Lolita

I have been finishing up Lolita, and have found it to be a disturbingly comical book that kept my attention the entire time. Humberts narrative uses wry observations and witty word play to add to the entertainment of an already tragic plot. His commentary on American culture, puns, and coinages are only a few of the ways Humbert is the perfect narrator for a story such as this. That is what i most likely want to write about, but i am still reading articles and not quite sure where i want to go with it. I do really like Humbert as a character because he is clearly pretty demented, but also gives an almost comical relief to the reader.

Digging

“So what, you think you’re too good dig?”

My brother did not understand most of my choices in life, but had never disapproved of one so completely. He had adopted my father’s profession at young age and everyone expected me to follow suit. This was not the case. I often enjoyed helping my father in his work, but never wanted it for myself. Instead I am shamed by my awkwardness around spades. I can find solace only in my room, at my desk. With my pen nicking and slicing across the page much as my father, and his father before him, have done with their shovels. Plural nouns, adverbs, and adjectives fly through my head as my pen dives deeper and deeper into my thoughts to find at the bottom an unending new world of life, love, mystery, and madness. They do not understand my artistry with pen and paper much as I do not understand theirs with a shovel, but at least I can admire theirs. Aside from my brother, no one approaches me about my writing, but I know they all feel the same as he. I sit silently whenever my grandfather is brought up, I know he would not approve at all; no matter what my father says.

I dug for them, in the same way and for the same reasons my father dug for me. So that one day our family will not have to dig, aside from in our gardens. With hopes that as each generation goes by our family will get closer and closer to this goal of life without potato digging. My eldest shares my dream and will work in the same way I did for years. My youngest, however, has honored me in a much greater way; through the achievement of my greatest dreams. He will move on through life and make a name for himself, I am sure of it. In fact, everyone knows he is special, for he is smarter than all of us. His writing is a beautiful contrast to the dirty work our family has done and I know my father would be proud.

Awkward...

Throughout Waiting for the Barbarians there is an odd sexual tension. The magistrate himself is just generally an awkward man, with creepy lustful thoughts. His relationship with the blind slave-girl is full of unanswered sexual tension. She even attempts to come on to the magistrate but nothing comes of her efforts. The sexual tension is more or less put to rest when the girl and the magistrate are finally together on their way to bring her home, but still there lingers a weird sexual vibe throughout the book. The lack of specific names of people or groups in the book gives more emphasis on the actions in the book and aside from the brutal torture and imagery, the theme of awkward sexual tension prevails.

Articles

"Conrad's Ethics and the Margins of Apocalypse Now" by Louis Grieff

• Despite the many violations of the novel's shape and substance, Coppola manages to pay homage to Conrad's work in unexpected ways.

1. There is a "creative imitation of the Conradian frame" in the form of a disembodied voice at the beginning and end of the film.
2. In contrast to the book, the film portrays Kurtz as a solid, dedicated man while Captain Willard(Marlow) is more fragmented and corrupt. Neither major character in the film can be seen as a good example of Conradian ethics in the Heart of Darkness.
3. Coppola uses 4 minor characters--Chief, Chef, Lance, and Kilgore--with largely un-Conradian names to depict the conflict of "good craftsman and hollow man" as it is in the Heart of Darkness between the two main characters.
4. Chef and Chief give the perfect combination to depict Marlow's ethical craftmanship of discipline mixed with imaginative artistry.
5. Though Lance and Kilgor are outward opposites, they are equally as hollow and empty on the inside. 
   

"'To Boldly Go': Heart of Darkness and Popular Culture" by Linda J. Dryden

• The main idea of The Heart of Darkness and the ethical issues within have been reused and reiterated through popular culture over the last hundred years.

1. Apocalypse Now obviously uses the book to convey the same message about US involvement in Vietnam that Conrad was about imperialism in Africa. The popularity of the movie actually boosted the meaning and popularity of the book, and the depth of Conrad's words made a much more meaningful movie.
2. The television show the Simpsons even has an episode named "The Bart of Darkness" and another that references the novel The Lord of the Flies, which in fact owes part of its influence to... yupp you guessed it, the Heart of Darkness.
3. The influence present in the television show Star Trek is much more subtle than that in the Simpsons, but it is also more common. Throughout the series a main topic, just as in Heart of Darkness, is the question of what it means to be human. Star Trek uses aliens to discuss the moral issues and dilemmas present in the novel, and bits and pieces of the plots even correspond with the novel. 
4. Long story short, Conrad's Heart of Darkness has not only influenced much of out pop culture, it has become a "part of our heritage".

Not So Different After All

Up to this point in The Heart of Darkness the natives are considered to be "savages". They are uncivilized cannibals that need to be taught and controlled by the white men who have come to save them. Yet, in section two we see a slight change in this view. Marlow even comments on the "suspicion of their not being inhuman". It is a new idea to him that perhaps these people are reasonable, even possibly more so than the white men. The conspiring Marlow witnesses and the stories of Kurtz's actions throughout his voyage lift up the rug on the true character of the white men and make the contrasting natives seem more civilized. Marlow isolates himself from the white members of his crew and begins to get better acquainted with his native crewmembers. He even notes that his fireman, a native, is basically the same as a poorly educated white man doing the same job. Even when told bluntly that the cannibals want to eat the people in the fog, Marlow's reaction is one of understanding. He knows that they did not have much food, so he seems to understand their desire to eat people. It is clear to me at this point that the devils Marlow will continue to encounter on his journey are largely the white men around him, but can we see signs that there will be native devils encountered? If not, will Marlow continue to get closer to the natives and maybe even become more like them? His friendship with the African helmsman resulted in Marlow throwing away his shoes, is this in some way symbolic or is Marlow just melodramatic? 

More Fun This Way

The Sound and the Fury is certainly a difficult novel to understand. Lawrence Bowling's article gives a view into the debate as to whether or not the difficulty is a necessary one. Could Faulkner's writing be just as moving and get the same point across to the reader had he written it in a more normal fashion? In my opinion, no it could not. First, much of what the reader gets out of the book is through the reactions of the different characters. These reactions are only seen the way they are by the individual narrator at any given time. A different narrator may very well have seen the scene in a completely different way. The cynicism of Jason, depression and confusion of Quentin, and the innocence and lack of intellect of Benjy all contribute to their narrations. Each give a different view of individual actions and of life, and Faulker depicts them all perfectly through the eyes of the characters. In fact, Faulkner often gives us examples of this occurrence and lets the reader piece it all together. Furthermore, the piecing together of events is a large part that makes this book such a fun one to read and analyze. To be honest, I probably would not have read it outside of class, and if I had I would certainly not have gotten as much out of it as I did through our group analysis, but I definitely enjoyed the work. 

• Faulkner: Technique of "The Sound and the Fury"

• Lawrence Edward Bowling
• The Kenyon Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Autumn, 1948), pp. 552-566
• Published by: Kenyon College

Inner Dialogue?

The end of part two left me pretty dazed and confused. At first, the section with no punctuation reminded me, unfortunately, of Beloved. The first time I read the passage, I thought Quentin was using lower case "i" to show his low self worth. I considered it a representation of his suicidal tendencies, but when I read it a second time I realized the conversation taking place. Once again, Quentin's thoughts return to the idea of incest and his love for Caddy. The "he", to me, refers to his father. In the scene Quentin is reflecting on a conversation he had with his father about Caddy, the past, and the future. However, I still have a few questions about the passage.

What exactly did we learn about Quentin's relationship with "he"? For that matter, who exactly is he? Lastly, why is Quentin reflecting on this now?