virginia woolf

I did not really enjoy "A room of one's own".  I tried to log onto moo, but could not do it.  I then attempted to read "A room of one's own", but was having a hard time understanding it, and having a harder time enjoying it, which I know is because of my lack of ability, not her, so I stopped early on.  I did not think the quiz would be that straight on either.  It would have been interesting to create an ideal room though if I could have figured out that program.  I think my ideal room would definitely be a beach.  When I am in a house, there are too many distractions for me to read for a while unless I am engrossed in the book, and even so it is hard for me to sit still quietly that long.  Whenever I am on the beach, though, I always read because of how relaxed I am.  I love being at the beach and surfing for a while, then laying down and reading because I am all tired and relaxed and out of energy.  Then killing some food, surf some more, then read a tad more and maybe take a nap.  That is a good day, and my ideal room to read in.  And after thinking of that, being in snowy Oxford is slightly depressing.

The history of Virginia, and facts about her discussed in class are more interesting to hear about then her actual writing was for me.  I would write with a chip on my shoulder as well if I was not allowed to walk on grass either, or allowed into a library.  I do not think I would have that much will or motivation to keep on writing and studying if those restrictions were applied to me.  If I was not allowed into any gyms in high school, I probably would have quit basketball.  To me, she must have been a very intelligent and strong person to keep writing and studying.

rights of woman

When reading this, I could not help but think that this is pretty outdated, which is obvious though because it was written in the late 1700s.  She wanted women to be equally educated as men, which I would completely agree with if women were not getting the same chances as men were.  Now I think it is accurate to say both sexes are equally educated.  I think this inequality even would have been much more prevelant even in the 50s, but since then there has been a lot of progress.  I think my parents' generation might still harbor some thoughts about gender inequality, just because of the time period when they grew up, and the same with race.  But I think our generation, for the most part, has put those thoughts to rest.  The presidential race came to my mind when I was trying to think of a tangible example of my thoughts.  I think this presidential race was extremely important.  One part of this was that our country elected an African-American President, and showed the whole world the progress that has been made in this country.  The progress though, I think, has been with our generation, and I think what this election showed that most people have not thought of is that this election was a shift of power from my parents' generation to our generation.  Our country has an African-American President, could have had a women vice president, and was close to even having a female President. 

I think that a lot of groups of people who were not long ago slighted because of their race or gender are now being treated more fairly then ever.  When our generation has children, these thoughts will go away even more, which would be a great thing for society as a whole.

This might not be the most popular opinion, and it might be a little bold, but I think now there is almost more pressure, dealing with careers, on men then on woman.  If a married woman wants a career now, that's perfectly normal, and if she doesn't that is perfectly acceptable as well.  I think that with men though, they are not only expected to have a job, but to have the best job possible making a fair amount of money, and if they aren't, then they are failing or unsuccessful.  Stats/logic have shown that women are attracted to power/wealth/stability, which puts a lot of pressure on men to be viewed as successful now.

The subject of grades causing immortality was one that caught my attention.  I completely agree that this is the case.  I'm a finance major, and the teachers do not care whatsoever what grade they give you; most business professors have not known my name.  The average grade for classes range between a C and a B- depending on if the teacher is easier or harder.  I think the lower the class average, the more satisfied they are.  After freshman year, I had a pretty high GPA, but now it is at a 2.9 because of how difficult it is to do well in the classes.  They only give a couple As out to 40 or so people.  I think this definitely promotes cheating, because the higher GPA, the better job you get, the better grad school you get into.  I, like most other business students, do not have a job right now.  I talked to someone who does have a job, and a pretty good one, and they talked about how they lie about a lot of things in their interviews, and most likely cheat in some way.  If I had cheated and lied (whether I haven't because of morals, fear, or laziness blur), I very well could have a job right now.  So I think that the grading system, and a lot being based on of your GPA, definitely promotes cheating and lying.

Jan23-cinderella fairytale

A few examples of modern day Cinderella fairytales came to my mind.  I have a couple of little sisters, who have watched the Disney movie called "A Cinderella Story".  It was exactly the same thing as the little kids' version of the fairy tale, but I thought that would be too easy an example.  A movie I saw a little while ago that I liked also came to my mind called "Cinderella Man"  which was about a boxer who defied the odds.  Once this came to mind, there were a lot of sports movies about various characters who were not doing well in life, then defied the odds and were successful in their sport.  There are also a lot of TV shows that have been on the past couple of years that follow the premise of Cinderella pretty closely.  The TV show that comes to my mind is The OC.  

It was about a poor high school student who lives in a bad neighborhood in California, and steals a car with his brother.  After getting arrested, his mom abandons him, but a rich lawyer who was assigned to defend him ends up adopting him.  That kid went from being homeless to living in Orange County in a poolhouse, and dating the hot girl.  I think that this is a modern, Californian version of the Cinderella, rags-to-riches story.  He was abandoned by his mom, just like Cinderella's mother died.  Instead of a prince coming along, a lawyer came along and adopted him.  So it wasn't a love story, but both were saved out of nowhere, kind of by the luck of the draw.  He then goes on to live as comfortable a life as someone can.  This show was the most popular show when I was in high school, so it was an example that I thought both worked well and everyone would know.  

bloody chamber talk

The four stories I read were The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr Lyon, The Snow Child, and The Werewolf.  I'm not an English major, so I'm not great at picking out a lot of subtle elements in books or poems, and hearing discussions about those things is what makes classes like this interesting for me.  I'm sure I missed a lot in all four stories, but I was definitely a little confused about "The Snow Child."  I had no idea why he said he wanted a daughter, and then when she died he stuck his "virile member" into the dead girl.  Im not sure if he was more longing for a better wife then his current wife, and was describing her or why this happened.

The points about Mr. Lyon made in class are very interesting because I was not sure why she saw him as a kind of beast-like mixture, but then at the end saw him as a man.  A relation I saw between this story and "The Bloody Chamber" was the girls in both books were disgusted by the men in the stories, by the beast and by the rich man.  But when they were away from these men, they for some reason missed them.  I was not sure why this was the case, but the explanations for Mr Lyon in class made sense. 

notes

I am a senior this year, and am going to unfortunately be graduating in May.  Colleen's opinions are very comparable to what I think is going through a lot of people's heads their senior year, especially girls.  There is an idea some people have that everyone is supposed to find their eventual spouse at college, and I have heard a lot of girls especially concerned about this matter, and going out of their way to find a boyfriend because of this notion.  A lot of girls I know have higher gpa's then my buddies or myself, and have jobs whereas neither my best buddies nor I have one, so I am not sure why this is the case, but I think it definitely is the case.

Turning now to weight, the retelling of stories:

In artistic retelling of fairy telling, does art help counteract ideology?

I have not had much experience, or really know what ideology means, but I think that Jeannette is trying to say that art, in some degree, does counteract the facts or the plot in fairy tales.  I think that if fairy tales are retold artistically, it can either stress the main point of the story, or counteract, or lead the reader's focus away from the main point or ending of the fairy tale.  For example, the only versions of Cinderella I have read or seen have been very simple and straight forward.  The versions we have read so far in class have been much more artistic then ones I have ever read, and after reading some of those versions, I remembered different parts of those stories much more distinctly instead of the main lesson of the story.  In some versions I would not have been that sure of what the main point might have really been if I had not read Cinderella previously.  

The part of Weight that I remembered after reading, and what really stuck with me because I really agreed with and have been thinking about recently is when she was talking about how real life has replaced imagination, and how she believes that language is much more than information.  Recently I just read The Rules of Attraction.  There is not much plot at all, but the language in the book combined with the humor made it very enjoyable for me to read and I flew through the book.  A couple days ago I tried to start a book by John Grisham called The Innocent Man, which is a true story.  The book was uncharacteristically very simply written, and just had a bunch of facts in the beginning, and pretty depressing ones at that.  I slightly bored, and kinda bummed, so I stopped reading it and probably will never start it again.  I did not think this thought process through entirely, but when reading Weight, I realized that is why I enjoyed one book so much while disliking the other one, when I expected the opposite.

jan14-meanings

Some words in the two short works about Cinderella definitely caught my attention.  A lot of the words stuck out to me because I did not know the meaning of them, or they were being used in a different way then I am accustomed to.  Cinderella however caught my attention because it was describing the main character rather then being used as her name.  I googled the words that stuck out to me, here are the meanings:

 

Charwoman-a woman hired to do cleaning or similar work, usually in a large building.  I wasn’t sure what this word meant because a woman was described as a “charwoman on the bus when it cracks up,” but it essentially meant a maid who then gets rich by collecting from insurance.

Al Jolson-was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian, and actor.  His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer.” Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Judy Garland.  He enjoyed performing in blackface makeup.  Cinderella was compared to Al Jonson because her face was black from sleeping by the fireplace, and he would paint his face black for some of his performances.

Lentils-kind of a bean, bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 15 inches tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each.  In both handouts, Cinderella had to fetch these lentils out of the fireplace.

Pious-having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations.  The mother requests that Cinderella remains pious and good after her death, so she wanted Cinderella to remain religious and good.

Smock-A loose coatlike outer garment, often worn to protect the clothes while working.  This is what Cinderella had to wear, except instead of protecting her clothes, this garment was her wardrobe.

Cinderella-One that unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect.  I had never heard this word used as anything different then the name of this character, so I found it very interesting when it was an adjective that was then placed on the girl because she was in very hard times, then ends up marrying a prince.

Pitch-any of various dark, tenacious, and viscous substances for caulking and paving, consisting of the residue of the distillation of coal tar or wood tar.  I have heard many uses for pitch, but never when it is a substance, so I had to google the word to find that it is a black, sticky substance that the prince used to make Cinderella’s shoe stick on the staircase so she would leave it behind.