Those hawk-eyed amongst will have noticed that I have gone out with the old and in with the new; I have replaced the empty "Great Gatsby" and "Julius Caesar" pages with far more useful sources dedicated to unravelling individual poems.
So far I have completed pages on:
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge- William Wordsworth
A Diferent History- Sujata Bhatt
The Planners- Boey Kim Cheng
I will try to complete at least two poems a day for the next week or so and will hopefully get through "Summer Farm" by Norman McCaig and "The City Planners" by Margaret Atwood today.
Feedback would be most appreciated.
Read on!
Thursday 27 March 2014
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Changes
I have created two pages dedicated to analyzing my iGCSE poetry anthology which includes poems such as "A Different History" by Sujata Bhatt and "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge" by William Wordsworth. I have completed the page on the former but have yet to polish those on the latter. They are quite in depth and feedback would be most gratefully appreciated.
These notes are by no means the answer to all of your questions concerning the poems they address but they should provide a solid foundation for wider reading and perhaps they may inspire your own interpretation and reading.
Please check them out and have a nice Easter.
More is on the way so watch this space.
These notes are by no means the answer to all of your questions concerning the poems they address but they should provide a solid foundation for wider reading and perhaps they may inspire your own interpretation and reading.
Please check them out and have a nice Easter.
More is on the way so watch this space.
Recent Inactivity
Dear all,
I must apologize for my absence over the past fortnight or so and pledge to compensate over the following few weeks. I will have great opportunity to update my various pages as my Easter holiday begins this coming Friday but otherwise, with GCSEs just over one month away, I will have to knuckle down with my own private academic study and I will have to strike a balance between my extracurricular work and scholarly duties.
Otherwise, rub your hands with glee at the prospect of my return and keep visiting regularly!
I must apologize for my absence over the past fortnight or so and pledge to compensate over the following few weeks. I will have great opportunity to update my various pages as my Easter holiday begins this coming Friday but otherwise, with GCSEs just over one month away, I will have to knuckle down with my own private academic study and I will have to strike a balance between my extracurricular work and scholarly duties.
Otherwise, rub your hands with glee at the prospect of my return and keep visiting regularly!
Saturday 8 March 2014
Tough Read
Having been introduced to novella "The Crying of Lot 49" by my English teacher, I decided to give it a go.
Boy, was it a tough slog.
This book was authored in 1966 by American writer Thomas Pynchon and is hailed as one of the greatest examples of postmodern fiction.
From what I learnt, the main character is housewife Oedipa Maas (the names in this book are notable to say the least) and the story recounts her growing paranoia and ambivalence in a world dominated by incomprehensible powers, paying particular attention to the historical conflict between mail distribution companies "Thurn and Taxis" and "Trystero". That's pretty much it.
Pynchon deploys very long and syntactically challenging sentence structures which really makes it difficult to focus on certain features of the novella as you read it, irrespective of its relatively short 120 or so page length. I was also aghast to later find out that "The Crying of Lot 49" supposed to be Pynchon's most straightforward and accessible work with his most famous boo,k "Gravity's Rainbow"-which I intend to read soon- spanning somewhat over 600 pages.
Unfortunately it will be some time before I even consider dedicating an entire page of this blog to unravelling the themes and various implicit messages that develop throughout "The Crying of Lot 49" but, although tedious and, at times, frustrating to read, "The Crying of Lot 49" provides wholly pertinent insights into the flourishing world of conspiracy and is definitely worth the read for those who have the time look over texts multiple times.
Boy, was it a tough slog.
This book was authored in 1966 by American writer Thomas Pynchon and is hailed as one of the greatest examples of postmodern fiction.
From what I learnt, the main character is housewife Oedipa Maas (the names in this book are notable to say the least) and the story recounts her growing paranoia and ambivalence in a world dominated by incomprehensible powers, paying particular attention to the historical conflict between mail distribution companies "Thurn and Taxis" and "Trystero". That's pretty much it.
Pynchon deploys very long and syntactically challenging sentence structures which really makes it difficult to focus on certain features of the novella as you read it, irrespective of its relatively short 120 or so page length. I was also aghast to later find out that "The Crying of Lot 49" supposed to be Pynchon's most straightforward and accessible work with his most famous boo,k "Gravity's Rainbow"-which I intend to read soon- spanning somewhat over 600 pages.
Unfortunately it will be some time before I even consider dedicating an entire page of this blog to unravelling the themes and various implicit messages that develop throughout "The Crying of Lot 49" but, although tedious and, at times, frustrating to read, "The Crying of Lot 49" provides wholly pertinent insights into the flourishing world of conspiracy and is definitely worth the read for those who have the time look over texts multiple times.
Sunday 2 March 2014
Fahrenheit 451
Hello loyal viewer(s),
Yesterday morning I finished reading Ray Bradbury's 1953 hit, "Fahrenheit 451", named after the auto-ignition temperature of paper- i.e. the temperature at which paper, and all things comprised of it, spontaneously ignite!
It is very much like George Orwell's "1984" in so far as it is set in a totalitarian and dystopian (debatable) cityscape. Rather than the notorious thought-police ruling the streets there are firemen- men who start fires rather than stopping them. The firemen have one thing in mind- burning books- and they deploy a mechanical hound to sniff them out, often killing those found in possession of the books as well. They do this because books are viewed as a source of corruption and unhappiness in this perpetually "happy" society.
It was and still is a great novel and is very apt in this 21st century society, particularly after the recent reveals concerning civil liberties from figures such as Edward Snowden and Bradley/Chelsea Manning. Books like this are of the utmost importance, now more than ever, because they provide society with potential outcomes and foresights of decisions that we have yet to make and, depending upon the magnitude of the events portrayed in books and the their implicit messages, they may be useful in determining how the human race should develop and act in a world of constant modernization and change.
You can buy the same copy I read at-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fahrenheit-451-Flamingo-Modern-Classics/dp/0006546064
Yesterday morning I finished reading Ray Bradbury's 1953 hit, "Fahrenheit 451", named after the auto-ignition temperature of paper- i.e. the temperature at which paper, and all things comprised of it, spontaneously ignite!
It is very much like George Orwell's "1984" in so far as it is set in a totalitarian and dystopian (debatable) cityscape. Rather than the notorious thought-police ruling the streets there are firemen- men who start fires rather than stopping them. The firemen have one thing in mind- burning books- and they deploy a mechanical hound to sniff them out, often killing those found in possession of the books as well. They do this because books are viewed as a source of corruption and unhappiness in this perpetually "happy" society.
It was and still is a great novel and is very apt in this 21st century society, particularly after the recent reveals concerning civil liberties from figures such as Edward Snowden and Bradley/Chelsea Manning. Books like this are of the utmost importance, now more than ever, because they provide society with potential outcomes and foresights of decisions that we have yet to make and, depending upon the magnitude of the events portrayed in books and the their implicit messages, they may be useful in determining how the human race should develop and act in a world of constant modernization and change.
You can buy the same copy I read at-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fahrenheit-451-Flamingo-Modern-Classics/dp/0006546064
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