English 021 Creative Reading

Weblog - Entries for rmccally
Why the PG rating?
E3 Haroun Alice
by rmccally

In both Through the Looking Glass and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the reader is presented with landscapes divided in severe conflict. Haroun and the Sea of Stories features a land divided into two factions, the Chupwalas and the Guppees, who are on the verge of a terrible war...
[Entire post]

May 12, 2005, 03:54 PM
The barrier of Age
8 Carroll
by rmccally

The best title for the poem which appears in “It’s My Own Invention” is “The Aged Aged Man.” The reason this fits best is because this character should be focused on because it represents the author himself.: it is clear that Carroll identifies himself with the aged aged man because...
[Entire post]

May 05, 2005, 01:44 PM
Intellectual Puns
7 Carroll
by rmccally

At one point in the story, Alice finds herself wandering through a garden talking to flowers. During this visit, Alice asks the flowers how a tree in the middle of the garden could protect them: ‘“But what could it do, if any danger came?” Alice asked. “It could bark,” said...
[Entire post]

April 26, 2005, 10:22 PM
Inner Conflict
6 Rushdie
by rmccally

The ending of Haroun and the Sea of Stories was not a true happy ending. Part of the reason for this is that it didn’t really solve one of the main conflicts that existed within Haroun, namely whether or not stories were worthwhile or important. In the beginning of...
[Entire post]

April 20, 2005, 09:49 PM
The Power of the Future
E2 Possession
by rmccally

When Ellen Ash dies, she leaves behind two different objects that the academics take and interest in: one is a personal diary, the other is a box of letters and mementos that she buries with Ash. The existence of these two things marks an interesting split in the character of...
[Entire post]

April 13, 2005, 11:39 PM
An Escape
5 Byatt
by rmccally

Christabel LaMotte lives a depressing life: she has no husband, she has an affair with a married man which she feels guilt for, she becomes pregnant with an illegitimate child, and she finds herself incapable of living the independent lifestyle she craves. She also searches for magic in the real...
[Entire post]

April 05, 2005, 01:48 PM
Freedom and Posession
4 Byatt
by rmccally

Christabel Lamotte is a woman who doesn’t want to live too grand a life. She desires only to live freely with her companion, Blanche and not to be tied down by anything or anyone. She doesn’t want money or fame, and wants to possess only what she needs to remain...
[Entire post]

March 29, 2005, 02:12 PM
The End in Sight
E1 Pale Fire
by rmccally

John Shade’s poem, “Pale Fire”, is totally shrouded by its author’s preoccupation with death. Shade has been questing for an understanding of the afterlife since he was young, and his obsession appears in nearly every stanza of the poem. It seems like an interesting coincidence that Shade would write such...
[Entire post]

March 08, 2005, 02:45 PM
The Effect of Inspiration
3 Nabokov
by rmccally

Both Kinbote’s commentary and Shade’s poem “Pale Fire” share a common symbol of mirrors and reflections. The symbol appears in the first few lines of Shade’s poem: “I Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. And from the inside, too, I’d duplicate Myself, my lamp, an apple on a...
[Entire post]

February 17, 2005, 02:05 PM
Who Cares About the Reader?
2 Wallace
by rmccally

Despite the very negative sounding passage in David Foster Wallace’s “Octet” that describes apathy in people as "some horrific defect in [their] human makeup, some kind of hideous central ice where [their] heart's nodes of empathy and basic other-directness ought to be..." (138), Wallace’s stories “Adult Word I” and “Adult...
[Entire post]

February 09, 2005, 11:23 PM
The Portrait of Mr. WH
1 Wilde
by rmccally

In Oscar Wilde’s story “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,’ the character Erskine entreats the narrator not to take on the task of proving the existence of Willie Hughes because he "believe[s] there is something fatal about the idea...." (p. 195). Whether or not this is true is a riddle the...
[Entire post]

February 03, 2005, 01:51 PM
Rogan's Test
Test
by rmccally

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." -Hannibal Lechter Silence of the Lambs...
[Entire post]

January 31, 2005, 07:14 PM