Teaching the Book of Mormon as Literature

There are some schools, public or private, and for some universities, which teach the Holy Bible as literature, but why not have a course solely on  the Book of Mormon being studied as literature. This idea, however, was inspired by Dr. Gideon Burton. As an idea for a thesis statement: what are your thoughts on this topic, should the Book of Mormon be taught as literature like the Bible is taught? Please provide whatever feedback you might have, and be candid with your thoughts. There is no right or wrong answer in this case.

Here are my theses statements:

1. [Policy Claim] The Book of Mormon should be allowed to be taught as literature, so as to understand how it was written, and to understand the structure of the writings throughout the book.

2. [Definition Claim] Many only hold the Book of Mormon for its religious/theological purposes, and is also a book esteemed as scripture by Mormons.

3. [Comparison Claim] To teach the Book of Mormon as literature is like teaching the Bible as literature.

4. [Evaluation Claim] To teach the Book of Mormon as literature is good because understanding the text will help the student put things into context.

5. [Cause/Effect Claim] If the Book of Mormon were to be taught as literature in school (grade school or college), it could help better shape society.

This is what I've got for now. Which thesis statement should I use? And for the thesis statement you like, how could it be improved?

Pre- Thesis Statement Brainstorming (Writing Process Pt 1/9)

I read some literary criticism…whatsup?  Jane Iterare by Tita French Baumlin and James S. Baumlin.  It’s a post-Jungian analysis of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and it’s pretty good once you’ve waded through

all

the

crazy

jargon.

I really only knew two or three things about this Jung fellow before I read the article.

1.  He’s a famous psychologist.  (Or rather, he would be famous if Freud didn’t already have the corner on that.)
2. You’re supposed to pronounce his name differently than I always think, but I of course don’t remember how.
3. He like totally had an affair.

So while I could appreciate Dr. Lundquist’s apparent confidence in me (she’s the one who assigned the article), I don’t think I actually qualified as part of Baumlin & Baumlin’s target audience.  That being said, there were a few things that caught my interest.  The authors brought new meaning to each of the characters in Jane Eyre by relabeling them as projections of different parts of Jane’s “self".  They made all these cool connections because they analyzed the novel as a “rebirth myth” which is a very narrow subgenre brought to our attention by Mr. Jung (Yoong? Hungie?) himself.

I do like seeing the various layers of meaning that can be found when critics analyze the same book as an autobiography, a religious coming-of-age story, a female coming-of-age story, a social criticism, and a “rebirth myth,” alternatively.  But I also find it a little strange that after spending all of Spring semester up to this point studying nothing but Jane Eyre in my 295 class, I have only seen filmmakers seriously treat the novel (with it’s castle-like setting, decidedly dark male interest, and mysterious midnight murder attempts) the way it practically screams to be treated—as a Gothic romance.  Why?  I'll tell you why.  Gothic literary critics have a seven-chapter obstacle to deal with called St. John Rivers.  Rivers goes against the grain of every Gothic romantic expectation you ever thought of entertaining.  Of him, another literary critic by the name of Emily Griesinger wrote, “But most readers today either despise him completely or, like some of my students, skim this section quickly to find out what happened to Jane’s real man, Edward Rochester.“  Many filmmakers simply cut him out.  And literary critics, it appears, have moved on to other genres for interpretive lenses.  But if you ask me, they have left the Gothic romance business woefully unresolved.

Imagine this instead:  Rene Girard is right.  Myths (genres, archetypes…it’s still all the same to me) really have been used throughout history to disguise and justify acts of collective oppression.  The Gothic romantic elements in Jane Eyre actually combine to keep Jane worse off in a Victorian patriarchy.  According to the Gothic romantic template, we would expect our hero Mr. Rochester’s unlikely adoration to be Jane’s only hope for independence.  But what kind of an independence would that be?  Even Jane’s “independence” would depend upon a man’s charity.  If this really is the feminist novel that it is said to be, then Jane should need to determine her own destiny.  So, she steps out of all the Gothic romantic shackles for a while (for 7 chapters, to be precise), and who should she meet but St. John Rivers who offers her perhaps the deepest lure for a woman seeking equality, “that of adopting a man’s cause or career and making it her own” (Adrienne Rich, yet another literary critic of Jane Eyre).  But after some careful introspection, Jane rejects that offer.  She will not abandon her passion altogether.  She will defend and value her femininity.  And as soon as she realizes that, she receives a supernatural (Gothic) revelation that sends her back to Edward Rochester, who is ready to marry her on equal terms.  In sum, all that time spent with St. John Rivers made it so that—"unlike Emily Bronte’s Catherine, who is driven by her demon lover, Heathcliff, to a socially correct marriage and later to her death"--Jane Eyre could take a step back, look within herself, and determine the kind of marriage she wanted of her own free will (Baumlin and Baumlin).  Only then we could have our happy, oppression-free, ending.

Anyway, that’s kind of what I’m looking at for my paper.  Feedback is encouraged.  Tweethis statements are on their way.  In fact, if you have any thesis statement suggestions after reading all this, please send ‘em my way!

(Shoot, I really am turning out to be a feminist, aren’t I?  Just my luck.)

No, Doctor Burton, I am not double counting my essay from 295 for this class.  Unfortunately, I only had this mild stroke of genius after I had already turned in an unrelated 295 essay on Jane Eyre.  Although, I wouldn’t put it past myself to do such a thing.  So you were right to wonder, if you did.

Literature Changing our Modern World

I've realized that my focus in writing has been based on families. Whether it is analyzing a poem my grandpa and dad used to read to me, stories about a mother talking to her daughter, analyzing an article about the purposefully childless, ect., I have a focus with things that involve family, or my family. I began to think of how I would relate this to literature and everything, and I decided to look deeper into what has been a common theme amongst my posts. I decided to start by asking my friends on Facebook, "I have a question for all of you. How do you believe the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood change from what it was 50 years ago? Any comments will be incredibly helpful :) Thanks guys!" and I had a friend leave with this response, "I think that the feminist movement of the 60s, that not only encouraged women to enter the workforce but denegrated those that chose to stay home, helped the decline of the traditional family. Add to that " the pill" which encouraged promiscuity and the lack of a stigma attached to unwed mothers (so the fathers decided they did not have to stick around) all aded tothe decline. Motherhood is no longer a valued vocation...except in çertain areas." I feel like my question has evolved. Now, I want to know how literature from all genres might push the feminist movement, and how it might have ultimately changed what we consider the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood. 
Literature is incredibly powerful. It has a way of changing the entire world. We learn about stories like To Kill A Mockingbird, poems and plays by Shakespeare, speeches and letters by Martin Luther King Jr. I feel like literature places the idea in the mind of the reader and attempts to lead them in the direction of this idea. I feel like literature had to be a large part of how the feminist movement took control and changed our world and the family drastically. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to be a feminist means your bad or wrong, it just means you are sepreated into a class of people that changed the world and the way things are done in our country. 
I hope to get more comments in my status to understand other ideas on how it changed, and maybe hear some of my feminist friends mention something that can help answer my new question. 

Topic stuff

So I've never really felt good about my writing. Most of my teachers have made comments and notes on things that I write that are discouraging and so I feel like I am a bad writer. It doesn't help that one of the hardest parts for me is choosing a topic to write on, especially when I am trying to get a certain number of pages. I feel like a lot of topics that I would be interested in writing about could never be as long as the teacher wants it to be without going off on side notes and things that are kind of relevant to the topic, but then the grade is always bad because I didn't stay on topic. I just have a hard time with it. With two such papers looming on my horizon, I am filled with dread and despair.

New Media Helping Families

http://www.bestplaces.net/city/ga/valdosta

My dad is in the military so we lived several places while I was growing up. One of the places we lived was Valdosta, Georgia. Being the south, it was super hot and extremely humid; during hurricane season, we were at risk because we were in that area that could have had problems. The worst that we experienced was really strong, gusty winds and amazing and scary thunder and rain storms. There were some tornadoes but they weren't near our house. That's where my family and I were living in 2011. It was the year that I would graduate and leave for college. It was also the year that my dad was considering retiring from the Air Force. If I remember correctly, in February (or so) my dad was asked to stay in longer and also to go on a TDY to Afghanistan starting in March. He brought the topic home to the rest of us to discuss and decide what to do. If he left, he would miss my graduation and wouldn't be there when I started college or had my 18th birthday, he would also miss out on a lot of other things. We talked and talked about it for the next few days. My parents decided that they felt like he should go and so my dad told his boss about the decision.

Social Media is Bringing Families Together

A bishop in California is struggling on how to advise his youth on social media. He knows that it is a useful way to spread the gospel and to preserve relationships among families and friends. He also struggles knowing that it can be the force to tear apart families. Things like pornography, profanity and evil ideologies are all over the social networks. This bishop had a daughter and son at home when the social network craze began, and he feared for his own children's salvation. This wasn't just the youth in his ward but it was his eternal family that could be affected by the evil side of social networks, even if they originally wanted to support the righteous and good things. The Californian bishop still struggles with his judgements on it, but he has learned that the only way to preserve his youth and his family is to become a part of the new social network craze that is sweeping the nation and the world.

Facebook and My Family (Personal Essay)

Facebook has been there for my family during the best of times…

My cousin found an app that made a photo collage of all our family members and tagged them in it.  One by one we began commenting, and within 12 minutes, I know there were 107 comments.  One cousin said, “I gotta pee but don’t want to leave and miss something.  How lame (and tmi) is that?”  So naturally, the conversation then morphed into a game of listing movie titles that sound like another way of saying #2.  Here is a small sampling:

1.     Green Mile

2.     Rush Hour

3.     Gone With the Wind

4.     The Sum of All Fears

5.     You’ve Got Mail

6.     The Holy Grail

7.     Children of the Corn

8.     7 Pounds

9.     Pay It Forward

10.   The Phantom Menace

By the end of the string, we came away with over 600 comments and a new affection for our Dalton cousins.

…and the worst of times.

When my sister’s engagement was broken off, several family members sent her messages with invaluable words of advice and comfort.  But even more than all that, I think there was one particular string of family Facebook messages that made a lasting impact.  In it, we came up with a list of descriptive acronyms to go with her ex-fiance’s initials.  We did it in an effort to both avoid using his name and cheer up my sister.  It has been years since that incident, but to this day, I’ll still hear those acronyms spring up here and there in conversation because they've become a family memory.  My personal favorite is Cubic-zirconia Jacker.  (He asked for the ring back after calling off the marriage.)

A Canal, Shoes, and a Cover-Up

In light of reading "Under Fire: An American Story" by Oliver L. North concerning the Reagan administration's cover-up over the Iran-Contra Scandal, it has brought up memories of a personal cover-up I had of my own the summer after I graduated high school.

Back when I was living in Boise Idaho, and this was six months before I served my mission, I called up a friend one evening, to see what activities we could do together. He asked me if I wanted to go tubing in a canal. I agreed to this activity without putting much thought to it. I changed into the appropriate attire and rendezvoused with a few buddies at this friend's house. His mother asked what we were doing, and once he mentioned that we were tubing in a canal she showed her objection to the activity, but he told her that he and others do it all the time, and it wasn't that dangerous.
So off my friends and I went, along with a group of high school kids who wanted to tag along with us. We parked in the Boise Town Square Mall parking lot, us fellas took off our shirts and made it look as if we were merely jogging to the cars passing by. We were trying to get the canal quietly, but high schools kids love to make noise. When we got to entrance of the canal underpass (which was underneath a highway), we had a lookout, and my friends told the high school kids to shut up. I was just going along with the ride at this point.
But once I realized that we had a lookout for cops as we did our activity, I said to him: Is this illegal? But he only told me to get in the water, as I was removing my socks and shoes from my feet.
We all finally went into the canal and into the dark underpass. Upon realizing there were no lights in this underpass and rushing with fast water, I became really scared. While  passing through the canal, I lost  my socks and one shoe.
At the end of the dark underpass, we were supposed to land on the left-side of the canal, which most of did, but I didn't. Being a bad swimmer, and weak against the strong current, I went farther down the canal than was planned. A friend or two had to swim after me and we ended up pulling out on the right-side of the canal instead. I was rather shaken up from the experience. Everyone else wanted to go do it again, but I stayed with the cars instead.
We all went home in two seperate cars, after everybody was done with this activity. I was given a ride home by two friends, but on the way there I insisted that we go to Walmart so I could buy new shoes. I knew that with my socks and one shoe missing my dad would realize that we did something we shouldn't have, and I did not want my dad to know what we had just done!
Both of my friends were wanting to go inside Wal-Mart with me, but an old man in the entrance wouldn't let me pass because I went in without shoes. So, I borrowed a friend's sandals so I could buy my own new shoes. Fortunately I had 20 dollars on me, and they had the exact same shoes I was looking for. The only difference would be that these shoes were clean.
Once my friend and I got back into the car, I put the new pair of shoes on, and put the one old shoe in the shoe box, and I had my friends take the shoe box with them so as to get rid of the evidence that this ever happened. Thus, I made my cover-up, and I had help to do it!


The truth of the matter came out a couple of months later when I was getting my mission papers filled out, and I told my bishop about this incident. He told me that this was an honesty issue that I needed to come forward to my dad about it. I pulled my dad into my bedroom to finally confess to him what my friends and I had done. I started out by telling him that the shoes that I was wearing were not the same ones that I left home with that night. He wasn't angry, but was rather appreciative that I finally came forward about this with him, and although I was dishonest about what happened that night, he wanted me to consider the fact that what my friends and I had done that night was dangerous and could have led to disastrous consequences. My father never yelled at me over it, and I'm sure some part of him wanted to, but I believe he didn't simply for the fact that I had learned my lesson to not ever do such activities without having thought about the consequences of what might happen, and I certainly haven't such a thing like that again.

Dark Themes in Drama

Looking over my recent posts - but keeping the paper I have to write in mind - the questions and thoughts I have, naturally, tend towards the play I will direct.
I chose seven plays to read. I have sufficiently eliminated four, I have one more to read, and then I'll make my decision.

I am a little worried, however, as the ones I have left are a little bit dark. How did this happen? I am not sure. These plays just spoke to me more. I feel more of a real connection to these plays. And no, I'm not emo! I don't connect to them because I am feeling what the characters feel - I just think that they are portraying something closer to reality than some of the others I read.
The play that I am leaning towards at this point is 'Night Mother, and if you'll remember - it is about suicide. Marsha Norman doesn't sugarcoat it one bit! Take a look at this synopsis:

As the play begins Jessie asks for her father's service revolver and calmly announces that she intends to kill herself. At first her mother refuses to take her seriously, but as Jessie sets about tidying the house and making lists of things to be looked after, her sense of desperate helplessness begins to build. In the end, with the inexorability of genuine tragedy, she can only stand by, stunned and unbelieving, as Jessie quietly closes and locks her bedroom door and ends her profound unhappiness in one fatal, stunning and deeply disturbing moment—a moment never to be forgotten by those who have witnessed, and come to understand, her plight.

Yes, it is dark. It is a play dealing with raw, human emotion. Jessie is calm and controlled as she tells her mother why she would like to kill herself.

My potential question - the one I would write a six page paper answering - is if a play with such dark subject matter is appropriate for a general audience. I believe that it is, without a doubt. In fact, I believe that it is necessary to produce plays with dark themes and real problems. There are some who would disagree with me.

New Media Can Help Family Life

And it came to pass, in a time of highly technological advances in the land of America, that the Saints were able to use the new media to improve their process of doing their genealogy and family history work, and to access church materials through the advanced uses of the Internet. And behold, it came to pass, in this the fifth year of the reign of Obama, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hath released a new edition of the Holy Scriptures, and made them available to be downloaded onto handheld devices, which hath allowed members of the Church to have quick access to the Scriptures, which were readily available upon announcement.
And it also came to pass, that the holy prophets of the Church began to teach and to prophesy of the importance of doing family history work, and missionary work, to help the kingdom of God grow upon the face upon the whole earth. Yea, and it cometh to pass, and it is being fulfilled concerning the coming of "Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And that Elijah would "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." (Malachi 4:5-6)
For behold, hath not the prophets exhorted us to use the media and technology for the purposes of communicating, and exchanging family history information? Yea, and hath they not also exhorted us to use the media to share the gospel with our friends and family? Verily, verily, I say unto you, yea!
I would exhort you, my brethren and sister,s to use the media to access these things, and do your family history work in your families, that you and your children may draw close together, and to allow your heart turn to your fathers, and the heart of your fathers to yours. I would also exhort you, again, to use Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and other on-line resources to share your genealogy with one another.

















 

Self-Made Heroes

Today I traveled to my roommate's side of the room and toured her bookshelves.  She is in Japan right now.

Some of you might have heard of my roommate.

She is the one with the librarian glasses, and she owns an impressive selection of nonfiction. I, of course, went straight for the picture book.

A page from What It Is by Lynda Barry

Ask not what technology can do for you...

Friends, Classmates, Americans, lend me your ears. 

We are at a crossroads in our society. Do we continue to allow this new world 

of media to replace real communication? Do we allow family relationships to fall 

by the wayside in favor of tweets and facebook status updates?  

Nay, I say unto you that we must put aside these things. They are a hinderance 

to us. They build a wall between ourselves and the outside world. Young people 

today: could you tell me without having to check facebook what your sister’s birthday

is? Do you know how your mother is feeling without having to check her facebook

wall or twitter feed for an update of some kind? When was the last time you spoke to 
a family member and actually heard their voice? We must tear down this wall!

Four score and seven years ago media wasn’t the problem that it is today, 

and family relationships were much stronger. There weren’t as many distractions. Families interacted at the dinner table - talking about their day. They didn’t have to check 

twitter and instagram to know anything about each other.

Not to worry, I have a solution. I say to you today, my friends, so even though 

we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a

dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this 

nation will be as great as it once was. That families can prosper. I have a dream 

that we will cast aside these modern “conveniences” in support of truth and liberty. 

The truth of actual human interaction, liberty from being tied to a computer or cellphone. 

Don’t you see? We rely on this new media in such a way that it is crippling! 

We can only go so far as the charger, and we end up missing out on the world.

Give me liberty from this media prison, or give me death!

The Term, Non-fiction

I have a greater appreciation for this genre than I did a week ago. I never realized how much of it I actually read. When I read Martin Luther King's "I Had a Dream", I never thought of the genre of it. I guess a part of me did not even realize it could have it's own drama. When I thought of "nonfiction", I thought of autobiographies and personal essays. It never came to me that there is so much more to nonfiction. There's speeches, scriptures, sermons, theology, philosophy, and more. It's funny how almost all forms of writing can be seen as literature when seen through the right eyes. I read a poem and analyzed it, called "Casey at the Bat". It wasn't all that intellectually puzzling or led to strange forms of analysis, but it had an overall theme that as a child, I could take with me through life. I've realized that it doesn't have to be the ancient scrolls or a Shakespearean play to be considered literature. It just has to have meaning, and something for the reader to search for.
In all honesty, not all writings are a form of literature. It is astounding how many actually are, though. This section has opened my eyes more than any other, because now I realize that everything can and possibly does have a deeper meaning than we believe, at first.

Creative Nonfiction for the week

Don't take this the wrong way... I'm not trying to be rude... It's just my Point Of View as far as nonfiction is concerned.


As I was reading Dr. Burton's post about creative nonfiction I came to the realization (or I came to a better knowledge) that I really do, in fact, not like nonfiction (except the scriptures, but that's pretty much it). I just don't find a good amount of the sub-genres he listed to be interesting. I was considering naming off the ones that I find boring but it would be faster, easier, and a much shorter list if I name the ones I do like. I like some personal essays, some sermons, scripture, some theology, some reviews, and some blogs. The only reason that I could possibly come up for choosing to read nonfiction (other than the before mentioned) would be if I need help falling asleep. In fact, as I was doing the readings for my English 251 class, which were all nonfiction because that is our focus this week, I fell asleep a few times; but there were a couple of the readings that held my attention and kept me awake. I thought I would be interested in the travel writing but it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. I might try to learn a bit more about that sub-genre and perhaps write a blog in that style, but we'll see.

This week, I will try to open my mind to some creative nonfiction. I will read some blogs, read scriptures, and maybe read some reviews. I am going to try to stay awake while reading nonfiction and try out writing a couple of blogs using the sub-genres of nonfiction such as about food or traveling.

The Literary Connections in the Scriptures

My senior year of high school in my AP English class, we were asked to read portions of the Bible. This wasn't for religious purposes, but to look at the stories. It never really connected with me that it could be literature. In that class, we did a very surface look at the stories, and didn't really dig too deeply. In my seminary class, though, we were reading the Old Testament, and looking at how all those choices led to the consequences. One I remember was learning about Abraham and Lot. Abraham basically forshadows Lot's demise by giving him the choice on where he wanted to go to live. Another thing that my seminary teacher, my older brother Jared, pointed out was the symbolism where you pitch your tent. He taught our class the idea that where we, as people, pitch our tents will be where our heart will lie. Lot had pitched his towards Sodom, and he and his family were ultimately corrupted by the evil that crept into their hearts there. Abraham pitched his tent in the quieter, less enticing land, but was ultimately blessed all his life for his righteousness.
Being a member of the LDS church, we are blessed to be able to have understandings of books like Isaiah and Revelations which is filled with metaphors and symbolism. I always knew you could analyze the scriptures, but I never really thought of it as being a form of literature, nonetheless a form of nonfiction. I read nonfiction everyday just by opening my scriptures. I learned about the metaphors and the symbols, but I never really thought of the genre of the scriptures. I guess that I have more experience with this genre than I had originally thought.

Does having children force one to grow up?

In Katie Roiphe's article "Do We Secretly Envy the Childfree?" she discusses how people without children are sometimes looked at or thought about. Near the end of the article, she brings up the idea that people who have children must grow up and the people who do not have or do not want children have not and perhaps do not grow up. She poses the following question: "why should you have to grow up if you don’t want to?"

I have not yet had children and thus cannot give an exceedingly meaningful answer; but I don't think that having children forces you to grow up, in the sense that you cannot have fun and such. Yes, you should be a responsible adult who can take care of yourself and others but you can still do things that you enjoy. I find that I can do more fun things when I am playing with kids or babysitting than when I am not simply because they are so much fun. They have amazing imaginations, are crazy and wild and silly, have enormous amounts of energy, and get to do things that grown-ups can't do without them (like some playgrounds, rides at amusement parks, etc.). And so that is why I think it that having children does not force one to grow up in some ways.

Nephi's Psalm

Although I don't have much to post for this blog, I do find that I can liken Nephi's Psalm unto myself. Here we have an account of this man lamenting over the weakness of the flesh and giving into sin and temptation, while yet he seeks to pursue the course which the Lord has set for him. I love how he upon past experiences to give praises unto the Lord from delivering him from his "enemies", and for preserving him in the wilderness and over the ocean. In a way, the Lord also delivers us from our personal wilderness and preserves us as we sail our personal seas. And like Nephi, "my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon [these] things." (2 Nephi 4:16)

Pretentious and Condescending

I may be the only one, but I find a lot of nonfiction (mainly the personal essay variety) to be pretentious or condescending. I also don't like to read something where I feel the author is on the defensive. It just puts me in a weird mood.

Because of that, I really didn't care for "Take, Eat" by Tessa Meyer Santiago. I am sure that her feelings are very important to her, and I understand where she is coming from (I think) but the style of the writing and the tone. UGH! It just really bothered me. I wanted to be like "quit whining!" Then again, I may be a terrible person.

I also hated reading "Do We Secretly Envy the Childfree?" Hmmm, maybe? Or maybe still, we don't give the childfree a single thought because it doesn't matter to us or impact our lives at all. 

I found the travel writings to be a little pretentious. 

I will say the only one that I LOVED was reading "Santaland Diaries" by David Sedaris. I found this to be incredibly funny and very well written. He wasn't preaching to me, there didn't seem to be an agenda, it was just a story to entertain and it happened to be true. 

This is the part where I actually laughed and woke up my poor husband.

"Twenty-two thousand people came to see Santa today, and not all of them were well behaved. Today, I witnessed fistfights and vomiting and magnificent tantrums. The back hallway was jammed with people. There was a line for Santa and a line for the women's bathroom. And one woman, after asking me a thousand questions already, asks: Which is the line for the women's bathroom? And I shouted that I thought it was the line with all the women in it. And she said: I'm going to have you fired.
I had two people say that to me today: I'm going to have you fired. Go ahead, be my guest. I'm wearing a green velvet costume. It doesn't get any worse than this. Who do these people think they are? I'm going to have you fired, and I want to lean over and say: I'm going to have you killed."

Impressionism and Travel Writing

In the Dining Room by Berthe Morisot

This is one of my favorite Impressionist paintings.  Impressionism cuts past all the shorthand--the stick with a lumpy circle on top to represent a tree, two dots and a crescent to represent a smile, etc--and tries to capture the way that we initially perceive things.  Like artwork, language can be a form of shorthand.  In Verbage for Poems, Jorge Luis Borges claims: "...we invent nouns to fit reality.  We touch a sphere, see a small heap of dawn-colored light, our mouths enjoy a tingling sensation, and we lie to ourselves that those three disparate things are only one thing called an orange."  Travel writing is powerful because the authors remove themselves as far as possible from  their language, its pigeonholes, and the those things that fit inside.

They go where their old nouns can hardly be trusted,

where "cocoa" is no longer "brown, chocolate bean" but "white, fruity seed,"

or where things that have no name, like the way the light looks after it has passed through stained glass demand attention because they lack language.  In such settings, "the inventive character of language" becomes clearer than ever, so that travel writers bear the challenge of constructing new language and new reality.

Mapping Our Reality

In his article Verbiage for Poems, Jorge Luis Borges claims that, "language constructs reality."  Well if that's true, then literature is our map of that reality, which, when carefully studied, can open our minds to possible alternatives.

I made this little visual aid as an example.  It shows how St. Augustine has mapped out the word "love" in Book II of Confessions.  I chose Confessions for my example because in it, St. Augustine uses lots of repetition of words to play with their various meanings.  He opens by saying: "I will now call to mind my past foulness, and the carnal corruptions of my soul; not because I love them, but that I may love Thee, O my God.  For love of Thy love I do it..."

A Different Perspective

In Katie Roiphe's "Do We Secretly Envy the Childfree?", I felt like I was recieving a lecture on not judging others for their personal decisions. This is fine and all, but I feel like it lacks the other side of the debate; those who decide to have several or more children recieve just as much judgement as those who don't have children at all. Even in Provo, UT where most of the community is Latter-Day Saints, I get strange looks when I say I am the youngest of eight children and have a sister with seven children. If we are going to promote the idea of being nonjudgmental when it comes to other's decisions on having or not having children, that should include those who decide to have more than two or three kids. I personally want to have a lot of children. This isn't because I want to overpopulate the Earth, get a welfare check from the government or because I want to be the annoying mother in the supermarket. It is because I want to be able to raise a large family to support one another in the crazy world out there. Is that wrong or should be looked down on?
One day, in the P.E. class I assisted in, the gym teacher and I got into a discussion about children and how many people should have. He went off on a tangent about how having a lot of children is a terrible thing, and that, just like in China, we should be limited on how many children we should have. He gave me the welfare and overpopulation debates and I sat and listened quietly. At the end, I replied saying I wanted to have a large family so that my children might be the changing affect in schools, workplaces and in the world. We left, neither persuading the other, but I feel we left with a different perspective than before.
I personally feel the greatest affect I can make in the world is raising respectful, polite and intelligent children to enter into the world and to make a difference. This doesn't have to be by creating new laws or changing the way we do things. It can be that one person that smiles at you on your worst day, and makes you feel like you were noticed. I want my child to be the one that gives someone faith in humanity, and give them the confidence to believe that the world isn't completely lost yet.

I believe William Ross Wallace says it best when he says, 

"Woman, how divine your mission, 

Here upon our natal sod; 

Keep—oh, keep the young heart open 

Always to the breath of God! 

All true trophies of the ages 

Are from mother-love impearled, 

For the hand that rocks the cradle 

Is the hand that rules the world."

Macy's vs. The North Pole

Check out how David Sedaris compares and contrasts two settings to create a comedic conflict in this excerpt from his Santaland Diaries.

Favorite!

Okay, it wasn't until I read Dr. Burton's post that I realized what all fits into the category of nonfiction. There are some things that you read that you just don't consider to be literature?! Like when he mentioned religious scripture.. OF COURSE that is nonfiction.. I just had never though about it.

Another one I never thought about though I read it all the time is blogs and blog posts.

I follow A LOT of blogs. A few of my favorites being Miss Mustard Seed, Perfectly Imperfect, and Style with Cents.
These are some of the blogs that I model my own after. Content and formatting.

These are also the same types of books that I read, some are even written by bloggers that I follow. This is my favorite type of nonfiction :)

Nonfiction in MY Life

It would appear that the majority of nonfiction I have read falls either into life writing or literary criticism. Both of these genres I've really only read for various classes, as nonfiction has never interested me as much as other forms of literature.
Just this semester alone, I've read quite a bit of "life writing" literary nonfiction.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World is a true account of Shackleton and the Endurance. They were trapped in the ice of Antarctica for five months and all of the men survived. The author, Jennifer Armstrong, took first hand accounts from journals and ship logs and put everything into a very compelling story.

Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith is a beautiful novel about the relationship and family life of Charles Darwin and his wife, Emma. I was not excited to read it AT ALL but it really exceeded my expectations and I really came to care for the characters. There are many excerpts from journals and letters, it is clearly an accurate representation of their life together in the 1800's.

Hole in My Life is a memoir by children's author: Jack Gantos. This is by no means a children's book, however, as he recounts the events that landed him in prison for smuggling hash across the border. It is incredibly fascinating and well written, and there is a really nice moral in the end without being too didactic. I believe this is the first memoir I've read that I have actually enjoyed and I recommend it!

I will soon read a few others, I'll let you know how it goes!

As far as literary criticism goes, I don't have too much to say on the matter. For my TMA 397 class we learn about different theories: formalism, structuralism, poststructuralism, new historicism, critical historeography, feminism, and ecocriticism. For each of these theories we look at works of literature (dramatic literature) and we analyze them accordingly. Because we are learning these theories, we read a lot of literary criticism explaining these theories by "the best" critics and theorists.
Beginning Theory - Peter Barry
The Savage Mind - Levi-Strauss
The Intentional Fallacy - Wimsatt & Beardsley
The Theatre of Cruelty and The Closure of Representation - Derrida
The Archaeology of Knowledge - Foucault
The Ecological Though - Morton

...and many more to come.

Socializing on the Web

I have decided to get out of my "comfort zone" with socializing and share my thoughts and what I'm learning about in English 251 on my deviantArt account by posting a journal entry. This is a website entirely dedicated to art, and where artists go to publish, share, sale, trade and purchase art. I started my account over a year ago, and was influence by my wife to do so.

Under Fire

For the nonfiction unit, the book I have selected to read outside of our common reads is "Under Fire: An American Story" by Oliver L. North. The book deals with Oliver North's experience during the Reagan administration during the mid-1980s. Oliver North was a Lieutenant Colonel, and was fired over the "Iran-Contra Affair" as part of the cover-up.
I'm finding the book very interesting and fascinating, and I'm having to read the book with a grain of salt. Simply because Ronald Reagan is one of my favorite presidents, next to George Washington.
There's a valid point which Oliver North makes over the scandal and cover-up, which was interestingly brought back memories of Richard Nixon's cover-up. North states in the first chapter of his book: "...the [Reagan] administration's strategy had been unspoken but unmistakable: this must not become another Watergate. Although Watergate had involved several violations of the law, most Americans believed that the most serious offense of all--and the one that eventually led to President Nixon's resignation--was not the burglary itself, but the cover-up." (p.7)
I think his statement's valid, because the point in which Oliver North makes here was that there was a problem - a scandal of all things - and all the American People want is for politicians to hold themselves accountable for whatever happened, and not just sweep it under the rug.

Death of a Salesman

I thought what we read for this was rather interesting, I found myself hanging at the end of the assignment because I was like, "wait...Biff didn't go to see Willy left who for dinner?" I have to read more into it of course, now that I'm rather curious to read what Linda's nagging at them all about.
What Willy did with The Woman and then lying to his son, Biff, about it was pretty low. I know what it's like when you realize your parents flat out lie to you, it makes you have sympathy for Biff, even though he's punk.

Les Miserables, Then and Now

Les Miserables, 1995

This was the first professional musical (opera?) I ever saw.  I was ten and sick and I didn’t have high expectations.  I only watched it because my old-lady neighbor brought it over on film so that I wouldn’t be both sick and bored.  I thought that was nice of her, even though I would probably end up bored all the same.  Boy, was I wrong.

Les Miserables, 2012

I watched this version yesterday as part of my post-mission film catch-up and personal learning plan.  When I asked my dad if it was going to be a musical, he said, “They do sing like 40 percent of the time.  Or is it like 70 percent?  …Wait, was that entire movie really singing?”

The scene that most stuck with me from the 1995 version of Les Miserables was the song "I Dreamed a Dream" by Fantine (Ruthie Henshall).  She stood in front of a microphone in her dignified make-up, hair, and dress and sung on an open, unfurnished stage.  Most of the tragedies that she suffered were described through highly stylized song rather than acted out.  In some ways, the formality of it all resembled ancient Greek drama, as described in the Delbanco and Cheuse textbook: "This formality may...make these ancient dramas seem overly regulated or ritualistic for modern tastes.  However, when you consider the material that the play puts forward--murder, incest, child abuse, and a madness that questions language that comes directly from the gods--you can see how the playwright achieves a certain stability with all of this potentially frenzied subject matter by grounding the intense emotions in such a formal fashion" (1100).  I felt that the affected music was great for evoking the emotional impact of traumas too horrible to be reproduced onstage.  Also, Fantine's refined physical appearance could represent an inner value and dignity that she preserved through all the misery.

The 2012 version, like most modern cinema, took a more realistic approach.  The settings, costumes, and action reproduced scenes so true to life that my dad hardly even noticed the singing.  This is an effective approach when we are dealing with a plot in which, "...every man or woman can be a kind of hero. You need not be aristocratic or from an imperial family to have a tale worth telling or a fate that matters to others" (1277).