Death and Taxes

I explored the mythical figure of Cassandra for my final

Daisy Miller pg. 15 Winterbourne's aunt gives him, and us, the outcome of the story

Citizen Kane does not have a Cassandra, but the audience is given a prophetic outcome when Kane drops and shatters the snowglobe as he utters "Rosebud". Even though Rosebud drives the story it does not define the story.

Wiseblood-I failed to find a figure, or a prophetic vision or moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is there, but I am missing something obvious.

Invisible Man is the most obvious place that Cassandra appears in the vet. He accurately diagnoses Mr. Norton, he tells Norton that IM is the Invisible Man, and on the bus he gives the future of Invisible Man. He talks about padded cells and warns him to play the game, but not to believe in it.

Bear-At the age of 13 Ike kills a deer and has it's blood put on his face (keep this in mind for later), the little fyce (rat terrier) is the only dog able to corner Ol' Ben but Ike won't kill the Ol' Ben, nor will Sam Fathers. They have a prophetic moment when they realize "someone will, someday" They want the hunt to last to the end, but Boone kills the bear. Everyone is sad and forced to move on in life.

Stevens-My poem (I did this to see if I could make it work on mine) The Motive for Metaphor it is important to shrink away from the "vital, arrogant, fatal, dominant X" and yet X is vital to the story. 13 Ways to See A Blackbird, I thought that if you could see a man and a woman and a blackbird as one, then the man and the woman can learn from the blackbird. Blackbirds live their life until the moment they die.

Cassandra was given the gift of accurately foretelling the future but has it twisted to where no one will believe her. They find her crazy. On the surface this seems to say that there is no free will. However, I believe that Cassandra gives King Priam more information that he chooses to ignore, in effect he is given true free will.

a little disclaimer: Choosing how to present Cassandra was a small challenge because I am not a woman, I am definitely not pretty, so I had to attempt crazy

More Lecture Notes on Lolita

Nabokov is looking for the ideal read: one who can't sleep and always reads
You need to be supernaturally receptive - everything exists as a kind of sign.
You need to know everything in order to be a good reader of Nabokov

religion = receptive to signs and symbols around you

Alfred Appel real person commenting on Nabokov
John Ray, JR PHD is a creation of Navokov, notice the symmetry
JR JR

Nabokov denies allegory or old world vs. new world














Allusion of chess game is appealing.
In chess the most humiliating and devastating move is kidnapping the other player's queen

7 Aspects of the Nabokov Novel...and then some

Parody
Coincidence
Patterning
Allusion
Work within a work
Staging of novel
authorial
these are on page xxvii

Art
Curiosity, Tenderness, Kindness, Ecstasy, and when that state of being is the norm

Lolita is a work of fiction only so far as it works as aesthetic (felt or perceived in beauty)bliss-there is no moral to the story

Obsession is narcisstic, claustrophib, pathological
Obsessive love is a perverse love, but still a love

Lewis Carrol obsessed with young girlds between certain ages (NYMPHETS)
Charles Dickens obsessed with Red Riding Hood

Lecture brought us butterflies in November

"Lolita is one of the most important novels in American literature"

Dr. Sexson

Madeleinea Lolita

and

Pseudolocia humbert

The two have become butterflies

Here are some more Nabokov names for butterflies you might find interesting.

Nabokov said only true moment of bliss is to be among butterflies. Dr. Sexson described an exhibit of butterflies in which you walked among them.

The word PSYCHE is now associated with the mind. Originally it meant soul. The picture associated with a butterfly. (the left and right wings must mirror each other)

Doctor Sexson also gave us his age in 1960, but that might be a little mean to put it on the Internet

Class generated notes for Test 2

A change of style is a change of subject
What is below myth?
music
What is Nobody's real name?
Xebeche...means He Who Talks Loud and Says Nothing
What Stevens poem is reminiscent of Dead Man?
Prologues to what is Possible
Northrop Frye was very upset with words that start with?
de, process of taking things away
Bill Blake takes the blood of the ____?
fawn
Dr. Sexson thinks students should unergo what?
physical mutilation
What are the 3 phrases used to study Dead Man and Stevens?
Poetry is the subject of the Poem, Poetry is a destructive force, all things resemble each other
What is the playing of the dozens?
flyting, is in Invisible Man and Mules and Men
Democracy is inspired by what?
Imagination
Name of the 2 sheriffs Bill Blake kills?
Lee and Marvin
What are the 3 things Ike must leave behind?
rifle, compass, watch
What are the 2 forms of imagination in Stevens?
creative and decreative
Speech protagonist gives about death of Clifton is modeled after what?
Book of Judges and Julius Cesar
Intentionable fallacy:
what author intended is important
Character of Reinhardt represents what?
trickster
What starts the race riot in Invisible Man?
eulogy of Tod Clifton
Which famous jazz song opens Invisible Man?
What did I do to be so black and blue? by Louis Armstrong
What is the name of the unnamed poem in the Bear?
Ode to a Grecian Urn by Keates
Who did Santa Claus rape?
Sybil
Who is Sybil mythologically?
oracle that leads hero into the underworld
Invisible Man is an anti____ novel?
Horatio Alger
2 Hindu phrases:
Tat Tavm Asi= that thou art (you are it), Neti Neti=not this, not that
Invisible Man as a dream or hallucinatory dream

1369-the number of lightbulbs in the Invisible Man's hibernation hole
Define parataxis:
stringing lots of things together with the conjuction and
What is Cole Wilson's mythical title?
demon master of initiation
What does synaesthesia mean?
blurring and mixing of the senses
what is an epheve?
student or initiation

You like it under the trees in autumn, 11/2

My Poem is The Motive for Metaphor

I also looked up the definitions of the words in the title in order to help understand the poem. Motive is a desire or reason for something and metaphor is the application of a name or descriptive term or phrase to an object to which it is not literally applicable. In other words the title of my poem means The Desire for Meaning.

The first interesting thing is that you like it in autumn and spring. As we learned in lecture summer=imagination and winter=reality. I got to thinking how people describe reality with imaginative descriptions and then when we describe our imagination (i.e. dreams) we use examples from reality. In this way the poem is looking at how we describe the world around us. According to Stevens it's not strictly in reality or strictly in imagination, it is somewhere in between the two.

This poem also talks about identity in a similar way. The obscure moon lighting the an obscure world. Also from lecture, day=reality and night=imagniation, as well as light and dark respectively. Stevens is saying that it is best for one to be obscure and imaginative with a little light and reality to form one's identity. (This also reminded me of Emerson's argument in Self Reliance) You shrink away from primary noon, or complete reality and nothing is left to the imagination or hidden from view. Stevens finishes the poem with other extemes to shrink away from: red and blue spark (in our lecture red=imagination and blue=reality), the A.B.C.s of life and the vital arrogant fatal dominant X. It is better to have a balance than to be an extreme, and yet the X is vital.

My final observation was the night before the presentations I looked online to see what was out there on The Motive for Metaphor, and found a discussion about two individuals not knowing what the poem was about, and having to write a 350 word essay on it. My word count to this point is 339. This reminded me of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the story the alchemist says how originally God put the process of alchemy in a single diagram on the face of a gem, and now generations later alchemy required multiple volumes of books to be described

Sting Interrupts Class-Notes 10/31

3 things that have to be left to find the Bear: rifle, compass, watch
They are all metalic, mechanical. You need to lose trappings of society to find Bear (nature?)
epiphany with the bear (as opposed to a burning bush)-divinity in nature (transcendentalism??)

Faulkner gets you to epiphany by using incantation=not describing the experience, but recreating the experience

A change of style is a change of subject-Wallace Stevens

Ellison is channeling Shakespeare's Julius Cesear who is channeling Book of Judges

imagination has 2 forms: creative and decreative
Even the absence of imagination has to be imagined

Music
Peyter-All art aspires to the level of music
Lyrics to don't stand so close to me by the police http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/sting+&+police/dont+stand+so+close+to+me_20132359.html

jazz improvisation is a delicate balance b/w individual and the group

A New Level to the Pyramid-Notes 10/26

Ellison xi-human imagination is integrative-and that inspirits the democratic process

There is a level to the pyramid below myth...and it is music

Notes Tuesday 10/24

Dead Man presentation:
-American myth-cf course I have a gun
-Road movie
-abduction myth: Nobody takes Bill Blake on a journey, Bill Blake is abducted by William Blake


overdetermined-Freud, a lot going on

Invisible Man
-relies on trickster
-transcendentalism

Notes 10/17

'Ode to a Grecian Urn' is the unnamed poem being read in Bear

Resemblence-Exodus 24:9-10 pavement of sapphire reflects sky-in Dead Man sky reflects water

Nobody is the name of the Indian in Dead Man and the main character of Invisible Man has no name, he is no one or nobody

paratactic-lots of things held together with and, no subordinating clauses
this is like deep focus in Citizen Kane

Notes 10/17

'Ode to a Grecian Urn' is the unnamed poem being read in Bear

Resemblence-Exodus 24:9-10 pavement of sapphire reflects sky-in Dead Man sky reflects water

Nobody is the name of the Indian in Dead Man and the main character of Invisible Man has no name, he is no one or nobody

paratactic-lots of things held together with and, no subordinating clauses
this is like deep focus in Citizen Kane

Dead Man-a few notes

Things that are alike, grow to look alike. Not only does the quote from the beginning tell about the end when Blake is in the boat there are a couple of other times that stuck out.
-William Blake smears the fawn's blood on his forehead and lays down next to the fawn as the camera circles and he looks at the clouds (in class while watching it was suggested this is the midpoint of the movie where the beginning and end mirror)
-Nobody is an innocent(ignorant) like William Blake when he tells how he went on tour and in every town everyone loooked the same, which confused him how everyone could be moved that fast

Nobody tells Blake that you can't stay the clouds with the building of a ship-stuck in my mind because Dr. Sexson was talking about New World the class before we watched Dead Man. Some native accounts of Europeans arriving described the sails of the ships as clouds


When Arnold (Gary Farmer) asks Victor of who is his favorite Indian, Victor replies 'nobody' which makes Arnold furious. Interesting to note though, is the fact that the name of Gary Farmer's character in Dead Man (1995) is 'Nobody'. -from imdb.com

Poetry is the subject of the Poem in...

In my poem, Motive for Metaphor

Stevens uses very descriptive language to describe someone that enjoys being ambiguous in their personality and they are open to the possibilities in their life. As described in class Stevens uses the seasons of fall and spring to describe an interplay between reality and imagination.

The other strong image is that of "The obscure moon lighting an obscure world." When your world view is obscured, you are obscured as well. I also think that the image of the moon at night evokes strong feelings in most peoples' imaginations.

To dress up like a line the poem I would either have three people sitting on a couch. One eating, one drinking, and one sleeping. The other idea I had for the same line was to dress up as a baby.

Overdue Wise Blood

The sky was like a piece of thin polished silver pg. 68
She had a stained white bathing suit that fit her like a sack. pg. 82
They were in a long set of steel cages like Alcatraz Penitentiary pg. 82
his heart moving so fast it was like one of those motorcycles pg. 83
That thang looks like a hawg bladder. pg. 136



On page 16 Hazel says he wouldn't believe in Jesus even if he asked. At the outset of the book I got the impression that Hazel was like a young child that needs a nap. The more they scream and protest the more likely it is that they need one. In the same way I thought that the more Hazel protested believing in Christ, the more that he actually did. On page 63 in an attempt to get Hazel to obey his mother tells him that "Jesus died to redeem you", to which Hazel replied, "I never ast him". In this second example he is literally an angry child. I think that one of the reasons that he is sympathetic to readers is that he is like the prodigal son, even though he never finds his way back home to Christ.

One other interesting quote is on page 106 Hazel is asked if his Church without Christ is Protestant, to which Hazel replies that it is. Hazel is protesting the Christian belief, but is this a play on words by Flannery O'Connor?

Lower Layers to Citizen Kane

The story behind Citizen Kane seems to be that power does not bring love, or simply money doesn’t buy happiness. The moral is that all the wealth and power in the world are nothing compared to the love and adoration of a family. Kane use both wealth and power to mold Susan into the wife he wants, but he does not treat her with respect and adoration of a person and receives none from her. Is he a Hades figure that has abducted this young Persephone figure from her life and put her in his kingdom, only for her to escape? I’m not sure if I see this because it is there, or if I am just reconnecting a pattern we have been given for other stories in class.

The Top Levels of Citizen Kane

The Simpsons episode “Rosebud” acted like a great Cliff notes. Burns left his bear behind to which his father yelled out, “Do you want your bear, the symbol of your lost youth and innocence?” Burns telling Smithers, dressed as a bear, “Stop this grotesque charade!” Burns gets caught in the sandbox with Maggie Simpson trying to get the bear. I’m not sure, but I think this was meant as an allusion to Kane’s relationship with Susan Alexander. Also, Homer’s punishment is to push a large wheel while being whipped in a basement. The wheel has a pole in the center that rises to the cafeteria, and is in fact the center pole on a spinning dessert tray. Lenny and Carl walk by the dessert tray in the cafeteria. Lenny asks how the tray works to which Carl replies, “Who cares?” Once again, I’m not sure exactly how this relates to Citizen Kane, but it is such a good illustration. Could it be a symbol of how Burns/Kane is able to control everyday life behind the scenes? There is the mention in Citizen Kane about yellow journalism, like what happened just prior to the Spanish-American war. He used his newspaper empire to make his wife appear to be a premier opera singer and it turns out she hated her performances and even opera more than her critics.
Another allusion to Citizen Kane is the Batman movie with Michael Keaton that was made by Tim Burton. The movie starts with the new District Attorney Harvey Dent in a large assembly hall that looks just like where Kane gave his speech for governorship. There is the same large picture, the same large group of smiling and clapping aristocrats, and the speech is nearly identical. The only change is that instead of attacking a political boss, he is attacking an outright criminal boss, who happens to run Gotham City. The movie also contains swirling newspaper headlines. As in Citizen Kane, Batman is the subject of the movie, but the story follows Alexander Knox and Vicki Vale the two reporters trying to track down his existence. As Vicki Vale says (to Batman) something along the lines that “They say you do terrible things, that you’re a bad man”
“Charlie wasn’t brutal, he just did brutal things”, stated Jed Leland. Mr. Leland says that if he wasn’t Charlie’s friend then he was the closest thing Charlie had to a friend. Later we see when Mr. Leland asks to be moved to the other office away from Kane, how he is the only one to write a bad review of Susan, and how he is the only one to be fired. Yet, he sends Kane his old Declaration of Principles after being fired.