art & lies: 3/30

My first thought when I read the chapter name "Handel", I thought it was an artists name, probably because another name of a chapter was Picasso.  I googled Handel after I read a little of the book, and it was an old German man who wrote opera, which Handel does as well (Not sure if this is coincidence or on purpose).  This book is kind of hard to put together, or retain all of it.  It reminds me of a Wes Anderson movie, like "The Royal Tenenbaums" or "The Darjeeling Limited".  I like those movies, but I'm not sure why I like them or why they are good in a cinematic sense.  This book is kind of like that for me.  I'm not sure how to even describe this chapter.  It seems like it is following Handel's mind, almost like a blog.  It is not exactly like a blog, but the writing reminds me of how a mind works.  It kind of jumps all around, it is not perfectly laid out.  I think the "lies" part of the book so far is how Handel is giving his opinions about the realities of the world.  For example, he mentioned the homeless people; and how since it is illegal for them to be on the street, now people do not have as much sympathy for them.  

Handel interests me a lot.  It seems he has no interest in having a relationship with a woman, but loves women.  He talks about being a devout Catholic, yet he went to a brothel.  I wish there were a lot of footnotes explaining what some things mean, or how in DVDs, there are extra features where the director explains a lot of things.  I wish Winterson was explaining some of the depth of this book.  

When I was thinking of Handel though, it reminded me of a conversation I was having with a buddy a while ago.  A Bright Eyes song came on his computer, and it was a very depressing song.  It is a band consisting of one person, Conor Oberst.  He is apparently some kind of prodigy; he is super smart.  We then talked about how it seems like people who are extremely smart who think really deeply into areas of life are a lot of times depressed or cynical about life.  I'm not sure if this is true, but we were thinking of all these people who fit into that category.  I was thinking about how Handel fits into this category as well.  He is obviously very intelligent; he is a surgeon.  He also thinks a lot about how the world works and a lot of the bad in life.  There are a couple of sentences on page 26 that even touched on what I had been thinking.  Handel says he is about to leave his city and never return.  He then says, "This action, my friends conclude, comes out of an excess of what the French call La Sensibilite.  Too much feeling is not welcome in a man."  This is exactly what I was thinking about, that Handel is nagged continuously by these deep thoughts of his.  When Handel's friend asked "How shall I live?" a lot of people would not have pondered the question at the depth or length of time that Handel did.

I really wondered about a couple of things I couldn't answer.  I was not sure about the significance of the very first paragraph.  It is obviously very significant and important, but I'm not sure what that is.  There also seemed to be a lot of references to light.  Handel is always talking about how light is being shown on different objects.  Handel also points out the color white a lot.  He describes how white the shirt is that he wore to the opera, how white his bed is, how white the brothel was.  I think there has to be significance to all of these, but I do not know what it is.  This is why I wish there was some footnotes like I mentioned above, because I'm sure knowing some of these things would really help unravel the book.

3 versions of The Child and Flowers

The three different views of the poem "The Child and the Flowers" by Mrs. Hemans were all very different.  The view I enjoyed the most was the "page image" view.  It looked like 3 pages from a book that you can see on your screen; it was a scanned image of the physical pages.  I could even slightly see the words on the other side of the page.  I liked this the best because it was like I was reading an actual book, which I like more then reading words on a screen.  Getting to the end of a page feels good to me, like I'm progressing through the book.  I have no interest in the Kindle from Amazon, because I would not want to read a book electronically.  The next image I enjoyed was the HTML version.  It looked a lot like a webpage, or what I am writing on this blog.  It is not as easy to read as a book, but it is still organized in a clear, concise fashion.  My weakness is when there are that many words on a computer screen, sometimes they start to blur together and I really need to focus on what I am reading to grasp it and process it so I remember it after I read it.  The worst by far for me was the TEI version.  It was one big riff-raff of words which looked like an elementary student typed it.  It was one big paragraph with no clear spacing.  Not only was it one big paragraph, but there are random words and numbers within the one large paragraph, which made it very hard to read the poem/short story.  I think that version is what people program into computers so it shows up like the HTML version, but just reading that is difficult, as difficult as it probably could be.

Frankenstein-juxta

In the 1818 Thomas version, the two words used most frequently were "deep" and "friend".  Friend was a word that was used the most throughout all three versions, but deep was unique to the Thomas version.  I found all three times deep was used, and the words were not used in the same context or way the others were used.  It seemed to be a common adjective in that time period; it was used to describe the extent of his interests, the night and tone of his voice.  Maybe Thomas made a new friend that said the word deep a lot?  Just kidding, but to me, it did not seem to be a word that had a lot of unique significance to this particular version.

I do not think that these three are completely different novels, but they definitely sound like they have different tones to them, or emphasized different ideas or things.  Shelley edits the 1818 Thomas version, which changes some things, but it is still the story of Frankenstein.  13 years past from 1818 to 1831, so there is naturally going to be differences between them.  13 years is a long time, more then half the time I have been alive, so there is undoubtedly going to be differences.  When discussing the three versions, the word "friend" seemed to still be stressed in all versions though, so I think that all three were getting at the same thing, just had differences in them that time would naturally bring about.  

Heroes

I think there are undoubtedly heroes in modern life.  According to the poem, I think there are; according to me, for sure.  I think that depending on people's interests/geography/ethnicity/race there have been all types of heroes in the recent past and currently.  The person who comes to my mind immediately is Barack Obama.  I think that he is currently millions of people's hero, and will be remembered as one of the prominent figures of our generation, and in history.  One of my best buddies' dad was telling me a story.  He said the day after Obama was sworn into office, he was seeing a patient (he's a doctor) at the beginning of the day who was with her sister, both middle aged and African-American.  They both were just beaming he said, and when he said good morning to them as a kind of greeting, the sister said, "No, it is a great morning."  That really stuck with me.  

He's not a hero just to the African-American population though.  Our family had an exchange student when I was a baby.  For the next 5 years or so he came and lived with us every summer, and we've remained really close; he's like a brother to me.  After Barack was elected, he sent us an e-mail saying how happy he was that the United States elected him, and how Europe was essentially congratulating the United States for being able to do this.  I think it was really a transcendent moment for a lot of people, and our generation, and he really is a hero to so, so many people.  I think he's a hero to a lot of people as well because he showed the world how far our country has come.  It was so significant to me because I think it was the defining moment of my generation, kind of what our generation will be remembered for.  A lot of people in our grandparents' generation were pretty racist, and I think some of that trickled down to our parents' generation.  But I truly believed for a while that our generation is a lot more liberal in a sense, a lot more open-minded.  This is the first decision that our generation swayed, kind of decided for our country.  Instead of electing a wealthy, old white man, we elected a younger African American man.  He's younger, loves talking about sports, and is going to be on Jay Leno's late night show.  I'm not sure if I would say he is my number one personal hero, but definitely a hero.  I'm really proud that he's our president, I know I'm witnessing history, and the fact that he is the man (in the sense that he is just cool; he even filled out a bracket and put it on espn.com), and that he is our president is awesome.

end-lifted veil

If Latimer could read people's mind, I would have thought that he would have seen that Bertha was going to poison him.  When he thinks that he can read people's mind, he is just being perceptive.  I'm not sure why he wants to be able to do this, but he does manufacture it in his imagination.

read girls minds

The blonde on the right looks like she is thinking, Wow I really wish you were not taking my picture right now.  Ok I'm smiling, now leave me alone and let me go to my car.  

I do not think that the blonde woman, who turns out to be J.K. Rowling, looked that ditzy.  She is blonde, but I think that she looks like a normal person.  I would not have labeled her as a ditz, but I definitely would not have thought she is extremely intelligent, or extremely wealthy either. 

I had no idea that Latimer self-proclaimed being a mind-reader.  I now see what he talking about, but I'm not sure if he actually is in fact reading minds; I would probably say that he was not.  I think that some people are better then others at reading people's emotions and what they are thinking by their expressions and body language.  Latimer might be very good at this, but probably not reading minds.  Although maybe, I am not very sure.      

www.tagcrowd.com -go to project gutenberg

lifted veil

The language in this book is difficult, so it is hard for me to grasp everything that is going on, but Victor does not remind me of Latimer much at all.  They are both from Geneva I believe, and both had one really good friend.  They both also loved, and lost their mothers.  Their personalities do not remind me much of each other though.  Latimer is not good at science, whereas that was Victor's love; their minds worked differently.  I pictured Victor as being a pretty strong-willed character, wheras Latimer seems like the opposite.  He even faints at the appearance of Bertha.  Latimer really reminds me of the character Owen Meany in the book A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.  Latimer and Victor had some similarities, but when I read both of them, I was not close to thinking, "Wow Victor and Latimer really remind me of each other."

frankenstein conclusion

I think Victor's advice to Walton does change, but not completely; it is kind of contradictory.  Victor tells Walton of his tale I assumed to teach him a lesson.  Near the end of the book he also tells Walton that he wishes he had never made the monster.  But then, right before he dies, he asks Walton to kill the monster for him.  He also has this rousing speech where he tries to convince the sailors to continue to find the north pole instead of going back home to safety.  I think he had his own intentions though; I think he wanted the crew to help him find the monster, and he did not have the strength to do it on his own.  I think his advice did change to Walton, but his own passion got in the way of his full advice.  His actions showed differently, but his words told Walton not to become obsessed with pursuing what he wants.  Victor was obsessed with creating life; and it ended up taking over his life, ending the lives of the ones he loved, and eventually took his life.  Walton has become obsessed with finding the north pole, and Victor did not want Walton's life to follow a path like his own.

I was thinking of the question "Are Victor and the monster the same person?" while finishing this book.  Victor was repeatedly called "a wretch", once by the monster (160), and Walton describes Victor's eyes as wretched (165).  What was even more evidence of them being the same person was that Walton said in a letter that Victor showed him the letters of Felix and Safie.  But the monster was there, not Victor.  So at this point I thought they were the same for sure.  Walton even said Victor, "is thus noble and godlike in ruin."  The footnote says this echoes Milton's description of Satan in Paradise Lost.  Throughout the whole book the monster was not only being called a wretch but also compared to Satan in Paradise Lost.  So I was quite sure at this point that they were the same person.  But later, Walton talks to the monster, who was hovering over Victor's dead body on the ship.  So then how could they be the same?  

I have no idea if they were the same or not.  In my opinion, I think that a part of Victor is in the monster like a father and a son.  The father and son are not the same, but they have a piece of each other in them.  That is why I think Victor is at times referred to as a wretch.  I still cannot explain how Victor showed Walton the letters of Felix and Safie though.

superhero

2.5b5*m2*William*Hair:Standard,swoop1,FFF700,FFFFFF,100,100,24,Eyebrows:Standard,eyebrows4,FFF700,FFFFFF,100,100,22,Eyes:Standard,newplain,0000FF,0000FF,100,100,21,Nose:Standard,thinbroke,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,28,Mouth:Standard,stern,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,19,Beard:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,27,Ears:Standard,boxer,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,20,Skin:Standard,blank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,7,Mask:Standard,goldenage,20c9ff,3d9cff,100,100,23,Headgear:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,2,Undershirt:Standard,long,0000FF,36B9EF,100,100,8,Overshirt:Standard,tee,FFF700,6C4D9B,100,100,9,Coat:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,26,RightGlove:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,18,LeftGlove:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,17,Insignia:Standard,bolt,FFF700,0073a6,100,100,10,Neckwear:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,25,Belt:Standard,dagger,8D6531,5A3410,100,100,16,Leggings:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,11,Overleggings:Standard,blox,0000FF,FFFFFF,100,100,12,Pants:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,15,RightFoot:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,14,LeftFoot:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,13,Back:Standard,shortcape,FF0000,FF0000,100,100,4,Wings:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,5,Tail:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,6,Aura:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,3,Companion:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,31,Background:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,1,RightHand:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,30,LeftHand:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,29,#

My superhero was the child William.  I know this is probably kind of a weird choice.  Initially I was going to make a super-hero of Elizabeth because I thought she was the most righteous character.  She was overly kind and understanding in every way.  She believed Justine that she did not kill her brother, and then stood by Victor when he was miserable to be around, which eventually cost her her life.  But I do not picture her as a superhero.  I was thinking of who in the book would be a superhero.  For some reason, I could see an older William being a superhero based on how he was described and how he acted.  He was the only one in the book that I can remember standing up to the monster.  Yes he died, but before that he stood up to the monster and kind of scolded/warned him about his father.  He was also described as being a cute kid, which most superhero's are.