Week 12 Persepolis (Cont.)

**Irony: The theory reading has an entry in the first line of page 138 where Satrapi condemns the press and sensationalism by saying "it seems that Paris is Beirut in 1982."  Given the time we read this and the terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris this weekend, that was a little jarring. Especially considering that the people of Beirut feel ignored in light of the attention that Paris is getting.

Chute, Pg 135
"The author-subject makes makes political, collective claims by testifying to the very ordinariness of her trauma. In contemporary comics, there is a significant yet diverse body of nonfiction graphic work that engages with the subject either in extremis or facing brutal experience.


Satrapi, Pg 74

We discussed a little of this in class on Thursday, but the overarching theme for me throughout this book, is the inescapable reality that we are faced with a child narrator who retells these very extreme scenarios so matter-of-factly.  In the second window we see Marjane with her hands out to her mother and a concerned loo on her face, and in the last frame we see her with a blank stare as she walks ahead of her parents after her mother has retold the disgusting things that the fundamentalists said to her.  I can't imagine my reaction now as an adult if someone ever said something like that to my mother, let alone as a child. It's horific and barbaric, yet it's retold so simply ans almost casually - it highlights the brutality that they faced daily and the complacent attitude that they had about things of that nature.  That is not to say that they were not affected by it, but it seems as though it was just one more thing for them to accept from people.

Week 11

The following quotes struck a chord with me because I found myself floundering at times to make sense of political and religious references that I had no reference for:

"What gives Satrapi's work radical potential is its refusal to be wholly appropriated into a Western frame of reference; her texts offer recognizable signifiers for a Western reader and then immediately effect a slippage so that their meaning cannot be seamlessly appropriated into a Western framework (Naghibi/O'Malley p.230)."

"The first three rules came from Zarathustra. He was the first prophet in my country before the Arab invasion. I also wanted us to celebrate the traditional Zarathustrian holidays. Like the fire ceremony, before the Persian New Year, Norouz on March 21st, the first day of Spring (Satrapi p.7)."

I think it's important that people from a country like America spend more time invested in and learning about other cultures, but I also think that it's things like this that can deter people from doing so.  Already 7 pages in, and I felt like I was going to spend much of the time 'lost', being unable to pick up on nuance and the smaller details that the readers are assumed to know coming into the story.

Week 9 280 Blog

From Rotella:

"Grahame-Smith’s Austen vs. zombies novel derives most of its kick from juxtaposing high and low. As a literary send-up, it forces canonical literature and schlock to meet cute. And as a comedy of manners, it has fun forcing Austen’s characters, so sharply attuned to niceties of status and ever-alert for an advantageous marital match, to confront shambling subhumans who lust only for human flesh."

From Grahame-Smith Austen:
"There, her hand met the dagger concealed beneath her dress. She (Elizabeth) menat to follow this proud Mr. Darcy outside and open his throat.  But no sooner had she grabbed the handle of her weapon than a chorus of screams filled the assembly hall, immediately joined by the shattering of window panes....From a corner of the room, Mr. Darcy watched Elizabeth and her sisters work their way outward, beheading zombie after zombie as they went.  He knew of only one other woman in all Great-Britain who wielded a dagger with such skill, such grace, and deadly accuracy."

Week 8 - Class and P&P

"Austen is often happy to follow the Cinderella plot, and to make a happy ending out of marrying her heroine to a man notably above her in income and social prestige" Class, P. 117

"Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.” Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances.''


Using these quotes as a springboard, to my thesis, below:

Thesis: Darcy and Elizabeth's love occurred organically and is not based in status, class, or wealth.

Topic Paragraphs: 
Para 1 - Darcy's journey to Elizabeth <--- Strongest argument, most evidence
"But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, then he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes."
   
Para 2 - Elizabeth's journey to Darcy (Subtle, but significant)
"I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect.  He owns it himself without disguise"
                              
Para 3 - The culmination of their affections (while walking in the road, when Elizabeth agrees to marry him)
"Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.” Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances.''

Para 4 (? Or worked in elsewhere) - Or a side issue - those against them: Lady Catherine, Mrs. Bennett, the bitchy girl (Miss Bingley)
"I'm afraid, Mr. Darcy," observed Miss Bingley, in a half whisper, "that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes."
"Not at all he (Darcy) replied; "they were brightened by the exercise."

I don't know where to go with literary devices.  This thesis seems simultaneously too narrow and too broad all at the same time.

Week 7 P&P Volume 3

"The faults that Darcy will outgrow as he overcomes his pride are embodied, satirized, and dismissed through the subordinate characters"  Chapter 1, Page 49 of Woloch


"You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever." Pride and Prejudice Volume 3, Chapter 16, pg. 252

I thought that the take that the theory readings had regarding Darcy's satirical placement were spot on.  Here we have Jane who is in love with Bingley, and he leaves her high and dry simply because she's not the "right kind of girl". Their relationship was brisk but meaningful as I believe they cared for one another.

Darcy on the other hand (at least to me) seemed to love Elizabeth very early on in the story and it was either his pride, prejudice, or both, that lead him to show her his affections later on. He strikes me as the boy on the playground who would pull a girl's pigtails simply because he want to interact with her and his pride stifles any real affection that he might be inclined to show.

I personally love Darcy and Elizabeth.  I saw Darcy falling in love with her coming from a mile away.  I think that it's right of him to be cautious with his feelings and in Chapter 5 Elizabeth and Charlotte even comment on that saying that he's certainly earned the right (in his wealth and good looks) to be proud, but that doesn't mean that they like it. 

There are so many satirical characters in the book (Bingley, Lady Charlotte, and Elizabeth and Jane's younger sisters and mother to name a few) that Darcy and Elizabeth seem like caricatures simply because they are normal, reasonable, flawed characters.

Week 5 Blog

Unproper Beds & Othello

The reading gave some interesting insight into the imagery and the usage of the "bed".

From Unproper Beds:
" For the tragedy ends as it began with a bedding - the first clandestine and offstage, the second appallingly public..."

From Othello:
"I kissed thee, ere I killed thee: no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss (lines 354-55)

The passage from Unproper Beds goes on in this citation to say that the first mention of bedding, or Othello and Desdemona's  intimacy takes place off screen, yet that act alone consumes much of the opening of the play itself.  Later, the play comes full circle when Othello mistakenly murders Desdemona in their bed. (Not mistakenly in that he didn't mean to do it, but mistakenly in that it was bad information and lies that lead him to that action.)  It is interesting that the bed is so central to not just their relationship, but to their intimacy.

A bed is someplace that, when shared with another, usually has a strong intimate component.  This is where you are most vulnerable - sleeping peacefully next to another person and trusting them to be by your side.  It's ironic then that so many of the vulnerabilities that we see within Othello himself, are represented by what happens in the bed.  Even the murder of Desdemona is an intimate act.  It's not romantically intimate, but it is intimate in the sense that Othello watches her as he takes her life. I've never taken anyone's life, but I can only imagine the passion and pain that Othello must have been feeling, the vulnerability that he has about her and the insecurity in their love as a result of the lies.

I think the bed serves as a great metaphor for the comfort that we seek in one another.

Week 4 blog

This week's theory reading was by Toni Morrison and the theme that I noticed was that she speaks about things that an author doesn't talk about, being as important as the things that they do talk about.
While this is mostly regarding race, I also felt that it spoke to the legitimacy of the claims against Othello.

At about line 490, Othello is pleading his case and telling the other characters about how he fell in love with Desdemona by telling her the stories of his life.  I think it's interesting that Othello has the evidence of the love that he and his wife share, but we don't see Desdemona come to his defense.  There is a lot of story happening behind the scenes that we aren't seeing, and Shakespeare isn't saying. In that regard, I agree with Morrison that what you leave out and don't say - can be just as important as the things that the author does say.