Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in mosman's LiveJournal:

Thursday, December 9th, 2004
4:27 pm	Final Paper Fairy Tales are about marriage. Almost every tale is a cautionary and instructive story meant to inform young women of their fate as wives and mothers. Fairy Tales, therefore serve a purpose in propagating our genes, which after all, is the bottom line. I propose that Fairy Tales are a product of our ancestral societies attempt at explaining the need for marriage, virtue and goodness on the part of the princess or maiden and a warning that be he a beast or a frog he is her husband and she might as well accept her fate. Not all Fairy Tales are literally about marriage, but most relate back to it on some level, while others are centered entirely around it. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Blue Beard and The Little Mermaid are good examples. Other stories give precautions to children, often little girls, about the dangers lurking in the wood in the form of wolves or evil witches that want to eat them, such as in Hansel and Gretel. These relate back to marriage since they are cautionary tales warning young girls not to stray away from the marked path or talk to strangers who would have their way with them. Why is this? Because women are a precious commodity. Women are the bearers of eggs, the rare and crucial component to our hereditary success. While men can sleep with as many women as are available and have almost as many children in the process, (if they’re lucky), women can only have one baby a year regardless of how many men they sleep with. Since women invest so much time in pregnancy and caring for a child once it is born, they become choosier about who they will sleep with. They’re going to put in a lot of time and energy, therefore whoever they mate with better have some desirable qualities to add to their baby, or gene machine. Ultimately the game is about maximizing genetic legacy or having as many strong, intelligent babies as possible, who will grow up to have more intelligent, strong babies and so on. Everything we do is a product of our genes determination to move on to the next generation. And our genes don’t care if we’re happy in the process, therefore the frogs and beasts. The theory of natural selection says “that people’s minds were designed to maximize fitness in the environment in which those minds evolved.” For humans that would be the hunter-gatherer societies of our ancestral environment. According to Robert Wright in his book The Moral Animal, “Only the traits that would have propelled the genes responsible for them through the generations in our ancestral, social environment should, in theory, be part of human nature today”. Genes promoting Fairy Tales, that promote marriage, that promote safe little family unites for more gene machines, (babies) to grow up in, would be successful in comparison to complete sexual freedom in which men would be busy sleeping with every female in sight, women would have babies who would find it difficult to survive given that mom’s pregnant again, Dad’s gone and there are plenty of predators out to get unprotected children. This is where marriage seems to come in handy. But how does marriage come about? Men and women fall into swoons of romantic love right? Yup. Why? Because Men have developed Male Parental Investment, MPI. This means that men who stick around and care for their offspring have a greater chance of having their children grow up and continue their genetic legacy. Natural Selection transmuted this success into a feeling: Love. It’s even more successful if the parents develop an attachment, such as falling in love, pairing up, because that makes them even more likely to stick around and assist in raising kids. Women are picky because they’re investing lots of time. It is in their interest to find a man who can provide food and protection as well as fitness, intelligence and sexual robustness, all qualities that if passed on to her children will enhance their ability to procreate. Women naturally pair up with someone desirable who will invest in raising children. Men find that investing in marriage is beneficial for their genetic legacy. Lovely, but according to natural selection it’s fruitful for men to spread the wild oats as much as possible as well as pairing up with a woman and raising children in whom they will devote all of their resources and energy. This doesn’t add up to marriage. Why wouldn’t society be such that women marry, raise kids with good, supportive husbands and not really mind if he has a few children on the side? Why do we insist on monogamous relationships? Because women want all her mate’s social and material resources to go to her offspring and if each woman thinks that way competition is going to be high and philandering is not going to be okay. Women want investment, men want women so they compromise and marry. So what guys do is try and deceive women. They claim fidelity and philander a little on the side. Natural Selection favors men who are good at deceiving woman and woman who are good at spotting deceivers. In the words of Robert Wright, “Men compete for scarce female eggs and women compete for scarce male investment”. Fairy Tales promote coyness, selectiveness in women. They save a girl for marriage, prepare her for the inevitable. They are a cultural product, an explanation of why sweet young girls must be married off, or find themselves a prince. I call them cautionary tales because they establish the ideas that if a girl is good and virtuous she will catch a prince who will care for her ever after. This can be explained in terms of Social Darwinism. Men, although not picky about who they will sleep with, are picky about who they will marry. They want to marry someone attractive (big eyes and small nose denotes youth) and young (i.e. fertile), who seems trustworthy. Their greatest fear is raising another man’s children and never knowing it. Their fear is validated by the fact that women will choose to marry a man with high Male Parental Investment traits but who perhaps isn’t the strongest or smartest and will mess around secretly with some stud who can provide those traits, but wouldn’t stick around and help her raise the kids. This leads us to the Madonna/whore dichotomy, in which a man will sleep with a woman as soon as she’ll let him, but if she is willing to sleep with him too soon he’ll assume that she would probably do the same with another guy and most likely won’t marry her. On the other hand if he is sexually denied by a woman until he proves his commitment, then she has proven her prudishness and probably won’t sleep around on him. This is the underlying message of goodness and virtue. Cinderella got her man by running way from him three times. She proved herself marriageable goods. Beauty also denied The Beast night after night when he asked her to marry him. Snow White was good and innocent so she got a prince too. Little Red Ridding Hood got eaten, for straying off the path. Fairy Tales are about marriage, because marriage is the best insurance for our genetic machines, our children. They are also about being a princess so the prince will marry you instead of taking you for a roll in the hay. They are a product of our ancestral environment, which is why feminists and Freudians have such a hard time explaining something that is truly very simple. The Id and the Ego are our genes and our genes don’t care if we’re happy or fulfilled as long as we find a prince to help us protect and produce babies. Sources Wright, Robert, The Moral Animal, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc, New York, 1994. Tatar, Maria, The Classic Fairy Tales, W. W. Norton (Comment on this)
Monday, November 22nd, 2004
8:24 pm	Cinderella In researching Cinderella I have found that it is not my favorite Fairy Tale. I almost find it insipid. It in interesting however, that modern movie makers have tried to give Cinderella, the booksmarts and phisical strength that we have finally come to admire in women. However in the end, she still wants the prince regardless of whether or not she needs him. Yet, I would argue that she does need him, not to be a better person, and not to succeed in life, but just as we all need someone. Why is love a reaccuring theme in all art forms? Because we crave it. We are pair-bonding creatures, not necessarily for life, considering the current divorce rate, but... after divorce there are second and third marriges, there are life long friendships that can be nothing more but are still crucial to each party. Anyway, I have discovered in the course of this class how much I love Beauty and the Beast. Intriqued by Angela Carter's story, The Tiger Bride, I bought her book The Bloody Chamber. At least 3 of the stories in it could be displaced versions of Beauty and the Beast. On some level, from a female perspective, any relationship with a man is Beauty and the Beast. Men can be so rumbling, intimidating, silent and distant and it takes time to find out how to access the sweet boy behind the masculine front. Sometimes he comes to dinner, and just as often it is this unfathmable creature who runs from our company, off to secret pasttimes. I will grant that guys probably feel the same from the opposite perspective. Perhaps what is so facinating about B and B is that more than some of the other Fairy Tales it deals with relationships, rather than aquiring one. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
9:38 am	Finnegan"s Wake Man with a night cap, in bed, fore. Woman with curlpins, hind. Discovered. Side view. First Position of harmony. Say, eh, ha. Check action. Matt. Male partly blocking female. Man looking round, beastly expression, paralleliped homoplatz, ghazametron pondus, exhibits rage. Rudy blond, Armenian bole, black patch, beer wig, gross build, episcopalian, any age. Buisness. Woman sitting, looks at ceiling, haggish expression, peaky nose, trecant mouth, fithery whit, exhibits fear. Welshrabbit tient, nubian shine, nassal fosset, tuffy tuft, freekirk, no age, close up, play. ...and I can still remember it, which is more than I usually do for my art history exams. But, who would have thought that out of 600 plus pages someone else in class would recite the exact same lines. I have to admit that as much as I dreaded opening up the book, I really enjoyed hearing the lines recited. Perhaps it is the only way Finnegan's Wake should be read. It is almost understandable when recited with an Irish accent. However, I'm not finding any refrences to Fairy Tales...wait, it is Beauty and the Beast isn't it. Hm. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 10th, 2004
8:51 pm	witches I was intersted in the three aspects in Little Goody Two Shoes which bring on the cry of witch craft. Those were poverty, age and ignorance. I was reading Wise Child by Monica Furlong, to the little girl who I give painting lessons to and towards the end the main character gets accused of witch craft. As Linda Sexson had said, the town was suffering from a drought and small pox, which meant that everyone was poorer than usual and suseptible to the appeal of a scape goat. Also, no one is well educated as it is a small village in Wales. However, the main character is a young woman, beautiful and helpful. She is estranged from the village by her ability to cure illness. I think the third factor, rather than age should be difference. Everyone has at least the smallest fear of that which is unknown. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 9th, 2004
12:28 pm	Displaced Farie tales I shall be the stuard of Hali Camper's displaced farie tale. If anyone has comments, or complaints please register them between nine and ten in the morning on Mondays. Sorry, I'm just being weird. My sister is in linguistics and brought home a sheet of interesting mis-communications due to language. Having made a few lovely blunders of my own I found them truly delightful. The best one was... "The sign is crazy. Run inside." Ok, back to children's lit. It's not my fault the class has me acting juvenile and a little goofy, which is probably due to the strange content of such stories as Hans My Hedgehog and Little Goody Two Shoes. My sister had an obssesion with HedgeHogs as a small girl. They were almost the only thing she would draw. They were all named the same thing, which at the moment I'm forgetting. I'll have to pick her brain when I get home. I really enjoyed the displaced farie tales. My only complaint was that the best ones, read allowed weren't actually displaced farie tales. Animal helpers and sirens are elements of farie tales and myths but didn't fill the assignment. No wonder no one could guess which tales where being displaced. It was very interesting how many people realized that their own life is a conglomerate of displaced farie tales. I haven't figured out which one mine is, but I knew that my friend Jackeline was Cinderella. All of that was true, by the way. I didn't even have to embellish or combine stories. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 28th, 2004
11:22 am	Catcher in the Rye I quite liked Catcher in the Rye, much to my mother's supprise. I liked it because I've always liked little boys. Don't take that the wrong way. I have always wished I had a litte brother and instead have been a surrogate big sister to a sequence of little boys. They strike me as very honest, very confused and very much in need of someone to try and understand them. Holden is the perfect example. He just needs someone who actually cares enough about him to accept him for who he is and love him regardless. That person is his little sister, but she is just a bit too young to completely fulfill that role. When I was 19 my best friend was a fourteen year old boy, Chris. I mentioned him before, but not by name. He's the kid who ended up in Juvinile detention for 6 months. He was French. His family was disfunctional and absent and he was amazing. He had the will to survive and the instincts to find a surogate family for himself. That was my family. When we left Costa Rica and moved back to the US he was left alone with the world and the task of growing up. He's 19 now, with a baby, a girlfriend and a history of drug use. Once again he's disappeared and I can't get ahold of him. Houlden was confused, troubled and mad at the world, Chris was troubled, confused and loved the world but he was the unlucky one. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 21st, 2004
12:04 pm	illustrations "What is the good of a book without pictures." Alice I loved books with illustrations. I think that is partly why I'm an art major today. I wanted to creat images that were as glossy, color saturated and perfect as the ones in my favorite picture books. Yet, on the other hand it was the books without pictures that allowed my to develope my drawing skills. My mom read aloud to my sister and I all the time, and while she read to us we drew. In the case of the Wind in the Willows, we made beeswax figures of Moly, Ratty and Toad, complete with a shoe-box house and a tinfoil river. Books without pictures are food for the imagination. They allow the reader to creat every detail, rather than simply viewing the illustrators version of the story. This is why it is often dificult to see a movie based on a book, since the images in my mind were often so much richer. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 19th, 2004
7:07 pm	Displaced Fairy Tale Jackeline the Yogurt-Head Jackeline’s father was a beast. He cheated on his wife until his inner ugliness exposed itself to such an extent that no girl, washerwoman or hag would have him. But that is another story. When his wife confronted him on his newest girlfriend he called her crazy, beat her and left, taking their three daughters and infant son with him. His wife was crazy, but I don’t think she was crazy at the time. I think she sewed herself back together as well as she could after being stuck in an asylum and forbidden to see her children. Jackeline was 12 at the time and possessed a defiant inner strength. She caught the bus into town, walked with head high into the “Patronato” office and explained the situation to the authorities. She and her siblings were placed in foster homes for a year until her family reconciled and the government thought they were stable enough to raise a family. Things appeared to be on the mend when her parents squatted a small plot of land, the first they ever owned. They built a corrugated tin and wood house, with a packed dirt floor and a small plot of corn and vegetables out back, to prove that they were cultivating the land and deserved it more than the past owners. Having been out of school working, Jackie’s parents let her go back to fifth grade at age 14. That’s where my sister and I met Jackie. We were the only foreigners in our school, the “gringitas”, and she had a homing device for fairy tale helpers. Jackie was the oldest in her family and by far the most beautiful. She was tall, willowy, with a slip of a nose, dark skin and a smile shaped like a kiss. Since most of us in class were younger than her she mothered us, played with our hair, told stories and moved through life with the air of a tragic beauty who was too ditsy to realize that she was a tragic beauty. One of the endearing traits about Jackeline was that she had no clue that she was beautiful. All the guys fell for her and she fell for the nondescript, chubby ones who didn’t dare talk to her, which confused her all the more. At age fifteen she had her coming out party as is customary and broke up with her nondescript, chubby boyfriend Mamfred. He wanted to get married and she wasn’t quite ready. Her parents panicked and instantly started setting her up with husbands. She was old enough. Her dad had three more children to feed, a bad back and besides, Jackie was a threat to his manhood. But Jackie turned them down. First the young “choppy boy” with a third grade education, who her father thought was perfect since he was exactly like him. Next the local thief Manderine, who robbed every tourist blind as well as lots of the locals, but prided himself on saving women in distress. Then one day she met a tall, handsome “gringo” named Dave. Now generally the local girls will have nothing to do with the tourists or the foreign men, since their mothers have ingrained in them a fear for their reputations. Also the “gringos” aren’t part of the culture and who wants a man you can’t gossip about your neighbors with. This is the general rule. Some of the girls with less protective parents and an eye for opportunity used their feminine charm to be flown off to Canada, Germany or the U.S., or to become the “Tica” wife of the travel agency and hotel owners. It was also a known fact that foreign men, unless they were French, didn’t cheat on their wives as blatantly as Costa Ricans. Jackeline loved our family and had made a mental decision to find herself a nice, trustworthy American to save her. So when Dave spotted the beautiful Jackeline at the bus stop out side of school, and fell blindly in love with a face and in broken Spanish asked her out, she took him home. Her parents were confused at first, but soon accepted the bumbling gringo in their house as a good thing. We were happy for her and all seemed to be well during the first few weeks. She tried to introduce us to him various times. Each time there was a miscommunication and one or the other was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. When we finally met him and were around the two of them together we realized that they couldn’t communicate at all. As time passed Jackeline grew bored of smiling and nodding and Dave fell further and further in love with her stunning face as she smiled and nodded. Her parents noticed the lack of interest that was developing and afraid of loosing an opportunity to be rid of her decided to marry the couple one afternoon. They brought the subject up after lunch, Dave was all for it, the family friends who had joined them would be witnesses. Jackie said “Ok”. All that was needed was a taxi to take them down to the court house. While a taxi was being called Jackie’s adrenaline kicked in and she told her parents that she was going to run over to a friend’s house to borrow something nicer to wear. Instead she got out the door and ran all the way to the bus stop, hailed a cab and came to my house where she explained the situation as she sobbed into my mothers arms. We kept her for two days while her parents stood at the bottom of the drive way and screamed at my family, threatening to set to cops on us but too afraid of their daughter and my father to really do anything. After things simmered down, talks at the bottom of the driveway ensued between our parents and eventually between Jackeline and her family. She agreed to go home under the condition that they had no say in her life and if they ever attempted anything of the sort again, she would take her younger sisters and brother away on the valid claim of beatings and they knew she could do it. As proof she cut her waist length hair to a bob and bought her first pair of pants. She lived with her parents in a state of truce although her mother considered that she had sold her soul to the devil and called her a whore for taking her new found liberty and going out for ice cream with her girlfriends past dark. She was nineteen now, old maid by her family’s standards when she ran into Mamfred at a church function. He was still chubby and nondescript, still in love with her and just her type. He courted her for a year after which they got engaged and finally married in a little cinderblock church, splattered with red mud which stained her white train and made her laugh with girlish glee. We were all invited. Her parents even apologized to mine. Now the beautiful Jackeline has a tiny house, a tiny daughter and she writes to say that she is fat and happy, her baby is fat and happy and her husband is fatter and happiest of all. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 18th, 2004
5:19 pm	What occupied me when I was three or four Hm. What occupied me when I was a wee little thing? Well. I don't really remember all the way back to three or four, but when I was seven one of my favorite passtimes was creating entire wax tea sets from candle wax. There were bowls and spoons, cups made from dipping the tips of my fingers into the side of the candle. I usually tried to keep these fragil toys, but they never lasted more than a night, which meant I got to do it all over again. Also, whenever we went out to dinner my sister and I would take the catchup and mustard bottles, as well as the salt an pepper shakers and my parents sweaty beer bottles and turn them into wedding parties, using napkins and toothpicks to make dresses, veils and top hats for the bottles. This of course all ties back in with the importance of food and womens roles. I was playing with both. I was the women, the creator, the little girl. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
12:16 pm	Displaced myth I absolutely loved Angela Carter's, The Tiger's Bride. It was definitely a literary version of the tale as compared to the cruder version such as The Pig King which was just down right weird. I love Faerie Tales, but I think I prefer the new literary versions that we can create today in which the gore and the harsh realities of life are so eloquently splashed in our faces rather than flatly stated. Since all stories are displaced myth and there are only so many of those that start to repeat over and over I think I prefer the incredibly written ones. Picasso once said that good artist borrow and great artists steal. In that case steal, embellish, create your own signature on the greatest stories, the greatest themes in life. Right now I'm doing my theis in painting, for which I'm painting my own 21st century, feminist versions of Titian's Danae, Penitent Magdalen and Athena and Actaeon. I'm attempting to recreate his compositions, use of colors and painting technique since there is almost no greater master and why reinvent the wheel? But my nudes are not the fleshy objects of male lust he painted over and over. They tell a different story. My Magdalene is smiling. Cheers to this day and age where we can tell a different Faerie Tale to our daughters, a tale of succeeding in anything they wish, as well as being wives and mothers. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 8th, 2004
4:55 pm	violence in Fairy Tales Ok, I just lost everything I wrote, which is extreamly frustrating so here is the abreviated version. I think having violence in Fairy Tales is importent since children are violent themselves. Everyone has read Lord of the Flies right? Probably the creepiest thing about the book is that after finishing it, I looked around my ninth grade class and realized exactly who would be Piggy and who would bash his head in if all adults where to magically disappear for more than a few hours. In the same mode, has anyone see the movie City of God. It is about gang warfar in the streets of Rio. Most of the members are young kids, some around the age of five. Shortly after I saw the movie I found out that the same thing was happening in my home town. There was a gang of kids who called themselves the Teletubbies and were robbing tourists and shops at gun point. One of my close friends was a part of it. He was just 16 and went to Juvienile detention. Violence is a very real aspect of life and kids need to learn about how to deal with it, even if I don't champion cutting of your toe or heal in order to catch a prince. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 6th, 2004
3:12 pm	Roses The whole analysis of roses reminded me of one of my favoite songs by Mary Black on her CD Babies in the Wood. I think the lyrics to a good job of developing the idea of the rose as an emblem of sweet suffering, a flowering of innocence into knowlege. Here's a link to a page where you can listen to the song. http://www.mary-black.net/disco/songs/152.htm The Thorn upon the Rose Songwriter: Julie Matthews Lyrics: Its taste was sweet like summer wine The heart that beats in double time So he waltzed right in and bowled you over And you're still reeling from the feeling when he's gone The door is closed the lock is turned And all the memories and letters have been burned Chorus So when you pick the handsome flower Don't forget the thorn upon the rose It's cut is deep and the scar lasts forever It follows love wherever love goes Just how we fall it's hard to know When what we feel we seldom show So we show the parts we feel are best We squirm around the edges trying to cover up the rest And you think you know him and he thinks the same When underneath it all it's just a crazy guessing game Chorus Win or lose it's just the same Tears of joy tears of pain They're hand in hand they come as one You'll never see the moon without the promise of the sun For all the bruises for all the blows I'd rather feel the thorn than to never see the rose Chorus... As far as rosecrutions go I found stuff implying that there is a book of the Rites and Rituals of Rosecrutions, pertaining to old world witchcraft, but I couldn't find much beyond that. I'm looking for things related to roses: These are tidbits off of the internet. About the ELCG's rose symbol Designed by Martin Luther, the Luther Coat of Arms has become the world-wide symbol of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, commonly known as the Lutheran Church. The Luther Rose, also known as the Luther Seal, is easily the most recognized symbol for Lutheranism, and for good reason. Martin Luther personally oversaw the creation of this symbol. It provides a beautiful summary of his faith, a faith that is common to all Christians, of every place and every time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Greco-Roman culture, the rose represented beauty, the season of spring, and love. It also spoke of the fleetness of time, and therefore inferred death and the next world. In Rome the feast called rosalia was a feast of the dead. In Latin Christian iconography the first use of the rose appears in the scenes representing the next world, paradise, together with the lily and other flowers. These flowers also became symbols of virtues and of categories of the elect; for example, the red rose for martyrs, and the lily for virgins. "Why are you so enamored of my face that you do not turn your gaze to the beautiful garden which blossoms under the radiance of Christ? There is the Rose in which the Divine word became flesh: here are the lilies whose perfume guides you in the right ways." (Paradiso, 23, 71-75) But Dante uses also a more general symbolism of the rose, that of the universe (Paradiso, 31, 1-3), like the lotus in Asia. Indeed, with its multiple petals the rose is a beautiful image of our expanding cosmos. Wonderful examples of this symbolism are found in the gothic cathedrals and their rose windows, the circular, stained-glass windows that enhance the three entrances of these churches. These immense roses symbolize the world of salvation offered and revealed by God to our lost human race through the old and New Testaments. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 30th, 2004
3:40 pm	Farie Tales, Women and Society Do Faerie Tales perpetuate the dominant role of women in society as mothers, daughters, hags and wives or do they subvert that role? I prefer the historical analysis of Faerie Tales, in the context of which I think they weren't subversive but informative. At the time when the oral tradition of Faerie Tales was common there were no other roles for women to look up to other than that of daughter, princess, wife and witch. Feminists can complain about the repeated message of the young girl searching out her handsome prince who saves her and they then live happily ever after, but I think it was a preparatory message to young girls about their inevitable fate. They were all going to be married off. None of them were going to become doctors or lawyers or artists or anything except perhaps a wife, a nun or a harlot. All of the Faerie Tales speak in no uncertain terms of becoming a wife, being made a wife. These are stories told around the kitchen fire by women, to young women and to young girls. They were not inappropriate for small children. These baby girls had it ingrained in them via stories that they would be married off and be it to a beast or a prince it was their destiny so it would be best if they would accept that sacrifice with virtue and innocence. In today's world that message seems limiting and wrong. Who wants to train their child into thinking that catching a prince via good cooking, sewing and a sweet demeanor is their ultimate achievement? We want our young girls to grow up thinking they can be anything, that no one can silence their voice. I think that letting children read Faerie Tales won't hurt them as long as they are also exposed to stories that fit our contemporary goals for our daughters and selves. Most young girls will probably get married and the handsome prince they find will be one of the biggest factors in their life, but not the only factor they need preparing for. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 27th, 2004
8:39 pm	Alice and Bertha I was wondering if anyone had read Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. She took Jane Eyre and wrote her own prequel to it, explaining the existence of Bertha. Since Jane Eyre is Beauty and the Beast I was wondering what Wide Sargasso Sea would be, since it seems that in this case beauty becomes the beast. Antoinette grows up the destitute daughter of a plantation owner in Jamaica, whose family breeds insanity. She is married off to an unnamed Englishman for 30 000 pounds who promptly suspects her mental health, grows to hate her, starts calling her Bertha and after she reacts violently, locks her in a garret in London, until half cognizant and half mad she sets the house on fire. The story also rings faintly of The Little Mermaid to me. Sexson claimed that all literature is displaced myth so if anyone can help me out with this one, I'm open to suggestions. New topic: I was perusing the internet looking for fun stuff on Alice In Wonderland and found this tidbit rather entertaining. I don't know that I would search this doctor out, but I think that the term "Alice In Wonderland Syndrome" should be integrated into our every day speech. Complementary Medical Association Alice in Wonderland Syndrome Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a rather peculiar disorder that certainly befits its title. It was given its name due to the fact that the syndrome's symptoms are remarkably similar to the distortions in body image and shape as experienced by the main character in Lewis Carrol's 1865 novel "Alice in Wonderland". Objects either appear to be much larger (macropsia) or smaller (micropsia) than normal, and there is usually also an impaired perception of time and place. One woman with the syndrome even described how short and wide she felt when walking, calling this sensation the "tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee" effect. The disorder has been closely linked to migraine headaches, a problem, incidentally, that Lewis Carroll suffered greatly from. This has led some scholars to suggest that the author may have experienced the syndrome himself. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 21st, 2004
11:49 am	rape The comment that every marriage is an act of rape is entirely patriarchal. According to one version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary it is... 1 a archaic : to seize and take away by force b : DESPOIL Sexson said it was an abduction, to be taken away from the family. I say that that is only be the case in a patriarchal society which has had control over the definitions written in our dictionary's. I doubt a woman wrote that or even had the option to contest it. I don't argue that our culture is patriarchal and that women did traditionally become a part of the man's family upon marriage, but I hope that times are changing and I can consider my self a mutual part of a marriage and not an item to be dragged off by the hair to bake and produce offspring for a man. In an entirely scholastic sense the comment can be overlooked or considered valid, but due to the more violent connotations of the word I think it is arrogant to so lightly attribute the atrocities it brings to mind with marriage. Granted, in this day and age half of them end in divorce, but if we give up holding some things in life sacred then we give up a great gift of appreciation and awe at the miracles of life, one of which is love and in our society that most often equals marriage. Marriage and rape are diametrically opposed. (Comment on this)
11:15 am	Barney Vs. Opus To continue my tirade against banal cartoon characters... My all time favorite cartoon character is Opus the Penguin from Berkeley Breathed's newly re-released cartoon strip Bloom County. Opus is so lovable because he's a yogurt-head. He has a penchant for buying absurd items such as Salad Shooters and Mall Walkers advertised on late night TV. He's obsessed with finding his mom who he lost in Antartica and gets his nose liposuctioned on a guilty whim. These are things that make him endearing and real to the reader. I've never really followed Calvin and Hobbs, but from the little exposure I've had to it, Calvin is no angel and much loved for it. Ultimately if Barney seems so evil to the adults who've seen it they should keep their kids away from him and give them something else to watch, or miracle of miracles make them go out and play. Kids would eat candy around the clock if they were allowed to, but any good parent knows it rots their teeth, just as Barney rots their minds. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 20th, 2004
1:08 pm	Barney Wow! Everyone's got an opinion on Barney. I have only seen snippets of the show so I don't feel entirely qualified to grip or gloat about him, but I simply cannot resist the temptation to voice my opinion. I think we hate Barney because he's flat and one dimensional. It is human nature to resent anything or anyone that seems perfect and that is what they've tried to make Barney. He's perpetually good and nice and non-threatening. No one is like him in real life and if they were we would consider it a fault to have none. When people are too nice we become suspicious and want to find a fault with them so that we can relate, complain together or at least feel better about our selves. I'm going to continue on this subject after class. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 13th, 2004
2:38 pm	small children I teach painting to a fourth grade girl named Natalie. I'm a painting major but I've never attempted to teach it so it has been a learning process for both of us. I noticed that half way through some of the exercises I gave her she'd get antsy and start to fidget or rush. I recalled feeling the same way and that my mother used to read stories to my sister and I while we drew. Right now Natalie and I are reading Wise Child by Monica Furlong, which was one of my favorite books when I was her age. When I let her draw what ever she wants she picks characters from the book and her concentration on detailed exercises has doubled. I've found it delightful to be re-immersed in Wise Child and am surprised by parts of the story I strongly remember to this day. I also now realize that it to follows the classic Fairy Tale structure. The heroin of the story must over come her own shortcomings via many small, but tedious trials in order to then over come an obstacle caused by her evil mother. She's too young to land the prince. I think that part might happen in the second book. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 9th, 2004
2:46 pm	third day of class Speaking of subversive fairy tales J.K. Rowling does a very good job of that in Harry Potter. Even the names she uses for her characters are subversive, such as the character Umbrige whose name isn't a far cry from the word "umbrage" which is described as..."a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult", according to the Marriam-Webster Dictionary. I don't want to spoil the story for those who haven't read it, but Professor Umbrige tends to take umbrage quite often in the course of the 5th book. If Haroun and the Sea of Stories has subversive messages they are so simply put and blatantly obvious as to not seem subversive at all. He clearly values freedom of speech and freedom of the press and Iff says so in so many words. Returning to Harry Potter, I personally prefer it when the message isn't just simply stated, but elaborated upon in subtle ways which give the reader tingles up their back as they slowly realize what is going on. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 2nd, 2004
5:44 pm	second day of class So, I have gathered from my group, ( The Cinderella's) a vague idea of what I'm supposed to be doing and here goes... I'm almost done with Salman Rushdie's book and really enjoy it. It took me a while to delve into the the story since each character is rather simplified, but things are so zany that I finally succumbed, let my imagination run off and stopped feeling a little silly. Aspects of the book remind me of The Life of Pi, such as the acidic water and large patches of floating forests. My one disagreement with the lecture today was Sexon's comment that Disney has falsified the endings of the fairy tales it has told. I don't really care for the changes which Disney has done but I don't think that you can falsify the ending of a fairy tale, even the original fairy tale since as was argued, there is no original. Fairy tales should evolve perpetually, just as they have done since their creation and perhaps one day in the future we will speak of Disney just as we now speak of the Brothers Grimm. (Comment on this)