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The Toast - Every Modernist Novel Ever
Jun. 10th, 2016 07:14 am
I have to have a little crow about this, because it is absolutely bloody true - James Joyce, I am talking about YOU!!!
I have to have a little crow about this, because it is absolutely bloody true - James Joyce, I am talking about YOU!!!
Toe Be, Or Not Toe Be
Feb. 9th, 2016 08:27 pm
I had the nail removed today and I think the worst pain I have ever experienced was the two needle jabs in the toe joint. I have had epidurals that were less fricken' painful !!! Toe has now come back to life and aches a bit, but is ok. I decided to have the full ablation as there is NO WAY I am going to have THAT done again.
Have had Ulysses essay back = 58% but under the circs (illness and absolutely NO sleep whatsoever in the last two days of the assignment), I am ok with it. Actually more than ok - relieved that it wasn't under 50!! Nursing my poor toe for the next couple of days and hopefully things should be a ton better :-D
Have had Ulysses essay back = 58% but under the circs (illness and absolutely NO sleep whatsoever in the last two days of the assignment), I am ok with it. Actually more than ok - relieved that it wasn't under 50!! Nursing my poor toe for the next couple of days and hopefully things should be a ton better :-D
Ulysses - The Road To Hell
Jan. 14th, 2016 11:08 am( This Aint No Technological Breakdown... )
Well, after a delayed start, I am back in the saddle again - trying to work out the corners of Joyce's bizarre mind and get a coherent essay out of it. I am sat with a jug of mint tea, a tissue full of rosemary oil to keep me alert, classic FM on discreet burble and the fire cranked to half way. Alas, this is the Road to Hell.
18:09
Have done a LOT of editing, only to find that I am short about 1,000 words, but have been smart enough to have a Ulysses Word Dump in a seperate document so I can use the lines that I have got rid of. Long, long night ahead.
21:53
Long, cold, dark night - I cannot fall into your arms.
23:41
I am cold, I am doubled up and I can't feel my feet.
00:56
!!!!! ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff***ing powet cuttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt !!!!! Plus near heart attack, but thank microsoft for autosave.
02:54
Still here, still plodding, still can't feel my feet.
06:20
Submitted work 10 minutes ago and I can say with hand on heart, it has been the crappiest piece I have ever written. And I actually don't care as long as I get a mark. I have been awake for nearly 24 hours and now I want to sleep.
James Joyce Cartoon
Jan. 13th, 2016 10:36 pmWelcome to the end of days. Am still trying to write about James Joyce and Ulysses, with one day to go. I have effectively given up writing for now - I have heard there is one student that hasn't even started, another's laptop has died and has been unsuccessful in retrieving her work, another deleted her's in a drunken rant and cannot find it in the recycle bin, or indeed on the machine at all. I have not been able to go to bed until at least 2,420 words have been written, which I have only just done.
I will not be sad to see the back of this assignment - it is sad that I am so fractious and twee about this, but rootling through 'Circe' has made me ick.
I will not be sad to see the back of this assignment - it is sad that I am so fractious and twee about this, but rootling through 'Circe' has made me ick.
When I wake up (and it will be early), I will dedicate the entire day and night to getting this sorted, converted to pdf and then uploaded - this will only get done if I BLOCK MY WHOLE FAMILY FROM INTERRUPTING ME!!!! I think I can see me pulling an all-nighter to get this done. I will probably spend Friday asleep and then press on with 'Lolita'.
Decided to ditch 'Penelope' and just ad lib on 'Nausicaa' and 'Circe' - gen up on the academic essays instead. I have had so many disruptions, it's unbelievable. I also have found out that I have to get my toenail removed as the nail bed has poison in it. Lovely image, I know.
22:33
I have managed 2,160 words all told and that is getting rid of 'Penelope' too. Quick mental maths - 1,789m - 291 = 1,498. So - 661 words written today. I have most of tomorrow and Thursday, then submit before midday Friday. Many quotes to add and academic sprinklings to find within the approved essays, to back up my theory. I could do with some extra days. Hubby has to use my office for a couple of hours tomorrow too (which sucks - hope he can sort out our clients ASAP, or I can see me pulling a couple of all-nighters).
Time for bed, said Zebedee
*boing*
Ulysses - 'Circe': The Impossible Task
Jan. 11th, 2016 03:31 pm
I got fed up with rain gifs so I have posted an under water one instead. Weather cold and wet - cats snoozing.
I'm procrastinating and yes - I am on about Ulysses again, consciously not trying to retell the novel and stuck knee deep in all voyeuristic supposition. Back to 'Circe' and trying not to crumble under the weight of it all. I have until midday on the 15th to sort this out.
16:54
The plus side of doing this is that I am not alone in my academic whining. It is a comfort to know.
SW: I have written 750 words all pure bollocks
JJ: Why do they make us study modernism???
Me: Because apparently, our heads aren't random enough!!!!
21:45
1,870 words so far. I will HAVE to try to work out the Bella/Bello scene. Doin' my 'ead in.
Ulysses - More of the Same
Jan. 10th, 2016 01:42 pm
Well, you get my general gist - time to leave the social media alone for a while and get to grips with this thing.
17:03
Done with 'Nausicaa' for now - moving on to 'Circe' now and have to write legitimate argument for that, too. The main frame is gutted out, just need to furnish it with actual text. All this catholic guilt!!!! The plus side is that I posted on the Uni forum that 'Ulysses' is a little-known ancient Greek word for 'Agony'. Two replied - one said she was glad that she wasn't the only one doing Ulysses, the other said that she is 1,100 words in and totally sleep deprived. Oh and she is on day 5. Our own little epics :-)
20:32
I have just read through 'Circe' more thoroughly. I normally pride myself on being open-minded and relatively modern in outlook - all I can say is WTF??? I mean - seriously??? Why am I having such a reaction to it? I can understand why it was banned...but so much of it is so confusing. So many things going on. For those not familiar with the text, a summary is HERE. I truly do not mean to be twee about it - I just find the whole thing disconcerting.
Saying that, I think I am done for the night. Toe feels like it has exploded and I need to sort out my extenuating circumstance form.
Ulysses - Preparation Ground
Jan. 4th, 2016 04:33 pm
Back to work on Ulysses - Joyce is a piece of work, isn't he? Decided that I will concentrate on 'Exploring the theme of Sex' in Ulysses - because there is so much of it. Either 'repressed turned strange' or 'freaky exhibitionism'. Though reading through the 'Lestrigonian' chapter reminds me a lot of his letters with Nora Barnacle which had the class thoroughly silenced (somethings cannot be 'unread'). My former lecturer (and now firm friend) is not pro Joyce and I thought of her when I saw this cover( Under the Cut as NSFW )
A lot of hallucinagenic 'modernist' stuff which I have to not be so 'anachronistic' about - as in 'stop jumping to conclusions of the audience who reads this'. I wonder why the university keep giving us assignments on sex? Because most students will get interested, or that the lecturers want to be titivated on a long winter's night? Or a good laugh (I am not sure which)? I have to write about Lolita straight after this, which doesn't help. Right now, I am trying to decipher Nausicaa and Circe and make it last 3,000 words.
James Joyce, you are one strange cookie.
Not Ulysses
Jan. 2nd, 2016 06:31 pm
Basically the weather has been like this for days on end - blustery, rainy or a mixture of both. I have returned to my lonely existance of desk sitting - trying to get the gist of the main themes of Ulysses specifically Calypso, Nausicaa, Circe and Penelope.
Questions on Ulysses are as follows:
Ulysses
Assignment 3: critical essay (fiction)
Either;
7. Explore the treatment of sex and sexuality in Ulysses.
Or
9. Explore the idea that Ulysses is an ‘epic of the human body’.
Again, modernism and this time, the late great James Joyce. Might be out for dinner tomorrow, so I don't know how much work will be done - right now there is a LOT of paperwork in front of me.
Well, these two are the choices that have been made for Assignments 3. As I have to do a PP on the first novel, I thought I might as well do it as an essay too - really hope they don't expect me to compare it to another novel, because I am fresh out of ideas on that one. I went to Dr Min's fantastic lecture today and she enthused about Ulyssess - which is infectious. I also read the following article.
If I accept the challenge (and from what I can tell, even one former lecturer leaffed through the first, middle and last chapters to see what the fuss was about), then I only need to read Ulysses and I don't have to compare/contrast. 3,000 x 2.
*sigh*
*sigh*
The Waste Land - Day Whatever
Nov. 4th, 2015 02:37 pm
Plymouth sucks. There, I have said it. After a looong day and a delay of 1.5 hours added to our 4 hour round trip yesterday, I had had enough. I used to like the impersonal nature of visiting cities (lurking rather than working in them); you can project anything you want onto it. You could be part of a shoal and it didn't matter - just passing through, don't mind me. If the assignments show me anything, it is about the role of the observer vs participator. Crowd watching used to fascinate me - see people from all aspects of life and wonder who they were and what their stories are. When I started at Plymouth, I liked the autumn, because the trees were so brightly coloured in a way that a granite, wind-swept peninsula could never be. I liked the idea of industrial/rural/quirky as an amalgam.
Increasingly, though, I have shifted from observer to participator - by the sheer dint of traveling there several times a week and working in the environment. The external world becomes in-yer-face and subsequently you internalise it. I know at some point I will look at Plymouth with fond affection; right now, I see it as a dump. Within the crowd, the facelessness that I craved suddenly has turned me into a cog within the industry, whether it is lumped together in the education system or stuck together in a backed-up train. I should have known, or at least anticipated this. I didn't experience that transition from one state to the other. I just woke up resentful, no longer appreciating the autumn leaves of Bodmin, or the bridge over bubbled brown waters of the Tamar. For some reason, the English degree group I am in is denied the other modern buildings with its glittering chrome and glass. We mostly dwell in a big impersonal 'Penlowarth'-style prison building, which includes a sadistic lift that claims a blood sacrifice every once in a while, leaving a knackered lump like me straining for breath on the fourth floor. The building is as ugly as sin (who the architect was who created the Babbage Building - sold his soul to the Little Dark Gods of Carbuncular Creation).
Hell is a train with free-range loonies on it and no iPod because you left it at home on charge. There is a pay off, invariably. Whether it is smoking, drinking, chocolate or any other form of drugs (frowned upon or not), it is our only innoculation against the stinking grit hole that is the city. Sorry Plymouth - not a fan.
Now tackling Waste Land again - the joy.
22:54
The Waste land sucks too.
22:54
The Waste land sucks too.
The Waste Land - Day 3
Nov. 1st, 2015 02:56 pm
I have ditched 'Prufrock', which is just as well - I couldn't be doing with the continual freeting about how he looks, or whether he should even set foot outside the door. Too much fannying around - worse than any girl. No, I have finally got my teeth into 'The Waste Land' and see where it will take me. I have also stopped taking the meds that I believe has contributed towards the stomach problem. Too late for France, but maybe good for my coursework.
OK TSE - let's get to it :-)
Prufrock/The Waste Land - Day 2
Oct. 30th, 2015 07:14 pm
I can't say that the last Friday in October is a barrel of laughs either. Pleasingly, I have managed to gut out 880 words out of a capping limit of 1,500 - not so pleasingly, it is all notes, no fixed quotes as yet and not a fixed reference in sight. If it is a plan at 800 + words, I will have to write, then pare straight back. yes, I am complaining that I might RUN OUT OF ROOM!!! At least the planning is done. Thing is, I am overwhelmingly tired. I was up at 7:45, out to see a friend til 10 came home and was so tired, I went to bed and woke up at 14:45!!! Yet, here am I 4.5 hours later and I am STILL knackered!!!. I might have to reconsider France too - I am up for more medical tests in December as my condition isn't getting any better. I have ironed out the worst culprit, but it doesn't stop the fact that I still have problematical symptoms. So not doing the MA English & Culture may just prove to be a good thing. Travelling takes its toll.
Tomorrow, it's onward with the full essay mode, try and get most of it done by Monday afternoon, even if it means digging around JSTOR.
Prufrock/The Waste Land - Day I
Oct. 29th, 2015 01:08 pm
Will I ever see the light again?
Currently, I am metaphorically chained to a desk trying to catagorise 'The Waste Land' & 'Prufrock',whilst keeping to the point. Looking at my current workload, I think I am meant to use everything I learnt from last academic year and then write up about it in double quick time. I was thinking about the MA English and Culture knock back I got yesterday and retrospectively, I think it is not suh a bad thing. If I can sort out a reasonable job, I can fund it through Open University instead. Maybe taking a break and getting back to the real world is something that is needed, though I will strive to find out more. A change of direction means that I will have to get some careers advice from the uni and other places.
Meanwhile, let's crack on with the assignment.
20:16
Have spent the entire day craned over a doorstop of a Modernist book that has footnotes you can barely see. I don't want to drown myself in detail, but I do need to know the incidentals before I really begin. Eliot has really compressed things to the nth degree - a pastiche of other works comprised. It's a headache and I need to start on Prufrock soon.
Meanwhile, let's crack on with the assignment.
20:16
Have spent the entire day craned over a doorstop of a Modernist book that has footnotes you can barely see. I don't want to drown myself in detail, but I do need to know the incidentals before I really begin. Eliot has really compressed things to the nth degree - a pastiche of other works comprised. It's a headache and I need to start on Prufrock soon.
Leda & the Swan by W.B. Yeats
Oct. 27th, 2015 08:32 pm
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
A Bridge Too Far
Oct. 27th, 2015 12:29 am
I found myself stuck on a bridge for nearly half an hour this afternoon. Rear engine of the London to Paddington train died just after we left Saltash, leaving us on the I.K. Brunel. I carried on with my annotation of 'The Ladies' Paradise' (painfully slow - like the train - but I would rather do that than suffer James Joyce's 'Ulysses').
I put in about 8 hours all told; I also annotated 'The Waste Land' and can see how it's fragmentary style and numerous narrative voices (in French, German and Hindi, I ask you) are going to drive me up the wall. Alongside 'The Waste Land', I have considered writing about Eliot's 'Prufrock' and Ezra Pound's 'Metro'- am avoiding Pound's 'Mauberley' as like 'Ulysses, it is excruciating (Vogon poetry, anyone?).
Lecture today made me irritated - how a 'Dandy' is heralded as a true individual, but a 'Woman' is objectified as nothing more than a 'living frock'. Quote 'dazzling and stupid'. I know - product of it's time etc. Not for the first time do I find the theorists and the modernists as being a misogynistic bunch of twats. F.T. Marinetti et al. His 'scorn of women' matches my derision of pricks who drive too fast - the Futurist Manifesto can go suck itself. Or something close to that description.
The reason for my mood is that the train ran 40 minutes late coming back. Walled in with fellow commuters with their farts, crisps and bad perfume AND (critically) who won't shut the duck up. Or something like that (I don't habitually use bad language in public, but I have had a day of it).
Crabby Claws is now leaving the building - or, let's face it, sleeping. Only to do it all again tomorrow.
Assignments Set
Oct. 11th, 2015 09:33 pm
Even though I have been out today, I have done some critical reading and now I am up to date (though I cannot figure Hilda Doolittle out, especially when modernism demands that you have no symbolism in it i.e. a rose is a rose is just a bloody rose). I have now seen two of the essay deadlines on the 6th and 13th November respectively.
Thing is - this will have to be sorted all before I go away to Paris, as I won't have time otherwise. Picture above is 5 Portland Villas - it is where the lecturers' offices are :-)
The Mind Has Mountains
Oct. 10th, 2015 08:04 pm
I cannot communicate just how much there is to do. The modular timetable is less of a mystery, but still confusing in areas - hence a lot of transition student huddles as we try to figure out wtf we are supposed to be doing. I am meant to be part of a group that should be deciding its choice of manifesto to fully utilise in a PP (group presentation 15%) of the marks) a few weeks for now. Fellow group members pretty sluggish about sorting things out; I will pick a topic and go on with it, if they don't get their collective fingers out. I need to figure out my major dissertation timetable and email said lecturer with good news via great links (provided by another lecturer). Somewhere along the line, I will have to read Lolita as I have another PP on this - namely the following:
Analyse the depiction of Lolita's sexuality in the novel, giving three or more examples from the novel. How does Humbert 'read' her and do we 'read' her differently?
It's all a bit creepy to me, but it's something I have to do - Nabokov's book is not comfortable reading and I have to know Freud pretty well before I make any assumptions. Last of all, but definitely not least, I have several modernist poe3try to get from the reader namely the following;
In your copy of Rainey (ed.) Modernism: An Anthology:
Ezra Pound,
- ‘In a Station of the Metro’ (p. 43)
- ‘Imagisme’ & ‘A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste’ (pp. 95-99)
H.D.
- ‘Orchard’ (p. 441-2)
- ‘Oread’ (p. 442)
- ‘Garden’(p. 443)
- ‘Sea Rose’ (p. 443-444)
- ‘Night’ (p. 444)
William Carlos Williams. Read the following sections from his long poem Spring And All:
- Parts I &2 (p. 504-505)
- Part VI, verse section beginning ‘The rose is obsolete’ (p. 511-512)
- Part XIII (pp. 521-522)
- Parts XXI & XXII (pp. 529-530)
- Part XXVII (p. 537)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*sigh* - will I EVER see the sun again????
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
Oct. 7th, 2015 05:14 pm
Yesterday was pretty heavy duty, not helped by the fact that I mislaid my diary and forgot to read the work behind the cut below. it appears that our presentation for Modernism is a group endeavour - contents follows at a later date. Meanwhile - fold your head around this lot.
( Hugh Selwyn Mauberley )
