JenniferPrextag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//3932007-11-19T23:50:52ZMovable Type Publishing Platform 4.0I Wonder...tag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222642007-11-16T19:52:53Z2007-11-19T23:50:52Z"with mother finally ******, and the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window..." ~"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg In class on Thursday, the topic came up about how there's a segment on a talk show (Jay Leno I think...
"La Vie Boheme" from Rent. It uses this same listing structure. It even mentions Ginsberg in the song. I have to wonder if Jonathan Larson chose to model "La Vie Boheme" after this part of "Howl." I don't know. Just a thought.]]>
Source Informationtag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222602007-11-15T20:56:17Z2007-11-15T21:20:55ZHere's what I have so far for paper 2: Doherty, Thomas. "Art Spiegelman's Maus: Graphic Art and the Holocaust." American Literature. 68.1. (March 1996): 69-84. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Reeves Memorial Library, Greensburg, PA 15601. 13 November 2007. McGlothlin, Erin....
American Literature. 68.1. (March 1996): 69-84. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Reeves Memorial Library, Greensburg, PA 15601. 13 November 2007.
McGlothlin, Erin. "No Time Like the Present: Narrative and Time in Art Spiegelman's Maus." Narrative. 11.2. (May 2003): 177-198. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Reeves Memorial Library, Greensburg, PA 15601. 13 November 2007. ]]>
Blurred Timetag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222482007-11-15T00:06:14Z2007-11-15T00:22:06ZArticle, Related to Your Paper 2 Topic "The temporal dimensions of Vladek's story, the innermost narrative, are relatively easy to identify.... (Easy despite Vladek's own problematic experience of ordering a seemingly fractured and unstable sense of temporality during the Holocaust,...
Article, Related to Your Paper 2 Topic
"The temporal dimensions of Vladek's story, the innermost narrative, are relatively easy to identify.... (Easy despite Vladek's own problematic experience of ordering a seemingly fractured and unstable sense of temporality during the Holocaust, which then has consequences for his subsequent memory of time. As he says, 'In Auschwitz we didn't wear watches' [II])."
~"No Time Like the Present: Narrative and Time in Art Spiegelman's Maus" by Erin McGlothlin, page 184
This article focuses on the importance of the different time frames in Maus. It covers all different angles--such as the artwork, capital vs. lowercase letters, and Spiegelman's way of dealing with everything. I thought the above quote was interesting because it seems to explain one of the reasons for the blurred lines when it comes to time. When Vladek was in the concentration camps, he had no way of telling time. Time would have blurred together for him. Time is blurred a lot throughout the two books. Maybe this was one way of getting that sense of timelessness across.]]>
Arttag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222472007-11-14T23:33:51Z2007-11-15T00:03:01ZArticle, Related to Maus and/or Holocaust Literature "The pictures lack detail but not depth, the low-definition medium enhancing the deep involvement of the reader." ~"Art Spiegelman's Maus: Graphic Art and the Holocaust" by Thomas Doherty, page 77 This article focused...
Article, Related to Maus and/or Holocaust Literature
"The pictures lack detail but not depth, the low-definition medium enhancing the deep involvement of the reader."
~"Art Spiegelman's Maus: Graphic Art and the Holocaust" by Thomas Doherty, page 77
This article focused on how the art was effective despite the fact that it lacked detail by analyzing some specific examples from Maus. I happen to agree. I know I already wrote a blog entry on this topic, but this is one of the things that really struck me. There was nothing overly phenomenal about the artwork in and of itself. However, when all of the elements are combined, there is so much to analyze. One example Doherty used was the picture of Vladek and Anza walking along the crossroads in the shape of a swastika. According to the author, this showed that they were "trapped in the frame of the comic and of history."]]>
What a Great Inventiontag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222392007-11-14T04:08:31Z2007-11-14T04:21:55Z"It is now possible through the magic of Internet browsing and buying to obtain virtually any book ever printed and have it delivered to your doorstep no matter where you live." ~"Goodbye to All That" by Steve Wasserman, page 19....
"Goodbye to All That" by Steve Wasserman, page 19.
As Wasserman stated in his article, book reviews have become scarce. However, in this day and age books are much more readily available than they ever have been before all thanks to that wonderful little invention known as the Internet. When books are available like this, people will have a greater tendency of buying them and, therefore, reading them as well. Also, let's face it, our society is lazy. I know. I'm part of said society. There may be exceptions, but, as a whole, who are we kidding? We've got services such as Netflix, On Demand, and Internet shopping that make it so that we never have to leave our homes to get anything. Since people don't even have to physically go to a bookstore to get a book, they will be more inclined to actually consider getting it. ]]>
Effective Simplicitytag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222142007-11-12T01:54:53Z2007-11-12T02:07:28Z"Maus is very much about the inability of art (or Art) to confront fully or represent metaphorically a monstrous past..." ~"The Shoah Goes On and On: Remembrance and Representation in Art Spiegelman's Maus" by Michael Staub Even though the art...
Maus may not be able to fully confront this "monstrous past," I think it is effective in its simplicity. The artwork is relatively simple but powerful. This simplicity of some of the more disturbing scenes actually helps to make it that much more disturbing. It forces the reader to confront the situation and invites the mind to fill in the details. It is much harder to ignore this way. The conflict between the simplicity of the drawings and the complexity of the situation cause it to almost seem even worse in this understatement than if it had been in full gory detail.]]>
Disappearing Reviewstag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.222132007-11-12T01:44:54Z2007-11-12T01:54:42Z"A widespread cultural and political illiteracy is abetted by newspapers that no longer review books..." ~"Goodbye to All That" by Steve Wasserman I can somewhat understand where the concern would come in, but I think it may be taken too...
"Goodbye to All That" by Steve Wasserman
I can somewhat understand where the concern would come in, but I think it may be taken too far in this article. Just because books are not being reviewed as frequently doesn't mean people aren't reading books. Yes, there may be merit in book reviews, but everyone has a different taste in books. Just because one critic thinks a book is not a worthwhile read doesn't mean that everyone will agree. There will be some people that purposely avoid reading that book simply because of the fact that it received a bad review. They could potentially be missiog out on an excellent read--for them, at least--as a result. Also, not everyone who reads books pays attention to book reviews. I can see where book reviews could be good, but I don't think it's as crucial as this author suggests.]]>
Spiegelman Makes Us Caretag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.221892007-11-07T20:30:40Z2007-11-07T20:44:23Z Maus II by Art Spiegelman...Maus II by Art Spiegelman]]>
I think the whole point in telling this story is to make people care about what happened. In including sequences like this, Spiegelman accomplishes this. If he just included statistics or said that Vladek knew so-and-so and that so-and-so didn't make it, we would feel sorry for him, but we wouldn't truly care. By having a story like Mandelbaum's and ending it with an uplifting anecdote like this one, he makes us care before we find out that he didn't make it. I don't know about anyone else, but that part hit me. There were a lot of cases like that in this comic...especially when your brain kicks in and reminds you that all of this actually happened.
Everyone Reacts Differentlytag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.221442007-11-03T01:54:21Z2007-11-03T02:10:43Z"Pssh. Why always you want to buy when you can find!?" ~Vladek from Maus by Art Spiegelman, page 116. In class the other day, we had a discussion about the importance of back stories. I still stick to what I...
Maus by Art Spiegelman, page 116.
In class the other day, we had a discussion about the importance of back stories. I still stick to what I said that they are important but not always completely necessary. I think this comic, however, is a good example of a case in which the back story is necessary in order to fully understand the significance of the vivid details.
Vladek is cheap. In the scene that the above quote is from he picked a wire up from the ground fully intending to use it. Artie doesn't fully understand why he doesn't just buy a wire, but he does figure that it has to do with his past--as he says later to Mala when she complains about how stingy he is. Though Artie doesn't bring this up in the same scene as the one this quote came from, the reader can, by this point, make this connection. Artie's defense to Mala merely reinforces what we already guessed. Vladek's need to find things and make the most of his money when in hiding is what conditioned him to be this way. Mala's argument is that she went through the same thing Vladek did, but she wasn't stingy. If Vladek's analysis of Mala is accurate and not an exaggeration, Mala would be his exact opposite. She doesn't want to have any financial restraint. She wants all of the luxuries that she was deprived of during the war.
These are two people who went through the same thing, yet they reacted to it in two completely different ways. I guess it goes to show that when dealing with situations like this, it is best not to try and fit everything into one nice little neat box. It simply doesn't work that way. Everyone reacts differently. Each case, therefore, must be handled and understood differently. It is best to simply be open minded, understanding, and supportive. Maybe this was one of the author's points in writing this story--in addition to the overall idea of making sure the story is told.]]>
Maus Assumptiontag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.221102007-11-01T22:22:40Z2007-11-01T22:26:25ZBased on the little we discussed in class as well as the title and cover of the first comic, I would assume that this would be a story of surviving through the Holocaust. From what Diana had said about how...
Based on the little we discussed in class as well as the title and cover of the first comic, I would assume that this would be a story of surviving through the Holocaust. From what Diana had said about how the first one didn't meet her expectations, I'm also going to assume that the first one won't go incredibly in depth with this. That will probably mostly be the second one. Maybe this one will be almost a prelude to the disaster. It'll be interesting to find out.
Well...I Don't Know About Thattag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.220782007-10-31T21:06:55Z2007-11-01T01:00:39Z"By her act of narration, she retains her tenuous fragile hold on sanity, on life itself, since to narrate is to live, to order a life, to 'make sense' out of it. If 'narrative is a strategy for survival' (Marlatt,...
How Hug a Stone, p. 75), Antoinette survives only as long as she creates narratives."
~"And it Kept its Secret": Narration, Memory, and Madness in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea by Kathy Mezei, page 197.
I can see where this is coming from, but I'm not sure that I fully buy this. My original understanding of this line was at least disproved, for that made even less sense. Based on my current understanding of this and the rest of the essay, I guess the main idea is that Antoinette is narrating all of these past events in the present time--for her. The author claims that it is the fact that part 3 is so much more disjointed than part 1 that helps us to see how far she is deteriorating. I have to say, though, that this would only make sense under two conditions: 1) she narrates part 1 long before she narrates part 2, or 2) she deteriorates incredibly fast--even her few moments of narration in part 2 are fairly lucid. The other thing I find that doesn't fully add up is that if narrating helps to hold her together, why does she deteriorate? The only possible solution to this that I can come up with is the fact that she doesn't narrate much in part 2, and this break takes its toll on her.
Any thoughts?]]>
Helen's Significancetag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.220752007-10-31T19:11:12Z2007-10-31T19:39:47ZThe first blog entry I wrote on Jane Eyre had to do with religion. When I found this article--"Bronte's JANE EYRE" by Mark Reger--I figured I might as well come full circle. Though this isn't only about religion, it does...
article--"Bronte's JANE EYRE" by Mark Reger--I figured I might as well come full circle. Though this isn't only about religion, it does discuss Helen's importance in Jane Eyre's life. One of the ways in which she is important is through religion.
"Helen provides an alternative to the only Christianity Jane has known. Helen does show Jane Christian resignation, but, more significantly, she shows her a more merciful and loving Christianity as well..." (214).
Up until Helen leads Jane to know otherwise, Jane only knows about the fire and brimstone aspect of religion--as this author also points out. It is Helen that opens Jane up to true faith, not just faith by fear and subversion.
"Helen explains what Jane does not realize--that having Brocklehurst for an enemy will lose her no friends at Lowood, where 'he is little liked'" (214).
The author explains that though Helen believes in the ideal of "passivity," she is not. She talks to Jane when she's not supposed to to tell her that she'll be fine. If Helen had not broken this rule set by Brockelhurst, Jane would have been under the impression that she will be alone. Lowood would become her own personal hell as Gateshead did. Helen saves her from having to go through this.
"Almost immediately Jane begins to alter her behavior" (213).
The author explains how Helen influences Jane when it comes time for her to tell Miss Temple the truth about her life at Gateshead in order to clear her name. If it wasn't for Helen, Miss Temple very well could have thought Brocklehurst was right about Jane being a lier. Jane, however, heeded Helen's advice that she needed to be more "subdued."
Furthermore, even though Helen is not mentioned much after her death in the novel, she is still important to Jane. I'll admit that I didn't pick up on this particular fact until I read this essay. In chapter 9 of Jane Eyre, Jane visits Helen's grave 15 years later. As the author points out, this would be after Jane has married Rochester. ]]>
Convenient Insanitytag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.220262007-10-29T03:12:30Z2007-10-29T03:25:26Z"His [Daniel Cosway's] claim to know the secrets of the Cosway family accounts to claim to all of the knowledge that has escaped or mocked Rochester during his marriage....Though Rochester refuses to pay Cosway, he nonetheless believes him, precisely because...
"Edward Rochester and the Margins of Masculinity in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea" by Kendrick
This does make sense, based on what we know of Rochester from the two novels. It seems as if he always tends to go for whatever is most convenient for him. In the case of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea, he doesn't love her. He married her for her money. The convenient solution to his loveless marriage is what Cosway presents to him--insanity. If she is insane, he can lock her away and never have to really deal with her. He can just pay someone to take care of her and then simply pretend that she doesn't exist--for as long as he is able, that is.]]>
Disbelieftag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.220252007-10-29T02:24:14Z2007-10-29T02:38:24Z"She [Rhys] explained that 'I've never believed in Charlotte's lunatic, that's why I wrote this book [Wide Sargasso Sea' (296)." ~"Double (De)colonization and the Feminist Criticism of Wide Sargasso Sea" by Mardorossian I found this to be interesting. I can...
"Double (De)colonization and the Feminist Criticism of Wide Sargasso Sea" by Mardorossian
I found this to be interesting. I can kind of see where she's coming from. Bertha is a flat character in Jane Eyre. She's also portrayed in a melodramatic way--which makes her seem even more unreal. In a science fiction or fantasy style novel, this would not come across as much. Everything in those types of stories have a fantastical element about them, so nothing like this would seem out of place. In Jane Eyre, however, there are very few things that have this quality. As a result, the few things that are out of the ordinary seem out of place and completely fake.
I guess then that Rhys's interpretation of Bertha, or Antoinette, is that if she is crazy, it's because of others' influence. She was forced to become crazy.
Another completely different possibility, however, could be that she was simply trying to turn a flat character into a dynamic character.
Maybe it's a combination of the two.
Any ideas?]]>
Caged Birdtag:blogs.setonhill.edu,2007:/JenniferPrex//393.219492007-10-24T16:09:44Z2007-10-24T16:22:48Z'Even if I got away (and how?) he [Rochester] would force me back. So would Richard. So would everybody else. Running away from him, from this island, is the lie. What reason could I give for going and who would...
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, page 113.
In class on Tues, we discussed how the fire in part one of this book was a type of foreshadowing for the fire we knew would come in the end. Along with this, the point was brought up that the bird's death was foreshadowing as well. I think this line from part two best sums up how Antoinette is similar to the bird. She feels like she is trapped. She really has no way out. If she would make an attempt at freedom, everyone would force her back. It seems she starts the fire and jumps at the end not only because of the dream, but also because it is a way to freedom...the only way she can leave without fear of anyone bringing her back. This feeling of being trapped may have been yet another reason she went crazy. Then again, it could also just be a side effect of her mental deterioration. ]]>
Maus II by Art Spiegelman]]>
I think the whole point in telling this story is to make people care about what happened. In including sequences like this, Spiegelman accomplishes this. If he just included statistics or said that Vladek knew so-and-so and that so-and-so didn't make it, we would feel sorry for him, but we wouldn't truly care. By having a story like Mandelbaum's and ending it with an uplifting anecdote like this one, he makes us care before we find out that he didn't make it. I don't know about anyone else, but that part hit me. There were a lot of cases like that in this comic...especially when your brain kicks in and reminds you that all of this actually happened.