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.

Eccentric or Crazy?

I believe this sort of insanity she suffers was learned. She used to live a sort of lavish aristocratic lifestyle until everything went away. Her father wasn't really thoughtful by pushing away the men that were trying to court her, and now once her father died, she has no one to depend on. This sort of learned behavior, I believe, was from being too used to this lifestyle then having everything hit rock bottom. All in all, she's SOL and she cannot find a way out of it. She behaves this way to gain attention, and according to the Philip Zimbardo prison experiment, once she has taken that role as the helpless woman she HAD BECOME the helpless woman. She is a helpless woman. I believe a lot of women today in society are like this, they believe they are some sort of princess and then they get treated by one because they're so demanding and men are so submissive that they become what they really want to be. Just like how, in the first few weeks of marriage, a couple might feel out of place - they might feel like it's all an act, but after a while, they do become the "married couple" in a sense whatever a married couple is supposed to be.

The N-Word

The word today is known as some sort of derogatory term that emerged in  the 1800s to describe slaves. Black slaves, specifically. An enslaved native would not be known as the n-word. Today, it is also used by fellow descendants of these "n-words" as a term of endearment, to show their camaradarie. I believe it's a form of devolution to still be afraid of these words. People usually freeze, and think, "WOW I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU JUST SAID THAT... are there any black people around? Did they hear him?" This is just an unnecessary fear. I believe this is kind of a person trying to conform to the other people around him, trying to stay politically correct. To me, if you want to say it, then say it. It doesn't matter. Why do we have the first amendment? I believe it's pathetic if a person tries to excuse himself by saying it's politically incorrect, uncultured, inarticulate, blahblahblah. I believe if a word wasn't used to imply the meaning then that is the meaning of the word.

Retreat

Retreating from society is a way of hiding yourself, and to prepare yourself in the meantime to face whatever you need to face. Or to hide others away from the danger that you have, are, or contain. I believe that a person should be able to hide whenever they want. But they're just little felines if you ask me. Unless it's the latter, (the one where you are hiding something away so that it won't hurt other people) then you are a true feline. People might lack self confidence to confront society, since the all mighty and scary society is something that takes courage to face. I believe it's just simply human nature to want to keep the ugly part of ourselves hidden - so that you can seek out potential mates to hide the flaws that might be with you genetically. That's why we always see ugly people wearing baggy things. Unless they're of self confidence (where does it come from) then usually people will in some form or another hide themselves from society.

Free Write

Free write, I love free writes. The reason I love free writes is that I can fill up the whole entry with words that don't really even matter. But the amazing fact is that nobody reads this so I'll do it anyway. First of all, what the hell is homophobia? And why do people "frown" on people for being homophobic? Racist, too? Why can't I use an out of date pejorative term (or used to be pejorative, I mean) however I want? Why is there even censorship? I don't understand why people feel the need to correct other people to be more "politically correct." We are all so caught up on this "politically correctness" nonsense that we try to correct each other and conform that we have lost all freedom of expression and creativity. I want to swear. I want to express my emotions with words that way. Frankly, I don't give a damn if someone feels insulted. Why should they feel insulted if I had not meant to insult them? I don't get this. Do people think they're better than other people for correcting people? This is my way of rebelling: swearing, and using discriminating words in my own way. Of course, I do not mean to insult these people - of course, I am a very articulate person so I shall couple these words with a dapper style. But no thanks, please don't correct me, you conformists.

I Hate Poetry

I hate poetry. Simply because poetry is just so meaningless. It's like contemporary art. Actually, don't even get me started on contemporary art. I detest the fact that it even exists. Why people even brand it as "art." It tarnished the word "art" by calling that, which is comparable to bovine excrement, art. Art itself is supposed to be a beautiful thing. An accurate representation of something for a purpose. Contemporary art, someone putting a toilet on a bed. Art? I think not.
Poetry is a different little pickle. If the author/writer/poet whatever they want to call themselves want to express a feeling, then why not just say it? Why not just go, "I'm feeling sad, and this is my story..." rather than trying to sound deep and evoke some sense of feeling that does not exist in the reader? If I really wanted to read meaningless words that are not coupled together in a grammatically or comprehensible manner then I'll go on my computer, press a bunch of random keys and read that. But no, they try to teach this junk in class. I'm insulted and I feel disgusted. I hate poetry. I hate it with a passion. People ask, why do you hate poetry? And I shall retort with that.

Horror

What a scary story needs... Hmm, a scary story must appeal to the reader's specific reads - therefore, dividing it up into separate genres. First of all, these genres all appeal to specific readers. One might find torture porn exciting, while another might be repulsed by it. There are those that find suspense stories hair tingling, while another would find it boring. I believe a scary story needs elements of all nature to appeal to this. One important element is suspense. The reason I say this is because if there is no suspense then why not just reveal the whole story in one page. Or just give a picture of what's happening. Then the reader doesn't have to read through all your crap to get to the point. That's why suspense is needed. It builds up the reason to read through that crap. I believe (pardon my french for the previous sentences) another element needed is some sort of shocking detail. Such as gore, etc. This is what makes a horror story, well.. horrifying.

A Journey

Prufrock is no model for such thing. First of all, he is simply the passenger in his life. He does not take control nor does he even drive this car, the car that is the metaphor for life. He is simply a little gay man. I cannot help but stress the fact that, in part with my homophobia, that he is a gay little man and that gay men cannot do such things (take life on as the driver.) Sure, there are exceptions - but I doubt that the majority of gay men are the drivers of their lives. Prufrock is no hero, he is not on a journey, if he were he wouldn't know where he was going. He's simply remaining on the same plane - rock bottom. The same level. He is just a man that is so self conscious that he worries about a tiny little bald spot on his head. He is no hero. He is not on a journey... so the journey cannot even begin if he cannot even drive his own car (that which is his life.) Oh well, Prufrock's a sad case. T.S. Eliot, you've made your point.

Prufrock Revisited

T.S. Eliot writes that, in the thoughts of Prufrock, that HE is a spiritually empty man. What does that say about humanity? It gives it a nihilistic taste and tone to the poem. It adds flavor and character to the poem, because I've realized that all great poems invoke some sort of thought that questions an abstract and deep thing that humans cannot really put a concrete answer on. Maybe that's the secret ingredient to great poets - just writing about deep things. An example would be like Emily Dickinson's poems that invoke the feelings of death and the such. Prufrock says he'd rather be a pair of lobster claws - that just says he's a man that's in the passenger seat. He can't do a thing to save himself - he's the observer and the watcher of his life. He does not do, he watches. He lets things happen. That is why T.S. Eliot writes about him - a helpless man just contemplating shallow subjects.

Anti-Hero

He does not fit into the theme of an anti-hero. He is simply an apathetic person who does not care much about anything else other than the daily triviality of life. Vanity, looks, etc. He is a person who is so vain he cares about himself before he walks into a room. He shouldn't even be included in the category of an anti-hero because he simply is just too ordinary to be an anti-hero. We are simply tapping into his thoughts. An ordinary man who used to live a lavish lifestyle (maybe he still does now) but is simply too concerned with himself and appearance now because he has grown old. He's just a man of vanity. He's gay if I could say it, a gay and depressed little man that used to fit into the elite of society (and probably still fits in) but is just so self-conscious and absorbed into his little mind and society that he'd rather be a pair of lobster claws. What a pathetic man. Is he even a man? Those are the thoughts of a woman, or a gay man. Perhaps this poem should be changed to the "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the Gay Man". Nonetheless, it does not take away from the greatness of the poem and it does not diminish the level of admiration I have for T.S. Eliot, (whether he is a poet or not, he is a brilliant man)