Angela Carter

Angela Carter has a very interesting way of interpreting original stories. Most of her stories make you feel uncomfortable and confused but in a good way if that makes sense. In her book the Bloody Chamber she interprets mostly stories that have a moral to them. Even some of the characters in her book have prior knowledge to these original stories but they still end up messing up. For example, in the first story "The Bloody Chamber" the main character mentions that she knows the story of bluebeard but still falls for the same trap.

My thoughts

I think that the books I have enjoyed the most in this class are Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Oranges Are not the only fruit. They both had a film based on them that made what was going on much easier to understand and they were very interesting to read and watch. Dystopian literature seems to attract many readers. So do books about real life situations such as sexual inequality.

Freeway

The movie Freeway was hands down my favorite movie in this class. It was an interpretation of the little red riding hood. But instead of her being afraid of the wolf, she kicks the wolf's ass and anyone else who gets in her way. In this movie she is very aggressive. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that her mom is a drug addict/prostitute and her step dad is a drug addict/felon who wants to have sex with her. I find it funny that the guy is supposed to be the "wolf" in the movie is called Bob Wolverton. Also, you can tell that Vanessa Lutz was supposed to be little red riding hood because in the beginning she had a red leather jacket on and the basket with all of the stuff she was going to take to her grandma. During the scenes where Bob offered her a ride she was very gullible and accepting to everything. He must have thought that she was going to be and easy catch. Boy was he wrong.

Finishing up the blog

Yet another semester has passed and this being my last English class has me appalled. I took your class for English 101 and loved it so much, I knew I had to take you again. English has always been my favorite subject throughout my years of school. I feel like, the professor makes it that much more enjoyable when they're passionate about what they do. The readings you chose for us, all held their own meaning and definition of Post-Modern literature and really allowed us as a class to understand the term. You definitely made wise choices in the novels you selected such as Jeanette Winterson's, Oranges are Not The Only Fruit and Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber. Those were probably my favorites overall. I feel like Winterson's novel was so appealing mainly because she spoke on a subject that individuals deal with in today's world. I enjoyed Carter's novel because it was interesting to see the twists and turns on the fairy tales we've heard of all our lives. And I cannot forget about the movie was viewed after the novel, Freeway. Such a great movie! I enjoyed your class this semester, and I'm sure I would even if I took another ENG class by you. Happy Holidays everyone!

Finishing up the blog

Overall, my favorite novels from class had to be Phillip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" because of it's appeal and possible foreshadowing of what our very own future may be like in many years to come with progression of technology. "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka was easily another favorite because of it's strange and eerie depiction of what someone's life can be like if they were to feel lost, hopeless, and incapable of changing anything for the better which likely could be hinting at the kind of life Kafka lived. Other novels such as "Carpenter's Gothic" and "The Bluest Eye" were a bit more difficult to read since the dialogue of these novels were a bit more difficult to follow and you would constantly have to look back to really understand what it was you read or you could be lost along the way. But in all, each novel presented different aspects of literature that I'll never forget and have opened my mind up to more books and their own unique elements such as post-modernism.

Freeway

The movie "Freeway" was interesting and I liked the twist from "Little Red Riding Hood" that it added. The character Vanessa was portrayed to be someone living in an unstable family and the reality of her life is that she has nobody that can provide moral support for her and even appears to have her own issues. Yet for some reason, she is an extremely appealing and like-able character because even though she's had to endure so many hardships with her family being taken from her, the death of her boyfriend, and ultimately her having to be in prison, she somehow had reason to move forward and not let anything mentally cripple her. Her survival against Bob Wolverton, who'd ironically in this case would be the big bad wolf, was brutal but yet inspiring since she was intelligent enough to act well under pressure and turn the odds against Bob by taking his gun from him and shooting him to the point of paralyzation. This was arguable better than the screening of "Blade Runner" which was an incredibly interesting movie on its own and a lot can be learned from "Freeway".

Comments

I liked this class. I liked the fact that we were discussing the books in class and it was opened to different interpretations. The novel that I would drop is "The Carpenter's Gothic ". Personally I found it hard to follow but one the other hand It was the first time I was reading a novel entirely written in a dialog's style. It is always good to discover writing style that we don't know. Of course,  all I say is from my perspective. There are some passages that I found boring and didn't see the point. The end was also unexpected! the main character died in a way as ridiculous as there persue of the father's money. I think the author wanted to show that by running after money, they forgot to live and pay attention to what really matter.  But the style is still not appealing to me. But i recognize that Gaddis is a virtuoso in writing stories using dialogues.

There is a novel that I would recommend. When I read Kafka I immidietly think about it. The styles are similar.  The novel title is " Foam of The Daze" by Boris Vian ( 1920- 1959).  It is a "Science fiction romance that mingles bittersweet and surrealist absurdity with a melancholic meditation on the frailty of life".  Here I paste the sumary ("Raymond Queneau called it the "most poignant love story of our time," and Julio Cortázar said of its author: "I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does." Boris Vian (1920-1959) was a songwriter, trumpet-player, poet, playwright and pataphysician, but is best remembered for his 1947 novel, Foam of the Daze, a jazz-fueled science-fiction romance that mingles bittersweet and surrealist absurdity with a melancholic meditation on the frailty of life. It tells the tale of Colin, a wealthy young dandy, and Chloe, his newly wedded wife who develops a terrible illness: a water lily in her lung. The supporting cast includes Chick, an obsessive collector of Jean-Sol Partre memorabilia; Colin's libertine manservant Nicolas, a Jeeves for the jazz-age; the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre himself, Vian's rib-poking tribute to his friend Jean-Paul Sartre and the pianocktail: a cocktail-mixing piano whose individual notes are tuned to liqueurs that mix incredible cocktails. Michel Gondry's film adaptation of the novel, to star Audrey Tautou, will begin production in 2012. " )

The reason why I recommend it is that Vian uses his unique style to talk about issues of society. It is a postmodern novel. It critics society and make fun of the rules using things like metamorphosis, different dimension like in an oneiric sphere. The story is timeless. This novel regroups the theme of all the novel that we have read in class ( racism, alienation, prejudice, religion, dehumanization, romance etc...) It uses tales and true events and true Characters, like people in real life for instance you can see the allusion to the Philosopher Jean- Paul Sartre ( Jean-Sol Partre) in the novel. I think a class would have a lot to say about the novel and would enjoy to discover Boris Vian style.