Art and Lies!

Art and Lies by Jeanette Winterson

Post-modernism = very collage-like, juxtaposes passages without explanation.
Genre-fiction indicates a formulaic approach to writing.

What literature, what art, is great and why? The place of greatness and artist in conjunction with literature. It is hard to see greatness as widely defined, as seen in those around them. Emerson - in a great person an individual sees their own alienated majesty. People have artistic thoughts and great desires, but convince themselves that they are not great and then go out and worship other people's "great" art (such as Shakespeare). This is because they have projected themselves outward onto someone else. They love themselves by loving someone else. They can't bear to see how great they are. Lots of people's projections, hopes, and dreams are put into a select few.

Why can't we recognize the artistry and greatness in ordinary people?


Playing for Change - A good example of beautiful artistry in common people

We should all consider the possibility of seeing everything we read as great art and treating it as such!

Piece from Art by Jeanette Winterson - She was enthralled by all art. It is a foreign city and we are foolish to think we know it fully. We should not force our ideas onto the culture of art, but live our whole life open to learning and understanding.

The Child and Flowers!

Q1: Is the poem the same in these 3 versions?

A: I don't think it is. A large part of poetry is the way that it is presented and read. Line breaks, word flow, punctuation, even where the words appear on a page can change how a poem impacts a reader. These versions each have distinct differences. The way the HTML is presented does not have the same line breaks as the page image, leaving it with a sense of being disjointed. The TEI is so unappealing to the eye and difficult to decipher that it completely destroys the atmosphere of the poem itself. While the actual words of the poem are the same between all 3 versions, they are not the same.

Q2: What difference will digitizing make to our understanding of poems?

A: It will definitely make an impact. Whereas prose can translate fairly easily to the digital medium, poetry is a much more difficult endeavour. It is in many ways dependent upon its presentation. Reading poetry is not simply word choice. So unless the poetry can be digitized in a way that keeps the true presentation intact (I liked the page image best) than I fear that we will lose a basic part of what the poem was intended to convey. There is also the physical aspect of reading something on a screen and being able to hold it in your hand. I can read for hours out of a book where I can only read for short spans on a computer (This may be because I have contacts and they dry out but nonetheless).

Comparison of Frankenstein versions

Tag Cloud Comparison
The 1831 version utilizes much darker language than the earlier versions. Both 1818 versions use more positive, uplifting language. The two most prominent words for 1818 Thomas are deep and friend, but the other frequently used words are friendship, desire, confidence, and believed. IT seems to show a trend away from lots of negative. The 1831 seems to show a lot more sorrow and misery.

Did Mary Shelley write three different novels?
A: I do not think that she did. I do agree that subtle differences in word choice can have an effect on the larger narrative, but I think that it only changes parts of the interpretation, and then only to the trained eye. A casual reader of Frankenstein would not necessarily grasp the nuances of each version. It is the English scholars, whose job it is to dissect each word of a text, who would see the large differences.

What is the difference in what the stranger agrees to?
A: Thomas 1818 - Focuses more on the possibility of friendship and what it means.
Original 1818 - Focuses more on what type of "unfashioned" creatures men are.
1831 -

How does digitizing the texts help to visualize them?
A: Digitizing the texts allows visualization in a whole new medium, as well as a new degree of accessibility.

Discussion of Aurora Leigh 3/20

Question 3: Can there be heroes in modern life? According to the poem? To you?

I think that there can be heroes in modern life, they are just sometimes difficult to see. According to the poem, heroes that stand out to us from the past seemed ordinary to those who lived during their time. King Arthur was just an ordinary man to Guinevere. And so the way to discover heroes is to just honestly assess and describe the reality of your own life and time. To describe those around you with all of their strengths and flaws through the medium of poetry. The language of poetry can turn an ordinary man into a spectacular hero. The poem would say that while people that would be defined as "heroes" do exist in modern life, they are not the ones who are first thought of. It is men of the past like Charlemagne, King Arthur, or Alexander the Great. But by describing modern life we will almost unwittingly define a new age of heroes. I definitely agree with this assessment. As a historian I can honestly say that it is hard to judge someone during or immediately after they make an impact, and so the passing of time gives a distinct spin on one's view. It also matters what someone defines as a hero. My personal heroes are people that will never be in a history book, never even known by very many other people, but if I were to enshrine them in poetry woven in with my emotions than maybe centuries from now they would be seen as heroes. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Aurora Leigh (cont.)

- Book III, 302-12
1. This passage suggests that Aurora cannot make a living on poetry alone. Though it is the superior medium to prose, it is not the mainstream and as such for her to support herself she must give in and take part in mundane prose occupations such as magazines and cyclopedias.
2. Aurora presents prose and poetry as juxtaposed. One is the hands and the other is the feet. One is a true art form while the other is purely for function. She clearly puts poetry on a plane that prose can never reach.
3. By use of a woman-artist writing a poem about a woman-artist who writes poetry it forms multiple layers of the idea of the importance of the medium. It just re-focuses over and over on the fact that poetry is an essential artistic form.

- Book II, 400-6
1. Aurora calls out Romney for loving a "cause" not a "woman." She is saying that his ends are excellent, and he has a noble cause, but that she is not worthy of it. She states that he loves what she COULD BE for him, not what she is.

- Book II, 671-85
1. Aurora wrote a letter to her aunt saying that God did not want her to marry Romney, and that "At least my soul is not a pauper." She would rather die a poor poetess but with her soul true, than live as a rich wife in a marriage solely for money and her poetry destroyed.

Aurora Leigh!

Aurora Leigh

Biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
b. 1806 -- d. 1861. Her mother died when she was 20, and she published first book of poetry at age 22. She was so famous that in 1850 when Wordsworth died she was considered as a potential poet laureate. She was also very politically radical. She developed a dependence on morphine due to her sickly condition, hugely controlling father. In 1846 she eloped with Robert Barrett Browning. They loved each other deeply, and she wrote some of the most famous English love poetry about him. Ex: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." After she eloped she lived in Italy with Robert and had a child before her death.

Aurora's life is radically different than Elizabeth's. Aurora's mother takes away her aunt's right as lady of the house. Her father meets her mother in Italy and falls madly in love and marries her but she dies only four years later. He is bereft and shiftless following that.

The story develops a sense of God as the "outer infinite." As if babies come from the divine with the touch still on them. Her mother would tell her to be quiet, while her eyes told her the opposite. "Mothers love foolishly, they love best" She hungers for that unconditional love after her mother died. Mothers have an ability to communicate with children that fathers lack. They notice the nuances of emotion and empathy that men miss.

The Lifted Veil!

Exercise on guessing what women think
Since I cant figure out what women think in real life I doubt this will even be close.

Red-haired Woman - "I wish that camera man would stop drooling. He looks like he has never seen a beautiful woman before. It's disgusting. God what a pain to have to spend all this time looking this good just to have a bunch of losers fawn over me."

Blonde-haired Woman- "I was NOT ready for this picture. Nobody told me we were taking pictures today! I didn't have a chance to do my hair the way I wanted or put on a good top or anything! I hope nobody important sees this."

Well apparently the blonde woman is J.K. Rowling and she probably isn't as shallow as my fake thought process made her seem, so just like I thought I still have no idea what women are thinking.

The Lifted Veil
Latimer convinces himself he has preternatural power from his first vision of Prague right after the first time he is sick. He goes and proves he is correct. Or is he? I feel like there is a possibility that he is merely convincing himself of it, when in fact it is not true. Perception is reality, and thus if he perceives he is correct he can convince himself of it. An example of that is when you want someone to be something, you project what you want onto them. He can't read Bertha's mind, but is that a choice because he doesn't want to take the fun out of it or because he can't?
"A person who is totally self-centered will hold complete cruel sway over a person who is of kinder disposition and craves kindness and attention. Seeking the approval of those who sneer the most."

He thinks something can change her and that it is him. This could be linked to how intimidating his father was when he was young, and the reassurance he never got as a child. His mother worshiped him, and then she died. That caused distance for Latimer, and he wants that connection back. He feels cursed/destined/fated to be special. Similar to Satan in Paradise Lost and Victor in Frankenstein.

Q: Are Latimer and Victor similar?

I feel like they are in their eccentricities. Each has a sense of being different from those around of them, of being special, Victor for his genius and Latimer because of his power. They each seek something that will eventually do damage to them. Victor seeks his wildly ambitious and dangerous scientific goals, while Latimer seeks the great unknown that is Bertha. Each has warnings, Victor from his friends and Latimer from his visions, that they should not pursue their goal, but neither heeds them. It seems as if they force themselves onward relentlessly, even when the danger is readily apparent. Their few differences lie only in their pursuits. Whereas Victor is a scientist and is deeply rooted in physical things, Latimer is a poet and cares less about affairs of the world than he does about beauty and mystery.

Monster Creation

One of the kids who couldn't figure out how to screenshot it (can't use Mac....) So here are the instructions to view it.

Website: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heroMachine2.asp

Click Load and Copy/Paste this paragraph:

2.5b5*m3*The Monster*Hair:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,23,Eyebrows:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,
FFFFFF,100,100,21,Eyes:Standard,glow,940018,27B873,100,100,20,Nose:Standard,thinslant,
27B873,7CC774v,100,100,27,Mouth:Standard,line,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,18,Beard:,fraBla
nk,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,26,Ears:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,19,Skin:,
wounded,848484,27B873,100,100,6,Mask:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,22,Headgear:,
fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,29,Undershirt:Standard,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,
100,7,Overshirt:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,8,Coat:Shoulders,rtstrap,313131,01B3F1,
100,100,25,RightGlove:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,17,LeftGlove:Expansion1,taped,
313131,FFFFFF,100,100,16,Insignia:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,9,Neckwear:,fraBlank,
FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,24,Belt:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,15,Leggings:,fraBlank,
FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,10,Overleggings:Standard,wave,000000,000000,100,100,11,Pants:
Standard,torn,4B4B4B,9C9C9C,100,100,14,RightFoot:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,13,
LeftFoot:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,12,Back:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,3,
Wings:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,4,Tail:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,5,Aura:,
fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,2,Companion:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,31,
Background:New,chipledge,CFCFCF,9C9C9C,100,100,1,RightHand:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,
FFFFFF,100,100,30,LeftHand:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,28,#

There it is!

I chose the Monster as my character to make. I realize this may seem the easiest course, but I wanted to use this opportunity to see what my vision of the monster would come out as. As it turns out he is mostly various shades of gray. Most of the colors seemed to not fit to me, so I ended up using the various shades of gray to articulate him as a character. His skin tone is a dark green, but that is only to set up a contrast to his environment, which is also made up of gray tones. I purposefully left off all hair too, as I never envisioned the Monster having hair. The HeroMachine really gave a lot of options, but the almost lack of anything to him, and the starkness of his features and the surrounding environment, pretty much summed up how I felt about his character.