Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction of ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost, I recall a poem a while back, maybe 6th grade or so by you, I think i enjoyed it but I dont quite recall its content. I am however pretty sure it wasn't so sinister. The end of the world is an aggressive subject, and you speak of desire, destruction, and hate. You seem bent on the destruction of the world, what if it never ends? or ends in something else, like a mud slide or something. But youre word choice, also known as diction is impressive, powerful I mean. And also in such a short poem im suprised with the ryhme scheme, abaabcbcb..kinda random. But its a powerful poem and also has a twist of mood at the end. Props.

Most intersting to me are the ryhme scheme and the irony in the poem. I see now you dont need a scheduled scheme but just have a ryhme, or even no ryhme. Poems are just written expressions from the heart and mind, there's no need for a limmerick or haikui or whatever style of ryhming. And I really like the twist from fire must be right, to ice would suffice. He presents an almost arguement but then says either would be great ways for the World to END

The Soldier (1915)
If I should die, think only this of me;
That there's some corner of a foriegn field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich Earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Give somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, leanrt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace under an English Heaven.

Powerful poem Rupert, its curious the poem and its message as related to its publishing time as well as your untimely death. The dates correlate, also falling around War World I i believe. The way you used England shoes patriotism, but also a lack of love for any woman back at home in England as your poem alludes to in the opening line. National pride is nothing to be taken lightly but to love England so much seems a little foolish, maybe you died as a soldier or had alot of friends who did as you were fairly young when you died. Young soldiers always think they must die to serve their country, when it's the live ones that really aid in the war. But what i like in the poem is your allusions to Nature, from which the soldier was born and made, and then what he adds life to as "richer dust".

Alluding to nature is very prevalent in poems, and i feel like i could do some good work alluding to nature. I hope to write a poem regarding love and tie it into nature, maybe the seasons.. Then again love is lame. I will write it about soccer and talk about the balls movements and compare them to a river. Or not, but alluding to nature seems like an interesting tactic that i will use in the future.

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Maya Angelou

Africa (1975)

Thus she had lain
sugar can sweet

deserts her hair
golden her feet

mountains her breasts
two Niles her tears
Thus she has lain
Black through the years.

Over the white seas
rime white and cold
brigands and ungentled
icicle bold
took her young daughters
sold her strong sons
churched her with Jesus
bled her with guns.
Thus she has lain.

Now she is rising
remember her pain
remember the losses
her screams loud and vain
remember her riches
her history slain
now she is striding
although she had lain.

This poem, to me is very emotionally powerful. The beginning is describing africa, not as a dark continent with unknown forests or giant beasts, but instead as a woman, who is mistreated very badly. Looking at the poet and the time th poem was published I gather she is talking about recalling the slave trade and such to pursuade people about the african americans press for equal rights. The progressive movement i believe. I really like how she introduces the poem as a black woman crying and such, who as the poem continues reveals how she was exploited and beaten. And it ends with how she is rising, because blacks were then with alot more rights. But the last sentence, although she had lain through me off, was it africa's fault for the abuse? Because it's she she had lay there and took the abuse without fighting or standing up for them selves. Maybe because of the different tribes were not united Maya chose to point out she had not fought the good fight.

My favorite aspect of the poem would be the description of africa as a woman to set the tone of the story and I really liked how she incorporated the Nile and stuff related to africa. Ofcourse she was either from africa or knew alot of it but Its still impressive her methods of tying it all in. I could use her idea in many poems, i could write about New Zealand and how she was a young beautiful country, a young beautiful woman, who loses her innocence (becomes deflowered) beacause since New Zealands discovery its environment has become riddled with invasive species. If i can remember to that will be my next poem.

Chapter 26, Lit

Another favorite thing of mine in the world of literature, Irony. In the story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, well first off that title just drips of irony, what a way to foreshadow.. So i read the story and found the title is a little misleading, but still fitting. The misfit, is a murderer who finds the family after the car crash. The grandmother begs for her life and talks of god and then scares the misfit who shoots her. The irony of the story is the grandmothers path from posing as a christian if they may crash and she is killed to the end when she truly seems to be devoted to god and being a good christian. Then she reaches out to the misfit, which looking even deeper could stand for sin, where she is promptly killed and i guess she goes straight to heaven. The misfit then says "she would have been a good woman if there was someone to shoot her everyday", that was a sneaky message from the author, as to say it shouldnt take someone pointing a gun in your face to do good. At the end of the story the misfit says "it's no real pleasure in life" hard to understand, but i see it ironic because he is a serial killer who just witnessed a woman become devoted to god but takes no joy in killing, nor does he regret it.

Chapter 25, Lit

Another look at this chapter putss me into a whole new degree of looking through their eyes. It's hard to comprehend but to best asses the novel consideration of the characters lives and past experiences before the story takes plave and involves them, and looking at how they will be effected after the story can help as well. So to apply this..

In the Story about the burning of the barn just from the beginning i decided the father was an ex soldier as is alluded, but i feel like he is so aggressive and burned the barn because of things he learned during the war, so i took note to look out for more occurences that he may have learned from the war. As i put myself in the eyes of the boy, is is hit the one night i figured he just wants to settle down in one place and be happy so i predicted he would do something drastic, as i read on the arsenist burns another barn, but the boy turns on his father and runs to the homeowner to warn him, then he shows his brave side as he runs away, never to look back.

Chapter 24, Lit

Illness can be a good motivator, when a loved one is on their death bed or one is given a month to live a crazy adventure is almost inevitable. Foster talks about how authors can use different ailments to describe a persons character and the situation everyone is in. For Example in the folk tale about John Henry, the beast of a man challenges the steam engine to save the jobs of his friends and family. He is a strong young man but after beating the engine, in some recolections of the story he collapses and dies from his heart failing. To have such a proud, fit young man die from a heart attack after beating a machine is simply applicable. If the story went, and then he died from syphillis the story just wouldnt make sense. Speaking of syphillis, an author uses this to create another twist in the story, if a character has syphillis eye-brows are raised because they must have slept-around.

In the story, the Yellow Wallpaper the wife is affect by the mental illness, of nervous depression. With such an illness the author is able to portray the struggles the woman goes through because everything "queer" she sees is blamed on her illness and no one believes her.

Chapter 22, Lit

Foster hits on the blind, but all-seeing aid to the main character in chapter 22, in the Book of Eli the actual main character was blind and you watch the whole movie not knowing he is. Throught the story he kills people and feeds himself so accurately when he sits down in the end, takes off his shades, and begins reading the last bible in brail, then you notice his cloudy eyes! Authors use blind characters because they cannot see the real world but have such a deep understanding of everything around them and use their other senses to "see" just as well. In Araby the young boy seems to notice alot of things a regular child wouldnt, like the smells of the streets and garages, then the sound of the silver coins. But it also says " i watched her brown figure in the corner of my eye" so i dont know if the young boy is blind or not, i consider him to see very poorly, and thats why the passage is applicable. The blindness may be a handicap but with blindness comes a whole new world.

Chapter 25, Fosters Ideas

By now all I have read in the book is different examples of things standing for more then just a stormy night, or a massive heart attack. So i get it, everything is written for a reason. This chapter was titled, Don't Read With Your Eyes. I read on and discovered a welcome twist to Fosters ramblings. This chapter talks about putting yourself in the characters shoes to better understand everything that is going on. I can say honestly i do this now but after reading this i understand i have to consider everyone in the book as well as think about how these things can effect the future of thee characters and even what they are thinking during certain events. If you can imagine yourself as a third party, or neutral viewer youcan gather a pretty good understanding of the book, i consider myself to be a pretty neutral reader in these terms. But i can see how if you remain neutral but take a look from both sides of the story you get a much more in depth look at the struggles and you can better asses the novel and ultimately take the correct stand over the issue.

Chapter 19 Foster's Ideas

Well the second paragraph in chapter 19 lost me as a fan, because I'd take a trout stream over a rainbow colored beach any day, just kidding.. So the theme of this chapter is to always have a place in mind when writing a story, as an artist does when they paint a picture. By talking about geography and describing locations of different events as being on a steep hill or in the marshy woods the author is able to appeal to stereotypes as well as give another step of understanding of the person. For instance, if in the story the character decides to have their honeymoon in Tanzania then you can gather that they are adventure seeking because of the political injustices going on there. In the book Eragon I can recall a forest near the main characters homeland, it was called the Spine i believe. And the author did a great job describing how erie it was and it turns out to be the place the dragon egg is discovered, and from the egg comes the rest of the story. If the egg had been discovered in a park the anticipation of what was in it would not have been so great, in order for authors to evoke emotions they must use geography to their advantage in describing anything.

Chapter 14, Fosters Ideas

I am a christian in faith, going to a Methodist church. And my dad is a catholic i believe but i have only been to a catholic church 3 times. What I'm saying is a know of the bible and of Christ. In this Chapter Foster hits on the common similarities readers should look for that portray a character. Many writers include a "Christ figure" for many reasons, in the Movie Perseus which i discussed earlier the Christ figure is a young woman who leads Perseus through his missions. She is killed in the movie but in the end she comes back to life, she rises from the dead, just like Christ, truly proving she was a Christ figure. Authors use Christ figures to appeal to Christians but also the figure carries a lot of weight when it comes to ability in performing miracles and getting stuff done due to Jesus's story. So many things set off readers to consciously or sub-consciously think of Christ, and once this is done the author has to do very little in describing the character as they are already seen as a savior. I have learned from this chapter if the character has even one subtle thing in common with Christ than they are most likely being portrayed as a savior, and i can't wait to point out stuff like that in discussions.

Chapter 18. Fosters Ideas

This chapter discusses the significance of occurences with water in novels, when a character falls into a body of water many things can happen, they can drown, discover something, or survive. The only thing that is definate when a main character falls into the water is that a swift change is occuring in the story, usually a climax. Foster calls it a baptism, as in any instance i can think of the character does change his goals and the storys adventure begins. In a movie i saw recently, Called Perseus the Main character is discovered by the water on the beach, and lives his life on the water as a fisherman. Then his family is killed by the acts of god sand a falling statue and he plummets into the sea, but he survives. Now that i recall this scene i can really apply Foster's idea. This one scene when he rises from the sinking ship begins his struggles against Zeus, and he realizes his life goal to fulfill his fathers words, which were forseshadowing him in fact being a Demi God as i think about it. In any book i read i can apply this, and what ive found with this book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, is it's a very specific assembly of rules and examples that all mean, its more then it seems.

Chapter 10, wheather, and how it can be applied

It's Never just rain. A novel always has a reason to describe the forces of nature being encoutered in the story, if its a dark and stormy day, or one of those calm quiet days, either an unexpected visitor will show up at the door looking for help or on the calm day something spooky will be encountered, like the discovery of an erie cave that never used to be there. These may sound like cliches but they are common in the writing world because the weather is described always for an underlying reason. A sunny day is never encountered in a war story or a twister is never described in a Briar Rabbit story. The weather is just another way to add to the flodd of emotions into a readers head, the rain appeals to two extra senses, feeling and hearing as the readr imagines the cold rain and the pitter patter, the heightened detail allows the reader to dive into the story and better understand the theme. But with the rain comes rainbows, a universal sign of wealth and happiness, so the rain in the book can stand for suffering, but like I say, from suffering comes greatness. More than just imagine myself in the same weather as the main character i will analyze what the rainy or cloudy or extra dark night might really be foreshadowing.

chapter 9, GREEK MYTH, applying it to

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Taken from the lenghthy poem, Ulysses. Those words have strong meaning, and are strong because they are enforced and credited by greek myths, greek myths, well all myths are my favorite to read about, they are so old but seem so applicable to everyday life. Foster explians how and why they are applicable and he shows, by design, many generations writings have beared similiar expressions as great mythical writers like Homer. Greek myths are specifically cited to appeal to all readers, the bible is a great source but can be a turn off to atheists, and Shakespeare a great man and even better playwright but boring and a little hard to understand, so the Greek Myths are called to action, with stories like the Trojan Horse, a story about immoral love, the battles that ensue, and a crafty stab at the heart of Troy, this story teaches about love and wit. Or the Story of the father and son that make wings to escape rfom jail, and the boy is warned not to fly to close to the sun or the glue will melt, but either through ignorance or awe of the sun and the ability of flying the young boy flys to close and plummets to the sea, that story as many themes to it, the biggest one for me came when after he escaped from what seemed like eternal imprisonment, but then through a dumb mistake his young life was yet again going in the wrong direction, and this time with no turn-around. I enjoy reading about greek myths and this chapter has given me new insight on how, why, and where to apply this subculture to my readings and writings.

Chapter 7, The Bible. applying to Moses

As said earlier, no piece of literature is original work, and chapter 7 talks specificlly about how countless works of literature are based on the bible, some even being responses to the bible. But with such a strong faith and following of it it's no surprise the amount of novels that can be linked to the Holy bible. The Poem i chose to analyze was The Dark Moses

you are the one
i am lit for.
Come with your rod
that twists
and is a serpent.
i am the bush.
i am burning
i am not consumed.

The poem is very obviously about the bible, specifically the burning bush that spoke to moses to tell him to free his people from the Pharoah, and eludes to his cane that when cast on the floor at thee Pharoahs feet it turns into a Cobra. This specific use of the bible is to appeal to christians but also it gives tha author the ability to convey a really strong message, which is of faith and how they work for you "i am lit for you". The chapter gives alot of examples of the use of the bible and it's many stories, but doesnt really push why they are used. I know from previous studies that the use of the bible credits almost any arguement, and is an appeal to pathos, or even ethos because someone who knows of the bible must be a good person. I know alot of the bible and will aim to point out or note any cites i finid in my future reading, as well as acknowledge the series of books i read awhile back are based on the bible, the Chronicles of Narnia.

Chapter 2, applying knowledge to "Cathedral"

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", After reading this chapter i became astute in picking up on things that are more than they appear to be, as if a meal is not always a meal. In the story Cathedral, from what i got reading the text online i was able to conclude the friends blindess was the symbol, or the thing that was more than it appeared. He was blind and the wife in the story sends tapes to him to explain her life and the overall world to someone who cannot see, and he sends tapes back. His literal blindess is kind of an ironic twist to the end of the story because the husband and wife realize, thanks to noticing the blind mans ignorance that they were infact the blind ones to eachothers wants and desires. The ability or tactic an author uses by having characters share a meal, but with the meal he is foreshadowing a relationship, or depeneding on how the meal goes the author could really be foreshadowing anything, and i find all of that extremely mind-boggling, yet interesting. And now I will judge every scene i experience in my literary life to it's full extent.

Chapter 12 analyzing applicability

My favorite, Symbols. Foster hits the nail on the head in his first sentences, the hard/important part isn't identifying the symbol, but determining what it means, what it stands for, and why it was included. And thats the literary genious in it all, a symbol is someething an author can include to relate to readres but its up to the reader to determine what exactly the symbol is symbolizing.

"Here's the problem with smbols: people expect them to mean something. Not just any something, but one something in particular. Exactly. Maximum. You know what? It doesn't work like that. Oh, sure, there are some symbols that work straightforwardly: a white flag means, I give up, don't shoot. Or it means, we come in peace. See? Even in a fairly clear-cut case we can't pin down a single meaning, although they're pretty close. So some symbols do have a relatively limited range of meanings, but in general a symbol can't be reeduced to standing for only one thing."

That excerpt really got me thinking, and he's totally right, a symbol only means what the signal reader understands it to mean. A thumbs up means good job around here, but if you are to do that to someone in New Zealand they may take it differently.. also in literary symbols the farmer might symbolize the communist government but to some it might stand as a slave driver, example from animal farm. I hope to analyze every symbol i encounter and decipher what is really meant, but also the many things that could be meant.

Chapter 11, analyzing applicabilty

In this chapter he speaks of literal terms, specifically literal violence and figurative violence. he says "Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications. It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent. Violence in real life just is. If someone punches you in the nose in the supermarket parking lot, it's simply aggression. It doesn't contain meaning beyond the ac itself. Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually something else. That same punch in the nose may be a metaphor" And that passage outlines the whole chapter, the violent act or event may and most likely is meant to be taken literal, however always ponder the act and if it could have a figurative meaning, For example the punch in the nose could just be the cause of a nose bleed, or it could be taken as a hard hit, like some one's car getting towed whose house is already forclosed on, its a hard hit on them financially. In the chapter his example is about a run away slave, and mother, who kills one of her children to "free" i from slavery. Of course when reading this the reader should feel emotion about the death of the baby, but the homicide from mother to child stands for the whole struggle of the Africans against slavery and the killing is just an example of the devastation. I have considered the literal and figurative violence but shall continue to look hard and deep in the meaning of all events of a story. Especially the violent ones.

Chapter 5, analyzing its applicability

In this chapter Foster talks about how every novel in history is virtually just a spin off of the other ones, claiming all stories have the same plot. He says "there's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature" i completely agree with this parcel and he gives proof including citing the bible and its many stories and how they can relate to so many stories today just with different characters. By reading enough you begin to see patterns and archetypes and I can really see what he's saying about the recurring stories, every novel ever written has the same underlying struggles, backgrounds, and even rewards, but what keeps readers reading is the small differences and subtle changes to the occurrences every good adventure book contains. After acknowledging the truth in Foster's statements i shall begin to compare everything i read to other things Ive read as to witness and experience the deja vu i should notice.

"For begininng readers, though, every story may seem new, and the resulting experience of reading is highly disjointed. Think of reading on one level, as one of those papers from elementary school where you connect the dots. I could never see the picture in a connect-the-dot drawing until i'd put in virtually every line. Other kids could look at a page full of dots and say...thats an elephant."

This quote/analogy shows how reading novels, if practiced and thought about, can be predictable and patterns are always present. After reading a few chapters the end of the story should seem obvious because we can predict th outcome of the events based on the norm.

Chapter 3, Focusing on applicability

I hope i am doing this blog right and all, considering i am sitting down to start all this as yesterday i turned 17 and with that came maturity. So i hope the preceding blogs suffice, or instead of suffice i hope they please or overjoy.

Sincerely Hunter

In Chapter 3 Foster discusses "vampires" or characters in a book that are usually very similar in different stories, like they are evil and witty, but also handsome and charming, and he discusses how these vampires are a vital part of the story as they give the hero someone to struggle against as well as how important they are to notice when analyzing a text. I also understand the vampire in the text doesn't have to be a certain person but can stand for something immoral that society at that time struggles against, vampire in literature really only means an idea that has negative moral implications but has an alluring side to it, especially to the young and innocent.

"Try this for a dictum: ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires. here's where it gets a little tricky, though: the ghosts and vampires don't always have to appear in visible forms. Sometimes the really scary bloodsuckers are entirely human"

That ahort passage also outlines how vampires in literature are just the demons inside outside or all over the hero and his life, sometimes its in his head or somtimes its his step brother, the only thing vampire will ever mean all the time is evil, or the delimma. This chapter is important to include in this book because you must understand what the dark side of the story is to gain anything from reading it. After i read this chapter i will think deeply whenver i encounter a story to acknowledge and hopefully better understand the vampire in the novel.