'Femme Fatale' - The Female Archetype

The male archetype is fairly easy to describe and decipher. whether in literature or, as almost every woman may very well know, in real life as well. There's not a whole lot of cross referencing betweent the two types of man, they're either the hero, or the villain. Positive and Negetive. Yet, as in real life as well, when one starts to describe the female archetype, the lines become more obscurred with cross referencing and given examlples of women being both positive and negetive. On the positive side there the plutonic ideal (look but no touch), there is the earth goddess, and the Great Mother (Gaea), among other examples. All over the world, almost every culture has an example of a planetary mother, who's son born of a virgin birth becomes savior of the world. Virgin Mary anyone??? Anyway, on this positive side, women are seen as this because they are seen as the all creating of life (besides the gods that rule what goes on). Life comes from them, almost as if by an unknown source. This enveloped women in a "feminine mystique" as my old English teacher would say. Everything about a woman is mysterious, for no one really knows their ways but they.

On the negetive side, there is the the symbols of women's very own evil. The temptress character, the devouring mother, femme fatale (or sex object that will lead men to do dangerous things), and so on. These are seen to be in a woman's nature. Symbols of these women include Medusa, Sirens, Cleopatra, the Sphynx, etc. . The list of good and evil can go on and on and on. Yet, i cant help but bring up the phrase feminine mystique again. The reason the female archetype is so hard to describe, but so intriguing, is the fact that the positive and the negetive side are so intertwined within one another. As with the hero and the villain, one cannot exist without the other. Yet for men, it is simpler, because the hero and villain are usually two seperate characters and examplse. The reason there's a mystique around women is that they are both negetive and positive at the same time. Within the same creature, the same human being, there is the good and evil. So trying to decipher one from the other is a vast challeng in itself. Many times the woman or woman equivilant is Gaea, Medusa, and Beatrice, and there is no way on earth one will be able to try and tell when one persona is being dominant, for they are always there, and always popping up.

One can go on forever on the topic of the female archetype, the Greeks have been doing it for centuries! They, and the Chinese, have mastered the idea of positive and negetive forces. They have lists of things and their opposites (yin and yeng). Depending on the customs of the culture, the lists may vary, but women are always on the dark, evil side of things. Which may be a good and bad thing once one has allowed oneself to look and deliberate on the meaning of the lists. They're intriguing, go read them. Google them.

Relating subjects unrelated

I had an interesting epiphany today in my Writ 101 class. We were asked to take a sentence from a previous journal entry that we wrote, but didnt like, or didnt get, and then asked to expand upon the idea we were trying to write about, and see if we had more to say. Well, seeing as my mom always tells me I have too much to say all the time, this is never a problem for me, not knowing what to write about I mean. Im always writing. So anyway, in our last reading I came across a quote that hit me like a brick wall. Literally. . (Joe Cool will be referenced, he was a real man in the story i read, who i related to. He was a workaholic who helped people to help deal with the pain of his own life. It was his own way of healing, and being able to give back to society at the same time. )

"Sociability covers much of the pain that comes from not being able to help, to make someone else happy."

Wow. . in any case, this got me started on thinking what we always talk about in Lit class, how each story has no moral but the story itself, and each person takes away what pertains to them. Here's what I wrote on that quote when asked to write about it today:

~I latched onto this quote. It stuck to me as a bandaid that covers teh wounds. It hurt. But it was still there, staring me in the face as if it was put there in that book for my eyes only. I jotted it down, and read it again, and felt a small blow of what was, of what had left its mark so many times.

I'm Joe Cool. I'm the girl who tries to do everything, help everyone, do my part in society when I can't help myself, heal myslef, or help the people I want. In Lit class, wre taught that there is no "moral of a story but the story itself". What you, the reader, gets out of the story is your interperetation, and yours only. Every stroy you read ties into you. Everyone is Joe Cool to a point.

In the past, and even still to this very day, I try to help people to make them happy, so I can feel better, feel accomplished about something. I see the pain in other people, I recognize the symptoms, the coverups, as clearly as if they were my own. They were once my own. The need to be around people, the "sociability" that comes with trying to mask the pain. If you show people that your not in pain, and show them that by having fun, or laughing a semi-fake laugh, you've accomplished something. The pain sets back in when your mask is broken, shattered, just as you are, by someone who's smarter thatn the rest. By someone who knows. You feel weak again, for yoru efforts were in vain. I know. I've been there. I'm Joe Cool. Putting on the mask to let people know I'm still who i always was.

There must be a breed of us, those who help society, the ones we love, to help ourselves. Though, it's not selfish. Why not try to help someone else heal, while trying to finish your own healing as well?? Why not help someone from feeling what you have felt? You're a few stages ahead of them, you know what it's like, what they're doing, and you wish there had been someone there with you too. There wasn't. You know it made you strong in the end, but it still hurt to think no one was there. The thing with helping people, you cant let them know your helping them, you can only let them know that your the one who will be there for them, support them, no matter what happens.

Class Notes 2/17

The test on Friday will consist of 40-50 questions, 2 points each. If we havent talked about it in class, it wont be on the test. But the reading assignments are fair game, even if they werent talked about in depth in class. Here are 13 given questions for the test that we came up with in class. On the test, there might be slight variations, as Prof. Sexson reseves the right to edit what will work and what wont. Here they are:
#1) Who is Arnold Friend?
a]The Devil
b]The Demon Lover
c]The imagination
d] all of the above (AND ALL THAT!) <----

#2) Grimm vs. Perrault
-Grimm's version is more 'grim' and 'grotesque', and ends in a happily ever after.
-Perrault's version is safely written, and ends in a MORAL

#3) Know the definition of grotesque, or the idea of it...

#4) What is the difference between the edning of "Smooth Tallk" and "Where are you going? Where have you been?"
-Smooth Talk ends with Connie coming back, where as in the story, the reader is left to interperet what actually happened to her.

#5) What's the difference between the woman in The Demon Lover and Connie?
-The woman is a wife and a mother, and Connie is not. The woman, technically, had more to lose.

#6) Archetype?
-An image or pattern that is repeated in literature and fantasy.

#7) Who did Joyce Carrol Oates SAY she dedicated her story to?
-Bob Dylan, for his song "Its All Over Now Baby Blue".

#8) Why did Lot's wife get turned into a pillar of salt?
-she looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah, when she was told not to.

#9) Tell the truth, but tell it at a slant. Who said it?
-Emily Dickenson

#10) "Because I could not stop for Death. . . " ?
-"... he kindly stopped for me."

#11) Slanting rays of the setting sun. . .
-Alyoesha's memory of his mother.

#12) Karamozov Curse?
-Sensuality

#13) What do the three Karamozov Brothers represent?
-Alyoesha-The loving side of humanity, monk.
-Ivan- Intellectual side of human being, athiest.
-Dmitri- Primal life force, military man.

"The Lottery" and "A Very Large Man with Wings"

I was trying to make connections between the three stories, and understand the reasoning for their grouping as an assignment. Tragedy??? Maybe. Use of words to convey meaning?? Maybe. The use of the grotesque characteristic? That's a possibility too. Though, all three could be it. Or maybe there's no point, but to read the stories for what the are. Make connections later, since all stories are connected analytically in some way or another.

"The Lottery" reminded me alot of the movie "The Island" in a way, though in the movie, the lottery is just a cover-up, everyone is to die sooner or later. Yet, the use of the words the people say, you know that, even though they don't say it, The Lottery is not good. When people catch word of other communities who have stopped the practice, it's met with distiain and resentment. Then, when the reader finds out what The Lottery means, they understand why the other communities have stopped the "tradition". How did one community come up with stoning people, their neighbors, to death as a tradition???? I know im not supposed to question the story, or the moral, and i know there is no moral whatsoever to this story, but seriously, one cant help but wonder!!! Murder is acceptable?? How?

"A Very Large Man with Wings" was my favorite to read out of the three stories though. It was grotesque in its way it described the angel, and the people. It gave the truth, while still giving imagery. And yet there was no MAJOR conflict, it was just a fallen angel waiting for his time to recieve his wings again. The end of the story yet again makes the reader wonder "what was the point of the angel being there if he did not do anything?" It's an intriguing story nontheless.

Class Notes 2/12

-In that class on the twelfth of February, 2010, the class talked about the importance of the use of GROTESQUE (def= odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantasically ugly or absurd; bizarre) words, such as those used in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Prof. Sexson described how vitally important it was to find the right words for what we are trying to say or convey.
-Flannery O'Connor writes in the style of "southern gothic", in which she relied on grotesque characters, and subtle elements of the grotesque in the story's plot. (i.e. the mother, being described as a "cabbage" and a "rabbit" are claiming she as "bland" and "passive". )
-"Felix cupla" - latin for "the fortunate fall". The grandmother, being the hero, has a falling out of grace moment. ( I presume this will be described more in class. . )
-H.W. - Go through the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and underline all the similes. Pick your favorite. "pay attention to what the story says".
-Read "The Lottery" and "A Very Large Man with Wings".

Definition of Tragedy=Hamlet (or any other Shakespearean literature)

In hearing what we had to read, I instantly thought we were gonna read some love story, because of the whole Psyche and Eros story, and all the Cinderella and disney stories that have been going around. And, lo and behold, it was a murder. A tragedy. I was reading the story, and the first thought that came to my mind was "this sounds like Hamlet". It was quintessential tragedy literature. There was the crazy, slightly insane family with a mentally unstable father and a mother who doesn't acknowledge anything of what's going on in the world, and the siblings are utterly materialistic (they reminded me of the sisty uglers). The grandmother was the only seemingly sane person of the group, the hero, though she too had her faults. She was the one who warned the family, and knew what was going on. And yet, as is the tragedy, it is her, the hero, who had a fault, who causes the entire downfall of the family.

That is the definition of a tragedy: the downfall of the hero. It was not the tragedy of the entire family who died, but rather the tragedy of the grandmother who literally prayed for her life, who told the villain to pray, and who lost her life anyway. An event usually leads up to the initial tragedy. The tragedy, as is also definition, was avoidable. And fixable. But yet, because of the grandmother's fault (her embarassment at being wrong, her PRIDE), the family, and herself, lost their lives. She was her own demise. That too is another definition of tragedy. So, lets recap: Definitions of a Tragedy (i think there are 6 of them formally, but i can only recall 4 at the moment...)
1)The story is of the downfall of the hero
2)An event happens that acts as a turning point. a "point of no return"
3)The event is fixable, deeming the tragedy avoidable.
4)The fault is of the hero's own doing. Their downfall is their fault.

Notes for Class : 2/10/10

Ok, first time taking actual notes in class. Ill get better at this, I promise.

1]Everyone should be done with the Book 1 of The Brothers Karamozov. If your not, get there and start Book 2.
Alyosha: he is the lover of humanity, though he to seems to have inherited the "bad strain or madness" gene like the rest of his family. He clearly remembers his mother though, just as we can sometimes remember clearly our earliest memories, even we couldn't talk. He remembered and open window, and the slanting rays fo the setting sun. The holy image, and his mother crying and shrieking underneath it. She snatched him up and held him to the image.

2]Garden of Eden story. Be familiar with it
-Book of Genesis. All stories fit together to form one story. Nakedness. There is a difference between being naked, and knowing that you are naked. (Knowledge)

3]Psyche and Eros. Be familiar with it
-Psyche "fell in love with love"
-Relates to Cinderella
-Relates also to Snow White.

4] The Fall of Icarus. Read the story and be familiar with it.
THERE IS NO MORAL TO THE STORY!!! If there were a moral, the story wouldn't of happened.
-A poem should not mean, but be.
-There is always more than one "moral" to everyone.

5] 3 Greatest Tragedies of All TIME:
1) King Lear-Shakespeare
2) Book of Jacob-Bible
3) The Brothers Karamazov- Dostroevesky

6] Read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" from text. Blog!!!

The Fall of Icarus

Now, I see some conflicting perspectives when I read the tale of Icarus, and when I examined the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (William Carlos Williams in his poem "Lanscape with the Fall of Icarus" describes this quite well in my opinion). In the painting, Icarus's fall went almost completely unnoticed, the farmers and the sailers, though a boy had just fallen out of the sky, kept on with their daily chores as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Even the sheep do not seem to notice, or shy away from an unexpected splash in the ocean near by. Though, in the original telling of the story (or almost original), I don't get this sense that people didnt take notice at all. The townspeople took great interest in scene, for there was a boy falling out of the sky with disintigrating wings attached to his arms!!! The story does not go into how they reacted, but I'm almost postitive that they did not just stare in sheer amazement, and then dilly daddle along with their chores, the sailors who sail on to their destination as Icarus falls behind their vessel and meets his untimely demise.

"Like" and "Just"

We were told recently to not use the words "like" and "just". Im going to break that real fast, just to finish the quote that Prof. Sexson started in class with one of my favorite movies.

Peter: This is absurd. It's just a dog.
J.M. Barrie: Just a dog. *Just*?
(to Parthos)
J.M Barrie: Parthos, don't listen.
(to Peter)
J.M. Barrie: Parthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just a dog? What a horribel candle-snuffing word. That's like saying "he can't climb a mountain, he's just a man" or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just. . .

So thank you Prof. Sexson, that quote you said made my day last time. The words LIKE and JUST are way too... boring, to say the least. They're demeaning to the things they try to describe. So yes, I agree, they shouldn't be used. I only found it funny how Garrett had to keep saying "like" right when you said not to. I think I got up to 10 times in one sentence. ;-)

Baby Steps.

My first memory... well... I guess you could call it a memory.. It was when I was probably 1 yr old or so.. or slightly later. It had to be when i was less than 2 because my memory is up at my old house (I used to live in a round house by the way, it was red, like barn red, and has a central column. i was little so i just remember the tan carpet lol.) Anyway, my first memory is me crawling around on the floor next to our fireplace. Well.. I wasn't really crawling. My twin and I used to spider walk instead of crawl cause we hated the feel of carpet on our knees I guess. So imagine 2 babies wearing cloth diapers (totally eco friendly lol) with their butts in the air, "crawling" on our hands and feet. We were weird little kids.. Back to my story. In my memory, I just remember crawling on the tile around the fireplace. The tile was dark blue, and made from a ceramic material, with dark grout. The tiles were odd shapes too, as if the were broken and put into place. I remember them being really cold, which means it was probably summer outside, cuz our house is cold in the summer. And they hurt my knees and hands when i crawled on them, hence why i got off of them. But thats about all i can remember. We still have the fireplace at my new house now, which isn't really new, its just not the old one. It's a free standing fireplace, cast-iron. So it's really warm. I told my mom that memory, and she was surprised i remembered that, cuz she had a hard time remembering the tile around the fireplace by the enterance. Ill always remember this one I think.

Erin's Day

5:45- Wake up by alarm. Long night... even longer story. Put on workout clothes, socks, shoes, donned my coat. Grabbed my phone. Left my dorm.
5:50-Text from Kendra. I'm on my way to the gym to work out with her.
6:00-Arrive at gym via my trusty bike. Stupid bike lock isnt working, so I make it look like it's locked. Meet Kendra, and go to locker room. Strip off extra layers of clothes, and go run. Sprint a lap, jog a lap. 1 mile. Talk about why I didn't leave for basic, and about running, and how out of shape we are. We're both not used to it. Finish. Stretch. Go do crunches, side crunches, bicycle crunches, and push-ups. 20-30, two times. Go downstairs, still chatting about nothingness, and go on the elypticals for ten minutes. We feel good afterwards. Sweaty, but good. It feels good to talk to someone I know, someone who is normal (at least i feel that way).
7:00-Put layers back on. Walk out of the gym. Say goodbye to Kendra. Call Quinn. Talk on the phone while on my bike on the way back to the dorm. Again... long night. get back, bike lock still not working. Damn. go to main lounge, and sit on a blue couch. Recline feet on the table, and talk. About everything. Im comfy and warm in my coat. Get off the phone around
7:30- go take a quick shower, dont wash my hair. Hot water feels REALLY good. It's helping me relax. Get back to dorm. Jeans, t-shirt, sweatshirt. It's a lazy day, and it's gonna be a long day. Lotion, mascara, get dressed, shoes, coat, coffee mug, Chem lab stuff, and call Quinn one more time. I miss him so much...
8:00-Breakfast at Hannon. Eggs, sausage, yogurt, tea, and a bagel. Good healthy food in my opinion. Listened to teh news, eat, and write this all at once.
8:30-Reading the Brothers Karamozov at breakfast. Time to kill before lab. I really like this story. Watching (or listening) or not really paying attention to the Today Show. A baby was born somewhere, and they were filming it.
9:00-Lab starts. New lab partner named Lauren. She's getting her bachelor's in Animal Science. has a pre-vet tech degree already. She has work tonight. Had to do lab twice to show accuracy (Quantitative Analysis of the Percentage of Nickel in a Substance). It was fun. Teacher remembered I was from Frenchtown. I think I surprised h im that i knew how to find the percentage of an element in a substance given only the molecular formula. Yay me!! Told us about the International Food Bazare. I intend on attending. Feb. 22. That's a saturday. I checked.
11:00-My lab finishes early for my group. We got it done faster than the other groups. Noted to self to write down calculations again to make sure they made sense.
11:15-Texted Quinn. He was still in class. Went back to my dorm. Took off my shoes. Texted again. Tried finishing scholarship application. They want my high school transcript, which I dont have and have to get. ugh... Called my mom for help. I like talking to my mom.. I miss home. Hung up. Called Quinn. Talked about our days. Say our goodbye's and hung up.
12:00- Did calculations again. Made mac and cheese via the microwave... oh well. It was good tho. Get up. Oh, and I ate a Kashi cookie ;-) yummy!! started writing in journal about my day between breakfast and now. Got ready for class. Anthropology.
12:45-Anthropology. Bones, Apes, and Ancestors. Discussion on readings assigned. "let us prey" and "the handmaids' tale". Topics on unsolved hypotheseis, why apes live in groups, and sexual selection, and different tangeants of those discussions. Once again, I know too much, and therefore am asked indirectly to not raise my hand. Ugh... I like the topic of the class, but i hate the people. they just sit there without an opinion of their own. I sat takin g notes, shouting opinions and theories into the inside of my skull. Yay...
2:00-In dorm writing once again. Quinn texted again. I'm pondering on what to do.. a nap sounds good, but... reading is calling my name, and i must unwillingly ablige.
3:00- Began reading, and fell asleep instantly from the previous night's lack of sleep. I endured the temptation for half an hour till Quinn called, then fell asleep so i could finish my homework tonight. Reading The Brothers by the way.
4:10- got a wrong number call from the sherrif's department. that was scary. went back to sleep.
5:00- Roommate came back, and thusly ended my nap. Got another call from Quinn, and began reading to finish Part 1 of the book. Did so.
5:30-research on computer for Writ 101 class. Paper on hippies. ethnograhpic essay. Wrote introductory paper (250 words, lame and pointless) to the paper i will write. ugh...
6:00-Thus ends my journal for the day. I shall now start blogging my day.

Three Tellings of Cinderella

(Oddly enough, I hand-wrote this blog in math class, it was THAT dull.....)

In the three different tellings of Cinderella, I was surprised to see the many differences in detail. (Though, that's not totally surprising, because that's the reason we're reading them, and why they're in our text. Anyway..) I did notice that the Disney version more closely resembled the original Brothers Grimm version than the Japanese version, though I know this is because Disney based their version off of the original, only taking out the gory parts and whatnot.I've noticed that in alot of Grimm stories, events or phrases happen or repeat themselves in a series of 3 or more. Perhaps this was to capture the attention of young children, as children tend to love repetition when they can connect the dots of a story all my themselves. Though, I also was surprised at the amount of violence and jealousy in the Grimm and Japanese versions. I can theorize that this is because the stories are from cultures that don't hide that content from it's youngsters, because these stories were told to not only entertain, but to be a warning and life lesson to them as well. It also struck me how the Grimm story ties itself to the Disney version and to the Japanese version, but it does not happen the other way around. The Disney version and the Japanese are very different from one another, besides the base plot that all 3 share. The Grimm versionn and Japanese version share, most commonly, a nurturing of a living organism by the main character, a tree in one story, a giant fish (what i persume to be a koi) in another. Yet the Grimm and the Disney versions share the whole prince-looking-for-his-bride theme, where-as the Japanese story does not.

I really loved all 3 of the stories, though Cinderella was never my favorite story from childhood. Obviously, as it usually goes with me, I enjoyed the Brothers Grimm version the most.