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 people around her to find out that she was moving out of her parents and single. But it all came down to her trying to avoid the mistake she felt her mother might have made and that the fact that she was a women wasn't going to stop her from being a fully realized person. She couldn't tell her parents that though, it was a decision completely individualistic, something that women weren't really expected to do at that time.

 I wasn't really sure why the letter to Kerouac was thrown in the book though (other than the fact that it was just kind of cool that it was a letter to Kerouac). Most of it seemed really passive and casual. I never felt like I was getting any sort of insight to anything of much importance to anyone that it wasn't directly written to.

Read More »

                   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 but the establishment pulled them back into their

predicable routines.  I found both of the women's stories rather dated. I know

at the time it must have been shocking but I didn't find the story of Bonnie

Frazer and her trip to Mexico and her seeking pleasure on a crowded bus going to

Veracruz even slightly interesting.  I did relate with her about how the woman

always takes the baby responsibility.  ""Ah bitter, I was not about to accept

with grace my maidenly burdened-by-baby responsibility at this particular time"

(Frazer 2995).

             Johnson's story about her moving away "the meaning of her theft of

herself from her parents was clear to all."(Johnson 3000).  I thought that

comparison very unique.  She goes on to say that she wanted sexually freedom.  I

think this would have banned her writings from many public libraries at the time

but now with Fifty Shades of Grey in any library today it seems rather tame. I

know that the beat movement was the vanguard of the Hippie Movement but I find that I would not like to read any of Timothy O'Leary's writings either.

Read More »