Wednesday, October 29, 2008

She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day

At first it took me awhile to get into Virginia Wolf's style of writing. But I think I am getting the hang of it. Honestly, I didn't see what the big fuss was about, the preface and back of the book was praising something about her writing which wasn't clicking with me at first. The words just seemed scatter-brained and incoherent in execution, but now I realize the brilliance behind such a style. This stream of consciousness style is definitely an acquired taste that one has to get used to. It makes the characters on the page seem more alive to me. One's mind wanders all the time, even within specific emotional moments we are always multitasking. I think it was when Peter had just left Mrs. Dalloway's house confused by her last statement to him "remember the party", he was distracted by other things.
Through this stream of consciousness writing the reader gets all the facts, whether we want them or not. Seemingly boring details litter the page, creating some sort of significance for the story. We are left to filter the "nonsense" out ourselves, it doesn't come prepackaged, all tidy with a red ribbon tied around it; it's the same way with thoughts. Through this style it really captures the true human mind; messy and spontaneous. I really am enjoying this book now that I have gotten a hang of this style. It is quite amusing to see into the mind of these different characters; all encompassing and connecting together.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Storytelling

Mink and MacIntyre, as discussed in class, are philosopher who were mainly interested in the relationship between story telling and truth. This connection was also a point Barabara Hardy brought up in her essay An Approach Through Narrative: Towards a Poetics of Fiction. However, they differed in that Hardy discussed how story-telling transgressed beyond literary works into reality while Mink and MacIntyre wanted to connect the story-telling aspect to revealing truth.
When one is recalling the day's events to another there is a bit of storytelling woven into the way the information is being stated. The truth is usually exaggerated in order to present an entertaining form of what really happened. It doesn't mean that storytelling prevents the truth from being presented, it just attaches more bells and whistles to it. One group of people may find blatant lies within a story-tale, but another group may take it as the whole truth.
In my Imagining American Religion class last semester I learned about tribal groups and their religion ceremonies. They didn't have a written language so they relied heavily on story-telling to pass down traditions. In some religious story-tales the sacred world and humans as animals were talked about as if such things existed. To certain people their tales would seem like outright lies; just fairy tales. Yet, to these people what they spoke of was very real to them. So truth is arbitrary; it is different for everyone.

Friday, October 17, 2008

The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.





Bringing a book to life through the big screen is a great achievement for some authors. Yet, sometimes authors are offended when the interpretation of this book that they took so much time into writing, is so far off from their main vision for the book. It gets chopped up and glamorized Hollywood style into something that would sell. True fans of the books likewise become frustrated with how the movie producers just got it all wrong. When I see certain films that were adapted from a book that I have read I think I automatically set it up as failing if I don't see things like I imagined them within the book. Yet, with a book there can be so many visual interpretations of how the characters look, their voices, and the settings around them. By now I assume that many of my fellow peers are also reading books that lack picture references to aid us and that the author only leaves us with a description that still is vague enough for our imagination to run rampant.
The book series Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a series that I picked up awhile ago. It is about a post-apocalyptic sort of sci-fi world where there are extreme measures taken to make sure they don't end up like the rusties (who I assume represent us). In the book the rusties are described as superficial/ irrationally emotional people. So the operation to make people pretty on their 16th b-day is a way to end these jealous thoughts that used to turn into full out wars or personal crimes. I don't want to give too much away. The concept may seem juvenile, but Westerfeld's writing style is intriguing and he carries much depth behind his words. Anyways, at least the first book, Uglies has been picked up for a potential movie production and since I have read the books, I will be extremely disappointed if they botch this up. Even if it isn't completely how I envisioned it, I still don't want to see it "whored" out, where the profits are more important than the underlying issues the book seems to get at. I wonder if those that help make the movie version even ask actual readers how they envisioned what characters looked like and whatnot; I would hope they would. I hope this movie proposition actually gets going, because even if I get disappointed when certain things are different or cut from the book, I still enjoy seeing the characters come to life. The author of books that you love make you grow with the protagonist and, if they're really good at making them seem believable, you feel for them at a real emotional level if something bad happens to them. So when they are on screen there's already this connection you established with them, and even though you know what happens at the end to them, you still hope that everything will turn out alright.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Lost in Translation

The Importance of Earnest word plays like there's no tomorrow. "Can you take the time from me?" "I'm not little" (dealing with the fact that little can mean being physically little or being young). These sort of witty remarks then could be lost in translation as we had started to discuss last time in class.
It would be a great loss to us if we had to understand the languages certain works were originally written in. Even if we may lose certain cultural and specific language things within the texts, it's better to have it at all than be kept from their overall greatness.
Even in conversation we lose much of what the other really means at times. Last spring semester at HWS I took a Japanese language class. I learned a lot about this language, but also about my own native language. As an English speaker, especially in America, we rely heavily on the way we pronounce and stress our words to convey how we really feel. In the Japanese language we cannot rely on this, in fact it usually will confuse the meaning if you take this sort of license. Their words are meant to be emphasized at certain points, otherwise it may mean something else entirely or not even translate. The experience of learning a new language is always frustrating and liberating. Straight translation usually does not work well, so you learn to understand in the specific language; not trying to pick each word apart and change it into your native language.

Friday, October 3, 2008

It quickens, it thickens. You can't put it down now...

Playing with the idea of poetry and song being intertwined. My previous blog about spoken poetry showed how poetry can come alive and break from its paper prison. Poetry isn't just for the eyes. Many poems are created around raw emotions set into words to describe feelings. Some poems move us beyond being crafted in a pleasing way. We attach ourselves to a poem that speaks to us, that we can relate to, in much the same way that we do to certain songs. Songs, just like poems, use the written language in order to convey a message, be it serious or for fun. So there is a progression in the different forms of poetry. (not that one is superior over the others... just different styles)

Written poetry ----> spoken word -----> lyrics

It's a broad category, but the latter two can be converted back down to the original form we see poetry in.
Singing is just melodic speaking. Sometimes what we think of as "singing" can be broken down into different methods. The band CAKE is an example of playing with this idea. John McCrea (lead singer) is known for "speak-singing", where he half-speaks/ half-sings his lyrics. CAKE's songs are full of word-play. Seemingly simplistic at first glance, there is depth and amazing craft put into their lyrics; it's pure poetry.

Many of you may know them best with their hit radio song: "The Distance" (which annoying fans scream out for them to perform constantly during their shows still- just fyi... they seem to not like that... and who would... that's not their only song). Check out some of their other pieces if you want.




Thursday, October 2, 2008

Talk Ugly to Me

On playing with the idea of poem as Speech:
It sets up poetry as a living-breathing thing, intertwined indefinitely with its creator, but still takes on a life of its own. Just like stories are past down from generation, we still have brilliant poems from times past available for us to read or remember from hearing the stories told to us.
A benefit of hearing the poem spoken (especially by its original creator) gives us more of a sense of the tone that the writer was trying to convey. Some may argue that hearing it spoken in the way it was supposed to be read hinders the audience's/reader's experience of fully enjoying the piece. Yet, if you are imaginative in spirit, you would still be able to take whatever you wanted from the poem. Writers create these stories and poems... but they are essentially ours for the taking in a way. We get to pick at them, become stubborn and fussy, separate certain sections however we feel like it. Humans are curious by nature.

I saw poetry as speech come to life when I watched The Intangibles perform at a local community college back home; I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Raw, honest, moving poetry. It flowed from their mouths... they were storytellers. They talked about love, pain... they talked about life as it really is (no bells and whistles). They are poets... but in a "in your face" sort of way. They are a collective poetry performance group who participate in many slam poetry contests.

One of my favorite poets from the group is:
Sierra Demulder. She also has a side-project called Talk Ugly to Me. Give her a listen... she's scary good.



"If the first step is saying I love you, I will carve it in braille on your pillow so it's the first thing you feel in the morning" ~ quote from: "Garden" by Sierra Demulder