Today, after nearly losing my mind last night about the impossible week that lies ahead, I went to my American Literature class and totally lost myself in Melville. It was heavenly. (Have I mentioned I am a complete literature nerd?)
That enjoyable "down time" would have been enough to get me back into gear for geology studying. But Professor Kemp does one better: He's graded our essays, the ones that are worth 25% of our semester grade.
I wrote mine on Franklin and Jefferson's contrasting opinions on Deism's practical and theoretical applications, and the impact their opinions had on the development of American philosophy and government.
On the last page, in green ink:
"Excellent! Superbly intelligent. A."
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
BLOG-IT! Book Club: Moby Dick, Part II
So I know I said this would be short -- but it was a LONG book, okay? And now that you've been acquainted with all these crazies, I think we'll just pick up where we left off, with...
..MOBY DICK! The giant white sperm whale with a taste for human flesh!
Here's some stuff that's been said about M.Dizzle:
And here's my fave.
It starts out:
"ALL THAT MOST MADDENS AND TORMENTS; ALL THAT STIRS UP THE LEES OF THINGS; ALL WITH MALICE IN IT; ALL THAT CRACKS THE SINEWS AND CAKES THE BRAIN; ALL THE SUBTLE DEMONISMS OF LIFE AND THOUGHT --
[continues in Post-it]
I love that. Most of all I love the phrase "ALL THAT CRACKS THE SINEWS AND CAKES THE BRAIN." How great is that? Morbid, yes, but so vivid without getting all metaphorical or thematic (for once in the entire novel). It is a long, long book with many pages and countless words, but those eight words, in that order, are by far my favorite. Way better than "Call me Ishmael."
(I told you know one reads this book -- the only thing anyone remembers from it is the first line!! If they'd read farther or thought harder, people would be saying "CAKES THE BRAIN!" instead. You heard it hear first, since I'm the first person to finish the dang thing since Melville wrote it).
BACK TO THE BOOK. So it's long (have I mentioned it's long?) but extremely well written. All bajillion pages are packed with exactly the kind of stuff we English majors love ("CAKES THE BRAIN!").
But nothing really interesting happens - aside from Queequeg, in a fit of morbidity and possibly swine flu, carving all his tattoos into a coffin pre-made for him -- UNTIL THE LAST THREE CHAPTERS!!
So after you've waded through 129 chapters of Ahab's insanity, you get to this:
THE EPIC FIGHT SCENE, BABY!! IT'S (FINALLY) HERE!!!
In it, Moby Dick goes all Sissy-Spacek-in-CARRIE (just without the pigs blood. Or the suicide. But still. This probably WAS Melville's delusional dream) and kills several boatloads of people.
Ironically, Moby (CARRIE!) Dick doesn't kill Ahab. He's accidentally harpooned by his own boat. (He's there on the left - HARPOONED!!).
Ishmael floats away on Queequeg's coffin (Q's not in it, his body is at sea) and is later rescued.
Moby Dick swims away in victory.
As for the Pequod's crew, and all those other boats that came after Moby Dick...
...EVERYONE DIES.
And I am not even kidding. Even Queequeg dies, which really bummed me out.
..MOBY DICK! The giant white sperm whale with a taste for human flesh!
Here's some stuff that's been said about M.Dizzle:
And here's my fave.
It starts out:
"ALL THAT MOST MADDENS AND TORMENTS; ALL THAT STIRS UP THE LEES OF THINGS; ALL WITH MALICE IN IT; ALL THAT CRACKS THE SINEWS AND CAKES THE BRAIN; ALL THE SUBTLE DEMONISMS OF LIFE AND THOUGHT --
[continues in Post-it]
I love that. Most of all I love the phrase "ALL THAT CRACKS THE SINEWS AND CAKES THE BRAIN." How great is that? Morbid, yes, but so vivid without getting all metaphorical or thematic (for once in the entire novel). It is a long, long book with many pages and countless words, but those eight words, in that order, are by far my favorite. Way better than "Call me Ishmael."
(I told you know one reads this book -- the only thing anyone remembers from it is the first line!! If they'd read farther or thought harder, people would be saying "CAKES THE BRAIN!" instead. You heard it hear first, since I'm the first person to finish the dang thing since Melville wrote it).
BACK TO THE BOOK. So it's long (have I mentioned it's long?) but extremely well written. All bajillion pages are packed with exactly the kind of stuff we English majors love ("CAKES THE BRAIN!").
But nothing really interesting happens - aside from Queequeg, in a fit of morbidity and possibly swine flu, carving all his tattoos into a coffin pre-made for him -- UNTIL THE LAST THREE CHAPTERS!!
So after you've waded through 129 chapters of Ahab's insanity, you get to this:
THE EPIC FIGHT SCENE, BABY!! IT'S (FINALLY) HERE!!!
In it, Moby Dick goes all Sissy-Spacek-in-CARRIE (just without the pigs blood. Or the suicide. But still. This probably WAS Melville's delusional dream) and kills several boatloads of people.
Ironically, Moby (CARRIE!) Dick doesn't kill Ahab. He's accidentally harpooned by his own boat. (He's there on the left - HARPOONED!!).
Ishmael floats away on Queequeg's coffin (Q's not in it, his body is at sea) and is later rescued.
Moby Dick swims away in victory.
As for the Pequod's crew, and all those other boats that came after Moby Dick...
...EVERYONE DIES.
And I am not even kidding. Even Queequeg dies, which really bummed me out.
The Inaugural BLOG-IT! Book Club: Moby Dick, Part I
SO I READ MOBY DICK. I really did. All 133 chapters and gazillion pages (I'm serious about all those chapters) and let me tell you -- nothing REALLY exciting happens 'til the VERY, VERY, END, but there are plenty of wackos to keep you entertained in the mean time.
Here are some of them now:
(You can click it to make it bigger and see my lovely artwork up close! And yes, these were doodled on a Post-It note. Hence the name "BLOG-it! Book Club" -- aren't I clever?)
That happy, regular old joe up to the left is ISHMAEL. He's the narrator, but he doesn't really do much. Notably, he started the book with the line "CALL ME ISHMAEL," which seems pretty regular, but a lot of people think it's a big deal. I don't, because the very next thing he says is, "SOME YEARS AGO...I THOUGHT I WOULD SAIL ABOUT A LITTLE," which is pretty random right after introducing yourself, and makes the start seem all choppy.
(Next time you are talking to someone who is faking they read Moby Dick - trust me, they didn't - and say something about the beginning, throw that little morsel out and feel intellectually superior. From College Kate to you, friends.)
ANYWAY, THAT HOMEBOY there next to our pal Ish is QUEEQUEG. He's inked. He's also from the South Pacific, which kinda freaked Ish out at first, but then they became BFFs.
They went off to become whalers and work for CAPTAIN AHAB, the yoo-hoo with the pirate hat. He has a peg-leg made out of a whale jaw because he's an obsessive egomaniac whose compulsions LITERALLY sink the ship. More than one actually.
STARBUCK is his first-mate. Starbuck considers killing Ahab at one point because he realizes Ahab is nuts and is going to kill them all, but doesn't. Other than that, he just has a really cool name. I gave him a striped shirt because he reminds me of an emo Mr. Smee from Peter Pan.
The fella with the mean stink-eye is Crazy Pip. Pip went bonkers when he was accidently left to die in the ocean for a few days. After they found him again, he had become a lunatic (hence the fun joker hat) but some of the stuff he said was oddly prophetic. He and Ahab got real tight there towards the end.
Those other little guys are FEDULLAH (in the crown) & FRIENDS. Ahab hired them on as mercenaries for the sole purpose of hunting down Moby Dick as vengeance for stealing Ahab's leg (and sanity). Told you he was whacked.
ANYWAY, ALL THESE PSYCHOS get on board the PEQUOD, which is decorated with bones and teeth from whales (which probably should have been a sign) Later they meet a bunch of OTHER BOATS FULL OF CRAZIES and they all sail off together to catch
MOBY DICK!!!! He's giant white sperm whale with a taste for human flesh. He's also a romantic symbol, which means he doesn't actually symbolize anything at all.
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!!
Here are some of them now:
(You can click it to make it bigger and see my lovely artwork up close! And yes, these were doodled on a Post-It note. Hence the name "BLOG-it! Book Club" -- aren't I clever?)
That happy, regular old joe up to the left is ISHMAEL. He's the narrator, but he doesn't really do much. Notably, he started the book with the line "CALL ME ISHMAEL," which seems pretty regular, but a lot of people think it's a big deal. I don't, because the very next thing he says is, "SOME YEARS AGO...I THOUGHT I WOULD SAIL ABOUT A LITTLE," which is pretty random right after introducing yourself, and makes the start seem all choppy.
(Next time you are talking to someone who is faking they read Moby Dick - trust me, they didn't - and say something about the beginning, throw that little morsel out and feel intellectually superior. From College Kate to you, friends.)
ANYWAY, THAT HOMEBOY there next to our pal Ish is QUEEQUEG. He's inked. He's also from the South Pacific, which kinda freaked Ish out at first, but then they became BFFs.
They went off to become whalers and work for CAPTAIN AHAB, the yoo-hoo with the pirate hat. He has a peg-leg made out of a whale jaw because he's an obsessive egomaniac whose compulsions LITERALLY sink the ship. More than one actually.
STARBUCK is his first-mate. Starbuck considers killing Ahab at one point because he realizes Ahab is nuts and is going to kill them all, but doesn't. Other than that, he just has a really cool name. I gave him a striped shirt because he reminds me of an emo Mr. Smee from Peter Pan.
The fella with the mean stink-eye is Crazy Pip. Pip went bonkers when he was accidently left to die in the ocean for a few days. After they found him again, he had become a lunatic (hence the fun joker hat) but some of the stuff he said was oddly prophetic. He and Ahab got real tight there towards the end.
Those other little guys are FEDULLAH (in the crown) & FRIENDS. Ahab hired them on as mercenaries for the sole purpose of hunting down Moby Dick as vengeance for stealing Ahab's leg (and sanity). Told you he was whacked.
ANYWAY, ALL THESE PSYCHOS get on board the PEQUOD, which is decorated with bones and teeth from whales (which probably should have been a sign) Later they meet a bunch of OTHER BOATS FULL OF CRAZIES and they all sail off together to catch
MOBY DICK!!!! He's giant white sperm whale with a taste for human flesh. He's also a romantic symbol, which means he doesn't actually symbolize anything at all.
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Midterms. And MISSION: MOBY DICK.
As an English major, I live in a constant "Oh-my-Shakespeare, I have two papers due next week!" kind of thrilling panic. Plus, you know, midterms for my other two classes. So a girl's gotta be pretty productive.
Today, for instance:
Woke up early to review the study guide I made for my Catholicism in the US class just ONE LAST TIME before the midterm. Coffee, apartment brewed. Took midterm. Kicked midterm's ass. (This I didn't love so much. It was after all a midterm).
BUT THEN I went to American Literature, where a strange guy I had never seen before came in and sat down in front of me. He was wearing a bright red Toys-R-Us button-up staff shirt at least three inches to short in the length. It was gross and weird and disturbing, and Kenton and I wondered why he just didn't go back to Toys-R-Us and let us block that image out of our retinas forever and ever.
We also talked about Moby Dick which, by the way is a really long book, just in case you were wondering. 'Cause I mean, do any of you actually know anyone who has read Melville's Moby Dick?? NO ONE reads that book. I don't think anyone in my CLASS is reading the whole thing, and it's assigned. But you know what??
I AM GOING TO READ MOBY DICK. ALL OF IT, BABY!! Maybe I'll do a little CollegeKate's Book Club, for the benefit of culture and the world. I mean, how do any of you feel complete without having read Melville's most noted achievement?
Okay. It's decided. I'm reading ALL OF MOBY DICK and then posting a fun little synopsis of it for you on Friday (it's long, even Friday's kind of ambitious, but get excited!!).
In between, to give us a rest from all this academic stuff, I'll think of something significantly more shallow to discuss for tomorrow. I'm also thinking I might need to organize this blog thing better, because I totally started this post planning to write about my hyper-productive and academic schedule today, with this being my first actual break while I scarf down a late dinner. Or my (surprise!) sort-of position in the College Republicans. But what can I say? Moby Dick just has that effect on people...
Today, for instance:
Woke up early to review the study guide I made for my Catholicism in the US class just ONE LAST TIME before the midterm. Coffee, apartment brewed. Took midterm. Kicked midterm's ass. (This I didn't love so much. It was after all a midterm).
BUT THEN I went to American Literature, where a strange guy I had never seen before came in and sat down in front of me. He was wearing a bright red Toys-R-Us button-up staff shirt at least three inches to short in the length. It was gross and weird and disturbing, and Kenton and I wondered why he just didn't go back to Toys-R-Us and let us block that image out of our retinas forever and ever.
We also talked about Moby Dick which, by the way is a really long book, just in case you were wondering. 'Cause I mean, do any of you actually know anyone who has read Melville's Moby Dick?? NO ONE reads that book. I don't think anyone in my CLASS is reading the whole thing, and it's assigned. But you know what??
I AM GOING TO READ MOBY DICK. ALL OF IT, BABY!! Maybe I'll do a little CollegeKate's Book Club, for the benefit of culture and the world. I mean, how do any of you feel complete without having read Melville's most noted achievement?
Okay. It's decided. I'm reading ALL OF MOBY DICK and then posting a fun little synopsis of it for you on Friday (it's long, even Friday's kind of ambitious, but get excited!!).
In between, to give us a rest from all this academic stuff, I'll think of something significantly more shallow to discuss for tomorrow. I'm also thinking I might need to organize this blog thing better, because I totally started this post planning to write about my hyper-productive and academic schedule today, with this being my first actual break while I scarf down a late dinner. Or my (surprise!) sort-of position in the College Republicans. But what can I say? Moby Dick just has that effect on people...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sandra Bullock, Christian Louboutin, and Me
So the other day, after I finished my geology reading, Hye-Young, Taylor, and I settled in for a couple of movies and that delicious potato dish we like so much.
We watched The Proposal, which I love.
I also have a confession to make about this movie. Don't laugh. This will make me sound very, very shallow.
But when I first watched this movie over the summer, I had just decided that there was no way on this earth I could possibly be an accountant, and I needed a major switch. I'd picked English, since I'm good at it, but I was having a little crisis since obviously English is not quite as marketable as accounting straight out of undergrad.
Then I saw this movie. And Sandra Bullock played a character who, aside from being gorgeous - and having the EXACT hair I so desperately need in my life - had an AMAZING EDITING CAREER!!
And I thought, "I could DO that!" Okay, so not EVERY English major ends up being executive editor-in-chief or whatever and living at Central Park West.
But I did realize I wouldn't be broke and homeless. After all, Margaret wore Christian Louboutin shoes literally the entire movie.
And that kind of thing gives a girl hope.
We watched The Proposal, which I love.
I also have a confession to make about this movie. Don't laugh. This will make me sound very, very shallow.
But when I first watched this movie over the summer, I had just decided that there was no way on this earth I could possibly be an accountant, and I needed a major switch. I'd picked English, since I'm good at it, but I was having a little crisis since obviously English is not quite as marketable as accounting straight out of undergrad.
Then I saw this movie. And Sandra Bullock played a character who, aside from being gorgeous - and having the EXACT hair I so desperately need in my life - had an AMAZING EDITING CAREER!!
And I thought, "I could DO that!" Okay, so not EVERY English major ends up being executive editor-in-chief or whatever and living at Central Park West.
But I did realize I wouldn't be broke and homeless. After all, Margaret wore Christian Louboutin shoes literally the entire movie.
And that kind of thing gives a girl hope.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Gas We Pass
Last Tuesday, I submitted my very first official essay as an English major. The assignment, for my British Literature to 1800 class, was vague: four to six pages, on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (we read it in its original Middle English). This particular professor seems to like really quirky and original essay topics.
I called my paper, “The Gas We Pass: Flatulence in The Canterbury Tales”. Needless to say, that was also its topic. I was very happy with how it turned out, and even though it only received a B (the lowest grade I have EVER received on any essay in my entire life!!), it still earned the highest grade in the class, so I’m okay with that. In the process, I also learned a lot about the approach this professor likes (loved the topic, hated one of the four arguments I made, and had hugely valid points against it I hadn’t considered) so if any of you are interested in reading it, let me know by leaving a comment on this post (hit the comment button at the end of the post) or sending me an email, and I’ll get it to you.
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