an ARTicle about maus *insert something clever here*

After spending the day not really doing anything too important… aside from homework and a brief adventure to McDonalds (gross), I finally decided to stop ignoring this blog. The thought of having to read and write about something just didn’t sit well with my exceptionally lazy mood. But I eventually decided to stop watching Boy Meets World and doing nothing and work, woohoo.

After looking around the Internets, trying to find a sufficient article in regards to Maus II that I actually liked and was actually relevant and interesting, I finally stumbled into this one and I was quite satisfied. I really liked all of the points that this article touched and also it’s from the UK which just makes it even more awesome in my opinion (British is bloody brilliant). Anyways, I finally found an article that took my fancy and I was happy to end my search.

Philip Pullman talks about “the craftmanship, emotion and truth that make the masterpiece that is Art Spiegelman's illustrated Holocaust history, Maus I and II,” and I found his take on it to be quite insightful. What I liked the best about his article was that he mentioned the confusion with what to label Mause II as, “what is it? Is it a comic? Is it biography, or fiction? Is it a literary work, or a graphic one, or both? We use the term graphic novel, but can anything that is literary, like a novel, ever really work in graphic form? Words and pictures work differently: can they work together without pulling in different directions?” I just thought that that was cool since we have been discussing the ins and outs of literature and what defines something to be literature. Also one of our prompts relates to this since it asks us how to categorize this text. It even goes in depth by bringing in other sources to support his point of view.

I also enjoy how it talks about the animal representations of the different groups of people mentioned in the book, and even brings in the wearing of masks and the conflicts that revolve around the representations of the story.

I also quite liked his mentions of the comic structure of the novel and how it adds to the effect of the story. He also makes a point how just because a literary work contains pictures, it doesn’t necessarily have to take away from the depth of the story and it can, in fact, help the reader have a better understanding of the story. He mentions how the illustrations create a deeper meaning that might not have been properly portrayed otherwise, “take the full-moon shape against which the characters are silhouetted at important points in the story of Maus, as if on a movie poster… the full-moon shape is bitter as well as sweet… The shape carries a charge of irony: we see it and feel it in a glance.”

He talks about various significant things in the book, not only in context but also in form, and gives the reader a better outlook on Maus. I am really happy that I happened upon this article and it has really helped me in choosing the direction I will be going in with regards to my essay. British people are awesome and they help me :D (another example would be Sir Ken Robinson, he was awesome.)

Also in my search for articles I found this article (click me) and the writer says that when she “[thinks] of the Holocaust now I will always think of Vladek Spiegelman,” which I think is kind of funny since one of Art Spiegelman's intentions is that people don’t make Maus to be the grand narrative of the Holocaust.

the day after...

what did i learn from my 1st day of being 18? 1. if i do something illegal i will actually go to jail and be tried as an adult, 2. jury duty, 3. Tron: Legacy is an awesome movie, 4. ihop is still better that dennys, 5. never crash on the couch after getting soaked from playing in the rain.

i was gonna put that i have the greatest friends, but yesterday was more like further proof of what i already knew.

from one of the most amazing, brilliant, and awesome person in the world!! (the accent doesn't hurt either)

also i got the greatest birthday/christmas present in the whole bloody world :D (next to harry potter world or meeting the 10th doctor)

beware pure awesomeness ahead...

introducing... i haven't got a name for it yet Oo

my brand new and very sexy guitar :D

ill show you mine if you show me yours...

is it POSTmodernISM, postMODERNism, PoStmOdErN-ism, post-modernism or Postmodernism?

            Last night I got home from the play and was in a panic since I had forgotten about this blog and the fact that I actually had homework and other things I had to do. Luckily I realized that it was due Thursday night, and instead it was due tonight! So once again I find myself alone with a glass of water (that’s now empty) and my laptop to keep me company while randomly bursting out to songs. I might seem like I’m just rambling about pointless things, but in lieu of postmodernism I figured I might as well just say whatever is on my mind.

            I have to say that Cat’s Cradle is a pretty awesome book. I love its perceived randomness and short chapters. It makes me feel accomplished when I’ve read like 20 something chapters in a row in a short period of time. Also it helps with my short attention span and inability to focus on one thing for too long. Like that one Irish dude said in the Lyotard and Postmodernism article “Things fall apart; centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”  I think that kind of sums up the whole concept of postmodernism ( “is it POSTmodernISM, postMODERNism, PoStmOdErN-ism, post-modernism or Postmodernism?” which is also in that one article with the Irish poet guy), anyways… Moving away from the whole “decoration is sin” concept of modernism into the just-put-stuff-down-yet-make-it-confusing idea of postmodernism.

            So Cat’s Cradle… oh Cat’s Cradle how your seemingly random texts and short chapters amuse me. I really do like you Cat’s Cradle. Anyways, with the whole concept of postmodernism and its somewhat rough and self-gratifying edges is pretty much Cat’s Cradle. I like to compare it to Frank Gehry’s sketches, at first they just seem like random lines and squiggles, but instead they turn out to be this beautifully composed drawings of what will become a breathtaking piece of architecture… art, like Pablo Picasso once said “art is the lie that tells the truth,” it is misleading yet straightforward at the same time. Just what Bokonon says “all of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.” Cat’s Cradle might seem like just a bunch of chapters strewn together that sort of fits, but upon looking at it as a whole the purpose of it comes across, just like Gehry’s sketches.

            Cat’s Cradle breaks away from the traditional methods of writing; it defies the norm of the literary works before it. It separates itself from the “normal” structure and dives into literary anarchy. Small nonsensical chapters make up this delicate work of literature. The whole book is pretty much the epitome of postmodernism, even the title itself takes upon the sort of disorder of postmodernism as a whole. There’s “no dam cat, no damn cradle,” it is all just perception and can in reality be anything we want it to be, just like Newt’s painting which was perceived as a cat’s cradle and as hell.

            Okay my laptop has been tripping out for the past half an hour and I’m getting slightly frightened so I’m going to stop before my laptop implodes on itself. I know it might seem like all I did was just write stuff down, but it’s all just cause my writing style has been heavily influenced my postmodernism.

            Nothing is random, sooner or later a purpose appears…

so psyched!!!!

haha getting ready for some harry potter midnight premier awesomeness!!!!!

 

absolute brilliance

a completely unexpected surprise on a bathroom stall. whoever you are random person who wrote on this sign, you are amazing!

the only perfection in the world is imperfection

Oh Brave New World how you haunt my dreams. Seriously you do, I had a weird dream about Brave New World, The Tempest, and 1984 all combined to create a monstrous creature of a dream… more like a nightmare, but that’s beside the point. After that traumatizing event I felt the need to have some soma in order to numb myself of the trauma and see nothing but rainbows and fireflies and other happy things like Harry Potter and David Tennant as The Doctor. Sadly, I’ve no idea what soma exactly is and it’s probably illegal and the process of getting it would just cause more trauma and I’d just end up in a never ending circle of fail, thus I would never ever again be “normal” and just be a messed up shell, so thank you Brave New World for nearly causing my life to go into a downward spiral of inner-conflict.

Anyways, back to the word “normal” what is normal? Is there such a thing? I don’t believe there is, I never have and I don’t think that I ever will. “Normality” is dependent on the person at hand and no one else. Each and every person has their own unique view of what is “normal,” what might be peculiar to one could be completely natural to another. It is all a matter of perspective. That’s all anything really is, just perspective.

In Brave New World there are a few types of “normal” one for those in the Brave New World and those in the reservation. What one world considers as being “normal” is considered savagery to the other world. The residents of the Brave New World consider themselves to be happy and satisfies, yet we may find it to be disgusting and against all sense of morality. All because we grew up with the perception that sexual promiscuity is wrong as opposed to monogamy.

We can also look at their lives to be one of an obscure nature and completely horrible. This is because we see their lives to be nothing but the lives of monotonous puppets under complete and absolute control and having no idea of their sufferings from their lack of “freedom.” However, how can one group of freedom know the meaning of such a word when it does not exist in their society, not really. All they live by is the methodical world of Ford. It’s a world of factories and assembly lines. A system so thought out and well oiled that even those within its confined walls have no realization of it. They have been brainwashed since the moment of their births to live a life that was made for them and no one else. They were conditioned to be “happy” and always “satisfied” with their lives. It was their “normal” yet it is our “abnormal.”

Despite the perfection of their factory lines “It is this combination of the initiative of the workmen, coupled with the new types of work done by the management, that makes scientific management so much more efficient than the old plan,” as stated by Frederick Winslow Taylor. However, despite what may seem to be absolute perfection and efficiency is actually just a system that leaves many holes in its mechanism, like that of the factory line organization of the school system, as stated by Sir Ken Robinson, despite what may seem to be a “perfect” system it is inevitable to crumble. Whether it just is a single cog in the system, or the factory as a whole.

But keep in mind that what may seem like the smallest imperfection, what may seem to be insignificant today, can lead to your entire world crumbling.