An Adventure Through the Portal of Children's Lit

Term Paper

2008-11-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

http://docs.google.com/Edit?id=dfv9z9jq_4ckzvqkgx
Here is a website to view my term paper. I ended up doing my paper on John Donne's "The Flea" and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." I thought that these poems were a very good representation of the theme in our class that all literature is displaced myth, as each poem presents many familiar characteristics in comparison to mythology's Zeus. Also, these poems are some of the most famous of all poems, which represents the author's immortality. Art is immortality and is yet another one of our resonating themes. I hope you enjoy!

The Controversy!

2008-11-24T09:53:00.001-08:00

It is interesting to look into all of the controversiality surrounding The Golden Compass and Mormonism, even Catholicism for that matter! It seems crazy to me that people are trying to tell people that if you believe in God, then you are not allowed to partake in the enjoyment of such a wonderful story! I do not believe that reading or watching this story can make a person break away from their religion. I do not think that enjoying a fantastical story such as The Golden Compass is such a bad thing. Give me feed back! What do you think about this situation?

Helpful Terminology from Wiki

2008-11-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

Alternate naming and other words
To enhance the feeling of being in a parallel universe, Pullman renames various common objects of our world with historic terms or new words of his own, often reflecting the power of the Magisterium (Pullman's version of the Roman Catholic Church) in Lyra's world. The alternative names he chooses often follow alternate etymologies, while making it possible to guess what everyday object or person he is referring to. Below are some of the significant renamings as well as new words the author has developed entirely on his own.
Æsahættr: (literally "God-destroyer") The formal name of the subtle knife; deemed the "last knife of all"
Anbaric: Electric. From anbar, Arabic for amber; the English word "electric" is based on the Greek ήλεκτρον (élektron), meaning "amber". Both words derive from the electrostatic properties of amber.
Atomcraft: Research into particle physics, specifically using uranium.
Brantwijn: Brandywine.
Cauchuc: Rubber and possibly also plastic, from the Native American word cauchuc or caoutchouc meaning the sap of the rubber tree.
Celestial geography: Celestial navigation.
Chapel: A scientific laboratory.
Chaplain: The head of a scientific laboratory.
Chocolatl: Sometimes hot chocolate, sometimes "a bar of chocolatl" (a chocolate bar). From chocolatl, the Nahuatl word for chocolate.
Chthonic Railway Station: An underground railway station. "Chthonic" is from Greek χθονιος (chthonios), meaning pertaining to the earth; earthy.
Cloud-Pine: A type of wood used by Witches for "flying" (akin to broomsticks in other literature)
Coal-silk: Nylon, a synthetic fibre made from coal, was invented as a substitute for natural silk.
Dæmon: The animal embodiment of a human's soul. It is prounounced 'demon'
Dust: Dark matter or dark energy (although as more of a "life force"); in the real world, particles which make up most of the mass of the universe, but which cannot be directly observed.
Experimental Theology: Physics. A term derived from the fact that the Magisterium (see above) controls scientific research in Lyra's world.
Electrum: An occasionally used Latin word for amber; see "anbaric" above.
Gyropter: A helicopter.
Fire-Mine: A geothermal vent in which the panserbjorne work in metallurgy; supposedly impenetrable to humans and witches.
Marchpane: Marzipan. In reality, "Marchpane" is an archaic word for "marzipan".
Naphtha: Oil (as in oil-lamp, rather than naphtha-lamp), a petrochemical like kerosene.
Night-ghast: A Nightmare (in the mythological sense).
Oratory: An individual church.
Ordinator: A computer (from the same root as ordinateur (French) and ordenador (Spanish)).
Philosophical: Having to do with the study of physics. In our own world, physics was once considered a part of philosophy.
Photogram: A photograph, more primitive than those in our own world but able to be developed in multiple ways.
Projecting lantern: A magic lantern used for photograms. (Pullman noted in Northern Lights's Lantern Slides addendum that he based the projector in the book on one his grandfather owned.[1])
Shadow (particle): See Dust.
(Experimental) Theologian: A physicist. From "Natural Theology" meaning science.
Tokay: Is either an Anglicized form of tokaji (a famed wine of the Tokaj-Hegyalja region in Hungary), or a reference to Tokay d'Alsace, a name for pinot gris created in the Alsace region of France. The golden color of the wine in the book fits the latter definition.[2]

[edit] People and locations
The history of Lyra's world is also very different from our own; most obvious is the settlement of the New World in Lyra's universe was dramatically altered. Pullman underlines this and other variations by using archaic or alternate names for otherwise familiar people and regions.
Beringland: Northwest America, specifically Alaska and the Yukon Territories of Canada. Named for the explorer who first set out in the region, Vitus Bering
Brytain: A phonetically identical respelling of the region of Britain. It has echoes of "Brython", a word for ancient British people and the lands they inhabited.
Cathay: The medieval European name for China.
Corea: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Korea (used both in Cittàgazze and Lyra's world). This spelling was used prior to the current one, with a "K".
Eastern Anglia: East Anglia, particularly Lincolnshire, the region where John Faa's gyptians live; in Brytain it has remained fenland with the Dutch influence remaining strong.
Eireland: Ireland, as referred to in the Cittàgazze universe. Presumably a mixture of Ireland's Irish-language (Éire) and English-language names.
Gyptians: Boat-dwelling "Gypsies" (Roma). In reality, the word "Gypsy" is derived from "Egypt". Gypsies were once thought by "native" Britons to have come from Egypt due to their darker skin. Pullman is clearly referencing this etymological heritage. There are also references to the Dutch watergeuzen, (in the books, not as much in the movie) a kind of north-sea pirates. One hint to the Dutchness of the Gyptians is their preference for drinking "ginniver" (or Dutch) genever. Also, many Gyptians carry Dutch names like "Dirk Vries", "Raymond van Gerrit" and "Ruud and Nellie Koopman" and use Dutch terms such as "landloper" (a Dutch word literally meaning "land-walker").
Lake Enara: Lake Inari, a lake in Northern Finland. From Enare, the Swedish-language name for the lake.
Lascar: An East Indian. This is a real, though archaic, English word.
Mejico: Mexico, from the Mexican pronunciation.
Muscovite: A Russian; a reference to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
New Denmark: Most likely the region occupied by the United States of America, east of New France. Lee Scoresby is described as a 'New Dane', although he is from the country of Texas.
New France: Includes Quebec, much of Eastern Canada, and the region bought by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. A reference to the 17th and 18th century, during which the area around the St-Lawrence River and much of the North American Interior was called New France. (At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.) Lee Scoresby recalls the Battle of the Alamo as not being between the Mexican Army and Texians and Tejanos, but between French and Danish settlers.[3]
(Great) North Ocean: The North Atlantic Ocean combined with the European region of the Arctic Ocean.
Nipponese: The Japanese language and/or people. From Nippon ("land of the rising sun"), a Japanese-language name for Japan.
Norroway: Norway.[4]
Nova Zembla: Novaya Zemlya, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean
Panserbjørne (generally italicized): Armoured bears (as a whole race); a warrior race of sapient, talking polar bears, known for crafting powerful armour from meteoric iron
Peaceable Ocean: The Pacific Ocean, calqued from the Latin.
Roman: Specifically, the Latin language.
Skraeling: A Native American (specifically Inuit) person, particularly one from Greenland. Natives of Greenland were once named similarly by the Viking settlers of our world.
Samoyd:The Sami hunters of Northern Scandinavia.
Tartar: A Tatar; Nomadic Turkic, warrior people of the North, known for the practice of unusual spiritual rituals, including trepanning.
Texas: The homeland of Lee Scoresby and a separate nation from New Denmark which shares its southern border with Texas' northern one.

[edit] Pronunciation
The pronunciations given here are those used in the radio plays and the audio book readings of the trilogy (by Pullman himself).[5] The transcriptions surrounded by square brackets are in the International Phonetic Alphabet, as spoken in Received Pronunciation.
Alethiometer: al-eeth-ee-OM-et-er [ˌæliːθɪˈɒmɪtə]
Æsahættr: AS-hatter [ˈæshætə] ("God-destroyer")
Chthonic (see above): kuh-THON-ick [k(ə)ˈθɒnɪk] orTHON-ick [ˈθɒnɪk]. See chthonic for details.
Cittágazze: chee-TAH-gaht-s(z)ay (as Italian) [ˌtʃitaˈgatse]
Dæmon: DEE-mon [ˈdiːmən] (pronounced as "demon")
Iorek: YOR-ick [ˈjɔːɹɪk]
Iofur: YO-fur [ˈjəʊfʊə]
Kirjava: KEER-yah-vuh [ˌkiːrˈjɑːvə]
Lyra: LIE-ruh [ˈlaɪɹə]
Mulefa: moo-LAY-fuh [ˌmuːˈleɪfə]
Panserbjørne: PAN-ser-byurn-eh [ˈpænsəbjɜːnə] (written "Panserbørne" in early UK editions: "Armoured Bears")
Pantalaimon: pan-tuh-LIE-mon [ˌpæntəˈlaɪmən]
Salmakia: sal-MACK-ee-uh [ˌsælˈmækɪə]
Serafina Pekkala: SEH-ra-fee-nuh PEK-ka-luh ['sɛɹəfiːnə 'pɛkələ]
Tialys: tee-AH-lis [tɪˈɑːlɪs]
Torre degli Angeli: TOR-ay DAY-(y)-lee an-JEL-ee (as Italian) [ˈtɔrːe delɪ an'dʒelɪ] ("Tower of the Angels")
Xaphania: za-FAY-nee-uh [zəˈfeɪnɪə]

My Favorite Alice Chapter

2008-11-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

My favorite Alice chapter is all of them. If I had to choose just one favorite chapter in this work of literary nonsense, I would have to pick Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It is interesting that in an imaginary world, there are characters telling Alice that she is in an imaginary world. Is Alice an imaginary image in wonderland, or is wonderland an imaginary image in Alice? Very tripy stuff! They tell her her tears aren't real, and that they aren't real! How could you know for sure though if you were in a situation like that? Mind boggling! Plus, I love "The Walrus and the Carpenter."

The guardian of beginnings and endings....

2008-11-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

Beginnings and endings have been such an important part of this class!!! I give you...

In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes: the month of January, which begins the new year, and the janitor, who is a caretaker of doors and halls. (Courtsey of WIKI!)

Simpson's Version of the Flying Pig

2008-11-19T12:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this version of flying pigs......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714-Ioa4XQw&feature=channel

The Simpsons would be an example of an iconoclasm, or the breaking of images, but making aware the power of icons. Simpsons just uses satire and cynicism to do it!!!!

The Scariest Dream I have Ever Had

2008-11-19T11:54:00.001-08:00

My grandpa passed away when I was a freshman in high school. He was the light of my life. I was the light of his, as I was his only grand child. He is responsible for getting me through college and has also allowed me to travel over the entire country. When he was alive, each summer we would go on vacation to places like Mexico, Washington D.C., Pensacola, FL., and many, many more.

The dream I will tell you about occurred when I was in my third year in college, so about 7 years after my grandpa passed away.

The dream was placed on a cruise ship. All of my mom's side of the family was there. It was our usual summer vacation with my grandpa Ray, Aunt Jane, Uncle Corky, Aunt Dena, and Uncle Jim, and my mom. My grandpa had just turned ninety the October before the summer we were in at the moment. Grandpa and I were exploring the cruise ship and he collapsed. I was trained in CPR and first aid from being a lifeguard that summer, so I began to revive him. I used a defib machine to shock his heart. Then I began to do CPR on him to get him to start breathing on his own again. With my family surrounding us, he began to breath again, but was still unconscious. But my final thoughts before my dream ended were fearful. I was scared that I waited too long to revive him and that he would have immense brain damage and would live as a vegetable the rest of his life. The dream ended and I woke up crying.

When I woke up crying, my instinct kicked in and I called my mom. She was taken back by the detail in my dream. It eerily paralleled the actual death of my grandpa. When he died he was on his way back to Chicago from Montana. It was a family tradition for him to come to Montana every year for Christmas. The last Christmas he was here, he was very sick. He had been sick for quite some time though. He told the doctors that he had really bad heart burn. He also had this idea that if vets could figure out what was wrong with animals without them talking, doctors could figure out what was wrong with him without him having to tell them. It is clear that the doctors never really understood the full extent of my grandpa's medical condition. Anyways, grandpa made it back home and went straight to the hospital. He was in there for about two weeks and passed away suddenly. The doctors were stunned because the morning of his death, he was playing games of a family card game called thirteen with my aunt and uncle. Nothing seemed to be wrong. He went into cardiac arrest and died of a stroke. When they did an autopsy of him, they found that he had been having mini-strokes for a long time and that serious heart damage had already been done before his heart attack.

When my mom and I were talking about all of this, it was very strange. I have never experienced any dream with such vivid detail and similarities compared to my life. The dream was telling me that it was a good thing that my grandpa died when he did, as his autopsy also revealed that he had cancer throughout his entire body. He would have had a miserable life ahead of him if he would have made it out of the stroke. It gives me the chills to think about this dream still...

Test Questions for #2

2008-11-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

Five themes of the class include:
Myth, history, art, dreams, and coincidence

Classic illustrator of Alice: Tenniel

The last word in Beauty and the Beast is virtue.

Death is the inevitable end to all of our stories. One blurb in Alice in Sunderland reads “Here one moment…gone the next.” When all is said and done, who wins after death? The worms.

Endings: Tatar, Talbot, and Carroll

Who conquers the worms? Groucho Marx

Art is mortality. Oscar Wilde says that life imitates art.

Who does the white knight represent in Sunderland? Lewis Carroll (myth and history)

Doth the little busy bee vs. How doth the little crocodile = the crocodile is a parody and represents moralist counterpart to the busy bee.

The food that Mock Turtle sings about is soup.

What is the Mad Hatters response to his riddle? The riddles are almost always false. He says: Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Lewis Carroll after Shakespeare is 2nd most quoted author.

Seven ages of man…___myth___________is depersonalized__dream_______and __dream________is a personalized_____myth______.

Create your own portmanteau.
-Jabberwocky
-2 things put together

Who are the rudest flowers in Alice? Violets because

Animate = anima = soul

Who is the volcano? Alice

Where does Alice live in all of us? In our collective unconscious

How tall does Alice grow when she 1st drinks a potion? She shrinks to ten inches tall.

What is the title of the Deleted chapter in Alice? A Wasp in a Wig
How does Alice offend the mouse? She talks about cats

Protestant Reformation- One main idea is to teach moral values to children which is the intent of literature

The 1st bible was published in this country was written in what language? Algonquin

2 animals used to spark curiosity in evolution are the mammoth and the monkey (ape).

Which mechanical invention sparked the Protestant Reformation? The Gutenberg Press

Why is the Mad Hatter mad? Mercury in their hat bands which is phallic and also misplaced concreteness.

Create anagram of…

What does the white rabbit drop when he scares Alice? White gloves and a fan which causes her to shrink.

In Cocteau’s film version of B and B, Beauty’s tears turn to what? Diamonds

When reading a story, trust the TALE and not the TELLER. (D.H. Lawerence)

Carroll’s nickname influenced what character name? The dodo because of Carroll’s stutter.

What is “I’m interested because it’s interesting”? Tautology = a circular argument

Goodie two shoes is the emblem of PERFECTION that adults lack.

According to Dee and Dum, if Alice is part of the Red Kings dream then what are Dee and Dum…. Ditto, ditto, ditto.

What image from Alice was in Rebecca’s dream? Flying pigs

What causes the Walrus and the Carpenter to weep? They feel sorry for the wee oysters they are eating.

English Themes look into the dark side…the farside…The seasons.

Who was the most prolific serial killer in 19th century England? Mary Ann Cotton

2 primary ghosts in Sunderland are Sid James and the White Lady.

Jabberwocky was based on the legend of the Lambton worm.

Recreate the last line of Alice perfectly: “Life, what is it but a dream?”
What is contained in the ending poem of The Looking Glass? Acrostic

Walter Pater said: All art aspires to the condition of music.

The test informs REALITY. (script to book and heart)

The tweedles favorite word is CONTRARIWISE.

Tatar endings include: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, Jack and the Bean Stock.

Talbot pages: 21, 27-29, 92, 134, 183-86, 204-6, 290-298

Alice Chapters: Humpty Dumpty, Wool and Water, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Caterpillar, Question of Morals.

Mother Goose

2008-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

1) "The imaginary author of Mother Goose's Tales, a collection of nursery rhymes first published in London in the 18th century." (Definition by American Heritage online dictionary.)

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose (Wiki's Mother Goose)

3) http://www.wisegeek.com/who-is-mother-goose.htm (Wisegeek's Mother Goose)

4) Mother Goose: A Scholarly Exploration http://eclipse.rutgers.edu/goose/

5) The Official Home of the Mother Goose Society http://www.librarysupport.net/mothergoosesociety/

Finally my personal favorite Mother Goose rhyme:

Hey! diddle, diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon;

The little dog laughed

To see such sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

My Book and Heart Shall Never Part

2008-10-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

My most vivid memory of the movie, although rather redundant considering all of the information involved within the movie it self, was the section that Dr. Sexson and his wife retold the story of the infamous "House that Jack Built" by notorious Mother Goose.

This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cock that crowed in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the farmer sowing his corn,
That kept the cock that crowed in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

But who is Mother Goose?????.......

Cinderella's Happy Ending...What a JOKE!!!!

2008-10-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

If it wasn’t for me that girl would be lost.
She would never have received the goods that cost.
Her serenity and grace was found through me,
If not for my magic, she still would be no better then a flea.

Nothing is priceless in this world of wonder.
That girl would be a maid, her life in sunder.
No queenly serenity for this fairy god mother.
I’m still invisible, a mouse in the corner.

Beauty is not something all is born with.
Wit, charm, and congenial perfection are myth.
Never believe a cindertail to become royalty,
Without the help of fairy god parents, like me.

This twisted moral to Cinderella is from the point of view of the under appreciated view point of the fairy god mother. What do you think?

Love that Moves the Sun and Planets

2008-10-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Possibly Psyche's love of love, but in my case it would be Andy! We are high school sweethearts! But our story is not a fairy tale, yet! There have been numerous bumps in the road with no pebbles or bread crumbs to "get back" but we would be boring without them! Stability in life is boring! My love that moves the sun and planets...

Hans My Hedgehog

2008-10-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

-Children are never lost...Nothing is Ever LOST!!!

Motif's we've heard before:

1) East of the Sun West of the Moon

2) Book of Judge

3) Jeptha's daughter

4) Rash promises

5) Beauty and the Beast (transformations of the beast

6) The number 3 (3 shoes, 3 promises, 3 nights.)

7) Sacrificial child for father (the passing of property)

8) Demeter and Persephone

9) Marriage is abduction

10) Husband and wife can't have children

11) Monster baby

12) Wife doesn't care what she has

13) Relationship between father and child (Oedipus stories)

14) One year and one day or "formulas"

15) Isolation (the black sheep)

16) Relationship between human and animal

17) Beast marriage

Dude you can't have her, but here you go....

2008-10-12T13:21:00.001-07:00

Mythology and References in our Fairy Tales: (At a very small glance!)

1) Relationship of the mother and daughter

-Demeter and Persephone

2) Men are stupid, women are smart

-The Triple Goddess, which also represents "Cinderella". Maiden, mother, crone...

3) Aladdin's Genie- "I'm outta here, I'm history."

-Wait, no, I'm mythology...

4) Beauty and the Beast + Cupid and Psyche

-Can't forget about Hans My Hedgehog!
-Also Pygmalion

5) Oedipus Rex

-The Lion King

Security Blanket = Story Time

2008-10-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

When I was little, my mom read to me constantly! However, the stories she read were not just fairy tales to me. I was an only child, which made me develop a rather large imagination. I had two half-brothers, but they were much older then me. Therefore, they were never really in the house when I was in my storytelling prime. I had no one to share things with and that led to me getting sick of all my toys sooner then most kids. My stuffed animals had pretty short shelf lives, and I began to take different things to bed with me at night. Those things, I will add, became my books. I did not only become instantly soothed with the stories, but the books themselves. My array of children's books such as When Emily Woke Up Angry, Pickle Things (my all time favorite), and many others, became my bed time companions. The books were physically my security blanket. It must have been the musty scent of the paperbacks, or maybe the chemical aroma of the ink on the page, but I would drift away into dream land every night with a hard rigid book wrapped in my arms. (Strange isn't it!!!!!) I have found through experiences like these that books are not just crucial to this world for their stories, but by their importance of just being there. Books, in a physical sense, represent an innate presence of knowledge. Without this presence, our culture would be strictly oratorical. We would be stuck in the stone age. A world without books would be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!!!!! (If I may speak so mundanely.)

The Granite Gentleman: Displaced Myth

2008-10-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

At the bottom, not in my ship’s bay,
Salvage me now; I’m lost to this day.
Lightening bolts struck, in the abyss
I shall eternally stay in blue-azure bliss.

What shall I do in the depths of this land?
When all I have to look at is sand?
Nobody here to catch my rustic everlasting stare,
That, I don’t know if I can bear…

She rushes by, and envies my chiseled state
Could she want to be my mate?
How could we though, I’m made of rock,
And she of rosy flesh, born from royal stock.

She see’s me though, and plants me well.
Crimson flora surrounds me in her private cell,
She comes here often to think of other places,
Where people walk, and smile at familiar faces.

I heard her talking once, of birds in the trees.
She always sighed, mimicked them floating in the breeze.
At fifteen she could go to view,
Upon the arrival of the midnight dew.

Because she was the youngest of them all,
She waited for all five to go and fall.
The first fell in love with the city lights and sparkling night skies,
The second basked in the early dawn’s sunrise.

Sister three frolicked in the woods and hills.
Sister four kept her distance, she wasn’t much for thrills.
Sister five arose in the bitter cold.
She loved the floating diamond molds.

As storms swept over their heads,
Their world cluttered with fallen dead.
To ease them into their next life,
They sang sweetly to calm the men’s deathly strife.

My love, however, stayed behind.
She cried being so young and delicate of mind.
As soon as I am fifteen years of age,
I will ascend to the top of the great blue sage.

Her grandmother dressed her beautiful and fair,
She was stunning with white lilies in her hair.
My love did not much care for her new look.
She’d rather pick a rose to wear from my place in her flowery nook.

She bid farewell and kissed me goodbye.
I missed her deeply already, but somehow couldn’t cry.
I sat alone and waited for her to come back.
When she did, I would be back on track.

I wish I was with her when she made her save.
Something happed to her with my twin brother, that filthy nave.
When she came back she asked me to be him.
The thought of her loving him made me grim.

My mind was running mach five,
For the life of me I could not come alive.
I stood there in a frozen slate.
Motionless and mute was my fate.

I tried to chase her, uproot from the flower trap,
She was already gone to see the succubus in her death cap.
A rush of foamy dust spat in my face.
She eagerly left to that dangerous place.

She’s gone forever now.
A look of loneliness sits upon my brow.
Where did she go, my darling love?
Perhaps to places above as a beautiful white sea dove?

At the bottom, not in my ship’s bay,
Salvage me now; I’m lost to this day.
Lightening bolts struck, in the abyss
I shall eternally stay lonely in this blue-azure bliss.

~ A poem based on Hans Christian Anderson’s, “The Little Mermaid.” From the point of view of the statue of the prince. Copyright of Emily Lewis, 2008. :)

Catching Up from weeks of Slacking!!!!!

2008-10-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Additional Texts to Enrich Children's Classical Literature:
The Feminine in Fairy Tales
From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers
Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E.B. White
Little Red Riding Hood Unlocked
Peppers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children's Literature
Iona and Peter Opi: The Classic Fairy Tale
Alice in Wonderland
Cinderella A Casebook
Little Red Riding Hood
Don't Tell the Grown-ups

Throughout this class, I have become obsessed with the idea of there being "no original" story. I have carried on my obsession with fairy tales into another class, English 339, where I will be creating a multi genre project on the unique fascination of Fairy Tales and the world. While conferencing with my professor in our weekly writing groups, she mentioned a book that conveyed that there are only seven types of plots in the entire literature world. This caught my attention, therefore, I looked it up on the world wide web. The website that I found is most interesting! This website gives us a narrow perspective on a book by Christopher Booker called, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. VERY INTERESTING STUFF!!!!!
URL: http://fiction-plots-pacing.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_seven_basic_plots

Children, Nature, Books....

2008-10-06T17:47:00.001-07:00

What is a child?
When I think back to my child hood, I think of many things. I was a free spirit with an endless imagination. My imaginary friends and I would play to no end. Our sense of time was inexistent. At this time, my mind was not clouded with worry of the vast problems within the clutches of humanity. I was able to jump into the fairy tales I read, with no doubt that my life might someday reflect one of those fairy tales. It was easy to be the Little Mermaid from Walt Disney. I was not at all concerned with turning into sea foam. Childhood then is exemplified by innocent carelessness, worry free dreaming, and the unawareness of the truths of human nature.

What is nature?
Nature is not just the trees, the birds, the air we breathe; the grass we lay upon…Nature is a reference to much more than that. Nature can be an infinite amount of things that we are completely unaware of. Humans are infatuated with sexual nature, behavioral nature, and other instances of ordinary processes of psychological behavior. Therefore, nature is not limited to physical aspects of the world. Nature is a very unique balance of what is real, and what is unreal.

What is a book?
A book is much like nature. A book flirts with many aspects of life dealing with the real and unreal. A book is a linguistically complex element of humanity’s portal to information, imagination, nature, and basically all elements of the world around us. A book, like nature and a child, is not subjective to one single definition. Instead, one must consider that a book, nature, a child, is defined by the inability to define them without concern.

Sept. 4, 2008

2008-09-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

"All literature is displaced myth..." ~Dr. Sexson.

Philipp Otto Runge- Romantic German Painter
Self Portrait (Image url: http://www.answers.com/topic/runge-philipp-otto)
Runge provided various illustrations for the Brothers Grimm. Much of his work was in the style of Romanticized Goth, which explains his perfect place within the stories of the Brothers Grimm.
The Brothers Grimm seem to use scare tactics, suffering, and death in stories to teach youth to obey the morals hidden within their stories.

Alphabet...A is for apple!
~Repetition is the most prominent way to teach children in loo of memorization. Other examples of repetition in the learning process of children include: peek-a-boo, reading fairy tales, etc... Repetition stimulates the enhancement of brain development.
~Goddess of memory, Mnemosyne.

*What is the significance of the lack of names in fairy tales? Why is it important to understand why many characters are simply known as mother, brother, father, sister, instead of by concrete names?

Google Red Shoes!
For the most part, I found a lot of shoe websites, and many many sites that included information on the British film The Red Shoes. I guess I am not finding what I am supposed to be finding...

Fairy Tales can stand the test of time when they have songs so beautiful it stops the world around it. (In "The Juniper Tree" anyways.)

Character Representations in "The Juniper Tree"...
Mom = Dead
Stepmom = Evil
Father = Dumb
Sister = Kind/ Innocent

I am an extreme Wizard of Oz enthusiast, therefore, I cannot wait to see if we can do the graphic novel project!

So I know what a bodice ripper is...I thought about google-ing it, but I thought I probably shouldn't!

Sept. 3, 2008

2008-09-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Introduction to the class with a reading from, "The Juniper Tree".

(image url: http://www.austinwaldorf.org/store/junipertreelogo.jpg courtesy of google images.com)

omphalos:

1. the navel; umbilicus.

2. the central point.

3. Greek Antiquity. a stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth. (Citation: "Dictionary.com." Omphalos. Britanica, Inc. 3 Sept. 2008 .")

"If a person were called to fix the object in the modern museum of Delphi that best expresses the importance of the ancient sanctuary, he would, without hesitation, name the omphalos, the navel. Long time ago, the supreme god Zeus released two eagles at the edges of the earth, and they met each other at Delphi (satellite photo). The mytho-scientific experiment was commemorated by the omphalos. This story appears to have been invented to give meaning to an already existing monument, the significance of which was no longer understood. Perhaps, the Delphian omphalos originally was a baitylos, a 'house of god', as they were well-known in the ancient Near East." (Citation of the omphalos stone image and quotation obtained from: "Delphi." Delphi. Livius.org. 3 Sept. 2008 .")

~Basically, omphalos can be described as a place to get from one place to another. In the case above, the omphalos stone in the Temple of Delphi is the center of the Earth where one can explore portals into the heavens, the world of the God's, and so forth. In connection to this class, we will be adventuring into various portals of children's literature. Some examples of common portals throughout children's literature include: Alice's Rabbit Hole, Jack's Bean Stock, Dorthy's cyclone to Oz, and C. S. Lewis's wardrobe.

~The importance of naturalism and realism as it unfolds itself in much of children's literature.

~Myth and Displacement of the "fairy tale."

~The four primary foundations of literature include:

1) Mythological

2) Classical

3) Biblical

4) Children's literature
(Image courtsey of: http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/02/alice-in-front-of-rabbit-hole.jpg, googleimages.com.)