tricks up its sleeve to offer, including interpretation of word use, sentence variety, cliché finder, and more. I would appreciate any comments on this example of artificial "intelligence".

LINK

The Burnt Joke

When an author writes about three experienced women (be that sexual, chronological AKA senile, or intellectual capacities or other forms of experience), an allusion to the three fates is often present.

The three whores who live above Pecola's home, China, Poland, and Miss Marie represent those three fates. They each have their own personality. Their shared humor inspired by years of experience together gives them an eeriness comparable only with that of one who knows enough pain to last an eternity. That is, enough pain to become a joke. Their humorous experiences entertain them in a way that makes them bearable. "They abused their visitors with a scorn grown mechanical from use. Black men, white men, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Jews, Poles, whatever—all were inadequate and weak, all came under jaundiced eyes and were the recipients of their disinterested wrath" (56). We could even say that "these women hated men, all men, without shame, apology, or discrimination" (56), and that each recount of how they cheated them describes how they slit their string of life. Their eternal toil that forces them to live together becomes unbearable and comic, as we see in this depiction from the Disney cartoon, Hercules.

Regarding the idea I mentioned in my previous blog, we see that Pecola's ignorance remains untainted by the whores' witty comments, or their very obvious profession. Pecola doesn't seem to grasp the implications of such employment. She didn't even know what "mininstratin'" (27) was. On one hand, she asks profound questions, like "how do you get somebody to love you" (32)? This is the type of enviable objective thought some children use to perceive reality. The contrasting figures of the three experienced fates, with that of the innocent Pecola, creates polarized characters. The interaction between the two is definitely interesting to read.

Infants Of Horror And Comedy

After the first 30 or-so pages of The Bluest Eye, I noticed something I thought only occurred in horror films, and humorous cartoons. The creators depict intellectual and mature children alongside adults with ignorant and brusque personalities. These older characters often target a population group. Certain scenes epitomize this contrast. In particular, one of Mr. and Mrs. Breedlove's conflicts compare to a fight between toddlers. When Mrs. Breedlove expected her recently intoxicated husband to fetch coal, and Mrs. Breedlove sneezed after he reneged, she attacked like a fierce mother gorilla. "She ran into the bedroom with a dishpan full of cold water and threw it in Cholly's face. He sat up, choking and spitting. Naked and ashen, he leaped from the ned, and with a flying tackle, grabbed his wife around the waist, and they hit the floor" (44). The ensuing battle would only take place among children who don't know their own strength. Luckily, and "tacitly, they had agreed not to kill each other" (43). The adults speak with African American vernacular, while Pecola and Claudia represent mature, misunderstood girls who know how to speak with correct english grammar. Claudia's mother, during her rant regarding one vanished milk incident, screams, "Don't nobody never want nothing till they see me at the sink. Then everybody got to drink water...." (28). What is that, a triple negative?

Here we see a clip of Peter Griffin, from Family Guy, mocking the immature and ignorant American stereotype American, as usual...

Here is one clip of Homer Simpson displaying his clumsiness, only comparable to that of a toddler learning to use his extremities.

Our narrator, Claudia, describes the inside of the Breedlove's home with enough ease and precision to evoke colorful imagery, despite the bleak environment being illustrated. She says that the furnishings were "anything but describable, having been conceived, manufactured, shipped, and sold in various states of thoughtlessness, greed, and indifference" (35). Either Tony Morrison helps Claudia express a setting to help the reader, or she truthfully has mastery over the art of description. This is another possibility:

The children may speak African American vernacular when talking to other characters, and display enviable clarity when reflecting on their surroundings and occurrences.

Now, we shall see how smart children either convey horror, or they hint at uncomplicated intelligence.

How they surprisingly convey horror more effectively than adult figures, I do not know. Either way, I will content myself, and my readers by simply mentioning Chucky, the ventriloquist child puppet of happiness, and showing this harmless image.

Creepy. Now, on to the part where I show the mature, clever, innocent youngling.

OK. OK. So maybe I did have to scavenge a little for a representation of a smart and goodhearted six-year old. So what if we only see this nicely-combed doppelganger in a very rare, one of a kind strip where a character's dual personality materializes. Stewie Griffin seemed like the appropriate example. Despite his extreme lack of innocence, he is still a baby with a weird accent and sense of morality. He is probably the smartest member of his family, tied, ironically, with the dog.

Bloody Punch-Lines

After the first time I finished last page of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, another work was presented to me. The world's endemic and uncontaminated species are numbered. In Age of Discovery, Joseph Banks' journey depicts the customs of a blissfully ignorant Tahitian culture. As opposed to the natives we see in Conrad'snovel, those in Banks' recount expose themselves to the europeans with ease and trust. This is the very trust that, when abruptly shattered, eliminates any hope of good-will. The impossibility of genuine, selfless curiosity is now a joke. This time, however, the punch-line exterminates an ethnicity. Banks and his kind befriend the Tahitians, and partake in local commerce which ultimately gives the carpenter a monopoly he never dreamed of having.

(20)

Besides forming beneficial relations with the natives, Mr. Cook, the captain appears to think highly of respect and morality. Despite succumbing to taboo relationships in an island where they can remain a secret, he maintains a degree of european civilized values. He strongly upholds these values, and we see that the

(16).

When I think of the natives in Conrad's tale, I can't help but picture mystic beings, struggling for their survival against oppressing forces. Maybe Conrad depicts the future of the Tahitian people. We do see that at the time Conrad published his novel, the empires still believed in their benevolent intentions, as did the natives.

When Silence Screams

When I saw this 1994 film of Heart of Darkness, I was surprised by the scene of Mr Kurtz's death. I pictured it swifter and louder. Also, I was somewhat disappointed by Mr Kurtz's renowned voice. Maybe I imagined an impossible scene of a dying mortal.

I believe modern references to the scene transfigured my perception. Conrad does describe Mr Kurtz's final statement as "a cry that was no more than a breath" (130), which is exactly what we see in the film. I imagined a scene with a volume closer to that used in this video. Maybe this is the type of influences I should flee. This made me question myself: What other faulty influences have I allowed to corrupt my perception of literature's scenes?

Unnecessary Cravings, Satiated Forever

Buddhism preaches many ideals. It claims that cravings beget suffering. Since Marlow ends his speech "indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha" (146), we must not overlook the theme. In his journey of illumination, Marlow transforms himself. At first, he personifies the western thought pattern of expectation-disappointment-depression-repeat, as we see when he considers never meeting Mr Kurtz alive. "For the moment that was the dominant thought. There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't have been more disgusted if I had travelled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr Kurtz [. . .] We are too late; he has vanished—the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club. I will never hear that chap speak after all,—and my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of these savages in the bush. I couldn't have felt more lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life. . . ." (86-87).

Here we see a man wounded by the possibility of dissapointment. He has not yet experienced it, and feels grief already. The man who lies to Mr Kurtz's woman after his journey is not this same man. By telling her that "the last word he pronounced was—your name" (145), he embraces Buddhism and regrets its absence. She was not ready to hear the truth. Apparently, Marlow depicts an illuminated man who overcomes the tempting fruits of action.

Light-Dark-Light-Dark. Oh! The Horror! The Strobe-Induced Seizure!

One dichotomy Conrad depicts throughout his novel, is that of darkness and light. By the end, he convinced me of the death of all primary colors, and nearly managed to induce an imaginary seizure in my imaginary blackboard of imagination.

Typically, darkness represents bad, and light represents good. Conrad would never attempt to convey such a bland message,

especially when depicting a predominant theme in his work. Thus, he applies it with flexibility.

When Marlow describes Mr Kutz's darkness as "an impenetrable darkness" (129), we relate it to Mr Kurt'z hopelessness as he dies. At the moment of his passing, when Marlow "was considered brutally callous" (131) for proceeding with his meal, "there was a lamp in there—light, don't you know—and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark" (131). Here, Conrad depicts light as a symbol of progress, of intellect, and lack of secrecy the beastly darkness conveys. If he were to remain in Africa, he would meet nothing but an uninviting environment. His path is clear.

When Marlow "blew the candle out and left the room" (130) after hearing Mr Kurtz's final words, he marks the silence of an illuminated mind as nature extinguishes its fragile vessel. Conrad illustrates life and death, further employing the dichotomy, when he describes death as an "unexciting contest" that "takes place in an impalpable grayness" (131). Death always triumphs against a struggling opponent. The grayness represents a state of vagueness where the person is neither illuminated by life, nor overshadowed by death.

The lighted home of Mr Kurtz's grieving woman contrasts with her darkened appearance, and, by extension, soul. Marlow "had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. The bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct curves. The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus" (139). "She came forward, all in black" (139). Here, we see happiness and unhappiness contrasted. A simple joyous surrounding is not enough to enlighten a dark heart. "But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love" (141). Belief and love kindle the remnants of light within her. Why does Conrad place this illumination on her forehead? Why not her eyes? Why not her mouth? Why not her hands?

Conrad mentions light and darkness each time with a different connotation. With each description, the dichotomy represents something new. We must also note that in each page where the word 'darkness' is written, so is the word 'light', and vice versa. They go hand in hand in the illustration of some of Conrad's contrasting themes such as hope and hopelessness, knowledge and secrecy, nature and its destruction, construction and destruction, life and death.

Nature, The Sensuous Theme

One predominant theme of Conrad's Heart of Darkness is nature. More specifically, Conrad personifies nature with an ominous, and sombre depiction. One woman, who I believe symbolizes mother nature, earns an emphasized illustration. "She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul" (113). She represents a powerful, wise, and sorrowful nature in a state of pain and grieving acknowledgement. Conrad further personifies nature when he writes how "the wilderness had found him [, Mr Kurtz,] out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating" (108).

So we have a wilderness that whispers, and a powerful woman to represent nature. With a life of its own, the setting contains movement, and responds to the intrusion of ivory merchants. Even though the woman never speaks, she commands a certain sageness that pities its enemies.

I write in a more rural location than the "sepulchral city" that is Bogota, and cannot help but realize the sad perception of nature I willingly falsify. Conrad's setting, a savage and unlatered Africa, represents an environment I do not perceive in La Pradera, and one that I hope to find in my upcoming trip to Africa. I wish to acquaint myself with the remains of a crude land.

The Unbearable Humour

Firstly, I would like to say that the book's title, Heart of Darkness, presents a variety of interpretations. Either the author wishes to depict a heart, filled with darkness, or the core of darkness itself. One way or another, the vague meaning gives it an eerie mysteriousness I find appealing. This title's duality compares to a simple test designed to identify one's dominant brain hemisphere. Click Here. Whichever interpretation of the title the reader's subconscious chooses defines a part of that person I have yet to uncover. I take pride in defying both tests. I can both control the direction of the dancer's motion, as well as which of two messages I select within one clever title.

We see some humor in the apparently depressing narrative as well. Saved from the bitterness of texts like that of The Road, Conrad unleashes precious trickles of bitter humor to entertain the reader, and give him some darkness to laugh at. We see some satire with the display of irony at the end of chapter 1, when Marlow describes the attitude of the "sordid buccaneers" (54) who "...tear treasure out of the bowels of the land [...] with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe" (54). Marlow's job to help the company pump ivory from the veins of the land, using the native population as fuel, establishes the irony in Marlow's shocked reaction to the buccaneers.

Another instance where humor arrives as an old friend, instantly cherished, and surprisingly missed, arrives when Marlow depicts his cannibalistic crewmen. He notes the "fine fellows—cannibals—in their place" (62). Here, we can choose our own interpretation as we did with the title. This time, the fun lies in deciding whether this exemplifies blunt sarcasm or implied irony. Either Marlow does not believe the cannibals to be "fine fellows ... in their place" (62), but rather the exact opposite, or he trusts the reader to take his comment sincerely, and laugh at the inconcievable concept of a cannibalistic friendship/harmless and positive relationship.

This type of apparent contradiction repeats itself with Marlow's absurd comment regarding how he "perceived—in a new light, as it were—how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped, yes, I positively hoped, that my aspect was not so—what shall I say?—so—unappetising..." (75). This dark humor takes advantage of a bleak topic to entertain the reader's morbosity at its weakest. Such innovative cases of self-perception interest the reader. The psychology involved in leading someone to calculate how appetizing they are fascinates me.

One more instance of Conrad's humor lies when he depicts one of Marlow's vessels as a "cripple of a steamboat" (81). This personification exemplifies a type of sadly humorous, and extremely vivid description. Why I find it comical, I will probably never know, but this is exactly the type of slightly uncensored humor encrusted in Conrad's novel that is proving so indispensable in the survival of such grim scenes.

Anagnorisis? Catharsis?

I'm not sure whether I did not completely understand the end of the play, or that my expectations for anagnorisis and catharsis are overestimated. Either way, the only thing Chekhov's conclusion made me say was "ok". I would enjoy a class in which the play were explained to me, because otherwise, the only surprising events at the end are Firs' solitary end, and Pishchik's sudden gain in wealth. I welcome any analysis that would enlighten this neutral perspective on the play. I feel like the whole play builds up like a balloon, and instead of exploding, it simply deflates rapidly and unsatisfactorily.

Sheldon Cooper In Anton Chekhov

Lopakhin appears as the sardonic character who flagrantly employs verbal irony. Ironically, Varya remains unaware of his truly obvious sarcasm. When Varya "[Swings the stick just as LOPAKHIN enters]" (364), he replies, "thank you kindly". We see Varya's gullible nature when she "[angrily and mockingly]" responds, "I beg your pardon" and then allows herself the humiliation of accepting his gratitude for the "charming reception" (364). Lopakhin's attitude knows no boundaries, for he continues his attacks when saying how "it's nothing. A huge bump coming up, that's all" (364).

This clip of the comical television show, The Big Bang Theory, compares to this situation, where Leonard represents Lopakhin, and Sheldon illustrates Varya's innocence. LINK.

The simple representation of a character who's physical state embodies his hunger for money poses a humorous image. Pishchik's speedy mood swings earn him the personality of an infant with a lot of baby fat. He "[snores but wakes up at once]" (352), as a baby would. We see his personality type when he "[feels in his pocket, [and] grows alarmed.] [then exclaims,] The money is gone! I've lost the money! [Tearfully] Where is my money? [Joyfully] Here it is, inside the lining.... I'm all in a sweat...." (353). Ironically, a grown man (, a very grown man) has the personality of a two-year old who can't find his pacifier.

define:Grammar Nazi

Zis iz a grammar Nazi. Link.

I dooz not yuzualy kerr mooch for g[guttural sound]amer. (Yu dooz not SAY guttural zound, youz idiot, youz zimply zound ze guttural zound.) Yu zee?Zis iz vat I meen.

AAAz I vaz zaying, I zyuzshualy ouverloook ze mouuzt meeneenglessss of errrrors, laik zeeeez fyw:

Mizz Ward wraitz zis naitmerr of a sentence:

Ze quantity "a lot" eez written as "a lot". Too separrate vords. Such a common meesteik bozerz mee not. Enny ozer reespectebel leetereit vud cundemm such an atrocyty.

Meeez Vard, I vas juzt abaut to moov on ven I noutizt

ze absenz of an apoztrofee ven rrrytyng ze vord "Your" az a contracshon of "you are".

No vorryz. Such mystayks are eezyly ouverlooked.

Forgyv me, Myz Oussa, but ze vord"unbiast", sadly, duz not exyst. Ze correct term is spelt "un

biased".

Myzter Rozalez,

Zadly, yu emytomyze zee errors in wryten text that are NOT yzy to ouverlook:

I could not uunderztand prezyzly vat yu ver traying to zey here:

Ze numeruz errors dyztract ze reederr. I suugezt u correct zem.

Hyrr, I bylyv yu arre myzyng a "to be verb", making a complete, yet passive sentence: "I mean that is just ridiculous". A comma avter "mean" vudnt hrt yzer.

Hyrr, such an ymportant vrd as "reality" dyzervz adequate reepreezenteyshun.

Unless yu are attemptyng to dyscrrayb sumthing zat haz gon "off course" (az, I bylyv, yz not ze cayz hyrr),

ze adequate zpelling yz "of course", and may bee rypleyzt by ze morr sutl "obviously", "certainly", or "evidently".

My commanderr vud zertanly ztreiten you up, Rozalez, az he sayz von muzt alvayz "revise, revise, revise!"

Myzz Joveen, sadly I must tell you zat beeing of ze pyure raze yz no excuuse to have dezplycabl zpelling:

Here, ze vord is correctly spelled "dying". It iz a common myztake. Only commoners are excused. You have no excuze.

Maybe zis iz zom zort of typographical error, and I shall concede to you ze benefit of ze dout ven correcting ze spelling of ze vord "misinterpreted".

And finally, and inexcuzably zo, you attempted to pazz phrazez off az zentenzez. Zis yz yor firzt and faynal varning.

Myzter Dakyardy,

Alzou I zee a respectable atemt to avoid errors, nozing ezceypz my vell-treynd ay:

Here, better sentence construcshon vud be appreshyated: Ynsted of saying "...place they grew up in", a smoozer phrazing vud be "...place in which they grew up".

Here, ve see a common error in sentenz conztrucshon. It appeerz to be that yu attempted to pass off ze haylayted portion az a sentenze. I suggezt yu mend it.

Ouverall, our Italian friendz have proven to share our cuztomz in grammar and zpelling.

Myz Zantamarya,

Alzough yu have vizited our land, please refrain from kindling ze liberal-creative-neoliterary-reformist techniques in yor rrytyng:

Such vorks are forbidden. Ve muzt refreyn from all changes in lyterery style and customz. Lyterature muzt remain ze zame forever.

Alzo, I bet yu dydnt expect me to see ziz error:

Error.

MYzter Lynarez,

Let me just beegin by expressing my dyzapointment in ziz introducshon:

Von duz not "seats back and thinks", but razer "sits back and thinks".

Myzter Palazioz,

Anozer of ze fine raze, I vish to congrratyuleyt yu on ur exelent grammar and spelling. If you vish to upgreyd yor status, I suggest you improve pazive voyz and rreppettittivve word choice.

Myz Danyela Cueyar,

You arre behind on yur tax forms, and yor tithe to ze reich. If you zoo not fix zis, ze reich vill be forzt to take meazurz (firzt, labor camp remediation, zen you vill be deported and vanished from ze land and stripped of yor statuz az citizen of ze reich).

After a hard dayz vork, I must retire to complete my own tax formz to ze reich. Undeniably, zey vill be perfect and free of ze nearly-inexcusable errors I previously exposed. Ze personz I helped vill undeniably appryshyeyt my effortz in seyving zem from dire, possibly feytel consequencez.

Viktor Vaynberg

Grammar Nazi

Twain Syndrome

After reading Act II of The Cherry Orchard, I grew suspicious of Chekhov's comment regarding plays. I wrote an analytic essay on the metafictional techniques Twain employs to mock his readers. Chekhov, I believe, does not stray far from this apparently common act.

Lyubov Andreyevna criticizes the play Lopakhin saw at the theater, explaining how "there was probably nothing funny about it. Instead of going to see plays you ought to look at yourselves a little more often. How drab your lives are, how full of futile talk" (343)! Here, Chekhov directly mocks his audience. He even implies a lack of humor in his so-called comedy. Either we chose two very different texts which both coincidentally insult the reader in some way, or authors' actions as these characterize the literature of the time. Mark Twain lived between 1835 and 1910, while Chekhov's life spanned from 1860 to 1904.

I do not know if I should be happy I uncover these insults, or baffled at why I shrug them off and continue reading such ridiculing texts. I still expect to stumble upon what would define this play as a comedy, for, up until this point, I have not started to laugh.

Curiously, Chekhov alludes to Shakespeare with what appears to be a common citation, now nearing the status of cliché, along with the "to be or not to be" line: Lopakin mocks Varya's conservative beliefs by telling her, "Aurelia, get thee to a nunnery..." (349). Twain cites the same text in the Duke's recreation of Hamlet's speech. They both employ it in their comedies as a mechanism to mock womens' idea of marriage and chastity.

Banned Equals Interesting

The simple fact that a book earns a banned-book status makes it all the more enjoyable. In a way, I feel an urge to read such books only to demonstrate rebellion. Also, the english courses I have taken in high school assigned the majority of listed titles listed there.

"Randomly Awesome Words"

LINK

Haunted By Pride and Prejudice's Zombies

After reading Act 1 of Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, I feel my analyze-and-detect-literature-similar-to-Pride-and-Prejudice-to-establish-a-preemptive-strike-slash-boycott-slash-mental-slash-emotional-preparedness sensor go off.

The first sign arrived when Dunyasha eagerly tells Anya how "the clerk, Yepikhodov, proposed to me just after Easter" (319). Anya confirmed my first fear with an indifferent reaction I feel I will share later on when complaining how "you always talk about the same thing..." (319).

My alarm peaked when Varya tells Anya, "if we could marry you to a rich man, I'd be at peace" (321). In an attempt to mimic the strategy I devised to survive Pride and Prejudice, all my energy desperately focuses on the finding the play's positive traits.

The defining moment arrived when Gayev criticizes how one of his aunts "married a lawyer, not a nobleman ... She married beneath her, and it cannot be said that that she has conducted herself very virtuously ... [and] you must admit she leads a sinful life" (333).

By this point, I could only focus on keeping my imaginable emotion from depleting, and I couldn't help but compare the narrator's highly-energetic indicators to a mockery of unrealistic, exaggerated emotions in modern text conversations. (Link soon to come)

Campion's Woman

OK so maybe this does not depict the attractive woman Campion attempted to illustrate in "Cherry Ripe". However, I do find it "visually appealing"... to a bee.

Potato Potaato, Tomato, Tomaato

Could early African-American vernacular model Huck's voice? Besides eliminating some of Twain's racist reputation in his novel, what other repercussions this have? Are scholars overanalyzing a meaningless possibility?

Maybe my radar-for-historically-important-possibilities-infered-from-literature is a little rusty. What is the difference between a white Huck Finn, and a black Huck Finn if Twain considers him "the most artless, sociable, and exhaustless talker I ever came across" (NY Times, 1874)?

The ultimate message remains unchanged, does it not?

When Idiots Joke, The Joke Is On Us

When reading Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I can not decide whether Huck and Jims' absurd conversations are meant to mock ignorant beliefs, or reenact discriminatory minstrel shows. I found myself laughing at Jim's twisted logic in chapter 14. Ironically, his rhetoric defeats Huck's, when explaining why Frenchmen talk the way they do. Irony presents itself when Huck states that "it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit" (102).

Maybe Twain planned his work to spark controversy all along, writing along the fine line of humor, separating racism and idiocy. I prefer to consider the more flexible approach, and enjoy Twain's questionable challenge to society's sense of humor.

A Controversial N-Word

Since the n-word "will be replaced in each instance by "slave" (Page, Benedicte), can we assume they are synonyms? Huckleberry notices an ironic situation when he asks "what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all right and he'd managed to set a nigger free that was already free before" (370)? Can one set a free slave free? Then he wouldn't be a slave to begin with. For this reason, altering the word in such a generalized manner may prove incoherent. I believe "nigger", a more derogatory term today than before, refers to the automatic degradation of the person's social status if their skin is colored. It has nothing to do with their situation as free or enslaved. In Huckleberry's time period, free niggers existed.

I believe, as does Geff Barton, that "It seems depressing that we are so squeamish that we can't credit youngsters with seeing the context for texts."

"The point of the book is that Huckleberry Finn starts out racist in a racist society, and stops being racist and leaves that society. These changes mean the book ceases to show the moral development of his character" (Churchwell, Dr. Sarah). One could even see a parabolic tendency in the novel's purpose.