Reading Notes W10: The Cherry Orchard, Part X

Anton Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard” (845-862)

Anton Chekhov:

·         1860-1904

·         “Tolstoy was looking for heroes, and Chekhov refuses to give us any, avoiding the conventional focus on a single protagonist in favor of a constellation of characters, each of whom-even the most minor-can lay claim to a separate life and perspective” (845).

·         He was born in a Russian seaport town of Tanganrog, 1860.

·         He developed two techniques as a writer. One is close attention to detail that he obtained from his medical training. Another is brevity that he obtained as a humor writer.

·         Russian was full of large social inequalities, fast-paced economic change, and rising political instability at this time.

·         “Chekhov stood up for oppressed and marginalized groups, and yet his plays often steered clear of strong political and moral messages” (848).

“The Cherry Orchard”:

·         “…is to see the cast as an ensemble, with no one character claiming the heroic center. In such productions, Chekhov offers us representatives from many social groups, all comically misguided but all sympathetic as well” (848). By having not just one character be the lead, we see the stories of many different characters and get to see how things play out in their eyes instead of just one characters eyes. This is how I see this as going.

·         First off reading this, we see talk about marriage. For example, “Yepikhodov proposed the day after Easter! He wants to marry me!” (852) and Varya, did he propose yet? [Varya shakes her head no.] But you know he loves you” (853). This re-occurrence makes me see marriage as a possible theme.

·         We know the time by: “It’s freezing this morning-it must be in the thirties-and the cherry blossoms are out already. I cannot abide the climate here” (851). This helps us readers keep track of where we are at in the story, season-wise.

Reading Notes W10: Ichiyo, Part B

Higuchi Ichiyo, “Separate Ways” (905-913)

Higuchi Ichiyo:

·         First major Japanese woman writer in six centuries

·         She was poverty-stricken and barely educated

·         Her writing career lasted only four years

·         Her real name is Higuchi Natsu

·         Ichiyo means single leaf

·         She was suffering from an advanced stage of tuberculosis

·         She accomplished coming into the modern age with her writing almost all on her own.

Time:

·         1868: a new Japanese emperor took the name of Meiji, which means enlightened rule.

·         By 1912, the government fell in favor of a constitutional monarchy.

·         Japan invested in industry.

·         Writers at this time looked to Europe for ideas. They wrote stories covering the subtle feelings of normal middle class people and covered contemporary social world.

Work:

·         “Drawing on the materials of her lived experience-her own marginal social status, her struggles with money, and her squalid surroundings-she began to paint a rich picture of the alleyways and brothels in Tokyo’s poorest neighborhoods” (906). Emphasis on “pleasure quarter”.

·         Adolescent characters may have been metaphors for the new Japan, puberty (?), and pain/disappointment of growing up.

“Separate Ways”:

·         Captures world of Tokyo’s struggling poor.

·         Shows a woman stuck in between independence/poverty and sexual dependence/luxury.

·         Focuses on modern urban poor.

·         “The dialogue itself is full of feeling-colloquial, spirited, disapproving, even aggressive” (907).

·         First look at poor life: “If only I could sew you a nice kimono, it would be a happy day. I’d gladly do it. But look at me. I don’t have enough money to dress myself properly. I’m sewing to support myself” (908). She has a dream but can’t fulfill it at the moment because of how poor she is. She can’t afford to make things as gifts.

·         Sadness: “Don’t you have some proof of your identity? A charm with your name on it, for instance? There must be something you have, some clue to your family’s whereabouts” (909). She has no idea who her family is (abandonment?), therefore, she doesn’t know her identity.

Reading Notes W10: Notes from Underground, Part A

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Notes From Underground, Part 1. Ch. V” (631-708)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky:

·         1821-1881

·         Is the son of a doctor in Moscow.

·         He is the second of six children

·         At the lowest point of his bitter wandering, he composed “Notes From Underground”.

·         His characters are often damaged by violence, guilt, obsession, and addiction.

“Notes From Underground”:

·         The main character of this story questions what kind of human a person should be. This could be considered philosophical questioning.

·         The underground man, or narrator; alters between two things: “Between casting his intense self-awareness as unique and seeing it as a representative of all humanity” (634).

·         We see his own perspective throughout the story and later, his interactions/encounters with others.

·         Personally speaking, I think his views are rather depressing.

·         Important: “The ‘underground man’ is a new kind of rootless urban intellectual, bombarded with fashionably progressive ideas about science, who cannot reason his way to any kind of satisfying conclusion” (634).

·         Example of questioning what kind of human a person should be: “Not only couldn’t I become spiteful, I couldn’t become anything at all: neither spiteful nor good, neither a scoundrel nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect.” (636). to me, it seems he is struggling with what it means to be spiteful as a human and whether he is good or bad. This is where he comes to the conclusion, he is neither. He seems to view himself as depressingly ordinary.

·         “Oh, tell me who was first to announce, first to proclaim that man does nasty things simply because he doesn’t know his own true interest; and that if he were to be enlightened, if his eyes were to be opened to his true, normal interests, he would stop doing nasty things at once and would immediately become good and noble, because, being so enlightened and understanding his real advantage, he would realize that his own advantage really did lie in the good” (645). He thinks that a man would only be truly good if he was to be enlightened and once enlightened, he would stop doing nasty things and be good at once. All though that is how a human should truly be (good), this can be argued that once enlightened, that person might not change. At least that’s how I interpret it.

Take Stock Week 9

Hopefully I did this right. For Taking Stock, I backed up my documents and completed the checkup. I'm also all caught up on the announcements. 

Week 1: Check. I did all the assignments for this week.

Week 2: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I didn’t do any of the extra credit this week.

Week 3: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I didn’t do any extra credit.

Week 4: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I did one extra credit assignment.

Week 5: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I didn’t do any extra credit.

Week 6: Not every mandatory assignment is declared. I did Project Work late so I need to email the professor again, but everything else is good. I did two extra credit assignments.

Week 7: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I did one extra credit.

Week 8: Check. Every mandatory assignment is done. I did one extra credit.

Week 9: Check. I did every mandatory assignment plus every extra credit assignment for the week (including this one) since I had the time.

Weekly Review week 9: First Weekly Review

For this week’s reading, I think I did pretty well. I tried to focus on quotes in my notes so I could understand what was being said a little better, especially since I sometimes do not understand the poems in this book. Continuing on, I did a lot of reading this week and found “The Tale of Kieu” by Nguyen Du to be rather long. Although that story was great and interesting, I found my favorite to be “The Travels of Lao Can” by Liu E because of its interesting take on weeping. I would say my best writing this week is my project planning because I went into more detail and laid it out for comparing instead of just simply taking notes. I also prefer the way I organized because it makes it easier to read for me at least. Some strategies for understanding the readings I use are going back and re-reading if I did not quite understand what was being said and fully analyzing sentence by sentence. I think I am doing okay in my other classes. I am taking two online classes, this one and another one; that involve a lot of work and sometimes it is hard to get everything done on time. It makes it even harder when it comes to studying and doing homework for my other in-person classes I take besides the two online.  There is definitely a link between classes because I notice that if we talk about one thing in one class, it somewhat comes up in another class. Considering next week is break, I hope to be able to relax and refresh my brain even though I still have a lot of work to do over break, just less. In conclusion, I feel that this week was a good week in getting my work done.

Week 9 Progress

Looking at all my work, so far I seem good. If I read this right, I should be sitting at an A. I have been progressing pretty well in this class with all the assignments so far. However, there is one assignment in week 6 missing from the grade book that I did late due to an incident. I need to remind myself to send an email about that assignment again. Besides that, I have done some of the extra credit assignments, especially this week. I would say one of the class assignments I enjoy the most is commenting because I get to see other people’s work and I find their work to be inspiring. Through the rest of the semester, I want to be able to get my assignments done earlier and I want to do more extra credit assignments. One thing I want to avoid is rambling on and not making since in what I write because sometimes I do that in my writing (organization of thoughts more like). Personally, I want to try tackling comparisons in this next project submission because I need to work on it. Overall, I am having a good semester in this class in practicing my writing skills.

Week 9 Project planning: My project action plan #2

The project prompt I intend to respond to is:

Compare and contrast elements of two different texts. For example, explore the similarities and differences between two characters in the text, or examine how one theme is handled in similar and dissimilar ways in two different texts.

You may choose from any of the readings we have done this semester including poetry, short fiction, and drama. You may also choose two texts from two different genres to write about (a poem and a short story, for example).

The two texts I chose to write about are:

1)      Nguyen Du, “The Tale of Kieu” (546-586)

2)      Liu E, “The Travels of Lao Can” (602-611)

Theme: Corruption

I plan to discuss the similarities and differences between “The Tale of Kieu” and “The Travels of Lao Can,” like how each uses corruption in their stories.

Ex: Differences

1)      Du: Prostitution and society corrupting the Innocent (Kieu throwing away her beliefs).

2)      Liu E: Injustice of corrupt government (Character: Lao Can, seeks justice).

Ex: Similarities

1)      Society corrupts the innocent.

2)      People who hold power can use it as they please.

3)      Both may include justice but in different terms (Kieu: coming to terms, Can: seeking justice).

Note: There is a difference in how they portray how society corrupts the innocent.

Quotes I may elaborate on:

1)      Liu E:

·         “I hear that if he happens to see a man who doesn’t please his eye, he simply puts him in a cage and chokes him to death; or if somebody talks unwisely and falls into his hands, he is a dead man too” (606)

·         “Spiritual nature gives birth to feeling; feeling gives birth to weeping. There are two kinds of weeping. One kind is strong; one kind is weak” (605) Maybe this one?

·         “Dedicated to unmasking government corruption and cruelty at expense of the people…” (602). I may use this for comparison.

2)      Du:

·         “I showed them to our League Chief and was told your name is marked in the Book of the damned. We both reap what we sowed in our past lives: of the same League, we ride the selfsame boat” (554) maybe use this one?

·         “…a flower sold to board a peddler’s boat. She was now caught in all of his bag of tricks: a paltry bridal gift, some slapdash rites. He crowded within: “The flag has come to hand! I view rare jade-it stirs my heart of gold!” (566). Peddler’s boat=a women leaving a man for another man, could be considered an affair. Flag has come to hand=people with power are free to use it as they please.

·         “I’m just a girl, so helpless, to my shame-when could I ever pay a daughter’s debts? Lost here where water’s mud and dust’s soil-free” (567). Society corrupts the innocent. In her case, selling her and prostituting to save her family.

Thesis attempt:

1)      In two different stories, two author’s show their take on corruption in their respective stories. There is a take on power over the innocent and we see it in the characters Kieu and Lao Can’s journey. Kieu suffers through the struggles of morality and prostitution while Lao Can seeks justice for the wrongs done upon the innocent. Therefore, both stories talk about the struggles of being under a corrupt government that lies on the basis of those with higher power using that power as they please.

Wikipedia Trail Week 9

1)      “The influence of oral traditions on modern writers”. https://www.britannica.com/art/African-literature/The-influence-of-oral-traditions-on-modern-writers.

·         I decided to choose an article from the announcements and start from there.

·         I wanted to choose a recent one so I chose this link in the announcements.

·         I learned that some works weren’t just imitation from oral traditions but developed into new literary traditions.

2)      “Folk Literature”. https://www.britannica.com/art/folk-literature.

·         I just clicked random link to see where it would take me.

·         It took me further into Britannica.

·         I learned that there is no way to learn the origins of folk literature.

3)      “Serbian literature”. https://www.britannica.com/art/Serbian-literature.

·         I clicked whatever was the closest link and it was this one.

·         At this point, I am just being taken further into Britannica.

·         I learned that no significant revival of Serbian literature actually happened until the 18^th Century. That’s a long time.

4)      “St. Sava”. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Sava.

·         I wanted a link that wasn’t on Britannica, but I couldn’t find one so I clicked the next thing I saw again.

·         St. Sava was a Serbian noble.

·         I learned that Sava had to return to Serbia after his father’s death to become superior of the monastery.

Growth Mindset Week 9 sticking to good habits

Note: I got the picture from google searching.

For this Growth Mind Theory assignment, I decided to read “How to Spark Creativity When You’re in a Rut” by Priscilla Claman. In reading this article, they mentioned that as you start out with creativity you can slowly become bored and begin to lose creativity which can be caused by bad habits. In reading further, I have come to the agreement with this article that in order to become creative again you must create new habits of meeting new people, sharing ideas, and take obstacles as an opportunity. Basically, do what you did starting out and stick to the good habits. With an open mind, you can become creative again and live without boredom more.

Reading Notes W9: Liu E, Part X

Liu E, “The Travels of Lao Can” (602-611)

Liu E:

·         1857-1909

·         “Dedicated to unmasking government corruption and cruelty at expense of the people…” (602).

·         Liu E is also known as Liu Tieyen.

·         Liu was born in a midsized city in Jiangsu province on east coast of China (1857).

·         Attacked both corrupt government and stultifying tradition.

·         Novel reflects the authors own life

·         Many of the corrupt officials in the novel are disguises of historical people

·         Author’s main character: is considered to be well-meaning and brave/ seeks justice, but is also considered to be rather helpless.

·         Liu E uses long traditions of Chinese storytelling and novel-writing

·         “It is also groundbreaking in its exploration of an individual psychology, mixing novelistic conventions for the first time with passages of private meditation traditionally rendered through the voice of lyric poetry” (604).

“The Travels of Lao Can”:

·         “Spiritual nature gives birth to feeling; feeling gives birth to weeping. There are two kinds of weeping. One kind is strong; one kind is weak” (605). He expresses the nature of weeping/feelings. Like how he states a girl crying over simply losing a hairpin is consider a weak weeping. Now, a strong kind of weeping is a woman, like Qi Liang of Qi; whose tears brought down the walls of the city due to crying over the loss of her husband.

·         “I hear that if he happens to see a man who doesn’t please his eye, he simply puts him in a cage and chokes him to death; or if somebody talks unwisely and falls into his hands, he is a dead man too” (606). He immediately goes on and questions the injustice in the corrupt government, like easily putting people to death for the simplest of things.

·         Talks about crying a lot in the story.

·         People often in fear of the corrupt government and have to watch what they say. Otherwise, their lives would be in danger.

Week 9 Analysis: A Close Reading

Nguyen Du, “The Tale of Kieu” (546-586)

            One passage that sticks out to me is “Treat not our love as just a game-please stay away from me and let me speak. What is a mere peach blossom that one should fence off the garden, thwart the bluebird’s quest? But you’ve named me your bride-to serve her man, she must place chastity above all else” (561). I chose this quote because of the importance of chastity to this woman and her moral values. I also chose it because of the Irony behind these words, for she is forced to prostitute herself. I also chose this quote because of the sacrifice behind her actions.

            These words convey a meaning of loyalty and love in this character sticking to her morals and planning to keep her chastity. This loyal love can be seen behind the words “Treat not our love as just a game” because she wants a true love, not one of simply just lust.  Plus, her sticking to her morals and keeping her chastity can be seen behind the words “she must place chastity above all else”. In sticking to her chastity and strictly telling him to not treat her love as a game, it seems that this is a way for her to see this love as one as true love instead of lust. Moving on, I want to talk about the use of Irony behind these words because at the end of the story, she has thrown away most of her chastity. For example, “What little chastity I may have saved, am I to fling it under trampling feet” (584). Going back to the quote I first chose, this passage explaining the importance of chastity in this society shows the serious sacrifice this women had to make when she went into prostitution, or at least foreshadows it (could be considered introduction to it).  As one can see, this passage also somehow foreshadows the rest of the story and in which, concludes into covering sacrifice, lust, loyalty, chastity, sacrifice and love. Therefore, this passages helps lead into the true meanings behind this story.

Reading Notes W9: Ghalib, Part B

Ghalib, “Now go and live in a place…” (587-601)

Ghalib:

·         From 1797 to 1869

·         Could be considered to be the most frequently quoted poet of the nineteenth and twentieth century in India and Pakistan

·         His popularity grew since his death

·         His phrases, images, and ideas have become part of the common speech of Urdu and Hindi

·         Wrote haunting poems

·         Born in Agra in December 1797

·         His real name is Asadullah Khan

·         Ghalib is just his literary pseudonym

·         Ghalib means “Conqueror”

·         Descendant of Turkish Military settlers in north India

·         For most of his life, he suffered through many bitter disappointments

Real life sorrows showing up in his poetry:

·         “It was essential’-remains one of his most famous poems today, a memorable mourning of human mortality and a celebration of family life and familial love” (588).

·         “…but old age, deteriorating eyesight and hearing, and long illness increasingly confined him to his dilapidated him in Delhi; much of this is foreshadowed in his first poem in our selection, ‘Now Go and Live in a Place” (588).

·         His poetry could represent the Indian subcontinent transitioning from tradition to modern style/life. This makes Ghalib’s poetry more complex because of the time at hand. This also seems to include the blending of cultures, which adds more to the complexity of his poetry.

“Now go and live in a place”:

·         In this poem, we can clearly see the pain in his words and how his sufferings really held him back socially and more. You can see the mix of emotions he is feeling, like loneliness for example. Ex: “If you fall ill, no one to nurse you there-and if you die, no one to mourn you there” (591). It also seems that he fears the coming of death and the results of his death.

“It was essential”:

·         Ex: “What would have gone so wrong if he hadn’t died for a few more days” (598). In my eyes, it is like he is asking the “what if’s”, which asking these questions typically sadden people more. So we can see the sadness behind the poem.

Reading Notes W9: Du, Part A

Nguyen Du, “The Tale of Kieu” (546-586)

Nguyen Du:

·         Vietnamese literature

·         1765-1820

·         Born in 1765

·         Well-educated, born into a learned and powerful family

·         The Tale of Kieu addresses these themes: lust, loyalty, sacrifice, corruption, faith, and justice.

·         Du’s female heroine Kieu is a representation of something. Ex: “flung around by fate and forced to prostitute herself, has long been a folk symbol of what it means to be treated unjustly and struggle to survive, but she may not stand for Nguyen Du’s own discontent, resentment, and shame at having betrayed his own convictions to play the part of a faithful official in order to protect himself and his family” (547). I find this quote to be important because of the link the character Kieu has to the author and real life at that time even though it is just fiction.

First paragraph:

·         “You must go through a play of ebb and flow and watch such things as make you sick at heart. Is it so strange that losses balance gain” (550). Felt like putting this in here because these sentences stick out because it seems to me to mention the balances of life or like the negatives and positives of life (how life flows).

Themes:

·         Corruption/Justice: “I showed them to our League Chief and was told your name is marked in the Book of the damned. We both reap what we sowed in our past lives: of the same League, we ride the selfsame boat” (554). Karma?

·         Loyalty/faith: “By the red leaf, the crimson thread, we’re bound for life-our oath proves matual faith” (560).

·         Lust: “When waves of lust had seemed to sweep him off, his wooing turned to wanton liberties” (561) and “But you named me your bride-to serve her man, she must place chastity above all else” (561). This second quote is also considered loyalty. It is like it is fight between Lust and Loyalty (in the bonds of marriage too?).

·         Sacrifice: “As you must weigh and choose between your love and filial duty, which will turn the scale? She put aside all vows of love and troth-a child first pays the debts of birth and care. Resolved on what to do, she said: “Hands off-I’ll sell myself and Father I’ll redeem” (563).

Reading Notes W8: Keats, Part X

John Keats, “On First looking into Chapman’s Homer…” (403-407, 410-415)

John Keats:

·         1795-1821

·         Although short lived, he had a rather successful career and was even considered as one of the greatest of all English poets.

·         His career lasted less than five years. He first published his work in 1821, but he later died in 1821.

·         He was rather aware of his coming death and even diagnosed himself.

·         His themes often included: aching desire, dreadful coming of death, and the seductive power of beauty. The dreadful coming of death he writes about comes from personal experience of his own coming death. As one can assume, that would be rather unnerving and horrifying for a person to have to endure.

·         Used beautiful imagery, allusions to other writers, and had rather philosophical poems due to his specific use of themes.

“When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”:

·         This poem is an obvious look into his personal life of his coming death and how he fears it. For example, “When I have fears that I may cease to be before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain” (407).

·         This poem is also a reference to his aching desire, or even an aching desire over what he will never have experience, like love. For example, “Never have relished in the fairy power of unreflecting love;-then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink” (407).

“To Autumn”:

·         In a poem about autumn/Spring you can clearly see an example of Keats’ beautiful use of Imagery.

·         For example, “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn among the river sallows, bourne aloft or sinking as the light wind lives or dies” (415). By using certain words like “sinking” or “mourne” we readers can see this happening with our imagination. This would be a good example of how great keats’ is at the use of Imagery.