Books and Other Fetish Objects

I agree with the ideas that Gleick states. In a world that seeks to allow open access to most information, it is a understandable notion that by uploading images of all, if not most, text onto the internet the information would be drastically more widely available, and the information would be preserved more efficiently. (Even the best kept books will crumble.)

That aside and even though Gleick did produce several positive examples, the article itself may be a little biased in that he only quotes one person. I am sure the availability of text on the internet is upsetting to others besides the one English writer. 

As we have read "The History of Reading" it is understandable that for thousands of years humans have built a type of kinship with the vellum, sheep skin, paper, or even cave walls that we have written on, but just as those people that came before us, the electronic uploading of those documents will just be another footnote in our history books. This is simply our renaissance of books. 

One of the biggest things to consider is who is going to foot the bill, and however does will have control of the information. Also, assumingly the information does become widely uploaded, who will monitor if the information is changed? 

I remember a long time ago that my Uncle said that he would never use an online bible. At the time I didn't understand, but as I grew up he meant because information controlled by someone else is always subjective to the controller, and I could see that becoming a possible problem in the future. But to refute advancement for the "grain of paper and the scent of glue," I don't agree.

Wikipedia: How far can it go?

I loved this article. For just about every project, historical or otherwise, I have somehow found my way to Wikipedia or at least to some offshoot of Wikipedia. At no point do I mean that I use all the information that I find, but I use Wikipedia to get a background and a starting off point of whatever theme I am talking about. I think one of the biggest problems, aside from the things that the article mentions, is that much of the cited works that are listed below each of the articles are not peer reviewed. I'm not saying that the information is invalid, but the information that someone decides is worthy enough to be placed on Wikipedia is often cited from Uncle Bob's Website, or any other website that has no merit in the first place. I'm not sure what Wikipedia could, or should do, to fix this.

The article states that one of its objectives is the allow everyone to jump rope, toss a ball, and race on the same playing field, but I do believe that a runner with a PHD should be in the same lane as a fifteen year old that just put down an eye opening book. Wikipedia is a great source of knowledge and the group editing and discussions should be available to everyone, but in a world that thrives on misinformation and mistrust, there needs to be a little bit more control. Knowledge in itself has built limitations, but the depiction of truth is based on the speaker and the way the information is presented.

Again, this is not to say that Wikipedia has flaws that are so bad that they will pull me away from my quick searches anytime soon. Probably, because of this article I am going to start fact checking some of the articles whose information I doubt myself, but the avenue of free editing and free information should not be abandoned because of a few car crashes and muggings.

Act 3 and 4; Including Gardner

I expected the play to turn out in an all around happy ending, I was happy to find that they play concluded much more realistically. In one terministic screen I could see Eliza trying to marry Higgins or Pickering,  but as an ode to woman's suffrage I am glad that she took the alternative route and at least tries to see to her own future. In these last two acts all the characters are made much more round, or set in their ways, but the most important aspect to me was the recognition of who Higgins actually was. In the last act Eliza and Higgins discovers that they are the same in one significant characteristic, their ignorance to change. In the beginning of the book Eliza did not see that her language was decadent and was ignorant of that fact, in the end Higgins was ignorant in his decadent language (although he spoke his curses much more pronounced.)

As for Gardner, I tried to imagine each scene in order to read this play already and at times I even acted out the voices in my head--of which I pulled out every stereotyped cultural voice I thought possible. I feel that, just like a novel, the beauty isn't in the words on the page, or even how their used, but the images that they give reference to in our minds. 

For example, the three feathered hat that Eliza shows up with and was stated to not be burnt, recalled to me the images of old women in the front pew of an old Southern Baptist Black church. All of Aristotle's elements are present, including his excluded setting, but our imagination brings it all together. When our imagination is not up to the task, or when the text does not give enough to structure our imagination of a particular object, that is when a text is considered boring, over the top, or just a waste of time. 

Shaw's Pygmalion 1

Pygmalion Act 1 is all about class and how the classes treat one another. Each class is represented by the person or group that seems to congregate under the church in order to get out of the thundering storm. It took me a second to get used to this book. I am not use to reading play books and at several points I was close to asking my fiancé to act out three characters and I act out the rest, a choice that would have made me have to change my voice for each character. She declined.

So when reading the book, alone, there is a very definite lean towards feminism. I don't argue that it is invalid or anything, but I feel that the author should have allowed the feministic motif to come in sideways instead of blatantly through the dialogue of the gentleman and the note-taker. As said, everything is based on how the different classes treat one another, and further down, everything is based on how the classes treat themselves.

The betterment of Eliza sets the pretense of the control of the female lead and the notion that those of higher refinement and class have the morale right to sanction them to what is right or wrong. I believe  in act 1 & 2, the positive roles are attached to the women and the negative roles are attached to the men. Although the gentleman, Colonial Pickers, does positive actions, there is something unseemly about him that will probably arise out of the last act.

From a male perspective, feminist writings can be very aggravating because they usually depict most men, if not all men, as immoral and base to women. Because of the unfair treatment of men, it usually takes me a few moments before I can let my guard down enough to read it. To some extent, it feels like propaganda, but since the book was written in the early 1900’s, it is understandably so.

Language and Politics and its effect on Poetry

I stood like a deer in headlights while reading the first few paragraphs of Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” Understanding what is being stated was not the problem, the problem arrived when attempting to understand it’s connection to poetry. For several paragraphs, there was a large emphasis on the general decadence of our political system and how the failing of our political system is transmitting the same decadence to our English language.

Orwell lived during a very disruptive age, several wars, the holocaust, Watergate, etc. and his weariness  of what was being said by the world’s governments shows through his work. The government’s attempts to placate meaning to the audience, he states, has now transferred into the non-political arena and has made the English language “slovenish” and “makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”

I did not understand the paper’s connection to poetry until the second page when Orwell writes “As soon as certain toopics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed.” The concrete from abstract is what creates poetry. 

I believe poetry is a type of prose that connects inanimate and intangible characteristics, qualities, and ideas into tangible or achievable feelings while conveying some meaning thorugh the diction, the syntax, and the speech patterns. In reversal of what Orwell’s states as “bad language,” poetry tries to convert the abstract into the concrete.

“Politics and the English Language” is about the necessity of each individual to make sure there is meaning in what they write. The cause of the destruction of society is not the rampant writings and speeches that seek only to vaguely inform its audience, but those that continually produce the writing.

 I do not agree to some aspects of what Orwell writes. To some extent Orwell is seen as angrier about the situation then trying to state a solution, but even in spirited fervor, Orwell makes a good point about how orthodox politics is used to create vagueness and disillusionment.

This paper can be seen as what poetry should not be.

A Feminist Look At "Wuthering Heights"

The need to understand the experiences of historical women has lead to a resurgence of female writer's text. Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," being one of the most prolific female text, has been one of the most criticized and discussed.

At first glance, the introduction seemed a little long winded. From a guy's standpoint, while trying to discuss how "phallocentric" (p 452) our language is is understandable, the desire for the author to separate the negative idea from the people practicing it is necessary. The separation of the masculinity oppresses femininity idea only goes to incite anger in those males that do not agree or those that understand that to be true. Through much of the introduction I found myself shaking my head, rereading an argument, or writing questions in the margins stating "this is not true in one situation or another." With that stated,  I feel I am part of the "phallus," and as such I am probably biased toward my own textual designations. However, even if that be the case, I feel it necessary to also attach the notion that we as males have little control in how to change the language.

In Lyn Pykett's text "Changing the Names: The Two Catherines," the primary suggestion is the "consequences of [a] socially sanctioned choice" that all females had to make during that time and how in doing so, in Catherine's instance, caused her eventual self destruction(469). Pykett speaks on the requirement of Catherine to lose her "wild, hatless little savage" side and become more socially acceptable as she matured (Bronte 64) (Which resulted to her going to the Grange and eventually separating from Heathcliff.)

Throughout Catherine and Cathy's entire life there is a sense of powerlessness that reverberates throughout both generations. Catherine's inability to choose with her heart, Healthcliff, and Cathy's inability to leave Heights is a representation of the subjectivity of women and for both instances were only truly resolved by death. A resolve that lead to Catherine's death and a resolve that truly ended with Heathcliff's death.

Cultural Theory with a little Marxist Twang

The idea of studying literature as a way of understanding culture is obvious unless the ideology of your society states that all literature is contained in a "Chinese-box structure" (p. 431). As stated by each of the cultural theorist, the use of literature can either work to cement what is already believed in the culture or, as Tony Bennett states, has the ability to "separat[e] the audience from... prevailing ideologies" (p.420). 

Marxist' theory of one class superseding another, although does not translate directly with cultural theorist, states how most, if not all, literature is political in nature. This idea that all literature is political in nature has the effect of representing any given culture when it was written, what makes Wuthering Heights so different is the fact that, while writing, Emily Bronte was so far separate from society. This separation from society begs the question of how can such a remote setting, two Gothic homes on the morbid moors of England, connect to the zeitgeist of the time?

What we see and what we experience has a lasting affect on what we do, what we say, and what we write. This "lasting affect" is what is needed in order to provide the context of who we are in conjunction to who everyone is around us. Although this portion of the books speaks primarily on what cultural criticism is, it also speaks on the intrusiveness of the world around us. Emily Bronte, even while so separated from normal society, was able to write a novel that encompasses a large majority of the social discord and strife of her time. 

As large as the author's actual ability, the culture, the time period, and the social ideology also plays a  large role in creating any literary work and showing what it was truly like to be alive during those times.  Starting with cavemen drawing on walls, the social context is shown through what they draw and what they would use to draw it.