Dare To Be Different

Some Easy Navigation.....It's Like A Compass

"Dat's all de fur de tale goes,"

The stories about Br'er Rabbit written by Joel Chandler Harris were written as lessons to be taught through oral literature. His stories were to be read out loud. Everyone says its too hard to read them, but they aren't meant to be read. They are meant to be told. If you have to read it over and over again to understand, then try reading it out loud. I think once you have done that you will get into character and be able to pick up the dialect better and understand the story better. I liked these stories they were very interesting, and the story itself caused major discusion in class because of how it was written. But what we failed to do was remember it was meant to be told, not read.

In The Darkness Someone Will Find the Light

Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote a few poems. His poems were for dark audiences such as this poem titled Richard Corey
this is morbid, but interesting. I liked it lol.
Another one of his poems was Miniver Cheevy.
The line in this that caught my eye was
Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
This reminded me of one of The Clarks' songs..."Born Too Late"
if y'all haven't heard it here are the lyrics.
It's a good song.
Anyway back to Robinson, he was a writer out of his time, he was dark and people probably didn't want to hear it then, well he was there, and he wrote so people read it apparently, because he is popular. So his darkness must have shone some light on someone. I for one like dark poems, they show the other side of happy, and love, and everything else sappy. This is how I write, so I relate to Robinson almost to the point where I hate my own name too. But it doesn't sound like a can being kicked, haha.

A Devilish Work: Live a little not so literal!

The Devil's Dictionary: by Anmbrose Bierce

This was, as I pointed out in class when it was discussed, an earlier version of today's political cartoons. It points out the obvious, makes it humerous, and says what everyone else is afraid to say. I agree with Kelly Bierce wasn't a sexist, or anti-politics, he was writing to interest people. He caught their attention and kept it. Bierce's dictionary was funny, and still is. We can't look at it as offensive, it wasn't meant to be literal. There is no rhyme or reason to it, it was written as a joke so everyone settle down and take some time to enjoy it. Live a little; not so literal.

The Strong Will Live On

"The choices we make dictate the lives we lead" - Unknown to me

"To thine own self be true" - Hamlet

In life we are judged by our actions. What we do is who we are. Our lives are only important to others if what we do has an impact. To be considered as anything we must do something great, whether it is good or bad. Without a reputation we are invisible. In a world that sees people by what they do, have done, or will do in the future; it is hard to be anything you want.

John Henry was a hero in life. He dared to stand up for what he believed in and fought for what he knew was right. Henry was a strong figure of his time. His life was important, as much as his death. What he had done paved the way for people to stand up for themselves, they can accomplish anything as long as they have faith in themselves. John Henry was a true hero, without his story people would have no faith in themselves, and their ability to be strong. His story shall live on in our hearts as an important lesson to learn, and live from.

Lose the Paper Before Losing Your Mind

Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper was a long story, much better than An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge though, because it wasn't a dream!

Gilman chose to take a stand for what she beleives in; that women should be treated better. Her story portratys the way a woman (Jane) has been treated by her husband and how she can not take it anymore. Jane is confined in a small prison-like room, where she can't do anything, not even write her feelings down on paper. Her husband is never around, and she is there alone, going even more crazy than she was to begin with. Jane begins making up this person in her wall. In this hideous wallpaper; the only thing she can do is stare at it. Jane starts to imagine this woman wantin out, to be free. She compares herself to this woman, being trapped and not having anyone help her out, so Jane begins to free her. Piece by piece tearing at the woman's prison walls, and freeing her. Then by the time she frees the woman her husband catches on, he tries to go in and stop his wife, but she has locked the door. He is outside pounding and hollaring for her, when she finds a rope. She tries to tell him where the key is but he can't hear her. So she stops talking, then he opens the door and faints, as Jane is circling the room. She sees him and climbs over him. I think that she had hanged herself, and he sees this, but since she is so mad, she imagines herself still alive and climbing over him to keep moving. Think about it the rope, the way he couldn't hear her, then him passin out when he entered the room, I think we know what happened but no one wants to come to the reality of her going that mad. Well my opinion is she was pushed to far and she snapped and ended it before he could, she took her stand and finally freed herself from her hideous yellow prison.

Some Things Should Be Heard and Not Seen

Native American Oral Literature should be heard and not read. When reading something you lose the personality of a work. Oral literature is given inflection, tone, and emotion, these things are needed to get the full effect of the story. When telling a story as opposed to reading one you have the choice to make certain points more important by the tone or sound of your voice. An oral story is told for a reason or purpose, with specific parts told louder, or more emotional, to get the main meaning to the listener. These stories wouldn't have as much meaning and importance if they are read. Plus the speaker can place themselves there, and the listener can think it really happened to this person. And Native American stories were told to describe certain things that went on in the past, from their point of view. If a white man was telling his children about the Native American's troubles it wouldn't have as much effect. If a white child read about Native American troubles in a book written by a white man, then it still will not have the same effect, the view would be twisted. So I think that the stories that are told out loud have more effect than those read, especially when told by the people that have been affected by the story's outcome.

The space between my ears....what a wonderful place

In a world of chaos
And my mind a maze
I look around for stability
To get out of this daze

The world is spinning
Out of its place
It is turning out of orbit
And is almost lost in space

I find myself floating
With no gravity at all
Soaring above it
Not worried if I fall

I fly out there
Among all the stars
My head reeling
Past Venus and Mars

I head towards the sun
The beginning and the end
I fly straight for it
But wait there's a bend

It takes me back
To where I started this
Back home to Earth
And back to what I would miss

I float back to my life
Back into the air
I settle down from my dream
And fall into my chair

I look up and see
The room where I sit
Is nothing more than
Jerz's American Lit

It was all a dream
To give my mind something to do
And as I start to dream again
I look at the clock and class is done in 2!!

Peace....hope y'all get a kick outta this I know I did....blog if you enjoyed...lol just a joke Jerz but you know sometimes everyone daydreams in class....some more than most....ha leave some!!! ~Zack~:-D

The Girl Of The Golden West

The Girl of the Golden West was written by David Belasco. Belasco was an American playwright, theatrical producer, and manager, and one of the first American producers to unify all elements of a theatrical production under the supervision of one person. After working as an actor, writer, and stage manager from 1874 to 1882. He moved to New York City and continued writing and working in theatrical management. In 1907 Belasco acquired his own theater, the Stuyvesant, renamed the Belasco in 1910.

This play took place during the days of the GOLD FEVER
During the California Gold Rush
In Cloudy Mountain California-- A mining camp

California was a unique and diverse natural environment after 1848. With a remarkable range of geography and geology, of plants and animals, of weather and natural resources. California had been inhabited or visited by many different people before gold was discovered. Each new group of people brought its own system of values. They related differently to the beauty of California and its immense bounty of natural resources. Each saw a different kind of "gold" to be reaped from the land. They also related differently to each other.

"The world in 1848 was poised to rush to California. A remarkable coincidence of worldwide events and conditions set the stage: political instability and revolution, class tensions and social unrest, economic depression and repression. Add widespread drought and famine to the mix, and suddenly there were tens of thousands of people around the world primed to emigrate from their homelands to almost anywhere. The Old World seemed faded and chaotic, and the New World appeared bright with limitless prospects and promise. California offered a destination, an irresistible temptation. A golden carrot was dangled in front of the world's nose. California Gold . . . free for the taking! This 'Mother Lode' of gold suddenly seemed a compelling answer to the problems of those tumultuous times. The world responded, and rushed to California (museumca)."

The point I have focused on from this play was The Girl and how she was the center of this town. Her saloon was the place to be. It was the hang out for everyone, and she was the object of all of the camp boys' affection. Everyone toasts to her. Sonora melts when he sees her. Handsome sits watching the girl. Blond Harry buys her a drink. The boys give her money to buy ribbons; one more than the last. Rance wants her to be his wife. He goes as far as asking her to marry him.

The Girl "Minnie" is different than most girls in this time. As it states in this passage:
"Her utter frankness takes away all suggestion of vice-- showing her to be unsmirched, happy, careless, untouched by the life about her. Yet she has a thorough knowledge of what the men of her world generally want. She is used to flattery-- knows exactly how to deal with men-- is very shrewd-- but quite capable of being a good friend to the camp boys. Handsome follows her and stands agains the bar, watching her admiringly."

When The Girl was handed the drink that Blond Harry sent her she took it and poured it back into the bottle, and told Nick to send her thanks. I think she is very acceptable of the flirting that she receives, but she knows that what is said is completely different than what is done. When Rance proposes, The Girl brings up the fact that he has a wife in New Orleans. She says that no one here will marry her. Handsome has two wives somewhere East. Trin a "widder" in Sacramento. Also everyone there is not traveling under their own name.

The Girl says that she runs the Polka alone, and she was taught by her father. She doesnt need anyone to protect her. She has her own weapon. She's independent, and happy-- the Polka is paying and she wants no talk of marriage with Rance's wife in New Orleans, because it is a respectable saloon.

This brings up a lot of points at how The Girl seems to run her business, and shows that she is different than most girls out there now. Like the one girl every guy knew from the other town. She is about friendships and nothing more. She is independent and doesn't need a protector. She can handle herself. I think that The Girl is a very out of place character.

Belasco has named her The Girl in the Golden West for a reason. She is always referred to as 'The Girl,' I think this shows how out of place she is already, and brings that point out everytime her name is read.

Nuggets of information to uncover......

Finding out The Girl's name was 'Minnie' took away from her as a character, do you think the story would have more impact if Belasco would have called her Minnie during the play?

Cloudy Mountain, California is not a real place, why do you think Belasco chose this name? Do you think there is a hidden meaning behind this?

During the Golden west there were not a lot of places for women to be, why do you think Belasco chose to focus his story around a saloon girl, and her life?

Huck Finn and his Phallic Friends

I think that it is reaaly cool how myself and two other colleagues have come up with a new meaning of Samuel Clemens' book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We thought of what was going on inthis story and we came to the conclusion that the author was for homosexuality and pedaphelia. We did this as a joke, until we found things that we could use to back up our argument. Because of this we came to the conclusion that with any literary piece of work you can take an argument and find any way to back it up. I think this is really cool because there are so many ways to interpret things, and that many different people can find their own idea of what is being asid, and as long as they have proof then it could be beleived. This almost makes me think that literature is ok....um no I won't go that far...Peace

Live Life!

This is just a random note to my fellow bloggers.
Suck up whatever is on your plate. Life throws a lot of things at you, some hard, some soft, some fast, some slow, some up, some down, some from directions that you aren't even aware of. The only thing I have to say is that life sucks sometimes, and the only thing you can do about it is LIVE! Life is what we make of it, and any problems you have, take out your aggression anyway you can. I'm not telling you to go out and beat someone up, I am just saying some way you can get all of your frustrations out, by all means do it! Scream at the top of your lungs, hit a punching bag, write a story/poem. Just get it out, because keeping it in is not healthy and sometimes it is better out than in. And guys please remember We are never given anything we can't handle.
And Finally When Life Gives You Lemons, Squeeze the Hell Out of Them!!!!

The Building Blogs of Life

The Bridges We Build
Knocking At My Door
Banging My Head Against the Wall...Street
Scarlet...not just a color anymore
Poetry...... Corner
Into the Woods and Onto the Water
My Own Mind

Ralph and Henry

There is alot to say about my good buddies Ralph and Henry here, but the one thing that should be told is they did not like being around people.
Both Emerson and Thoreau, loved their privacy, they secluded themselves from society, as well as the world. The two didn't mind being out by themselves. Nature was one thing that these two loved more than life.
I think I have a lot in common with the two of these men, not because I am a well-known author, but because I like nature too. I think that without nature there would be nothin in this world. Nature is the beauty of life. I believe that nature is what the world consists of, there is nothing in this world unless there is nature. I think that if I had my choice I wouldn't live alone in nature, but I would have the people I love with me, and then my life would be complete in what was created for us by God, and with the people that I love and love me. This would be my paradise, my entire world.

Scrivener ?

When asked to read the story "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" I was confused at what exactly a scrivener was. I found out that it was a boring job, just as I thought the story was boring. Melville has a way with words; I'm sure. Now if only I could understand them.
No I'm just kidding, I didn't like this story too much but I read on. The development of the story was very well put together, Melville had a plan and you could see that. The actual story needed some work. I think that Bartleby was distant from the people he worked with, and yet the narrator put up with his antics; which is way more toleration than I have. I think that the narrator showed good character when he defended Bartleby, but I think that he was too leniant. As I have said before I did not like this story but I read it and got out of it what I could.

Continuation of "Blog Surfer"

Asked for permission, and here is the link to the blog I was surfing a few weeks ago. If anyone would like to respond to either of mine, or Jason's comments feel free, I would rather you would send the comments for Jason to his blog...
Jason Crighton