Reading Assignment IV (Chapter 14)

Frankenstein (pulled details from story, not specific source)

1) not crucified, burned in a windmill; no noticeable, significant wounds in the appendages, but all limbs wounded... because they're dead

2) constant agony; justification for why he sounds so heartbreakingly constipated - angry at no relief

3) according to the most recent "Van Helsing" movie, he sacrificed a painful escape, a continuation of torment to be with his recently dead daddy

4) hahaha... if they would ever approach, he'd want them to touch his face and smile - be comforted

5) bad with fire, so good with water; with his life and body as it is, if he thought to, I'm sure he'd be good with wine; big man, so good with food (presumably)

6) the combined ages of his parts probably equaled to a multiple of 33

7) not applicable

8) when is he ever known to move any way other than by stumbling and hobbling?

9) depending on the time of creation, 1800 or 2222, he could walk through water with ease

10) yes

11) yes

12) "alive" in a living hell... yes

13) his daddy was a graverobber

14) inspiration for many metaphors, similes, slurs

15) dug up to achieve "life" in, let's say, three days (lotta prep work to actually MAKE a zombie)

16) not applicable

17) very angry... first step to being forgiving

18) came to show true humanity isn't always pretty

Reading Assignment III (Chapter 11)

Authors craft contenders, build the arena, and let what may come come, sometimes provoking, sometimes not. In "A Clockwork Orange," Alex, thinking his henchmen got his back, commences to terrify the lone woman whose house they have trespassed to, cat-and-mousing 'til he kills her; not that this bit of violence affects him too much, but the shock of what has happened, the feeling of unease that the easily eluded, therefore irritated, law is on the way, coupled with his debilitation, at the chain of Dim no less!, though the tension was clear for all to viddy. So Alex kills, so Burgess can justify his being sent to prison, his volunteering for a radical new rehabilitation method (though there is no justification for Kubrick's raping of the story, apparently allowed by Burgess, though he is remorseful of it) - to allow for the story to have multiple Parts instead of One; the serial killer in "The Alienist" works according to an oblong set of cogs arranged and energized by Carr. In "1984," Winston, enjoying the company of "his woman" as often as possible in the squalid hovel, second floor, designated "penetration point," "bush boulevard," (reference to the film, ewwy, apologies) is suddenly thrust into the maw of everyone's sadistic elder sibling, his love assaulted in front of then taken away from him; though her "death" may not be absolute, when he is told it is, it is very real to the completely broken, currently tortured pseudo-martyr and it is an act of malice plotted and executed by Orwell that begins Winston's crag-filled fall, him being flung from the "peace" he had fathomed by a flick of the quill. Kesey's hero in OFOtCN is strangled by the narrator, out of mercy in context of the story, actually out of an understanding by Kesey that to have a "happy ending," sometimes the disciple must calmly relieve the guru - to enhance the freedom gained by Chief, felt by all the boys, living or not (as an Indian, he gained a few more spirit guides through the climax).

Reading Assignment II (Chapter 8)

Intertextuality: the concept of recognizing an author's implication that his (") original (") work is related to a prior, usually well-known work, be it by story dynamics, character qualities, whatever

Roland "The Gunslinger" : Winston ("1984")
"lone" heroes both forced by uncontrollable forces surrounding (being immune to the rules of reality, space, time just as horrifying as living in a completely subdued stat; vulnerable to the throes of the Dark Tower - fodder for Big Brother) to endure different forms of "dementia"

Alex, leader of the droogs ("A Clockwork Orange") : The Walkin Dude ("The Stand")
manifestations of evil, both, who, as every successful dictator/manipulator of man before, corrupted the minds of a few weaker individuals, who both endured the most testing trials to their character, who both survived to plot, and, hopefully, carry out more, even greater acts of bad


"Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" : Alice
Hunter S. Thompson as the individual, jumped down the rabbit hole, completely disoriented in the strange world (quite impressive levels of intoxication juxtaposed to innocence because of age being hilarious), his lawyer and her cheshire/chechire/whatever-er cat appearing every now and then, to offer advice and to present new problems our heroines (haha) must overcome to persevere and survive their stays in Wonderland; Thompson has a deadline to work toward and predestined acts to commit, while Alice is completely clueless, at the whim of her survival skills and ability to decipher who her friends are (being so clouded as blind by intoxicants, her feebleness becomes his); both journeys are fantastic, twisted and extremely funny

FALiLV being a "purely" journalistic endeavor, it is highly unlikely, especially since the book was transcribed from audio recordings made on the spot, while the events were happening, that such a connection as I have found was conscious on his part; a reach on mine or proof of the "One Story"?

Reading Assignment I

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (focused on story, not story OR movie)

1) Our questor: a young rascal (adult, around 30 years of age), (probably righteously) imprisoned in an insane asylum; refuses to bend to the will of the overseers

2) A place to go: from the first scene of the movie, R.P.M. casually mocks the system that wants to break, er, "rehabilitate," (as best as possible, by any means necessary...) him but offers little in the way of actual resistance (goes with the flow; a laid-back bronco, not really scornful of the captors but stubborn as its cousin in rejecting riders); unable to take his ordeal seriously (the steed has the intelligence inherent in its relative), because of a lack of caring, he agrees to be given room, board and medication but strives to retain, and, perhaps, regain (total) freedom while incarcerated

3) A stated reason to go there: along with the usual games of "chance" (card games, "Bet I can lift that," and so on), Randall traps himself in an ever increasingly life-threatening (in several senses) bet - that he can get to the Big Nurse 'fore she can him

4) Challenges and trials: the nature of this significant mission strived at by such a charismatic jester causes this champion to create and scale his own milestones; a level-headed Irish hot-head butts heads with manipulative Ratched, whose charges include her boys and staff members, acting as sentries and guard: how to throw a bash with booze and girls when every portal is locked and, despite distracted (and "greedy"), archers at the ready, how to take the boys fishing in the middle of the day amidst all the pencil pushing, basket carrying, deceptively (as she (therefore they ('cept for her boys))are) vicious chastising of the day, how to provoke the leviathan with limited methods by which to

5) The real reason to go: deep inside his hard exterior, under his constant smile, cracked from sarcasm, he is devastated that such an old feeble insignificant mistress, with her rag-tag group of uncivilized underlings, has enslaved, shackling what's expected to be - meaning the entirety of those men; McMurphy wishes to see them restored to men (again) and not wrung out husks (; and, of course, refuses to let these men's fate befall him)

Teachers

Education is an issue that requires all the assistance possible to repair it, but the "status" of teachers is completely irrelevant. This country used to be a leader in education, and is now thirteenth (approx.) in rank. The United States is laughed at and hated around the world - improvements in education would help our reputation. The reputations of teachers does not matter when addressing educational issues. The problem lies within the students and the teachers' abilities to reach them, interest them, teach them - not the social standing of teachers. Workers in any occupation will complain about their job; a lineman who decides he is not appreciated enough will refuse to work, equating to darkness, while an under-appreciated teacher will refuse to teach, leaving students ignorant, but still able to make a living, doing the various low-level jobs that need to be done (which would not be such a bad thing, especially since college acceptance rates are dropping). http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/27/how-to-raise-the-status-of-teachers/let-us-teach I agree with Williams that education would greatly improve if teachers were left to their own devices, able to decide what and how to teach, instead of relying on administrators who have never known anything about the position teachers are in to tell them how high to jump. Teacher A: begins teaching from Chapter 1, going through all the information, terms, questions, unit tests - continues this all year Teacher B: uses the textbook as one resource, calling on other sources to educate their students. Teacher B is clearly the more effective educator, as Teacher A is not a teacher at all - A's method of teaching could be undertaken by the students themselves. B's method of teaching actually requires the teacher's prescence for the students to receive an education.

Gatsby Analysis

Fitzgerald comments on the American way of life, reminiscing about events he couldn't possibly have been present at, evaluating the course humanity has collectively chosen to pursue (by living in and indulging on what this country has to offer). The intentionally evasive way he writes leaves his over-all purpose open to debate. We have left our humanity "somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." His speaking of the all-natural, beautiful land-mass, landed on and corrupted by the invaders ("the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes..."), leads readers to believe that with the de-naturalization we wreak upon this "new world," converting it into a "great country," such as "Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house..." the moon refuses to illuminate us. Our natural satellite, a natural occurence, cannot, will not, brighten the fields of this nation; once teeming with earth-born life -- now devastated by the manipulations man conducts. This, especially, because mankind has learned how to create artificial light (thus, the absence of the moon)(and how to make our own food ("the dark fields" (containing nothing but ourselves))). "A fresh, green breast of the new world" is an opportunity to be profited from in the conniving hands of man. "The inessential houses began to melt away," until the realization that we have indeed corrupted what was once pure becomes clear; inessential because nature is the natural safe haven. "For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the prescence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." The transition man underwent when he arrived to this place was from the classical world of minor crimes to the modern world of death, destruction, pollution -- advanced technology, with which we enslave the world itself. The aesthetic contemplation He (mankind) felt was a wondering of all the changes we could force upon our new home to accomodate for our evolving needs (ridding ourselves of what is no longer required (things natural)). This, long ago, was the last time man will ever be able stare in awe at beauty and possibilities; beauty to be harvested, ripped from whence it came, and possibilities we can create and force upon the ground we stand. We arrived at this country to make a new home, but the advances we have made as a race have blinded us to our true cause (lost long ago because of rapid modernization), leading us to soil the natural beauty, to waste our lives worrying about the trivial. The American Dream is like courting a whore, who was once a marvelous maiden, but has become our sultry harlot, able to suck the life from the tyrants (United Statesians) that made her Her. We fight futilely against what we have created, complaining all the time, never knowing anything -- or why.

"My Wood" Response

disagree with Forster's claim that consumerism corrupts humanity.
the notion that obtaining property causes greed to fester is absurd;
people don't buy things to stay current and ahead of their
"competition" anymore - petty rivalries over what is owned are
hardly prevalent anymore (although it is admittedly present
somewhat what with newer versions of technology being released
every week (and war)), especially with the economy the way it is.
things are bought for survival, comfort and practicality (entertainment,
safety, and so on (GENERALLY genuinely significant reasons)), not to
show up the neighbors. supporting the economy will not turn the majority
into greed driven zombies, bent only on increasing their wealth. money is
indeed what makes the world go round, the mechanism which turns it
being consumerism, the fuel (wealth), the incentive for thinking of and
creating new and better things, improving the lives (of those who can afford it (a "downfall" of the supposed snake in the garden)); currency is exchanged for these innovations, allowing for even more. wielded correctly, consumerism may very well be viewed as a catalyst for true humanity (since we are a (generally) ponderous people); back in Forster's time, though (revolutions in culture, technology, etc.) this tool of mankind quite possibly could have been wielded and swung unjustly, for petty human reasons.