Notes from 9/28

For the test:
From Stevens we need to know (these are just part of the full titles)
Ten O'Clock
Bantem in Pine Wood
The Snowman
Study of Two Pears
Poems of Our Climate
Tea...(something sorry I missed it in class)
Sunday Morning
Domination of Black
Motivation of Metaphor
What is possible
Also: Come up with three questions you think should be on the test

"I do not know which I prefer, The beauty of inflections, Or the beauty of innuendos, The blackbird whisting, Or just after."
Wallace Stevens "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

Important Notes
Frank L. Baum is on record as saying he wanted to write an American children's story
Distinct themes
1. Innocence- Dorothy is both ignorant and innocent. She sings about lemondrops.
2. It is one of the first road movies- a genre where characters "get on the road" and meet various colorful characters.
Most popular interpretations
populist, spiritual, or racist
The spiritual interpretation places emphasis on Baum's belief in secular humanism which endorses the idea that you don't need intermediaries to talk to God, you have the power within yourself just like Dorothy has the power to get home within herself.

In "Wise Blood," O'Conner is making fun of those who are dead spiritually speaking, those who have no stong convictions. She wants us to wake up spiritually.
A few analysises of this text
O'Conner uses the popular psychological construct of the doppelganger, the double. Mote's double represents his more compassionate, humane half. What does Motes do to that half? He makes him stuip naked, and then runs him over with his car.
At the end O'Conner decides that Motes will succumb to the same fate as Oedipus, he gouges out his own eyes and dies in a ditch.
"The Habit of the Heart" is a collection of letters written by O'Conner. Within this collection there is even a letter stating that she had no way of killing off Motes, so she decided to give him Oedipus's fate.
There are two important theological terms for this text:
Redemption- Rising up out of sinfulness
Grace- God's salvation of mankind

One of the themes within Stevens is that the only thing we really have is the weather.
Where O'Conner sees a world where people aren't awake spiritually, Stevens sees a world where people aren't awake spiritually.
Stevens frequently uses white to represent reality, as well as the North
Blus is usually used to represent the imagination and the South
The only real subject of any poem is the poetry.

In my opinion, he's the best of the best.
What carries me away?
Edvard Munch, but not "The Scream" Edvard Munch, my Munch is the master of capturing the human condition, gothic or grandiose but usually gothic. After all, who really remembers the love stories? Instead we remember the bloody stories, when the main character gouges his eyes out. This is the condition that Munch captures so beautifully, and it is for this reason that from now on, all of my journal entries will be accompanied by a Munch painting.
Myth is not simply a creation of literature, to be applied therein and then forgotten in the course of our everyday lives. Myth inhabits everything; it lives and breathes everywhere, and while some might be scrutinizing the text of "Daisy Miller" trying to pick out the details until they get to the myth at the end or until their patience ends, as mine did. I prefer to look at Munch's paintings. Granted, I will scour a text and pick out the important stuff when its required, but for recreational myth finding I really just like the simplicity of paintings. Not that they are all that simple as Guy Davenport's analysis of American Gothic proved. Still I find something inherently mythic in Munch's paintings, no button and pitchfork analysis needed.
To me, the man in this painting is Hazel Motes, or Oedipus (in reality it is a self portrait of Munch.) He is man possessed with passion and strong. He encompasses the greatest meaning of what it means to be human and to me that is what myth is. It is both the basic level upon which we all work, but it is the greatest thing that we can all be. I cannot explain the feeling that most of Munch's paintings give me but it is similar to that. It is similar to that, it is everything that resides within each of us, the myth within each of us brought to life.
Marilyn

Notes from 9/26
Epiphany- an experience that completely changes your perception

Way back when, when the internet was still an idea, it was not going to be called "The Internet" it was going to be called Xanadu.
Along the sames line, Citizen Kane is the first film to use deep focus. Deep focus is a camera technique that allows both the background and the foreground to be in focus.
Why have I, and potentially others, been missing all these important scenes in the movies we've watched? Guy Davenport says "You have to train your eye." Perhaps I need to practice examining films in order to get better at it, sort of like skiing.

Similes- Similes are usually designated by using like or as. In class we discussed the power of similies to keep things apart _____ is like _______.
Metaphor- Metaphors compare two unrelated things. In class we dicussed that metaphors join _____ is ________.

"I'm going to lie up a nation." Zora Neale Hurston Of Mules and Men
Our nation is founded on lies. Therein lies the irony of this line.
This narative is also important because it revisits the stories before they've been revised, primarily by Joel Chandler Harris, the white man who wrote the stories of B'rer Rabbit.
Note: For the test we only need to read chapters 1 and 2 of Mules and Men.

Flannery O'Conner is the master of gothic similies.
These are the 5 I found:
"His face under the cap was like a think picked eagle's" (pg.69)
"He looked pressed down in that blue suit, as if inside it, the thing winding was getting tighter and tigheter" (pg. 90)
"He put his foor on the starter but nothing happened except noise somewhere underneath him that sounded like a person gargling with water" (pg. 156)
"His throat got dryer and his heart began to grip him like a little ape clutching the bars of its cage" (pg. 60)
"He stood staring after him, jerking his hands in and out of his pockets as if he were trying to moce forward and backward at the same time" (pg. 43)

Wise Blood
This is truly one of the most bizarre and strange stories I've ever read. However that keeps it really interesting.
Questions I've come up with so far:
Who is Hazel Motes and why does he lead such a miserable life?

Who is Enoch Emory? What is the importance of his eventual discovery of the gorilla suit?
To me the gorilla suit represents Enoch's transformation which parallells Motes's transformation. Both see something that is false and then choose to immitate it and become it perhaps suggesting that the unreal has the power to overcome the real. Perhaps this relates to the class discussion of which is more important, the reality or the imagined.

The theme of coffins seems to persist throughout the novel. Hazel feels as if he is in a coffin when riding on the train, he sees the dead woman in the coffin at the fair, and the real animals within the novel are all caged, a condition similar to those in the coffin. My first guess is that this condition is related to the condition of Motes and Emory, who seem to have to blindly follow their destiny as if they are trapped within it. For a novel that deals so much with the absence of God there is a strange notion of Divine Providence, as if someone is orchestrating the puppet show. Why does Emory consistently follow his blood. Why is Motes led to Emory, why did he find Asa Hawkes, why is he incapable of leaving the town?

What is the importace of the owl at the end of the zoo? He is molting and in poor condition. The owl is typically a sign of knowledge, so is knowledge then abandoned from that poin onward? Perhaps it is symbolic of the last place both Emory and Motes can avoid their inextricable fate.

What is the importance of eyes, and blindness? The eyes are typically seen as a window to the soul. Sabbath Hawkes eyes are green representing her as earthly, a place of renewal, and virtuous. She is paired with Motes whose brown eyes represent his dullness, barrenness, and place where nothing fertile can grow.

Nothing grows in the desert, which brings up the point of the mumified person. I am not even going to try and examine this one except that its likeness to Christ threatens Motes and his belief in the Church Without Christ.

Why does Motes have such a strong liking for masochism? Perhaps he is seeking pennance but for what? What was recently deemed a sexual perversion, maschoism has long been a part of a spiritual tradition, seeking enlightenment through pain. Why is one so concerned with living without Christ finding such great thrills in abusing himself. My only conclusion is that Motes lives an ever-repentant life, he cannot accept himself as a man who could dissappoint Christ so he must live without Christ. Yet he is still propelled by a feeling of shame and a desire for repentance. His denial of Christ is really a complete acceptance of Christ for the opposite of love is ambivilence, not hate. His hatred acknowledges that he does believe in God and Christ but because he feels he has failed them both so he must respond not by merely forgetting God, like so many do, but by campaigning against him yet still acknowledging that he cares enough to campaign. It is a very interesting dualism, and it makes Motes all the more interesting as the novel progresses

Notes for 9/19

What really carries us away?

• Sex drugs and rock n' Roll
• The aesthetic experience

What does Daisy Miller really have to fear?

• Rape

The Male Predator

The ravenous animal= wolf. ex) wolf in Little Red Riding Hood

Demon lover= satyr, satan. ex) Arnold Friend in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

Beast= blend of beast and prince. ex) Beast in "Beauty and the Beast"

Prince= "The Prince" but isn't he a little boring?

What is Southern Gothic?

Motto of the class: "The truth is beside the point"

Logos- Divine creative element of creation

Have you ever experienced a work of art that when you looked at the work you were changed?

With everything you gain or lost something.

Wizard of Oz, represents reality v. imagination. Kansas is reality and Oz is imagination. Everything begins with reality. The imaginative is supremely true however the imaginary is not real.

The poet does not imitate reality, the poet creates it.

My Stevens Poem

Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb

What word have you, interpreters, of men
Who in the tomb of heaven walk by night,
The darkened ghosts of our old comedy?
Do they believe they range the gusty gold,
With lanterns borne aloft to light the way,
Freemen of death, about and still about
To find whatever it is they seek? Of does
That burial, pillared up each day as porte
And spiritous passage into nothingness,
When the hose shall no more wnader, nor the light
Of the steadfast lanterns creep accross the dark?
Make hue among the dark comedians,
Halloo them in the topmost distances
For answer from their icy Elysee.

First thoughts: Interpreters of men are writers
Darkened ghosts of our old comedy. Old comedy, as we learned last fall in Shakespeare is comedy associated with the rebirth, the spring renewal of everything green.
Perhaps this line refers to deceased writers of the past or to the end of rebirth

Notes from 9/14

Citizen Kane is somewhat of a parody on journalism. Can you really reduce a man's life to just a series of facts? The journalists in the beginning of the movie want to find the meaning of the word Rosebud so that they can understand Kane's life. However, it's not that simple. Even if they did find Kane's sled, with the word Rosebud emblazoned on it, they would not be any closer to understanding Kane the man. Can we really reduce life to just the facts?

Words discussed in class:
Synchronicity- a meaningful coincidence
Anima- Platonic ideal projected onto a female figure by a male figure
Animus- Platonic ideal projected onto a male figure by a female figure

Coincidence related to Citizen Kane:
Charlie Kane was a character supposedly partially based on William Randolph Hearst
Patty Hearst his granddaughter was abducted by the Symbianese Liberation Army. They took her into the underworld while her mother cried on TV. She was held in a closet for 57 days physically and sexually abused by her captors then released only to fall in love with one of her captors. This is known as Stockholm Syndrome.

Notes from 9/12

GQ list of wealthiest fictional characters
Santa Claus
Richie Rich
Daddy Warbucks
Scrooge McDuck
Thurston Howl III
Willy Wonka
Bruce Wayne
Lex Luthor
E.J. Ewing
Charles Montgomery Burns
Charles Foster Kane

Flirtation was described by Judson as "dancing around the boundaries of comfort."
What is dancing? All dancing is a kind of flirtation. All dancing is also dirty dancing; so when we dance around the boundaries of comfort we are simultansously dancing around the boundaries of desire.

"Flirtation derives from the ancient phenomenon of marriage by abduction." Geroge Simmel
You can see this demonstrated by the custom of the groom carrying the bride over the threshhold and into his house.
Until then the female has the power to be the chooser and flirtation is her way of exercising her power and asserting her freedom. Once she is engaged the game is over.
This is how Daisy exercises her power over Winterbourne. She has control of the game, but when he is given the chance to win her over and regain control he fails and she falls into the hands of another.

Henry James was proclaimed "The Master" just as Elvis was "The King." He was extremely rich but had trouble deciding whether to live in America or Europe.

The passage in the movie Citizen Kane where Mr. Bernstein talks about the girl in the white dress on the ferry might be about Daisy Miller. Daisy Miller represents the platonic ideal . Why was the movie going to be called "the American?" American represents wealth and power both of which Kane has.
Also mentioned were the following reviews of Citizen Kane:
Roger Ebert
Peter Bogdanovich (the director of Daisy Miller)

"Carried away" you can be carried away literally, physically, metaphorically, and symbolically.
Tropes- figurative language

Citizen Kane

Wow! Truthfully I usually shy away from any movie created before 1985, if I wasn't alive then could it really be any good? I have been set straight. I was extremely impressed by this movie and I'm glad Dr. Sexson chose to open my eyes to films that occurred before I was alive.

The Controversy Surrounding the Movie

Rumor has it that Citizen Kane was partially based on the lives of William Randolph Hearst, Howard Hughes, and Samual Insull. The number of similarities to the life of William Randolph Hearst (pictured right) caused him to offer $800,000 dollars to have the film destroyed before it was released. Hearst, like Kane was given a small paper to run, and like Kane he enjoyed publishing sensationalized stories that stretched the truth. "You provide the pictures I'll provide the war, " a quote about the Spanish American War is supposedly similar to a comment pade by Hearst. Also, "Rosebud" is rumored to be: a pet name Hearst gave to his mistress's clitoris, a name Hearst gave to his mistress, or a name he gave to his mother. There is also a parallel between Kane's mistress, who is a singer with minimal talents to Hearst's mistress who he also liked to dress in frivilous outfits to preform. Because of this controversy Hearst refused to advertise the movie, potentially resulting in a loss of profits. However some believe that the real parallel is between the lives of Kane and Welles himself.


Analysis

Kane is a man incapable of loving anyone other than himself. Not only that, he consistently insists that everyone else does the same. I do not think he is alone in this respect. It seems that all great men are possessed with a sense of self importance. It's what enables them to be great; they only care for their own needs.

Rosebud- The search for Rosebud led journalists everywhere to learn all about Kane's life. In the end they came up empty handed and now only we (the viewer) know the importance or Rosebud. It was Kane's sleigh, that he was playing with in the snow, when Mr. Tucker came to take him away from his family, off to boarding school. This is a note to the story that makes Kane more human. It is a cry for his missed childhood. Maybe Kane did not want to be a mogul of industry. Maybe he wanted to be human just like the rest of us.
Also of importance:
Xanadu- the name of Kane's palace and monument to himself.

Bibliography
Citizen Kane. Wikipedia. 10 September 2006. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 September 2006. <http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/mlagd.php>

"America loves the representation of its heroes to be not just larger than life, but stupendously, awesomely bigger than anything else. If blue whales built statues to each other they’d be smaller then these." Hoggart, Simon. America: A Users Guide ch. 11.

An Analysis of Daisy Miler
When I first read this work I found it to be a narrative of the quintessential American faux-pas. It is the story of an American girl in a new land who does not know how to act, and does not take the advice given to her about social norms. The story climaxes with Daisy's death and I, personally find this to be one of the most important parts of the story. However, I think there are other important factors within this story that are worth examining.

Social Factors
What is power of another's impression? Daisy pretends like she is not affected by the cloud of gossip that surrounds her but in small ways she shows that she is really hurt by what is said about her. She is eventually left with only one real companion, Mr. Giovanelli, who is so entrhralled by her that he forgets to take care of her. This results in her eventual death. Her complete disregard for society leaves her literally, out in the cold and dead for it. Perhaps Daisy never heard of the saying "When in Rome do as the Romans do." I believe that there is an important message suggesting that to be part of the group, though it may go against one's style, is more important than being alone.

Daisy is, despite her beauty, a quintessential Ugly American. I believe that James also wished to address the issue of American ignorance and lack of culture through Daisy, a beautiful and innocent woman. No matter how beautiful and loving she is, her looks won't buy her acceptance into the world of European society if she continues to behave improperly. So perhaps when we, Americans, decide to go abroad we should not just try to have things our way but try to be sensitive to local cultures and customs.

Ideas

Throughout the novel there is much emphasis placed on Daisy's innocence. Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Costello find her just plain dumb but Winterbourne chooses to find her beautiful and innocent. To me it seems like Daisy is portrayed as a beautiful princess in a land of uptight old crones. It seems like James is trying to say that everything that is good and pure is short-lived, as is Daisy. The pure innocent girl could not survive because anything that pure must either be tainted, or die.

Giovanelli v. Winterbourne.
Despite the name, Winterbourne, I found Giovanelli to be the bearer of coldness throughout htis story. One has to question his complete disregard for Daisy's reputation. Yes, of course he had other things on his mind but at Daisy's funeral he implies that he genuinely cared for her. And yet, unlike Winterbourne, he makes no effort to keep help her keep her reputation. Consequently, she loses all ties to an outside world except him. Giovanelli is also too preocupied with being in her company to make sure she doesn't get sick. Upon their first meeting Winterbourne describes Giovanelli as a very cleverly disguised gentleman. However, I think Giovanelli has more to disguse than his status as a gentleman. I believe he is part demon, coveting a beautiful woman but eventually taking her with him to the underworld.
On the contrary Winterbourne, despite his formal demeanor, genuinely cares for Daisy. Every attempt to save her is made by him. In the end we even question whether or not he had true feelings for her (I believe that he did.) I think that if Daisy had chosen Winterbourne's company, perhaps she would not have suffered such a creul fate.

"Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm." Greene, Graham. The Quiet American pt. 1 ch. 3

Daisy Miller Summary

Daisy Miller is the story about an American flirt, Daisy Miller and her encounter with another American, Mr. Winterbourne. Mr. Winterbourne has spent most of his life in Geneva and it is near there that he meets Miss Daisy Miller when he encounters her younger brother, Randolf, playing outside. Daisy Miller is very pretty and flirtatious, but she is also completely devoid of the sophistication common to her European counterparts. Daisy desires to visit a nearby castle, Winterbourne offers to take her there, and she agrees. Soon her courier, Eugenio, who calls her and her brother to lunch. Mr Winterbourne expresses his desire for her to meet his aunt Mrs. Costello.
Winterbourne mentions Miss Miller to his aunt and she does not hesitate to tell him that she finds them dreadfully common. She advises him to stay away from Daisy. When Winterbourne then accidentally encounters Miss Miller he is afraid to tell her that his aunt refuses to meet her. She eventually takes the hint but only laughs.
Winterbourne then takes Daisy Miller to the castle. Daisy spends most of the time talking but when they part ways she feigns anger that Winterbourne will leave for Geneva and she makes him promise to visit her in Rome in the winter.
When Mr. Winterbourne visits his aunt in the winter he does not immediately call upon Daisy. Meanwhile Daisy has become the object of much gossip around the town. Daisy does not hold back when it comes to socializing with various Italian men. Winterbourne then soon runs into Daisy in the home of the socialite, Mrs. Walker. Daisy is playfully upset that Winterbourne has not called upon her first. She also requests Mrs. Walker's permission to bring one of her friends to to a party later in the week. She then announces that she is leaving to meet up with her "friend," Mr Giovanelli at a nearby garden. This distresses Mrs. Walker because it is completely improper and she strongly advises against it. Daisy insists and requests that Winterbourne accompany her. He agrees.
Winterbourne believes Giovanelli to not really be a gentleman, but instead a fantastic actor who is playing the part very well. Both men walk with Daisy. Soon Mrs. Miller pulls up in her carriage. She is very fearful for Daisy's reputation, and tries to persuade her to enter the carriage. Daisy refuses and Winterbourne ends up in the carriage instead.
At Mrs. Walker's party, Winterbourne tries to tell Daisy that her activities are getting her in deep trouble, socially speaking. Daisy admits her status as a "a fearful, frightful flirt." Winterbourne tries to tell her that her actions are unacceptable and Diasy leaves in a huff to go sit with Giovanelli for the rest of the night. At the end of the night Mrs. Walker turns her back on Daisy, refusing to even say goodbye. Daisy shows her first real signs of being hurt.
Miss Daisy continues to spend her time with Giovanelli and almost all of Roman society looks down on her even the Americans have ceased to send her party invitations. A group of American colonists even stage a confrence with Mrs. Costello about how Daisy has taken things too far.
Winterbourne tries to talk sense into Mrs. Miller but she now believes that Daisy and Giovanelli are engaged, although Daisy denies it. Winterboure is befundled by Daisy and her actions.
A few months later Winterbourne encounters Miss Miller and Mr. Giovanelli. When Winterbourne's back is turned Daisy says that he is judging her relationship with Mr. Giovanelli. Winterbourne replies that he is not the only one; everyone is judging her. Winterbourne asks if she is engaged. At first she says yes, then no. On a walk home from a dinner party, Winterbourne finds Daisy and Giovanelli at the Colisum. Winterbourne finally gives up all hope for Daisy. Yet he still feels a need to warn her of the Roman fever. Winterbourne suggests that they should leave, he also advises that Daisy take some pills that Eugenio has. Giovanelli goes for a carriage. Daisy asks Winterbourne if he ever believed that she was engaged. He says it does not matter.
Soon after this incident Winterbourne hears that Daisy is extremely ill. Daisy, in a moment of delerium asked that a note be delivered to Winterbourne. The note says she was never engaged and to remember the time they visited the castle. Daisy soon dies and at her funeral Giovanelli professes that he found her beautiful and innocent but also that he knew Daisy would never marry him.
The next summer while visiting Mrs. Costello, Winterbourne admits to her that he did not do Daisy justice. Her message really signified that she did care about his opinion and perhaps that she did want to return his affections. He returns to his former life.

Notes from 9/5

Have we been reading too far into the materials discussed in class? Is "American Gothic" really a portrait of Hades and Persephone or is it just a farmer and his wife. Wallace Stevens encourages seeing things as they are. What if our the ultimate depth of analysis is the surface meaning and as you progress down the triangle all you encounter are trivial details? Which analysis is better? I've provided an upside down triangle, with surface meaning at the top to counter the regular triangle, at the bottom. Which level of analysis is more powerful, the mythic or the superficial?
"All art is two things at once, surface and symbol," Oscar Wilde

What is Gothic? It's a word that we keep hearing in class yet we still need to give it a good solid definition.
Who were the Goths? They were Germanic tribes who sacked Rome; barbarians.
We have Gothic architecture, Gothic art, and we even have a Gothic style, complete with dark eyeliner and fishnet stockings.
For this class though we've decided to choose a slightly more applicable definition.
"Fiction emphasizing the grotesque"

The word sublime was brought up repeatedy during this class. It encompasses both the awesome and the aweful. It is worthy of adoration, impressive.

Daisy Miller
It's the story of a flirtatious young girl.
Flirtations- "Dancing around the boundaries of comfort."
Who's flirtatious? Almost everyone, but in this novel it is the flirtations of Italian men that are the most important. What are Italian men like? Most of us have had some sort of experience with them.