Independent Reading Project Reflection

For my independent reading project I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I have to say, I feel great because first of all: I had read a great novel and second of all, I had resumed my old hobby of reading for pleasure. I had been so enticed by the book that I could not stop reading, literally. The movie, being one of those people that revere it and give it its cult status - served as a wonderful source o external motivation. For the project itself however, I know I should've done better especially on the map. The book report I had written had met my standards for written work, however I've always been terrible at project work. Something that is related to posters, etc done my me end up looking terrible. I had started on it a while ago and yet, with this superfluous amount of time since it was assigned and since it's due date, I had still created a subpar (extremely subpar) poster. I do not know if there is a presentation grade, but I do wish I had done well. I had explained everything to an excessive degree because I was so familiar with the material. My presentation was more based off on trying to explain the plot and the interesting plot twists as opposed to anything else. I had seen the movie at least ten times and every time I watch it it's like seeing it for the first time. 

Archetypes

Archetypes are something we encounter everyday. Basically everything that we see has one true archetype. Say, the typical villain character. The typical in the word pretty much could be short for archetypical, because there could only be one typical villain type of character - bad, evil, and doing it to control something. Of course, another trait of the typical villain character is that there is some good left in him - and only doing whatever he's doing for revenge of some sort. Usually very bitter revenge. The typical hero character is the type that would rush in at the most convenient times - such as when a building is about to be toppled and fall upon a city or a crowd of people, the hero will rush in, flying at a super fast speed and catch the building or remove the people from harm's way. It's the typical hero setting, where the hero can truly shine. I believe the archetype developed from the inception of Superman, because that's something that Superman would do. He would either save the people, or just completely laser the building and turn it into ash.

Contemporary

The contemporary period of American literature is filled with borrowed examples from all the different preceding literary periods. First of all, it was the period of the Rationalists coinciding with the American Revolutionary War. It had been influenced greatly by the Englightment and the European thinkers of that period. I believe it was from here, a sense of American independence - coinciding with the Revolutionary war - from European literature had developed. Romanticism had developed and America had its own flavor in terms of all the different literary movements. Romanticism revered emotions above logic. There are definitely traces of these elements in the contemporary period. After that, there was the time of the realists - having been greatly influenced by the American Civil war. They had realized that the heroes of the world were not found in the jungles but instead right next to you, the man making your steel, etc, making your everyday life possible. Following that came the Modernists. They decided to scrap everything behind and create something new. Then the Contemporaries... Simply, the contemporaries were simply just extremely unoriginal that they had to "borrow" ideas from all the different preceding periods.

Reflect on Your Project

I believe we all had participated and spent a ponderous amount of time upon the project - especially Melissa Lee. I'd have to say, at first I thought the content of the project would be the most burdensome, because Ben and I had taken upon the daunting task of the content work. The book wasn't fresh in our heads anymore, our knowledge was a little rusty - but unpredictably, Melissa Lee had actually taken upon the hardest job of them all - the posters. I had not realized how hard she had worked on the posters. Thank god it was not me who had chose to do the poster work, for I would've simply done a crude, crude job. She had spent seven something hours (or even more) decorating the poster - and the next morning, I was awestruck. I had finished my content work within an hour's time, and I had thought that was challenging. I believe it was the same with Ben, too. But the time spent is really reflected upon the quality of our posters. It's filled with all the different elements to an A+ project. It's great. I would have to say that Ben and I had worked hard, but Melissa Lee worked harder. Props to Melissa! Yay!

A Horror Story?

A Rose for Emily would be considered a horror story. To me, a horror story is anything that has elements and good enough literary elements, whether they be suspense or using flash backs in a skillful way to be considered a horror story. To be specific, it seems like anything that twists our current perception of things - the way we were shaped to perceived things. For example, if a human had his guts leaking out - that's scary, and it's because it deviates from what we think of humans - whole and, well, guts on the inside. It mutilates our thoughts and presents us with a strange image of what we think we should perceive. I remember a great horror story read was the Shining, and it was because (specifically the things like the hedges and the dog man in the middle of the story) because that stuff usually doesn't happen. A hotel isn't supposed to be haunted like that, and the fact that a family of three had to live inside an empty and old hotel is just a scary concept.

Homer's End

I believe what had happened to Homer was sort of expected, but too bad I had not seen it earlier. There were many clues hinting the demise of our great Homer Baron, the Man's Man, the Gay guy, or also known as Ms. Emily's Little Necrophile Doll. It's a strange notion that she would keep his body. It was pretty obvious that a man like him would leave, but then again unbelievable that she would hold onto him.. even if it means killing him. What's really scary and hair raising is that she still slept with him and hugging him even though he's a skeleton - with his guts melded into the bed. The room's been there for what, 8 years, and that means she slept with him when he was rotting, and when he completely decayed and then turned into just a frame - skeletal frame. Quite disgusting and repulsive if you ask me. It's a very gross concept, and the fact that her house had some sort of putrid odor emanating just gives even more hints to this. She got the rat poison and killed him. He died peacefully because Emily needed to keep him as her doll.

Nobel Speech

I believe it had encompassed the ideas of what was given in his speech. It might've not encompassed all the ideas but I had been a form of execution of emotions. First of all, I believe Ms. Grierson has some sort of twisted emotional psyche about her that makes her really messed up. When she bought the poison, and when she had been asked to pay taxes, the townsfolk felt pity for her. What I had felt for her was complete disgust. She lives in a town and doesn't pay taxes. She is just a complete freeloader who does whatever she wants. Complete disgrace to society. I don't feel any of those emotions for her, only disgust and repulsion. All the taxpayer's money is going into this lowly woman and she's freeloading off of it. Very pathetic and a complete disgrace. I do not feel any sort of these emotions for her even if Faulkner was trying for it. I would not feel bad if she had burned to death or any sort of thing like that. It disgusts me.