Wow, so the end of the semester is finally here. I was going to write something emotional and nostalgic here, but then realized I didn't have anything in that vein to say. So instead I leave you with a very poignant conversation I had with my friend Mike Sanders online a few days ago (and my fellow MFAers will know that Mike Sanders matters). So enjoy and discuss!
How do I manage to miss the two classes where we talk about my favorite books of the semester? First I was out for Lying, now I miss Never Let Me Go. Definitely a dissapointment that I didn't get to hear what everyone had to say about the novel, but it's been interesting reading your posts.
Reflecting on my final project I've realized that I haven't written a paper in a really long time. And I think I might have almost forgotten how. Is that even possible? I suspect it might just be my natural laziness coming out. And my complete disbelief that I decided to do a real paper over a fiction piece. I feel bad for my group-mates who'll have to read the jumble of thoughts that is my first draft. I'm not really sure if I have a clear thesis yet, which is probably a bad thing to admit this late in the game, but I'm stuck with this topic now so I'm going to try to make the best of what I've got.
So I've been doing a lot of research, reading a lot of different books in new areas I've never really explored before in any of my other english lit classes (literary psychology - who knew?) and this are starting to take shape. Sort of.
Aleksey Dumer's post really hit home for me. I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease when I was about 14 and now coming up on my tenth year of diagnosis I can definitely see the changes I went through with how I was able to deal with the disease through the years.
So even after our workshop I didn't really have any clue what I was going to write about. I decided to go to the central library in Jamaica (I know an actual library! how very 1995 of me) and just kind of stroll around until I found some books that interested me and consequently create a paper out of that. Amazingly it worked.
I'm going to stick with the whole dream/sleep idea but lose the Jew bit (sorry, I know you were all so fascinated by it). Instead I was thinking of writing a paper/literary essay on sleep, dreams, and insanity in literature. There are so many great examples out there from classics to contemporary - Fight Club, Macbeth, Hamlet, ok almost any Shakespear play, Alice in Wonderland, Yellow Wallpaper (maybe?), Jekyll and Hyde, and so many more
Basically I want to discuss the connection between dreams, sleep (or lack thereof) and insanity and how this is used as a literary tool. An example that popped into my head right away was from Macbeth when he can't sleep and he goes outside and sees the dagger. But is it a dagger? Is he dreaming? Is he crazy? Either way this is the point in the story where he makes the decision to kill Macbeth and alters his life forever. Also, he doesn't know for sure if the weird sisters are real or a dream. Ah, too many ideas!
Ok I realize I really need to focus this in a bit. I figure once I start writing it a more focused theory will take shape.
I had so much fun writing the autobiographical lie that I figured I'd keep going on with it. I really wanted to write something on sleep/dreams, or I guess what I called the unconscious consciousness.
Main things I need help with: Is my language too, uh, "flowery?" Be honest! At points it really sounds that way to me, but I have a problem re-reading things I've written and not seeing it all as trite.
Is the piece too tangential? Does it seem to have a point...I'm not sure if I really did. That's probably a big problem no?
I guess my major concern is can this be turned into a longer piece? I'd love to use it as the basis for my final project.
Continue reading "Seeing In the Dark: An Autobiographical Lie (Workshop)" »
I don't know what's up with that cheesy 50's horror flick title, it just felt right. So here's my attempt at an autobiographical lie. I'm a horrible sleeper and to make it worse my dreams are usually terrifying and extremely realistic. My sleeping problems are really important to me, so much so that sometimes I find myself exaggerating when it comes to how little sleep I get. Though that's a difficult thing to pinpoint in general. So maybe I'm not exaggerating?
Either way we haven't really touched on sleep or dreams too much this semester and like I said it's something I'm really interested in, something that I'm constantly thinking about so I figured I'd go with that.
Continue reading "It Comes Out At Night! (An Autobiographical Lie)" »
CONSCIOUSNESS REPORT #7
Well, I was trying to come up with something to write about for this thing when I decided to just go with what's right around the corner: my birthday! (woohoo!) Tomorrow I'm turning 24. There are so many things to talk about when it comes to birthdays. Growing up I always made such a big deal out of them, I guess I still do. But more in the sense that I make sure everyone knows that it's coming. I don't generally do anything for them, I just like to have people be aware.
Then I've always had friends who basically hid in a dark, warm corner for the duration of their birthdays. I could never understand what they were afraid of. Ok, getting older can be a bit of shock but I'm completely looking forward to it. I've always been friends with kids who were older than me, everyone I work with is substantially older than me (and they make sure to remind me of it, often) so I've never been afraid of age. I actually always remember embracing it.
Continue reading "Lisa, It's Your Birthday. Happy Birthday Lisa." »
Well, I was going to write about Metallica's video for One but since Dominik completely stole my thunder I guess I'll have to go in a completely different direction with this post.
The idea of the "authenticity" of the autobiography really struck me. Maybe because as an autobiography we are led to believe that this is the most authentic account we could be getting. It is the author's personal story being told, through eye witness accounts. What else could be more authentic a story? Yet a few examples were brought up in class where we see that maybe we could be giving the author too much credit on this front. Or are we?