English 021 Creative Reading

Weblog - Entries for kparker
Metaphorical Fairy Tales: What Are They Good For?
E3 Haroun Alice
by kparker

METAPHORICAL FAIRY TALES: WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR? Whereas Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There is a harsh critique of storytelling, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is an affirmation of storytelling. Haroun and the Sea of Stories argues that both simple fairy tales and thematically dense...
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May 20, 2005, 03:11 PM
Alice, the Aged Man and the Aged, Aged Man
8 Carroll
by kparker

The best title for the poem in “It’s My Own Invention” is “The Aged, Aged Man.” Carroll distinguishes the age of the poem’s narrator, who is aged, from the aged, aged man, who is even older than him. The separation of ages is important, as the narrator’s relationship to the...
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May 05, 2005, 02:23 PM
The Pawn and the Power--United in Life's Struggle!
7 Carroll
by kparker

In “The Garden of Live Flowers,” Alice, feeling like an outsider, at first wonders “being a Pawn” (163) would be like in the “great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world” (163). Soon, the Red Queen drags Carroll around the tree. Before she mentions wanting to...
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April 28, 2005, 02:23 PM
Rashid/Rushdie the Dead and Living Author
6 Rushdie
by kparker

Though for Haroun it is not necessarily a happy ending, the ending of Haroun and the Sea of Stories demonstrates both the versatility of stories and their authors. Stories can uplift the spirits of marginalized people, as they do for the impoverished inhabitants of Kahani. Even if it is...
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April 21, 2005, 02:16 PM
Christabel the Spirit-Starving Artist
5 Byatt
by kparker

Christabel LaMotte’s poetry highlights the negative aspects, real or imagined, of whatever is going on in her life. The poem at the beginning of Chapter 7 probably resembles much of her work before her relationship with Ash. The poem contrasts men and women sharply, essentially saying that whereas men can...
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April 05, 2005, 01:50 PM
The Anarchy Will Not Be Symbolized
E1 Pale Fire
by kparker

Pale Fire is not a royalist text; it is an anarchist text. That is, it advocates for no ruler at all: it is a treatise against left wing revolutionaries, monarchy loyalists, and religious leaders alike. It argues that true power has to come from within oneself, and all the...
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March 29, 2005, 09:18 PM
Return To Sender
4 Byatt
by kparker

While she appreciates Ash’s praises of her poetry, Christabel does not want to be directly under Ash’s tutelage. Therefore, she feels she must take physical possession of the letters she writes to Ash. Christabel values the originality of her mind’s work. This is why she compares herself to a spider,...
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March 29, 2005, 02:57 PM
Escaping or Just Passing Time?
3 Nabokov
by kparker

One thing that both the poem “Pale Fire” and the commentary have in common is that they both include reminiscences about toys. Shade’s reminiscences of his toys are one way that he is able to escape the mundane nature of his life. When imprisoned, the ex-King also recalls a toy...
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February 17, 2005, 02:39 PM
Friendly Feinds vs. False Friends
2 Wallace
by kparker

In “Octet,” Wallace’s unconventional narrative technique encourages disconnection between the reader and the characters. Wallace demonstrates this by making the characters in the relatively conventional Pop Quiz 4 empathetic, while making the experimental nature of Pop Quiz 6 a main reason why X an Y generate little empathy from...
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February 10, 2005, 02:17 PM
Cyril: the man behind, and in front of, the myth
1 Wilde
by kparker

The Willie Hughes theory proved to be fatal because of Cyril Graham. Cyril is the reason why the two men are so compelled to delve into the Sonnets to prove Willie Hughes as Shakespeare’s inspiration. It is evident that Cyril Graham created the Willie Hughes forgery in order to insert...
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February 03, 2005, 07:10 AM
test
Test
by kparker

"Better never than late." --Cliff Huxtable's college professor on The Cosby Show...
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February 02, 2005, 03:13 PM