John Donne Part Two?

I apologize for returning to a subject already addressed but I had to write a paper on a John Donne poem this week so I have been reminded of what a great job he does of writing artistically about religion and science: both things I wrote about in my previous John Donne post.

To make sure I do not reiterate to a fault I'll try to focus on how I hope to include these admirable qualities of Donne's poetry to my own writing. Also I will attempt to draw from this new poem, called "A Valediction: Of Weeping,"which I had to read and intently study for the paper.

Dinner and a Show

Wow, post 20! I never thought I'd see this day. If I would've done the math it would have been a no brainer but I'm a writer not a mathematician. I don't have long before the semester is over. I know I wont see 30 posts so this mile marker will have have to suffice as cause for celebration. 

Happy 20th Post!

Now to business:

For the last few weeks we've been reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin (not related to the musical genius Frédéric Chopin... I checked). Chopin is now considered to be a significant writer of feminist literature, even though she herself didn't consider herself a feminist. As I see it, after reading this book, she isn't so much as a women's rights promoter but rather a believer in personal rights. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is stereotypically the time to enjoy great food and time spent with family. I know that's not how it is for everyone (especially for those poor characters in realism fiction, uff-da!). However that is how it is for me and I'd encourage you to take the day to at least attempt to also appreciate both the fleeting things of life (turkey, stuffing, agonizing stories from your Uncle Ralf) as well as the eternal things (family, friends, lutefisk).

You Should Be Writing.

I don't know why this made me laugh but I thought I'd share. I don't even know who made it (so perhaps the photo was taken for other purposes...) but the marvel nerd in me enjoys it.

 

Children's Literature

Don't get me wrong I love working in a library, but lately I've been missing my old job as a nanny and longing for the day when I can have the best of both worlds as a children's librarian. Today especially.

One of the students came in with her four children who needed help finding the kid's book (a rare commodity at a community college library) so they could read while she got some studying done. "Do you have any princess books?" one of the girls asked as I led the flock to the PZ section of the library (that's code, literally, for children's literature or as the Library of Congress calls it "fiction and juvenile belles lettres"). I reveled in that moment.

Humdrum Birthday to Me...

Birthdays stink. Not all the time and I don't mean that to be a blanket statement about all birthdays, but for me generally birthdays are cause for anxiety. I know I'm not like most people, though. So I wake up hoping that I won't be surprised, embarrassed, or abnormally noticed (I'd prefer to go completely unnoticed on my birthday but I've been told that Harry Potter isn't real and therefore cloaks of invisibility don't exist). This is a nearly impossible request when it comes to birthdays as the general rule of thumb is that birthdays are all about giving undivided attention to the birthday boy or girl. Everyone likes attention, right? Yeah, I guess I'm weird.

Plot-Driven Novels

Last week in Women & Literature we read My Ántonia. I was looking forward to it, but I should have known better when my professor prefaced the discussion with this statement about the book:

It was risky, in the early part of this century, to presume to write fiction about ordinary, rough-hewn people engaged in the rigors of dry land farming in frontier Nebraska. The prevailing literary style was for overrefined, predictable, plot-driven novels with characters who held fast to European pretensions and standards of gentility. (from Litlovers.com)

While I can't attest at this moment to preferring "overrefined" or "predictable" novels I did learn the hard way last week that I much prefer "plot-driven" novels. Yikes. 

Holy Sonnet Nine

This week we read and are discussing the poetry of John Donne in my Brit Lit class. He was a metaphysical poet who lived during England's Elizabethan era (and technically into the Stuart period). As a metaphysical poet he wrote using conceits or unique and drawn-out metaphors. In history this was a time of great discoveries and inventions so a lot of metaphors within his poems and sonnets reflect similar subjects. Besides the external influences on Donne's poetry there was also the internal changes that affected his writing during the time that he left the Catholic church and joined the Church of England. This leads me to the two points I'd like to make with this post. First, as a metaphysical poet, John Donne is awesome! And second, as both an artist and a man of religious convictions, John Donne is admirable.

By Any Other Name

Last week we finished reading Mrs. Dalloway in my Women & Literature class. First of all let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed Virginia Woolf's writing style. I can only envy her in that respect because her skill level and her ability to craft a sentence is beyond what a person can learn to accomplish. Another thing that I enjoyed about this book, and the credit for this can most likely be attributed to the era and area that Woolf was writing in, was the names.
 
Even though its a bit off the beaten path as far as things I've learned or taken from Woolf's writing I'd like to dedicate this post to one of my favorite aspects of story making(and yes, I have a lot of favorite aspects of writing if you a haven't noticed...): Naming Characters!

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing."

Oh Shakespeare. This week in my Brit. Lit. class we are reading works from one of my most favorite playwright ever... actually he probably is my most favorite because I don't know of too many others who I would even be able to name let alone say that I appreciate/enjoy. Anyway...

Will's one of those writers that everyone knows (well, almost everyone, as the other day at work I asked a co-worker if she was any good at interpreting Shakespeare and she responded: "What is a Shakespeare?") from something or another. I feel like Romeo and Juliet would be considered his most popular work (blech!) followed by ones like Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar. I may be biased as those are the ones we read/performed at my High School. Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night are probably also up there in popularity as I've seen performances of those (not to mention the whole slew of movies 'inspired by...' i.e. She's the Man and Ten Things I Hate About You, yep!). My favorites personally are his comedies, especially Much Ado About Nothing.