Post for 12-7

What a strange, strange story. I have so many questions about this story and don’t really have much more to say than just questions. First of all, why did he have wings? And is that a normal thing for people to have wings? In my opinion if I go next door the woman living there would have no idea what to do if a winged old man came down into my yard. So it must be more common than it is now for people to have wings. Secondly why didn't the old man take the child if in fact he was an “angel of death” and who came for the child. And are people really that stupid to think that a cage or bars could contain a supernatural being? There must be more to this story because at this point in the semester I know Professor Corrigan and he would not give us a story that was meaningless. So obviously I am missing something big. But what if I’m not what if it is just a stupid story and I am spending all this time trying to figure out what it means when it was just written for entertainment?  Oh, and what about the spider girl??? What was up with that? Obviously this is not the earth we live on because there are no spider girls so I am surprised that the people are so shocked by this angel. I can’t understand why people would come so far just to see what a fake was very possibly or an imposter angel. But I suppose my view is slanted because if anything big happened I could just turn on Bay News 9 and see it from my living room. All in all I did not like this story. Maybe once I have Professor Corrigan’s input my mind will change.

Special Post for 12/9

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula LeGuin starts off by describing a almost perfect world. The story tells of the people of Omelas and the joy that they have and how wonderful of a city it is with the horse races and other festivals. The people are happy and all seems great. The author then prods the reader several times asking them if they believe in the city of Omelas and then the author continues to describe the city as if the reader had answered no. Later in description of Omelas the author asks the reader the same question and then says since you do not believe yet let me describe one more thing. Here the author describes a basement room or better yet a closet where there is a child living, if one could call this living. The author goes on to describe that this child can never leave the closet and that the happiness of the city thrives off of this child’s complete and utter misery. At the end of the story, it is described that people often come to visit or see the child. However they are not allowed to say a kind word to it. The story continues to tell of the reactions of the visitors and how many go home weeping or angered. And then the story finishes by saying that there are some who just continue walking straight past home and out of the city and past the next town off into the horizon.

                At first my interpretation of this story was pretty basic and simple, sacrifice. Now to many people this means different things. Some people view it as a savage thing where people tie someone up to a pole and burn them for the gods. While many people first think of a willing sacrifice where one person gives up their lives for the sake of another. When I first read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas I tried to view this sacrifice as the willing sacrifice and I tried to relate it to the sacrifice of Christ. My reasoning behind this was that the suffering of this one child will save everyone else for eternity and even though the child cannot understand what was at stake that if the child did understand then the child would agree. Now you are probably thinking why the child would ever agree to this even if it did understand. That is a good question and I asked myself the same thing. My answer is simple, this is a utopia for the most part and in a utopia the child would understand and be more than willing.

                However I recently, upon writing this blog, have changed my reasoning. At first I viewed this sacrifice as a good sacrifice and that it was for the greater good. However as I looked upon the types of sacrifice I see that this is the savage type of sacrifice. The author doesn’t really touch base on gods or anything but it is the savage type in that the people of Omelas are locking this child in a closet and feeding it slop and the child never gets to see the light of day. In my opinion this is worse than death.

                To me this is one of the most trivial points in the entire story because if the sacrifice was the good willing sacrifice I described above then there should be nothing wrong with this story and the reader should not feel upset or angered toward the story. However for some I felt disgusted and angered with this story and that is because the sacrifice in this story is not the willing type of sacrifice, it is the savage type of sacrifice. To me this probably the most important interpretation in the story because if it was the willing sacrifice then the story would be meaningless and it would just be another story about a hero who laid down his or her life to save his or her people. But since this is a savage type of sacrifice the story is open to much more significance as opposed to a story about a hero.

                So what significance does this story of savage sacrifice have?  After talking with several class mates I agree with their interpretation. I think that in order to know happiness and joy one must know what suffering is. Since I love food let me relate this explanation to food. If you have eaten nothing but lobster every day of your life then lobster is your standard in food and you would think of lobster as many of us think of chicken. However after eating lobster everyday of your life you try eating cockroaches, now you have a new found respect for the taste of lobster and will not forget it. The same is true with Omelas they have it great all the time and they see nothing but great until they look upon this child. However without this child they would not know how great they had it, it is the same as the lobster explanation I shared earlier.

                This is my personal interpretation of the story and what I thought when I read the story and started to dig a little deeper and think about it more. Most of my views changed from what they were when I first read the story but I feel as that I now have a better understanding of the story.

Post for 12-1

Wow is all I have to say about this story. I remember reading it in high school and just letting it go and not thinking about it. But this time I knew I had to do a blog on it so I read it out loud and I was really “struck” by the dilemma that this little utopia is facing. Although there are two sides to this story as there are any story. I first thought it was horrible that this utopia would keep this child locked away in a small closet never to see any happiness. But then I got to thinking is the pain of one worth the joy of many. And that lead me to think of Christ dyeing for our sins so that we may have joy. But the main difference I see here is that Christ chose to give his life so that we may come to know him and be happy where as the child was never given the option and was just shoved in the closet and forced into this decision. Though if the child really understood the situation I am curious to know what it would do. Since it is a utopia would it be perfect and chose to live in the closet out of love or because there is no moral would the child choose the selfish thing and free itself only to see the destruction of the entire utopia and everyone is equally as miserable as the child was. I guess what really matters here is all about if the child would choose to stay once they really understood the weight of the situation, and I mean not just have it explained to it but to truly understand what was at stake because of the decision. This is a great story.

Post for 11-29

I read Paul’s letter to the Philippians today and I tried so hard to dig deep into it and pull out figurative language but to me it nothing really came out. I went into it reading it just for the figurative language and by the time I was finished it felt the same as when I normally read the Bible. I tried to dig up some life lessons that can improve my relationship with God. So as for how many figurative language items I got it is in the single digits. And all in all reading Philippians with this in my mind did not in any way change how I perceived the letter. I still saw it as a letter of encouragement and didn’t really pull out much from in between the lines or from figurative language. Although I feel that figurative language would not really change my perception of the story in any way at all. The reason I think this is because all that figurative language does for me is give a better description and here I fell that a better description is not really necessary because I understand what Paul is trying to convey. So after not getting much figurative language the first time around I gave it a second read through as Professor Corrigan asked us to and I noticed more figurative language however it didn’t change my perception of St. Paul’s letter in any way. I still feel like figurative language does not really help what Paul is trying to say.  Hopefully Professor Corrigan will shed some light tomorrow and I will feel like there is more of a reason for figurative language in the Bible. And hopefully I will be more able to find more figurative language and see what it is talking about and how it helps.

Blog for 11-18

Flannery O'Connor’s, A Temple of the Holy Ghost was a very strange story in my opinion. I did not quite understand it but nonetheless I will try to pick out any symbolism and any meaning to it that I can. I will first start with the three stages of reading that we discussed in class. The first stage reading, well is just that. When applied to this story we read about two girls who have come to stay with their cousin and these girls are obsessed with boys it seems. Later on in the story the girls go to a fair where there a he-she reveals him-herself to the crowd. Then the girls go back to the boarding school where they came from. This next stage of interpretation of the story is where I am lost. I have no idea what any of this means or how it is significant. The only “moral” of the story that I could find was that the Church of God is bad and that little girls from boarding schools are annoying and “stupid.” When we move on to the third stage of criticizing I find that I can either be very critical or not critical at all. I feel more that I can not be critical at all because I feel like I did not understand the story and this could be because of my own ignorance or lack of knowledge. However the less likely option is that the story was written poorly and it is not my fault that I do not understand, but I tend to think that it is no one’s fault but my own that I did not get the point to this story. Although there is the third option that this story did not have a point or moral and was just for entertainment. I’m lost.

The Man Who Came To Dinner

I went to the Thursday night showing of The Man Who Came To Dinner.

Post for 9-16

The Man Who Came to dinner in my opinion was a great play. Out of all the plays I have been to it held my attention better than any other. Although the first act was a little dry in my opinion the second and third act made the play. I went on Thursday night which was the student night/ dress rehearsal so there were some things that were not spot on as should be. The only things I noticed were that some of the cues were off, such as the lighting and the doorbell. The lighting was not horribly noticeable but the doorbell rang before the man was even in sight of the door. Other than that the play was amazing in my opinion. My favorite character was Banjo played by Curtis Burkhardt who is a personal friend of mine. Now my view may be slanted because he is a close friend but I found him to be the most comical person in the play. Another of my good friends was in the play also, Micah Buckley. Micah played two roles in this play, he was the man who brought the cockroaches into the house and he was also the man who called the house from the train station pretending to be the fatbottom guy from France. I am glad that this was the play that we were required to go to because I got to see a great play and two of my old roommates act. Although I am disappointed to say that this performance was the last of the legendary Micah Buckley’s performances at Southeastern. I hope Southeastern continues to put on such great performances in the future. This was by far my favorite out of all the previous field trips we have gone on in this class and I have a feeling it will not be topped.

Post for 11-11

This play to me, on my first read through was very funny but also very sad. To me it had a pretty sad ending. Especially when they were at the party and they got mad at Jack for leaving them. Now for all of us we can easily understand why Jack was leaving. He was tired and just could not take it anymore, I mean I got to give the guy credit for staying with it so long because I don’t think that I could have stuck with it for as long as he did. But to me it is just really sad to think what is going through Arnold’s, Norman’s, Lucien’s and Berry’s heads. They must be so confused and probably hurt. What is probably going on in their head is that Jack doesn’t want to be with them anymore. Now to them they probably think it is because Jack doesn’t like them, which is probably a very painful thought for them when it however is not the case he is just worn out. Although the ending was somewhat sad I loved the play and I really wish it didn’t end so that I could keep on reading it. I loved all of the characters and how the acted/reacted with one another. I’m very curious about this play on Thursday because I have no idea what it’s about but after reading this play in class it gives me an idea of what I think the play will be about. However I am very excited to go on Thursday night and see my friend Curtis perform in the play. I know they have been working very hard on it and I can’t wait to see it. It worked out rather well that this production was that one that I wanted to go seen anyways and that we are also required to see it. Hopefully we can get ticket at the door.

Post for 11-9

                Today the class went to Alliance For Independence, a place that helps persons with disabilities be able to begin to function on their own.  One thing struck me as really sad, besides the fact that these people are born with disabilities, it was that the funding the place received was terrible. The lady said that the cost of keeping each patient there every day was around seventy-five dollars a day. She then explained that most of the people there were on Medicad’s rehabilitation benefits. It’s great that these people get to receive benefits to come to this place to get help but the sad thing is that Medicad only pays twenty-seven dollars a day for each patient. Now what I got from what she said, was that if they are on Medicad they do not need to cover the cost and the company takes a loss in the amount of about forty-eight dollars a day per patient. The tour guide also said that there were 110 patients in the center currently. Now if you multiply the forty-eight dollars by 110 patients you see that the center is taking over a 5,000 dollar loss PER DAY! This is terrible, and for all who went, you saw the facility. It’s not that great looking of a place and it seems like they could use some rebuilding or expansion. Honestly they need more funding I’m not sure if the new healthcare thing that the President passed will help this or not but if it doesn’t someone needs to do something to help. This field trip has helped me more understand the play we are reading in that one of the characters is on trial to possibly have his Medicad taken away. In my opinion there needs to be something more done to help these people who do not have a voice of their own.

Post for 11-4

I was reading the play The Boys Next Door today and I found it pretty comical how each of the characters explain everything. If you have ever seen the movie The Ringer with Johnny Knoxville, it reminded me of that. I loved the opening scene where Arnold was at the store and asked the manager how many boxes of wheaties he should buy and the manager replied, "seventeen."  It struck me strange a little later, when it was explained that they were all truly mentally handicapped,  that the manager gave such a sarcastic response if it was sarcasm.  It may have been that the manager was just a plain bad person and was trying to take advantage of Arnold to get his money. And I thought to myself how could a person be so mean to a person with disabilities, when the manager probably knew for a fact that Arnold had disabilities, due to the fact that the store was right down the corner.  But what scares me is this probably isn't an unusual thing. I feel that all too often people with disabilities are over looked and that people see them as an inconvenient. And I feel like a lot of the time people look down on these people not only because they are different but because they are singled out and put in "special" classes and removed from the normal flow of society into a setting that "better fits them" or maybe it should be said a setting that better fits us. I know that these people need special help and attention but as I think about it, it makes me curious is the reason that we separate these people because we want them to get help or because we don't feel like taking the time to help them ourselves. I'm just thinking out loud here so maybe anything I am writing doesn't make any sense to those reading it but in my head I know what I'm thinking.

Post for 11/2

                Its been hard for me to blog about the recent nature poems mainly because I am not a huge fan of poetry and this is mostly because I do not understand a lot of poetry and the references in them. And it is not that I just do not understand the references, it is also that to me it seems like poetry can be taken so many different ways. Take for example when Mary Oliver says in her poem Messenger, “My work is loving the world.” Does she mean that she feels like it is her obligation to love the world or does she have a job as something like a nature reserve officer or does she feel like her work is loving the world because she loves to write poetry about it. To me there is just too much to dig through to get the point of the story. However there is a rare occasion where I feel like I understand perfectly what the author is trying to say and I love it when that happens because I feel smart but recently with this nature poetry it’s just not my thing. Like State of The Planet, I feel like I got a good bit of the poem and I was satisfied with what I took away from it, however there was some part’s that as we discussed in class I felt like I knew less and less about. Maybe poetry is not something that can just be translated and understood, maybe it is a personal experience where we can take what we want from it. I am starting to feel like that is what poetry is all about, a personal experience. However there are a lot of times where I feel like it just went way over my head. All in all I feel in the middle about poetry, sort of a love hate type thing.

"I went to Lake Bonny Park [or Circle B Bar Reserve] for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes."

Nature But Not So Much:

Empty bottles in the water,

Alligators with trash clinging to them,

What is nature now?

Sure there are pretty mountains in pictures,

But when you go outside…

Trash, trash and more trash

Nature is becoming a scarce thing.

As big building rise higher and higher

Forests and plains fall lower and lower.

But everything is not completely gone,

Bunnies still hobble through the park grass,

Alligators and fish still swim in the water

                In a constant war with each other

And Insects still fly though the air,

                Being swallowed up in the blue and green

                Of the sky and grass.

Hopefully my children will still be able to enjoy

                Watching the wind shake the trees

                And see animals run through the grass

Hopefully that was already here will not be destroyed

                By what we more desire to be here.

Post for 10-28

                We started to talk last class about nature poetry and at first I hated the idea I thought it to be just a boring topic and to think about reading poetry about nature made me think that I would personally rather watch paint dry. And then Professor Corrigan started to talk about the poem and read the verses from the Bible and showed pictures of the stuff that was talked about in the nature poem we had to read for class. Once I started to look at the pictures and think about it more it started to seem like a cool idea. Personally I love nature, I love when I go snowboarding to take the lift to the top of the mountain and then climb to the peak and see the view of all the other snow covered mountains, (last winter I went snowboarding in Whistler, British Columbia). Thinking of how much I love being outside and loving the view from the top of the mountain made me think that maybe nature poetry isn’t so bad, but there is one stipulation I would put on it. I think I actually want to be around nature when I am reading nature poetry and obviously, but not practically, I would like to be around what I’m reading about. So relating to the poem we read for class, I guess the reason I didn’t really like it the first time around may have been because I couldn’t really feel what the author was writing about. I’m excited to reread it this time around and actually go into my backyard and lie on the hammock under the trees outside and give it a nice through read and see if I like it any more. I think that I will find that I enjoy the poem for what it’s worth when I’m in a nature setting, kind of like when people go outside to read their Bibles and observe God’s creation. I hope I get something more from it this time because I was a little lost the first time around.

Post for 10-26

In class we talked about the use of curse words in literature, particularly the story we read, and all in all just what these words are and how we get these words. I thought about this some and for me personally, I am not bothered when I hear what some consider to be offensive language. However I stay away from using these offensive words because they are offensive to some people. I remembered this verse that I read a couple months ago and I thought that maybe it could apply here, “I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat. But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong. ¹⁵ And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it” (Romans 14:14-15).  This verse strictly talks about eating meat, but maybe it wasn’t meant for such limited use. In my opinion we should take this verse and apply it to offensive language. We should be conscience of who we are around and when we are around people who are offended by foul language we should try not to use it around them.

Now how does this relate to literature? In my opinion if someone is truly offended by the language that is being used in the literature being read they obviously they should try to leave or stop reading, but if it is a situation such as a class where it would be rude to get up and leave then maybe it shouldn’t be read at all. If we are to act in love as Christ has called us we should think about what we do and how it will affect those around us even in literature.

Post for 10-21

                Today in class we did this reading activity, called Lectio Divina, with the story we had read for homework. Many people seemed to think it was a strange activity and some really liked it and there were a couple who didn’t. One guy in the class mentioned that he felt like it was almost wrong that we were meditating over this passage, because, if I understand correctly, he felt that this activity should be used only for scripture reading. I however have never done this activity before with the Bible or with any other form of literature. So to me this exercise has no past spiritual significance. At the beginning of the exercise I did find it a little strange but as we continued and dug deeper into the text I feel that this exercise was helpful due to the fact that it really made you slow down a lot and dig into the text for all it is worth.

                Another thing that was interesting in class today was that when Professor Corrigan was reading the passage it contained the “d-word” and one kid asked him why he read it aloud or if he was allowed to at school. Honestly I don’t really care either way what he reads out loud but if it were me I probably would have skipped over it or used a replacement word just to avoid anyone saying anything. But it interested me because I’m curious if other people see curse words in literature as just a part of the literature and don’t have any problem saying them. But I am interested to see next class period how this conversation turns out, because Professor Corrigan said we would talk about this topic in class at a later date. What does everyone else think about curse words in literature?

Post for 10-19

Today I started and finished reading the story “Sonny’s Blues” and despite the length of the story the time it took to read it, I really enjoyed the story. I thought it was really interesting how the author described the music being played at the end of the story as something like a conversation between the instruments. I thought the story was just overall very creative. Now this creativity goes a little far in the way that it explains the father’s brother’s death. Maybe it was to illustrate how horrifying of a death the father had witnessed, and if that was the point it did a good job. But it was disturbing enough just to read how the car trampled over him and you could hear the scream coming from underneath the car and the sound of the guitar’s wood breaking and snapping. All in all I really enjoyed reading the story.

Now I got Professor Corrigan’s email saying that we should really spend time with the story and give it a nice through read through. Now I did sit down and read the entire thing from beginning to end with just a small break to rest my eyes, but I feel like I have not really taken anything away from it. Maybe this is because I am writing this blog only five minutes after reading the story and haven’t really searched for a deeper meaning to the story. Though as I look back upon the story to try and relate it to class there is one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb and that’s the common element of suffering that we see in Professor Corrigan’s class. I am interested to see how Professor Corrigan is going to incorporate this story into class and what he will say about it tomorrow.

Post for 10-12

As I started to study for the mid-term this afternoon I saw the story listed on my “study list” called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and I remember reading this and the thing that stuck out most was the very end of the story which if I remember correctly says something like, “No matter what version of the story you tell they have the same ending. He dies, she dies, and everyone ends up dead.” I know this is not a direct quote or anything but that is the gist of what the ending said. A little morbid? Yes. True? Yes. Those last few lines are what struck me most but when I think back on the rest of the story I find that maybe the end is not what really matters. Maybe it is the story that matters most. I think that too often people only remember the last line of this story and forget to look at the lives of the people in the story. Yes there was pain and suffering but in some of the situations there was happiness. However most importantly there was life. I think that outside of the story and in real life people all to often only remember then end of people’s lives and remember that they have died. Most people forget to remember the life that they lived. Like when we went to the cemetery all I thought was that there were dead people all around me. It never really occurred to me that these people once lived a life probably some like the life I am living now. I find it sad that other than people inside my family I will probably be forgotten and people will not remember the life that I once lived and the joy in it. They will only remember that I am dead and they will look past all the joy that was in my life.

Short Story 10/6

     There was a man; his name was Jesse. He had grown up in a typical American home with two parents and he went to school all of his life and did everything that he was supposed to do as a child. He was tall with short brown hair and had rather fair skin. Jesse is a college graduate working with a professional sports team as an assistant to the players. Jesse had a great life for the most part; the pay was great and hanging out with all the players was an amazing experience and a new adventure every day, but this happiness would surely change for all good things come to an end at some point in one’s life. It was Jesse’s turn. It all happened while Jesse was working for Jason Jones, one of the most feared and revered football players of all time.

                “Hey, Jesse come here,” Jason said. Immediately Jesse rushed over to the new Mercedes where Jason was sitting, to see what he needed. “Get in the car; we have some errands to run,” Jason scuffed to Jesse. Of course, Jesse got in the car as Jason asked. It wasn’t because Jason didn’t like Jesse that he came off so harsh; it was because Jason had developed quite a nasty tone towards anyone he was around, and the people around him knew this. So they drove off.

                “Where are we going?” Jesse asked.

                “Places,” Jason responded.

                “Such as…”

                “You’ll see.”

                “Okay.”

                After about thirty minutes they came to a stop in a dark and unfamiliar place to Jesse. Jesse worried, slouched back into his seat, unsure what was going to happen or why he was there for whatever was happening; this was unusual for his job, normally he just ran around with the players and caught them up with their schedules and answered any questions they had. Jason leaned over the passenger seat where Jesse was sitting and reached for the glove compartment. Jesse looked down nervously as Jason opened the glove box. His eyes peered into the crack where he saw a black shiny object.

                “Is that?” he asked.

                “It’s only for protection,” replied Jason.

                “No! This is not happening. I’m leaving.”

                “Chill and no you’re not; nothing’s going to happen anyways.”

                “Ugh,” Jesse sighed.

                So Jason grabbed a gun out of the glove box and said, “Take one, too. Never know if you’ll need it. Just for self defense.”

So Jesse reluctantly grabbed one thinking better to be safe than dead. Once they got out of the car, they started walking down the alley until they came to a door. Jason knocked a few times and the door swung open and out came a man dressed in all black with gold rings around his fingers. Soon the words started flying and Jesse thought that nothing good would come of the night, and he was right. Next the man pulled a knife out and tried to stab Jason. However Jason saw him coming and started to run. Then the man turned towards Jesse; Jesse knew that the man was surely faster than him because back in school Jesse was the slowest in his class. So in the suspense, Jesse pulled his gun out of his pocket and fired off a couple of shots with his eyes half closed. Jesse heard a grunting sound and scared out of his mind he opened his eyes to see that the man was lying on the ground with his hand clutching the side of his body where the rib cage was. Jason reluctantly returned hearing the gunshots checking to see if his friend was okay.

                When Jesse saw Jason returning, he yelled, “Where did you go?”

                Jason quietly replied, “I was scared.”

                “Whatever. Well what should we do now? Call it in?”

                “No, we get rid of the body. Go get the car.”

                “What? We can’t do that. We didn’t do anything wrong! We should call it in and get a clean slate and conscience,” Jesse replied.

                “You didn’t do anything,” Jason said.

                “Oh no… what did you do?”

                “That’s not important now.”

                “You’re right; let’s just take care of this. I don’t care anymore. What’s done is done and we got to clean it up,” Jesse proclaimed.

                “Now we’re talking,” replied Jason. “Go pull the car around.”

                So Jesse got the car and pulled it around. Meanwhile, Jason got the man’s body all ready to be placed in the trunk of his Mercedes. Jesse jumped out of the car and helped Jason get the body into the trunk.  Jason decided to drive again and they headed toward the nearest lake, where they thought they could easily tie the body to a weight and throw it in the water so that no one would ever find it. Once they got there, Jesse and Jason got out of the car and found some stones to tie the body to and then they tossed the body into the water off of the pier. Afterwards they started back into the city where they lived. Jason dropped Jesse off at his house. No words were said for they didn’t have much to say to each other.

                As Jesse laid in his bed, to his surprise he was rather calm and felt like no one would ever find out and that everything would return to normal, at least on the outside. However on the inside, Jesse felt changed, like a different person. He felt like he no longer had to deal with anyone else’s garbage because he had killed a man. So Jesse went on living and no one ever found out about what happened that night. Jason changed how he spoke to Jesse because he started to see Jesse as more of a friend instead of a worker. In fact, Jason changed how he spoke to most people because Jesse got sick of it after a while and called him out on it. Jesse and Jason continue living on as friends, mostly because Jason feels obligated to stay friends with Jesse because he is scared he will talk and Jesse feels honored to be friends with one of the best football players ever.

Post for 10-5

So The Blessed House was a pretty strange story in my opinion. I was pretty unsatisfied when I was finished reading it particularly because I felt like there was no real ending to the story. We were never told if they ever worked the problem out, if he just sucked it up and dealt with Twinkle or if he was so mad that he decided he couldn’t take anymore and decided to leave her. So in my opinion I was unsatisfied with the ending. However that does not mean it wasn’t a good story. I found it very interesting that these two characters that seemed so different could actually get along for a period of time without killing each other. Honestly if I was Sanjeev I would have a hard time not putting a bullet in my brain or better yet hers. Now actually that’s a little bit of a dramatic way to say I could not stand living with Twinkle. To me it is as if she has no regard for Sanjeev or any of his beliefs or thoughts of personal space. Now I can’t completely hate on Twinkle because she did compromise with some things such as the large painting of Jesus and the statue of the virgin Mary, but all in all it seemed like she just walked all over Sanjeev. And to a point I feel bad for Sanjeev because he is working so hard to get the house clean for this big housewarming party and she decides to lay in bed and read a book, and then when the party comes she is a social butterfly and having all the fun as Sanjeev does all the party busy work such as getting more food and such. So all in all this was an interesting story because I could feel for Sanjeev because he didn’t really do anything and it seemed to me like he got the short end of the stick. 

Post for 9/30

The short story or poem that we read before class and reread in class was a strange one in my opinion. The main lady seemed to come off like an old washed up famous person who is living in their past. But this may just be because she was being interviewed, but I would tend to think that the issue of who she is now would be more prevalent in the interview than nonexistent. In relation to character it at first seems like Madame Descartes was a very dynamic character and changed throughout the story however when looking back upon the story it seems like she is a static character because she does not change at all throughout the course of the story, it just seems like she does because all the time she is talking about change but this was all from the past. But there is one point in the story where it could be considered that Madame Descartes changes, because at the end of the story she turns the table on the interviewer and takes his picture. This could be considered a change in her character because it could show that she is moving away from self interest and becoming more interested in others, but this is about the only spot that I saw where she changed. However when we look at the person interviewing her we don’t really get much information on him so he is thought of as a static character due to the fact that he just lays down in the shadows of the story until the end of the story when Madam Descartes turns the table on him by taking his picture. Up until this point we see him as a very calm reporter who is just listening but when Madame Descartes takes his picture he all of the sudden gets very nervous. This was just my outtake on the discussion in class and the reading.

Painting

This is my painting from class. I painted a scene where it was talking about the devastation of the locusts and this is how it turned out. My masterpiece : )

Post for 2-27

When we painted in class Thursday I was quite unsure what I was going to paint about when I came into class. Then I started to reread the book of Joel and it seemed to me that when I read about the devastation of the locusts that everything was probably very miserable and morbid when that was occurring. I saw a scene playing in my head and a rather morbid one at that. The scene was like the one from the movie, The Mummy Returns where they are in the desert and the small little beetles start flying around and craw under everyone’s skin. So with this movie clip rolling through my head I painted a masterpiece of little locust devastating everything around such as the crops and the single person that I had room to fit on my page. Although my work maybe a little short of an actual masterpiece it did help me to dig a little deeper into the story and really think what it was about rather than just reading idle words on a page. Even though it seemed like a very strange activity at the time it may actually be a helpful way of understanding more of what literature has to say. However I seriously doubt that the next time I get out my Bible that I will whip out the painting supplies and paint a picture of Jesus getting crucified, but maybe that would actually be a helpful activity for some children/teens so that they can really dig deeper into what Jesus really went through. All in all for me it was a very enjoyable activity and helped me in digging deeper into the text, but it would be too unpractical for me to do outside of class because all the mess and the cleanup maybe crayons would be easier.

Matt Davis 9/21/10

                Well I went outside with the rest of the class and decided to talk to the lake and the little ducks about the book of Joel. Well I guess it wouldn’t be considered talking to them it was probably more like preaching and listening to the sound of the wind and the quacks they had. Though I did realize a lot more about the book after I had read it out loud probably because I slowed down to read more into the text as I read aloud. When slowing down and reading aloud I ran over a passage that was all too familiar but I realized something about it that I had not realized before. The passage read, “It will come about after this. That I will pour My Spirit on all mankind…” What I realized is the beginning where it says it will come about after this meaning that after the troubles and the storms come then the happiness will come. I found this interesting because I feel that many people think that starting a relationship with God means that nothing bad will happen to them anymore. But this is not the case like professor Corrigan says, everyone suffers. And if you haven’t suffered you will suffer it is just a natural part of life. I think that people need to get it in their head that whether they are in a relationship with God or not they will suffer.  However I’m not a very gloomy person and don’t like all of this sad talk so I will say that I do think there are such things as happy endings. Because when all of the suffering is over then the real happiness comes and in the end all the suffering was worth the happiness. And I also do believe the Bible when it says that all good things work for the good of those who love the Lord. So In my opinion there is suffering in life but there will be a happy ending for the followers of Christ whether it is in this life or the next.

Matt Davis 9-20

Okay so I will be the first to say that I am not the deepest of people. I’m pretty chill and maybe to a fault don’t really contemplate life enough or much at all. Also I’m not one who like to stay in a sad state or dwell over things, and usually when I get upset I try to think of something that makes me really happy. So when we started reading the poems in class my mind kind of just went out the door to my “happy place” and didn’t really dig that deeply into the meanings. So Thursday I guess I didn’t get that much from the poems but I wouldn’t say it was because I wasn’t paying attention, it was that I honestly do not understand poetry at all in any way. I know another girl in class spoke up about this but I’m right there with her. My mind does not think on these very deep levels of pain and sorrow. Now the people reading this are probably thinking it’s a sad thing that this kid isn’t that deep and probably doesn’t really know who he is… blah blah blah. That’s not the case. There are some things that I do think deeply about such as theological issues. Now I’m no religion major but I spend some time thinking and reading about different theological issues, evolution in particular. This probably comes from my dad being a pastor for many years and being a pretty deep thinker. Now back to the poems. I guess what I’m trying to say is that these poems didn’t really mean anything to me, but I wish they did. I feel like if I’m going to take the time to read something I want to be able to enjoy it for what it is worth. Maybe I need to spend more time reading poetry that I can relate to in order to gain a grasp on how these writers think.

Matt Davis 9-15

Again I will blog about Lewis’ “A Grief Observed” because simply I find it intriguing and I simply have no clue what else to write about. Lewis says in one passage, "If, as I can't help suspecting, the dead also feel the pains of separation (and this may be one of their purgatorial sufferings), then for both lovers, and for all pairs of lovers without exception, bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love." For me this is odd because I have always been told that there will be no pain in heaven and it seems like the pain of separation is one of the worst types of pain. However he does specify that it may be a purgatorial pain but this also strikes me as odd because I am no theologian but I thought that the current Christian doctrine was that purgatory did not exist and if I am correct it is the Catholics who believe in purgatory. Now I’m also not a huge C. S. Lewis fanatic but as I recall he was not Catholic. So this statement is very strange to me due to the fact that from everything I have heard, read and come to believe is that heaven is a place without suffering. In my opinion I don’t even think I will remember those who are still living here on earth because the very memory of earth will be painful to think of due to past sins. To me it seems like the only way the dead could remember the living is if they were in Hell. But what makes my mind twirl even more is that God grieves over us and our sin. So maybe heaven is a completely different type of place then I have always imagined. Maybe we will feel pain for those we love as God does.

9/13/10

C. S. Lewis says in his book “A Greif Observed”, “What sort of a lover am I to think so much about my affliction and so much less about hers? Even the insane call, ‘Come back’ is all for my own sake.” Now when reading this I found this statement a little peculiar as I started to think more about it. Is it really so insane to wish someone who was dead would come back to life even if the reason is that we are suffering without them.  And so I continue to think if it is insane to wish someone back from heaven to earth to be with us then it would seem reasonable to wish that you’re loved one who have accepted Christ would die. It sounds very strange when I type it but in my view wishing someone dead so they can to go heaven and be ultimately happier is about the opposite as wishing someone to come back from heaven to have life again because for wishing them from death to life and out of heaven is the opposite as wishing them from life to death and to heaven. Honestly I would never wish a loved one of mine would die so that they could get to heaven sooner so in my opinion it really isn’t an insane call that Lewis is making when wishing for his wife to come back. I think there is nothing insane at all for wishing someone back to life just because life is a very short span of time compared to the eternal life that we are promised for being saved through Christ. Thus I believe that we should enjoy this state of existence for as long as we can because we have all of eternity to spend in heaven.

Cemetery 9/13/10

"I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes." I have a picture on my phone but was unable to upload it at this time I can show it in class if need be.

Matt Davis 9/7/10

Today at lunch we were all discussing the books we brought to class and as we started discussing the book I brought, The Silmarillion, I started to notice how many Biblical reference are in the book. This book is pretty much the lore the trilogy The Lord of The Rings and it gives all this history before the main storyline gets started. What most stuck out about the Biblical references was the origin of life in the book. In The Silmarillion the origin of all life comes from one creator and this creator makes all of the heavens and then the creatures in the heavens. And Tolkien continues to describe the heavens and the heavenly beings, and all of the heavenly beings play songs and there is one heavenly being who makes the most beautiful music but has a desire to be more powerful, as in making better music, than the creator. There is a conflict where they both play their music and then the creator overcomes the heavenly being named Malkor and then sends Malkor into the abyss. After sending Malkor into the abyss the creator puts the other heavenly beings in charge of certain aspects and one of the heavenly beings is put in charge of ruling over earth. To me this entire creation story and the discord with Malkor closely resemble the Christian creation story in that there is a single creator and that the devil became jealous over our creator and was thrown out of the heavens for this sinful jealousy. In The Silmarillion Malkor closely resembles the devil, and after being thrown into the abyss the creator lets him roam the earth and bring evil into the world. I just thought it was interesting how Tolkien started off his world with a creation story that clearly resembles the Biblical creation story.

Matt Davis 9/6/10

I was rereading the short passage called Happy Endings by Margret Atwood and it came to me that more often than not the story was depressing to read and even though it always reverted back to as it was in “A” there was always a rather large problem that arose. And as I was reading over “B” and come to the end where Mary decides to swallow a ton of pills hoping that John will come ride in and save her and I realized how crazy people are and the things that they do when they are in love. In my opinion people are really plain stupid when it comes to love, like in the case of “B” when Mary swallows the pills does she really honestly think that John out of all the times in the day will come and save her before she is dead. And in the story we read the other day, when the woman was talking about how her ex-husband loved her and beat her. It is like people just lose their sensibility when they fall in love. Now I am not saying that falling in love is a bad thing. I mean I’m in love with a woman and I think it’s a wonderful thing to have someone there to share everything with but I think that people need to keep a grip on reality too. And when I say they need to get a grip on reality I don’t only mean not killing yourself as I mentioned earlier I mean being sensible. Personally some of my friends need to get a grip on reality too, because they have decided to get married while they are still in college. Now I know it’s not a terrible thing to get married and for some people it’s a smart decision because of financial aid and ect. But I am just referring to the case that I know of. My friends are getting married and honestly they are stupid because both of them are still in school and only God knows what they are going to do after they graduate in an economy like this. One of the biggest reason they are stupid is because they aren’t going to have any money and once they get married it’s no more running home to mommy and daddy. I guess what I’m trying to say through this whole thing is people need to think straight even when their heads are stuck up in the clouds.

Matt Davis 9/2/10

In What We Talk about When We Talk about Love Mel claims that what happened to his current wife Terri with her past husband was not true love. Terri claims that even though her ex-husband beat and threatened to kill her that he really did love her in his own way. Now in my opinion I agree with the character Mel because truly loving for someone is at the very least caring for their wellbeing. And frankly if you care for someone else’s wellbeing you are obviously not going to beat them and drag them across the floor as described in the story and you certainly would not seriously threaten to kill them if you cared for them in any way at all. Nonetheless Terri claims that her ex-husband just had a very different way of sharing his love than other people do. I agree with Mel in this case because this is not love in anyway.


In my opinion Terri is not alone in her thinking. I think probably that many of the women who have been in an abusive or that are currently still in a abusive relationship have the common mindset, that their partner really does love them and that the reason they were beat was because they are just different than the rest of the world or just have a different way of expressing their love. Now I do not think that the only reason people stay in these relationships is because they feel loved when their beaten or feel bad for the person beating them. I clearly understand that many women stay in these relationships due to the fact that they are scared for their lives to leave especially in cases where the lives of the women are threatened. Here I am simply saying that this may be a reason that women stay in relationships with abusive men.

Matt Davis

     Almost everyone has had some form of bedtime stories that they can remember from when they were a child. In my case my mom read to me before I went to bed. I remember that she would always read this one particular book at night, it was called Goodnight Moon, and she would read this book to me all of the time. All I can remember about the book is that it was very repetitive and would go around the house saying goodnight to almost anything you can think of that would be around a normal house. Growing up I read a lot of book because there was not much else to do, partly due to the fact that my parents refused and still do to this day to get cable television. However when I got my first Playstation the reading came to a halt except for what I was required to read in school. Since then I haven’t been reading that often for fun but this summer I read Tolkien’s The Similarion and rather enjoyed it. Of course I’ve read my Bible which is without doubt the most significant literary text I have ever read.

    To me literature matters in the fact that it can provides a nice thing to do when the power goes out and it provides information on new subjects. However it does not matter in the fact that I could care less about most fictional stories and would rather go play outside with my time. It is not that I hate reading and everything associated with it, it is just more so that I have other preferences. I guess you could say I am just like every other American who wants instant gratification by having it here and now. By saying this I mean that I would much rather watch a two hour movie and get the main story than read a book for a longer period of time and get every little detail.