Know It All

As I read through this article I think about the high school class that I observed the last few weeks. The teacher was teaching how to write a research paper and, more importantly, how to find good scholarly sources. As I walked around pretending I was an expert on this particular skill I desperately wanted to just tell students to start at Wikipedia and then move on from there. That's how I've done it for many different types of papers. While the information may be,"no more immune to human nature than any other utopian project. Pettiness, idiocy, and vulgarity are regular features of the site" (Schiff), it still serves as a good starting point for any research. 


I found the history given in this article to be very interesting. Sometimes I feel like someone has a good idea and it only really takes off when combined (or taken) with something else. It reminds me a lot of the whole Facebook story. In the beginning Wales and Sanger created a website that only got a few articles and when they were introduced to wiki software the whole entire website took off. I find it very interesting to learn how Wikipedia began, given I never really thought about the fact it was created. I guess I always just assumed it had always been there.


I also find it very interesting to read about the 'editors' or 'authors' of this website. I have always known that anyone can post literally anything on this website, which is makes it unreliable for research perfectly understandable. I cannot imagine taking the time to go through random articles and edit them, I honestly can even imagine taking the time to create an article..not that there is a lot of broad topics left to be written about. I also can picture these people, with their degrees, sitting in their mother's kitchen waiting for dinner to be served and editing away at wikipedia. I laugh a little bit at this image to be completely honest.  I don't believe there is such a thing a useless knowledge, but some of the things you can find on wikipedia are just simply ridiculous and not even jeopardy worthy! 

Pygmalion Act 5

One of the most memorable lines in Act V, for me at least, is when Eliza and Pickering are speaking,

Eliza It was just like learning to dance in the fashionable way: there was nothing more than that in it. But do you know what began my real education? 
Pickering What?
Eliza  Your calling me Miss Doolittle that day when I first came to Wimpole Street. That was the beginning of self-respect for me. [She resumes her stitching]. And there were a hundred little things you never noticed, because they came naturally to you. Things about standing up and taking off your hat and opening doors— (5.137-9)


I love this conversation because it really made me think about Eliza's transformation. I'm sure when Pickering called her 'Miss Doolitle' it had been the first time anyone had addressed her in this way. Not only that but I honestly believe that Eliza, as a flower girl, had very little self respect before she began to work with Higgins, just as she states in this conversation. Eliza's statement also seems somewhat anti-feminist, which I feel as though she could have been considered before she began working with Higgins. I also feel that this statement could have been said to upset Higgins, who was present in the room. 


Later in Act V Eliza says, "I want a little kindness. I know I'm a common ignorant girl, and you a book-learned gentleman; but I'm not dirt under your feet. What I done [correcting herself] what I did was not for the dresses and the taxis: I did it because we were pleasant together and I come—came—to care for you; not to want you to make love to me, and not forgetting the difference between us, but more friendly like. (5.248)" To me this shows he wanting to live a somewhat simple life, to not marry rich or live a life entirely of wealth. I think she knows she is better than a common flower girl now but she realizes that she can achieve her hopes and dreams without being rich. Eliza did not come to Higgins' expecting to end up wealthy, but she came with the hopes of being a shop girl, living a simple life. 

"To His Coy Mistress"

Life is short. In Andrew Marvell's poem, "To his Coy Mistress" the tone in the beginning is somewhat light and playful. He says "Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way, To walk, and pass our long love's day;" I think this shows the speakers attitude towards this younger woman. He seems to be an older man and knows enough of the world to realize that there is very little time in a man's life. He continues with this playful attitude until he gets to the second part. He then says "  Thy Beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound, My echoing Song; then Worms shall try, That long preserv'd Virginity;  And your quaint Honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my Lust." From these few lines I begin to see the seriousness of Marvell's poem. To me he is almost telling people that whatever you are going to do, with love, needs to be done now. People are going to be dead a lot longer than they are going to be alive. It gives me a very interesting perspective on a saying that I am sure everyone is aware of, Carpe Diem.

After I finished reading this poem I took a few minutes and  got lost in my thoughts about it. I believe that Marvell is saying that someone should live life intensely and with no regret. I wish I could say that I have been living my life like Marvell suggests a life should be lived. I have a tattoo that says 'life won't wait' and lately I have been trying to live by that motto. I think that there are certain things in this world that humans get caught up in..like Facebook or friendship cliques. Most of these things will not matter in ten years or even 10 weeks to be completely honest. I think that what "To His Coy Mistress" main objective is to demonstrate the fact that this life is too short to take from granted. 

I also think that this poem is rather amusing because of the image I get in my head when reading through this poem. I imagine a guy in  a bar trying to pick up a girl and doing whatever he possibly can to get her. As the poem shifts from playful to serious and almost depressing, I imagine the speakers gets turned down by a beautiful young girl and is reminded of his age.   Maybe that is just my wild imagination, but it is still an interesting thought.

Feminism

In the "Feminist Criticism" one passage beings talking about how the "French feminist associate language with separation from the mother (452)"  and I began to think about how that influences young women, especially when they leave their mothers after marriage. Someone goes from being a daughter and an 'equal' part of a household to belonging to a man and in a way running the household under a husband. I think that today this is not so much the case, but in the time setting of Wuthering Heights I think this holds true. The article then goes on to say, "Language systematically forces women to choose: either they can imagine and represent themselves as men imagine and represent them (in which case they may speak, but will speak as men) or they can choose "silence," becoming in the process "the invisible and unheard sex" (Jones "Inscribing" 83), I do not like the reality of this ultimatum, I can either blend into the wall or think as a man? Why can't a be a woman, think like a woman, and speak my mind like a woman? It's funny because I do think like a woman but I also speak my mind.

Lyn Pykett's essay "Changing the Names:The Two Catherines" I found it interesting when Pykett  talks about "Catherine's fundamental inability" to pick one of two men. He then goes on to discuss the fact that maybe the novel asks the question "what is a woman? (p 470)" I never really thought of the novel in this way, but as I look back I begin to see that feminine roles in this book are a little bit different that what the norms may have been. Cathrine was raised motherless, maybe you can say she was raised without guidance on how to be a 'proper lady' and in the end she married the wrong guy. I'm not sure if that is a true statement, but I like to think that Heathcliff and Catherine could have been happy together..but then we wouldn't have a novel would we?

Critical Response --Marxist

In the beginning of the "A Critical History" section I found it really interesting that Bronte was accused writing a novel that raised moral questions. Her novel was described using phrases such as "the disgusting coarseness" or " an ill-mannered contempt for the decencies of language." (Both cited on page 334) I think I was initially surprised because today many of the things Bronte writes about are things we hear about every day on the news or by reading a newspaper. I then began to think back to what I have learned about the nineteenth century and realized that Wuthering Heights probably did raise some questions of morality.  In some places it seems as though Bronte was obsessed with evil behavior and shows that in Heathcliff almost the whole way through the novel.

Another question the Critical Analysis answered was the dispute about the message the book was trying to get across. Some believed that it's message was one of poor morality and therefore some had a problem with the book. Emily Bronte's sister tried to stand up for her sister saying that she had not known what she had written and the interpretation it received. I thought that was very interesting because usually when I write I am able to read my writing expecting what people will say about it. Once I began to think about that I realized that just because an author writes with a specific intention. My friend from Illinois has a blog and one day I read it and got really mad at what I was reading. Turns out his intention of the blog was drastically different then how I had understood it. oops! I think that if I had lived during the time of Wuthering Heights release date I probably would have questioned it as well!

Speaking of interrupting this novel I thought it was really interesting that three different people thought three completely different things about the ending of the book. It is really interesting to see what people think about this book and how different it is from what I thought about the book, it puts a lot of different perspectives on one text. I like how it helps me to keep an open mind.

Wuthering Heights 2

This is the second time that I have read this novel and this time around it was a bit easier. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Heathcliff plotted against his family (some he didn't like and even the people he loved). I can not even imagine the amount of plotting, planning, and time that Heathcliff put into to achieving both properties.  I can almost see him in my mind sitting by the fire staring off just thinking about his plan.


Towards the end there is a scene that I even remember from the first time I read this novel. It is the scene where Heathcliff and Catherine are arguing over her inheritance. Heathcliff almost hits her but something stops him. I think that he see his one true love in the face of this young girl. I also think that he then begins to see his Catherine is every aspect of young Catherine. Because of this he no longer wants revenge.  Not only does this novel show readers that love can overcome revenge, dead Catherine's love for Heathcliff eventually saved young Catherine, but it shows that good things and love can come from very broken places. In the end everything works out. It is the way of life

"Politics and the English Language" By George Orwell

After reading "Animal Farm" and "1984" I was well prepared for the beliefs that Orwell has. He believed that the problem with language in politics was it purpose was to hide the truth or even confuse people. Which is evident when trying to read some articles, laws, statements, or other political writings these days. Sometimes I will come across something and read it over and over again trying to figure out why I am so lost or confused. In most cases I realize there are structural problems, or big, usually unused words that do not even make sense in the given context. When I began to think about this I thought back to my senior year AP English class and a boy who was in my group. He was probably one of the smartest, laziest people in that whole entire class. He had poor time management skills and I would always be so frustrated to see him get A's on everything. I worked so hard in high school for the grades I received. It didn't help his locker was right next to mine, but anyways that's a different story. The point of this story is that when we had to write our final research papers he wrote his very last minute and I was expecting a wonderful cohesive paper. When I got a copy of his paper I kind of laughed a little bit. It was almost as if he decided to randomly flip through a dictionary and picked words to use in his paper. It was horrible and he did not receive a very good grade on that particular draft.

The point of that story is simply that sometimes people write with the intention of either sounding smart, confusing readers, or filling empty space. I would rather write in detail and use good imagery to fill space. Things like that is what writing good and valuable.

Orwell also believes that the "fight against bad English is not frivolous" and I completely agree with him. Sometimes I believe that people just give up on language or become lazy towards it. It is so frustrating for me to hear improper grammar or read a badly written article in a magazine. Another thing that greatly frustrates me is the fact that people are trying to simplify old, BEAUTIFUL, writing so that it is easier for people to read. This make me so sad, but simplifying amazing writing we are allowing people, our society, to get by easier and get out of learning.

Orwell said, "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought," which is a pretty throught provoking statement and I agree


Like Orwell concluded with, this isn't perfect, no one is. I write simply but I write honest.

Metaphors of Reading

I especially liked this chapter when I came across it. In my high school English class we read some of "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman. I found it very interesting that Whitman has responded differently to Margaret Fuller's "Women in the Nineteenth Century." He responded very well to her work of art while other well known authors criticized it. Manguel then goes on to say, "For Whitman, text, author, reader, and world mirrored each other in the act of reading, an act whose meaning he expanded until it served to define every vital human activity, as well as the universe in which it all took place (p168)." This is what caught my attention and really made me begin to think. All of the things Manguel mentioned go hand and hand with each other. To understand one may, and very often does, make another easier to understand. I love to read murder mystery novels (blame my mother) and from them I am able to, in a way, make connections to the world. Not everyone has good intentions and I would be silly to believe otherwise. Another type of book I like to read is memoirs. I vividly remember reading a book my senior year called, "The Glass Castle" By Jeannette Walls. This book was one authors experiences, put into to text, and read by many. It shows something about out world and the people that live in it. These examples are the things that first came into my mind when I was reading this section Manguel wrote. Everything can be connected to reading, and reading itself allows one to write well and maybe even see the world a bit more clearly.

I have never really thought about WHY I was reading, but always had library books in my locker, read before I went to sleep, read in the car on long road trips, or read on the way to softball games. After reading Manguel's "A History of Reading" I have begun to think about why someone reads and the importance of reading. I understand that everyone reads for many different reasons but regardless of those reasons you can discover an entirely different world by stepping into a book. This book has also allowed me to think about the purpose author's intended when writing, especially some of the greatest books that have ever been written. In the beginning Manguel says, "I am not alone" and now I feel as though I am not alone either.

Me

My name is Melody and I am a sophomore at KSU. I began studying political science with the intention of going to law school but now I have decided to switch my major to English. I never thought I would be a teacher, never. I grew up in an family or educators, my mom teaching and my dad being a principal and superintendent. I had an amazing AP English teacher my senior year and she impacted my life the most up until this point. I plan to teach honors or AP classes for a little bit and then pay my own way through law school.

I love being around people! I am an AOII at Kennesaw and it has been a great experience and I have learned a lot about myself. I also play as many sports as possible, right now I play Rugby and I absolutely love it! I do not have a very high tolerance for close minded people and I have no problem being blatantly honest. Sometimes I blame the fact that I grew up in Illinois and did not have a southern upbringing by any means. I am usually a very positive and happy person and I love to argue and joke around but I am rarely serious!