Sarah Lodzsun

Portfolio 2 (100pts) -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

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Final Term Paper

Truth and Lies and a Psychoanalytic Literary Study Because Haddon uses a character that's hazy and confused view of the
world allows him to consider an uninhabited, impassive world as a heaven. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time challenges the separation between utopia and dystopia. Haddon's dramatic power; shows the strain between the truths, as Christopher relates it, and reality, as the reader perceives it. This in fact forces the reader to re-interpret categories such as "special and "normal", since the book presents a blurred world of normal people through a distorted lens.
Christopher the protagonist, living in a utopia is in an unknown distorted world. His mind is logical yet the world is full of haunting aliens (Apollo Space Missions) that plan to enter his logical mind. Haddon tells us that "He walks up and down the streets at 4a.m pretending he is the only person in the whole world" This is where the utopian society ends.
Christopher is a genius at math, and loves maps, timetables and facts. He does not know what it is to tell a lie, no matter how bad of a situation he is in. He is also incapable of voicing and / or comprehending jokes. Why is it that normal everyday things disturb Christopher , such as the colors yellow and brown? We know the he detests yellow because of custard, bananas, double yellow lines, yellow flowers, sweet corn, and hay fever, and brown because of dirt, gravy, wood, Melissa Brown, and poo. It is the unfamilar setting which causes him to go into an overload of thoughts. Or simply groan and hide his face.
This could possibly be labeled as Hysteria; definition: It is a diagnostic label applied to a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. The fear is most often on an imagined problem with that body part (disease is a common complaint). People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to the overwhelming fear. (BOOK; Mark S. Micale (1993). "On the "Disappearance" of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis". Isis 84: 496-526.)
The most intricate experience throughout Christopher's journey in finding the killer of the dog is not just finding out WHO killed the dog, but what happened to his mother?
According to Sigmund Freud, that unconscious feeling conflicts over repressed wishes and they have a tendency to manifest themselves in dreams, parapraxes also known as "Freudian slips", and symptoms.(Scharnberg, Max. The non-authentic nature of Freud's observations, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1993 ISBN 91-554-3122- 4) Christopher, the narrator and protagonist warned us that this "WILL
NOT BE A FUNNY BOOK", (Haddon) but we all know that in fact is funny in parts. We are able to see view points on the irony of life in the eyes of a world seen by a very logical person.
A lot of credit is awarded to the author, Mark Haddon. He could have chosen any character to reveal the events that happened in "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime". Instead he choose the not so ordinary Christopher. We follow him on this emotional rollercoaster, where we get a sense of sympathy, vivid details, and love (that we probably would not have seen otherwise). If we would begin to think like Christopher, we would acknowledge relationships, parents, and life situations.
Christopher likes the idea of a world with no people in it. [Haddon p. 2]; He contemplates the end of the world when the universe collapses. [Haddon p. 10-11]; He dreams of being an astronaut, alone in space. [Haddon p. 50-51]; Christopher reveals to us the dream when,
"A virus has killed all the people who look at one another's faces when they talk; the only survivors are special people like me, who like being on their own and who are as shy and rare as the okapi in the jungle in the Congo." [Haddon p. 198-200]. The Freudian Pretensions say that, "One shall prove that there exists a psychological technique by which dreams may be interpreted and that upon the application of this method every dream will show itself to be a senseful psychological structure which may be introduced into an assignable place in the psychic activities of the waking state."( A paper read at Columbia University, April 19, 1915, at a Joint Meeting of the New York Branch of the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Sciences, Section of Anthropology and Psychology. Freud, Sigmund, "Die Traumdeutung;" Three editions, 1900, 1909, 1911; Franz Deutike, Leipzig und Wien.) This quote represents death and the sensation of prejudice. In this
dream Christopher is revealing a feeling of hatred towards "normal" people.
Which displays that he is uncomfortable being surrounded by others who make a mockery, and jeer at people different from them.

Where does everyone look while on an elevator with strange people? That's right they either show a pseudo interest in the carpet on the floor of the elevator, or they take the conceited approach and look at themselves in the reflecting walls. Christopher is reflecting on his own life and what he knows is that he is comfortable in similar surroundings. What do these passages say about his relationship to other human beings? What is striking about the way he describes these scenarios? The evidence speaks for itself.

The exponents of Freudian interpretations today are medical men associated with the practice of so-called "Psychoanalysis;" which means that they are more concerned to apply Freud's ideas for the treatment of nervous ailments than to cultivate pure psychology. An examination of the methods they exemplify in individual practice and in the large literature of the psycho-analytic movement shows sufficient reason, in my view, why the psycho-analytic theory of dreams should still be greeted with skepticism. Psycho-analysts tell us that repugnance for the subject-matter has delayed acceptance of their essentially sexual interpretations. (The Freudian Pretensions, Scientific Method in the Interpretation of Dreams by: Lydiard H. Horton)

Going to London must have been an awfully scary trip. Being on a train is like being cooped up in a house, only you're moving. He also hates strange people, he does not understand visual details, and he certainly will be in an unfamiliar surrounding. If we were autistic we would have the same outlook and feeling about the world around us. As Christopher slips into his Sherlock Holmes mode, (since he likes "The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sherlock Holmes") in recording the investigation of his mother, he realizes the importance of life. As the reader feels trapped inside Christopher's mind, still remaining unemotional, the thoughts and feelings motivate us.

According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, Hans Asperger, the doctor whose name is associated with the kind of autism that Christopher seems to have, notes that some autistic people have
"a sort of intelligence scarcely touched by tradition and culture -
unconventional, unorthodox, strangely pure and original, akin to the intelligence of true creativity" (Book: An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, NY: Vintage Books, 1995, pp. 252-253).

This intelligence is shown in the story when the author goes into detail talking about Christopher's incredible ability to solve mathematical problems. He is remarkably skilled and knowledgeable at math and science. He can tell you all the prime numbers up to 7,057. He is a mathematical savant and likes prime numbers. He thinks that prime numbers are similar to life, they are logical but even if you spent all of your time thinking of how to figure it out, you will never reach a full understanding. A prime number, is a number that is divisible only by two integers-itself and one. As Christopher remarks, "prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away" (Haddon 12), which reminds me again of how Christopher wants only people like him to be in the world. The "special people" are the prime numbers, and the "normal people" are the patterns.

It is hard to give a description of a story such as this one without resorting to particular cliches: "I laughed, I cried," etc. Mark Haddon portrayed a protagonist view on utopia by using Christopher's unique outlook on life, without turning him into some weird robot, or generated person. Christopher gave the story great insight and humor as well. The humorous innuendos aren't geared toward him; but at real life situations. The relevancy between real life and Christopher is that we haven't experienced the worlds he has. We are able to see, (because of him) how "prime numbers, and patterns", relationships, and interaction with the world have affected the readers.

"Although the book is character-driven, it also contains a rich plot. It is a murder mystery, a road atlas, a postmodern canvas of modern sensory overload, a coming-of-age journal and lastly a really affecting look at the grainy inconsistency of parental and romantic love and its failures. It is a cross-generational novel, very neatly walking the line between adult literary fiction and young adult." Nani Power; Washington Post Review.

Media Fast

Almost nearing the end of my second year here at Seton Hill, As I try to finish all my homework, study for finals, and pack up to go home. Today I noticed is the last day of "TV Turn-Off Week". The phrase "Media Fast" speaks for itself. It is like not eating during lent, or before a dreaded blood test. Except this time NO MEDIA, this for some people may be harder to resist than food. From personal experience I can't go anywhere without seeing headphones, i-pods, or some piece of technology gripped in someone's hands. To be frank, this week was not at all difficult for me to try to keep from watching television.

Some people, my dad for example, thinks media (more than TV) is no good for us. However; when my sister comes home from dance or cheer practice, she takes a shower and sits on the chair to watch TV, and wait for dinner. Sometimes I can laugh because she will be told to help with dinner and she doesn't want to. I also believe that TV is sometimes over- rated. I mean you cant go anywhere without hearing people talk about the best or worse performers on American Idol, the so-so apprentice on The Apprentice, and the hottest person on those reality shows. I grew up in a pretty active family that likes to be outdoors, so I think for the most- part, it has rubbed off on me. I used to watch TV a lot before coming to Seton Hill, but now I really don't have a chance to watch TV. I am either at class, cheerleading practice, games, work, or doing my class work. My roommates and I have digital cable in our rooms, but that really doesn't change the fact that TV should be watched all the time. I do have to say that in my suite, our computers and laptops are the devices that are used the most. When it comes time to go home for a break, I still don't watch much TV. I work seven days a week, no matter what.

Disregarding the use of my computer for class-work, I rarely used technology this week. Except on Saturday, and Sunday; we had cheerleading try-outs and we had to watch a try-out video, as well as practicing with out music. Oh yeah and the use of my CD player in my car. Speaking of music, I love it. I like to listen to music, on my i-pod, on the radio, and CD player. But other than try-outs this week I really didn't listen to music THAT much.

TV Turn-off Week could not have come at a better time. I was to busy studying for tests, doing homework, and reading, to have time to watch TV. Also, we were fortunate that we had nice weather to play ball, or simply lay in the grass to catch up on some rays. Because we all know that rainy days are the devils advocate for the use of media and technology. Although, I did hear that this weekend, the campus was showing a movie (A sort of drive-in setting I guess). Apparently not everyone was supporting the week with no TV. Saturday and Sunday night I went to a party, where we had a cookout and a bon fire. You can bet that there was no TV use there.

To make a long story short, I think that being away at college helped me to get through this week of "media relief". There are many other pastimes that someone can do to take up their time instead of being the norm, a couch potato. One could also do some studying. I know that not everyone on campus is an A+ student. I hope "TV Turn-Off Week" was a success, and I would think that people would have decided to take advantage of the nice weather. Maybe the lack of media and TV usage would open their eyes to more stimulating activities.

Portfolio 2

This is my second online blogging portfolio. In El150 we read numerous plays, articles, novels, and sonnets that intrigued alot of discussion not only on the blogs, but in class as well.

]]> Coverage:

My Blank Verse

Shakespeare VS Criticism

To the Very Heart of Loss

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 1

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 3

Haddons; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime 2

Bowers; Academic Article

Edson's; W;T

Timeliness:
All Under Timeliness

Depth:

Shakespeare VS Criticism

To the Very Heart of Loss

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 1

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 3

Bowers; Academic Article

Edson's; W;T

Interaction:

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 1

Resurrection Blues 2

Discussion:

Resurrection Blues 2

Shakespeare VS Criticism

Truss; Eats, Shoots and leaves 3

Blogging!!

Wildcard:

Fasting on the Media!

Blogging!!

Term Paper

W;T

I really enjoyed this play. Edson portrayed a great character study and it was by far the best read yet. I was intrigued how well Edson lead her life, and gave vivid examples of her journey "quest" of battling cancer. I could only wonder how she felt the day that she found out she has an insidious stage IV ovarian tumor. This play gave such detail to the intersection and dosages of medicine and treatment, the combination of VIN and HEX, IV's and catheter's, and not to mention the tubes in every oriphus.

In this play warning lived an isolated life. Margaret Edson's "W;T" ties in really well with one of our other texts we read in EL150. Vivian's tells us about Donne's sonnets( "Death Be Not Proud") and the importance of Donne's crafty punctuation and i compared this read to Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." Vivian uses Donne's sonnets to comfort her and helped her to try to control this deadly battle. To me Vivian almost seems non-humanistic. Which i feel has alot to do with the metaphysical sonnets by John Donne, and salvation anxiety.

Susie: "But what happened in the end?"
Jason: "End of what?"
Susie: "To Jonh Donne. Does he ever get it?"
Jason: "Get what?"
Susie: "His salvation anxiety. Does he ever understand?"

I would like to hear from another english major. What do you feel is the life and death of an english major? Could it be this play W;T?

She points out the importance of the lowercase "death" over the capital "D," again making death less powerful, alot smaller. Edson also describes in telling us that the comma is nothing but a pause, which seemed to me that the pause was the difference between ones life and death. "Nothing but a breath--a comma--separates life from life everlasting," says Ashford, whome is Vivian's professor.

Bowers Academic Article

The part passage that presented me with the most amount of understanding of Bowers opinion of Caesar was on page 525, and a quote that read. �And yet the drama takes it audience inside Caesar�s complex youthful paternalism, a paternalism that integrates personality and power within a gamesphere where Caesar makes the rules and the only thing disallowed is losing.�

Bower stated �Shakespeare had some interest in stressing Octavius�s control and responsibility�, or why would he be a character in the play. Caesar�s plan was �win at all costs; losers die.� It is told in this article that the need for power and control was what everyone in the story was after. Bower stated that �power is exercised rather that possessed.� Power is rarely controlled by one main character in this story, which one may wonder and say that another character was powerful, not Caesar. Being powerful is doing more than just ordering people around, and thrwoing your money in their faces.

Diamond Age 2

This book is made for decades to come, futuristic generations, and a technological revolution era. This book so far has given us examples of society today, such as the type oc car you drive, where you live, what you wear, and who your friends are. For me this quote put my thoughts into a sentence.

"Because I dont want to live that way...to us, the things that the Atlantans do---- dressing up in these kinds of clothes, spending years and years in school----are irrelevant. Those pursuits wouldnt help us make beautiful things, you see."

"In your Primer you have a resource that will make you highly educated, but it will never make you intelligent. That comes from life. Your life up to this point has given you all of the experience you need to be intelligent, but you have to think about those experiences. If you dont think about them, you will be psychologically unwell..."

This part of the book really shows how the "Constable" is trying to play an important role in life and with that it shows Nell that he truly cares about her, and only wants the best for her. I think that the Constable is really trying to tell Nell to go with her gut instincts and what she feels is right;opposed to always listening to Primer. If Nell were to gather the pieces of information about true life, she would realize that there are alot of different perspectives on the world and how to live life.

Jack-Ralph-Charley

Resurrection Blues 3 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> At first, I felt that there was no true plot and no one reached a conclusion at the end of the play. It took me several times of reading this section to actually discover that there were just so many different thoughts, people, and ideas that gave a certain reason that were portyrayed in the last few scenes. I feel that all of theses were pulled and arranged to fit together by Jack-Ralph-Charley. Maybe such a non-controversy is having an affect on soemone. Seeing the three in one paerson at the end of this play reminded me of God. They called him "The Three In One". God and this character in the play reprisented love, peace, and life. While fighting and struggling against the norm of society; power, money and greed.

Miller, Resurrection Blues 2 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> I really liked this read, it was interesting yet inevidable. I commented on Kevins blog and gave an example of Christ in the modern world. What if he were to relive his resurrection? What if he truely did EXIST? The "Messiah" in this book was a peacemaker.
I want to announce my thoughts as i read, when Jeanine jumps out of the window. Well at first i thought that she was just another girl in society that had't received enought attention, so whats the result you ask? Jump out the window of course! After i continued to read; i soon found that she is a bit more than just an acquaintance to Jack, one could say an intimidating gender. Jack can be compared to Jesus, he is a sin saver. A step into the light of a new realm. Anyway, i think that Jeanine partially jumped to give herself to the "Messiah".

I chuckled when Em and Felix were out to dinner and Emily mentioned her and her partner "making love". Guessing Felix may have been a bit shocked, considering women are supposed to be proper and set the rules of ettiquette. This is (I think) the best quote in this play. "One needs it when one is not marvelous to look at." Well isnt that an everyday life situation. You know boyfriend and girlfriend oh well, i wont get into that now. But at any rate, that comment is an EGO KILLER, a confidence crusher to say the least.

As I was commenting on Kevin's blog I answered his question. "While reading this play, I asked myself this question: Does money takes the lead over morals and justice?" Definitely. Any boss: past, present, or future will just be a money- hungry pig (no offense to anyone here who is the boss of someone). That was a general statement. We are without a doubt in a "media-saturated" materialistic, money-hungry world.

Is Utopia Obselete?

Hayles, ''Is Utopia Obsolete?'' (Online) -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> When you hear the word Utopia you think of serenity and tranquility. I found several definitions of utopia. All deal with peace and harmony. an imaginary and indefinitely remote place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions; an ideal and perfect place or state, where everyone lives in harmony and everything is for the best; or a description of such a place.

A literary work which describes the ideal state or way of life. The most famous example of a Utopian work is Thomas More's Utopia (from which the term is derived).

A place in which social, legal, and political justice and perfect harmony exist.

All of the above defintions are means of a perfect place or life.

I like how Hayles talks about how The Diamond Age could be more likely defined as a mutopia. Which in essence according to Hayles can recreate a new sense of a BEYOND HUMAN type of person. I think that with the rate of growing technology, maybe in the very distant future we will be in a UTOPIAN world.

The Diamond Age (3)

Stephenson, Diamond Age 3 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> I was a bit relieved to read the ending of the book. not only because i have so much work to do other than this class, but the ending was not a s interesting as the first. I did say however that the first part of the book did not intrigue me, but compared to the ending....it did.

Stephenson did a great job at describing Nells womenhood. I did feel that Primaer however;was a great asset to her life in becomming a women. I feel that Nell's life turned out the way it did because it (life) erked her to become a more independent person because she lead such a rough, harsh life.

Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 2 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> one thing i noticed aboutis that it stated how incomplete a life is that depends mainly on logic. I also feel that this book reflects alot on the ironies in life. I felt that this book had a great ending, however i sort of had a tiny huntch that his dad killed the dog, im not quite sure what led me to believe that but i did. i also agree with andy, I felt Chris doesn�t express emotions like we do. For example, he feels bad for the dog so he wants to find out who killed it, but he doesn�t cry or get scared. in a case scenerio like that anyone esle woulb be frightened.

Truss Eats, Shoots and leaves

Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves 3 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> This chapter covers alot of information for only thirty pages that were in the chapter. I really learned alot from reading these pages. They were very informative and helped to relate back to when i was in middle school.

I never knew that grammar and punctuation could be described as "glamorous", "beautiful" and "graceful". I thought this was funny because not only did Truss refer to punctuation as that, but so did my seventh grade english teacher. I was also thinking about grammar and its relationship with grammar and punctuation. When I read the first chapter, it seemed to me that grammar has left some people due to technology. If that is true, what does our future hold in dtore for us??

Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves 1 -- Jerz: Intro to Literary Study (EL150)

]]> A woman, without her man, is nothing. (meaning a woman without a man is nothing at all...)
A woman: without her, man is nothing. (meaning a man is nothing without a woman...) Elyse, I loved these quotes as well!!

The second sentence is definitelt true. We all know the women in the world keep the men together. (chuckle chuckle).

The misuse of the apostrophe has really been taken for granted. Honestly the silly little apostrophe works his butt off.

I want appreciate Lynn Truss for helping us to acknowledge our mistakes and how much we abuse punctuation, not like it abuses us at all, right??!!Also because she introduced a topic that is rather boring normally, and jazzed it up. I actually wanted to continue reading, but I had to stop. (you know, other work to do).

"To the Very Heart of Loss"

In the following essay, Simonds uses the study of Renaissance iconography as a tool to explore Antony and Cleopatra's characterization. Simonds emphasizes the ambivalence with which Antony and Cleopatra are drawn, in that they are portrayed as both extremely human and semi-divine.

]]> Simonds says that Antony and Cleopatra should not be valorized as sharing a transcendent love affair. Cleopatra is the evil goddess(VAMPIRE) Fortune, who lures Antony to his doom by imparting the addictions of lust and gambling. Antony, then, is a silly fool. In turn, the two lovers must die to make way for a Christian world. Simonds' rather stunning argument is very much a source study: she draws heavily on analogies between Renaissance depictions of the goddess Fortune and Shakespeare's own version of Cleopatra. A source study such as this (Simonds seems to want to provide the definitive reading of Cleopatra) can seem very reductive.