Desiree's Baby

I enjoyed reading this story. I felt there was a lot of depth to it from its characters to the themes it portrayed. I thought it had to do a lot with race around the civil war period as well as female sexuality. I did not expect the ending however.

The Luck of Roaring Camp

"The men had suddenly awakened to the fact that there was beauty and significance in these trifles, which they had so long trodden carelessly beneath their feet."

I wondered where this story was going since it didn't really have any conflict til the last page that also concluded the story. Its funny how such a short text could still make you care about the characters even though there was only approximately five pages to get to know them. Once the narrator mentioned the flooding of other camps I dreaded what might come next for The Luck. I really liked how Harte wrote about the details of the camp and its inhabitants - it seemed like he was going for illustrating the realism of gold mining camps in their integrity. The dialect, description of appearance and lack of hygiene made the transformation for Luck much more impactful for the reader since the effect was more apparent from the baby. The story highlighted how even though the men were 'rough' and wrapped up in their own uncivilizedness, they collectively found their own tenderness and softness through the baby which in turn improved their own lives' quality.

Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance”

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men, - that is genius”. This statement took me by surprise in the beginning of the reading because it seems to contradict what I have learned so far at TCU (that everyone is different as an individual, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are subjective based on people, religion, culture). So I guess I don’t really understand why Emerson would say what is true for you is true for all men as a generalization. Although I found it interesting that Emerson explored the idea that men do not look for ‘genius’ in their own thoughts but that they must be told it or wait for others’ discovery (“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his”). I think that most people do stump their own genius, or creativity, or innovation. We are taught that genius looks like this, and this is how one finds the correct answer, and that success if possible only if one follows the path as other successful people have gone. We are not taught to think ‘outside the box’. Repetition is not creativity. We are introduced to the ‘right’ way of working, living, thinking, and never even realize that there may be a way outside of conformity. What would happen if we weren’t developed through what is considered the ‘correct’ mold of thinking? There would be more critical thinkers instead of just trying to find the one right answer.

Mark Twain

Reading the "Diaries of Adam and Eve" and knowing it was written by Mark Twain was very odd to me. Its nothing like what I would have expected to be written of him. It seems to be a play portraying Adam and Eve and their fall from God's grace however it definitely is an unconventional portrayal. Firstly, what was with Adam being aloof and dumb in comparison to Eve? Eve apparently got all the intellect and inquisitiveness out of Adam's rib and left none for him. I did find it interesting that Eve seemed to know what a thing should look like and therefore be named as such (ex. Niagara Falls, Fire, Fish, etc) as if God had downloaded everything she should know so she already had a cognitive understanding of the world when she was born. I thought the relationship between Adam and Eve was was most interesting in regards to the before and after eating the apple. It seemed like having the hardship and darkness of the real world (post-apple) was necessary for the love to grow between Adam and Eve - like Eden was just a place of fluffy bunnies and friends where everything was fine, which as a result, made nothing great. If everything is fine than what makes a person feel? There is no difference bewteen good and bad/ saddness and happiness in a place of perfect cohesiveness. It would be numbing.
As for Journalism in Tennessee, it was...interesting. Perhaps a metaphor for how journalism can be in the south? Otherwise, I have no idea...

Emily Dickinson

Dickinson’s poetry looks clear in its short stanzas but the lack of extra words almost makes the poetry harder to interpret. In poem 112 her rhyming scheme varies from the first stanza as a/b/c/b than second stanza doesn’t rhyme at all, then third repeats the rhyming of the first. The two rhyming stanzas sandwich the non-rhyming. I liked this method because it prevented me from reading it in the sing-songy way that some rhyming poetry induces.

This poem seemed to me to be about a solider or battle in which the subject was defeated. However the second half of the first stanza I wasn’t sure what it meant: “To comprehend a nectar, requires sorest need.” I guess since the first two lines are “success is counted sweetest, by those who ne’er succeed”, it could be interpreted as those sweetest moments or ‘nectar’, if you will, are only able to be attained/appreciated by those who are in most need of good or who have suffered etc. I was also confused by “the purple Host”, because capitalized host makes me think of communion and I don’t know the relationship it could have with purple.

In poem 320 (There’s a certain slant of light), I liked how Dickinson used dashes to create pauses in her rhyming as well as capitalizing words like Slant and Afternoons, Air, Landscape… she’s personifying the environment (literally) instead of just illustrating the setting of the poem (“Landscapes listens – Shadows – hold their breath). I think this poem is beautiful although its content seems a bit depressing.

Whitman/Dickinson

I enjoyed reading Whitman's poems especially When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. Even though it is written in free verse, the text seems to have momentum when its read like a rhythm. I appreciated how Whitman used nature and how it seemed to have a large role in most of his poetry as almost a personified force. In When Lilacs Last Whitman is definitely mourning someone, mentioning death, coffin, and seven stanzas of a song about death sung from a bird. This poem is quite a contrast to Poe's dark, manic, illustration of death in the two works that we read. Whitman's depiction of death has more depth to it, in relation to nature, modernity, and individuals. On another note, Whitman has a thing with lists and uses quite a bit of anaphora.
Emily Dickinson had a very different effect than Whitman. Comparably Dickinson was so clear cut and short that I found myself pausing after each line which disregarded the purpose of the meter. Maybe because I read Whitman right before and I used to his flowery and detailed rolling words this seemed so dry. It was so clear but also in a way not as clear, because there wasn't as much description to paint a picture from. The use of her word choice was important because the few adjectives and verbs is what my imagination depended on to portray the meaning for myself. Clearly Dickinson wasn't trying to make elaborate poetry, but for me it seemed harder to understand because there was less to work with.

The Tell Tale Heart

I haven't read Edgar Allan Poe since probably middle school yet I remember it different from this reading. I remember it to be 'scary', and 'dark', and that he was probably the least favorite of my writers because of that. However reading this now, I enjoyed it. I love how his actually writing in itself makes the reader nervous; as if the exclamation points  and dashes were going to jump off the page and attack you. The way he narrated the story was perfect for the calculated insanity the character was supposed to possess. Especially the use of sensory descriptions like the creaking of the floor boards. "Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me", "So I opened it - you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily-until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye". I think when I first read Poe I couldn't appreciate how he used language as his partner in crime to create a murder. By the end of the reader I was nervous reading it.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

It never occured to me the importance and the self-identity that relates to knowing one's birthday. I was surprised by how the lack of that basic knowledge affected me just by reading the text. I think knowing your age makes up a good part of your self-identity. In this narrative Frederick Douglass is treated very much like an animal that is taken from its mother after a few months and is almost completely devoid of maternal attachment. How would that affect the psychological development of a child? I suppose since Douglass was raised by another woman he might've just attached to her as a mother figure. I think I read somewhere that if a child doesn't receive an adequate amount of attention and affection in early life it affects their development of personality... So I was surprised that Douglass seemed to grow into a normal person. Also, I appreciate how this text was written - It was very easy to read as a story.

Advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 7, 1742

I picked an advertisement to read in the Pennsylvania Gazette on land for sale. What struck me was how less obnoxious it was compared to advertisements in the modern day newspapers. The writing quality was at the same level of writing as the actual articles in the paper – very distinct and correct. Comparatively in today’s advertisements there is hardly any actual writing at all; Advertisements and commercials resort to the shortest, simplest, words to get the point across as quickly and as flashy as possible (in order to achieve in grabbing the reader’s attention). This advertisement makes it obvious that in 1742 (when it was printed) that the readers most likely read the whole news paper cover to cover; regarding each part of it as important to read as any other.

            In addition, this advertisement seems very honest about what it is trying to sell – there aren’t any over the top promises on the beauty or fertility of the land, just and a modest description and location. Also, the syntax of the writing was interesting since the author seemed incredibly partial to the use of commas and paragraph long sentences.