Thursday, April 21, 2005

swimmingly

Things are ok but I have a bunch of stuff I want to accomplish and I dunno when or where or how. I really need a swimming suit because A) going to the beach B) going to the pool. I need to get in better shape!!! V_V Seems like this endeavor will have to wait for tomorrow tho...cuz I need to CLEAN MY HOUSE tonite and take a shower and do some reading and buy some vegetables.

The play last night was really cool, but very different. Props were thrown everywhere, the stage was a mess. Shoes, rocks, sand, rolls, forks, all sorts of things. They either talked SUPER fast or PAINstakingly slow. It was a bit hard to follow in fact because even the titles went by pretty quickly at times. It was in Japanese and French and actually the male actor was French which I hadn't known before. I guess I have to admit I didn't really understand it...I mean even beyond the language thing.

This last remark makes me think of my remaining lit class. The film/lit class. Cuz our teacher always throws in references to Heidigger is that how you spell his name? And Eisenstein and expects us to know what she's saying. It is really a pain. Always talking about critics and stuff that is way over our heads. And about history and asking us questions and when we have an answer she just keeps talking anyhow and when we don't she acts frustrated. I dunno...it's really annoying. I wish I knew more about lit theory and how to read stuff. You can only see things you are taught to read for...did I already talk about that in here? I think all the time people just expect us to know how to "read" but really we don't, at least I don't.

So I went and checked out the Japanese grocery today because I decided bento sounded good. I ate and enjoyed green beans...I should find out what they do to them...o_o In fact I was going to go to the MCJP to read and look up some recipes but really I don't think I will have time...and then even if I eat up the rest of my food I think it will be so close to vacation that it would be silly to go grocery shopping anyhow. That's kinda frustrating. I'm going to have to specifically concentrate on my vacation and not spend the whole time looking forward to coming back to grocery shop.

SPEAKING of which I found a really kickin' little bio store right by the Chatêlet exit...which I HAVE to go to. I didn't look at the prices for their bread but they have bread and alllll sorts of things. Gotta check it out when I go grocery shopping.

I finally got my passport today too that was the other news. Not like it was difficult or anything. Took like five seconds. Took longer to get into the building than for them to give me my stuff. I don't like the picture though and it's on ALL my ID...the same geeky pic. x_x

I wasn't in a lousy mood but I kinda am now...thinking about how ignorant one is tends to do that. I hate when our teacher doesn't explain anything and then when you ask questions still doesn't explain anything. I guess I'm also not really looking forward to cleaning. I guess technically though I could do that all night so maybe I should go to the MCJP this afternoon...
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1 comment:

Xavier said...

I wish I had my Reading Lessons, but if you want to hear about literary theory, you should read Scott Carpenter's Introduction to Theory. It's pretty silly sometimes, because he uses a lot of pop culture, but that just makes it easier to understand and connect with.

There's structuralism, which is pretty much what you learn in high school, or at least that's what I learned. You look for things that are different and similar to each other. Like in the movie Casablanca, there are a series of glasses that overturn during pivitol moments of the movie. And you look for things like that, and compare differences.

Structuralism also strongly refuses author intention. Anything dealing with the author should not interfere with the story's interpretation. Everything that you analyze is found strictly in the text.

Then there's deconstructionism (or poststructuralism), which says there really are no differences to things. Things aren't as black and white as they seem. For example, we think of gender as binary, man and woman, but a deconstructionist sees that a person can be both male and female or neither male nor female. The two interact with each other. Things can be good and evil and not just one or the other.

The deconstructionist notices these breaches of binary, and interprets it as speaking out against normal society, or something to that degree.

Then there's gender studies, which is really easy. Usually there are men and women in a story, and anytime that happens you can interpret the different roles that each one plays. Is the man the dominant force, or perhaps the woman uses seduction to gain power. Gender studies is kinda easy.

Besides gender studies, there's feminism. But a feminist analysis argues that woman are superior to men. Which was a movement in response to the past beliefs that men were superior. It was kind of sad, because feminism started and tried to be a big force, but then deconstructionism came. Which said there is no difference between man and woman, or perhaps that the two are more similar than you think.

Then there's psychoanalytical theory. But you gotta know all that cognitive stuff, and things like repression, and displacement etc.

And there's Contexual criticism. Which is putting the work in the context in which it was written. Such as the time period that it was written in. Or perhaps the time period that it is read in. Or perhaps that it is not an original story but based on something older like Shakespeare. Contexual criticism focuses on all things that are connected with the story that one thinks about while reading.

And kind of like contexual, there's historicism. Which is strictly putting it in its time period. Was it written in the Victorian Era? Or was it written during the Vietnam Conflict or the Cold War conflict.

There's lots of other things that are really helpful. Like deconstructionism focuses on the margins. When we read, we tend to see the important parts, and skip over things that are marginalized. But deconstructionists feel that the margin should be read more carefully. And that there is no distinction marginal or central, between essential or inessential.

I think that's very helpful. You also have to look at literary devices. How does sensory details affect the reader. How does tense affect the reading. Does rhythmn contribute or do things like time, character, or setting contribute to the theme.

Those are kinda really basic stuff. And there's tons more to look at when reading. Reading should be an active process. And you can use these things when you read anything. You can read a street sign. Red equals stop and green equals go. You can read a yogurt carton and see that something is 'lite'. What does that say about our society? You can read a sign in france that says 'l'hotel de ville,' and think about hermeneutics. Does an English speaking person interpret the information as a French person would. Especially when l'hotel de ville isn't a hotel at all but a town hall.

So yeah. Lots of interesting things in English. I hope you can get the hang of it. I hope yoor skills in reading analysis improve. And I hope what I wrote makes a little sense. I tried to write it in as simple a way as possible...

Wow I can't believe I remember all that stuff though. :P

9:39 PM

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