English 021 Creative Reading

Weblog - Entries for jmurray
The end:or is it?
E3 Haroun Alice
by jmurray

More often than not the ending of a story is some kind of conclusion. It is a closing remark that ties together all of the loose ends and provides a sense of security for the reader. When a story ends mysteriously, abruptly, or with a paradoxical question the reader is...
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May 12, 2005, 06:01 PM
Uni-directional
8 Carroll
by jmurray

Haddocks' eyes are on one side of their head. Unlike most any other animal they can only see in one direction-which is exactly the problem with the white knight. His attention is primarily focused on himself, and although he feigns interest in how the old man lives, he really doesn't...
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May 05, 2005, 01:00 PM
Perfect Love
5 Byatt
by jmurray

For Randolph Henry Ash, imaginary writing provides as escape from the reality into a world that is perfectly suited for him. Specifically a world where his relationship with Cristabel is a hell of a lot simpler. The world he imagines in Ragnarok is one of perfection. As Ash writes, "All...
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April 05, 2005, 12:42 PM
Truth perhaps?
4 Byatt
by jmurray

Randolph Henry Ash was a man in search of the truth. He says in a letter to LaMotte, "we live in a world...that has gone piling up speculation and observations until truths that might have been graspable....are now obscured by palimpest on palimpset" (Byatt, 181). In his writings and in...
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March 29, 2005, 12:05 PM
Shattered Mirror
E1 Pale Fire
by jmurray

A Shattered Mirror First a few formalities. Zembla is not real; Jack Grey was actually an escapee from a mental institution who was “positively dying of raghdirst (thirst for revenge)”; (85) and Kinbote is not delusional. Botkin, that little-known character referenced in the index, created both Kinbote and his delusions,...
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March 08, 2005, 02:56 PM
Kinda sad
3 Nabokov
by jmurray

Kinbote’s disconnected and deluded commentary ignores much of Shade’s autobiographical poem and instead becomes a poetical description of Kinbote’s own life and his quizzical relationship with Shade. While they may appear disparate, past tragedy is a common factor in the lives of these “two men, different in origin, upbringing,...
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February 17, 2005, 02:21 PM
Heartless?
2 Wallace
by jmurray

Two nameless late-stage terminal drug addicts prove that although the destruction of their lives appears complete, their "heart's nodes of empathy"(138) still remain. Whatever drove them into drug addiction in the first place is irrelevant. As suggested by DFW's ambiguous story of X and Y, any conclusion as to the...
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February 10, 2005, 12:24 PM
Religious allegory
1 Wilde
by jmurray

Devotion to a cause lacking basis in fact is fatal in any case. Cyril’s faith in the theory of Mr. WH is akin to that of someone completely devoted to a religion. But while religion nourishes, his obsession only drained. Cyril sought immortality through his own religion, and believed he...
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February 03, 2005, 02:25 PM
?
Test
by jmurray

Yes I am the latest. Thank you. No, stop the applause. It was nothing. Really....
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February 02, 2005, 04:14 PM