The Ringmaster's Lament

In The Circus Animal's Desertion by Yeats, he starts it off with a deep look into his past works. He almost seems disgusted at how showy they were and he admits that they were actually very terrible as far as works of art.

This is also a good example of demonstrating what happens with age. In his youth he was able to create these extravagant and beautiful works whereas now he is unable to come up with anything. He is extremely apathetic and it's like he has given up hope on having any kind of influence in the world at all anymore.

I find this sad as most of the country is like this as well. They are very apathetic towards there work and anything they have accomplished in the past that they were so excited about back then, they find really had no significant value or impact what so ever. This is a prime example of dying at 40 and buried at 70.

A Revolution of The Industrial Kind

In the first part of "The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy, it appears as though he has a lack of faith in humanity's ability to sustain itself with the introduction of the Industrial Revolution.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
      The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
      The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
      Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
      Seemed fervourless as I.

The land's sharp features could be represented by factories since they would cast a sharp look to the skyline of a city and it is the remains of the previous century which is why he says "The Century's corpse outleant," Overall, he has a very pessimistic view of where society is headed because he feels as though the earth has been scoured of all it's beauty while he is only looking at a small part of it. Once the thrush enters and begins to sing it shocks him out of his dark desolate despair and reminds him that it really isn't that bad. There has to be something good still left. It almost seems like the best is yet to come.

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

      And I was unaware.

In Order to Get Anywhere, You Must First Know Where You Are Going

The discussion in class about looking at Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a commentary really got me thinking since I had never looked at that story in such a way. Last night I had the epiphany that Carroll's critiques of the British government is just as relevant to today's society as it was then.

I primarily want to focus on the encounter between the Cheshire cat and Alice. When Alice asks which road she should take, the Cheshire cat responds by asking her where she is going. When she states that she doesn't know, he says "well if you don't know your destination, than any road will do."

This is a great example of how our society acts today. We tend not to actually think through what we are doing and just sort of go with the flow and take what our media tells us as fact. So much so that I think at some point, people forget what their original ambitions were. They have no idea of where they are going and therefore don't have an accurate plan of getting there. To many people forget to use their head when they're deciding what they are doing through life. That can be a dangerous thing and lead to some very bad things happening in society.

 “You just go where your high-top sneakers sneak, and don't forget to use your head.”

Insomnia...the worse form of horror

In Confessions of an English Opium Eater, De Quincey goes through the different stages of the effects of Opium. To me it sounded a lot like the arguments today for legalizing marijuana where you have the one side that claims that it's an abomination and that it should not be used for any reason. Then you have the other side which claims that it is a very beneficial herb that can be used to treat serious diseases and help people cope with the pain that these diseases bring. The position that De Quincey takes on opium is similar to this medicinal marijuana viewpoint. He downplays the pleasures that opium can bring by emphasizing the pain that it treats as well as the side effects that he experiences along the way. One of these side effects that he experiences when his body starts going into withdrawals from the drug is not being able to enjoy sleep and almost forcing him into becoming an insomniac. Now I'm not sure how many of you have ever gone long periods without sleep, but it truly can be a terrible thing. I was awake for 3 days straight once and it was the most terrible thing I have ever experienced. When you sleep, your brain is cleansing itself of toxins that it has become subject to throughout the day so when you don't sleep, your brain  is not able to go through this process. Add opium to the mix and you have yourself some pretty intense hallucinations going on, as De Quincey demonstrates. Anyways, the point I am trying to make is that De Quincey has been experiencing the highest form of terror which locks you in your own head and makes you a prisoner of your own imagination in both the conscious and unconscious states. Now I could go into a spiritual take on things, if some want to hear that than let me know and I will go into that but otherwise I will leave that alone for now.

Paradigm shifting to the head!

I think that Radcliff really does a great job of not going by the status quo. She draws her readers in thinking that they are getting the traditional story and then slaps them upside the head with paradigm shifting literature. It really is a great tactic on her part for the time period that she is living in. If you take into account the fact that women weren't viewed as equals quite yet it's easy to see why she originally published this under a pseudonym and started everything off the way that she did. She wants her readers to start off in their comfort zone. It is a great tactic to draw your reader in before challenging tradition views of society. It isn't until part 3 that she even starts challenging the French government. If someone starts challenging traditional thought process too soon, then people will just put down the book. However, if you draw the reader in, get them attached to the characters, and then start changing the way that they think towards the end it's like shooting fish in a barrel. The reader is already too far down the metaphorical rabbit hole to put the book down and the author gets her point across while the reader is none the wiser.

Self Loathing in Bristol

In Robert Southey's "The Sailor Who Served in the Slave Trade," he tells the tale of a sailor who was forced by his captain to bound and flog one of the female slaves they had just picked up who ended up dying the following day. The way that he words this poem vividly paints the sailor's anguish as he describes how guilty he feels for what he was forced to do by his captain. The slave woman haunts his dreams and he seeks mercy and forgiveness from God. However, knowing what I do about God, once you ask you are forgiven, so really the issue is forgiving himself. He feels a deep anguish and self loathing for not resisting his captain's orders. If the sailor can't forgive himself then when Southey has the call to action at the end for all us to pray for him as well is all for naught. He must forgive himself if he is to recover from this tragedy.

A new breed of Story

The Castle of Otranto was definitely a new breed for the time period of its release. A literary fusion, if you will, of Shakespearean plot lines mixed with what the author refers to as a combination of the new and old styles of Romance. The way that he does this, allows the development of the plot and characters to happen in such a way that would be impossible without the air of mysticism he includes along with allegedly "real" characters so that they can respond in a way that a real person would to these supernatural circumstances.

It's no surprise to me that Walpole released this work under a pseudonym due to how controversial it could have been perceived. Whenever one is bold enough to combine and create a new genre, it does have the ability to either spring board or crash a person's career. It also allowed the public to take everything in it from a completely different point of view than if they had known that it was a work of fiction by Walpole. Typically, when I am about to start a book from a well known author, I have preconceived notions on their style, possible outcomes, character development, etc. However, since this was designed to be read as a "real" event that was just translated, it gives the reader the adrenaline rush and a "on the edge of their seat" feeling that is associated with strong character-reader attachment.