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.

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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."