Enjoying is one Thing, Appreciation is the key.

I still cannot say that I fully enjoy literature after this class. I can however say that I appreciate certain parts of literature more. For instance, I don’t really enjoy much poetry still, but I really have learned to appreciate it more. This class opened my eyes to different types of literature, some that I am fond of, and some that I am not. Nonetheless, I now at least appreciate literature.

I’m much more likely to pick up a book or something shorter to read than I was before I took this course. In fact, as I stated in my More Poe Please blog I actually purchased a book with all of Poe’s work in it. I have not gotten around to reading much of it, but I have read a couple of lesser-known stories of his. I have also read over and over, my favorite story, the Tell Tale Heart. I would have never picked up this book on Ebay had I not been reminded of how I enjoy Poe in this class. I realize though that it is not just Poe that I like, I enjoy a lot of short stories. "I like how no matter how many times i read a story of his it does not get old, but gets better every time." (Intro to Lit). However, as I stated in the same blog "I'm not the biggest fan of reading older stories, I often feel lost and like I just read a different language, A lot of this probably has to do with my lack of patience, but also probably with the story itself, if the plot isn't at all interesting to me I'm not going to get into the story unless I'm forced to. "(Intro to Lit). This is why I enjoy Poe's stories, they are interesting. The appreciation of Edgar Allan Poe among other short stories is just one of the appreciations which I have gained.

Poetry is one thing I still do not quite enjoy as much as I wish I did. I’m not a fan of interpreting the meaning of things that are not in plain sight. Kate Chopin’s work, if I remember correctly, often used nature to describe things. If poems are straight to the point, or don’t even have a point like The Number Five (maybe there is a point, but to me it just seems like a fun pointless poem) I can enjoy them much more. In my blog about how nature affects my mood (referring to Chopin’s works) I said that I had been happy because of the summer weather, now it is winter and I am not nearly in as good of a mood as I sound in the blog. I related to a poem, another thing I have acquired out of this class. I am now able to not necessarily interpret a poem at east but at least I now have the ability to relate to some. Though I still do not enjoy poetry I will admit that after interpreting and relating to some poems I realize that they are much more rewarding in the end.

One thing I really enjoyed about the class was looking at paintings that go with poems. I love art, and even though literature is a form of art I appreciate it much more with images. This also could, in some occasions, help me to interpret the poem if I did not have my own ideas. I wrote a blog about Pieter Brueghel’s paintings. I remember not being a fan of the poem that went with his painting in the book because it brought in other paintings that were not available in the text. But this does not mean I don’t enjoy the idea of paintings with poems, it just means that there is a right and wrong way to go about doing it.

Shakespeare was in the middle of great and terrible for me at the beginning of the quarter, now he is somewhere in the middle of great and okay. I have said that I love his comedies in a blog and a comment and I still do. His tragedies, or the ones I have read (mostly Hamlet), have just been a tough read for me. The language he uses is over my head still, as I stated in a comment on Lynette’s “Shakespeare” blog. I remember Jared saying that the movie would be much more rewarding after we had read the play, and he was correct. After struggling through the play this movie was much more rewarding than it would have been had I seen one before hand. So, besides the satisfaction of getting though such a tough play, I think I will start reading books before the movies that succeed them. The times that I have read books before movies have been more satisfying now that I think about it.

The most valuable thing that I obtained in this class was the critical reading and writing strategies. I have learned so much about writing about literature. I really appreciate learning about setting standards and writing about how things fit or don’t fit those standards along with the different critical ways of doing so. This has helped me through the course papers we have had along with the blogs I have written and I’m positive that it will help me write and think about literature among other things in the future.

This class has been a great experience and I have really learned to appreciate most literature more that I had before. Though there are certain parts of literature that I still do not fully take pleasure in reading, I do value them more. I will not just be doing more reading but I will be doing more thinking about what I do read. And not only will I be reading more, I have improved my writing about reading.


Works Cited

Barnet, Sylvan, et al., eds Literature for Composition, 7th ed. New York: Longman, 2005

Intro to Lithttp://amandamccammon.blogspot.com/

Life Without A Manhttp://dazedartist-lifewithoutaman.blogspot.com/

Hamlet.

I remembered my blog post on time!!
After watching "Hamlet" in class, it's weird, I still understand it, but less-so I guess? I just pictured a lot of things hapeneing differently than what the movie portrayed. I didn't picture the scene in which Hamlet is alone with his father's ghost to be so... creepy i guess. It seemed like a really dark scene to me, and when I read the play i didn't picture it this way. I didn't picture the ghost as being so powerful (maybe this isn't the word I'm looking for), When the others came into the scene and the ghost kept saying "swear" I didn't think it would be so earthshaking. I did not think that it would scare them. I think when I watch another Hamlet version (If I come across one, I should have gone to the school library...) I will focus on this scene, perhaps. I don't really know how i pictured the last scene with Laertes and Hamlet in battle, differently though, again, I think it was more violent than it needed to be, or just more violent than I had pictured it.
I can't say I enjoy Hamlet as much as some of the other Shakespear I have read, like i said in my last post ( I think) I much prefer his comedies. I don't really know why, it can't be because I don't like dark stories, because I love Edgar Allan Poe and murder misteries. I think I just need to get used to the language a little more. My favorite Shakespear play so far has been A Midsummer's Night Dream, and it has been that way for a while...
I did enjoy this movie version (not that I have seen any others of Hamlet). I have seen other Shakespear movies, and I'm happy that the producers did not make it too modern, like one of the Romeo and Juliet movies I (and i'm sure a lot of you) have seen. I think that Shakespear and Modern COULD go together, they just need to think of a better way...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Reading Hamlet these past weeks has really helped me to enjoy another play. At my highschool a couple years ago "Rozencrantz and Guldenstern are Dead" was performed. I had not read Hamlet at the time i had seen (and i think read?) "Rozencrantz and Guldenstern are Dead" performed. I didn't understand ANYTHING that was going on. I dont know many people who actually enjoyed that play. Sure there were some laughs, but i'm sure there were a lot more jokes than anybody was catching on to.
What I can remember of it makes SO MUCH more sense now that I know what was going on. They play was basically just the same plot, except from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's point of view. Though they were often offstage in Hamlet, they were now the main characters and Hamlet was minor.
I'm sure if I were to watch or read it now it would actually be funny and not dreadful. Maybe it was a good play, just a bad idea for our school to perform for a mostly high-school audience. I cannot say I would reccomend this play because I hated it at the time, but I think I'm going to read it again, then i'll let you know.

So this is my second time writting this blog because my computer is STUPID.
Anyway,
I looked up some more of Pieter Brueghel's work like Jared suggested. I find it hard to picture how large the paintings actually are, even if it tells me the original size. I would really like to see one in person... One I find particularly interesting is "The Tower of Babel" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brueghel-tower-of-babel.jpg) it says it is 114 x 155 cm but i still cannot picture this size. There is so much going on in this painting and it is even larger so it must be even more detailed in real life. Like the one we saw in our book (Landscape with the fall of Icarus) I'm sure that this painting tells a story of come sort. I found some information on the tower on wikipedia but nothing really on the reason for the things in the painting. It would be interesting to know everything that is going on and the reasoning for it. I'm not sure how I like these complex paintings, in a way they are really cool because you can look at them for hours but at the same time it reminds me of stories that jump around and confuse me (which I will say is much better in the form of a painting). Overall, I think I do enjoy this detailed painting thing.... I might go look up some more. It reminds me of an I-spy :).

I also give kudos to Brueghel, how he managed that much detail with oil is beyond me!

More Poe Please!

I was ecstatic when I saw "The Necklace" and "The Cask of Amontillado" in our reading assignment, stories I have read before!! And over the last couple of weeks of working with these shorts stories I actually realized that I really really enjoy Edgar Allan Poe.... While reading those 5 stories "The Cask of Amontillado" really stuck out to me. I'm not the biggest fan of reading older stories, I often feel lost and like I just read a different language, A lot of this probably has to do with my lack of patience, but also probably with the story itself, if the plot isn't at all interesting to me I'm not going to get into the story unless I'm forced to. I have read a few of Poe's stories though and have followed along and didnt feel like I was being forced against my will to read old stories. I enjoyed them. I like how no matter how many times i read a story of his it does not get old, but gets better every time. Anyway, while I was at the library finding a book for my Western Civ. class next to the one i chose was a complete book of Edgar Allan Poe's works. I did not check this book out, I would not have time to read it as thoroughly as i would like, along with having to read text for my other classes and also maintaining somewhat of a life in this college life, I just wouldn't get around to reading it. I instead stumbled accross the same book on ebay for 49 cents :). Now I await it's arrival. I will get to KEEP this book and read and re-read his works as i please. I'm looking forward to reading some of his other stories. I'm really happy that I can enjoy reading something written so long ago.....
"The Tell Tale Heart" is another of my favorite stories by Poe...not that i've read all that many
you should read it if you get the chance....if you haven't already
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/POE/telltale.html

Nature and our Emotions

In Kate Chopin's works she uses nature to set some sort of mood for what is going on. Nature affects our moods. I was especially able to realize that today. Today was kind-of muggy, and just...gross. And I've had better days.... I've been relatively optimistic and happy recently, one of my favorite seasons is summer (excet when i have to work...) and for the past week or so the weather has been summer-like. I definitely think the weather has been impacting my mood, because for the first few days of school, if i remember correctly, the weather had been crappy, and i had been sick, and life just sucked. But I don't think that its just the weather that has this effect. The seasons seem to also affect my mood. Like I said for the most part the summer makes me happy, I love the heat, and all the activities that go on during summer, and the lack of school...However I dred the winter, I don't like the cold or the snow, and it gets to the point where school is just a pain in the ass (I'm a senior in highschool as well). The colors of Autumn probably make it my favorite of all of the seasons. I have nothing bad to say about this season, school isn't a drag, I get to have hot drinks, and the air just seems fresh! Kate Chopin uses nature in "Story of an Hour", and "The Storm" to set the mood, and I believe that nature does that for most of us. Nature plays with at least mine, if not your emotions.