Eyyyy I'm Out!

... you'd think it would be "they lived happily ever after". NOPE GOTCHA Ma tries to kill herself and Jack burns from the light. Evidently, it's not that simple... but still, even with all these events, I'd say that it was a good idea to get out of Room (yea no sh*t). To be honest though, I'm really impressed with Jack's ability to adapt to the change in environment -- not only is it just so much larger than his previous world (which he even noted himself when he goes back to take a look at Room), he never really had to adapt to anything before since it was just Room. Speaking of Room, I'm not 100% sure why he wants to go back... maybe just to compare his previous world to his current one? Maybe it's just to remember where he came from? Either way he casts it away and was like "nope cya" -- it was kinda cute though when he says good bye to all of the furniture (also what exactly is "Eggsnake"? I never really got it -- if it's actually some kind of snake, why is it still in there... or is it a bunch of eggs put together to look like a snake? If Jack talked about it somewhere, I think I accidentally skipped over it...). He even cut his hair! Obviously he has grown a lot.

Also kudos to (step) grandpa and grandma -- ESPECIALLY grandpa. Steppa was just so chill, while Jack's biological grandpa can't stand to look at him. I mean I kind of get the logic, that Jack's biological grandpa (we're not given a name I don't think) imagines the horror done onto his daughter whenever he sees the "product", while Steppa doesn't (since they're not biologically related) -- but like common Jack's a little kid give him a chance... but nope he just flies back to Australia. Great. Steppa actually parents him though -- covering him when he almost got caught messing with matches, and quieting him down (by throwing him and giving him pie to enjoy while watching a game lol) when grandma was about to explode.

Anyhow, I hope Ma recovers from her severe PTSD, and Jack assimilates to his new world successfully. I wonder what the film would be like -- I feel like a lot of the feeling I get from reading Room can't be conveyed well through motion pictures... but what would I know I don't do much film lol. I guess to wrap the whole year up, I'd say this book would be my favorite out of all of the ones we've read so far... or maybe Persepolis is... but it's pretty high up there. It's been fun guys!

Trigger

Yep you guessed it -- Room triggers me. Like HARDCORE TRIGGER. Don't get me wrong -- this book is great and everyone should read it -- but like the situation that Ma and Jack are in such a... perfectly dehumanizing situation? The whole idea of being confined in a 11x11 box is similar to keeping hens in a pen, but even then the chickens get time to go to the mystical Outside as Jack would describe it... how could that ever be a favor? "You don't know how bad people have it out there" -- well Ma just got a new iPod and was strolling down the street in college when you kidnapped her so um yea I think you ruined her life (and her teeth. Great going).

Also Nick what's up with you calling Jack an "it" hmm? "Oh it talks" OF COURSE *HE* TALKS (EXCUSE YOU) he's a human just like you. Except you don't treat him like a human, evident from like everything you've (not) done for their family. Wait oops I meant YOUR family you rapist. "I bought him a jeep see I'm so nice I know what he wants" yea sure you did but then you literally deprived him of the rest of the world -- an unfair trade off if I do say so myself. And probably the rest of the world. Quit living in your own little world you --

Also domestic violence much -- I don't know what your motives are but like if you're really that lonely why don't you like go improve your personality instead of spending your time making a bombshelter (with a skylight? Analogies can't always be perfect I guess) out of your shed. Did I mention that domestic violence is a problem? Well I guess you have other problems to deal with -- like being charged as a rapist and kidnapper (oh wait you locked up the evidence -- good job I guess? Like actually that's smart but you're still twisted in the mind you %^#&##^&*(#)_#)(*&^).

Now onto Ma -- she triggers me too, but not the same way Nick triggers me. I have great respect for ma and her perseverence. If I were locked up and tri-weekly raped, I'd go mad. Then again I'd do a better job escaping, but she tried her best... in those kind of high stress situations I guess I can't expect her (or like anyone really -- including me) to think perfectly straight... this situation was so twisted to begin with...

Then there's the deal with educating Jack. Ma, you did a exceptional job educating Jack while keeping his innocence -- to think that your child was in the same room while you were getting raped, and he was counting the number of thrusts... I'm getting even more triggered thinking about this... so I'm gonna wrap this up and wish you gl in educating Jack about the outdoors and escape safely. Then again there's so much of the book left so I doubt you'll escape smoothly. Poo. Also continue to brush your teeth please.

In conclusion do I like Nick? Probably not. Was this blog post mean? Yea. Do I feel bad? lol do I even need to answer that

But yea... Ma if you're gonna do something drastic please stay safe and keep lil Jack safe too -- he has the whole Outside to see. I'm sure you know that better than anyone else.










Also I'm blaming you (Nick) if I get an aneurysm because as I was reading about you I swear my blood pressure shot up to like 170/110 I hope you're proud of yourself for being a kidnapper/rapist/potential-indirect-manslaughterer/there-are-too-many-adjectives-to-describe-you

If I were to describe you in one adjective... I'd have to go with "ew". Now savor that you --


P.S. if your name is Nick nonononono I'm not talking about you ok you're probably really chill (or at least way more sane that the nick that I'm on about, the "Old Nick" in Room).

Swings

Ok first of all shout out to our first comic book. Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, and if that's the case, we've probably already read more words than in The Odyssey.

Sorry for that cheese but I'm not gonna delete that lol

But to the main point of this post -- my appreciation for how honest Satrapi is (or at least sounds). Not only is it written in the stream-of-conscious style, the way Marji thinks and acts really resembles the polarity of a child's mind (aka they switch opinions/ideas/thoughts in general really easily since their ideas aren't totally grounded), which is then pushed to the extreme with the chaos in Iran.

One of the largest "swings" in opinion Marji has is her relation with God. The public played a huge role in her relationship -- for example, when her teacher didn't approve of her wanting to be a prophet and told her parents, she then told her parents that she wanted to become a doctor (and secretly reassured God that she just said that to make her parents happy). However, when the fundamentalists took over and required everyone to pray throughout the day (as suggested by Marji's mother, telling her to say that she prays in the daytime), she would lie again to the public, saying that she prays 11 or 12 times a day, while in reality she wasn't praying at all. This shows her rebellious nature, something that children like to do. Adding onto that, she even changed her dream from becoming a prophet to becoming a chemist (and then the universities were all conveniently closed for two years).

Though this is more of a process than a swing, it's really fun to watch Marji's political opinions change as she learns more from her parents and friends. Her initial innocence was cute, how she declared how suffering in old people will simply be forbidden. Not too long after, she chants "down with the king", pretending to be Che Guevara. After her dad told her about how the king wasn't actually chosen by God and learned about her grandfather's suffering in prison, she became even more revolutionary. When she learned that her friend's father had been in jail, she wished she had a relative in jail -- of course, that all changed again when her uncle got executed. when Iran was at war, she also wanted to go to war -- then she changed her mind when she learned that her friend's father died, and learned the importance of having a complete family (and how it's better than having a dead hero as a father).

I guess to sum things up, Satrapi was really good at depicting how a child thinks, making her story both relate-able and honest -- something that I really appreciate.

Weights

The unnerving atmosphere in Grant's village in A Lesson before Dying are evident. Grant is presented with the seemingly impossible task of making Jefferson become a man -- nothing else, just a man. What does making someone into a man mean? This is a job that he is NOT trained to deal with as a teacher -- it's like the UChicago essays that (in my opinion) are so vague that it's kinda stupid (don't worry I'm not applying there -- but don't get me wrong it's a great university I just don't really like their prompts... there are other ways to instigate creativity for your applicants I mean common man). Hence, it's not surprising that he doesn't want to deal with this problem -- however, Ms. Emma's passive aggressiveness and his aunt's (not so passive) implications put him in a pretty bad bind, making him put down his educational pride to act like how the white folks want him to act... and from there teach Jefferson how to be a man, when it's not so clear that he is one himself. Huh, I guess UChicago apps aren't too bad after reading all of this...

Then there's Jefferson -- he knows he's gonna die, and his expiration date has been set. That's more than enough to make one lose their will to do anything... like none of us can imagine what it would be like... obviously it would depend on the person, but how would one be a man in that situation? How does he feel about being lectured into being a man? I mean why would he care to be a man or not - he's gonna die soon anyways. Maybe he just doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone, cursing his own life (again that would be understandable). Would this make Ms. Emma selfish? Would Jefferson really benefit from becoming a man, or would it just make Ms. Emma feel slightly better? We don't really get that much from Jefferson's point of view, but through his dialogue it looks like he initially cursed his life, but now has found at least something he enjoys - listening to the radio. He kind of starts talking to Grant too now, but is it because he wants to be a man? Maybe he's starting to feel lonely? But why would he then not talk until everyone leaves, then listen to the radio?

This post is everywhere - not trying to make excuses but it's been a really long day with apps - but I guess the point I'm trying to make is who's more stressed out -- Grant or Jefferson? Jefferson would obviously be stressed out since he has a set date to die, but it's all in place and he can't change anything about it -- maybe he just accepted his fate and is just like "whatever". Grant, however, still has the rest of his life to live AND has to make Jefferson a man - he's also dealing with a jealous reverend - what if Ms. Emma isn't satisfied, and haunts him until she dies? This isn't a matter of life and death like Jefferson, but more of face. Honestly, the stakes are pretty high for Grant too - living a life of shame and disappointing others sounds pretty hellish to me (and considering a lot of people call him professor, they all treat him like the wise one around -- and as the "elder" (but like not exactly since he's still relatively young), the people expect a lot from you. That's a lot to live up to!).

Anse... what you tryin to do...

This blog post is inspired by all the crap people have given him in blog posts. Here's another one.

1. Ok first of all what's up with you and getting another wife while burying your current one??? That's nasty, unethical, and just like... what was Addie nothing to you? And seriously ur marrying this person because she let u borrow two shovels... r u rlly that worthless (yea u are)... I mean common at least take her out to lunch before you declare her as your wife like sheesh.

2. Why you just be taking people's stuff like that... THEY'RE YOUR KIDS (except for Jewel but you don't know that) do you have no shame... see your kids WORKED for what they had - Cash saved up money because hes a legit carpenter (oh did I forget to mention HES LEGIT), Jewel secretly works at night to get his horse and he didn't even eat any of your hay, Dewey Dell... ok I'll give you credit for Dewey Dell because you didn't know she was trying to get an abortion... but common you even (arguably) took away a 5-year-old's dream of getting a toy train...

3. Why you be so hard-headed?  Like everyone knows that part is way too flooded are you trying to get everyone killed? Like you send ur sons (except Jewel - I can see why Addie had that affair tho) to do the grunt work THOSE R UR CHILDREN do you not have paternal love (no you dont)??? Just borrow  the Tull's horse "oh yea dude I don't wanna be using nobody I wanna do things myself" BOI you're literally using your children AND UR STILL DEPENDENT ON PEOPLE oh so that's why you had to get yourself a new wife, because if you don't you'll keep on having stupid ideas like putting cement on legs as a cast (seriously use some damn sticks its cheaper and why the cement like really...).

Ok imma tone this down a bit and give him what little credit he deserves:

1. Ok back then without all that technology and what not, it's hard to afford love in a marriage... like we take it for granted now but back then it's a lot more about survival... especially for country folk I guess. A wife is necessary to keep your farm going - got it. Still though...

2. Well if you didn't steal it they wouldn't have ever given it to you, and hence you can't buy your mules and you want your own mules because that's what Addie wanted.... wait hold up in the chapter Addie narrated she never said that...

3. Ok seriously you're trash if you have your kids do that and you don't help I mean Cash is limping like unless your like really weak you should at least help out... at least you didn't throw Vardaman down there...

4. Like I said in a comment on someone else's blog, Anse straight up triggers me, so if I sound especially pissed that's why. He's probably not as bad as I make him sound, but you know everyone's biased to some degree. I also apologize to Anse for being so rude but like really though common man...

What the Faulk

Sorry for the trashy pun, but that's really what my reaction to "As I Lay Dying" is right now - like huhhhh?? That being said, it's not terrible to follow the general idea of whats going on once you get the characters down - everyone's waiting for Addie to die, Anse doesn't really have a good reputation with the people around him and doesn't really accept his wife's death until he put her in the coffin (I'd assume so), Cash is hard at work making the coffin, Dewey Dell wants to do something about her pregnancy without her mom knowing about it, Jewel who's kind of the odd ball due to his physical aspects (according to Darl he's HUGE) and his unusual anger (refer to page 14 when he narrates: "God what the hell is He for", and keeps on repeating "One lick less") and also his "idrc" attitude like what (we don't really get to see his reaction when Darl asks him about whether or not their mother will die or when he tells him his mother's dead, but I get the feeling that his reaction was cut off means that he really didn't care much - also his attitude in general like it's raining he's all soaked and he's shown to not really care - this is page 52 btw); the Tulls who are the Bundren's neighbor and helps out once in a while, and finally Vardaman who's trying to make sense of his mother's death by believing she's a fish because he's five and has little exposure to the concept of death (I'd hope so). Oh and then theres the doc Peabody who comes in and is straight up like "Help me move I'm obese and just so you know I'm only going in if she's about to die because I don't want to nurse him back to health" - by the way WHAT KIND OF DOCTOR IS THAT??? Did you really need to tell the audience that... literally the second line of his narration (on page 41). What an image.

It's the specifics that catch me off guard. A lot of you guys already mentioned this - why does Darl know so much... to be honest if it wasn't Faulkner I would've just disregarded that as bad story telling skills, but since he's so famous there's gotta be something about it that makes the book so popular.

Though most of us are either confused or straight up not like it, but I suppose a reason is that some people enjoy a character who also acts as a narrator? I guess I can kinda see it that way - it's untraditional, so maybe people wanted something new, and see what a character in the story would be like if he knew everything that was going on? I mean if I knew all the stuff that's going on with the people around me I'd - wait nvm I really don't want to know that details of some things.

At any rate, when Darl figures out about Dewey Dell's pregnancy (also anyone noticed that she's the only one with two parts to her first name? I wonder why - some of them have names related $$$ like Cash, Jewel, and then there's Darl that kinda is like darling I think? Those make sense, for a family who's stuggling on money and how to keep functioning. Dewey Dell just reminds me of pickles. Maybe it's a play on words about how her life sucks, but I can't really see anything? I mean being the only girl in the family now after your mom passes away and you have to take care of people esp. little Vardaman and then dealing with a pregnancy? Jeez) , I can't help but get that feeling of "oh damn you just got caught". We also get a special kind of interaction that we can't get without his omniscience, such as him telling Jewel about their mother's death, and how he sees the interactions going on at home - I'm assuming these are visions of the present time, and not hallucinations, but who knows.

And to much disappointment I can't really think up any other reasons as to why Faulkner gave Darl so much power. Any ideas? I feel like most of this post is going off on tangents, but usually my tangents are more fruitful than my actual point so I'll leave them there.

*UPDATE* for people who've already read this sry for this late thing but I take back about Jewel not caring cuz I read a part where he gets mad when yea I won't spoil it jic ur reading it rn but yea no he cares.

The mortality of immortals

The Greek Gods are not the all loving lord and savior with impeccable virtue, like in other religions such as Christianity - oh dear no. We've talked about this in class, primarily with the example of Poseidon's complaining to Zeus - to give a brief reminder, it went something like this:

"Hey Zeus I don't feel appreciated enough - I want to torture Odysseus some more but my Phaeacians kinda just took him to land and now I can't do much about it."
"Poseidon please we all respect you. Is someone disrespects you just screw them over."
"Wait really I thought you'd get mad if I did - well in that case, imma go crush their ships as they come home then stick a mountain up their port"
"Nah man that's no fun you gotta let them see their hometown, and have everyone see them coming home - then you turn them into a rock, so every time someone looks out, they'll feel the sorrow resulting from your discomfort. Oh then you can go stick a mountain up their port."

Obviously this isn't Homer's language, but you get the point. There's no doubt that this exchange shows the Gods' sadistic nature. I digress - the fact that after all these millennium of years, it seems that Poseidon didn't know what his brother was like, like what? How? His not knowing that Zeus would be fine with him smiting disrespectful people seemed a bit weird to me - I would've thought that the Greek Gods would've sorted things out within their time. Then again, the Phaeacians didn't really try to disrespect Poseidon, they were just trying to get a friend home asap... it's not the people's fault that they didn't know what their main God wanted... but who knows maybe it is. Maybe some prophet told them that and they just kinda forgot. At any rate, Zeus's act to make the Phaeacians suffer even more felt kind of like he was tutoring Poseidon how to torture people? As if he didn't learn enough from screwing with Odysseus.

My main point though is that while Poseidon caused wreckage because he was personally insulted, Athena wants to screw over the suitors simply because she has taken a liking to Odysseus (and Telemachus, to a smaller extent). From what we know, Zeus is only ok with Gods killing mortals if they have insulted him/her - a possible reason why Athena didn't just smite the suitors then and there. On the other hand, maybe Athena just wanted to give Odysseus and Telemachus the thrill of killing the suitors. In any case, Athena doesn't kill them, but kind of sealed their fate - even when some of suitors felt bad, Athena was like "nope you sit right back down" (this happened in the case of Eurymachus, if I remember correctly). She also makes the suitors laugh when it's most inappropriate, and rage out/show no respect to him when he was dressed up as a beggar. It reminds me of when you put two (male) betta fish in the same bowl - you're not killing them directly, but you're kind of pushing them to kill each other. The way that she tweaks how people think though for some reason reminds me of a simulation with various parameters - Athena runs this simulation and then adjusts the settings until she is satisfied. We can even liken this to tuning a piano - essentially anything where you can adjust something to achieve a certain goal. I don't know if Athena is more interested in seeing how Odysseus and Telemachus kill these suitors or more interested in making them happy.

Also random side note we've like known about the plan to kill the suitors for 4 books already, and after every book you think that someone's gonna start killing people but then the next book turns out to be another cliff hanger? Common Homer you just had to stretch this part out didn't you. -.- Also Penelope's still in the dark like what is she gonna find out after he kills all the suitors or something? She's like wailing and being like "god kill me now I long for him too much" and Odysseus is kinda just like "ehhh imma just come in at just the right time like all heroes do". Then again Odysseus was sleeping when she saying that. I'm ranting again soo yea ummm takeaways from this post I guess Gods like to play "how do I get this kid to kill this other kid?"