Solitude

Solitude is many things. Its a ski lodge in Salt Lake City Utah. Its a private airline company. its even a osh clothing line. None of those things truely define solitude though, yet they do show how important solitude is to the world. In my own definition I would say that Solitude is the act of being alone with one's thoughts and feelings but it can also mean a group of people who together are separate and by themselves. When I "googled" the word solitude I found a bunch of interesting links, but the one I decded to go to was "Physchology Today" with an article that compared loliness with solitude. Loliness the article states is a sense of isolation that is unwanted by the individual while solitude is the state of being alone without feeling down about about it. Solitude, the artcile argues, may even lead to self awareness and a love of life. Its an interesting concept for me, because I always thought of the two words in similar, almost synonimic terms.
The word solitude relates to the book in the sense that the town Maconda is existing in solitude, with the only visitors bring gysies. In 6 generations, the town still remains relitively the same size, with less expansion that one would expect over the course of a hundred years. I also think the book title coensides with the idea of solitude bringing about self-awareness. As the characters age, they become more aware of life and the role they play within the world. Though I'm not done with the book yet (sorry i'm a horrible student, but i promise i'm almost done!), I think knowing more what solitude is, which is a positive sense of alone, I think I'll pay more attention to that as I finish.

(I didn't spell check this, i will though!)

Author Exploration

When we began reading Calvino's first chapter of his latest book I have to admit I was delighted to hear something new. The idea of an author talking to his audience made the book feel personal and relatable. Yet as the chapter countied with Calvino's speech about choosing the proper book, naming the categories of books I would not read and carrying on, I liked the author less and less. I had the opposite effect when reading Storytown. Originally, I thought the plot was random and nothing was being told so I had to assume it for myself, which wasn't the style of reading I'm most accustom to. As Storytown continued I found that I looked at the importance of each sentence and what it was showing to me so that I could figure out what wasn't being told. Though this process was actually more interesting than I had initially thought it would be. Unlike Calvino, Daitch was making me interact with the characters rather than telling me how I should.
After our class discussion on Storytown, I learned a few things that I need to pay attention to that I haven't in the past. First of all, when I was reading the story I on own I didn't catch on to the fact that Alice described her co-workers by their characters, rather than by given name. Phil brought up this point in class, and made me realize that each of the characters in the story were similar to their given characters at Storytown. The intertexuality of the character Alice and the story of Alice in Wonderland showed me the similarities between Alice in Storytown and the book Alice in Wonderland. Both characters are bored with their world, so they escape through a fantasy or in Alice of Storytown's case, through her job. Both girls also go with the flow and allow themselves to be sweep away proving their neither is very self-motivated. My favorite line of this story was on pg. 191 when they describe the author by saying "coincidences mattered to him, as if there might be no other reasonable motive for giving someone a job". This quote lead me to believe that Alice and her co-workers may be seen by the outside world as the same as their given characters. All in all, I think that just my in depth thought and preoccupation with this idea proves how Daitch made me as a reader become invested in her plot. For this reason, I think layers of the story like hiding meaning, interesting characters, and underlying morals make a story meaningful, which is why an author should give extra attention to those principles to attract a reader.

I'd give our Julia Roberts an Oscar

Before Starting my Lit X

Despite their sometimes silly requests to quite down or to move tables, I hold a special place in my heart for the Staples Librarians. Since I finished my first Lit X book, I knew I needed to drag myself to the library to pick out another book to start. I thought about cheating the system a bit and picking out Frankenstein since it fits my theme of British female authors....and I maybe could have gotten away with it, but I couldn't do it. I've done enough research to name five or six authors I want to read for my topic, yet I knew I would come up with more names that might work better. Shocking AP confession...I thought Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley were different people. Oops, please forgive me Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft! Luckily, my lost soul was saved by Mrs. Roberts when she pointed me to an author database that searches by country and then narrows into gender. I struck gold with a complete list of notable British female authors. In less than one free period, I was able to make my official list of authors I wanted to read to my Lit X.

The Official Lit X Author List

Contemporary
JK Rowlings
Philippa Gregory
Agatha Christie
Elizabeth Bowen (short stories)

Non-Contemporary
Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft
Jane Austen
Jane Ward Lead (religious books)
Mary Russell Mitford (poetry and short-stories)


I think a mixture of famous novelists and less known authors that specialize in short stories and poetry will make for a solid mix of work from British female authors. Now my challenge becomes narrowing the focus of my Lit X paper. My guiding questions so far a pretty wide...they are "How do men and women differ through writing? Are men more violent than women? Are women more apt to write about love, loss and family? Can men write realistic female characters, can women write realistic male characters? Are female characters more matronly than male characters? Are male characters depicted as having as much emotion as female characters?". The best way to go about narrowing this down would be to write and see where my thoughts take me.

After Writing my Lit X

I decided to take my own advice, so I just sat and wrote from my notes I made in class and my notes made in the book I read. After three and a half pages, I think I made a valid point, but I realize I took too long to get there. Re-reading it, I noted that I tend to sway towards plot summery to justify my point since my book (The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory) isn't necessarily a well known title. My goal for my next draft is to narrow my plot summery to be more concise, but for the most part I think my conclusion, that contemporary authors unknowingly use contemporary thoughts within their characters thoughts, is true, at least of Philippa Gregory. We'll have to wait and see how the next draft goes! :)

Revising my in-class disaster...i mean essay?

Although when writing my in-class essay I thought my paper was focused and thoughtful, while re-reading it I noticed some key areas where I don't make a lot of sense and where my ideas aren't explained adequately. I know that while writing a paper I sometimes forget to explain parts because I think them through in my own mind and the idea feels so first nature that I find it impossible to think others might not understand my direction. Basically, I think something in my head and I can't type as fast as i think so I forget key elements of my analysis so that my paper makes a point, but not a point that is well backed up. After reading through your comments I saw specific instances where I am very vague and elaboration needs to take place in order for it to say something. For example, in one instance of my paper I rationalize that Briony turns Robbie in for the rape because she wants to protect her sister. What I forgot to include was that Briony was given a note to give to Cecilia by Robbie that had graphic and adult content. A lack of adult thoughts or an understanding of hte inappropriateness of the letter contributed to Briony's development of the idea that Robbie was a danger to Cecilia. To amend this in my paper, I know I cannot simply plot summarize, though I usually would, instead I need to figure out a way to say all of that either using a quote or shortening it. Also, can I even make that assumption? We spoke as a class about how Briony clearly does not like Robbie, but for a multitude of reasons. There is the scene she views out by the pond, there is Robbie's status as their maid's son, the letter, Cecilia's focus on him during that night, and simply Briony's dislike for almost every real person besides family members. Because Briony is always making up stories in her head, she can mold the characters and make them do whatever she pleases, but real people don't allow for that. She cannot control Robbie or his actions, but somehow she finds a way to do so, by accusing him of rape. (I think I'm going somewhere with this....) The sheer accusation of rape is one that is not taken lightly. Rape conotates violence, fear, control, vengeance, dirtiness and a plethora of other unwanted aspects of life. By making Robbie a rapist, Briony makes him a real live version of the villain she makes him in her mind. Ah-ha! Though I know my paper needs a hundred other little changes, I think I've begun to work through the main changes in terms of content. My old thesis was...

Ultimately, Briony’s lie about Lola’s rape defines her as a jealous little girl looking for reprisal follows her for the rest of her life as she tries to free herself of the power she has gained as a child.

And while I still hold this to be true because I would never write something I didn't believe, I've changed my thesis a tad bit to make it more focused and specific to the meaning of the book as a whole.

Ultimately, Briony’s lie about Lola’s rape defines her as a jealous little girl looking for a way to control real people the way she does with her fictional characters in her writing. Her control over Robbie by painting him as a rapist is a mistake that follows her for the rest of her life as she tries to free herself from the power she has gained as a child.

Now, that I've fixed my thesis to make it less vague, I'll begin with the body paragraphs. I'll get back to you on that...