Repression. Pain. Anguish. The screams of the forgotten bellow amidst the lines’s of Syliva Plath’s poem “Daddy.” Plath depicts the totalitarian conformity of femininity throughout her work. Her father figure was simply that; a figure. A statue of manhood in command of his home. She recalls “so I never could tell where you put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. The tongue stuck in my jaw”(Plath). Plath feared her loathsome father. He did not respect her as a person....
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
A Vibrant Stream of Exploration
How does one begin to expand consciousness? The mind is the apex of a physical being; blood rushing, pumping into the all mighty power source. Many think the heart is in regulation of emotion, while in fact it is not. The heart does not break in times of despair, the mind does. The mind breaks down into its rawest state. The mind holds the answers. “No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride... and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you...
Where have you been
Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going, where have you been", was an extremely uncomfortable read. Connie seemed at first like a typical pretty high school girl. She would look at other people to guage how she looked or felt herself. Her mother was a bit on the unloving or unfriendly side, maybe because she wasn't as pretty as her daughter, and had some jealousy because of it. The line about her having to sides to everything, one at home and one everywhere but...
The Boston Poets
Lowell, Plath and Sexton. It's strange how these three influential poets lives crossed, and how parallel they seem despite thier differences. Lowell was my least favorite of the three and I guess that's because I felt unable to understand his struggle as much as with Plath or Sexton whose lives were unimportant they felt if they were not married. I believe Lowell felt the same but to a much lesser degree, his poetry reflected his failed marriage and the seperation of his son, he wrote...
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Plath
Says the man who wrote Manhattan, romanticizing a grown man's relationship with an underage girl. Apparently his life's story was fine for the page. It's a funny thing that Kerouac and Hemingway's escapades can be written and re-written about and rarely see the same scorn. We as a culture tend to romanticize young deaths, suicide or otherwise, James Dean, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe...
Saturday, September 27, 2014
How much sin can one take?
"In a town full of bedrock crazies, nobody even notices an acid freak." (13)
I find the idea of the people raised and working in Las Vegas more interesting than the city itself a lot of the time. The people who have to accommodate the guests coming and going around them, all looking for a very specific "Vegas Experience" and expecting to be handed whatever that entails. It's a lot to live up to, like any big city, Milan, Los Angeles, Tokyo, out-of-towners have certains...
Sylvia Plath makes me sad
I've always heard that Sylvia Plath's poetry was fairly depressing, and I've come to find out that's in fact very true. They not only had sad topics (especially Lady Lazarus), but they also all had incredibly somber tones. All I'm saying is that I'm glad I read this at the end of summer and not the beginning because I probably wouldn't recover. Not that these are issues with the work itself, I'd just rather not be sad. The fact that I'm that worried about it ruining my summer actually...
Lowell,Sexton,Plath
As you see I really fell for the girls out of the three authors in this section. They both cam from extreme families. They both went to top rated schools and I enjoyed their readings. Sexton poem 'Housewife" when you read this it doesn't sound like the title. A housewife is a person that takes care of their family by making sure there needs are fulfill as to what they need as food clean clothes, and a clean home. But as you look at the first line "Some...
Friday, September 26, 2014
the Gonzo
My husband and I are huge fans of Hunter S. Thompson. There are few authors we agree on but we love him, Palahnuick and Vonnegut. He introduced me to this maniac writing style of quasi-journalism mixed with person testimony and a whole lot of hallucinations. I found it quite entertaining; the thought of a man paid to tell the story of a race in the middle of the desert instead telling the story of his drugged out adventure on writing the article itself. Of course this style of writing...
Robert Lowell seemed to have a pretty stressful and crazy life, and his poems were pretty odd to me as well. In Skunk Hour, I think I liked the meaning behind this poem, or at least appreciate what he was saying about what New England was, and what New England is turning into. "Nautilus Island's hermit heiress" was buying up property around her so she could be alone, private, live her life according to her. She had the right to do this, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do,...
Lowell, Sexton and Plath
When I read the assignment for this week I immediately recognized Sylvia Plath’s name. I guess because a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia was released a few years back. I had never heard of the other two poets: Lowell and Sexton. I read all the poems but the poet that I enjoyed the most was Anna Sexton. The poem “Her Kind” was interpreted by me to represent her mental breakdown. The reference on the first two lines of the poem: “I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting...
Thursday, September 25, 2014
"Kill the Body, and Head wil Die"
I enjoyed reading, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S Thompson. I have read parts of it before and was not thrilled by it. The background on the literary style helped me to appreciate it this time. Thompson's candid style of recording all of his experiences was refreshing. It felt like he wrote without an audience in mind. But from his own passion about the loss of the American dream. His drug use in the story is over the top which suggests to me that its not about consciousness expanding but escape. He does not want to expand his mind but escape from the reality of world as he views it. He says, "Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can." (Thompson 1) He is disillusioned by the loss of the ideas of the 1960's. The new decade seems to hold no promise for him. He writes about the sixties in a very forlorn way, "...But that was some other era, burned out and long gone from the brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy One. A lot of things had changed in those years." (Thompson 12) Thompson's view of the American dream seems to have vanished in the haze. Was the dream gone? Why go to Las Vegas to look for the American dream when it is the city of make believe?
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Thompson and Lahey
Gonzo journalism definitely is Hunter Thompson’s body of work. I looked up “Gonzo” journalism and discovered it is about not objective reporting but subjective reporting and putting yourself and feelings often written in 1st person into the writings. Thompson’s writing about his drug fuelled trip to Vegas is definitely very “Gonzo” I can’t even the number the amount of drugs, booze and ether both Thompson and his Samoan lawyer consumed during their trip. The most important thing for them...
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Fear and Loathing
As I read the bio of Thompson I was amazed of his articles that he wrote. After reading about his life as a young child and how he was raised as a kid. His father deceased and his mother was an alcoholic. As from my understanding of this reading he did use drugs and was in a gang or a gangster as they called it back in the day. This caused him to go to jail because of all the things he did and the trouble he was in. So that lead him to enlist in...
I'd never read Fear and Loathing before, but I've always wanted to and I can definitely see why it's talked about in the tone it is. The closest thing to Hunter S. Thompson I've read before was part of a comic series called Transmetropolitan, which is more or less just Thompson in the future dealing with politics of the future, but still relating them back to modern issues in it's own way. That was really the only thing I needed to know that I should read Fear and Loathing.
I really liked...
Fear and Loathing
Believe it or not, I have never read Fear and Loathing before, nor have I seen the movie. I know it is super popular but I have never seen it. I have never heard of Gonzo journalism before this, and I like how free and honest it is. He really didn't hold back, said what he thought, told the REAL story with no filters or editing. There were times I couldn't stop laughing, picturing how freaked out the kid in the backseat in the beginning of the story must be. "Thanks for...
Sunday, September 21, 2014
What a Woman!
Before I start writing about Brenda (Bonnie) Frazer's writing can I first comment on this woman's life? I mean wow, reading her bio and listening to the lecture this woman has lived. I won't say the most lavish life but she have experienced life and clearly has a story to share so beginning te excerpt from Troia: Mexican Memoirs I was enthralled, a woman that transformed from free thinking scholar, to mother and wife, to motherless prostitute in order to survive must have something...
The stories that Brenda frazer and Joyce Johnson are easy for women to relate too, but clearly state that not all women seek the same thing. The stories clearly tell a story of love and it's difficulty, but also explain strength and independence. Frazer moved to Mexico with her daughter, so her family could be together; but her husband never never wanted her there. She traveled far from home for unwanted love, and ended having to give her daughter up for survival. I can only imagine...
As I read the first few lines of the Howl, by Allen's Ginsberg, I had trouble understanding what he was saying. I'm still not sure if I know exactly what he is talking about in his poem, but I tried my best to make since of it. He said, "I saw the minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix," and I automatically assumed he was talking about American Americans and how they weren't...
Minor Characters
"Minor Characters" resonated on a deep level with me. The feeling of excitement and eagerness over being a writer, being a female writer, only to be told you're too late, the men have already done it better. Told be told to go out into the dangerous world, a place far more dangerous for you than it was for Kerouac, Twain, London, any of the rest - go out and "live" because nothing about your life is interesting enough yet, there's no way you're good enough on your own. Once...
Erasure and Inaction
I've been sick all week so I apologize for both of these posts coming today. I had fully planned on getting both of these done at the beginning of the week but I wasn't sleeping at all and I couldn't focus. I'm better now and at least I'm getting these in!
I'm trying out a video too! We'll see how well this works...
Joyce Johnson Minor Characters
The Beat movement may have been apolitical but the female writers of this movement-whether intentional or unintentional-helped to fuel the desire for change for women. To be able to contribute a female voice to a male-dominated style of writing-the Beat movement, Johnson knew she would need to share in the same experiences. She would need to live on her own and go on the road with all that that implies, drugs, unmarried sex, alcohol. Most of those ideas do not seem so...
From Door Wide Open
The letter presented, from the collection of correspondents between Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson, is truly an enticing read. Joyce, while never fully achieving a status as legendary as Kerouac, spent time writing to Jack as they moved from affair to fading into solely friendship. To me, this is an amazing look into the life of a woman in the Beat movement; while she writes in the confessional, tell-all manner of the Beats, she still manages to give a glimpse at being a young woman in...
Joyce Johnson
This story was a good story to read. What I like about this story is that a girl from a nice two parent family, decided that she was going to get her a job and save here some money and move out of her parents home. What she did first was took some money and found her a room. Then a few weeks later she bought her some essential things that she would need. Then when the day came she got up early that morning and went into her parents room and told them that she was moving...
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Thoughts of Joyce
I thought Joyce's work (specifically over Frazer) was really interesting since I happen to have recently made friends with someone really into feminism who happens to post a lot about it on Facebook, making me somewhat more aware of the issue than before. The piece about her moving out specifically reminded me of her. It just really hit me how far women's rights and social perception have come since I wasn't really aware of just how far back they used to be. How scandalous it was for the...
Minor characters indeed! I hope this blog does not sound
more like a rant. I
really had a difficult time with this week's blog on the
beat movement. I
understand Kerouac and his analogy that the American Hobo
could represent Americans love of freedom and personal
choice. The founding
fathers, mountain men, forty-niners, and adventurous people
often chose the open
road for their great adventure...
The Beat Goes On: Joyce Johnson
The beat goes on. Enchanting harmony flows through pen to paper as the locution of Joyce Johnson comes forth bringing to light the strength of womanhood. The preacher of empowerment delivers divine dreams of possibility into a world of misogynistic notion. Johnson brings to light a writing style never before seen. In a world where man is “blind to the truth he can’t foresee the end”(Johnson)....
Friday, September 19, 2014
The Vanishing American Hobo
"The hobo is born of pride, having nothing to do with a community but with himself...." (Kerouac, 2978) So states Jack Kerouac in The Vanishing American Hobo. Kerouac's essay is about the loss of Americans' personal freedoms and individuality. The hobo is not a conformist, but an individual-someone who does not appear to be like the rest of society. That difference can lie in their way of thinking, living, or spirituality. He gives examples of people he...
Ginsberg and Kerouac
Jack Kerouac talks about the vanishing American Hobo. He writes about the hobo before massive social services tries to take care of everyone and does not take into account personal choices. Kerouac maintains that Benjamin Franklin could be considered a bum because he walked the streets of Philadelphia with no money. John Muir could be considered a bum even though he is the father of conservation and played a major part in establishing national parks. Kerouac romanticizes the freedom...
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Door wide open
"Yes I will come to Mexico!"
Johnson starts off this reply with an enthusiastic expression seemingly desperate to go somewhere that isn't where she is now. Immediately after though she takes a different tone, scolding and comforting Kerouac for calling himself a bum while assuring him he is not. Hobo is better put, as said in previous works. Traveler, journeyman. This adventure she is about to embark on really is making her excited about what the future holds, and thinking...
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Hobos Yesterday and Today
What we know as homeless people in todays society was called hobos in the 50's though the 80's or maybe somewhere in the early 90's. Back then a homeless person or hobo didn't have the trouble that they have today. They have no where to lay their heads or to take a good hot bath. As we seem them in our city they are laying on sidewalks, bus stop benches, park benches, or just in a grassy area. They are always standing in what might be a busy intersection with signs...
Romancing the Hobo
I think it's really interesting how Kerouac romanticizes the hobo life. Not so much hobos specifically, but the idea of how they live simply and appreciatively, but also how the direction American society and culture are moving is trying to kill that ideology. Kerouac on the other hand obviously has a great appreciation for this philosophy and resents people turning against it. I feel like a lot of his defining people like Whitman and Franklin is his argument not necessarily for this way...
They Used to be Adventurers, Now They're Just Pathetic
First and foremost I think Kerouac makes a distinction between bums and hobos and yet they are in essence the same people. They've just changed. He characterizes hobos as wanderers, seeking solace, celebrated in towns, and people that enjoyed experience. He named famous hobos like Benjamin Franklin, Jesus of Nazareth and Buddha. But he also names the reason for the change from hobo to bum, Kerouac blames propaganda and police for turning an American icon into something to be ashamed of....
America the Great?...
To what is owed to the vast lands of red, white and blue? Is conformity consensual? Do the angsts of societal pressures eventuate in uniformity? Decamp from under the restraint of America while her head is turned. Break free of injustice.
The Beat Generation “advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz, sex, or the disciplines of Zen Buddhism”(Britannica.com). The beatniks, as they were...
Long Live the Hobo
In Kerouac's essay "The Vanishing American Hobo," the reader is absorbed into the world of the homeless during the 50's to 1960. Kerouac goes on to paint the picture of a hobo as being a grand spectacle, a national treasure of sorts. His descriptions brought out this sense of profoundness in the homeless; it were as if the hobos were enlightened, or at the very least, more intelligent, and more American. Being a hobo is seen as the ultimate freedom (on page 2977, Kerouac describes it...
America
After reading this poem I thought Ginsberg fit perfectly the San Francisco hippy persona of that time. The first line "America I've given you all and now I am nothing" sets the tone for the whole poem because he feels like he is an outsider who doesn't fit in with the American Way. He would rather get high and be be on his own than conform to traditional ways. The way he wrote the poem painted a perfect picture of his feelings, values, and attitudes, and whether someone...
Monday, September 15, 2014
Sonny Blues
As I read this story it brought back memories of my childhood and how my family is today. As a family first of all we were brought up in church and we went every Sunday even to Sunday school. My mother was a woman that took care of the house and the children and my father was the bread winner of the family. There are three children 1son and 2 daughters, with that said my brother is the first born. He was always looking after my sister and I. When in school...
Sunday, September 14, 2014
"Nothing would sleep in that cellar,"
“Root Cellar” by Theodore Roethke was one of his greenhouse poems. His father owned a large greenhouse and much of his childhood was spent inside it" (http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/can-somebody-tell-me-what-this-peom-about-root-373002).
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"Nothing would sleep in that cellar," was a perfect start to this short, but descriptive poem. Theodore's poem, "Root Cellar" along with others from the text include a large amount of emotion and imagination, and allow you to feel as if you are living the story of the person he narrates. As the website mentioned, many of his poems are describing his experiences as a young boy at his grandfathers greenhouse, and "Root Cellar" truly made me feel as if I was walking into a musky old cellar, cowardly opening the door, as I shouted, "hello" into the darkness of shadows reflecting from the walls. Let's face it, children don't like basements! Personally, I still don't like basements.
Sonny's Music
We've had a few stories/poems this week that seem to deal with what it takes to truly view your fellow man as a person. In Filling Station, the narrator at first sees a terrible, dirty gas station and then sees the love and care that's gone into it and realizes a loving family lives there just like hers. In Sonny's Blues our narrator never really understands his brother until he sees his reaction to the revival and then ultimately when he sees him play. What it the spark that...
Rebellion of an Era
Day after Day, the youth trample past the monotonous ivory.
A dreary pathway of apathy; hierarchy reticulated like the ever-growing vines
entangled on an aged oak. The school holds no enticement to the youth of an
inverse era. For African Americans in the 1960’s there was only half the chance
of completing high school(digitalhistory.com). Education was of lesser
importance, which is of veritable notability when reviewing the writing of
Gwendolyn Brooks.
To begin, “we real cool. We...
Saturday, September 13, 2014
A Mother's Love
Gwendolyn Brooks' writing on motherhood is heart breaking in the poem "The Mother" and "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till". In the mother she tells the story of children never born but unforgotten. Children loved but that have never taken a breath of their own. Her pain in the belief that her children had all existed and she'd chosen to end each and everyone of their lives. "You were...
Gwendolyn Brooks A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon
I chose this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks because I found it fascinating that she would write from the perspective of a white southern woman. I initially thought she felt sympathy for Carolyn Bryant. But as I did some research into the background of the Emmett Till case and the history of Mississippis' extreme racial views, I read the poem as a condemnation of the southern white womans' compliance in the evils of racism. The line in the poem that states, "It was good...
Friday, September 12, 2014
Sonn'y Darkness
In "Sonn'y Blues," the short story by James Baldwin, is full of symbolism relating to light and darkness. The story, which centers on the narrator's brother Sonny, and the relationship between the two over the course of time, uses heavily the ideas of light and dark to portray significant moments in the two brothers' lives. The darkness can be seen reflected in many aspects of the story, such as Sonny's heroin addiction, his arrest, and even the neighborhood the two hail from. One instance,...
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