English 021 Creative Reading

Weblog - Entries for jsese
“Just our little yolk”
E3 Haroun Alice
by jsese

There is much to be learned from an egg. Within its hard exterior is a glutinous mass of the underdeveloped. Though its shell is hard, it is common knowledge that its walls are thin. It cannot even sit up on its own; its round nature prevents it from doing so....
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May 17, 2005, 01:59 PM
Childhood 1, Adulthood 0
8 Carroll
by jsese

“A-Sitting on a Gate” is the best title for the White Knight’s poem because it makes a direct reference to Humpty Dumpty’s perch in chapter 6. There is a connection between the proud Humpty Dumpty and the decrepit old man: both are precariously balancing on a shaky pedestal. Humpty Dumpty...
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May 05, 2005, 02:22 PM
All the cool kids are doing it.
7 Carroll
by jsese

Early on in Through the Looking Glass, the Queen gives Alice some advice: “Speak in French when you ca’n’t think of the English for a thing—turn out your toes as you walk—and remember who you are!” (166) Her advice seems random, but its importance becomes more apparent by the time...
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April 28, 2005, 11:07 AM
Uncharacteristic optimism on my part
6 Rushdie
by jsese

Haroun and the Sea of Stories ends on a truly happy note because the ultimate question and conflict - “What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” (20) - is answered and resolved. By definition, a story is a fictional tale and thus a flowery lie. It is also...
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April 21, 2005, 02:15 PM
Possession: A Romance?
E2 Possession
by jsese

A.S. Byatt considers herself a feminist, but by American standards she is not. The female characters in Possession: A Romance do not fit the ideals of a traditional American heroine. They do not reach self-realization on their own accord. Instead, men are the catalyst for changes in their lives as...
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April 16, 2005, 06:49 PM
Sometimes you just need to put down your books and push people around. Yea!
5 Byatt
by jsese

Poetry gives Maud a subject to invest her identity and specialization in; what it does not provide her the ability to interact in the normal world. She quotes Christabel: “Outside our small safe place flies Mystery” (290). This is truer for Maud than she is aware. Her “safe place” is...
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April 05, 2005, 01:57 PM
"Never shall a young man.../ Love you for yourself alone/ And not your yellow hair."
4 Byatt
by jsese

Maud, possessed by what others think of her, is “something owned, occupied, or controlled” (Merriam-Webster). Her yellow hair is the ultimate symbol of the chain that binds her to others’ opinions: she kept it cropped to avoid criticism and grew it out at a lover’s whim. As she explains to...
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March 29, 2005, 01:57 PM
All That for Nothing?: The Afterlife as the Biggest Letdown
E1 Pale Fire
by jsese

In the words of Karl Marx, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” For the duration of John Shade’s life, Shade was adamantly against the calming effects of an ethereal...
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March 09, 2005, 12:39 PM
i'm totally going to regret this later
3 Nabokov
by jsese

Excuse my contemporary, pop culture spin (because I hate pop culture), but you know when The pretty latches onto the plain? More often than not, there is one way to explain This phenomenon aforementioned. Charles Kinbote is very fond Of rattling for pages, on and on About his country and...
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February 17, 2005, 03:12 AM
I don't love you/ I just love myself
2 Wallace
by jsese

Jeni’s sudden epiphany in “Adult World II” does not signify a transformation that makes her empathetic, as no critical change in her personality occurs. David Foster Wallace’s portrayal of Jeni forces the reader to consider her nothing but an “immature, inexperienced, [and] emotionally labile young wife” (140). He lays a...
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February 10, 2005, 12:39 AM
The Freedom to Interpret
1 Wilde
by jsese

There is nothing fatal about establishing beliefs on an incomplete web of information; after all, that method is called interpretation. In literature, especially open literature, things are left unexplained. Despite the author’s intentions, the reader will most likely “misinterpret” the story. However, this misinterpretation is not a misinterpretation at all....
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February 02, 2005, 08:39 PM
rock this bitch!
Test
by jsese

i feel obliged to use capital letters and correct punctuation. okay, getting ready... Watch me go. Okay. So, I'm just making sure I can do this, uh, thing. This bitch is officially rocked....
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January 31, 2005, 01:19 PM