KaryssaBlair

"Its instructors are among the lowest paid of any who hold forth in a classroom; most, though possessing doctoral degrees, are ineligible for tenure or promotion; their offices are often small and crowded; their scholarship is rarely considered worthy of comparison with "literary" scholarship. Their work, while crucial, is demeaned."
            William M. Chase, "The Decline of the English Department"

Well... that's not good.  I'm glad I have something to look forward to if I ever make it in my dream job.

At the beginning of this article, I just kept selfishly thinking, "Well, it's sad that less people appreciate English, but at least that means less competition for me, right?"  However, I didn't take into account that the reason people have stopped studying literature is because of the fact that the amount of job opportunities are declining.  I just thought they were more concerned with making the big bucks and that was it.

Now that I think about it, though, I'm getting tired of the criticism I receive when I say I'm an English major.  Even more I decided this was what I wanted to study, I was always criticized for considering anything that wasn't related to science.  I did flip back and forth between humanities and science, just because I'm interested in everything, so I guess it's understandable for people to have said, "you either want to be a neuropsychologist or... do something with English?  Oh," given societal expectations.

In high school, I always went to my chemistry teacher because she was very adept at giving students advice about college, regardless of whether it was for science or the humanities.  However, any time I mentioned something other than a scientific field (I guess she had different expectations for me than other students, because she never criticized them), her face would become very serious and I could tell she was trying not to judge me and be supportive in a way.  She'd say "oh, I see... well what are you going to do with that?" as she tried to pull me back to chemical engineering or whatever field of study it was during that conversation.  Maybe that's why I changed between eight different majors from the time I applied to SHU until the second week of freshman year. 

Societal expectations are frustrating.

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"Poets invite us to change speeds while reading - to slow down and linger over some words and sounds and to pass rapidly over others" (185).
                Edgar V. Roberts, Writing About Literature

Here's another reason to enjoy poetry.  I mean, I've always liked to read it, but it was mostly for a "oh wow that's some pretty stuff" kind of reason.  It's not hard to understand what's happening in poetry, but sometimes it's difficult to analyze, especially when you have to think about the mechanics of it.  Anyways, as I said in my presentation on Friday, I'm beginning to enjoy poetry even more than I have in the past the more I learn about it.

The above quote makes me relate poetry to science.  In a previous blog, I described math as a sort of artistic science; now, I'm going to call poetry a scientific art.  Some poets might just write what comes to mind without thinking about it; I don't really know since I'm not a poet.  However, I know some poets, especially the ones we study for literary value, must focus on the prosody in their writings.  There has to be a specific purpose to the choices they make because they bring something to the poem to amplify the theme, or the emotions of the speaker.  

This specific technique seems so scientific to me.  It involves planning, research, and experimentation in order to make it successful.  Since I love science, I love this aspect of poetry and I wish I would have really thought about it sooner than now.

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I'm not sure if I'm supposed to blog about this in addition to my blog about my presentation, but I figured I might as well.

"Porphyria's love: she guessed not how her darling one wish would be heard" (56-57).

Most people speculate that because the speaker's lover's name is Porphyria, she is the person who is physically suffering from the disease, meaning she is the one who has been diagnosed.  I offer a different interpretation.  As I said in my presentation for this poem, Porphyria shows no signs of actually being sick.  Her skin is unblemished, and while some forms of Porphyria do not affect the skin too greatly, most of them do cause blisters and itchiness.  She gives no signs of being physically weak; in fact, it is she that starts the fire and prepares everything while her lover waits for her to "[sit] down by [his] side and [call him]" (14-15) to which he does not answer.  Which one seems sickly?

My theory is that her name is Porphyria because she does suffer from the disease - just not by diagnosis.  He is the one who is actually diseased, but she suffers from it because his mania causes her death.  Him being infected also fits with the fact that he is Porphyria's lover (with Porphyria in this case being the illness, not the woman), not because he loves the disease but because he is unified with it.  He and Porphyria are one, especially when he's in his manic state.  Oneness is an ancient view on love and soulmates, therefore making it logical that Browning would refer to him as Porphyria's lover, especially since Porphyria is a derivative of a Greek word and the Greeks were the first people to believe in the idea of soulmates if I'm remembering correctly from my high school art history class.  

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First I'll tell you a kind of pointless little story about my dorkiness. I wanted to present on Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" because the title reminded me of the name of one of my pens from high school.  You see, I tend to name inanimate objects if they're special to me.  The pen was only special because it was given to me by one of my best friends and it had a beak and sunglasses (obviously that makes it super ~kewel~). With my overwhelming creativity, I went to babynames.com to look up names that meant "purple" because my pen was purple.  The result: Porfirio, my pen.

I don't know why I felt I should share that.  Moving on.

Prior to beginning my presentation, I was unsure about what I wanted to say.  I chose not to read chapter 13 of the Writing About Literature textbook until after I finished preparing my presentation because I didn't want it to influence my thinking.  It would make me feel as if I were cheating.  I did, however, choose to find articles first because then it would be almost like doing a research paper.  There weren't many articles available online on EBSCOhost and the Literature Resource Center, but I did find one entitled "Porphyria is Madness" by Barry L. Popowich.  It wasn't very in-depth, but that was okay to me because it let me do my own thinking by suggesting basic ideas that needed expansion.  One such idea was about the point of view and the way the speaker provides a tainted account of the murder of his lover.  This is the angle on which I focused in my explication.

The only really difficult part of the process was finding time to really focus on it.  Obviously I did, but it resulted in lack of sleep and an overload of caffeinated beverages when in combination with my other classes.  I just had to choose one of the presentation days during the busiest time of the semester. It's okay, though :) It's part of the college experience, right?

Below is my outline for my presentation.  It's a rather in-depth outline, if I do say so myself.

             I.      Reason why I chose this reading

          II.      Article - Porphyria is Madness by Barry L. Popowich

       III.      Name Porphyria

a.       Comes from the Greek porphyroes for "purple" and causes purple urine

b.      Originally porphyuria - purple urine

c.       It is the name of a disease that brings delusional madness to its sufferers

       IV.      Way to read Porphyria's lover

a.       As delusions from a Porphyria sufferer

b.      Dramatic monologue, which was Browning's specialty.  He liked to write about the pathological or people with whom it is hard to sympathize

          V.      Point of View / Voice

a.       The issue of voice in the poem is a complex one of the self and language, of the poet speaking for another, if fictional, self, and of literary history and context.

       VI.      Possible Themes

a.       Michael Burdock says it has an underlying theme for vampirism because porphyria is a "rare blood disease" in which sun-sensitive skin is the main symptom, and was treated in medieval times by drinking blood.

b.      Madness. 

                                                              i.      Originally titled "Porphyria" in1836, then "Madhouse Cells, No. II" in 1842, then Porphyria's Lover in 1849.

                                                            ii.      However, because of the title as it is now, people take the poem more literally than from the perspective that he's delusional.

                                                          iii.      It's likely that Browning had seen it since he visited asylums

 

    VII.      My interpretation

a.       This is the account of an insane man.  Here we have a conflict of point of view because the only perspective we're getting is from the crazy man, the perpetrator in the crime that was committed.

b.      What can we do to determine which moments reflect literal happenings or delusional interpretations of the speaker?  Close reading of language and structure

c.       Language

                                                              i.      Words are clear-cut and descriptive in the first third of the poem.

1.      "Rain set early in to-night" (1).  Very simple, nothing complex or emotional.

2.      Descriptions are of external things

a.       Porphyria comes in and "laid her soiled gloves by" (12). He describes her actions and the way she looks as she enters, but does not say what either of them are feeling.

3.      The speaker hints to his depressed state by saying he has a "heart fit to break," but he doesn't focus on himself yet (5).

                                                            ii.      There is an abrupt change after line 21.  Porphyria admits her love and then the speaker starts talking about internal things.

1.      Nothing is straightforward any more.  He judges everything about her.  His judgments are no longer about physical things but her emotional state, which he couldn't possibly know at such a level.

a.       "Weak, pride, vain twice"

2.      Porphyria seemed to be decisive and strong when she first arrived.  She didn't let the rain stop her and she seemed in control, but now the speaker describes her as weak.  This shift doesn't seem likely, which makes me think it was all a delusional interpretation of her actions.  He became paranoid after she said she loves him, which was likely because he was the one suffering from the disease that causes mania.

3.      He's turning inward instead of focusing on external observations which is apparent by the way he begins to say "made my heart swell" and "that moment she was mine, mine."

4.      The only time he goes back to being objective in this section is when he describes the way he strangles her, which to me seems like a way to distance himself from what he did.  He doesn't want to make it personal even though it is.  This is common in psychiatric problems.

                                                          iii.      The last third of the poem is where his perceptions are at the height of insanity.

1.      He tries to be objective but he keeps including bizarre understandings of those objective observations.

2.      He repeats how she felt no pain, but how does he know?  Seems like he's trying to convince himself.

3.      He describes his dead lover's eyes as laughing and her cheeks as blushing, like they were happy, but it seems to me that her eyes would be bulging from asphyxiation and her face would be red from him touching her.

4.      The language gets more metaphorical, much unlike the first third of the poem.

5.      The reader says God has not said a word, implying he was either waiting for God's approval/disapproval of what he did or that he thinks God must be okay with it since he hasn't said anything.

6.      We still know what's happening, despite the fact that we're getting the story from an insane and biased speaker.  The reader has to read between the lines, but it's possible.

 VIII.      Questions for the Class

a.       What were your first reactions to the poem?  For me, I was like OMG I can't believe that.  Why did he do that?? It wasn't until I did a close reading that I understood why, to an extent.

b.      Do you have any other interpretations of the poem?

c.       Do you think I missed anything in my interpretation?

d.      Vampirism?  Any possibility?  I feel like that's going a bit too far in analysis.

e.       The last three lines, "And thus we sit together now, / And all night long we have not stirred, / And yet God has not said a word!" How do these lines fit in with the rest of the poem for you?  He changes to the present tense.  I think he's suggesting that he's in a madhouse and there's a physical illusion of Porphyria with him.

f.       Why is her name Porphyria if he seems to be the one who is insane?  Maybe because she is the one that suffers from his illness.  He seems okay with it, like he's not in any pain, he's just insane.  However, she is the one who has to physically suffer.

Smirnov: "I'll shoot her like a chicken!  But what a woman! ... What a woman!  How she blushed, her eyes shone... she accepted my challenge!  To tell the truth, it was the first time in my life I've seen a woman like that..." (390).
            Anton Chekhov, The Bear: A Joke in One Act

This play was rather funny.  However, I think I would have liked it more if it were longer.  Obviously that would defeat the whole idea of it being a "Joke in One Act," but I would be able to appreciate it more.  

It's a common convention in literature for two people destined to be together at the end to hate each other at the beginning.  Such a relationship provides more drama and entertainment for the reader, therefore making it a successful convention that really never gets old.  However, having it happen in the span of eight pages made their relationship less believable.  I suppose that's acceptable in comedy, though, especially in the case of this play since Chekhov established it as a joke.

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"Because writers of poems, plays, and stories are usually not systematic philosophers, it is not appropriate to go "message hunting" as though their works contained nothing but ideas" (120).
                Edgar V Roberts, Writing About Literature

I must confess that I often go "message hunting" when I probably shouldn't.  I didn't when I was younger, just reading books because I thought reading was fun.  However, in high school, my English teachers always instructed us to completely tear apart a piece of writing to root out the underlying ideas that weren't apparent on the surface.  Obviously, this is important at times, but sometimes those ideas just aren't there.  The writer really was just describing a character walking past a window, not suggesting a metaphorical comparison of the outside landscape to the life the character wishes she were living.  

Ever since then, I find myself overanalyzing a piece of fiction, something Roberts tells us not to do.  Nonetheless, I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as I still enjoy the reading process.  As long as I realize the improbability of the outlandish hunted messages I find, I think it's perfectly fine to do that.  I said in an earlier blog that while I agree that authors are not always intentionally making some sort of philosophical implication in every word they choose while writing, maybe they're still making a subconscious choice.  

It really doesn't matter, because when it comes down to it, the only thing important thing is the reader's interpretation.  Sometimes interpretation requires some "message hunting," so while I understand Roberts point, I only agree to an extent.  I think we need to go message hunting as long as we realize we won't always find buried treasure.

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Several other students have blogged about J.'s name, and we've discussed it in class, but there's still something I can point out.

J. is recalling his memory of the John Henry legend:

"He ate the food in great inhalations (J. wondering from the summit of the Talcott Motor Lodge, who is that little boy down there in the classroom who shares his name, and where did they get that food.  He was born a slave.  His parents were Slaves.  Where did they get all that food?)" (138).
                        Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days

This part confused me because it didn't seem like John Henry was in a classroom in John's retelling of the legend.  I just pictured him to be in a little shack, my vision of his house.  I never mentioned this in class because I wasn't sure what to even say about it, because it also suggests the idea that J. is looking down on himself as a little boy, like he's standing outside his thoughts and actually visualizing them. Think Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Past.

"She asked one last thing when they came down the mountain. When they came down the mountain she asked, what's the J. stand for? He told her" (389).

So even with the first section I quoted, we still don't really know what J.'s name is, and it's important that we don't.  I'm working on a theory that ties in my past idea that J. was a parallel for John Henry.  Maybe Whitehead wanted us to believe that was the case throughout the story until the end. By keeping J. as J., Whitehead makes John Henry seem larger than life in comparison - he gets a whole name while J. gets only an initial.  J. is just a man, whereas John Henry is an idealized man, destroying the parallel. This idea is so scatter-brained at the moment, so if anyone understands what I'm saying, please share your opinion or ask me questions so I can make it more logical.

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During Jess Orlowski's presentation for Maus, she mentioned Art's competition with his deceased brother, Richieu.  He never knew Richieu because he died during the Holocaust and Art was born afterwards, but he still felt like he needed to compete with him. Richieu died as a child, while he was still innocent, before he could make any real mistakes. Since that's not the case with Art, he felt his entire life that he could never earn the reverence his parents have for Richieu for him.

This is one of the themes for both Maus I and II. It seems like Art needs his father to accept him, and he tries to find a way to do that by writing these books. It's not that his father doesn't love him; it's just that Art feels like he can't fully be part of his world because he can never understand what he went through.

Jess Orlowski has two excellent blogs on Maus.

If anyone who reads my blog who isn't in my class, I highly suggest reading Maus and also Persepolis. I love historical graphic novels!

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I just realized how much easier this process would be if I made my portfolio as I go. I like to give summaries of all my entries, which I could easily do right after I write my blogs. Throughout the semester, I've kept track of my comments that I leave on other blogs and which of my blogs have received a lot of discussion, but I haven't done more than that. It would be so simple to keep a link to everything. I suppose this is one of those simple things I should have realized sooner, but didn't. D'oh!

Anyways, this semester is going so quickly and it's amazing that we're basically at the middle of November.  Portfolio 003, now commencing!


Coverage: I blogged for every required reading, as always, and did two additional blogs.  I tried to put extra effort into all of them because that's what I do.  I know Dr. Jerz says we only need to blog a few sentences, but I get so much more out of it when I do more than that because it makes me go deeper.  For this portfolio, though, I think I have maybe two blogs that were only one paragraph because I had a time constraint those days.

Dirty Rotten Symbolism - In this blog, I hypothesize that in his poem "Cargoes," John Masefield is criticizing the degradation of society over time.  Melissa Schwenk mentions this blog in hers, Passage of Time. 

Scope For Imagination - This blog reflects on chapter 8 of Edgar V. Roberts' book, Writing About Literature.  In it, I emphasize the importance of imagery in an author's writing.

Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels! - This entry focuses on the first four chapters of the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman.  I remark on the detail in his drawings and how they emotionally affect me more so than a typical historical account would.

Is He Eyeballing Me? - I was extremely impressed by Spiegelman's detail in his drawings, so I blogged about it even further in this blog.

Set the Symbolism For Dinner - In this entry, I reflect on chapter 6 of Writing About Literature.  I connect what I learned in the chapter with Robert Frost's poem, "Desert Places."

Masquerade!  Paper faces on parade... - This blog suggests that Poe was also implying the idea that death doesn't stop for beautiful people, in addition to rich people, in his short story, "The Masque of the Red Death."

Opposing Opin- Oh... Nevermind. - In this blog, I examine an editorial on climate changes.  I was confused about whether or not this was a "good" editorial, for lack of a better word, because it's much more factual than opinionated.  Dr. Jerz replied and cleared everything up, but I was confused at first.

Anned One More Mention - This entry is on chapter 9 of Writing About Literature.  In it, I provide a quote from Anne of Green Gables to exhibit excellent use of simile and metaphor in writing and how they bring the feelings so much closer to the reader.

(d/dx)(x^2) = Waterworks - This blog relates John Keats' poem, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" to personal experience with math class in high school.

Absence Makes the Heart... Sad - Shakespeare's poem, "Sonnet 30," has a rather ambiguous intended listener.  In this blog, I provide possible answers to the fate of the listener.

Of Golden Leaves and Furry Things - In this blog, I examine the different forms of symbolism in Katherine Mansfield's short story, "Miss Brill." 

Wiki Wiki Wack - This entry details my opinion on the usefulness of Chapter 18 of Writing About Literature, the chapter on writing a research paper.

Unfortunate, Not Ironic - After reading chapter 11 of Writing About Literature, on tone and irony, I examine Alanis Morissette's song "Irony" and criticize it for its lack of irony despite its title.

Mind Your Tone - This blog focuses on Langston Hughes' claim for equality in his poem, "Theme in English B."

Whitehead's Writing is a River - In this blog, I admire Whitehead's descriptive abilities in his book, John Henry Days, but suggest that I don't typically enjoy that sort of writing when reading with a time constraint. 

Resistance is Futile - This entry compares J. to John Henry in the book John Henry Days.

Let's Get Psychological, Psychological - In this entry, I examine the passage in which Pamela views the John Henry statue and suggest that she is projecting her opinion of herself onto it.

Extra Blog #1: Just For Fun - This is an additional blog linking to my intro lit project about Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "Annabel Lee."  I also provide video clips of the Disney animated short film, John Henry, as a way to compare the different representations of the legend.

Extra Blog #2: Unaccepted Nonacceptance - After reading Maus I, I had to read Maus II.  In this blog, I reflect on Jessica Orlowski's blog about her presentation of Maus and tie in my own opinion of the theme of the Maus books.


Depth: As I said in the Coverage section, I try to be as in-depth as possible with every blog.  The following blogs, however, show what I believe goes beyond my norm.

Dirty Rotten Symbolism - The reason I think this blog shows depth is because of the close analysis I do of each stanza of John Masefield's poem, "Cargoes."

Scope For Imagination - This blog shows depth because I reflect on my personal feels about the need for imagery, and how it is important in showing versus telling.  I also provide a quote from Anne of Green Gables that exhibits great imagery as an example for my peers.

Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels! - In this entry, I compare the styles of Maus and Persepolis and suggest that my peers read Persepolis as well.  After recommending Persepolis and examining the similarities between the two, I narrow my focus to Maus alone and explain the importance of the detail of the images and how the history is expressed so much more effectively in comic book form.

Is He Eyeballing Me? - This entry shows depth because I basically did a close reading of Spiegelman's detail in the drawing of eyes in Maus.

Masquerade!  Paper faces on parade... - In class, when we discussed Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Masque of the Red Death," everyone agreed that one of the morals of the story was that death doesn't avoid someone if that person was rich.  However, I noticed that Poe capitalizes beauty at one point and examine the idea that he's also making the claim that beauty doesn't protect you from death either.

Of Golden Leaves and Furry Things - This blog exhibits depth because I do a close reading of Mansfield's story, "Miss Brill," and examine the symbolism within it.  I analyze more than one symbol in order to gain a broader understanding of the story.

Whitehead's Writing is a River - This blog demonstrates depth because I provide several quotations as examples and look at them closely to exemplify Whitehead's use of imagery and metaphors. 

Resistance is Futile - In this entry, I examine the legend of John Henry and compare him to J. in John Henry Days.  I think it shows depth because I drew a parallel between two characters before that parallel was apparent, as it is later in the book.


Discussion: These next blogs, which have already been described in the Coverage (and possibly Depth) section, sparked a lot of discussion from my peers.  There were discussions on other blogs, but these are the best examples.

Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels! - This entry has so much interaction!  It really excited me, because this is the most discussion I've had all semester.  Kayla  commented first expressing her opinion on Spiegelman's illustrations in Maus.  Josie provided an opinion, which was similar to mine.  Melissa Schwenk agreed with the way the discussion was going, but said I showed her something she didn't originally see.  Jessica significantly contributed to the discussion by replying to everyone who had already replied.  Josie returned several times, and Aja and Dave added to the discussion.  I made sure to reply to everyone, and wrapped up the discussion.  The amount of comments made my little blogging heart all a-twitter. 

Unfortunate, Not Ironic - Because we seem to have a bit of confusion over what's ironic and what is simply unfortunate, this blog sparked a lot of discussion.  It was mostly between me and Josie, but Jess and Kayla also provided insight and questions about the definition of irony.

Whitehead's Writing is a River - In this entry, several people had opinions on Whitehead's use of metaphors and his overall writing style in John Henry Days.  Josie first commented leaving a remark similar to my original blog, as did Kayla.  Carissa agrees as well, but takes the discussion further by questioning J.'s actions in the section I quoted.  Josie returns to answer Carissa's question, and I, again, end the discussion by replying to everyone. 


Timeliness: I always did my reading on time, but sometimes fell a little behind in posting maybe three of my blogs.  However, the following were done in a timely manner.

Dirty Rotten Symbolism - Posted on October 13, 2009 at 9:03 AM.  Needed for class on Monday, October 19.

Scope For Imagination - Posted on October 13, 2009 at 9:04 AM.  Needed for class on Monday, October 19.

Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels - Posted on October 15, 2009 at 1:06 AM.  Needed for class on Friday, October 16.

Is He Eyeballing Me? - Posted on October 15, 2009 at 6:24 PM.  Needed for class on Monday, October 19.

Anned One More Mention - Posted on October 27, 2009 at 12:59 PM.  Needed for class on Wednesday, October 28.

(d/dx)(x^2) = Waterworks - Posted on October 27, 2009 at 1:09 PM.  Needed for class on Wednesday, October 28.

Unfortunate, Not Ironic - Posted on November 2, 2009 at 7:57 PM.  Needed for class on Wednesday, November 4.

Mind Your Tone - Posted on November 2, 2009 at 8:00 PM.  Needed for class on Wednesday, November 4.

Whitehead's Writing is a River - Posted on November 5, 2009 at 4:38 PM.  Needed for class on Friday, November 6.

Resistance is Futile - Posted on November 8, 2009 at 3:55 PM.  Needed for class on Monday, November 9.

Let's Get Psychological, Psychological - Posted on November 10, 2009 at 5:20 PM.  Needed for class on Wednesday, November 11.


Xenoblogging: These are examples of my attempts to help the blogging efforts of my fellow students.

The Comment Primo - I was the first person to comment on the following blogs:

Aja Hannah - You're Such a Pig!

Jess Orlowski, Mighty Maus

Dave Wilbanks, Framed Comic Frames

Cody Naylor, Hearing through Yiddish... Seeing in Ink

Brooke Kuehn, A Coping Method?

Melissa Schwenk, Bunker Down

Josie Rush, This Poem was Written Only For People Who Can Pronounce and Define Quinquereme

Kayla Lesko, Character Depth? Where?

Kayla Lesko, Knock Knock, It's Death Again

Brooke Kuehn, It's Common Sense People

Dianna Griffin, Being Proud of Something You Actually Worked For

Brooke Kuehn, Identical or the Same?

Jessie Krehlik, Remember Me

Kayla Lesko, Whatever Works For You

Carissa Altizer, Lost in a Library and Looking for a Topic

Aja Hannah, The Research Essay Review

Kayla Lesko, Sarcasm Doesn't Work on the Internet

Carissa Altizer, I Have a Theory and I Want to Know Yours!

Aja Hannah, No Shortage

The Comment Grande - I left long, insightful comments on the following blogs, with many of them linking to other websites and blogs:

Aja Hannah, Can You Imagine? Nope.

Melissa Schwenk, Bunker Down

Josie Rush, Very Fictional Fiction

Brooke Kuehn, You are What You Hear, You are What You See

Jessie Krehlik, What is true?

Josie Rush, How to Die Laughing

The Comment Informative - The following blogs were ones in which I left a comment showing my knowledge of a specific subject:

Aja Hannah, You're Such a Pig!

Carissa Altizer, I Sigh My Lack of Brain

The Link Gracious - In my comments on these blogs, and in some of my own blog entries, I link to the blogs of other students.

Karyssa Blair, Dirty Rotten Symbolism

Karyssa Blair, Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels!

David Wilbanks, Framed Comic Frames

Brooke Kuehn, A Coping Method?

Karyssa Blair, Let's Get Psychological, Psychological

Karyssa Blair, Unaccepted Nonacceptance

Wildcard: This blog entry best represents me as a blogger:

Must Have More Historical Graphic Novels!

This post consists of videos I wanted to include earlier, but didn't.  The first is a group project from last year's Intro Lit class. It is a sock puppet interpretation of Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee." Also part of the group: Kayla Lesko, Jed Fetterman, and Christina Celona.




The next two videos are from Disney's short animated film, John Henry. This was how I knew of the legend of John Henry before reading Colson Whiehead's John Henry Days. I think it's interesting to analyze how Disney portrays things, as we did earlier in the year.

Part 1
 

Part 2