Going Old School

Closing Remarks

2008-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

As the blogging window closes, I'd like to close with a final statement. I was talking with some classmates one afternoon before class, and Sam said she doesn't read my blog because it has a warning on it which involves an extra click to say you can handle any outrageous material. Well, as one can see that the material in this blog really isn't anything too graphic, I chose putting that warning on there for 2 reasons. The first being the irony of a content warning for a class on children literature. The second is that the irony of a warning about children literature being unsuitable for some views is funny to me and what is a better description of children than laughter?
Sorry for the inconvenience of the extra button, but isn't my idea for it worth the trouble?

The Twisted Land of Oz

2008-12-08T08:29:00.000-08:00

As I did with the Fairy Tale characters, here is Todd Mcfarlane's Oz version

Dorthy

The Cowardly Lion

The Scarecrow

The Tin Woodman

Toto

The Wizard

The Flying Monkeys released! And a Munchkin

Term Paper

2008-11-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

Jesse Stolba
English 304
Dr. Sexson
26-11-2008

Pictures Throughout Life

“What is the use,” Alice says, “of a book without pictures?”
Often when we think of books with pictures we think of children stories. When I think of kids books, I'm reminded of story time; all of us kids sitting on the floor while the teacher reads a few lines from a book to us and then shows us the pictures that are on the pages she just read. Those pictures are just as important to the story as the words are and this is true for all books, not just kids books. The pictures give the reader so much information that the essentialness of pictures to literature should be examined.
Pictures have been present in writing for a long, long time, and while the general idea is that pictures in books are just for the youngsters, the graphic novel is challenging this preconceived idea. In its most basic form, the graphic novel is a series of pictures that tell a story. But when a person engages the book with earnest, they will find that there is more being said with the pictures than words could fit on the pages to say what is happening.
Bryan Talbot touches on this point briefly. How does the reader know what the Hatter looks like in Alice in Wonderland? The only way we know is from the pictures John Tenniel drew; we can't rely on words for this, otherwise Carroll's words would fail us horribly. By using pictures to help tell the story, or even tell the story all by itself, pictures can accomplish tasks that words would be unable to compete with.
Throughout Alice in Wonderland, pictures guide us through the book giving us better understanding of the characters. From the Caterpillar to the Mock Turtle, from the Carpenter to the
Duchess, even on to Alice, we have visual representation of what the author had in mind when writing. In some instances we are given some form of description through writing, but all questions in physical appearances and scenery are put to rest by the pictures. Going to Talbot's Alice in Sunderland, let's look at how a picture can have more to it than a description by words.
Here's my attempt to describe a scene/picture, in Talbot's book, the way a reader would normally encounter an image like this, “Amidst a bloody battle, a viking warrior, with soulless eyes, stands over an elderly monk who has fallen to the ground. The viking, with sword and axe in hand, gives a warrior yaulp as he gets ready to give the deadly blow.” That is my description of the scene in on page 79. Even though that gives a good mental picture, much is left out of the image such as the blood on the sword (which is in the right hand) and the axe (which is in the left), another dead monk on the ground behind the main viking, the vikings in the background: one setting fire to a house, one looting, and one swinging his sword at a man on the ground. Outside of the characters actions, there are other things too; the vase that has fallen on the ground, the flames on the roofs and in the houses, the color of the vikings cape, even the dark clouds in the sky. Many times when a reader is given descriptions, many of these details can be left out either because they are not necessary, they might distract the reader from the actions that are happening, or the reader just doesn't remember all he is supposed to have seen.
While Talbot's graphic novel isn't my cup of tea—due to the content and subject matter, but mainly because of his constant lack of structure between frames (or frame-less frames)—he does make use of the art form in, not an original, but an unique way. He does this with something I'd call a sensory overload. He uses the pictures as a background noise or projection of what is being said, blurring the line between the frame-less images and the gutter (the space between frames). With all of these images he has going on, the reader is seeing more than he is used to, but not so much to distract him from what Talbot is saying. The main point being the reader doesn't have to remember all the little details that would be confined to words because he can see the whole picture come together.
When Talbot uses images to show his points, he makes the eye read more than the traditional comic. This is a great spectacle for the eye to behold and does what Alice says, makes it useful. But he does it too much which turns his book into a lecture (as the guy in the audience must feel) and doesn't give the reader enough gutter space to engage the story with him. It is important to say one of the biggest benefits of pictures in a book is the ability to simultaneously allow activity to happen without distracting the reader from the text that is also being read in addition to the pictures. This is being used by Talbot, but a little too excessively.
Here is a way in which a book with pictures can trump an all-text books; it has the ability to tell more of a story by using pictures. In the Sunderland book, on page 15, Talbot talks about George Formby. What's amazing about using pictures is the ability to not only talk about what Formby did, but show what he looked like, different magazine covers he was on, his signature, all the while lyrics and musical notes of a song are running through the background.
A lot of what Talbot does can be seen as the frame narrative with pictures. Pages 135 we see the audience member viewing the previous page which has pictures from Alice in Wonderland and the face of the audience member along with a frame of the two pages together. It's the same as looking at a mirror with another mirror facing it; there's as many frames in there as you can see. Even I have representations of the frame narrative on my body. Since I find skin more exciting with tattoos, I have many of them. But even my tattoo of a samurai has tattoos on him; there is also, hidden throughout my arms, various skulls, a witch , a monkey, and I even have a dragon hidden within a dragon. Except for the samurai, all of these hidden frames were put on me without my knowledge and it became my job to find them, but back to the books.
On pages 28 and 29 there are a wide display of different versions of Alice in Wonderland. To prove that more is being said here than an all-text book could say, go back and look at these pages, then imagine describing each cover to a friend. Do you think it would take a long time? Yeah. Do you think the person would have a good idea of what you told them? I doubt it; have you considered color, background, and placement of images and texts on these covers? Not so easy. It's the same problem I had with describing the viking scene earlier, but with pictures Talbot does a fine job showing the people, place, and things he is talking about throughout the Sunderland book.
As I mentioned before, Alice in Wonderland had pictures to describe what characters looked like and different actions that were happening. Think about the reason for deleting the chapter The Wasp and the Wig; Tenniel didn't want to deal with Carroll to draw it. Carroll could have put a chapter in without pictures, but he knew the power of art to this story. Verbal or written descriptions can't hold a flame to a visual one.
Some of the pictures in Alice in Wonderland have become essential to the identification of this book. Before ever reading this book I was familiar with the pictures of the Cheshire Cat in the tree, the cards painting the roses, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and of course the tea party picture. I've even seen the Caterpillar smoking the hookah and the Hatter running away from the trial in Gordon's tattoo portfolio. It's amazing where these images have gone and how people have engaged them.
Even back to the beginning of the semester, Maria Tatar's book The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales showed pictures people had drawn/painted reflecting various scenes in the fairy tales. Just look at all the variations of the Beast there are. Not to say this is a bad thing, but words failed to describe one concrete picture of the Beast, but then again aren't fairy tales supposed to be vague so we can let our imagination fill in the blank? That's kind of like the gutter in comics! Every fairy tale in the book shows variations people had when visually creating the characters. Some of the most creative differences can be seen with Puss in Boots, the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rumpelstiltskin.
Even our most textual book has a lot to do with pictures. While His Dark Materials isn't heavily illustrated (only a small drawing is seen at the beginning of each chapter) Lyra's alethiometer is based on pictures. To work the alethiometer she has to see further into the “frames” of the pictures to gain many different levels of understanding so she can answer any question she asks. Lyra also understands that a picture can mean an array of things, giving claim to the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Pictures are vital to literature. In all cases of the books we've read this semester they supplied greater understanding, be it from illustrating a point from Talbot or showing meaning with the alethiometer. They also supply a way to see deeper into a story by frames and see deeper into the minds of the artists, like the fairy tales, or the people directing the artists, as with Carroll. Pictures can range from the main focus of a book, to a picture every few pages, to an idea of a book, to something we put on ourselves. The fact is that pictures are vital to literature and to life. Alice is right about the usefulness of pictures.

My "class break through" experience

2008-11-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

Today, 19th Nov. 2008, was an important day in class for me. Not to say that everyday isn't an important one, just that today I finally started feeling a break through with ideas. To those of you who read my blog (probably only Sexson) I haven't quite had the content, the juice, the zazz thus far; I've put out a number more entries than I have in other Sexson classes, but still I just haven't been as engaging as I'd have liked them to be. With that said, I'm going to make one big blog about various things that started to come to me in class....here we go!

We talked about the Ode to a Grecian Urn, or something like that, and how on this urn is music being played and for one to hear this music, they have to learn to hear. I have been doing this for a number of months now. After many years of playing the guitar, then playing the bass, then not playing at all, I began playing (mainly the bass) again. I have been learning songs to play at home and in bands. But when encountering loads of songs and trying to learn the bass line, I've been having to train my ear to hear the bass which can be a real pain in the ass because not all recording have an easily definable bass and when turning up the low frequencies, the low end of the guitar and the drums bass kick help hide what I'm trying to reproduce. My point is I know what training your ear to hear things involves.

Sadie said she didn't cry at the end of His Dark Materials because she must be cold hearted. I too am cold hearted and didn't cry when I finished the book. The reason I bring this up is because I've been looking at handguns lately. Why? I don't know, I like them. So I came up with simile. Cold hearted like the barrel of a gun; only after it's fired is there any warmth from the barrel that make my blood warm again.
Like most of my semester, not very insightful, just some good ol' fun that shows the kind of person I can be sometimes (did I mention I'm reading Flannery O'Connor in one of my classes?)

The Idea of North.
I started thinking of the things I unconsciously do that involves N(n)orth. I practice aikido and in our dojo when we bow in at the beginning of class, it's north.
When I sleep, my head faces east, but usually I'm on my right side so I'm facing north.
When I'm at work delivering pizzas, I rarely, rarely, rarely like driving on the north side of Main St. The exception is when I'm on Rouse.
In Montana, if we are facing north, we have our backs to the sun.
When I start thinking about it (and I'm sure I will be thinking more about it now) N,S,E,W directions and the way I live and do things could be quite an interesting understanding of myself. I honestly don't feel comfortable with the idea or direction of North. Out of all the directions it makes me the most disconnected. Maybe this could become a new form of the horoscope if it already isn't.

In class we talked about the notion of sacrifice being romantic in it's own way. For the second time I've had a class where we watched a Japanese flick called Double Suicide. This is one of those movies that could fall into romance through sacrifice. A married man falls in love with a girl in the pleasure quarters (we're all grown-ups and you can guess what this means). But he can come up with the money to buy her out of that life. Meanwhile, some other dude has money and is going to buy her instead, but they'd rather die than be apart from each other. To make a really long story short, they take off (out of the city I believe) to die, but this suicide is, well....fucked up. He takes a wakazashi/shoto/medium sized blade and stabs her in the stomach. Then while she's walking around in pain, he stabs her again and think this time it was in the back. Next she turns and faces him and he put the last stab in her throat. After he lays her on the ground I believe he then takes fabric from her kimono and walks off a way to a place where he hangs himself. Sacrifice? Yeah! Romantic? Sure.

Finally, my daemon.
I've wanted a pet dog of my own for a long time (I'm a single guy, I'm lonely, I want a companion/a buddy). So I've been trying to figure out what breed of dog I should get. My list was at about 15, then I got it down to 3, and now I'm pretty sure my daemon is an Alaskan Malamute (Hmmmm, Alaska is far north). I've been in search for him (I know daemons are supposed to be opposite the sex you are, but not always and I'm fine with that) for years now, but have recently started to feel that pain of separation and have been looking for him diligently. So, over the next 6 months or so I'll probably be moving out to Belgrade to live with my mom again so I can live some place that allows daemons, I mean dogs. I have searched for my other and I still have yet to find "the one" but here are some pictures of just how damn cute they are.

Term paper draft

2008-11-18T00:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a better draft of my term paper. The last bit right now is still needing depth and examples (which should be apparent) but it shows my direction.

“What is the use,” Alice says, “of a book without pictures?”
When I think of children stories, I'm reminded of sitting on the floor with the rest of the kids while the teacher reads a few lines from a book to us and then shows us the pictures that are on the pages she just read. Those pictures are just as important to the story as the words she just read. The pictures give the reader so much information that one, perhaps me, needs to address the essentialness of pictures to, not just children's books, all literature.
Pictures have been present in writing for a long, long time, and while the general idea is that pictures in books are just for the youngsters, the graphic novel is pushing preconceived ideas. In its most basic form, the graphic novel is a series of pictures that tell a story. But when a person engages the book with earnest, they will find that there is more being said with the pictures than words could fit on the pages to say what is happening. It's true!
Bryan Talbot touches on this point briefly. How does the reader know what the mad hatter looks like in Alice in Wonderland? The only way we know is from the pictures; we can't rely on words for this, otherwise those words would fail us. By using pictures to help tell the story, or even tell it all by itself, they can accomplish tasks the words would be unable to compete with. As I try to describe what this looks like (already creating a problem between words failing with what pictures can do) I'll try to stick to Alice in Sunderland, but there is a good chance that I'll have to include Neil Gaiman's Absolute Sandman: Vol 1 because I believe without a doubt it is one of the best works of literature and should have been used for this class. But back to Talbot, his book gives, what I'd call, a sensory overload.
He uses the pictures as a background noise and a projection of what is being said. Talbot not only uses images to show his points but puts images behind images making the eye read more than the traditional comic. Before looking at specific examples, I think it is important to say one of the biggest benefits of a graphic novel, or comic, is its ability to simultaneously allow activity to happen without distracting the reader from the text that is also being read in addition to the pictures.
In the Sunderland book, on page 15, Talbot talks about George Formby. What's amazing about this medium is the ability to not only talk about what he did, but show what he looked like, different magazine covers he was on, his signature, and the notes and lyrics of a song are running through the background. It truly is amazing! Especially if a reader isn't used to this type of genre.
Another incredible example of this mediums power is on pages 28 and 29. On these two pages are a wide display of different versions of Alice in Wonderland. To prove that more is being said here than an all-text book could say, go back and look at these pages.....alright, now that you've done that, imagine describing each cover to a friend. Do you think it would take a long time? Yeah. Do you think the person would have a good idea of what you told them? I doubt it; have you considered color and background and placement of images and texts on these covers? Not so easy. Ah the power of the graphic novel is finally being understood.
Talbot does a fine job showing the people, place, and things he is talking about throughout the Sunderland book. However, it doesn't quite do it for me. There is some serious history happening from the beginning to the end and Talbot becomes quite difficult to follow. Now what does do it for me and in my opinion should have been a reading for this class and should be utilized in all of Sexson's class if not all applicable classes, Sandman.
Actually it's The Absolute Sandman: Vol 1, because the real series is super long, maybe 80 issues. The powers that want to make money decided to bind everything together and release it in four volumes and also make them part of the “absolute” series (a huge blown up version in a hardback). Now the two reasons why this was not part of our class are the following: it's damn expensive (maybe $50-60 on amazon to $100 retail), and knowledge of its content probably isn't known.
I am willing to say that this book contains the five themes of our class: myth, history, art, coincidence, and Dream. What other work has the Lord of the Dreamworld, Prince Morpheus, Dream himself, as the central character?
For myth, The Sandman issue #9 titled “Tales In the Sand” is an oral myth, but goes far beyond that and into separation, initiation, and return.
Bits of history are splattered throughout. Be it real or drempt, Dream meets with a man every hundred years to talk about life. This man decided people die because they think they are supposed to so he chose not to.
We also meet William Shakespeare in the famous “A Midsummer Night's Dream” issue.
Coincidences are surprising and constant in this graphic novel. Children of previous characters turn out to be portals to other worlds and the mythical relationship in “Tales In the Sand” turns out to be between a real lady and Dream.
The whole work is art. From the pictures to the writing and the ability to tell amazing stories. It's not just a visual masterpiece, but also a literal one as well.
Other special things happen in here that would have been relevant to the class and I would have blogged on it if only I didn't lend out Vol. 1 to a friend and miss the appropriate times to bring it up. Little Red Riding Hood makes an appearance and so do the maiden, mother, and the crone is a way only a graphic novel could benefit the reader.

Googling terms

2008-11-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

Google is absolutely useless. I tried to google the terms daemon, dust, didactic(ism), aleithiometer, storytelling and all I got were 1000's and 1000's of hits that barely mentioned anything to do with what the class is learning. More or less I get strange blog or brief on the movie; maybe even I'll get lucky and find people trying to answer what is dust. But the point remain...google is worthless.

Meow

2008-11-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

It's interesting that we brought up the topic of the cat in the book and related it the cat in the Matrix. When I was reading it this summer, I made that connection of the reoccurring appearance of the cat in the book and the cat in the movie.

Quiz 2

2008-11-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

Review: Linda's lecture
Various endings in Tatar book:Snow White, Sleeping B, Frog, Rapunz, Rumple, Jack
Select Talbot pages
Alice chapters: Humpty, Wool an water, T Dee n Dum, caterpillar, queen of moral
BnH movie

John Tenniel is the illustrator of Alice books
Virture-BnB
Who wins after death-worms, then art (don't ask me how)
Oscar W. "life imitates art"
5 themes of class: myth, history, art, dream, coincident
White knight-LC
moralistic-busy bee, parody-little croc
mock turtle sings of beautiful soup
Raven n writing desk-mad hatter-I haven't the slightest idea
After Shakespeare, LC is most quoted writer (Talbot)
myth depersonalized dream, dream personalized myth
portmanteau- tow things put together (words)Humpty dumpty, Jabberwocky (good luck)
rudest of all flowers-violet
animated contains anima meaning soul
volcano-alice
alice lives in collected unconscious which "is" dust in his dark materials
alice drinks and shrinks to 10inches
deleted chapter-the wasp and the wig-because Tenniel didn't want to do it
alice offends mouse by talking of her cat
Protestant reformation-main idea-to teach moral values
1st bible publ in this country in Algonquin lang.
2 animals sparked curiosity in evolution-mammoth and monkey
invention in Prot Ref- Guthenberg printing press
Hatters mad, mercury in head bands, misplaced concreteness
Anagram from chapter title
white rabbit drops white glove and fan-important because they are going to come back
in movie BnB, beauty's tears turn into diamonds
trust the tale not the teller-d h lawernce
LC's nickname dodo because of stutter
rhetorical argument- tautology, circular argument, interesting because it's interesting
goody 2 shoes-emblem of perfection which adults lack
Alice, T dee dumm, dreams-ditto ditto ditto
walrus and carpenter
dark side-english teachers/classes look into
pigs with wings
prolific serial killer in 19th c england: Mary ann cotton
2 ghost in talbot- sid James and white lady
Lampton worm- jabberwocky was helped by
"Life, what is it but a dream?"
Alice Pleasance Liddel
Walter Pater-all art aspires to the condition of music
the text informs reality-only real because they've been written about
Contrarywise Dee dum

Humpty Dumpty the English teacher

2008-11-09T15:36:00.001-08:00

Is it just me or is there anyone else out there that thought, when they were reading Alice, Humpty Dumpty seemed a lot like an English teacher?

The Legend of the Lamboton Worm

2008-11-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help but make a connection with the above mentioned story which we find in the Sunderland book with the Hans My Hedgehog story. Manly the part of "the first they you see, you must..." In both cases the people accepting the charge believe it to be a dog that will meet them first but, also in both cases, it is a loved one.

Kids and Scary Adults

2008-11-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

The other day I was at my friend Sean's birthday party/gathering (let's face it, at a certain point it becomes more of a time to get together and hang out than party i.e. the first 23 years). Being the person I am, I couldn't help but notice who all the people were and how many kids were running around. There were 3-4 girls no older than 5 and probably no less than 3, and one boy probably around 3. There were only 2 adult females and about 8 adult males including me.
So why am I writing this? Good question. First of all, that shows a large amount of guys being dads without the mom around, and one of those dads is a single parent. The main thing that I found to be very interesting is that every adult there has tattoos. Three of them being tattoo artists and at least six of us falling into the category of heavily tattooed. And I guess the reason I felt like writing about this is for 2 reasons: 1. All the kids were running around putting on fake tattoos and even trying to put them on their parents. And 2. One of these dads had to be the disciplinarian towards his daughter, but it was funny from my perspective because you have this guy, by all accounts looks mean and tough, with a daughter who doesn't do what her dad is telling her. I thought it was funny to watch this along with the whole environment of people that were there.

Alice in Wonderland

2008-11-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

I've finished Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass a week or two ago, but am now finally saying something about it. I am also a third through the Sunderland book.
Regarding Alice, I don't like her very much. She annoys me and is inconsiderate of other people. For instance, many times she is asked to be quite or wait for a story to be finished before she speaks, but she doesn't care and interrupts and is very rude.
However, if I have my timeline is some sort of order with using the Sunderland book, Through the Looking Glass would have been written when Lewis Carrol had the least or no interaction with Alice. This could explain why I prefer the Alice in the second one to the wonderland one. Something happened between his relationship with Alice and she became less disrespectful and annoying.

This is a "rough" idea for how I plan to run my paper:

2008-11-03T21:57:00.000-08:00

The classroom is a funny place when one thinks about it. Consider what has to happen for students to learn, and what they are learning. Dates and historical facts seem to be knowledge that a student is expected to gain from a class along with ideas that will help shape the world. Well that is a romanticized version of what can happen, the student struggles to learn what they think might be on a test so they can pass the class and move on. But what tools are used for teaching? The teachers knowledge is one and another one is books.
These books can take the students to different worlds through various portals. Just by opening a book and engaging the text a portal is created, but there is one style of text that can do this better than another and is essential to, not only children's literature, but all literature and that is the graphic novel.
In its most basic form, the graphic novel is a series of pictures that tell a story.

Dreams

2008-11-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

Well....I don't really like my dreams. For one, I haven't slept well in months so I don't look forward to sleeping. Second, I usually don't dream and if I do I rarely remember them. Third, if I do remember them they're the kind I don't want to remember.

With that said, the dream I had Halloween night wasn't a vivid memory, but one that I remember the ideas of what upset me. Generally it was about a girl I was in love with but no longer hear from. I think it had to do with her being with another guy which upset me and it threw my whole sleep off.

This is one of the reasons I don't like sleeping and I don't like dreaming; I haven't had a good one of either of them.

Rapunzel tears

2008-10-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

The other day in class, Sexson asked how many of us have tears cure blindness. Well I have had a metaphorical situation. A number of years ago I went blind in my right eye. I have always had a big problem with giving myself eye drops. Over an extended period of time I had to take multiple eye drops given by many different people. Quite honestly, I had people put very expensive tears in my eyes and then one day I was able to make out shadows and the rest, as they say, is history.

Possible paper topic

2008-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm pondering writing about is graphic novels are a perfect literature for this class if not all Sexson classes.
I might decide something else, but for now I'm thinking about this.

Alice in Garfield

2008-10-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Garfield comic strip in the bozeman daily chronicle for wed. oct. 29th connects with Alice. One of the question we are asked in Through the Looking-glass is who dreamed it? The Garfield comic has switched heads on the bodies of the characters and all of them are asking who's dreaming it!

test question

2008-10-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

I already know my test question for the next examine.
why is a raven like a writing desk?
I haven't the slightest idea.

Now if only I could figure out what to write a paper on.

Teaching a kids class

2008-10-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

The other week I was asked to substitute and teach a children's class at aikido. The reason I felt like sharing this experience is because the other day in kid's lit class we were talking about kids as miniature adults until the 19th century when the concept of a childhood came about. I just started thinking about the concept of the children's class at aikido and the experience of teaching (or not) the class. I guess a portion of the difference between an adult class and children's is motor-skills. Of course adults in the beginner class also have difficulty identifying right from left.
Some of the kids really get into doing aikido and other appear to be forced :) The maturity of the kids quickly becomes identifiable. Girls are much better at understanding concepts and movements than boys of the same age.
The experience was....special, but I guess what I'm saying is there is definitely a need to have a concept of childhood and the idea that kids are miniature adults, while funny to think that way, isn't a good description because of their various limitations of mental development.
Oh and at the end of class, kids and adults, we have a circle and give any announcement. The adults know what type of announcements are invited, usually ones dealing with aikido related material, but the kids will say damn near anything that has happened in their week. It's really funny.

The latest beauty and the beast

2008-10-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well the movie has been out for about a week now, but I still thought it'd be a good idea to mention it. The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton and Liv Tyler is the latest fairy tale to hit the shelves at the movie store. What could be a better depiction of beauty and the beast? In fact, I'd like to say it is better at telling the story than others who set out to make a film about these two. So, to give the basics of the story you have this man who can turn into this huge green monster that smashes stuff. The guy seems to have no control over it, he even says that he doesn't know what he's doing when he's the Hulk. But this monster recognizes the girl and has a calming effect on him. He obeys what she says and he protects her. Now what makes this a better demonstration of most b&b's (at least in my opinion) is the separation.
When he first became the Hulk, he ended up running away leaving this woman that he loved and by the end he has left again. The girl actually has this "search for the lost husband" Even though there isn't much to do about searching, for once I find that the "husband" is lost (physically and mentally). He has left the country and when he's the Hulk, he can't reasoned with except by her, she can find him.
That's why I thought this movie did a good job telling the story of Beauty and the Beast, that and it was a really good movie too.

The book and heart movie

2008-10-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

It was an interesting movie. Not really my taste and I didn't quite understand it all, but the music was very soothing. I do feel it is my duty to comment on one particular point that is very fairy taleish, but a very good moral that should be passed on. The movie starts with two kids breaking into a house and loot a chest. Not only do they b&e but they also take the books when they leave. I felt that part of this movie was the value of books and if that is so then those kids stole one of the most valueable things in the house. And the kicker, they get away with it. Makes me laugh in side. Like I said, that reminds me of fairy tale (H&G eat a house, Puss in boots lies, &c) but not the kind of thing we should encourage kids to do....or should we? Eh probably not.

Continuing with morals

2008-10-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

#7 Rapunzel

Sure life is hard, but who's to blame?
Can't be the witch for this game
But the man and the woman are the evil ones
For making the deal
After they steal
So curse your parents for the tower you're in that's no fun.

#8 The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich

Little frog are you serious?
This girl is a real bitch!
She lies and she leaves you
Throws you up against the wall for you being you
So why are you staying with her after all her abuse
All she's going to do is use you.

#9 Rumpelstiltskin

Who is the bad guy?
The one who wants the gold
Or the one who makes a deal they don't keep?
Apparently neither of them
It is the one who saves your neck by making a deal
And the good guy is the one who finds a way to cheat his(her) savior.
Kids
learn how to be deceptive and cheat others and good things will come.

#10 Jack and the Beanstalk

Again fellas the moral is the same
Even more so if you have a dame
She will hide things you want to eat
And sooner or later your treasure will leave.

#11 Bluebeard

Poor exotic man
You open up your house to your woman
And all you ask is to leave one door alone
I'm sure you'd give a reason if only she asked
But instead a request is broken and your life taken
What would we do with out women?

Bluebeard

2008-10-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

In my Age of the Shogun class, one of the books is Prisoners from Nambu. This book has to do with the Japanese dealing with foreigners. Japanese in the early modern period aren't very friendly to certain outside ideas. The main one is Christianity. They had some really great ways for killing and torturing people and making them recant. There was a one sentence that caught my attention:
"The Bluebeard of this place was Iemitsu's favorite councilor, Hotta Masamori."
This sentence got my attention :)

Date Criteria

2008-10-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

I want one of them readers that's what I want.
And so you go out with a girl and you're driving, "so what are you reading right now" and all too often, "Well I'm not much of a reader" EEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRCCCCHHHH! (car stopping)
"Well I'm not much of a diner buyer, get out, get out, get out, get out!"

But every once and a while you meet the one who reads. "So what are you reading" he asks. You know the date killer question.
"Well I'm in the middle of a book right now."
Oh my god she's in the middle of a book. Be still my beating heart.
"So what are you reading" he asks expectantly, nerves tingling, heart a quiver.
"Well I'm in the middle of this Harry Potter" EEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRCCCCCHHHHH!
"Don't be an adult women and read a fucking child's book in my car! Get the fuck out!"

So it's obvious a guy like me is gonna live alone for the rest of his life...that's the kind of miserable asshole I am.

-Henry Rollins

This is from his Shock and Awe Tour dvd. He's rude and funny and I laughed a little more this time because we have been discussing "children books" in class and this is his opinion of age versus acceptable books for adults.

2008-10-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

I guess the wolf is now after more than just Red, he wants your money so you can live in debt.

Test Stuff

2008-10-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Archetypal lady in Finnegan's Wake - Prank Quean
portmanteau - multi level word
Privileged number in fairy tales - 3,7
misplaced concreteness - repunzel's hair
Type 333 Arnie Thompson Index - LRRHood
Collective unconscious manifests itself through - archetypes/fairy tales
"If you're really crafty, you'll get them both" - wolf in LRRHood
3 parts of universal quest - separation, initiation, and return
3 parts of the triple goddess - maiden mother crone
No such things as original - c, all is displaced myth
When you bow - you recognize the divine (the god within)
Aladdin, Genie, I am mythology
Grimm's/Prose in Cinderella - Ash Girl
Motif index- which category East/west, BnB, Hans - what motif - Search for missing husband/ beast groom
Doesn't struggle to conceive - Bluebeard
mother, daughter duo - Demeter/Persephone - archetype
Haiku
Blue in Bluebeard's beard - d, all the above
BnB transformation - love
Archetype of talking animal - Golden Ass
Why Cupid woke up - drop of oil on shoulder
Give a spoonerism - Sisty Uglers - switch words
Williams Wordsworth - we already know everything possible
mythical story BnB comes from Cupid and Psyche
Character flaw in females - curious
Which Grimm has a witch - HnG
Who wanted to marry LRRHood - Charles Dickens
What phrase begins fairy tales - "once upon a time/long time ago"
cinderellas mom - ewe
Portmanteau - combine 2 things (meanings) in one word example - Prank Quean (I don't understand it)
Displaced fairy tales

Cinderella's moral rebuttal

2008-10-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

The beauty of a woman IS a rare treasure
And admiring it is a pleasure
But no body knows real grace
Because it is gone like waste.

Peoples advice about being a good guy
Will soon be determined as great lies
How many girls have dreams of being a princess
But following advice yields nothing but distress.

Looks will get you what you want
You don't even have to be smart
But if you don't have looks to give
Your life will be more difficult to live

Give give give and never get
Life is truly a hard test
Your best bet is to have good genes
And it wouldn't hurt to have pretty things
Then you can do whatever you like
Hell, go out and party all night
But if you're not pretty and mommy and daddy aren't rich
Your life will one hell of a bitch.

Woods

2008-10-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend I was at the 15th annual Bozeman's Bass Bash. It was a group of people, mostly bass players, asking some really amazing bass players questions about anything we could ask. We also got to see and hear some incredible playing. The really big names were Nathan East and Adam Nitti. But the reason I'm writing this is because one of the guys there made basses. One of his customers was there with him and this guy was into woods. He went out and found different pieces of wood (one being 2200 years old) and the wood the bass was made out of was juniper. So the juniper tree was cut down and resurrected as a bass!

What is a

2008-10-05T09:16:00.001-07:00

Child: At first they are easily defined visually. That is to say they look young, but then around high school or junior high those kids try and look older. I would say then that child is defined by a combination of maturity and responsibility. There can be relatively old children; in fact I'm willing to say there are people in college who I'd still called kids.

Book: A book is something that has either a soft or hard cover with pages and words or pictures in them.

Nature: Well in my mind nature usually has something to do with grass, trees, dirt, and rocks. I think this is a really hard question for a Montana native to answer because nature is everywhere, even when you're in town.

Tally

2008-10-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

The Tally is in for how many times a fairy tale was used in one of ours displacement.

3 Little Pigs: 2

Beauty and the Beast: 6

Hansel and Gretel: 4

The Little Match Girl: 1

Jack and the Beanstalk: 1

Sleeping Beauty: 2

The Little Mermaid: 6

Little Red Riding Hood: 5

Goldielocks: 1

Bluebeard: 2

Rumplestiltskin: 1

The Frog Prince: 1

Humpty Dumpty: 1

The Princess and the Pea: 1

Repunzel: 1

3 Billy Goats Gruff: 1

Cinderella: 1

Response to a Displacement

2008-10-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

In someone's displacement of the Little Mermaid, John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) was brought up. Now I've never heard of this person before, but believe (or not, but you have to so there is no not) that I already read this guys life story before I knew who he was. In the book The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), "The Master, an embittered author, the petty-minded rejection of whose historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to such despair that he burns his manuscript and turns his back on the "real" world" (wiki). Does this sound familiar? It's strange that when the class was talking about Toole I was trying to remember where I heard this story. Then I remembered that I read it but it wasn't about Toole because, for the obvious, he was 3 years old when Bulgakov died. Strange.

Another displacement for fun

2008-10-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

I've known her for years. Now I am 25 and she's 30. I first meet Alicia when we were working together about 4 years ago. I liked her from the beginning. She was smart, nice, caring, and of course married. I never met the guy because he lived 100 miles away in some small Montana hick town. Some weekends she would drive to see him, others she stayed here in Bozeman and went out with her friends. Being a friend I was invited and got to know her and her friends over the next year. When we'd go out to the bars, Alicia and I would pretend to be husband and wife. This was our way of protecting each other from unwanted pursuers. We even called each other by pet names on a regular basis.
But that was 4 years ago when I was getting to know her. Between then and now, she disappeared to the hick town to be with her husband because that dumb shit got drunk, crashed his car, and broke his neck. After he recovered, he continued to drink. She ended up divorcing him, but still lived in that town 100 miles away.
Two and a half years ago, right before her divorce, she started visiting her friends in Bozeman and talking to me again. It was mainly through cell phone texts. At first our talks were the kind one would expect friends to have, but over time something changed. Before I knew it, we would be chatting through texts day and night. Alicia worked the night shift and I would write to her until I fell asleep. The phone would be under my pillow like a tooth. I would periodically wake up during the night and text her before falling asleep again. I lived off of those messages from her.
After about 9 months of constant texting, I took a trip to see her. There was no clear line between friendship or something else. That night we slept with our arms around each other, neither of us crossing that line. After countless texts over the next few months she finally had time to come see me in Bozeman. From the texts since my visit, it became clear that we both were wanting more than friendship. Never before had I actually felt like I belonged with someone until I was with Alicia. I felt fine when I was with her.
She made a couple more trips to see me and I too went and saw her, but life is predictable. She kept these visits a secret from everyone she knew, including her best friend and sister; I told my friends and family about her. Even though she lived far away, I wanted to date her. I asked her (hell, we've been calling each other husband and wife for over 3 years now); she needed to think about it. One day after spending the night with me and the day with her friends, she left to go home without telling me she was leaving. I was shocked she had left without saying goodbye. Like I said, life is predictable; things changed. She talked to me less and less but her words were still sweet and loving when they came. I would find time to visit her, but she would tell me how busy she was and I shouldn't come over. I asked her what happened between us and she kept telling me nothing had changed.
Then one tragic day her mom had a stroke. This happened while she was visiting her family a few hundred miles north of where she lives. She spent a lot of time there and made frequent trips to take care of her mom and help her dad. I'm not saying that she didn't have her priorities right (because she did), but we went from around 100 texts a day to maybe 4 a week. And then it stopped all together. She never returned my phone calls or texts. Sadly, I had fallen in love with her. I never told her; I wonder if that would have made any difference. . . . I doubt it.
Now I find myself laying on the couch watching tv, but I'm thinking about all the times she made me feel like a person. And then I get crushed by how quickly she dropped me from her life when she got busy. She told me I was important to her. All I want now are answers to the questions about what happened between us, but she doesn't reply or won't answer. I'm left alone with my thoughts, a sad heart, and cracked soul.

The Beast: A Fairy Tale
by Jesse

Fairy Tale Displacement

2008-09-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Jesse Stolba
Fairy Tale Displacement

Ben Miller had a hard childhood, even though life was tough in 1935 but Ben never stopped dreaming. Being in Iowa and the son of a farmer made life all the more difficult. His father Tim allowed his son to go to school till he was in third grade, but after that Ben was to help his father in the field. His mother Nancy had learned a bit in her life and was helping teach second graders down at the local school. The school was five and a half miles away and Nancy would sometimes leave early in the morning to walk there because Tim would need to use the truck that day. Life might have been difficult for the Miller's, but they managed.
The next summer in 1936 while Ben was out working in the field he saw a crop duster flying off in the distance. With how poor people were at this time it didn't take long for people to talk about this new duster flying around. Word was that it belonged to the Crowe family. Before they knew it, damn near everyone was at their door to see it including Ben Miller. He had longed to leave the corn fields of Iowa even though they were his home. Ben would sit on the roof or the porch during the hot summer nights and look out into space and at the stars thinking of leaving more than just his home and Iowa. This crop duster gave him an idea that might bring him closer to this dream.
After some careful yet rash decision making Ben started visiting the Crowe family more often. Luckily for him, they had a boy named Phil that was about his age. When Ben was in school, for how short it was, Phil was in the grade before him. The trip was around 20 miles to get there so Ben had to plan carefully; some days he borrowed the truck and other days, even though it hurt like hell, he would walk the distance and back. It didn't take Ben long to learn how the crop duster basically worked because Phil was also learning how to operate the plane.
On August 21st, Ben had made the plan to steal the plane. He left at eleven o'clock at night. He didn't want to wake his parents because he knew they would stop him, so he left on foot. His excitement was over flowing and once he felt he was at a safe distance to make noise he started running. Ben ran for the next three hours straight. The idea of being away from the farm and off creating an exciting new life that would shake the world. After an hour and a half of running his shoes started to wear out from all the trips he had made learning how to fly. In the next half hour the shoes quite literally fell off his feet, but his joy for leaving pushed the pain of the dirt road from his mind.
2:10 am. Ben finally made it to the Crowe's farm. He made sure to be quiet for fear of waking the Crowe's too early. While he felt horrible for what he was going to do to them especially after what they had done for him, he just couldn't take it anymore. The plane was left out in the open and Ben added a couple of skips to his walk on his way over to it. He couldn't wait to leave. Making sure everything was in place he gave the propeller a spin with all his might as he quickly made his way to the cockpit. The plane was running and on the first try too; unbelievable. Ben got the plane moving and just in time too because there were lights on in the Crowe's house.
The plane was moving now and there was no possible way for anybody to catch him. Soon he felt the plane wanting to lift off the ground. Giving the stick a jerk up and off the plane went. The sensation was incredible but it didn't take long for Ben to realize that he didn't know enough about flying and was in trouble. Up and down and up and down and that's where it stayed. He destroyed the plane and his body, but at least in his last seconds of life he felt like he escaped the farm only to crash in his family's field.

More Fun With Morals

2008-09-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

#4 Beauty and the Beast:

It doesn't matter how nice you are
Or if people like you from near or far
But if you think you've found the one
Don't fall in love and stick to your guns
Because be you good or be you bad
If the bitch forgets she'll leave you for dead.

#5 Snow White:

When you're told to keep people out
And because of that you whine and pout
But in the end you wind up dead
Why would you go and do it again and again?

#6 Sleeping Beauty:

The uninvited guest may cause you woe
And curse your kid from head to toe
Don't be stupid when you're give the date
When bad things will happen to your kids fate
Why wouldn't you keep your eyes on her
When that fearful day is here.

Fun With Morals

2008-09-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

After reading all the fairy tale I didn't always agree with the morals a person is supposed to get out of reading a fairy tale, or I just wanted to have fun and create my own that are humorous. So go ahead and laugh 'cause it just might be good for ya

#1 Little Red Riding Hood:

Life is boring and life is fun
Sometimes you want to walk and sometimes you want to run
And when you want to leave for a stroll
You never know who is on patrol
Stay away from wolfs when you're about
By staying away from Grandma's house.

#2 Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper:

It's nice to have special folks on your side
Sometimes you're in a pickle and you need a ride
And when you're at the ball
You might feel like taking a fall
Because your feet will hurt like a bruised ass
'Cause that bitch of a fairy godmother made those slippers out of glass.

#3 Hansel and Gretel:

Sometimes you're kick out of your place like a mouse
Other times you find yourself eating someone out of their house
But when that person gets pissed
And you find yourself in a pinch
It's your fault if you get killed
You knew she was a witch who ate kids at will.

Choose your metal

2008-09-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

The other day in class Sexson read a story about princes' and elaborate boxes for a princess. I couldn't help but think I'd heard this somewhere else. With exception to the ending, Shakespeare had a version similar to that tale in The Merchant of Venice.

The heiress of Belmont, Portia, has suitors come from all around. These suitors are put to a test: choose the correct casket; get the girl. One was of gold that said "Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire." The second of silver which said, "Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves." And a third of dull lead saying, "Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath."

Well the poor Bassanio who had to borrow money from Antonio, which ended up putting his life on the line, was the THIRD suitor and with Portia's help he chose the lead casket and got the girl. Do you think that is a realistic fairy tale or not?

Twisted Fairy Tale Fun

2008-09-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

While most people probably don't know the name Todd McFarlane other are familiar, to some degree, of his work. Mainly he is in the comic industry and his major success is Spawn. But he has also done some work with action figures, but not the way you would think. In some of his series, he takes a twist to conventional thinking. He has some on the theme of Faces of Madness, another, with the help of Clive Barker, called Tortured Soul's which is a series. The interesting ones are when things become "Twisted" such as a Twisted Christmas, but the ones I want to show images of are the Twisted Fairy Tales and the Twisted Land of Oz. The Land of Oz one will be a later post when the class reaches that point, but the Fairy Tales are for now. Some are from stories in our anthology and others are not. And while you may be asking yourself "why in the world I would put up sick and twisted images of fairy tales characters?" keep in mind that we are constanly given images of these character in every book that includes these character (just check our anthology book if you don't believe me) and maybe in some strange way, these images recreate the original nature of the tales in a modern setting.

Humpty Dumpty:

Miss Muffet:

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater:

Hansel:

Gretel:

And finally Little Red Riding Hood: