Group #6 best in the west: Script for the Puppet Show

Narrator: It was an average Saturday night in the town of Bozeman, Montana.....
Toto running down the street and Dorothy chasing.
Dorothy: Toto! Come! Toto!
Galinda is standing in front of a house catches Toto
Galinda: Is this your dog?
Dorothy: Yes thank you so much for catching him.
Galinda: There’s a party inside, come join in.
Dorothy: No, I don’t think so, I don’t know anyone.
Galinda: Sure ya do. Why, you are connected to everyone here. For example, you are carrying a basket, a basket is also found hanging off of a hot air balloon, and hot air balloons produce lots of heat, like in the movie Titanic when Jack Dawson and Rose heat up the backseat of a car in the cargo hold; CARGO is also a Canadian brand of cosmetics that is a multimillion dollar company, the name CARGO comes from the idea that makeup is every woman's “cargo”, also in Canada there is a brand of whiskey called Canadian Club produced by Hiram Walker & Sons in Windsor, Ontario and people at the party in this house behind me are drinking whiskey cokes. There, you are connected to almost everyone here. And you could do that for everyone in this party individually if you take your time.
Dorothy: Okay, when you put it that way, I guess I’ll come in for a bit.
SCENE CHANGE
Narrator: As they walk inside the house Dorothy loses Galinda.
Dorothy: (to Toto) Toto, I can’t seem to see Galinda anywhere. Maybe I’ll get a drink. Bozeman sure is a small town but we sure aren’t in the sorority circle anymore.
Narrator: Dorothy walks over to the keg and finds Tinman.
Dorothy: Excuse me; do you know whose party this is?
Tinman: No. (Sarcastically) Nice dog. Who brings a dog to a party? That is so typical for a girl to be carrying around a little dog. Time for a new image. It just isn’t working.
Dorothy: You don’t have to be so mean. I only wanted to say hello. And just so you know Toto is the original canine accessory, without me and Toto, Paris Hilton would have no Princess.
Tinman: I’m sorry. I’m a heartless bastard; I’m trying to be better. I’m just bitter because I am part of that large group of guys who can’t get a girl, you know what they say, ‘welcome to man-tana’ there just aren’t enough women here to go around. Maybe that has something to do with the climate. And on top of that (says angrily like he’s been hurt before) girls think men have no heart and no feelings.
Dorothy: Well, if you talk to girls like you did to me it’s no wonder. But of course you have a heart.
Narrator: Dorothy and Tinman and joined by Scarecrow.
Scarecrow: Excuse me, I just wanted to introduce myself, I’m Scarecrow, and I’m a part of S.C.A.R.E. which stands for Students Cooperating Against Raging Inebriation. I just started the club and I’m looking for people to join.
Tinman: You’ll have to do better than that because if S.C.A.R.E. ends with an E then inebriation is the wrong word. You sure you don’t want to end your little club and have a beer?
Scarecrow: No.
Tinman: What’s wrong with you? Not drinking on a Friday night. Why would you come to a party that is designated to getting drunk and be anti-drunk. Are you stupid?
Scarecrow: No, I’m not stupid, I know lots of things, like...like....well I know lots of things.
Lion runs into the room
Lion: Hey! Hey everyone! I’m jumping off the roof onto the trampoline and it’s dedicated to this girl right here in the red shoes. Then we’re all going streaking!
Narrator: As everyone is running out to the backyard Scarecrow says:
Scarecrow: What do you think the chances are that Lion jumps off the roof?
Dorothy: One in three, of course.
Narrator: As Dorothy and Scarecrow are running outside Dorothy accidentally spills her drink on the witch’s shoes.
Dorothy: I’m so sorry I ruined your shoes. It was an accident! Here let me mop them up.
Witch: Agh! Don’t touch me! These are $150,000 shoes paid for by the Republican Party and I think the only way you can make it up to me is by giving me your shoes.
Dorothy: I really can’t give you these shoes, they are priceless really.
Someone yells: FIGHT! in the backyard! Lion is gonna get the shit kicked out of him!
SCENE CHANGE
Narrator: Dorothy gets swept up in the stampede of people and finds herself outside but she can’t find the fight and spots Lion hiding on the roof.Dorothy: (says to Toto) I don’t see a fight and poor Lion is hiding on the roof. Oh Toto, this backyard is so lovely and green!
Narrator: Dorothy goes over to the turn tables to speak with DJ Wizard.
Dorothy: Excuse me, Mr. DJ Wizard.
DJ Wizard: Oh you sure are pretty, I’m gonna get you baby.
Dorothy: Thanks but, I think I’m already gotten. I would just like you to play a song for me.
DJ Wizard: Anything for a pretty girl, but I need you to bring me a drink first, my favorite. It’s called a Wizball. It calls for a half ounce of rum, half ounce of schnapps or root beer, and half a can of Red Bull. You mix the rum and schnapps in a shot glass and drop it in a highball glass of red bull. I have to have that drink before I can play your song.
Dorothy: I’ll be right back then.
Narrator: Dorothy goes over to the bar to get the drink.
Dorothy: (to the bartender) May I please have a Wizball for DJ Wizard?
Narrator: Dorothy looks over and there is the Witch with her gang of girls and the Witch says:
Witch: He’s making the last one for me, and now he’s out of rum and Red Bull. Too bad for you.
Dorothy: You are horrible. Absolutely horrible! You can’t treat people like that.
Narrator: Dorothy is so upset and starts flinging her arms all about and hits a glass of water that someone is holding and it spills all over the Witch.
Witch: Now look what you’ve done! I knew I should have worn my waterproof mascara, but of course I didn’t think they would let losers like you into this party. UGH! My make-up, it’s running....its running!
Narrator: And with that the Witch ran off to the bathroom. And her gang of girls spoke to Dorothy:Witch’s posse: -Thanks for getting rid of her. – Yeah. She is like so annoying! Later girl. Posse Exeunt.
Narrator: So, Dorothy takes the Wizball drink over to DJ Wizard.
Dorothy: Here’s your Wizball. Now can I have my song?
DJ Wizard: And this song goes out to Dorothy because she brought me my favorite drink and she has awesome red shoes!
The song “Somewhere over the rainbow” starts playing.
Narrator: Lion felt so inspired by the music, and the 7 beers he drank that he felt the courage to jump off the roof, landing on the trampoline safely.
Lion: This is for you Dorothy!
Narrator: Dorothy was happy for Lion, but she was tired and wanted to go home.
Dorothy: (to Toto) Oh Toto, I’m so tired. I wish I knew where to get a ride home. I don’t know what to do.
Narrator: Scarecrow overheard this and said:
Scarecrow: I haven’t been drinking at all tonight. I could give you a ride home.
Dorothy: Scarecrow, that is so smart of you to do. Thank you.
Tinman: May I get a ride too?
Lion: Me too! I think I may have twisted my ankle after that gnarly jump.
Narrator: So they all walked out to the front of the house and got in the car and Dorothy, feeling comfortable in the car, said:
Dorothy: Scarecrow, thank you so much for taking me home. There is no place like home. Yawns. Just no place like home....
SCENE CHANGE
Then the scene is covered by black and then a bedroom scene is reveled.
Dorothy: sits up in bed and Toto is on her bed. Oh my, I just had the strangest dream. Toto, you were in it and there was a party, and I met the strangest guys and this awful girl who wanted my shoes. ....Am I still dreaming? Or is this your dream, Dorothy points at the audience. Yes, all of you sitting in those desks, are you watching this puppet show or just dreaming that you are? Is this all a product of your imagination? Is this part of your daydream that you’ve been dreaming because you were bored in class and you went to a party last night? What happens when you wake up? Or wait...when I wake up? Will we all cease to be?
Narrator: Dorothy lied back down in her bed and thought out loud to herself:
Dorothy: Ah....life, what is it but a dream?

What fairytale are you living?

The first thing written in my notes for the whole semester besides the date, which was 9/5/08 is, "all literature is diplaced myth" - Northrop Frye. Then we were instructed to displace fairytales into realism, which we presented to the class. We were also asked the question: What fairytale are you living? It was never assigned as a blog, but I thought it would be cool to read everyone's fairytale. It is a little late for that now. Stories are empty unless they are energized. !?!?! Energized by what? truth? connections? Like the guy reading the Daily Chronicle that Dr. Sexson wrote about. The articles seem boring until we start making connections, finding the myth permeating our stories, observing the deep structures, reading the story behind the story. I wrote a short piece for classical literature a few semesters ago about finding the myth within my story, you can check it out here.

Telling a Story About Storytelling

*I feel my paper is not completely finished (is anything ever really finished?)because there is so much to say and explore when it come to the subject of storytelling and I suppose I could have written a book on the subject. Had I more time I would have included the following topics for discussion: Storytelling visual images in memory and pumbing the depths of memory. Also hoe kids/people in general who have already heard a story want to hear it over and over. Also: What is most effective is the story rather than what is said about the story. What I have to say in my paper is not as important as the stories I talk about. Which leads me to what Dr. Sexson said, "The moral of the story is the story." The story we create is more important than what is said about our story. It is how we live and create our stories that is the nourishing substance. All that out of the way, here is my paper:

Telling a Story About Storytelling

To be a person is to have a story to tell. -Isak Dinesen


Lyra is famous for her storytelling in His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. She lies to manipulate Iofur, the false bear king and lies whenever she thinks she needs to manipulate a situation. So does her mother Mrs. Coulter at the very end when she lies with every fiber of her being to manipulate Metatron. Lyra tries to lie on page 292 of The Amber Spyglass Lyra and Will have to get through the door to get to the ghosts on the other side. All of these lies are stories, but what matters are the “real” stories. The narratives and myths that permeate our lives become true by becoming part of our own story. There is no truth, only versions of it, and our lives are infused the archetypes and myths.

They meet a harpy called No-Name, who Lyra later names Gracious Wings. The harpy, for the Athenians, was a sorrowful death angel. Although the harpies in The Amber Spyglass are not death angels, they are door keepers and they inspire sadness and fear, but that later changes. The harpy in Greek mythology was a winged death-spirit best known for stealing all food from Phineas. Like the harpies in The Amber Spyglass steal all the happiness and comfort from the ghosts by reminding the ghosts of all the bad things they committed in their lives.
No-Name would not let Will and Lyra pass through the door and says, "What can you give me?" so Lyra offers to tell a story, but as usual she weaves a tale in her mind about things that are not true, and when she begins storytelling No-Name rejects the story knowing it to be a lie. All we have to give when we have nothing else is our own story, which would be all No-Name could fairly ask for from Lyra. We cannot take things like material possessions, relationships, or our five senses we enjoy of the body to our death when we die. Medieval drama, Everyman illustrates that the only thing people could take with them to the grave was their good deeds, or in the case of His Dark Materials, their good story. The only thing a person has to their name or to their life is the story they lived.

This reminded me of Baz Luhrmann's recent film, Australia, near the beginning, Lady Sarah Ashley is talking with the drover and they are discussing how much luggage the Lady has. The drover tells Lady Sarah Ashley that he doesn't have many possessions because they are no good to him. He says all he has is his story and he's trying to make it a good one. The drover was very close to the Aboriginal people of Australia and that culture values storytelling as a way to teach, remember, and entertain. So the drover would agree when Tialys from, The Amber Spyglass strikes a deal with the harpies on page 317 and says, "Every one of the ghosts has a story; every single one that comes down in the future will have true things to tell you about the world."

The harpies have the right to hear the stories and the ghosts will have to tell their story, then the harpies will guide the ghosts to the opening into the world. The harpies can ask for nothing else because the stories of our lives are all we have to give when we die. No-Name says on page 318, "We have the right to refuse to guide them if they lie, or if they hold anything back, or if they have nothing to tell us. If they live in the world, they should see and touch and hear and learn things." The harpy is saying that we need to gain knowledge and experience life. A person who watched TV all day, slept and did nothing else would not have much of a story at all. My dad always told me that the purpose of life was to love everyone, gain knowledge, and serve others. I suppose if I do all three I will live a pretty good story.

Our stories are all connected through at the most six degrees of separation. My story includes other stories that are not entirely mine. This is meant in the way of intertextuality where my story’s meaning would be shaped by other stories, but also by framing, one story inside of another, like in Brian Talbot’s book or in everyday life, for example: Thanksgiving was a lovely time for my family. We enjoyed a delicious meal, good company, and good conversation. My mom, dad, and I were joined by my mom’s mom, my mom’s brother, and his son Andy. My cousin Andy was adopted by my Uncle Woody and Aunt Kristi from Bolivia and he is now 10-years-old. My Aunt Kristi had a sudden and tragic stroke this year and did not survive. Andy, who has had certain developmental issues has obviously had a very hard time coping. He has been the hot topic of family discussions for almost a decade now. At the Thanksgiving table he said that he was thankful that our Grandma still had her teeth, to which she agreed. He picked at his food and had little interest in the “adult” conversation. However, for some reason my dad was telling a story and Andy was captivated. It was the longest I’ve seen him sit still and listen. My dad’s story went like this:

“My dad [My dad’s dad; my grandpa] was about 12 years old I think when he was
sent to Grants Pass, Oregon area to spend the summer with his Uncle Jake. Uncle
Jake had a peg leg and he couldn’t hear very well so he used one of those horns
you stick in your ear as a hearing aid. The reason he had a peg leg and couldn’t
hear very well is because he used dynamite to blow stumps out of the ground for
clearing farm ground. Some of the dynamite got wet one day so he put it in the
oven of the woodstove to dry it out. When he opened the over door to check on
it, it blew up. It blew off one leg and made him deaf. He and a neighbor farmer
used to feud over the water that came down from the streams and the neighbor had
dammed it up, so Uncle Jake took my dad and some dynamite and they snuck over
and blew up the dam. And then they used some branches to wipe out their tracks.
When they got back to Jake’s cabin Uncle Jake gave my dad a big pistol and told
him to stand in the window and Jake took a shot gun and went out a set in a
chair leaned up against the front porch and he told my dad that the neighbor and
his boys would probably be coming to complain that their dam had been blown up.
Uncle Jake said there might be trouble so that is why they were holding their
guns and sure enough in a little while the neighbor and his boys came up the
path carrying their pitchforks. And they complained to Jake about the dam being
blown up and Jake said ‘somebody blew up your dam?’ And they said ‘You must have heard it’ and Jake said ‘you know I can’t hear a damn thing.’ He had his horn in
his ear all through the conversation. The neighbors seeing the guns decided to
turn and head back down the trail. Uncle Jake was a rough old guy and one time
when my dad was riding a horse in the pasture it ran under a low hanging tree
branch and my dad bent over and the tree branch scratched the skin off of his
back so Uncle Jake doctored it by pouring turpentine on it. And when Jake
demonstrated the pistol he had my dad hold it shot a hold through the apple
tree.”

Philip Pullman says "Lyra and Will and the other characters are meant to be human beings like us, and the story is about a universal human experience, namely growing up," in response to his own claim of His Dark Materials being stark realism. Pullman is telling us the story of ourselves, the reoccurring myth of the Fall of Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man when they finally know themselves. By growing up we create the stories of our lives and we recreate the “original Fall” by gaining wisdom and knowledge which moves us from innocence into experience, creating a better story for ourselves. Everyday we gain knowledge and encounter new things we are recreating and living the myth, we become Eve. This is what makes stories so special and effective; we recreate stories in our live as we are creating our own.

What does all this have to do with children's literature? As a child, which is the embodiment of innocence, most people are told stories or read to by their parents or family members. My Book and Heart Shall Never Part ruminated on the idea of didacticism in children's literature. The didacticism of storytelling is essential because we use stories to teach, remember, and delight. So by being told stories children are being encouraged to gain knowledge, remember, and have joy which fosters the child away from innocence and into experience. Stories teach children to create their own stories, so they have something to tell. Like on page 433 of The Amber Spyglass when Mary Malone decides to "Tell them [Lyra and Will] stories" where she performs the role of the temptress by telling them of her 'Fall' tasting like marzipan when she was twelve years old. This stirs up sensations in Lyra which leads to Lyra's fall. It is interesting how it is not Will who is tempted and falls, but Lyra. And her fall is essential, but Lyra doesn't really fall, does she, she gains knowledge and experience. She is growing and learning. This is how we create our own life story, unknowingly through the archetypes and myths, because it is the change and the metamorphosis we go through to advance from innocence and reach the realm of experience. We must all eat the apple.

If you don't know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don't know the stories you may be lost in life. -Siberian Elder

Last Day of Presentations

Aaron Danno - Deconstructionism in Alice in Wonderland
Erin D. - Children's Literature vs. TV, Nickelodeon in the 90's
Aaron H. - Negative Capability
Katie - puberty concerning Alice and Lyra
Rebecca - adults opressing innocent children, blank slate/Grumman
Sam - Storytelling, Uncle Jake with a horn as a hearing aid and a peg leg
Cassie - played a song for us "Fairytale" by Sarah Bareilles, women in fairytales don't do a damn thing
Dustin - took a poll of 5 women and 5 men, research, what is your favorite fairytale and why?
Adam - journey of the dream, a pawn in chess can only move forward, but once it reaches the other side of the board it turns into a queen and can move anywhere....dream/memory/Nabokov/Alice
B. Reid - dreams, Lyra, Alice, Dorothy "Life, what is it but a dream" - Lewis Carrol
Ryan - Mary Malone, Muefla, Gomez killing a bird, Global warming effecting polar bears, man taking advantage of nature
Jessie - Alice in Wonderland, time, white rabbit, how children relate to time, worked in a daycare last summer with weird kids
Lisa - 6 degrees of seperation, herself to Obama
Danielle - Alice vs. Dorothy vs. Lyra, child vs. adolesence vs. adult
Cheryl Knobel - reversals, Alice, child lit. for adults too, kids hang upside down and chat on the monkey bars.


Everyone stuck to Dr. Sexson's decree of short presentations and we had 20 minutes in class to spare so everyone who presented went to the front of the room and those in the audience asked people questions. Group presentations start on Friday, I think it is groups 1 and 2 who present.

My Possible Term Paper, Rough Draft: Storytelling

Storytelling is something we've talked a bit about in class, but I'd like to discuss it further in relation to children's literature and His Dark Materials.

***Please give me some feedback/comments on my extremely rough draft, Thanks***

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today - Robert McAfee Brown

Lyra is famous for her storytelling, her bending and twisting of the truth to make stories up. She lies to manipulate Iofur the false bear king and lies whenever she thinks she needs to manipulate a situation like on page 292 of The Amber Spyglass Lyra and Will have to get through the door to get to the ghosts on the other side. They meet a harpy called No-Name, who Lyra later names Gracious Wings. The harpy, for the Anthenians, was a sorrowful death angel. Although the harpies in The Amber Spyglass are not death angels, they are door keepers and inspire sadness and fear, but that later changes. The harpy in Greek mythology was a winged death-spirit best known for stealing all food from Phineas. Like the harpies in The Amber Spyglass steal all the happiness and comfort from the ghosts by reminding the ghosts of all the bad things they committed in their lives. No-Name would not let Will and Lyra pass and says, "What can you give me?" so Lyra offers to tell a story, but as usual she weaves a tale in her mind about things that are not true, and when she begins storytelling No-Name rejects the story knowing it to be a lie. All we have to give when we have nothing else is our own story, that would be all No-Name could fairly ask for from Lyra. We cannot take things like material possesions, relationships, or our five senses we enjoy of the body to our death when we die. Medieval drama, Everyman illustrates that the only thing people could take with them to the grave was their good deeds, which would be much like a story of the things they had accomplished in life. The only thing a person has to their name or to their life is the story they lived. This reminded me of Baz Luhrmann's recent film, Australia, near the beginning, Lady Sarah Ashley is talking with the drover and they are discussing how much luggage the Lady has. The drover tells Lady Sarah Ashley that he doesn't have many possesions because they are no good to him. He says all he has is his story and he's trying to make it a good one. The drover was very close to the Aboriginal people of Australia and and that culture values storytelling as a way to teach, remember, and entertain. So the drover would agree when Tialys from, The Amber Spyglass strikes a deal with the harpies on page 317 and says, "Every one of the ghosts has a story; every single one that comes down in the future will have true things to tell you about the world." The harpies have the right to hear the stories and the ghosts will have to tell their story, then the harpies will guide the ghosts to the opening into the world. THe harpies can ask for nothing else because the stories of our lives are all we have to give when we die. No-Name says on page 318, "We have the right to refuse to guide them if they lie, or if they hold anything back, or if they have nothing to tell us. If they live in the world, they should see and touch and hear and learn things." The harpy is saying that we need to gain knowledge and experience life. A person who watched TV all day, slept and did nothing else would not have much of a story at all. My dad always told me that the purpose of life was to love everyone, gain knowledge, and serve others. I suppose if I do all three I will live a pretty good story.

Philip Pullman says "Lyra and Will and the other characters are meant to be human beings like us, and the story is about a universal human experience, namely growing up," in response to his own claim of His Dark Materials being stark realism. Pullman is telling us the story of ourselves, the reaccuring myth of 'the Fall' of Adam and Eve, when they finally know themselves. By growing up we create the stories of our lives and we recreate 'the Fall' by gaining wisdom and knowledge which moves us from innocence into experience.
What does all this have to do with children's literature? As a child, the embodiment of innocence, most people are told stories or read to by their parents or family members to. My Book and Heart Shall Never Part ruminated on the idea of didacticism in children's literature. The didiacticism of storytelling is essential because we use stories to teach, remember, and delight. So by being told stories children are being encouraged to gain knowledge, remember, and have joy which fosters the child away from innocence and into experience. Like on page 433 of The Amber Spyglass when Mary Malone decides to "Tell them [Lyra and Will] stories" where she performs the role of the temptress by telling them of her 'fall' tasting like marzipan when she was twelve years old. This stirs up sensations in Lyra which leads to Lyra's fall. It is interesting how is is not Will who is tempted and falls, but Lyra. And Lyra doesn't really fall does she, she gains knowledge and experience.Which is how we create our own life story, because it is the change and the metamorphosis we go through to advance from innocence and reach the realm of experience.

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People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don't have a middle or an end anymore. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning. -Steven Spielberg

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Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all. -Hans Christian Andersen

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To be a person is to have a story to tell. -Isak Dinesen

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The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one. -Sid Caesar

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If you don't know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don't know the stories you may be lost in life. -Siberian Elder

a dust joke

A little boy was playing with a bouncey ball in his room and it rolled under his bed. He looked under his bed and yelled urgently for his mom. When she got to the room he asked, "is it true that man was made from dust, and when he dies he returns to dust?" the mom answered, "yes this is true." and the little boy said, "well, quick look under my bed because someone is either goin' or comin'."

My Dad told this joke to my 10-year-old cousin Andy at the Thanksgiving table. I asked my Dad where he heard that and he said it was from Paul Harvey in 1958. I don't know how my dad remembered the year he heard it, but he just did. The joke reminded me of page 273 in The Golden Compass where I think Lord Asriel is telling Lyra about Adam and Eve and the Dust.

***

"And now you know, the rest of the story....."

Milton's Golden Compass

William Blake, The Ancient of Days (1797)

On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore

They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss

Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde,

Up from the bottom turn’d by furious windes

And surging waves, as Mountains to assault

Heav’ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole.
Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace,

Said then th’ Omnific Word, your discord end:
Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode

Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn;

For Chaos heard his voice: him all his Traine

Follow’d in bright procession to behold

Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Then staid the fervid Wheeles, and in his hand

He took the golden Compasses, prepar’d

In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe

This Universe, and all created things:

One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d

Round through the vast profunditie obscure,

And said, thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds,

This be thy just Circumference, O World.
–John Milton, Paradise Lost bk vii, lns 210-31 (1667)

There is an explanation for the Blake painting and the Milton passage here at Harpers Magazine online. "But the essence, the conception of a world driven by a celestial mechanics not altogether fathomable by humans, is distinctly a classical Greek idea..... The golden compass describes a world of order and reason, a place where the possibilities open to humankind are great. But it also describes the limits of this world, beyond which lies maddening and incomprehensible Chaos."

I found this by googling the words, 'golden compass.' This seems like a place where Philip Pullman may have gotten an idea for the alethiometer. There is a lot more to the alethiometer than just symbols. The alethiometer looks like the I Ching. The moveable hands of the alethiometer remind me of the Blake painting above.

Personifying the Unconscious: Daemons

I mentioned in class that when I first read the His Dark Materials trilogy that I wanted a daemon.....still do....but not as fervently. But before I read the trilogy I did carry a stuffed animal around when I was really young. It was a white bear I called whitey. Then I had a black bear called rocky. I actually still have rocky, but he is now a dog toy. I loved him, still do, but Oly got to him one day and I had to turn him over to the dogs.. But stuffed animals remind me of the false bear king Iofur who wanted a deamon and carried around a stuffed doll. People get pets too. Is that a way of trying to fill some void or place something within your life that you can connect with. Some people really connect with certain animals. Maybe through stuffed animals as a child or having a pet we can personify our unconscious. This idea of having a daemon sparks the imagination and highlights a part of us that we can explore.















My daemon: according to quizilla.com my daemon is a "SONGBIRD (male) - Your daemon may be a song bird if you are a true free spirit. You don't do any harm to anyone, but go along your merry way. You work hard and you play hard. You may be very talented and you use your talent to add happiness to the world. You may be a hopeless romantic, and probably put your family and significant other before anyone else. You might be a little vain at times, but no one can ever fault your for it." I feel this is fairly accurate. According to okcupid.com Sutter's daemon is a pole cat. Don't cats eat birds! But opposites attract.

I was looking around online about daemons and I found a website called Finding Your Daemon Within. Maybe we really do have daemons, but not quite the way Lyra does. It has some interesting things to say but an important idea was that, "the idea of picturing and speaking to your own subconscious soul is a very old concept, one which Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist, explored in great depth. Not only is finding and speaking to your daemon possible, but it is emotionally healthy and important for psychic growth." it goes on: Many people already speak to their "daemon" and do not realize it, because they call it by a different name. Students of Jungian psychology call it their animus/anima. Parents call it an imaginary friend. People who have read Philip Pullman's books call it their "dæmon". No matter what you choose call this part of you, it is a real part of the psyche that you can learn to see and speak with. Our dæmons serve as a conscience, a guardian angel, and a method of examining ourselves. By learning to hear this subconscious voice, we can help expand our own emotional development. Depending on the kind of animal our dæmon's form takes, we can learn a lot about our own personalities.
Carl Jung interested me and I found that Jung believed that getting in touch with your animus/anima was the route to getting in touch with your unconscious self. He called the animus/anima the "Soul Image" of the person. A man's soul image consisted of a feminine anima, while a woman's Soul Image was a masculine animus. This is the part that dæmians would call the dæmon. It is your inner, subconscious self, and by learning to talk to him or her, you can become truly whole once more.
It seems that maybe Carl Jung is where Pullman got his idea for daemons or is a part of the idea.

I Ching, U Ching, We all Ching together

Erin Doherty has an excellent image comparison of the I Ching and the alethiometer on her blog.

The I Ching also called “Classic of Changes” or “Book of Changes” is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book is a symbol system used to identify order in chance events. The text describes an ancient system of ccosmology and philosophy that is intrinsic to ancient Chinese cultural beliefs. The cosmology centres on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change (see Philosophy, below). In Western cultures and modern East Asia, the I Ching is sometimes regarded as a system of divination. The classic consists of a series of symbols, rules for manipulating these symbols, poems, and commentary. Thank you Wikipedia. Also see I Ching divination.
Symbols and rules for the symbols....sounds like the alethiometer. There are also books that help translate symbols, much like there are for the alethiometer. Mary Malone actually has an I Ching in her office....later she uses it to communicate with Dust. When Lyra asks about it, page 369 in The Subtle Knife, Mary responds by telling Lyra that it is a form of divination, fortune-telling, and it is only up for decoration. Decoration!? Then it just so happens it comes in handy later for Mary. Coincedence that it was only there in her office for decoration....I don't think so. Lyra tells Mary that the I Ching is used to communicate with Dust or Dark Matter.

A Few Rememberings

As of this very moment I am on page 469 of The Subtle Knife. Serafina Pekkala found Lyra and Will saving them from a mob of vengeful children, which reminded me of the mob mentality in Lord of the Flies when the boys beat another boy to death because they thought he was some animal. Will and Lyra are walking to a cave about a half hour walk from where they had been to meet the witches near a cave safely far away from the Specters...a good place to stop reading for a bit.

I was thinking about Lyra in comparison to Alice. Alice and Lyra, first of all, seem to like to ask a lot of questions. Alice is an altogether unimaginative and unremarkable girl. Lyra, I would argue is somewhat of the same....Lyra thinks to herself when she finds out the alethiometer was stolen from her, "Without the alethiometer, she was...just a little girl, lost." Lyra is granted the gift of reading the alethiometer, and without that ability she is altogether useless to the story. I don't think her actually being a child has much to do with her ability because Mary Malone can communicate with Dust. So it really is that state of mind that is described in the Keats poem. Lyra is like a pawn in a very large scale chess game. She isn't even all that likeable because she is often a stubborn, stuck up, brat. Alice isn't a brat really, but she isn't all that likeable.....all the other characters are more likeable than she is...maybe because they are more interesting. Not to say that Lyra isn't interesting. Lyra is brave, I'll give her that.

To revisit my comment about Lyra being a pawn in a chess game...page 320 of The Subtle Knife Lyra asks the alethiometer if Will is a friend or an enemy, it answers, "He is a murderer." Therefore Lyra rationalizes that she can trust Will. I asked Sutter what if how he would respond if he was in Lyra's place, and he would of thought of Will the "murderer" as an enemy. So the answers Dust gives to Lyra are very much made for how Lyra thinks. New Historicist critics argue that there are no such things as facts or truth. There are only versions and interpretations of truth. So when the the alethiometer gives Lyra answers to her questions, it seems that it is manipulating her, and by it, I mean Dust. It doesn't give her direct "facts," but rather responds in such a way as to guide her thoughts and actions. But I don't think it is manipulating or guiding her as it first appears. We discussed in class about how truth in the alethiometer is remembering. Images of the soul. Unforgetting. My only way of explaining this to myself is that maybe the Dust communicating with Lyra through the alethiometer is helping her remember her destiny. And she certainly has a destiny because everyone knows what she has to do, except her. For example the prophecies that the witches have. And if Dust is consciousness, then I guess that makes sense.

.......

Quotes from The Golden Compass that I like...among many many many

page 274 of The Golden Compass:

Lord Asriel says to Lyra, "Anyway, it's what the church has taught for thousands of years. And when Rusakov discovered Dust, at last there was a physical proof that something happened when innocence changed into experience."

page 24 of The Golden Compass:

"'That's the duty of the old,' said the Librarian, 'to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.'
They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious."

Trusting in Lyra

D.H. lawrence said when reading a story trust the tale not the teller. That is exactly what I do when I read His Dark Materials. Even though Philip Pullman is a very outspoken atheist, I have always and will remain to ignore that when I read his books because there is more meaning in his books than what he intends (not because I disagree with atheism or Chritianity, but because I don't like the idea of knowing too much about the author of a book, sometimes it ruins my experience). Dr. Sexson points out that it is a rather odd thing to say that we might understand an author's story better than the author himself, but I think it is a very useful one. There is a great deal of religious material in the books and it is enriching and adds to the themes, but the politics of religion can get messy, so I try to focus on other themes. The themes seem to focus around innocence/experience, truth, storytelling, didacticism, what is a child, etc. as Dr. Sexson listed for us in class. The influences surrounding Philip Pullman's novels are rich and vast. He certainly does not worry about anxiety of influence, but rather embraces it. I want to blog later about some of the themes, this is just a quick intro blog to His Dark Materials.

A list of the impossible...or the possible?

It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney

I was trying to think of impossible things, and it isn't hard to do, but I was still troubled. Impossible things depend on reality and dreams. Most of these impossible things could never happen in real life, notice I say most because I believe we don't really know what is impossible. But all of these impossible things are completely possible in our dreams.

So then if I write down a list of impossible things then it might really be a list of possible things. Or what if we read a book and we become the character in the book we do impossible things as the character like riding on the back of a polar bear who talks or talking to a large catapillar smoking a hookah or dancing down a yellow brick road with a scarecrow, tinman, and lion? Then we are able to do impossible things so that these things become possible through dreams and reading. So then am I providing you with a list of 5 impossible things or 5 possible things? Whatever it is, here is a list of both impossible and possible things:

1- I seperate my soul from my body and place it within my dog Copper and he will now live forever as my daemon.
2- When Sutter and I go fishing I will catch a Sperm Whale in the Upper Madison.
3- My hair will grow 3 feet over night.
4 - The law of gravity will be abolished by congress and we will all float around but we will still be able to breathe.
5 - A large ship from the 19th Century will plunge through the Overbrook neighborhood and Larry (our neighbor) will hop on board with Sue and Little Bear and they will fly away into the sky to play the ultimate game of jepordy to save the world with attacking aliens.
(6) - Sutter :P
I do the impossible for most college students everyday by waking up before 8 am.

"You pass through places and places pass through you, but you carry them with you on the soles of your travelin' shoes.......the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs..... it's time like these I feel so small and wild, like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child.....the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs....." The Be Good Tanyas

about 6 degrees of seperation....

From Alice to Oz -
A character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the Cheshire Cat.......

Cheshire is also the name of a county in NW England.....in London there is a pub called the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub.....

Charles Dickens frequented this pub which was popular for its gloomy charm, supposedly where he got a few of his characters for A Tale of Two Cities......

Charles Dickens also had a pet raven named Grip.....the Ravens are the American Football team of Baltimore.......

Baltimore is where Edgar Allen Poe spent the latter part of his life (his poem "The Raven" was the inspiration for naming the football team the Ravens).......

Edgar Allen Poe also wrote a news article about hot air balloons called "The Balloon Hoax" all about a man who lied about flying over the ocean in 3 days in a hot air balloon......

the hot air balloon is what the wizard from The Wizard of Oz flies away in abandoning Dorothy in Oz, but we all know she wasn't really abandoned.

Quiz #2......Good luck!

1. know the subject matter

2. know the pages of Sunderland discussed in class - I wrote some of the page numbers down, but I'm sure I don't have all of them, here are some: page 92, 27, 28, 206, 134, around183 - 186.

3. Know chapters from Alice:

• Humpty Dumpty
• Wool and Water
• Tweedle Dun and Tweedle Dee
• Caterpillar
• Question of morals

4.Know My Book and Heart Shall Never Part

5. Talbot movies.....i don't know why I wrote that down

6. Name and illustrator of Alice books: Tennial

7. Last word in Beauty and the Beast in the Tatar book: Virtue

8. Who wins after death, the worms, but we triumph over the worms how? - through art

9. Oscar Wilde "Life imitates art"

10. Know the themes of the class:

• history
• myth
• dreams
• art
• coincedence

11. The white knight might represent Carrol himself

12. What is the parodists counterpart to How Doth the Busy Bee? Carrol's How Doth the Little Crocodile -- Dr. Sexson mentioned that this sounded like a good essay question.

13. What is the beautiful food the mock turtle sings about? soup....this is also a parody of something about a star

14. Hatter's riddle: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Stolba's answer: I haven't the slightest idea

15. According to Talbot who is the most quoted author after Shakespear? Lewis Carrol.

16. _______ is a depersonalized ______ and ________ is a personalized _______. Answer: myth is a depersonalized dream and dream is a personalized myth.

17. know about Humpty Dumpty, the Jabberwocky, and portmanteau

18.Stephanie thinks the rudest of all the flowers is the violet.

19. animated contains the word anima which means soul

20. Who is the volcano? Alice

21. Alice lives in the collective unconscious.......in The Golden Compass that would be Dust

22. The first time Alice drinks something she shrinks to 10 inches

23. What is the title of the deleted chapter from Through the Looking Glass? The Wasp and the Wig

24. How does Alice offend the mouse? by talking about her cat

25. During the Protestant Reformation the intent of literature was to teach moral values to children

26. According to My Book and Heart Shall Never Part the first Bible published was in Algonquin

27. What two animals sparked curiosity? the mammoth and the monkey

28. What machine influenced the 19th Century? the Guttenburg Press

29. Why are matters mad? the idea that mercury in the hat bands made hatters mad is an example of misplaced concreteness

30. Create an anagram of a Chapter title

31. White Rabbit drops what? white gloves and a fan

32. In Jean Cocteau's film version of the Beaty and the Beast, Beauty's tears turn into diamonds.

33. D.H. lawrence - When reading a story trust the tale not the author

34. Lewis Carrol's nickname was Dodo because he had a stutter which inspired one of his characters

35. tautology - circular argument it is what it is because it is

36. Goody-Two-Shoes is an emblem of perfection that adults lack - from My Book and Heart Shall Never Part

37. According to Dum and Dee: if Alice is a part of the Red King's dream then what are Dum and Dee? ditto ditto ditto

38. What image randomly appeared in Rebecca's dream? flying pigs

39. English class looks into the dark side of things

40. Who was the most prolific cereal.....haha i mean serial killer in 19th C England? Mary Ann Cotton

41. Two ghosts in Talbot book - Sid James and The White Lady

42. Jabberwocky poem about ledgend that haunted Sunderland the lambton worm

43. recreate last line of Alice books "Life, what is it but a dream?" this line is from the poem at the end which is an example of a structured poem called the acrostic poem which spells Alice Pleasance Liddell

44. Walter Pater - All art aspires to the condition of music because music doesn't ask the question of what does it mean

45. The text informs reality - from My Book and Heart Shall Never Part or rather life imitates art, things are only real because they are written about

46. What do the Tweedles really enjoy saying? contrary wise

Pretending and Daydreaming...or just Dreaming

In class we've been talking about dreams, reality, and imagination. And when we talk about dreams it might have mostly been about the kind you have when you are in your REM sleep. But what about pretending and day dreaming. I suppose many students know quite a bit about day dreaming. But both Alice (from Through the Looking Glass) and Lyra (from His Dark Materials ) have a different sorts of dreams that I wanted to highlight.

Instead of Alice suddenly seeing a white rabbit running by this time Alice decides to pretend. Page 156 she says, " 'Kitty, dear, let's pretend -' And here I wish I could tell you half the things Alice used to say, beginning with her favorite phrase 'Let's pretend.' " Later on Alice says about the looking-glass, "Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so we can get through. Why it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare!" And then Alice made it through the looking-glass. Was she dreaming, day-dreaming, or pretending? Maybe it started out as pretend and turned into daydreaming, which then led to a dream. And at the end of Through the Looking-glass when Alice is shaking the Red Queen it only turns out to be a kitten. So then was she dreaming or was she just pretending the whole thing. But then on Chpater XII she says she was woken by the kitty. It is all very ambiguous. But I suppose pretending is very much like day dreaming or even dreaming, because the impossible can happen. I used to pretend I was a ninja turtle when I was 4-years-old. It was physically impossible for me to turn into a ninja fighting turtle, but when pretending to be one and doing kicks and jumping off my couch, nothing was impossible and I became the Leonardo, one of the Ninja Turltles (turtle power!). But I was not dreaming, not sleep dreaming that is.

I also noticed this passage which connected to a part of Alice in Sunderland. Chapter XII of Through the Looking Glass Alice says, "Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my dear.....You see, Kitty, it must have been either me or the Red King. He was part of my dream of course - but then I was part of his dream too! Was it the Red King, Kitty?" And the last line before the poem Carroll speaks to the reader, "Which do you think it was?" Which reminded me of page 181 - 186 in the Sunderland graphic novel, some of which we discussed in class. Page 181, "life is but a dream," then page 182 the author wakes up from his dream, but then on page 186 he says, "Or is this your dream?" speaking to the audience. This question of who actually had the dream is popping up in both of these texts. Why does it matter? Is this a questioning of reality? Is anything ever really real? Or is it all enhanced and twisted through our dreams, imagination, and pretend.

-----------------------------------
I was re-reading The Golden Compass, and I have read it many times (and it is much more fun to read it in the context of this class along with other classes), but I don't remember reading this passage on page 284:

They spoke no more for some time. Lyra felt herself moving into kind of a trance beyond sleep and waking: a state of conscious dreaming, almost, in which she was dreaming that she was being carried by bears to a city in the stars.

She was going to share it with Iorek, but then she had to cross a crevasse. This may be a forshadowing. Or maybe it is how she is learning to see the other worlds, by day dreaming rather then focusing on reality which doesn't give way to the impossible being possible.

------------------------

Just a side note that I found very cool....page 244 when Lyra is talking to a prisoner at Svalbard, whom she thinks is crazy, and the prisoner says, "There is a correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm! The stars are alive, child. Did you know that? Everything out ther is alive, and there are grand purposes abroad! The universe is full of intentions, you know." I don't think he is all that crazy. But what I really found interesting was that in my Medieval Literature class Dr. Morgan stresses about all the overlapping meanings and allegories within Medieval drama, one key example that is found throughout all of the cycle plays is the microcosm and the macrocosom. Both words are derived from greek meaning. Read more about micro and macrocosom HERE. Both of which affect eachother, which would be the correspondence. When the microcosm is out of sync, the macrocosm is too. The microcosm is centered more on the earth and it's issues and the macrocosm is associated with the cosmos and the spheres around the earth. They represent this in the plays by tempests and intensely stormy out-of-place weather, it all calms down when Jesus is born because he saved us all right and everything is better now. I would continue on with this typology, but I fear I would spoil the book, so I will cease. Phillip Pullman used a medieval way of thinking in his modern text. It just goes to show all the influences he used and the genius behind his story, and I feel so sad because I probably miss most of the influences, allegories, etc.

Class Notes 11/7 plus a bit more

**films to rent if you desire:
-Alice Through the Looking Glass with Kate Beckinsale
-Dreamchild
~~QUIZ on Wednesday Nov. 12 bring your questions on Monday the 10th. Question ideas can come from your notes, the Tatar book, Alice in Wonderland, and Sunderland~~
**Paper ideas for those who are still looking
-history -Alice
-myth -Dorothy
-dreams -Lyra
-art*
-coincedence
~~Discussed Alice in Sunderland pages 184-186 about dreams/identity and the author addresses the reader directly~~
*Discussed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland specifically, the part where Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum tell Alice her tears may not be real (page197 in my Alice book) in relation to the Jean Cocteau's film Beauty and the Beast and how Beauty's tears turn into diamonds.

(not discussed in class, but a pertinent connection) There was a part in Through the Looking Glass that reminded me of Cocteau's film: At the very end of chapter one, "She [Alice] just kept the tips of her fingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down without even touching the stairs with her feet; then she floated on through the hall..." (166). Just as Beauty floated down the hall in this magical scene:
Also quoted Alice's adventures in Wonderland, "Life, what is it but a dream?" page 272 in my book. Which reminded me of "row row row your boat etc."

People shared their insights about Lewis Carrol's Alice stories and Sunderland. Hopefully that will be on people's blogs because I failed to take adequate notes on this.

------------ One Liners from Dr. Sexson in class today -------------

• "transform terrors into art...which may be the only way to deal with terrors" (which is why we should read the Grimm fairy tales etc. to our children)
  
• "are you willing to dance?" (in reference to chapter X The Lobster Quadrille, "Will you, wo'n't you, will you, wo'n't you, will you join the dance?"


• "The end is where the adventure begins"
  

Dreams and Imagination, Oh my

DREAM: I am living with Sutter's family in a huge mansion that is fashioned more like a palace, with an enormous winding staircase, and the glow around everything is yellow. I am wandering around the house wondering where I am supposed to sleep when Sutter runs up to me wearing a white robe and a stocking over his face, like robbers wear. He said something like, "Did you see that guy run by? He's an intruder!" Sutter started racing down the stairs after this intruder. I started to run after him but panick started in my stomach, and rose to my chest, and burst. ...
*

AWAKE (halfway): I sat bolt right up in bed and looked to my right where the closet/bathroom door was open and there I saw the intruder staring at me with black clothes and a black hat from the darkness. I screamed. And screamed. I finally turned to my left and switched on my bedside lamp, hands shaking, and looked to the closet, but the intruder wasn't there. Sutter panicked when I screamed and was no use at all for defense. When everything calmed down I made Sut look in every nook and cranny of our house to see if there were intruders. It was 2 a.m. and we turned every light in the house on.
*
This incident happened at the beginning of the summer. I did not sleep well for three months after that. I was convinced there was a man that came into our house and watched us sleep. Before going to bed I locked all the doors, checked closets and dark places for intruders, and I shut all the blinds, and locked the bedroom door. In the morning I would check for footprints around the house. Every night I still felt a presence. Sometimes I would lay awake with the TV on as Sutter slumbered deeply. (I nearly hated him for the peace he could find). I was able to sleep better, but not perfectly when I got a night-light. The nightly routine of checking everything was still in place. I was getting better week by week until I watched a scary movie, Mr. Brooks starring Kevin Costner. I was back to my old habits of a paranoid freak. (I really sound like a nut case here, I am really not).
*

Now everything is fine. I sleep well without checking for intruders, without checking all the doors, and without shutting all of the blinds in the house. I am still baffled about how a simple dream ruined my sleeping life for so long. The impact was so deep I considered an exorcism of the closet. I was given Feng Shui books from my friends. Therapy was an option I hadn't ruled out. But now everything is fine and I fall asleep like I used to and sleep peacefully.

*

I blame my bad dream experience on my overactive imagination and maybe a fear of something destroying my happiness. Did Alice (from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) have an overactive imagination? Of course she did. How could she fall asleep and have such a dream about Wonderland without an overactive imagination. Northrop Frye says in The Educated Imagination,

But we use our imagination all the time: it comes into all our conversation and real life: it even produces dreams when we're asleep. Consequently we have only the choice between a badly trained imagination and a well trained one, whether we ever read a poem or not (134-5).

I obviously have retrained my imagination to be positive rather than drak, scary, and negative. I forced myself to think of good and happy things before bed. I stopped watching TV before bedtime/scary movies and I have returned to reading books(not scary books) to put me asleep, which I used to always do in highschool.

*

There seem to be no morals to dreams. Only images and fragments of story lines that merge and morph into other story lines. Like in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on page 103 (in the Barnes and Noble's Classics edition with an intro. by Tan Lin) the Duchess says that Alice is thinking about something and that makes her forget to talk and she can't remember what the moral of that is. Alice responds, "Perhaps it hasn't one." The Duchess responds, "Every thing's got a moral, if you can only find it." Onto page 104 after the Duchess points out several morals, Alice thought, "How fond she is of finding morals in things!" That does seem to be the trend in children's literature, didactic practices, and adults (like the Duchess) often like to insist on morals to teach children a thing or two. Maybe in a dream and in our imaginations there doesn't have to be a moral. We don't have to learn anything from our dreams, or from our creative thoughts, but rather experience the imagination and put it to good use in our feelings, conversations, and basic daily life. Does that make us more interesting? Like Dr. Sexson suggested in class, that the text is not boring, but if we are bored with what we are reading than it is us who are the boring ones. Dr. Sexson said, "the more interesting we become, the more interesting books are." So then I assume the more interesting the books become, that mean we are becoming more interesting. This made me a little concerned with my sense of self....am I boring!? No of course not. No one really is....well maybe there are exceptions, and wouldn't that be awful to be the exception. Just thinking about exceptions, Alice is not exceptionally imaginative, but does she become imaginitive because she has this creative dream that a boring girl shouldn't have? I should think so, for she seems to have a "well trained" imagination.

Believing in the Impossible

Kayla's latest blog regarding Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass talked about adult nostalgia in relation to the texts. She said, in her final sentence, "Could children's books be adults way of believing in impossible? If only for a moment, maybe." Which led me to thinking about how adults fit into the world of children's literature, if we do at all. As suggested in class, do adults have to become as a child to read children's books, or better yet do adults have to read children's books to become as a child. By believing in the impossible are we able to become, if only for a moment, like a child. When Alice sees the white rabbit, "it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time is seemed quite natural." Had Alice been an adult, her adventure might never have happened because a sensible adult would hardly believe in the impossible: a white rabbit with a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it saying, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late."

I like reading smart literature where I am supposed to learn somthing and appreciate it for it's literary genius. I also love reading fiction. I love the Harry Potter Series, His Dark Materials, and Eragon etc. When I read these books I read them in a way that can be detrimental to school, work, and life. My mom would get really mad because I never did any of my chores, now Sutter feels ignored and neglected, and so do my dogs when I start reading those kinds of books because I sit there and I do not move from my spot on the couch unless for absolute necessaries (food and bathroom) or until I've finished the book. I delve into the world of the impossible and live it and breathe it without coming back to reality. I always wondered why I could never put one of these books down and maybe I know, because I finally get to believe in the impossible, and no one likes to come back to reality after such adventures.

* * * * *

While reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I was reminded of My Book and Heart Shall Never Part on page 45 when Alice was thinking to herself, "When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of theing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!" Much like in Lynda Sexson's visual essay when the little girl (Devita Sexson) reading the book can't tell which side of the page she is on and becomes the character she is reading. While Alice is physically transported to another world through a rabbit hole (portal), Devita is transported to another world through reading a book (another portal). Like I am transported to another world when I read a book for pure pleasure and I forget I am sitting on a couch and my mother repeats herself until she has to take my book away from me so I can hear her, because at that moment I am no longer Samantha Clanton, but I am Lyra Silvertongue, my dog curled at my feet is my deamon, and I am riding on the back of a polar bear, traveling to other worlds, fighting evil, reading the alethiometer, speaking to angels, on a quest of great importance to the future of the world. When I come back to reality I have to wake up and go to class......where would you rather be?

Inspired by "My Book and Heart Shall Never Part"

Thursday night was a real treat and my first time ever at a world premiere. Lynda Sexson's visual essay, My Book and Heart Shall Never Part was visually, intellectually, and emotionally visceral. (Here is a link to a brief article with a summary of the film called Text to image: Sexson explores early children's books in new film.) The images of old texts and a story woven around and within them was beautifully crafted. In my previous blog I mentioned some ideas and questions Lynda presented to us in class which we saw in the film. It was a little dark in the theater to be taking notes, and I forgot a pen. But I remember one quote and I liked it a lot. "The earth comes down to earth."

While watching the film the guy sitting next to me, Sutter, leaned over and very exuberantly whispered, "that's Lindley Park!", then later he said, "Oh! and that's Cooper Park!" and the last, but most excited whisper, "Sam! That's Sourdough Trail!" This struck me. Yes the film was set in Bozeman, so why was Sutter so excited to recognize these places. He was just like a child, excited to see the familiar. This reminded me of what I had read in the Introduction to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Tan Lin. "The adult is a child whose childhood desires are something she hasn't learned to forget" (xxxii). Sutter was recognizing his backyard, the familiar, the comfortable. Being attatched to home is something very related to children because it is often hard for children to be away from home for very long. I know it took me a very long time to be able to spend one night away from my parents at a friends house. Tan Lin also says, "the reader's recognition is a repitition with a difference, because the repitition involves retelling. Repetition is about eternity and stopping time; repetition with a difference presupposes change and time passing" (xxxii). This fittingly and ironicly led me to think of the word, anamesis, which means, a recalling to memory; recollection or a reminiscence. William Wordsworth stresses the importance of memory and recollection in his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality." A short article by Khara House called The Role of Memory in Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality says"William Wordsworth uses memory as a connective force between past and present, one’s ability to recall the joy of one’s past in order to, not know that it exists now, but find peace in the knowledge that it once existed. In this sense, according to Wordsworth’s poem, memory provides a form of recollection of a glorious beginning to life that passes away into commonalities as we age and mature."

So we need our memory in order to stay connected with our childhood that fades with maturity. Is this why there is that adult nostalgia concerning children's literature? Without something to help us recollect our chilhoods, then we could forget and by remembering our childhoods we can take comfort in knowing that it once existed as Wordsworth suggests.

And memory is always recollected back to Mnemosyne who was the Titan goddess of memory and remembrance and the inventress of language and words.

Is there such a thing as children's literature?

watercolor by Ben Clanton (my brother)

Lynda Sexson was in our class on Friday as a guest lecturer and presented the class with many interesting ideas and questions. One in particular seemed to stump the class: "Is there such a thing as children's literature?" My immediate answer in my head was to respond with a tautolity: Of course there is children's literature, it is literature for children, but the answer is so much more, that is why I kept quiet. There isn't one clear, right, or wrong answer because children's literature is proving to be more complicated than I have anticipated, and I should know better.

The question, "is there such thing as children's literature?", is more than thinkable. Lynda offered a possible response to the question: Children's literature is for adult nostalgia and an adults longing for home, I think that could also mean longing for childhood. While reading Cheryl Knobel's blog she wrote, in her blog posting titled 'Tatar's Introduction': "When I heard in the summer we would be doing fairy tales for this class I immediately went to my parent's home and picked up all my fairy tale books from childhood. As I pulled them off the library bookshelf, so many memories flooded back to me." Maybe this is a part of the adult nostalgia children's literature is a part of. Then there is such a thing as children's literature, it just isn't meant for children. But then what about all of those books meant for children that are didactic in relation to morals, etiquette, pragmaticism, and nature? That isn't children's literature because it is making the child literate, curious, thoughtful, etc. and which makes the child less of a child as Lynda suggested. Lynda also said "Literacy begets more literacy" which seems obvious and simple, but also something I've never thought of.

watercolor by Ben Clanton

So then it brings me to Sutter's question in class today: "Is there such thing as a child?" Today Dr. Sexson discussed rites of passage in tribes and that is the event of a child ceremoniously, physically(circumcision), and literally leaving the world of children and becoming an adult. But then again the question of "is there such thing as a child?" becomes more than thinkable. The suggestion that literacy is one of the worst things that has happened to human kind is a reasonable one because we have forced ourselves to skip childhood by becoming literate. Then encouraging children to learn and read is robbing them of something great because we think we know best. This makes me think of The Golden Compass and how children are being severed from their deamons because the adults/church knows best.

Cinderella

I read The Second Shepherds' Pageant (Wakefield) for my Medieval Literature class and I found something in the reading that made me think of Cinderella, and I wonder how far back the ideas for fairy tales go. The beginning of the Second Shepherds play starts with three shepherds, then this guy Mak steals a sheep, then the shepherds look for the sheep at Mak's house and Mak and his wife have the sheep swaddled like a baby as a disguise, well anyway, to make this story short the shepherds are the holy fools and can't tell it's a sheep for a while, but then they start to look closer and see that he has horns, and a long snout, and Mak's wife says to them :

He was takyn with an elfe-

I saw it myself-

When the clok stroke twelf

Was he forshapyn.

This was mainly to associate witchcraft and paganism with Mak and his wife who are sinners, but I saw Cinderella transforming at midnight. I couldn't trace any fairy tales that resemble Cinderella back to the Medieval period, but a movie was made called, Ever After, which was a version of Cinderella set in the Medieval period! How cool. Drew Barrymore did a wonderful job in the movie.

Test Time!

Test Questions made from the class:

• Portmanteau = a multilevel word used in Finnegan's Wake ex: Prank Quean, another example is from Alice and Wonderland ex: slithy, which is a combination of sly and slimey
• privilaged #s in fairytales 3 & 7
• What is misplaced concreteness? ex: Rapunzel's hair and whether or not it can really hold up a human, which according to what Erin found and put in her blog, the answer is yes
• Which fairytale is type 333 according to Arny Thompson's classification? Answer: Little Red Riding Hood
• How do we get to the collective unconcious through fairytales? Answer: architypes
• Identify this quote: "if you're really crafty you'll get them both" - the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood
• What are the 3 parts of the universal quest? Answer: seperation, initiation, return
• What are the three parts of the Triple goddess? Answer: Maiden, Mother, Crone
• Why is there no original literature? Answer: all lit. is displaced myth
• When you bow to someone, what are you recognizing within them? Answer: the divine
• The genie says in Disney's Aladdin: I'm not history, I'm mythology
• What is Cideneralla's name in the Grimm version of this fairy tale? Answer: Ashgirl
• ***there will be more questions on the test dealing with differences between versions of fairytales
• According to the motif index Hans My Hedgehog, Beauty and the Beast, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon are what motif? Answer: the search for the missing husband/beast groom
• Out of Rapunzel, Bluebeard, The Juniper Tree, and Snow White, which fairytale has no struggle to concieve? Answer: Bluebeard
• What is the mother/daughter duo? Answer: Demeter and Persephone
• Write a haiku on one fairytale we were assigned to know for the test. For those of you who aren't aware or can't remember a haiku is a 3 line poem with generally 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Haiku's are generally imagistic, however I don't think you have to worry too much about that.
• What is the significance of blue in Bluebeard's beard? Answer: d. all of the above
• What triggers the transformation of the beast back into a human? Answer: Love
• The architype for a talking animal, like Mr. Ed, can be found in which ancient work of literature? Answer: The Golden Ass
• Why did Cupid wake up when psyche was looking at him? Answer: A drop of hot oil landed on his shoulder
• What do you call an error in speach or a deliberate word play like sisty uglers or bleeping sleauty? Answer: spoonerisms
• Which romantic poet believed we do not learn new things, but we just need to be reminded of them because we already know everything? Answer: William Wordsworth
• What mythical story was Beauty and the Beast supposedly derived from? Answer: Cupid and Psyche
• The moral of Bluebeard had to do with a flaw in which gender? Answer: female....curious female, because women are full of sin thanks to Eve
• Which Grimm story has a witch in it? Answer: Hansel and Gretal, witches aren't common in Grimm fairytales
• Which author wanted to marry Little Red Riding Hood? Answer: Dr. Sexson, or Katie Crystal, but the author we talked about in class was Charles Dickens
• What phrase begins most fairytales? Answer: I won't dignify this with an answer, it's too damn easy
• There will be a question that will be answered with Ewe, but to be honest I didn't understand what was going on and I don't remember the story Dr. Sexson was talking about, hopefully someone else puts somthing more clear on their blog.
• There will also be an essay, though not very long

Fairytales that we are responsible for knowing:

1. Little Mermaid
2. Little Red Riding Hood
3. Cinderella
4. Hansel and Gretal
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Bleeping Sleauty..I mean Sleeping Beauty of course, I had to slip in the spoonerism
7. Snow White
8. Rapunzel
9. East of the Sun, West of the Moon
10. Bluebeard
11. The Juniper Tree

We should know what we said about these fairytales in class and what Tatar has to say about them. Also don't forget to know the difference between these tales and the Grimm fairytales.

Good luck to us!

anti-intellectualism and What is a child? What is nature? What is a book?

Class on September 17th brought about the discussion of anger towards smart people. Sutter takes us back to some quotes in his blog post, The Learning Curve, by Dr. Sexson who joked about losing friends when they catch just a whiff of your brilliancy and intelligence.

I found this quote in the first few intro pages of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -Jonathan Swift. This Swift quote is where the title of Toole's novel was derived from. This is a classic quote that recognizes the anti-intellectualism of dunces, stupid people, dolts.

Sutter has many other interesting points in his blog post, The learning Curve, and says that Adults and teachers become molders of the child and builds it's phsychic life and by doing that adults claim the divine power making themselves gods. Read more of his blog to get the full story.
This concept of people trying to be like gods reminded me of Samuel Coleridge and his view of the eternal act of creation. Perceiving the world is like creating the world for ourselves, but didn't God create the world, so then humans become like little gods in that sense. I think humans are all trying to have that power by manipulating everything they have a hard time understanding. Sutter talks about children being molded and manipulated by adults. Don't we do this to nature as well? Moving it, destroying it, rebuilding it. Feminist literary criticism suggests nature is womanly because it is deemed mother nature and men conquer nature and men conquer women, however this seems extreme, but it does reinforce how humans try to conquer and manipulate nature. We try to percieve and recreate nature because, as Sir Phillip Sidney believes that nature's world is brazen, but the poetry world is golden because it improves on what is real. There we go percieving and creating again, but it is so fun. We can manipulate books as well by construing a meaning from them and twisting it making it work for our purposes. The author works it for his or her own purpose. I don't mean to say there is anything wrong with manipulating children, nature, or literature, or maybe there is something wrong in it, but we do it. All three of these things must be more than thinkable to give themselves a future.

Now we get to the painfully straightforward questions: what is a child? what is nature? What is a book? All of these things have the beginning of life. A child is a new human, nature creates itself anew each year, and books make the old new, and as Percy Shelley said, restoring the vital metaphoricity of our language by creating new associations...new metaphors. All three of these concepts make the world as if it were fresh and new. And all three can be manipulated, and adults like to manipulate them. Could they manipulate adults? I don't see why not.

Dance the night away as Alice from Wonderland in Bozeman!

Saturday, September 27th, 2008, I was working at The Leaf and Bean. Normally Saturday morning are very quiet at the Bean, but not this morning, oh no. We had a line to the door and I was shocked! What is going on?!

It was the Bozeman High School's 2008 Homecoming parade and guess what the theme for Homecoming is this year at Bozeman High......"Alice in Wonderland"......hmmm. And as the parade floated by the Bean windows I saw the Mad Hatter and Alice and the rest of the gang sitting down to tea riding on a trailer attatched to the back of a pick-up. I had to investigate so I went onto the Bozeman High School website and looked at their Hawk Tawk publication and found an article written all about their homecoming to come, 'Homecoming in Wonderland' (at the botom of the post). Bozeman High students are going to be able to walk into their own fairytale night of Alice in Wonderland, very much in the backyard of Bozeman, like Oz is only in Dorothy's Kansas backyard. Talk about displacing fairytales into realism or rather becoming the fairytale on a typical fairytale wannabe night for most high school students!

Homecoming In Wonderland
Simona Rackauskas
September 26, 2008

This year’s Homecoming theme is “Alice in Wonderland” and by letting the theme inspire your night you can guarantee to make this a Homecoming unlike any other. ‘But how do I incorporate the theme into my night’, you ask? Never fear, I’ll help you! With these tips you can have a wonderful Homecoming and I suggest you make every effort to because this year is especially special; this year Homecoming falls on your un-birthday.

The first matter to address is what you’re going to wear. The obvious choice for a girl is a light blue dress with a voluminous skirt, and a black ribbon in her hair. A guy might dress like the Mad Hatter, with a colorful suit and a top hat. Ladies, if you consider yourself a non-conformist I suggest you wear a suit also. Or take your inspiration from the Cheshire cat and incorporate purple stripes into your outfit. Follow the Rabbit’s lead, and stay on time with a pocket watch. Wear pieces with patterns containing spades, clubs, diamonds or hearts to symbolize the Queen’s cards. Use your creativity to come up with something unique.

So you’re looking hot, but how are you going to get to the dance? Make sure to plan ahead and find cooler transportation than Alice. Your date would be pretty frustrated if you told him or her that they’re going to have to walk everywhere. And if your date is late picking you up, don’t miss an opportunity to sing ‘We’re late! We’re late! For a very important date…”

Once you arrive at dinner, steer away from ordering dishes containing mushrooms, as it could be dangerous if you grow and/or shrink later on in the evening. Be cautious of cookies that say ‘Eat Me’ and bottles that say ‘Drink Me’. Order some tea at dinner, as the tea party is one of the most famous “Alice in Wonderland” scenes.

I cannot help you with what to do concerning this year’s theme during the dance, as I have only been to one Homecoming in my high school career, but of course I advise you have the most fun possible. However keep it safe kids, please don’t take part in any Caterpillar-like activities (you know what I’m talking about) during Homecoming.

Wrap up the night with an after-party that includes midnight games of croquet with flamingos and porcupines, card games played with singing and dancing cards, and perhaps even a tea party with a hare, a Mad Hatter and a mouse. At the end of the night when it’s time to sleep, curl up in a teapot like the Dormouse and sing yourself to sleep, “Twinkle, twinkle little bat / How I wonder what you’re at? / Up above the world you fly / Like a tea tray in the sky.” Sweet dreams!

However you celebrate this Homecoming, be sure to make it your wonderland and use the night to escape the mundane of everyday life. “Alice in Wonderland” reminds us that anything is possible (even if only in dreams), and above all apply this concept to your night for success. As the Doorknob says to Alice when she cannot go through the door, “No. [It’s not impossible. It’s] impassible. Nothing’s impossible.”