English 021 Creative Reading

Weblog - Entries for acathcar
Accepting the Inevitable
E3 Haroun Alice
by acathcar

In both Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, a young character is presented with a world where everything is predetermined. Although the Sea of Stories and the Looking-Glass chessboard differ greatly on a superficial level, they...
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May 12, 2005, 10:00 AM
Two "Aged" Storytellers
8 Carroll
by acathcar

The White Knight’s poem in “It’s My Own Invention” is a parallel of Lewis Carroll and his life as a storyteller, in particular his role as a storyteller to Alice Liddell. Carroll, like the old man in the poem, “muttered mumblingly and low,/As if his mouth were full of dough”...
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May 04, 2005, 07:56 PM
Swinging Meanings
7 Carroll
by acathcar

Although Alice dislikes insects, she is very pleased with herself for knowing the “names of some of them.” In response, the Gnat declares, “Of course they answer to their names.” This exchange between Alice and the Gnat leads to an association of double meaning with the word “name”. While Alice...
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April 26, 2005, 10:59 PM
Un(Happily) Ever After
6 Rushdie
by acathcar

Although he restores his father’s gift of gab and reunites with his mother at the end of Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun finds the fairy-tale, miraculous ending to his adventure disappointing. Haroun learns that the Walrus and the P2C2E can “synthesize [happy endings] artificially” (202) and...
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April 20, 2005, 09:43 PM
Christabel LaMotte: Private Lives and Hermetic Jars
E2 Possession
by acathcar

Christabel LaMotte, the great Victorian poet of A.S. Byatt’s Possession, places significant value in her privacy and independence. She values “her unbroken egg[,] her self-possession, [and] her autonomy” (549), as it is what protects her from the harsh scrutiny of the world. Through her imaginative poetry and fantastical fairy tales,...
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April 14, 2005, 01:22 AM
The “Magnificent Importance” of Ash Scholarship
5 Byatt
by acathcar

After working for years in the “Inferno” (31) of the Ash factory, Blackadder “[is] discouraged and [likes] to discourage others” (13). He repeatedly rejects his own footnotes as “ugly and ungainly” (33) while editing Ash’s poetry. His editorial comments are often “set down, depersonalised, and then erased” (325). Blackadder’s feelings...
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April 05, 2005, 02:01 PM
The Duty of Possession
4 Byatt
by acathcar

The first Merriam-Webster definition of “possession” accurately describes Beatrice Nest’s influence: she has committed “the act of having or taking into control” the journals of Ellen Ash. “Beatrice’s lien, her semi-exclusive propriety” (110) makes her a formidable obstacle to the other Ash scholars. For Cropper and Blackadder in particular, she...
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March 29, 2005, 02:42 PM
"Lost in Translation"
E1 Pale Fire
by acathcar

Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire presents a dialogue between two writers. John Shade, an acclaimed poet, painstakingly writes the semi-autobiographical poem “Pale Fire.” Then, after his premature death, his colleague and neighbor Charles Kinbote edits Shade’s poem and attaches an extensive commentary. Although Shade is the true writer of the poem...
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March 07, 2005, 06:03 PM
Treacherous Literature
3 Nabokov
by acathcar

Invented words, nonexistent references and general confusion abound in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. Although these are all traits of the extensive commentary by the unreliable and possibly mad Charles Kinbote, a second glance at “Canto One” indicates that John Shade is just as guilty of misrepresentation and incorrect interpretations. Kinbote...
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February 17, 2005, 01:42 AM
Empathy for David Foster Wallace
2 Wallace
by acathcar

In both of his short stories “Octet” and “Adult World,” David Foster Wallace implements a unique narrative technique of inserting himself into the text. This is particularly true in “Octet.” Specifically, the passage “Pop Quiz 9” functions as a sort of letter to and from Wallace. This intentionally diverts the...
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February 09, 2005, 09:49 PM
The Immortality of W.H.
1 Wilde
by acathcar

Throughout Oscar Wilde’s short story The Portrait of Mr. W.H., characters question and debate the existence of the enigmatic Willie Hughes. Yet, the mere idea of Shakespeare’s muse continues to endure and inspire. For each person introduced to him, Willie Hughes immediately becomes a “spiritual presence, an ever-dominant personality” (209)....
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February 03, 2005, 12:16 AM
Anne's Test
Test
by acathcar

Hey everybody! I'm just testing this out like the rest of you...and can see that it works. Fabulous. And now I am going to copy Rogan and post a quote (although she may be the only person who appreciates this one): "I'll 'TCB' - as they say in the States."...
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January 31, 2005, 07:27 PM