Apr. 13, Gaiman's MSDMD

I struggled extraordinarily with this reading. I found it to be the most challenging graphic text that I've read thus far. Ironic, it is, all-in-all that I've read to different adaptations and this is a short story. The story was challenging for me because it appeared to pick up right in the middle of Midsum's and then spin things in its own direction. I was most likely trying to draw the lines to thick between the different modalities that we've seen thus far in our readings of the play. 

I was also confused by some of the character parameters. The dark character gave me great trouble. I couldn't figure out his role in the reading. I see that he works between both dream and fantasy worlds. He's dark because you never see his face, and his word bubbles are always dark. My confusion came in that for a long time I thought he was a dark adaptation of Shakespeare. I couldn't figure it out, until I eventually went back and saw that he referred to his bargaining partner as "Will Shakespeare." Clearly THAT was the character of Shakespeare.

Despite the challenge I found with the plot, Gaiman's adaptation did help me to understand certain portions of the text from a different viewpoint. As I was reading the panels I did understand that the emphasis was more so on the shifting of audience members. I understood more clearly that each character, or set of characters was an audience to a different performance. This may be because of the different adaptation, or it could just be that I understand better after my third time having gone through it. 

A quote from page 71 summarizes this point well. As Hyppolita and "Tommy" are having a heated discussion. An anxious Hyppolita tells Tommy that their audience consists of "things of every manner and kind." Tommy responds, "Aye, and they are also our audience. Calm yourself."

Apr 6; Staging of a Romance; Lysander and Hermia

Manga did a wonderful job of graphically illustrating Lysander and Hermia's love, their plot for self-exile, and Helena's role in their relationship. This was drawn out at its best between pages 29 and 37.The setting makes good use of the more modern Athens scene, however it's simple enough as not to distract the reader from the all-important dialogue. The diagonal cutting of the panels serves to take the reader away from the setting and more into the abstract emotions felt by the two lover-characters. It creates a line that looks similar to the passing of an arrow through a heart from above.

Also, on page 32 the isolation of Lysander at the fulcrum of a quarter-sphere of panels showing him and Hermia conveys his vulnerablity. It shows that Hermia is the one with the power to choose who she loves at this point in the story. She is the daughter of a higher regarded family, and she also has the heart of Demetrius chasing her along as well.

This is a very accurate emotional portrayal of what is happening at this point in the actual play of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Apr. 6; Demetrius and Helena

Demetrius and Helena have the most intriguing build-up to their relationship. They simultaneous have feelings of affection and spite between each other. I've often heard the remark made that in any blossoming relationship, there is always one party chasing the other, and the will two switch sides between chaser and chasee many times.

That's what happens between our little couple hear. While Demetrius initially despises Helena and her obsessive pursuit of him, a little bit of Cupid's potion manages to reverse the roles. Demetrius chases her, but in his new submissive character and vulnerability, Helena no longer feels the same attraction. She senses that something has changed in his character and feels discomforted alienation in their new "relationship" dynamic.

Eventually, the two are only able to enjoy each other when they come to a co-equal understanding of their love and desire for each other. Such is the real nature of everlasting love.

Apr. 6; Forever Shakespeare

The work of Shakespeare is meant to entertain. But just as the audience shall surely find amusement, the work of William Shakespeare is meant to conjure thought to those who experience it.

For its sophisticated craft and careful wording, it is shameful that Shakespeare's words should be twisted from their own original construction to satisfy a less thoughtful contemporary demographic. The readers of Shakespeare were made to think. The compromise infused by a bastardized contemporary edition limits the pentameter and underlying themes used to promote the broader themes of Shakespeare's works.

Apr. 6; Shakespeare by Any Display; MultiModal Midsummer

I'm not sure of the year or the production company that put it together, but this clip from a movie starring Judi Dench as Titania I think is a unique take on Shakespeare's work. I think that in this clip (I'm guessing it to be around the 1950s or 60s) does a nice job of showing the humor of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The humor is less subtle and more drawn out with the quick camera cuts, a humorous looking donkey, and the dramatic acting of Dench.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSDQjEJTPzg&feature=related

I also was inspired by this opening sequence from the 1935 film. As one views, I suggest listening to the strong musical score. It suggests humor and with its high strings and quick changes of tempo. Yet, it also manages to maintain a noble grandiose tone you expect to have associated with royalty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8HOgsZrjl4

Apr 1; Love Knows Not the Rules of Man; Shake's Soliquoy

HELENA

Your virtue is my privilege: for that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

...

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

...

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.

'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

------------

Shakespeare often shows his obsession with the stage in his works (I.E.: "All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players.") We see that in Helena's chosen description of her love for Demetrius. Part of Helena's comfort is that she never feels alone in his presence, but that in Demetrius she feels a greater understanding and accompaniment with the world around her. As such, Shakespeare is describing the eyes of her beloved as her stage - the place where her character best comes to life.

The next stanza (the replies of Demitrius cut out) is Shakespeare's way of demonstrating the irrational nature with which one loves. Helena shows the audience her manic state of love by describing her grandiose confidence. Making reference to the tragedy of Apollo, the myth of the griffin, she lets the audience know that she truly believes that she can be the exception to these rules. Another way of showing that love need not require ration.

Finally Helena touches on what is a big theme at the core of this play, the debate over which love is a blessing (or curse) or something to be achieved through the efforts of the spirit. Clearly Shakespeare has put Helena on the side of the prior at this point in time. The strength of her confidence in the love she feels for Demetrius is not something that she can sell him on, rather it's something that he will eventually realize himself.

Mar. 30; Shakes; A Midsmrs Night's Drm

Well-crafted and beautifully done, I thought the Shakespeare Manga was much good fun. As wonderful as the graphic representation was (and it was quite good indeed) I oft find myself absorbed by the brilliant language of William Shakespeare. Every line has a purpose in his work. There is always some deeper meaning beyond the text.

The Manga was a pleasurable version because the graphics complimented the text and created an added understanding, rather than being too drawn out and distracting. A good example of great cohesion between the panels and text takes place over the span of pages 30-34. Hermia and Lysander are making their plan to run and hide out in the woods so that they may preserve their love. A picture technique often used in this version, illustrator Kate Brown places a characters head, in this case that of Lysander, in the bottom corner of a section of frames. The other three or four panels beam out and expand through to fill the rest of the quadrant. This has a way of centering that character (Lysander) emotionally in the scene.

As it takes place in the focus on page 32, this clever depiction shows Lysander's look of anxiety as it associate to his loving embrace of Hermia, his regrets for the integral failures of men, and his promise of everlasting love for Hermia.

At the bottom of the page Lysander is at the edge of kissing Hermia. It's understood that it is a faithful moment of deep truth for the love of these two youth.

Mar 16: The Saga Continue: Maus II

The reoccurring question that comes up in Art Speigelman's Maus II is, "Why all the detail about his interactions with his father?" He could just as easily have written exclusively about the horrors and harrowing escapes made by his father at the Holocaust, and he would have still created a truly great account of the tragedy. But by the time starts us on Maus II, the vivid stories of the Holocaust begin to appear secondary to his on-going struggle to carry-on a functional, healthy relationship with his father.

Spiegelman begins to expel so much time on his relationship with his father that the reader begins to wonder what is going on here with our author. In the early goings of the second Maus volume, he takes us to one of his actual therapy sessions. Ironically, things come full circle and by the end of the book, the written and drawn pages begin to resemble a session of therapy.

Maus I: Beg, Borrow, & Deal

The most powerful theme that I detected in Maus I was Vladek and his family's way of negotiating bribes and business arrangements as their most effective means of survival, and the gradual eroding of their power to do so. In that sense, Maus I is a humbling story of one family's fall from high prestige to the death chambers of the Nazi Holocaust.

The most haunting line in all the story occurs at the very end of page 115. It's Vladek's recounting of the last time that he saw his father in-law. As the two are separated, father in-law's fate left in no doubt, Vladek recalls that, "He was a millionairre, but even this didn't save him his life."

Lines like this carry tremendous power becuase they contibute to the sense of tragic inevitibility throughout the story. Vladek and the others slowly, one-by-one, begin to sense the reality that regardless of their high place in society, their lives are coming under attack from the German regime.

The members of Vladek's family have several ways of dealing wth this realization. Some use denial, some use the wait-and-see method. Some are proactive and try to compromise, others are defensive and try maintain their lifestyle.

Feb. 25; Decisions, Decisions

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. As I retrace the steps we've taken in class, I've been trying to recapture the emotions that I've felt in the characters that we've gotten to know over the past couple of months. What I'm sensing in this experience is a great deal of confusion amongst the stars of our stories. They're all searching for their ground, their own solid foundation.

It's the motivation of each of our main characters to erase uncertainty from their lives. The two best examples in this course are "Blankets" and "American Born Chinese." Born into the eye of a social storm of chaos, both main characters (Jin, and Craig) struggle to go against the current of their peers' influence to define themselves, rather than be defined by everyone else. I feel like this would provide an excellent opportunity to also incorporate American values and traditions as stated by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his work, "Self-Reliance." These characters may not get society all the time, but they are developing a good understanding of themselves. This internal relationship and it's vulnerability to the judgment of society is what I desire most to further explore this semseter.

Feb. 23; Into the Blue: A Discussion of "Blankets"

The most powerful, moving element of Craig Thompson's "Blankets" is his use of exaggerated illustrations used to highlight the emotions of the main character, "Craig." As is typical of most graphic novels we've read thus far, the most powerful symbolic images usually are given a full page. That's what we see on page 24. The first 100 pages of the book deal largely with Craig's misfitting amongst his peers. School is a place where he feels no security, and we see that drawn out in this panel. Craig, having just been forcibly tossed around by a group of large bullies, lands at the bottom of a exaggeratedly steep cliff. Not meant to be tied down by realistic depiction, this panels transcends Craig's reality and shows his feeling of vulenrability with his peers. Most of his peers are drawn as larger than he, and the bullies especillly so.

Even by going back five panels to witness the fall itself, it's only about five feet, yet Thompson illustrates it over the course of about four different panels. We see his attempts to draw out young Craig's feeling of torture.

Page 80 offers us a powerful set of emotional panels that simultaneously let us in on Craig's struggling relationship to with his faith. Craig, a true introvert, is always shown as small, quiet, shy, and vulnerable in the midst of large, chaotic crowds. After his rambunctious bunkmates uncover him reading underneath his blanks in the middle of their bedtime hysteria, he has a timid, insecure reaction. Craig is at this moment paralyzed to defend himself. He settles for telling a white-lie about. Rather than "confessing" to reading his Bible, he says he is organizing his things.

It's all too easy to dismiss Craig's silence as childhood shyness, but the last panel on page 80 gives us a different reason: shame. Craig mentions his guilt at not being able to get along at church camp. He interprets his social struggles as a disappoitment to God. His words in the panel read simply, "I'm sorry God." All the while he's also struggling with how to appease his hostile judgmental peers.

Craig's dilemma between his peers and his faith shows his conflicted relationship with religion. Regardless of how Craig actually does relate to God, it's clear that how he perceives God is very independent of his peers. It is simultaneously a source of affirmation and isolation.

Feb 18; More 'Oranges'

At three different points in Winterson's book does she use the line (or something to the effect of), "there are different sorts of treachery, but betrayal is betrayal wherever you find it. I noted all three times that that line was used (I suppose there could have even been more occasions in which I missed). I noticed that line because each time I saw it I was made to stop and think. I wondered what she meant by betrayal, and why she distinguished it from treachery or infidelity - terms that are relatively synonomous.

I think that these especially highlighted instances of betrayal are of special significance to Jeanette. I think that in these instances that she describes as betrayal her violated trust moved to push her away from blind acceptance of the beliefs of others and more towards a greater understanding of self. These are the moments where "coming-of-age" really start to come into effect. By separating from an insecure attachment to others, she is then better able to develop her own beliefs and self-reliance.

She ultimately distinguishes her feeling of betrayal from a feeling of treachery because she wants to stress the magnitude of her personal feelings. Betrayal, despite a similar definition to treachery, carries a much bolder connotation. By this, she conveys to the reader that this is not a momentary emotion, but a lasting experience that forever alters her perspective.

As such, her definition of betrayal is (on page 171): "promising to be on your side, and then being on somebody else's."

What's further interesting about this definition, is that while she distances herself from her mother by way of her stated beliefs, but actually, she clearly still has dualistic beliefs about right and wrong, just like her mother!

Feb 16, Lets Talk About Love? Reaction to 'Oranges'

What do I believe?

I believe that the "Matrix" is an absolutely wonderful movie and my point of reference was stolen through its implication in the question. But more importantly, it's a perfect starting block. One of my favorite Buddhist quotes goes something along the lines of, "a thousand man army can conquer a thousand civilizations, but the true warrior can conquer oneself." In order to conquer oneself we each have to be willing to confront ourselves. Challenging our own beliefs, breaking the habit, veering off from Mr. Emerson's path of "foolish consistency," is the only way that an individual can become whole. It is the necessary first step to "coming of age."

By the way, yes, this writer does have several favorite Buddhist quotes.

Winterson's autobiographical novel is thus far an outstanding example of coming of age. Religious zeal (ala her mother and several other key influences) offers a perfect backdrop for coming of age. In a setting like we have with 'Oranges,' being raised, shaped, and trained in a very singular, unquestioned, unidimensional manner builds a person within a confine so small and tight that it requires an aggressive escape on the part of the main character.

Jeanette describes outright how her mother intended to raise her, "train" her, and "build" her into "a missionary child, a servant of God, a blessing." She is never given an outlet to develop on her own. For a long period, she is not even allowed to go to school - it's an evil breeding ground. She is raised according to the mother's strict dualistic beliefs (which seems to be a theme in this class as well). Jeanette is not allowed the oppurtunity to discover her own ideas, but rather is subjected to her mother's ideas of what is of the Lord, and what is of the devil.

February 10; "What are we talking about, here?": A Review of the Commentary of our Readings

The topics of the first month of our class have been layered and deep. There is A LOT to talk about, and in my best efforts to summarize the conversation of our selected authors, I would describe our overarching theme as be the internalization of guilt and shame amongst minorities.

The video we watched put this in profound perspective. Most people know the study. Sad, yes. But what really pounds the point home is the linear logic that follows this tragedy. "What doll is prettier?"

(White)

"Why not the other one?"

(It's black)

"Which one looks more like you?"

(Black)

That is a wretched stereotype that is disturbing to hear from an aggressor. But when heard coming from a victim, it's truly tragic.

Perhaps beauty is much like racism: learned. It's difficult for me to admit, but I had trouble understanding the function of campus groups like YBBW (Young Beautiful Black Women). I always have voiced support for such groups as support networks, but I was worried that they would isolate some members from the greater community. I never really understood what the need was to distinguish one as beautiful on the count of a racial status.

Shame on me.

Toni Morrison gives an earth-shattering look into the depths of the experience of someone walking in the shoes of a minority status. I have a better understanding now of why we have, why we need groups like Young Beautiful Black Women. Everybody deserves to feel beautiful. My favorite chapter from Morrison's book is the second sub-section of the Spring quarter. It's the one where she engages us in the experience of Pauline Breedlove, cleverly executed from an intermixed third and first-person narrative. It's both beautiful and heart-breaking. In the early parts we hear about how she relocated from the south. For the first time she experiences a new, foreign kind of prejudice. It's not that of being insulted for color, it's the prejudice of ignorance; of no acknowledgement; of self-hatred.

She talks about her stigmatization of wearing her hair naturally curly, not initially conforming to white standards. She watches it play out with the "beautiful" movie stars. She's tormented by the distorted realization that she is less than human. UGLY! And it's a stigma that her kids have learned at a young age. The best she can do is distract herself by working for those of who are made of beauty.

In conveying her experience, Pauline is referenced in the most powerful line in the entire book: "... - physical beauty. Probably the most destructive idea in the history of human thought."

It's a cold realization; that beauty must be seen as an exclusive trait, rather than that which can be celebrated by all. It's understood as another distribution for the haves and have-nots.

Jin, Pauline, Pechola, and minority children around the nation have to learn to grapple with something that the rest of us may never give a moment's thought to. It's sad. It's perceived. To many, it's reality.

---Apologies for the tardiness of this response. Heard that class was canceled and didn't check email until earlier today.

Jan 28; American Born Chinese Response

What strikes me most about the first half of Yang's book, 'American Born Chinese,' is the depth of intrapsychic conflict. I've enjoyed taking a few eastern psychology classes at WMU centered on ego-identity. Some people reasonably dispute the validity of such study, but I feel that the ideals were explored amongst the three stories in Yang's book. The simple briefing is: all the main characters are struggling with their own identity against the compromise of prejudicial social forces. Hence, they acted based on how they were treated in order to protect themselves emotionally in the future.

 

Monkey King provides an excellent example of an internal struggle represented in words and pictures. After being excluded and humiliated by the other gods, he becomes angry and determined to answer exact vengeance on them. He practices warrior arts and comes back grown way out of proportion. His massive size represents the large-scale expansion of his jealous ego. We see this in excellent pictorial on page 60; Monkey King has grown so large that his head and feet extend beyond the frame.

 

His contemporary monkeys don't appreciate his newly developed greatness, so on the next several pages of frames he goes out to the other gods and destroys them in humbling fashion. But he gets to his creator on page 68, and discovers that there are still forces greater then himself and any ego driven image he could create. The picture sequence on pages 76-78 emphasize the shock frustration on Monkey King's face (graffitied/urinated-on hand, plus the multiple small pictures of Monkey King's stunned reaction). Monkey King's ego is unable to save him from the discovered reality that the he can't escape the hand of his created. The crush of this finding is shown buried under rocks for 500 years on page 84.

Jan. 26; Lets Look into it: The Depth of Text

Race is a sensitive issue in our culture. People don't seem to want to talk about it or even think about it.

I've often said that a piece of art or literature can say as much about the consumer as it can the producer. When a person judges and interprets a piece of literature, that person does so through one's own lens. We all have experience and preferences that subject us to taking things in all at once and each reaching different conclusions. Text can have very different meanings to each and every one of us, just based on how we've come to see the world.

There's no doubt that things like race, ethnicity, and class play a steady hand in how we absorb the world around us. Even if you carry your white privilege member card and tend not to expend much conscious thought on race, you're perspective on the things you read is impacted you've ever turned on the six o'clock news or learned about the Civil Rights Movement, or have been introduced to the idea of affirmative action (rest in peace).

Langston Hughes wrote very different literature than Walt Whitman. That's obvious. What doesn't get discussed as often even in intellectual circles is that I likely have a very different interpretation of the work of those two poets than would someone like Muhammad Ali.

bell hooks:

I appreciate the perspective that bell hooks offers on the issues of race. There really isn't a whole lot for me to say in contrast to what she said. I think her thoughts and opinions are valid and not unfounded in the least. I think if she was in our class to participate in group conversation everyone would be able to grasp a deeper understanding of what lies on her mind and we would all be the better for having listened and participated.

Peggy McCintosh

She seems to have a few references about committing foul, clumsy, or foolish acts that she knows won't be attributed to her race. I think that's an interesting point that I don't readily consider. Of course a minority doesn't HAVE to consider that their status represents their race. But that doesn't mean that there won't be people present who create negative stereotypes based on such things.

There's an interesting point about the ability to create one's company. For better or worse, minorities have done their part to create their own exclusive social networks to counter that pattern. It appears to be almost a mutual desire for different races to want to spend at least some time with others who share their experience and skin color.

Jan 20; Multimodality

It's January 20, 2009 - THE day of change. As I'm typing this I am keenly aware that President-elect Obama has by now been inaugurated as President Obama. 

Of course, I missed the whole thing while I was trying to do my part to change the world amidst a busier than usual week. But at least I'm not at all bitter.

But there is an irony that we should read an article focused on the changing landscape of literature communication and do so on the same day as the inauguration of a man who ran his campaign on the basis of change. Change, to me is integral to survival, and the ones who survive are often the one's who are willing not to change completely, but to adapt their ways to a new era as opposed to clinging to outdated ideals.

I still know many educators who seem to believe that black and white textbook communication and lecture notes are the only true way to inform one's students. Some writers are tempted by the belief that a pen and paper is the only true art of literature that should stand to be recognized.

The article of today on the topic of multimodality and multisemiotics highlights a change in literature that should be embraced. As a species so blessed to experience and interpret reality through five different senses, we stand only to benefit by diversifying the way in which we communicate and inform. The integration of these senses through multisemiotic lesson planning allows students of different learning strengths to grasp a concept that they may struggle with had they been confined to just one form of experiencing a lesson.

McCloud's book is of particular interest here because he outlines the different ways in which a graphic writer can communicate a scene to an audience of readers. His book describes the graphics and text as partners that can play different roles from frame to frame. Some may communicate almost exclusively through picture, some may exclusively go through text; and often the two would make no sense at all without the other. In that sense, it can actually be a challenge to the reader to make good use of all the visual information at hand.

The same could apply in a classroom. A teacher's explanation may be very drawn out and difficult to understand if they didn't use a model, and likewise, the teaching model may be of no use if not accompanied by the thoughtful word of the teacher.

Jan. 14, Response to McCloud

I afford a very broad definition to "real" literature. I simply consider it the art of the pen (keeping in mind that movies of course begin with a script). I like to think of it as intelligent material that makes me think, but I know better than to do so. To address the underlying question, yes, I do consider comics to be literature. Sometimes they can even be exceptionally good literature.

I was never really a particularly big fan of comics when I was younger. But I'm an absolute die-hard fan of the "Batman" story line (I think it's another dark psychology thing), so I had to lend credence to this art of which I knew very little.

Comics definitely have a negative connotation. The best works of comic art (in my opinion) are not even regarded as comics. They are called "graphic novels." It's interesting how society has a way of adapting it's vocabulary to cope with it's own prejudice. I theorize that it's a situation of older audiences not wanting to associate a fascination with something perceived as juvenile as "comics." But "graphic novel" on the other hand sounds much more mature.

In McCloud's book, I appreciate the deep scope of understanding that he conveyed. He describes them in a manner that I can easily attribute to film-making. For instance, he describes the comic gutter in a way similar to that of how I would describe film-scene cutting and editing. The read was made much easier by the way in which McCloud invoked very clever humor. My academic pursuits would be made infinitely more pleasant and effortless if all my textbook readings were written with the same high wit that McCloud puts into his writing.

Jan. 14, Class Art Response - La Guernica

Picasso is threatening.

Otherwise this could be the mark of the threatened. It's dark, jagged chaos. The obvious emphasis on black and blue tips below the point of calm serenity and into a territory of loss and confusion.

On the upper portion of the picture it looks like it can be somewhat clearly divided into three different vertical, wide clusters of subjects. However these different clusters seem to be united by the bottom dwellings of the picture. The body lying at the bottom seems to connect all of the subjects at the top.

It is the faces in the picture that grab my attention first and foremost. It is a human response on my part. I, like most all others gravitate to the point of reference where I am used to getting my emotional information in my everyday life. These faces to me convey panic, terror, death and confusion.

Overall, I felt that there was a tragedy, or scandal that bound several different parties together. I notice the person lying at the bottom is holding a knife. To me that is another suggestion of crime and betrayal.

Another possibility is that of an uprising, or a threat to those at the top (panic, confusion) coming from those trampled and suppressed at the bottom (man lying with knife).

Polar Bear News

Jan 10: Favorite Poem for Monday

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

Frost Suicidal?

An old friend of my family who’s garnered great success in the musical arts was once going through a rough and difficult stressful time, and he said to my mom, “All I want to do is run out to California and sit under a tree with a coloring book. I’m not so sure that Frost is talking about a serious desire to commit suicide. He may be. But what comes to my mind is a desire to want to escape from the demands and promises of life and sink into the majesty of his ideal tranquil surroundings.

 

He takes a minute to do so, but like so many of us, he has his allying horse there to tug him to stay on track before too long passes. Like our closest friends, relatives, confidants, or even our spouse, the loyal horse cannot fully understand his rider’s motivation. All he can do is see him through, and encourage staying the course.

Jan. 7: What is an American

An American is free. An American can choose whatever he or she wants to be, think what he wants to think, say what she wants to say.

An American is diverse. An American is black, white, Indian, Asian, Hispanic, and everything else combined and in between.

An American is an interdependent part of a whole. An American is unique yet inseparable by fate.

An American is rich, if not personally then by association or proximity.

An American is not perfect. He is flawed yet celebrated. She is unstable steadfastly striving for actualization.

An American is dynamic, changing with the times for liberty and survival.

An American is an ideal.

Jan 7: Two of the theories that interest me

I begin by saying that I am a psychology major. I follow by saying, surprise surprise, psychoanalytical teaching theory quickly grabbed my attention. I'm chronically fascinated by the social world around me, and it sounds like this educational theory is geared at at teaching to that fascination.

It brings me to wonder, what it the written word if not a window to the soul? I strongly considered majoring in English, but I became interested in psychology because I wanted to study and explore the motivations, repressions, and struggles that follow people. Well, low and behold, the psychology of WMU believes in Skinner behaviorism (translation: WMU psychology and literary analysis tend to have a mutual disinterest in each other). After completing my major studies I truly believe that literary analysis and interpretation has just as much to offer for insight to human behavior.

I see writing along the paradigm of an expression of self. Exploring and expressing emotional adversity is very therapeutic to both writer and reader alike. Studying from a psychoanalytic perspective affords teachers and students the chance to collectively dissect all the suffering motives of certain writers and the perceived chaos of society that brings them to write and imagine as they do.

Reader Response is also a preferred instructional style for me because it's the most engaging. I enjoy styles and subjects that allow for the teacher to step into more of a facilitator role. I find it conducive to a class environment where all members become both teachers and students. Particularly in the study of literature, this type of approach brings the text to life. It creates for a diversity of opinions that can result in a deep synergistic understanding for everyone.

This type of educational style, I feel, also pushes classes to select deep, well-crafted art and literature that can allow for various levels of interpretation and understanding. Literature like that of Shakespeare, and films like "American Beauty" are extraordinarily deep and thoughtful. These are the types of literary artwork where everyone can observe and study and all can walk away with diverse respectable viewpoints. "American Beauty," for example, is my favorite film. I've quite literally seen it about ten times, and almost every single time I seem to pick up on a different meaning of the movie. It's the kind of material that is excellent for this type of class set-up and even casual discussion amongst friends.

And a quick "P.S."

If you anyone would like to comment about the depth of understanding of a film like say, "American Beauty," please by all means feel free and encouraged to do so on my blog.