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. 

Angela Carter

The werewolf is a reminder of  "The little red hood" the mother also asked her daughter to take some oatcakes to her grand mother. What was surprising is that the grandmother turned out to be the Beast!
The daughter was also surprisingly trained. she had a knife that she used against the wild animal. In this story we don't have the grandmother point of view. We don't know if she was helpless against her bestial desires. In reference to the title, her bed room Became the bloody chamber.

In "Puss in boots" what I notice is that the girl is said beautiful and treated like an object. The master before was a "player" but changed into "a man of love". We can see that as a metamorphosis and could be compared to the beast in "The courtship of Mr. Lyon" wishing his master would turn back into a lion. the story keeps a comic tone that I like and it ends well more than any other tale in Carter's rewriting.

"The lady in the house.... reminds me of Bram Stocker's original story of "Dracula" except that the heroine is a girl. For those who read the story, The young soldier would be Johnattan Harker who was sent to Count Dracula's castle. To stay in Carter's novel, the countess reminds of the Marquis in "The bloody Chamber" In this case the heroine is the monster. Carter in this tale reverses the gender roles. The heroine is the one with all the power. I notice that Cater doesn't forget the title of the book. Once more we have a reference to the title. The countess kills the young men in her bedroom. Here unlike the other stories, she is the one longing to become human. Like in "the courtship of Mr. Lyon" "Beauty and the Beast" and "The tiger's Bride", the countess and the soldier inhabit two different world. She lives in a world of magic and murder while the young soldier lives in a rational world with human in it. Cater also subtly made a reference to the horrors of war. She puts in parallel a story of vampire where the violence comes from the "beast" within every person. The Bloody or vicious aspect where the countess kills without mercy represents war.

http://genius.com/tenmelo

Ending the Class.

I would also like you to use these final entries to discuss your learning in the class. What books did you like best? Which did you like least and why? Next time I teach this class, which books should I drop from the reading list? Which should I keep? Do you know of other titles I should consider adding?

The book I enjoyed the most was “The Bluest Eye”. It was very easy to get into and follow because it was dramatic and simple to read. 

The book I didn’t like was “Carpenter’s Gothic”. I personally felt the book overall was a lot of fluff of information that bored me and strayed me away and I felt it hard to retain any knowledge. I would recommend taking this book out of your reading list but it’s so crucial to what describes postmodernism stories. If you’re going to keep this story, maybe take out one of the other books that take up a lot of the class meetings to discuss. 

I tried thinking of other books and couldn’t but my sister recently read a book called “One Second After” by William R. Forstchen. She claims it to be a very scary book but not in your typical horror you think; because its about life through apocalypses and after wars. She gave it a good rating and would definitely recommend it. 

Carter vs. Original P.I.B.

• "Puss-in-Boots" seems to be the only truly humorous story of the bunch (though maybe w/ a touch of gallows humor). How has Carter modernized the original story? http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault04.html How is it the same? How is this story like the others? How different?

Carter has modernized the story from the original through different ideas. Carter’s version includes the master and his cat. The cat is almost like the “wing man” (lol) to the master because he successfully gets his master access to the Princess through the use of excuses and lies. At the end of the story, the Princess’ husband fell and died .. a little too fishy. Especially considering that the Princess and the cat’s master marry. The master even inherits a good fortune for marrying his lover, the Princess. 

The original puss-in-boots starts off with the master inheriting into what his father left for him and his two brothers. He inherited the cat, which he wasn’t too happy about either. In the original story, the cat also aids in the access to the Princess. The cat, deceived the King into thinking that his master was rich and owned a bountiful meadow and various estates. Upon his meetings of forcing people to lie, the cat came across an ogre living in a castle, who had the power of transformation into any other animal. The cat was able to persuade the ogre into turning into a mouse, for he knew exactly what his next move was — to kill the ogre and claim the castle as his masters. This won the king’s approval and the Princess’ heart. 

Both stories show the similarity of the cat’s role. Being their master’s sneaky servant. And both stories end with the master inheriting love and fortune. The ways the cat did the sneaky jobs are different in the stories. 

Freeway vs. Carter

• The movie Freeway from 1996 shows us that the "Little Red Riding Hood" story is still relevant even on the cusp of the 21st century. Why does this story have such significance to us? What does it mean? How is the film's version of the story different than/the same as Carter's "The Werewolf" and "The Company of Wolves" from the late 1970s? 

The movie Freeway from 1996 was my favorite movie we watched in class. It is still relevant and more modernized, even on the cusp of the 21st century because there is constantly stories about predators such as Bob Wolverton, “big bad wolf”, out in the news. Older men that pray on naive females and abduct them with their scheme-like tricks (boys too). 

Freeway is different than Carter’s versions because the wolf isn’t a legitimate animal or transforms from an animal into a human. Also, the setting in Freeway takes place mainly on a highway where Vanessa and Bob met as opposed to the setting Carter has, in the woods.

In Carter’s “The Werewolf” the granddaughter discovers she not only chops off her grandmother’s hand (when she was tricked into thinking it was a wolf in the forest preying on her) but that her grandmother was a witch. The grandmother was stoned to death. This isn’t present in Freeway, including the grandmother. Carter also incorporates the use of witches in her two stories.

The best book that i read in class was Do androids dreams about electric sheep. I found the book very interesting because it talks about finding our identity who is real and fake. it can also relate in  today society for example owing a  electric sheep  gives us lower statues, however having a real sheep give us higher position. After watching the blade runner it made more sense, and clear.  the second best book The metamorphosis.

The book that i dislike was the Carpenter gothic. It is complected to understand because the author does not name the character to make it more realest. it was ver y different from the other books that we read.

Freeway

I just wanted to say that Freeway was probably one of the best in-class screenings I've seen since I've started college. It was just such an interesting twist on Little Red Riding Hood and I couldn't get over it. First and foremost, I am such a big fan of Reese Witherspoon's movies! Whether it was Legally Blonde, Hot Pursuit,  she always seems to wow the crowd with her performances. I think she plays her roles so well and just fits in immensely with each character she plays. Her character in this movie, Vanessa Lutz was such a badass yet at the same time still possessed some innocent qualities about her. She had that "little girl" demeanor but didn't allow any one to let her looks fool them. Her life seemed pretty unstable, as we found out she was back and forth from her drug addict mother, abusive step father and in and out of foster homes. I really did feel for her because she didn't seem to have any type of guidance or real family she could rely on.

         I thought it was so amusing how people perceived her as some dumb blonde when really, she was so clever. She thought of all the tactics, for instance; getting away from Bob Wolverton. (I loved the irony in his name, in assumptions that he was the wolf) When he switched up on her, telling her all the gruesome things he would've done, manipulating her; I was shocked when she pulled out the gun on him. I was just amazed that she thought of that so quickly. Shooting him multiple times as he begged for a savior, Vanessa really was not taking any more of his BS.

         I cannot forget her time incarcerated as well! She didn't even think twice about attacking on anyone that tried to step to her making her feel like a "little girl". And making up a plan to escape from the guards, like who even thinks of a scheme like that!! Lol.  I loved that about her. She didn't take any form of disrespect lightly and always thought of clever schemes right on the spot. Great movie!!

Readings I Liked

The readings i enjoyed in this class would probably be The Metamorphises and the stories inside it, Androids dream of electric sheep but only after watching the movie version becuase it made more sense, Orange is the new black and The Bloody Chamber.

I enjoyed reading The Metamorphosis because it gives you a sense of really sitting and analyzing the work. The Android story was hard to read but after watching the movie i kind of got a better understanding of what was going on in each scene. The bloody Chamber and its stories was nice because it has to do with romance but a sexual romance.

The books i didnt like and would advise to remove is The bluest eye, it was very hard to understand. To much going on.

Freeway

In this movie its starts off by showing a lot of sexual behavior going on. In the beginning credits, before they show the actors names the camera is pointed at all inappropriate areas on a woman like breasts and ass. The movie gives a sense that it is based on sexual intercourse and abuse and molesting.

The first time we see sexual activity is right in the beginning when Vanessa tries to read something on the board, and when she does goes into a very deep sexual kissing frenzy with her fiancée chopper. Then as the movie continues its shown how her step father wants to have sex with her and she says no in the beginning but then kind of allows it and goes with it. She knows her moms a whore and fears that she might be the same but is always angry  when pressured by it.

When encountered by Bob he seems all sweet and innocent to her by i right away knew that he was that guy who wanted to sexually abuse her when he pulled up to the high way and the camera was through his vision and he was looking at her ass. From then on i knew that he was going to be bad. He played it off smart. He gained her trust, made her believe that what he was doing was to help her get away from this fear and pain she was always in all her life. She did have a tough life. But then he screwed himself up when he tried to have sex with her in the car and forced her to pull her pants down and then she pulled out a gun and was the one in control. What was funny was how after she was telling him she was going to kill him, he was trying to manipulate her that he was sorry and what not but she didn't believe him.

I was bugging out and wanted her to shoot him. If you guys recall in class lol. And when she did i dont understand how he was able to walk ? like she shot him in the neck, head, back and this dude is still alive ?!? like how is that even possible. But then again its a movie so anything is possible.

The funny parts in the movie is when she being interrogated by the police and rocks the cop in the head with the chair. I thought that was pretty awesome. The other humors thing in this movie is when Bob comes in to the court room all messed up in a wheel chair with a eye missing and Vanessa starts yelling in the court room and laughing at him saying hes not so tough now etc etc.

But aside from all the humor and everything i feel that she was doing all of this because she is angry at her family angry at the world for how she turned out. Her moms a whore, her step father is a child molester, her parents are in jail now she has to go to foster care again, all of this is tough on a child and she just needed someone to trust and talk to and she did to Bob and he screwed her over and thats why she did all of this to him. She took all her anger out on him i feel.

                                                The bloody chamber 
                                               Wealth and beauty                     
Marquis had three beautiful youngs wifes,his relationship did not workout, how can anyone just marry someone that got separated without asking any question?"  The heroine replied, i'm sure i want to marry him. Even though she seemed unconvinced that her daughter was making the right choice, her mother kept silent out of her wish for financial security."  I think that the author is telling us that  beauty can, but should not be purchase  by wealth,and power, Angela shows us that wealth and power can runin beauty 

The bloody chamber

Angela Carter believed that fight for sexual Equality and equal power.The bloody chamber its Marquis's chamber where he take young women torture them and take young women virgin. The author is trying to inform us that women to reclaim their power, just because Marquis got married, he does not have power to do whatever he wants.

"Freeway"

The movie put on screen the story of a young girl who had all against her even if she tried to be a good person. It seems she couldn't escape her faith. When she was on the high way, and found the guy willing to help I thought It was a good Samaritan but surprisingly he turned to be a Killer. In the movie they even transformed him into the werewolf  in the "Little Red Riding Hood".  It was tragic for the grandmother but this part brought a certain humor to the story. It end bad because despite everything than happened she still a murderer  and will go to jail. Worse when she stated to laugh I think she lost her mind. The moral in Both the "Little Red Riding Hood" and the movie are the same. I think it push people to be wary of appearance.... 

class

What books did you like best? Which did you like least and why? Next time I teach this class, which books should I drop from the reading list? Which should I keep? Do you know of other titles I should consider adding?

The books i liked the best are "Oranges aren't the only fruits" and "Bloody Chambers." The ones i liked the least were "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "The Bluest Eye". I would drop "The Bluest Eye" just because I didn't understand the concept and why it was relevant enough to learn and speak about. You should keep "Oranges" and "The Metamorphosis" because they had significance and the themes were interesting to discuss. 

Freeway

The movie Freeway from 1996 shows us that the "Little Red Riding Hood" story is still relevant even on the cusp of the 21st century. Why does this story have such significance to us? What does it mean? How is the film's version of the story different than/the same as Carter's "The Werewolf" and "The Company of Wolves" from the late 1970s? 

This movie significant to us because what happened in this movie, happens in real life. Unfortunately people go through the many different hardships in "Freeway" and that is why its relevant in the 21st century. This film portrays the hardships and is different yet the same from Carters two stories "The Werewolf" and "The Company of Wolves." I feel as if they are the same because the stories are told the same and they have the same gist. They are different because the have different themes, settings, and obviously different characters names. I enjoyed watching this movie I felt as if it had a lot of excitement and reading the different stories in the "Bloody Chamber" also opened my eyes to see fairytales in another aspect. 

         I feel that Angela Carter used humor greatly in beauty and the beast. The part that mainly caught my eye with humor was when the beast gave beauty a key to a door that would not open. I found it funny because he told her not to go open the door and she tried anyway. He knew that she would go against his word and try. I found this funny because he knows exactly how she is but she does not realize it..

Puss In Boots

In the original puss in boots, the Lord Marquis of Carabas was a man who had a cat named puss in boots and this guy basically didn't have anything. The way he got his fortune was by tricking the king and showing the king that he was a mighty ruler. The cat made a plan that the way to make his master and himself rich was by tricking the king in letting Marquis marry his daughter. He basically told Marquis to pretend to drown while the cat yelled oh the lord is drowning etc. and as the story goes on he runs around the town telling people that the things they are working on belongs to Lord Marquis of Carabas

In Carters version of Puss in Boots, the cats master falls in love with a woman who is married and basically puss tries any possible way to get them to get together. Puss realizes that the master has no more time for the cat and is so focused and in love with this woman and so tries to set them up. The plan works and the man sleeps with the woman and her husband eventually dies and the fortune is left to the wife who marries pusses master and the master and puss are rich

Bloody Chamber

with the story of beauty and the beast, i think the humor that Carter is trying to show is that right in the beginning when the mother asks beauty if she is in love with this man she says im am ready to marry him. I think right here it shows that beauty is a gold digger, and only married this beast for the money, becuase she was curious as to why he chose her out of all woman after 3 relationships didnt work out 

Another thing i find funny and fishy is that the beast gives her the key to a door she can not open ? why would he do that ? which means he already knew prior that she will open this door. Now when reading this story you start to understand that the beast knew she will open the door thats why he gave it to her. But then i ask myself what if she didnt open the door, would there be a story? right here is the fishy part to me. Carter wrote this in a sense where the beast knew she would open it and then the story continues because if she didnt there would be no story, or a different story? so how can this story be valid? 

He obviously knew that she would open that door because curiosity would get the best of her and she would just do it and thats what happened. And the quote "curiosity kills" is not always true because here we see that when she was curious and opened the door, she found out what happened and escaped through it.  

the video of beauty and the beast

when we watched the clip on beauty and beast, it was strange to me as to why the homes were all built in "human" parts. the candles being held by hands and the furniture made out of people was a little weird. i didnt understand the humor in it. and if he wanted to have sex with her, why didnt he after she fainted? and he brought her upstairs to the bed?

The Bloody Chamber finale

After finishing the book "The bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter, I felt that a lot of the stories presented in this novel were very postmodern. The stories were very postmodern because they featured a lot of bizarre circumstances that were sometimes very hard to follow. An example of this occurs in Carter's story "The Tiger's Bride". At the end of the story, beauty actually turns into a beast as well after kissing the beast. Another example of something bizarre is in the "snow child story", when the queen is suddenly naked after the girl goes over to pick up the pearl she dropped. According to the story, "her boots leapt off the Countess's feet." This is similar to fairy tales because usually in those stories, objects come to life due to magic being used on them. Another thing that was weird in this story was that the girl pricks her finger on a rose and dies from it. She then begins to melt for no reason after she dies, which is very odd since it is snowing in the short story. The rose also signifies the famous saying, "every rose has it's thorn", but it is more literal in the story. This story reminds me of "Snow White", because the countess wants to kill the girl in the story, just like the queen in "Snow White".

Finishing up the blog

I will take entries on the blog until the morning of the 22nd (when I'll be computing final grades). You owe me two more entries for this week, though if you make more I'll give you extra credit. Here are some things to think about:

• "Puss-in-Boots" seems to be the only truly humorous story of the bunch (though maybe w/ a touch of gallows humor). How has Carter modernized the original story? http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault04.html How is it the same? How is this story like the others? How different? 
• The last stories seem to combine both fairytales and modern ideas of vampires and werewolves. What does the combination of these types of fairytales do for your understanding of either the original children's stories (i.e. "Little Red Riding Hood"  http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html) or for movies or stories you're familiar w/ concerning vampires, werewolves, and witches? 
• The movie Freeway from 1996 shows us that the "Little Red Riding Hood" story is still relevant even on the cusp of the 21st century. Why does this story have such significance to us? What does it mean? How is the film's version of the story different than/the same as Carter's "The Werewolf" and "The Company of Wolves" from the late 1970s? 

I would also like you to use these final entries to discuss your learning in the class. What books did you like best? Which did you like least and why? Next time I teach this class, which books should I drop from the reading list? Which should I keep? Do you know of other titles I should consider adding?

views of tigers bride

I think the story the tigers bride has a very loud voice of sexism in its underlining tone, most of which Im sure has to do a lot with the time period this story was written. It has so many examples of women being nothing but property, completely undermined, and in shorter terms, living in a mans world. From the beginning, as much as the father loves her, just to satisfy his debt, he bets her away to the beast, hence as a piece of property.
I believe the whole existence of the doll in this story  that is given to the daughter by the beast alone shows how women are viewed as something "mechanical" that man has sculptured. In one hand she has a powder puff, which is used for make-up, which till this day can be paired with the term superficial. A woman is to not show what she is but what the man wants her to be. I believe the doll is somewhat of a sculpting of what a woman should be in the tigers eyes.
In the other hand, the doll holds a looking glass or mirror, but ironically she does not see herself in this mirror but her father. I think this could easily be viewed as the daughters entire existence is only being an extension of her fathers existence. In this male society I can say that it seems as if the daughter is viewed as a mere representation of her father.

tigers bride annotation

"I watched with the furious cynicism peculiar to women whom circumstances force mutely to witness folly, while my father, fired in his desperation by more and yet more draughts of the firewater they call 'grappa', rids himself of the last scraps of my inheritance."

http://genius.com/Angela-carter-the-tigers-bride-annotated/

Bloody Chamber

Why did Angela Carter want to tell two sides to Beauty and the Beast? Did she want to use a different approach to the story? or tell the story from more than one point of view?

I felt as if Angela Carter felt it was necessary to base the stories off of Beauty's emotions and feelings. Did she want her readers to understand Beauty and how she felt?

"The Bloody Chamber"

I come back again on the first story about the marquis who has the habit of killing his wives. I try to look at the reference to the feminist movement. The young girl in Carter's version was discovering with us her husband. It felt like she was forced to marry him. This start make us wonder why did she marry a complete stranger. Looking at the year the first  version was written 1697 girls in general or most of them at that time did not choose their husband. They were married in the interest of her family and it usually for financial reasons. So this fairy tale as for me puts forward the dilemma that young girls at that time encountered. It chows consequence of such custom because the young girl seem to have everything she wants but not the essential which is hapiness. Not having it could become fatal. This issue is well disguised into this tale. It confirms the idea that fairy tales are a critic of society.

"The Tiger's Bride" Annotations

Great annotations on the Carter story! Here's mine:

http://genius.com/8343629

If you do any more annotations, please link them here so your classmates can see them (you'll get credit for the blog).
 

"The Tiger's Bride" (Genius)

http://genius.com/Angela-carter-the-tigers-bride-annotated/#

The tiger's bride- genius.com

http://genius.com/Angela-carter-the-tigers-bride-annotated#

Genius Post on Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride"

http://genius.com/4278389
In the quote "Gambling is a sickness", I marked the quote as "missing something" and added an image and explanation to the quote and story:

"While the statement on gambling being a sickness is true, it would be best to also explain why the father would stake his daughter on a hand of cards. Even though the father believes in miracles, why would he ever risk the value and well-being of his daughter when he knows that gambling can likely lead to a dreadful life if not successful?"

The Tiger's Bride, Genius post

"The candles dropped hot, acrid gouts of wax on my bare shoulders."

I think that this symbolizes the pain that she is feeling for what her father has done, something that she can not control, something that she is being but through. Comparing it to the dripping of the hot wax on candles. It can also be said that she has lost all feeling and this candle wax is causing her pain, giving her the feeling that what she is going through is real. Comparing the feeling of the dripping wax to a disease that causes episodes of acute pain throughout her bones.

This is her reality now.

http://genius.com/8343605

norbu and oneka

Genius Ann The Tiger's Bride

http://genius.com/8343625

Lamija and Kimberly

"The Tigers Bride" Jennette and Alysha

http://genius.com/8343589

Lilian & Angela Annotation "The Tiger's Bride"

http://genius.com/8343569

[30] The Tiger's Bride [Genius.com]

This is my post on genius.com about "The Tiger's Bride" 

http://www.genius.com/8343571

The Bloody Chamber

           I think that both the questions about why is carter rewriting fairytales and the question of why do so many people retell "Beauty and the Beast" relate. The reason I feel that Carter rewrites fairytales and  why people retell this fairytale is because many people have different ideas that they feel should be part of the fairytale. Since it is a fairytale anything can happen since it really is not real. Different ideas can come to mind and it can fit with a certain story. A fairytale is magical and imaginary which means authors can add or change any part or idea from the story and make it work. For example in Beauty and the Beast, you usually don't see beast turning into actual men nor do you see women falling in love with beast...

The bloody Chamber
Angela Carter version is different from other fair tale is because, In beauty and the beast the women changes the beast into a normal person and its no longer a monster. however Angela carter fair tale is different, the courtship of Mr lyon at the ending the beast says im dying beauty

Angela Carter

I think she is rewriting the fairy tales so they can be adapted to the actual world. The vocabulary changes and some old custom disappear.  The seventeen year old girl in "The Bloody Chamber" was quite modern. She belongs to our era. Still for "The Bloody Chamber " the end changed. The husband was not a prince but a Marquis. The didn't mentioned anything on the color of his beard. At the end, the girl's mother saved her but die of disillusion. In the original story the "prince" had a blue bird and at the end the girl''s brother saved her. I think so many people are rewriting the fairy tales as a way to critic society and at the same occasion bring a chance for the readers to meditate on the moral of the story. It's an elegant way to introduce kids into society and also a way to talk about some issues of society.

The Bloody Chambers

These different versions of Beauty and the Beast from the book The Bloody Chambers sort of makes you feel uncomfortable reading them because you are so used to the original story that reading something different just doesn't feel right. The story "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon was a bit modernized because he actually used a car to get to where he needed to go. The last part of that story was very confusing as well where it said "And each stroke of his tongue ripped off skin after successive skin, all the skins of a life in the world, and left behind a nascent patina of shining hairs. My earrings turned back to water and trickled down my shoulders; I shrugged the drops off my beautiful fur." It makes you ask yourself, did she turn into a tiger?....

I think  Carter is  rewriting fairy-tales because maybe when she was growing up she didn't like the way they all ending maybe she thought there's another way to these stories. her version are different from the original because in the original they all end "happily ever after", but  in Carter version they never seem to end to happy, someones always dies or the story end complete different from what you would expect.
for example in "The Courtship of Mr lyon" this story is similar to "The Beauty and The Beast" and in "The Beauty and The Beast" , when the beast was kissed by beauty he turned into a handsome man and they got married and lived happily ever after. but in "The Courtship of Mr lyon"  the tiger turned into a man with a broken nose, unkempt mane of hair and a heroic resemblance to the handsomest of all beast.

[29] Beggiining The Bloody Chamber

I think many people retell the story of Beauty and The Beast, because of the way they see the story. There are many different ways to view it. For example, Disney, retell of the story, never includes, that her father sold her, or lost her, but the fact that the character Belle, found the castle, and met the beast, and the beast was charmed by the way she stood up to him. Disney may have not included such dramatic scenes because its a kids movie, but it still a retell of it. Then you have to other versions, in the Bloody Chamber, where we learn in each the father plays a role in why Beauty, is sent to the castle. I think Carter tells retells the story of beauty and the beast twice, to show the different ideas of this story can be told. To get away from the modern beauty and the Beast idea where a girl meets a beast and she changes him back to a human, to the beast wasn't really a beast, but like in the "Tiger's Bride," he also wasn't a human either. The two stories could be connected in a way, "Courtship of Mr. Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride," because in the Courtship, we learn the father goes poor, but never the reason why, but in the Tiger one, we learn the father is a gambling addict, and lost his daughter to the Beast, which is why she had to go to the castle. In the end of it all, any way you retell it, it all goes around the idea that a beautiful daughter gets sent to a castle, where she meets a unknown creature, and it turns out the catch feelings, and the unknown creature becomes known.

Oranges are not the only fruit movie and book response

             I feel that the movie Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit kind of confused me. For starters the had changed Jeanette's name to Jess. That made me have to think about who they were first talking about. The beginning of the movie also confused me with the whole everyone in the church was wearing masks and then you had Jess with no mask just screaming. The movie mainly focused on showing the realism while the book left certain things to the imagination. I feel that the whole taking the demon out of Jess part with them tying her up was pretty disturbing. It bothered me that they could not accept her choice in gender to have as a partner. I would prefer to stick to the book. But in a way the movie did help me understand certain concepts of what the author wanted the readers to know.

OANTOF- show vs book

The show was definitely a lot different than the book. If I had to choose one or the other it would definitely have to be the book. I feel as though the show concentrated to much on realism which somewhat defeated depicting the concept of the story in the book. First of all I don't get where they thinks alright to change her name to Jess from Jeanette. But my main issue was definitely the fact that any of Jeanette fantasy were depicted in the show. I get that I guess it would have made the show much different but I think I would have definitely found it more interesting. I'm almost certain if there was a different producer or director, they would have seen a much different vision of the story than did whomever actually produced it. I feel as though her fantasies told us a lot about her in a way. It not only showed her humor at times but also how she used them to escape reality and depict what she really may have wanted to happen. The show actually for some reason gave me a "Little house on the Prairie" vibe. It may have been because it looked old but it was just very boring to me. I personally almost never enjoy the movie remake of books I have read anyway because they don't give the book the credit and worth it deserves, as this show did not to its book. A lot of other scenes did not happen in the show as well that I noticed right from the start. For example Jess and Ms.Jewsbury never had sex in the show as they did in the book. I think that scene was important because it shows a lot about Jeanettes character. Either way, long story short, I definitely enjoyed the book rather than the show.

The Bloody Chamber

The first part of The Bloody Chamber shows a lot about fairy tales with a combination of dark elements. The beginning of the book introduces two characters, though their names are not mentioned. Compared to other novels read this semester, this novel has a postmodern style to it because of how it doesn't reveal the names of characters and it's style of writing. An example of a fairy tale with the main story being connected is the main character falling in love with a beast and the beast turning into a man just like the actual fairy tale itself. Overall, the story's postmodern style may make it a bit difficult to follow since the character's names aren't revealed but it is still interesting so far.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit Film

The film adaptation of the novel had some similarities and differences. The characters mainly are presented how they are in the novel but the film did have certain aspects that the novel did not employ. In the adaptation, Jeannette's name is changed to Jess and compared to the novel, the adaptation focuses more on realism and details that are not as sugar-coated. The novel mainly summarizes what happened in the film which may make the story a little more complicated to get information from. But overall, the film and novel were a lot less complicated than other novels read this semester such as "The Bluest Eye" and "Carpenter's Gothic."

"The Blody Chamber"

I started to read the tale and I noticed that Carter do not signals when there is a dialog but  the style is original and not too hard to follow. After a few pages I started to smile. Not because of the unfortunate story of the seventeen year  old girl but because I remember that my mother read this story to me when I was a little girl like 6. However it was "La barbe Bleue" version of Charles Perrault published in 1697. There are few differences with Carter's one but it is quasi the same story! It has been rewrite many times before Carter does her own adaptation of it. These tales always have something to say.

Annotations of The Bloody Chamber

Hi all:

I discovered this interesting site, Book Drum, wherein different books are annotated. There's a pretty good annotation of all the stories in The Bloody Chamber (click on "Bookmarks" to scan through them):

http://www.bookdrum.com/books/the-bloody-chamber/9780099588115/index.html

Beginning The Bloody Chamber

Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber is a retelling of classic fairytales. The title story is a retelling of "Bluebeard" (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0312.html) and "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride" are both retellings of "Beauty and the Beast" (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html). Why is Carter rewriting fairytales? How are her versions different than the originals? Why do so many people retell "Beauty and the Beast" (Jean Cocteau, Disney, etc.)? Why is Carter telling it twice in this collection? How is "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" different than "The Tiger's Bride"? How does the second version comment on the earlier one? How is Carter's version different than Winterson's (71-73)?

[28] Orange is not the Only Fruit - Film

I think the best thing I like about films on books, is although there are some significant changes that films make to books, its always better to understand what is going on with the characters, when you can visually see it yourself.

With that being said, this film, does show the effectiveness, of the church a lot. When we went over the book, I figured this would be like any other church, where the pastor is he guy basically everyone sucks up too, and there's that one overly religious person. The movie shows a whole new point of view. The way they tied her up, and also the pastor on top of her. I don't know how the dad was able to just be there and except it. Films are a better way of showing emotions, and feelings, and expressions, without saying words, something books can only try to do.

The Bloody Chamber part 1

After reading the first part of the book "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter, I felt that the book is not as easy as I thought it would be. In the book, you are introduced to two characters, but the narration doesn't give us their names. This makes it a little harder to follow because you don't know who is talking. I heard that the novel talks a lot about fairy tales and puts dark twists on them. The only fairy tale I actually see the book have a connection to is Beauty and the Beast. This fairy tale plays into the story because the main character encounters a beast and falls in love with him because her father lost a game of cards against him. At the end of the second chapter, she kisses the beast and he becomes a man again, just like in the real fairy tale. I also noticed that a lot of the chapters are named after fairy tales. For example some of them are called "Wolf-Alice" and "Puss-in-Boots". I think that the book will also contain many more fairy tales and put a unique twist. This book also comes off as a Postmodernism novel because of the writing style and how we don't really know the character's names. The story is very bizarre and difficult to follow because of it's writing style.

OANTOF BCC clip

The BBC adaption of “Oranges are not the only fruit” is really eye opening. It helps you visualize what happened in the story. I love the director’s works with the camera and setting up scenes. The scene in which Jess’s birth mother is interesting. When Jess walks into the hallway they don’t show the scene in front of her but just show her standing in a dark hallway clinging onto her dog. Then when the birth mother leaves and her adopted mother tells her “I am your real mother” Jess runs for the door. She has the chance to talk to her mother but instead just watches as she walks away.

Then the scene for the exorcism was probably the best scene. When the pastor and her mother were speaking to her about the demon the camera was angled up. With the pastor standing and the mother sitting they looked like two people looking down on someone smaller. When camera work is done like that it usually emphasizes displeasure or evil. In Jess’s eyes her mother and the pastor are both the evils in her life especially after they find out she’s a lesbian. Jess is scared that they’ll hurt her and the pastor says they want to hurt the demon. Which in a lot of cases happen even now in real life. A lot of these exorcisms have been deadly. Then the director brings the camera to the floor directly facing Jess as they tie her up and gag her. This highlights the horrors of what they are doing to the poor girl.

There is a scene where her mother is going through her room to throw out items. Her father stands in the doorway and stares at his wife not saying anything. The mother turns to him and tells him she’s protecting their daughter. The husband walks away and behind him is a picture that says “What is home without a mother”. There is also a moment that I thought was pretty funny where all the church goers get up and leave the funeral. The other guest watch in confusion and the one woman at the head of the table just looks at the empty seats where there is ice cream and starts to eat theirs. Through the adaptation you can clearly see how aggressive her mother is to her. Whenever her mother touches her or says anything it’s in a hard tone or she shakes her and smacks her. 

Thoughts

          There were a few quotes from this book I just wanted to discuss because I felt like they stood out to me as I continued to read. They made me feel like I was part of the text and captivated my attention in more than one significant way.
         "She was a perfect balance of qualities and strengths". (pg 62) As we all know, fairytales pretty much highlight and emphasize key elements of romance in the world. Not only romance, but they kind of give us hopes for that happy ending we all long for. In this particular fairytale, a prince is searching for the absolute perfect woman and he comes across someone that could possibly fit the part. As he describes her, he points out her qualities in a way that seemed perfect, although she seemed to lack "flawlessness". Perfection to him was a woman that held no blemishes inside and out. However,  a woman could be totally perfect and still have flaws. To be flawless, was to have knowledge as well and that was completely different. Eventually, the prince had to learn that while he continued his voyage of looking for not a perfect woman, but a FLAWLESS one.

          "There are women in the world, there are men in the world and there are beasts. What do you do if you marry a beast? Kissing them won't always help".  Growing up, I always knew the story of Beauty and the Beast and I thought about how ironic this quote seemed. It's like how are you ever sure that your "Prince Charming" could be the one if it could really be someone you aren't even instantly attracted too. "Don't judge a book by it's cover" always comes into play when I think about this fairytale as well. It's like you're never really certain on what the perfect match for you is and there's only so much you can do about it.

         
       

"Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit"

I think the movie quite follow the novel. There are some parts that were not mentioned but the movie  did not differ much to the novel. In the episode that we have seen in class Jeanette's biological mother was not mentioned. Well I think it should have been because the existence of her mother was the trigger. Somehow it released Jeanette mentally from her adoptive mother dictatorship. It confirmed what she always questioned, herself and the story in the bible. Her relation with Melanie was the only thing that she choosed herself and not her mother. Her adoptive mother adopted her I think because it is a way for her to fight the evil of the world. In the novel she wasn't close to Jeanette enough to even notice her hearing loss. Her love is conditional, she likes her only when she fills her expectations. All she wanted was to make of Jeanette a missionary, devoted to the church.

A part like where the preacher wanted to exorcise her was chocking. The preacher was ready to hurt Jeanette using God's name to justify his brutality. The adoptive mother Knew that this attempt would lead nowhere. I say that because her past has many shadows about her sexuality (remember the girl's picture in her book)  and the people who gathered was there for the show.

This novel has many aspect of a postmodern writing. I think what Winterson  wants to bring up is the critic of society on what is different and the fact that not everyone calling themselves God's missionary or preachers are divinely inspired. Some people are just using people belief to manipulate them, making them do or follow there own convictions that are not always the best.

Oranges are not the only fruit

I really was interested in reading this novel when we were first introduced to it on the syllabus. From the brief description we received in class, it seemed like a drama you would see in today's tv guide. I feel like as a teenager, you go through a process of trying to figure out who you really are. The things you liked growing up, you start to dislike as you gradually age, and you start to notice the world around you in a quite peculiar way. It was very interesting to witness Jeanette, the main character go through this. It was like we watched her grow and blossom into a person she had to learn to understand herself.
          In a way, I just think that parents just don't seem to understand the process we all go through although they've been through it themselves. There are things in the world that not even a parent can keep and protect their child from as much as they try. To Jeanette's mom, it was as if the world only consisted of demons and harm everywhere. I guess I can understand that as a mother, the best way to protect her daughter was to enlighten her on all the bad things she can come across. But it was like nothing but the words of the God that controlled her and if Jeanette didn't follow; she wasn't accepted in anything she did. I really felt for her.

           A quote that stuck out to me as we started to see how involved the religion and the church was to Jeanette's mother was when their Pastor exclaimed "This little Lily could herself be a house of demons"(pg 12). I felt like no matter what Jeanette did, she still wouldn't be seen as an innocent little girl even if she wasn't doing anything remotely wrong. Her mother embedded this idea that God was the only way but at the same time it was like all or nothing for her. It's just crazy to me how she alienated her own daughter because of how strong her beliefs were. It's very heart wrenching.

The last chapters of Oranges are not the only fruit

after reading Joshua and Judges, its interesting to me as to why Jeanette mother is not accepting her daughter for being lesbian. Isn't any mothers happiness is when they see their child happy? why is it such a problem that her daughter is lesbian ? and i don't understand why she makes a whole big deal about it to the church and she needs saving and what not
and another thing, how is it that other people are going to pray for to repent for your sins ? it don't work that way ? if you do a sin its on you, its between you and god, you gotta repent you have to ask for forgiveness you have to show god why your sorry for this sin etc.
yes the pastor is doing his job to help this girl repent but she keeps on saying no no no, like im not understanding why he's still trying?
and whats its the church business that Jeanette is this way. Another example how they get involved in everything, mind your own business, let the girl be with who she wants to be with no?

One thing i didn't quite get. Jeanette says that she really loves Melanie right, and im pretty sure Melanie feels the same way, so how is it that Melanie got married to a solider ?

And another thing i dont get, why isn't the church getting on Mrs Jewsberry case for sleeping with Jeannete ?? shes doing a sin too ?? why is it that they dont know about that

And this orange demon thing, this little thing comes into her life, which i feel Jeannete is defiantly hallucinating with that part but then again he throws her a brown pebble which questioned my thought on the hallucination...

"Orange are Not the Only Fruit"

I have watched a few minutes of the movie "Orange are Not The Only Fruit" on YouTube. I notice that the language is a little different from what I have read in the book. I thought the Characters were younger especially Jeanette's mother. Seeing Jeanette's mother friends, The church look more like a circle of friend. A group of retired girl who make of their occupation the study of the bible. In the movie Jeanette doesn't find out about her adoption by looking in a drawer but her mother told her at an early age.  The background or the set of the story gives the impression that the story takes place at an epoch older than 1985 the year of the publication of the novel. Unlike Philip K. Dick, Winterson project a story into the past instead of a futurist one.