She gets the guy, she gets her dream, where's the depth?

In my blog for this week I decided to compare and contrast the novels we read for a literature class and the novels that we simply do not. A lot of kids (if they had the chance) would probably whine and complain about the horribly depressing books that we have to read in literature class. Books with violence, inbreeding, death, corruption and everything else those sicko writers could fit into a single novel. Outside of school we read much different things. Lets just name the two favorites: Twilight and Harry Potter. So I sit at home and read the Twilight series because I simply cannot put them down. They are enticing, interesting, and romantic. When I read Tess of the d'Urbervilles I had to read in ten page periods because I literally could not get through any more than that without falling asleep or crying because of frustration. When I finish a book like Tess it lingers with me. Small things remind me of the novel as I live my life and it never really leaves you. Twilight is definetely not a novel with a theme and ideas that are popping out of every situation in my life. Twilight will not be a novel that people will read in a hundred years because vampires are not real and neither is love. A beautiful, 100 year old, wise, intelligent blood-sucking creature just simply would never exist and would certainly never love such an annoying little girl as Bella Swan. If a REAL writer was writing this story it would have been one book and would have ended tragically. In a fury of heat and passion Edward would have sucked her blood, a vampire hunt would have ensued and both of them would have died out of passion. Now THAT would stick with you. On the other hand, I believe Harry Potter is an idea that will last for generations. It is the never ending battle between good and evil. It is a small, witch version of the bible. Every chapter, every story, every character telling you what makes life great and what breaks life down. Harry Potter has that scar on his head for a reason because he is a Christ figure andd he is proud of it! Harry doesn't go through life without loss. He loses his family, he loses a multitude of friends, and at times he loses himself. In such great novels as The Great Gatsby the same loss and intense personal strife occurs. Harry Potter is book that effects my life everyday. Not just that everytime I turn on a light I quietly say "lumos" but that when stuff is looking down for me Harry Potter can be an inspiration. He had no parents, he was fighting the baddest wizard of all time, people were always screwing around with him, and of course he puts a smile on and is unusually kind. So yes I am reading New Moon right now to get ready for the movie but its not personally sticking with me like true, real literature. So thank you literature class, you are the one that really affects my life!

I really hope Jennifer isn't in my room...

My compare and contrast paper deals with the use of violence in both Candide and All the King's Men. In all reality, I am quite sure I have never read novel's that were more ingeniously violent than these two novels. You could say I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to all things scary. I prefer to read things that bring me up and not novels that bring me down. I feel the same way about movies except for the fact that a lot of the time I am forced to go see scary movies with my hardcore, want to be frightened, want to feel like their going to pee their pants, friends of mine. So I was forced to see Jennifer's Body this weekend. Surprisingly it was not the bloody mess of bodies I had to sit through that bothered me but the fact that Jennifer was straight up creepy with her fangs and spooky smiles. It's like blood is not even an issue any more. Even Jennifer felt that way. Whenever they would take about people who had died in the book (most of them courtesy of Jennifer the demon freak) she kind of denied anyone who wanted to feel sad or talk about it. I feel like Jennifer defines our society these days. When you read of the violence in Voltaire and Warren all of the characters are so deeply affected and the violence is clean and dare I say it, normal. In this day and time we are driven to be numb. I used to be scared of my pillow but I sat through that movie last night without a single problem. I almost dared to think it was a little lame and not really rated R material in scariness. Sad isn't it? When I thought about how it didn't really affect me I was almost ashamed of myself. What is this world coming to? That I am scared of. We thirst as americans to see each other in the dirt, being eaten, sprouting wings, and why? Is it people trying to save us from ourselves or is it some sick mentality we have grown in to? I am really not sure but I'd like to go back to the times when a hanging hurt and a gun shot was deadly. And at the same time I wonder, is our literary curriculum trying to do the same thing? We read things that make us feel uncomfortable because it is supposed to make us better students, better readers. But what if it is making us bad people? What if it is making our own thoughts into dark ones? Teenagers in this day and age are looking for a high in any way. Are we being brought down by our society? We live in a world where tv, movies, news, school is controlled by darkness. We do not have to be pulled down but we inevitably are. I want to stand up against this. I want to be in the light. Perhaps if everyone tried to step out into the light we would all be happier. Lets leave Jennifer's Body behind and watch some Mickey Mouse.

Sherwood Anderson... Voltaire?

After reading Sherwood Anderson's, Winesburg, Ohio I have decided that perhaps, Voltaire and Anderson share some qualities in their writing. Let's talk God in Winesburg, Ohio: the lovely, Jesse Bentley is a prime example. Jesse Bentley gets "denied" by God quite a few times in the novel. A. He prays for a son to name David who will take over his farm and do things he could have never imagined and has a daughter, Louise who is crazy and tries to kill her husband. B. When his daughter has a son, his name is David (we feel like things are coming back around) and just when Jesse Bentley feels like he's going to get what he wants he takes young David out to sacrafice a lamb. This freaks young David out to the point where he almost kills Grandpa Jesse and the relationship between them is really never the same. I believe in this example Sherwood Anderson is basically making fun of a deep believer in the Christian way. He shows prime examples where Jesse is trying to give his all to Christ and the Lord and the Lord denies him multiple times. Another example of God in Winesburg, Ohio: Reverend Curtis. So we have meek and mild little Reverend Curtis and then he sees the sultry Kate Swift. He sees her smoking in bed and he sees her "bare shoulders" and this drives him wild. He can't think straight when he tells his sermons in church and eventually he decides he's just going to look and enjoy and think what he "wants to think" and when he does this he has a revelation about his relationship with God. It's ironic. Again I feel that Anderson is making fun of this Christian figure-head by making him find God through a totally sinful woman. Kate Swift is unmarried, unchristian, she tries to have an affair with an ex-student, and yet, she inspires a minister. Anderson is trying to say: Nobody is really good. I believe he is making jokes about organized religion. Anderson feels that everyone takes the fall and nobody is really good, and trying to fake your way through Christianity and real belief just is not going to cut it. I think it is a moderaly Voltaire train of thinking. I also think it makes sense because he writes in expressionism which illustrates the meaning of being alive and the emotional experience, distorting reality for emotional effect. The emotional effect is wow being a crazy devout Christian is kind of ridiculous. Killing an innocent lamb, faking your way through ministry when you are severely tempted by your sultry neighbor. So maybe this is distortion but he is definetely getting his point across. Voltaire used a sort of distortion to get his point across as well. Candide goes through ridiculous woes and his friends never seem to actually die. This seems to be a sort of early expressionism. He uses the distortion to illustrate the severe idiocracy of philosophy and to take on a more realistic view on life. On the other hand I do not think Anderson's novel is solely based on these ideas but I think it is definetely something to be considered.

Philosophy is FUN!

I just started doing all this research on philosophical ideas and WOWZA are there a lot of them. All of the ideas that are syndicated from Candide are all very christianity based, which I find quite interesting. I always thought of Voltaire as a cynical, atheist which is obviously untrue because the people of that time were almost all believers. The ideas of the manichees were especially interesting: both good and evil have always existed in the universe and goodness doesn't come from evil and evil doesn't come from goodness, its just there. I believe that is true. There are people that seem almost purely good and people that seem almost purely good and then there's a lot of people who are all mixed up in evil and good. So its hard to put it all together. Let's talk a little Saint Augustine, imitate the good, bear the evil, love all. I like it! It is a bit hippie, a bit Bob Marley. Funny how someone who seems so against the grain of things (Bob Marley) is right a long with Saint Augustine. (That rhymed FYI). I'd like to think that I could try to love all but it's just plain tough. Maybe that's what philosophy is. Some crazy ideas to be good people. How about this one, courtesy of Blaise Pascal: God can bring forth good out of evil and we bring forth evil out of good. What does that mean? We all suck? I suppose that's a very cynical philosophy but also a good idea to get people to do what you want. If I had a philosophy I would do along with Earl of Shaftesbury: There are evil tendencies in the popular presentation of Christianity. I would like to think we have evil "tendencies." It kind of softens the blow, eh? I mean I do not mean to be a terrible person, but hey, stuff happens. Pretty much overall, philosophy is kind of goofy. I suppose if I was going to make my own philosophy on life it would go like this: If you have done everything you can do, you can sleep at night. Simple, concise, fantastic. I SHOULD BE A PHILOSOPHER! Basically when I have a huge test and I know it's going to hurt my pride, I say those words in my head because without thinking like that, you'll kill yourself with over work and under pay. If my philosophy was a band it would be 311. Chill, easy-going, you can jam to it anytime, who can't appreciate it? If my philosophy was a food it would be sushi. Not everybody can live by it, but if you can, it makes you very happy :) Basically philosphy is fun to make fun of but I'm not sure if it is even real. It's like a really short version of the Bible or a very concise religion. Can you even do that? Apparently you can. I'm not 100% sure if you can follow anybody else's without modifying it in your own head to make it fit your own life. ANYWAY, philosophy seems kind of ridiculous but maybe I'm too immature to understand it. Maybe no one understands it because their not supposed to. Maybe that's the point.