Sorry that this is late guys, I have been very sick and spent Saturday in the ER, it just slipped my mind, but I am up and will be at class tomorrow!  Charles Chesnutt is fun. (This is sarcasm.)  The vernacular is difficult to read, but the stories tell an important part of our American Literature.  I feel like he has a similar attitude about literature as Mark Twain, which is probably why before this class, despite all the literature I have taken, I have never heard of him.  I assume that his use of the N word is why it wasn't taught and imagine that his stories are on that list of books that is not being taught anymore.  I am surprised though because I went to a very liberal school.  I think it is a shame that books like these are censored.  The one thing I did notice is that even the footnotes are not politically correct for example in one place in "The Goophered Grapevine" it describes "jim Crow" as a small card resembling a curry comb in construction that "negroes" used in their hair.  This confused me because JIm Crow laws are an important part of American History and I would have inferred it was in reference to that.  These stories are hard to get through but I do think they are important to read and I am sad I havent before.

posted by Squeezie at October 26, 2004 17:49 | link | comments (1)

Wow I am having huge issues getting this to work, I missed last week's blog so I am going to incorporate last week's info with this weeks since Dr Campbell said we could catch up.  Last week we were working on Daisy Miller, what can you say about Daisy Miller and the rest of James' pieces they never end.  It seems in this period of american literature we are dealing wtih writers who are exploring their art in a more traditional european style.  That is one consistent with Austen and the Bronte sisters wonderful artists, but please dont make me read it twice.  I remember reading James in highschool and being so underwhelmed with what he had to say and even more underwhelmed with the way he said it.  Then onto sui sin far and the vine leaf.  I liked the vine leaf because it was concise and entertaining.  I did not enjoy Mrs Spring Fragrance because while I understood the moral of the story I thought the story itself was not so interesting.  The stories in this genre like I said in class remind me of really bad soap operas some are entertaining for no apparent reason while others just arent your cup of tea and every one has a different flavor they like.

posted by Squeezie at October 14, 2004 22:12 | link | comments (1)

ALRIGHT THIS IS A LITTLE LATE....LONG DAY, DONT ASK!!!

Twain, what can you say about Twain, I love his work. I find it always concise, and I am seldom bored with it. Cooper's Literary offenses is really funny, he mocks one of the US' first great writers and he really wasnt that great. The Notorious Jumping Frog is also characteristically funny like most of Twain's work but is also what students think of as the proper way to tell a short story. Huck Finn is like a staple in understanding American Lit and what it should be like. I really like Twain and the subsequent types of stories that are created here in the US because they are like what we expect and are much easier to read unlike british lit.

posted by Squeezie at September 24, 2004 18:32 | link | comments (1)

WOOOHOOOO NO more Whitman.  I have never been so excited in my entire life to read a seemingly simple poem about an object.  I love that the Household book of poetry contains household objects and not abstract concepts.  I like that the poetry is short, concise, easy to follow, organized, and has a rhyme scheme.  I like when i finish a poem I am not baffled.  I am just relieved to be through with the Whitman.  I have English 382 and the professor made a reference to Whitman and I found myself hoping to God I wasn't going to have to read anymore.  He is exhausting.  However, after the Household book of poems comes the Dickinson, which while seemingly simple is quite complex and often dark, which was a personality trait of Dickinson herself.  I do however enjoy Dickinson's poetry and have read and studied it in every literature class I took in High School.  She is a great part of our country's literary history.  However I do feel like I have beat that dead horse before which is often problematic when studying something you have read many times before.  Nonetheless I am so relieved to be moving on from Whitman that I will read the same Dickinson poem over and over again I am sure each time I will take away more than I did from anyone of the Whitman poems.

posted by Squeezie at September 10, 2004 03:22 | link | comments (2)

ALRIGHT..... what the heck is up with Whitman????  I am totally feeling what Gail said I can read it and I draw connections in things like style, but have no idea where the heck the guy is going with things.  I am terrified for the test and am thinkin that the Whitman section is going to have to be a wash.  I feel like this entry should be more scholarly but I don't evem know where to start.  I suppose I felt much the same way when we studied Therau and Emerson in High School that is probably why I quit reading it.  I feel like much of what I should be saying now I said in class.  Whitman is far too abstract for me to grasp his concepts without class discussion.  I understand his goals in his poetry thanks to what was told to me in class, but never could have drawn those same connections.  Partly because I am a believer in the concept that we over analyze poetry to the point of beating a dead horse.  I know that there are more meanings than what lies on the surface but in our quest to sound brighter than the person next to us we put words into the author's ...ummm pen.  I love being cliche.  I still don't see most of what we discussed but am committing to memory the ideas.  Now on a more positive note I do grasp ideas from "...Lilacs..."  mostly because it is far less abstract (I believe that is to do with the fact that Whitman is writing about a concrete topic...death).  I like that he paints more of a picture of his topic and gives the reader an actual glimpse of what he is talking about.  I am interested tomorrow to hear more of the connections people make I think it is a beautiful poem, but I did when I read it before.  GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! 

posted by Squeezie at September 03, 2004 02:37 | link | comments (1)

I am posting this blog as part of a requirement for a literature class I have an assignment to write and turn in and I have no idea what I am doing my hope is that by the time I get to class tomorrow my instructor will have read this and will let me know I did it right.  If you are a WSU ENG 381 student and you see this then maybe I did do it right!

posted by Squeezie at August 25, 2004 02:35 | link | comments (1)