Presentations

I was not surprised that Heather's topic is formed around feminism. I found it interesting the different approaches Amy H and Heather were taking on discussing feminism. I found Amy's apporach of "the old way" to the acceptance of "the new way" very intriguing.

Janel's presentation seemed well thought out and put together. The topic is something that also sounds very interesting as well as fun to research.

I was not surprised at all in Kristi's choice in using Dorian Gray as one of her main works. The topic chosen for the paper will work so well using Dorian Gray as a text. The influences of individuals by others that go against the social norms and in turn cause them to do "bad" things.

Michael seems like he's taking on quite a huge load. It will be a task to keep the paper within the requirements. By comparing Gothic and Dark Romanticism he I believe the idea is to show how specific texts would be different if they were written in different generas.

Caitlin's presentation I got a little lost on. I know she intends to use Fuller's American Literature and Dasiy miller. I believe she is going to come up with a connection between Local color, realism and regionalism to show the contrast between american and british writing.

Sarah is going to use Zola's experimental novel to show how gothic texts such as Edgar Huntly and Dorian Gray show realist and naturalist themes.

Dep is doing a civil war paper, pre/during/post, to show how writers of the time were influenced by specific writers.

Disneyland was far more entertaining than homework

Proposal, I may be way off base, but I'm going to take a shot at it.

Using American Scholar as the basis for my argument; I plan to show how Mark Twain in the text The Celebrated Jumping Frog also possibly bringing in the outside text of A War Prayer, Walt Whitman, using mainly the text Leaves of Grass and Macomber The Gossip of Gold Hill all represent "Man Thinking"

I will start out by analyzing American Scholar and describing what Emerson meant when he said we must all strive to become "Man thinking."

Then I will dissect each text using examples from each text and possibly of each author to show how they represent to the reader their own version of "man thinking"

a day late and a dollar short

I've been bouncing a few ideas back and forth about what to do my final project on, and I'm still not 100% sure as to if I'm headed in the right direction. But this is what I've finally decided to commit to.

I want to have a main focus on New American Literature and Local Color, while also dabbling just a little with Transcendentalism.

Texts will be
-American Scholar
-Leaves of Grass
-Celebrated Jumping Tree Frog...
-Gossip of Gold Hill

I intend to discuss how Emerson's American Scholar paved a way for new writing styles. The beginning focus will discuss Emerson's thoughts on "Man Thinking" and how he encourages all individuals to strive to become "Man Thinking." Then it will discuss how Twain, Whitman and Macomber represent "Man Thinking" and how each work reflects this. By doing so they took chances with their writing, paving way for new writing styles and generas.

Howells makes a point early in his article about the response an intelligent American woman would have over Daisy Millers behavior in Europe, saying that Daisy sets a horrible example of a proper American woman.
The point is true, Daisy doesn’t check her American way’s when in a different country that has a completely different standard for the way a young lady should act. Even when her vulgar ways are made very clear to her, Daisy has no mind to change the person she is because it is not acceptable in the country she is currently visiting.
Daisy is first made clearly aware of her unacceptable ways on page 41 when Mrs. Walker asks her to leave her companion, Mr. Giovanelli, because it is inappropriate for her to be walking around with him in such manner; and then again Daisy is told of the nature of her flirtatious American on page 49/50 by Mr. Winterbourne.
It is true that Daisy acts outside of what would be accepted in the European society and she refuses to change her ways because she is not European but in fact American. Winterbourne suggests to Daisy that it is often appropriate for someone to take part of the customs of the country but again Daisy rightfully refuses to change her ways.
Reading this novella, I was annoyed with Daisy, her arrogance and refusal to adapt annoyed me. I expected more of her, but reminiscing on it for this blog I have changed my mind. As an American woman myself, I think it appalling that we judge the way people act in a country that is foreign to them. To adapt to their customs and expectations, all in order to simply visit a place. Sometimes we find it necessary; such a woman in a Middle Eastern country, adaptation is often needed for their own protection. But to expect Daisy to change her American cultured ways in order to tour through Europe is nonsense.

Did you expect anything else....

The War Prayer by Mark Twain

As I stated in my fact sheet. Mark Twain knew people. With each of his works Twain had a way of getting inside an individual's head and making them understand the message he was trying to portray. With the piece we were given to read in class, what was obvious for us to understand is the clash between Easterners and Westerners.
He also had a way of displaying humanities guilty pleasures without making people actually feel guilty about them. The piece I have linked is one of my favorite short works. If you skip to the very end, the last larger paragraph you will see the actual "prayer." In which Twain shows the reality of war. The way in which he does this we can't help but laugh/smile at it. But what he is saying is so painstakingly real it's astonishing. Twain knew how to make it real to his readers, he know how to make them understand the reality of war. People knew it was tragic when they lost a husband or a son. People tried to ignore the brutality of war. Twain writes it, Twain forces it into peoples faces without ever making them feel awkward or uncomfortable about it.

This is why he is my favorite. Twain had a way of making things real, making the things he wrote about, fictional or otherwise, real to his readers.

I'd buy 'em

I actually like the way Whitman's work is portrayed in the ad campaigns. They take his work and give it a new age twist that I think fit's quite nicely with each selected piece. Many people will have no idea that Whitman's work is being used for the campaign but if they like what they hear and take the time to research it, they can soon find out. I think this also affectively gets many from the younger generation to take a look at literary works they generally wouldn't read or even know. We know because the majority of us are literature majors, even if it haddn't been assigned to us to read now, at some point prior or in the future we probalby would have read many of Whitman's works. But if we consider our peers, those either not in college or prusuing a different degree, many of them may only know Whitman by name and not by work. Levi's helps make many aware of the power Whitman has. Levi's helps keep works that are fading out of the mass population alive.

My personal reaction to it was shock and awe. Shocked that something so popular would dare to step out of the circle and use a powerful literary work in their ad campaign. And awe that they did it so well. It is obviously catered to the youth of America, twenty something's included it that. But also the older generation I think would be able to appreciate it, because more of them know not just who Whitman is, but would be able to know without research that the "Go Forth" ad campaign uses his work.

I especially liked the Oh Pioneers one. I thought the ad went well with the words. What we must remember is this was originally published in the mid 1800's. Levis took this old work, and added a new age twist to it. Something that many people probably had a problem with, but I think it is not only very effective I also think Whitman himself would have approved of the approach Levi's took.

What I got

Albert Bierstadt "A Storm in the Rocky Mountains"

"The fact is, that sublimity is not a specific term,—not a term descriptive of the effect of a particular class of ideas. Anything which elevates the mind is sublime, and elevation of mind is produced by the contemplation of greatness of any kind; but chiefly, of course, by the greatness of the noblest things. Sublimity is, therefore, only another word for the effect of greatness upon the feelings. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue, or beauty, are thus all sublime; and there is perhaps no desirable quality of a work of art, which in its perfection is not, in some way or degree, sublime." (Ruskin Modern Painter section 2 chapter 3)

I went through many different photos before choosing this one. I chose this one because I thought it was the most beautiful, looking at it I felt as though it were perfect for what it was I wanted to say. Even though I had no idea what it was I intended to post about. The darkness combined with a perfect amount of "sun" light seemed so surreal. I wanted to be in the picture.

So I had the perfect picture. All that was left to do was pick out something from Modern Painter that worked. I first read the section on beauty, I thought that since I picked this piece because I thought it was beautiful that it would probably have something perfect in which to talk about. Alas, it wasn't good enough for what I wanted.

I scrolled down and read the sections and the chapter titles. Then I landed on "Of the sublime" I thought I'd take a gander, and the very first thing in the chapter seemed perfect. Both the piece of art and the segment from the book spoke to me.

"...elevation of mind is produced by the contemplation of greatness of any kind; but chiefly, of course, by the greatness of the noblest things."

I choose "Of the Sublime" from Ruskin's Modern Painter because I thought it fit perfectly the way I felt about the painting. Ruskin talks in the chapter that the feeling of sublime is not just about beauty, greatness or pleasure, it is in something more and it is also all those things. His thoughts on sublimity reminded me of the saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It works the same way with sublimity. The feeling is in the beholder being able to take the beauty, greatness and pleasure recieved by a certain thing and make it something more. To expand your mind and be able to feel something more than what it was meant for.

That is how this painting made me feel. I don't just think its beautiful, I wish to be apart of it, or to find this place along the rocky mountains and experience it during a storm. Also, this segment from Modern Painter. Because upon reading the parts about beauty I felt it was not enough to use to talk about this painting, I needed something more. Then I ran across the segment I used and thought, "Wow, this is amazing." But part of what I believe Ruskin was trying to say about Sublimity was; in some way or another one may find any piece of art sublime, while others may find it average at best. I think this picture is amazing, while others who read this post may question my amazement.