Wednesday, January 29, 2014

in the end, I'll always be a romantic

This post has 2 parts, the first my own experiences with "the frontier" and the second my personal preference in style. Until 2012, I had never been any further west than Kansas, and even Kansas wasn't an adventure, it was helping family. My husband and I decided to go to Las Vegas for our honeymoon, and during that trip to the Grand Canyon.
The first view of the Grand Canyon in Arizona

This was the first time I felt a true sense of awe in Nature- I felt inspired and could not imagine having been a settler in the nineteenth century and coming across something as amazing, beautiful, and massive as the Grand Canyon. I know the west was discovered and developed centuries ago, but it felt so incredible to be in this environment. It was an untouched refuge of sorts; Nature is truly wild and untamed, bigger than man could ever be. 
This was my attempt to be a part of the landscape sitting on the edge of the canyon.

Recently I discovered that I am decidedly a Romantic, in the sense of romantic literature that is. The sense of escapism coupled with the power of the imagination creates a fantastical experience for me within literature. I enjoy the odd and unusual, as with Edgar Allen Poe, as well as the eccentricities of Walt Whitman. I love the story of the individual, in relation to the world as a whole; great tales of improbable circumstances but with relatable themes. My husband and I are so different: I am ever the romantic- optimistic, focus on the positive potential rather than the seemingly mundane reality. He is most definitely a realist- he focuses on realistic outcomes, whether they're positive or negative (and whether I want to hear it or not...) I appreciated the new information about the three main genres of writing, it brought new light to my own preferences and helped break down what drew me to it in the first place.

Monday, January 13, 2014

ice and snow


The three assigned readings, "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost, and "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens shared common themes and imagery, all three encompassing nameless main characters as well as discuss the simultaneous beauty and danger of the cold.

In "To Build a Fire", the reader is able to feel the building fear and anxiety of the man as he fights for life and approaches his eventual death; the character of the dog  lends an interesting insight to London's point of view of man's "superior knowledge" of survival. He urges the man to seek shelter and stay by the warmth of the fire, yet the man's determination to adhere to his schedule and ignore the dog's evolutionary programming causes the man's death.

"Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" depicts an almost longing by the narrator to remain in the cold and deadly forest, but the animal companion (the horse) brings him back to Earth and acknowledges his agenda before he is able to do so. There is a mystery and allure of death, which the frozen and dark forest is symbolizing, that draws a person to it.

"The Snow Man" was my favorite of the three pieces, specifically the final stanza:
For the listener...nothing himself, beholds
nothing that is not there and nothing that is

There is a relation to holding onto the threshold of life while peering over the edge, observing death from a detached, removed point of view that allows the reader to breathe in the imagery and marvel at the beauty of nature.

photo credit Kilian Schoenberger
"The Snow Man" Wallace Stevens

Thursday, January 9, 2014

let's start at the very beginning

a very good place to start.

this is my first blog so we'll begin with the basics- I'm a literature major with the goal to eventually become a professor. I love baking, especially cupcakes and my dream job is to own my own "Cupcakery". I've been married a little over a year, but my husband and I have been together for going on 8 years. We have a fur baby named Dallas (a 90 pound Chocolate Lab) and she's wonderful. 



reading is my heart and soul (next to cupcakes and ice cream, cause let's face it, a big girl's gotta eat). I love love love the Harry Potter series, I grew up with Harry- I started reading when I was 11 so it is very near and dear to my heart. I'm fairly obsessed with Tim Burton; his dark and whimsical style has drastically influenced me and my aesthetic from the time I was 6 years old. I don't always get to read as much as I'd like to, but anytime I'm having a bad day, I go to the bookstore and wander aimlessly for hours. This should be an interesting experience and I hope everyone who reads this if nothing else is entertained. Here's to a good semester!

These are my favorite books/authors
 -Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
-The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Sad Stories by Tim Burton
-The works of Roald Dahl
-Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block
-The Outsiders by SE Hinton
-Grendel by John Gardener
-Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
- The works of Edgar Allen Poe