Sunday, December 7, 2008
Last Blog
Man I am glad I kept a running journal throughout the class that made it easier for me to Blog when I needed to. Thanks for a wonderful semester and the great blogs from my peers. Can't wait to read more in Oral traditions!
Pullman and C.S Lewis
I don't think the His Dark Materials series made a good case for atheism in the first place. I didn't know Phillip Pullman intended to pit himself against C.S. Lewis but while I read the books they did make me start comparing with the Chronicles of Narnia. I was dissapointed. The characters were as rich, the worlds were as imaginative, but in the end His Dark Materials simply did not resonate. Whereas Lewis' tales touched me to the quick with profound truths, Pullman's were clever but in the end left more questions than answers. Lewis tells you how the world was created, how evil came into it, how the Creator defeated the evil, and what is to come. Pullman tells you that "religion" is oppressive and cruel, and that God is a sham. If Pullman was trying provide an atheistic counterweight to Lewis' Christian worldview he did not do a good job. Here are my reasons for thinking so:1. The religion he criticises isn't a true reflection of religion in the first place, it's his own take on religion. He set up a straw man to attack.2. The universe he depicts seems more pantheistic than atheistic. Everything is made from "dark material", particles that are somehow conscious, and when they die they dissipate into these particles again. There is a belief system in operation. In the story there is a atheistic scientist who was formerly a Christian, however as the story unfolds she comes to accept the pantheistic worldview because she starts to interact with the dark material and learn its nature.3. The whole story is about the battle of good against evil. If a pantheistic or atheistic worldview is being promoted, where does this concept of good and bad come from?My personal take-away from comparing Pullman with Lewis is that an atheist cannot write children's fiction. This is not a facetious observation. Three characteristics of children's stories are that 1) they are moralistic; 2) they are imaginative, i.e. creative; and 3) their purpose is for edification in some way or other. Where does an atheist draw right and wrong from? Don't atheists deal in proven facts rather than whimsy and fantasy? What words of encouragement would a true atheist have for others that does not mean imposing his own personal "truths" on them? No, there is no atheistic children's story because children with untainted minds are nearer to the Kingdom of God and cynical atheistic thoughts wouldn't appeal to them. While Pullman's intention to introduce atheism to children is reprehensible, it is ironic that in writing something that has to appeal to children he is forced to abide by the three characteristics of children's stories and thereby forced into a realm where atheists cannot survive.By the way, C.S. Lewis was himself an atheist who came to the conclusion that atheism did not fly. He then contemplated pantheism and Christianity, and in the end became a Christian
I thought this was interesting...Good job Tony Watkins
Secret history
A key bone of contention for Pullman is the issue of authority, which is of course why Pullman gives God the title of ‘The Authority’. There is a sense in which the Authority and the Magisterium are just manifestations of misused power. But given Pullman’s comments quoted above, it seems clear that he does have religion – rather than authority generally – in his sights. The Authority’s title distances him in the reader’s mind from the Christian God; it doesn’t feel like Pullman is talking about the same being. But in case we fail to make the connection, Balthamos spells it out:
The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, EI, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves – the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are. (AS p.33)
How can ‘God’ be an angel? In Pullman’s underlying ‘creation myth’, matter became conscious of itself and generated Dust. Some of it ‘condensed’ into the first angel – a being of pure Dust. This new being was fully conscious, and when he began to see other angels condensing out of the Dust he realised what an opportunity he had. Since he came first, he could tell the subsequent angels that he was God and had created them. The angels loved and obeyed him, but the Sophia (Wisdom), the youngest and most beautiful angel, discovered the truth about the Authority who subsequently expelled her. There was an angelic rebellion, but the Authority defeated it and imprisoned the rebels in one of the many worlds. The Sophia told them about the Authority’s lies to human beings (and conscious beings in other worlds), and the rebels escaped to bring enlightenment, wisdom and full consciousness to the poor creatures under the Authority’s rule.
This myth draws heavily on second century Gnosticism, but also inverts it. Gnosticism is all about gnosis – knowledge, in particular secret, esoteric knowledge open only to a privileged few. For the early Gnostics, the secret knowledge about reality was that the world was not created by God, but by an evil Demiurge (a lesser or false god); the true God is unreachable and unknowable. The Gnostics believed that matter is essentially evil, but Sophia, one of the angelic beings, managed to put a spark of true spiritual nature (pneuma) into human beings. Pullman doesn’t believe this but sees it as a good story with ‘immense explanatory power: it offers to explain why we feel . . . exiled in this world, alienated from joy and meaningfulness and the true connection we feel we must have with the universe.’[5] Where Pullman turns this on its head is in the attitude towards the phsyical. Gnosticism sees it as evil; Pullman sees it as something to be enjoyed and celebrated.
Pullman’s myth also draws on Paradise Lost’s angelic war, Satan’s escape from his prison, and his tempting of Adam and Eve. By recasting God as the demiurge impostor, Pullman transforms him into the bad guy, and casts the rebels (including the Sophia) as the good guys. On this view, the Fall is a good thing (see chapters 10 and 11). This is an ideal scenario for Pullman: a materialist universe which has found its own wisdom fighting off the deceptions and impositions of a ‘god’ who is really nothing of the sort. Archbishop Rowan Williams points out that:
Someone [the demiurge or the Authority] is trying to pull the wool over your eyes . . . and wisdom is an unmasking . . . If you have a view of God which makes God internal to the universe, that's what happens.[6]
Williams is saying that if you see God merely as part of the physical universe, then you automatically see him as a deceiver. The historically orthodox Christian understanding of God and the universe only works if God is transcendent.
A key bone of contention for Pullman is the issue of authority, which is of course why Pullman gives God the title of ‘The Authority’. There is a sense in which the Authority and the Magisterium are just manifestations of misused power. But given Pullman’s comments quoted above, it seems clear that he does have religion – rather than authority generally – in his sights. The Authority’s title distances him in the reader’s mind from the Christian God; it doesn’t feel like Pullman is talking about the same being. But in case we fail to make the connection, Balthamos spells it out:
The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, EI, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves – the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are. (AS p.33)
How can ‘God’ be an angel? In Pullman’s underlying ‘creation myth’, matter became conscious of itself and generated Dust. Some of it ‘condensed’ into the first angel – a being of pure Dust. This new being was fully conscious, and when he began to see other angels condensing out of the Dust he realised what an opportunity he had. Since he came first, he could tell the subsequent angels that he was God and had created them. The angels loved and obeyed him, but the Sophia (Wisdom), the youngest and most beautiful angel, discovered the truth about the Authority who subsequently expelled her. There was an angelic rebellion, but the Authority defeated it and imprisoned the rebels in one of the many worlds. The Sophia told them about the Authority’s lies to human beings (and conscious beings in other worlds), and the rebels escaped to bring enlightenment, wisdom and full consciousness to the poor creatures under the Authority’s rule.
This myth draws heavily on second century Gnosticism, but also inverts it. Gnosticism is all about gnosis – knowledge, in particular secret, esoteric knowledge open only to a privileged few. For the early Gnostics, the secret knowledge about reality was that the world was not created by God, but by an evil Demiurge (a lesser or false god); the true God is unreachable and unknowable. The Gnostics believed that matter is essentially evil, but Sophia, one of the angelic beings, managed to put a spark of true spiritual nature (pneuma) into human beings. Pullman doesn’t believe this but sees it as a good story with ‘immense explanatory power: it offers to explain why we feel . . . exiled in this world, alienated from joy and meaningfulness and the true connection we feel we must have with the universe.’[5] Where Pullman turns this on its head is in the attitude towards the phsyical. Gnosticism sees it as evil; Pullman sees it as something to be enjoyed and celebrated.
Pullman’s myth also draws on Paradise Lost’s angelic war, Satan’s escape from his prison, and his tempting of Adam and Eve. By recasting God as the demiurge impostor, Pullman transforms him into the bad guy, and casts the rebels (including the Sophia) as the good guys. On this view, the Fall is a good thing (see chapters 10 and 11). This is an ideal scenario for Pullman: a materialist universe which has found its own wisdom fighting off the deceptions and impositions of a ‘god’ who is really nothing of the sort. Archbishop Rowan Williams points out that:
Someone [the demiurge or the Authority] is trying to pull the wool over your eyes . . . and wisdom is an unmasking . . . If you have a view of God which makes God internal to the universe, that's what happens.[6]
Williams is saying that if you see God merely as part of the physical universe, then you automatically see him as a deceiver. The historically orthodox Christian understanding of God and the universe only works if God is transcendent.
I agree with this article...I WANT A DAEMON!
'Golden Compass' author Philip Pullman inspires thrills -- and wrath
By CLAIRE DEDERERSPECIAL TO THE P-I
A writer sits quietly at his desk. He imagines a little girl. Something about her inspires him. He begins to write. The girl is joined by other characters: an explorer father; an ice-queen mother; a band of sea-faring Gypsies; a polar bear dressed in armor; a witch preoccupied with politics. The man sends these characters racing across the Arctic, up in hot-air balloons, through university halls, and down into abject dungeons. He's a British middle school teacher with a couple of mid-list novels under his belt, and he doesn't know that he's creating a universe that will bring down the wrath of Christians -- and thrill readers all over the world.
Philip Pullman published "The Golden Compass" in 1995. It's the first volume in the richly imagined trilogy of children's books called "His Dark Materials," which includes "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." The trilogy follows Lyra -- an urchin who lives in a universe not unlike our own -- as she battles the totalitarian forces of the Magisterium, a global religious consortium.
The series has drawn three distinct readerships. It was first picked up, unsurprisingly, by young adults. With her sharp tongue, stout heart and impressive gift for lying, Lyra makes a pretty delicious preteen heroine. She starts life as the ward of Jordan College in Oxford, but her peaceful existence comes to an end when neighbor children begin to disappear. Mysterious adults are snatching kids off the street and spiriting them, it is whispered, to an ominous fortress far in the North. When they take Lyra's best friend, Roger, she decides she must save him. And so her propulsively plotted journey begins.
By her side every step of the way is her daemon, Pantalaimon. The daemon is Pullman's most charming invention. In Lyra's world, each human has a constant animal companion. This daemon is more than a pet; it embodies the human's very soul. For readers not long past the age of horse worship and kitten adulation, the notion of the daemon has proved irresistible.
Word of mouth spread, and adults became avid Pullmanites as well. The New York Times called the books "Harry Potter for grown-ups." Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize was given to the final novel, the first time the prize ever was awarded to a children's book. Adults have been drawn, in part, by Pullman's gorgeous, imagistic prose. He writes fantastical scenes in a genuinely moving way, as when Lyra tends the wounds of Iorek Byrnison, king of the armored polar bears: "So the small human bent over the great bear-king, packing in the bloodmoss and freezing the raw flesh till it stopped bleeding. When she had finished, her mittens were sodden with Iorek's blood, but his wounds were stanched."
This kind of immediate, detailed writing has converted readers (like myself) who normally won't have anything to do with fantasy.
Pullman also demonstrates an appetite for big, challenging themes. He scavenges mythology and history for material: One page might subtly steal from Oedipus, the next from survivors' stories of the Holocaust, the next from Milton. Pullman isn't afraid to wrestle with the meaty stuff of good and evil, and good hardly ever turns out to be on the side of the church. His villains are religious hypocrites; his heroes are self-determined freethinkers.
This conflict reaches a climax in the final novel, when Lyra achieves her destiny, which involves killing God himself. This last bit of plotting brought Pullman another audience: Christians, who have pilloried the series. Now "The Golden Compass" has been made into a film, and Christians -- or at least their highly vocal, self-appointed representatives, such as the Catholic League -- have undertaken a campaign to boycott the film. (Is it just me, or does the name the Catholic League conjure up some shady, diabolical organization from a 1950s comic book?) They've flooded Amazon and other Web sites with posts, wherein they warn parents that Pullman is an "atheist!" and that in the final novel of the series "the children actually kill God!"
I, for one, find this outcry strangely moving. Not that I agree with these bossy handwringers; quite the opposite. But the fact that they care so much seems to me astonishing. It's a story worthy of Pullman himself: A man alone at his desk conjures a vision of a universe so free and happy that it terrifies perfect strangers.
By CLAIRE DEDERERSPECIAL TO THE P-I
A writer sits quietly at his desk. He imagines a little girl. Something about her inspires him. He begins to write. The girl is joined by other characters: an explorer father; an ice-queen mother; a band of sea-faring Gypsies; a polar bear dressed in armor; a witch preoccupied with politics. The man sends these characters racing across the Arctic, up in hot-air balloons, through university halls, and down into abject dungeons. He's a British middle school teacher with a couple of mid-list novels under his belt, and he doesn't know that he's creating a universe that will bring down the wrath of Christians -- and thrill readers all over the world.
Philip Pullman published "The Golden Compass" in 1995. It's the first volume in the richly imagined trilogy of children's books called "His Dark Materials," which includes "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." The trilogy follows Lyra -- an urchin who lives in a universe not unlike our own -- as she battles the totalitarian forces of the Magisterium, a global religious consortium.
The series has drawn three distinct readerships. It was first picked up, unsurprisingly, by young adults. With her sharp tongue, stout heart and impressive gift for lying, Lyra makes a pretty delicious preteen heroine. She starts life as the ward of Jordan College in Oxford, but her peaceful existence comes to an end when neighbor children begin to disappear. Mysterious adults are snatching kids off the street and spiriting them, it is whispered, to an ominous fortress far in the North. When they take Lyra's best friend, Roger, she decides she must save him. And so her propulsively plotted journey begins.
By her side every step of the way is her daemon, Pantalaimon. The daemon is Pullman's most charming invention. In Lyra's world, each human has a constant animal companion. This daemon is more than a pet; it embodies the human's very soul. For readers not long past the age of horse worship and kitten adulation, the notion of the daemon has proved irresistible.
Word of mouth spread, and adults became avid Pullmanites as well. The New York Times called the books "Harry Potter for grown-ups." Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize was given to the final novel, the first time the prize ever was awarded to a children's book. Adults have been drawn, in part, by Pullman's gorgeous, imagistic prose. He writes fantastical scenes in a genuinely moving way, as when Lyra tends the wounds of Iorek Byrnison, king of the armored polar bears: "So the small human bent over the great bear-king, packing in the bloodmoss and freezing the raw flesh till it stopped bleeding. When she had finished, her mittens were sodden with Iorek's blood, but his wounds were stanched."
This kind of immediate, detailed writing has converted readers (like myself) who normally won't have anything to do with fantasy.
Pullman also demonstrates an appetite for big, challenging themes. He scavenges mythology and history for material: One page might subtly steal from Oedipus, the next from survivors' stories of the Holocaust, the next from Milton. Pullman isn't afraid to wrestle with the meaty stuff of good and evil, and good hardly ever turns out to be on the side of the church. His villains are religious hypocrites; his heroes are self-determined freethinkers.
This conflict reaches a climax in the final novel, when Lyra achieves her destiny, which involves killing God himself. This last bit of plotting brought Pullman another audience: Christians, who have pilloried the series. Now "The Golden Compass" has been made into a film, and Christians -- or at least their highly vocal, self-appointed representatives, such as the Catholic League -- have undertaken a campaign to boycott the film. (Is it just me, or does the name the Catholic League conjure up some shady, diabolical organization from a 1950s comic book?) They've flooded Amazon and other Web sites with posts, wherein they warn parents that Pullman is an "atheist!" and that in the final novel of the series "the children actually kill God!"
I, for one, find this outcry strangely moving. Not that I agree with these bossy handwringers; quite the opposite. But the fact that they care so much seems to me astonishing. It's a story worthy of Pullman himself: A man alone at his desk conjures a vision of a universe so free and happy that it terrifies perfect strangers.
Class Presentations
I love the presentations I have seen so far in our class. The first group seemed to take a very scholarly approach to Baum and THe Wizard of Oz. I loved the history about why the story starts in Kansas. I loved that there is an animal called a lyger...who would have thought!
THe second group seemed to go more along the lines on what we are doing in our class presentation. That is all I can say so I won't spoil it. If I do have one piece of advice DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WEAR IT!
THe second group seemed to go more along the lines on what we are doing in our class presentation. That is all I can say so I won't spoil it. If I do have one piece of advice DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WEAR IT!
Class Presentations
I love the presentations I have seen so far in our class. The first group seemed to take a very scholarly approach to Baum and THe Wizard of Oz. I loved the history about why the story starts in Kansas. I loved that there is an animal called a lyger...who would have thought!
THe second group seemed to go more along the lines on what we are doing in our class presentation. That is all I can say so I won't spoil it. If I do have one piece of advice DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WEAR IT!
THe second group seemed to go more along the lines on what we are doing in our class presentation. That is all I can say so I won't spoil it. If I do have one piece of advice DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WEAR IT!
Jesus and Pullman
Christ is mentioned in passing and the agents of God in the church do wear crucifixes. But there is no discursive effort to engage with Christ in the trilogy. God is not interested in saving people, largely, I presume, because they are not his beloved creation.
The absence of Christ seems a somewhat less scrupulous move of Pullman’s, since saving sacrifice is given considerable prominence in the work. As the story develops, the rebels, the heroes of the work, take on the ‘great enterprise’ of saving people from this tyrant God, and from death (which is his prison-house).
Their leader is Lord Asriel, Lyra’s father, who has often treated Lyra with indifference. Asriel is joined by Lyra’s mother, also long absent from Lyra’s life. Both come to discover Lyra’s importance in defeating the forces of God. And both come to realise that they do in fact love Lyra profoundly. This moment comes in their climactic fight with Metatron, when they further realise that defeating him and stopping him from reaching Lyra will mean sacrificing their own lives. And so that is what they do out of their love for Lyra, so that her work of saving all peoples might be achieved.
Their sacrifice of love is coupled with Lyra’s own sacrifice of separation. Lyra’s parents’ deaths enable her to complete her task of freeing souls from the land of the dead. But to do this Lyra must undergo separation from Pan, her d¾mon (in Lyra’s world humans have a living, speaking manifestation of their soul/consciousness that takes the form of an animal and is called their d¾mon). This is explained as the most terrible, costly separation for someone from Lyra’s world — a great forsaking of relationship — but it ultimately leads to her rescue of souls.
So Pullman ignores Christ, making no effort to address his sacrificial death on the cross out of his great love for us, or his suffering for our sake, paying the price to set us free. At the same time he explicitly denounces Christianity as the cause of our problems: ‘The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all’, Lyra is told (The Amber Spyglass, p.464). And yet without shame he transfers to the rebels a story of their costly sacrifice in the name of finally defeating God and claiming victory over death.
It is true of course that if you strip Christianity of a creator-God, who therefore has no right or place as our judge, then really you have no Christianity at all. For what Christ came to do in being punished for us by that righteous judge would become utterly meaningless. But to say that Pullman’s story is not anti-Christian, merely ‘anti-religious’ will not do. How many children among the general population do you know who have a reasoned grasp of what Christ achieved on the cross to set us free, that they can see an aping distortion of it when it comes along?
The absence of Christ seems a somewhat less scrupulous move of Pullman’s, since saving sacrifice is given considerable prominence in the work. As the story develops, the rebels, the heroes of the work, take on the ‘great enterprise’ of saving people from this tyrant God, and from death (which is his prison-house).
Their leader is Lord Asriel, Lyra’s father, who has often treated Lyra with indifference. Asriel is joined by Lyra’s mother, also long absent from Lyra’s life. Both come to discover Lyra’s importance in defeating the forces of God. And both come to realise that they do in fact love Lyra profoundly. This moment comes in their climactic fight with Metatron, when they further realise that defeating him and stopping him from reaching Lyra will mean sacrificing their own lives. And so that is what they do out of their love for Lyra, so that her work of saving all peoples might be achieved.
Their sacrifice of love is coupled with Lyra’s own sacrifice of separation. Lyra’s parents’ deaths enable her to complete her task of freeing souls from the land of the dead. But to do this Lyra must undergo separation from Pan, her d¾mon (in Lyra’s world humans have a living, speaking manifestation of their soul/consciousness that takes the form of an animal and is called their d¾mon). This is explained as the most terrible, costly separation for someone from Lyra’s world — a great forsaking of relationship — but it ultimately leads to her rescue of souls.
So Pullman ignores Christ, making no effort to address his sacrificial death on the cross out of his great love for us, or his suffering for our sake, paying the price to set us free. At the same time he explicitly denounces Christianity as the cause of our problems: ‘The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all’, Lyra is told (The Amber Spyglass, p.464). And yet without shame he transfers to the rebels a story of their costly sacrifice in the name of finally defeating God and claiming victory over death.
It is true of course that if you strip Christianity of a creator-God, who therefore has no right or place as our judge, then really you have no Christianity at all. For what Christ came to do in being punished for us by that righteous judge would become utterly meaningless. But to say that Pullman’s story is not anti-Christian, merely ‘anti-religious’ will not do. How many children among the general population do you know who have a reasoned grasp of what Christ achieved on the cross to set us free, that they can see an aping distortion of it when it comes along?
Questions about God
The most important of Pullman’s changes (to me) is that God in His Dark Materials is not the sovereign creator of the universe. He is merely the first angelic being who took it upon himself to lay claim to the title ‘God’. This is a catastrophic demotion. God, without any rights to call himself this, is unsurprisingly cast as a usurper, a tyrant, a despot. In fact he is an ageing figure who is reaching the end of his power and who is handing everything over to Metatron, the chief of his army and a terrifying figure. God is not a figure of love or mercy or grace. He is not a God of relationship, as he is absent from human affairs, except in that he opposes any freedom and individual thought because it is a threat to his power. Since he is not our creator, the giver of life, he prefers that humans are benign automatons. Since he is not the rightful judge of the universe, he is a tyrant.
In some respects this is so far removed from the true God that one might well think that this is no God at all. But Pullman explicitly identifies him as the God of Judeo-Christianity: ‘The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty — those were the names he gave himself. He was never the creator’, Will is told (The Amber Spyglass, p.33). Pullman wants to have his cake and eat it: to make God no God at all, but label him specifically as the God of the Christian church.
In some respects this is so far removed from the true God that one might well think that this is no God at all. But Pullman explicitly identifies him as the God of Judeo-Christianity: ‘The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty — those were the names he gave himself. He was never the creator’, Will is told (The Amber Spyglass, p.33). Pullman wants to have his cake and eat it: to make God no God at all, but label him specifically as the God of the Christian church.
hmmm....
The Amber Spyglass was the first children’s book to win the Whitbread prize; the trilogy came third in the BBC’s Big Read poll. The work continues to do well. Northern Lights was number three in the children’s bestsellers list at the end of 2004. And the two-part stage production is currently enjoying a second run at the National Theatre.
There is no need to ask why it has been so successful. The story is wonderfully inventive, one in which there are parallel worlds full of extraordinary people and creatures. It depicts with brilliant clarity the lives of its two young protagonists — Lyra, a defiant girl with a penchant for lying, and Will, a restless boy who has struggled with isolation and learnt to disguise himself from the eyes of the world. Together, the trilogy explores the theme of childhood friendship and portrays the process of adolescent self-awakening in a way that is as tender as you might find.
If the work has been taken to heart by so many readers, it has also caused consternation among many Christians. This is because the larger story, in which the children become involved, is the battle to overthrow God from his pedestal and establish ‘true freedom’ for all conscious beings. It is a cosmic tale, in which Pullman replays John Milton’s Paradise Lost, where a war in heaven precedes the fall of man, but in such a way that the story is reversed: in Pullman, God loses the war and the fall becomes the rebels’ final triumph.
This theological concern has prompted Christians to be rightly wary of the work. At the same time many like to avoid seeming unnecessarily extreme. We are familiar with books that routinely cause a stir. Is this, for example, like the Harry Potter series, where talk of banning a largely traditional boarding school story seems over the top? Is there more to be worried about in Pullman and, if so, what?
His Dark Materials is indeed some way from the Harry Potter series, taking as it does a theological framework and putting forward explicit, if reductive, views about God, Christianity and the church. The first book, Northern Lights, is a genuinely gripping tale. But Pullman’s agenda emerges here, and then as the books progress, increasingly dominates all that happens.
Christians should be aware of how his trilogy has made widespread and acceptable a version of Christianity that is little more than a caricature. The first of the film adaptations, due for release next year, will undoubtedly refocus attention on the books and add to this.
This article has been prompted by a hope that Christians who do choose to read the work (especially if, for example, their children read the work at school) will do so as critically as possible, aware of exactly how the author pulls off his version of the truth. But it is not my aim to respond to Pullman in an equally reductive manner. Instead, what I think we need to do is ask some straightforward questions of the trilogy and the worldview it offers.
There is no need to ask why it has been so successful. The story is wonderfully inventive, one in which there are parallel worlds full of extraordinary people and creatures. It depicts with brilliant clarity the lives of its two young protagonists — Lyra, a defiant girl with a penchant for lying, and Will, a restless boy who has struggled with isolation and learnt to disguise himself from the eyes of the world. Together, the trilogy explores the theme of childhood friendship and portrays the process of adolescent self-awakening in a way that is as tender as you might find.
If the work has been taken to heart by so many readers, it has also caused consternation among many Christians. This is because the larger story, in which the children become involved, is the battle to overthrow God from his pedestal and establish ‘true freedom’ for all conscious beings. It is a cosmic tale, in which Pullman replays John Milton’s Paradise Lost, where a war in heaven precedes the fall of man, but in such a way that the story is reversed: in Pullman, God loses the war and the fall becomes the rebels’ final triumph.
This theological concern has prompted Christians to be rightly wary of the work. At the same time many like to avoid seeming unnecessarily extreme. We are familiar with books that routinely cause a stir. Is this, for example, like the Harry Potter series, where talk of banning a largely traditional boarding school story seems over the top? Is there more to be worried about in Pullman and, if so, what?
His Dark Materials is indeed some way from the Harry Potter series, taking as it does a theological framework and putting forward explicit, if reductive, views about God, Christianity and the church. The first book, Northern Lights, is a genuinely gripping tale. But Pullman’s agenda emerges here, and then as the books progress, increasingly dominates all that happens.
Christians should be aware of how his trilogy has made widespread and acceptable a version of Christianity that is little more than a caricature. The first of the film adaptations, due for release next year, will undoubtedly refocus attention on the books and add to this.
This article has been prompted by a hope that Christians who do choose to read the work (especially if, for example, their children read the work at school) will do so as critically as possible, aware of exactly how the author pulls off his version of the truth. But it is not my aim to respond to Pullman in an equally reductive manner. Instead, what I think we need to do is ask some straightforward questions of the trilogy and the worldview it offers.
The Subtle Knife
In this, the second volume of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman continues to develop the grand Miltonic scheme of an emerging masterpiece of modern Fantasy. New characters join the mythically resonant cast of the first novel, Northern Lights (reviewed elsewhere in infinity plus); new worlds are added likewise, fresh contrasts of humanity's innocence and experience; the basis for the Armageddon of the final installment, The Amber Spyglass, is laid. The pace of invention and action does not slacken.
By the end of Northern Lights, it was clear that the trilogy's underlying conflict was between two principles: that of Authority (God, the Calvinistic Church of the Magisterium, inflexible Destiny, dogma, control), personified in the heroine, Lyra's, mother, Mrs Coulter, head of the Church's sinister Oblation Board; and that of Human Free Will (the Promethean or Satanic, the aspiring, the charismatically hubristic), embodied by Lyra's father, the resourcefully and industriously rebellious Lord Asriel.
One of the most impressive features of this book is the manner in which it takes that established opposition and weaves it, complexly, into a wide range of subplots, characterizations, and symbols, so that what is normally the flattest part of a trilogy, the section that must somehow keep the narrative going between the creativity of its opening and the drama of its climax, is constantly fascinating, a set of copiously imaginative variations on simple themes, subtly working together. This orchestration, in musical analogy, marks Pullman as Fantasy's pre-eminent Composer.
And so a symphony of plot elements proceeds. The action moves between three parallel universes: the steampunk milieu of Lyra's version of the Earth, with its scheming clerical bureaucrats and sinister presentiments of catastrophic war; our late Twentieth Century, with its urban hardships and blinkered secular obsessions; and a third alternate world, once a paradise of happiness and moderation, resembling then a full flowering of the potentials of the Italian Renaissance, but now ravaged by soul-eating Spectres, most of its surviving inhabitants orphaned children, in whom the Spectres have no interest. Lyra has fled the first Earth, a boy, Will, the second; they meet in the third, which acts as a sort of crossroads of the multiverse. Both protagonists have animal familiars; both are shadowed by their fathers, whom they have lost, and for whom they must search; both are attached by destiny to artifacts of cosmic significance, Lyra to the golden compass that measures Truth, Will to the subtle knife that can detect and open the gates between the worlds. Joining forces, they develop in tandem, maturing and learning in a deftly rendered harmony, as if they are complementary aspects of a single whole. The implication mounts that this growing-up, the theme of so many YA novels, is in this text the key to the coming to adulthood of the entire human species.
For Pullman is writing a manner of sequel to Paradise Lost. The last war in Heaven, between God and the rebel angels, was, as in Milton's account, lost by the latter tens of thousands of years ago, leading to the enslavement of all sentient beings to the iron Will of God. Now, in Asriel, there is a new Satan, who plans a new uprising. The angels, and their creations (the human species) have a second chance at free choice, free will, which might be understood as true adulthood. As Lyra and Will mature, they mature for all of us. By this token, Pullman's other subplots - quests by various adults, the aeronaut Lee Scoresby's to protect Lyra, the witch Serafina Pekkala's for the same, Will's father's for Will the knife bearer, Mrs Coulter's for the daughter she would kill, Asriel's for victory over the God who restrains him - are mere reflections of the central quest the children undertake. All adults, the world itself: these are also children struggling to grow up. And this has vast ramifications.
The Subtle Knife verges on Science Fiction in its speculative underpinnings. Scientists in our Oxford, helped along by Lyra, determine that the "Dust" the godly Magisterium fears, the dark matter that may constitute the bulk of the universe's mass, is made up of sentient elementary particles; these are, in a nutshell, great hosts of rebel angels, in a continuation of the fusion of theology and physics hinted at in Northern Lights. Matter itself is rebelling against the adamantine physical laws that have restrained its free behaviour - but the Renaissance world invaded by Spectres contains authentic winged angels, and the vampiric Spectres are in turn corrupted angels; so physical particles and spiritual metaphors are one and the same in Pullman's scheme. The Created wish to be free of their Creator, and this applies to every atom as to every thinking being. The Armageddon in The Amber Spyglass will be something to read.
It could be argued that the very setting of His Dark Materials, its range of alternate worlds, is a metaphor for the free will the rebels seek: all options realized, in parallel, rather than the stable monolithic reality Authority desires. Pullman's sympathy certainly lies with the rebellious instinct. But there are very clear hints that he also believes a balance must be struck: his narrative focus is on the striving, unhubristic Lyra and Will, not on their ambitious parents; and the Spectre-afflicted world seems very much like an Eden destroyed by the alchemic meddling that created the subtle knife. Perhaps there are proper limits to knowledge and aspiration; perhaps Authority has a place.
By the end of Northern Lights, it was clear that the trilogy's underlying conflict was between two principles: that of Authority (God, the Calvinistic Church of the Magisterium, inflexible Destiny, dogma, control), personified in the heroine, Lyra's, mother, Mrs Coulter, head of the Church's sinister Oblation Board; and that of Human Free Will (the Promethean or Satanic, the aspiring, the charismatically hubristic), embodied by Lyra's father, the resourcefully and industriously rebellious Lord Asriel.
One of the most impressive features of this book is the manner in which it takes that established opposition and weaves it, complexly, into a wide range of subplots, characterizations, and symbols, so that what is normally the flattest part of a trilogy, the section that must somehow keep the narrative going between the creativity of its opening and the drama of its climax, is constantly fascinating, a set of copiously imaginative variations on simple themes, subtly working together. This orchestration, in musical analogy, marks Pullman as Fantasy's pre-eminent Composer.
And so a symphony of plot elements proceeds. The action moves between three parallel universes: the steampunk milieu of Lyra's version of the Earth, with its scheming clerical bureaucrats and sinister presentiments of catastrophic war; our late Twentieth Century, with its urban hardships and blinkered secular obsessions; and a third alternate world, once a paradise of happiness and moderation, resembling then a full flowering of the potentials of the Italian Renaissance, but now ravaged by soul-eating Spectres, most of its surviving inhabitants orphaned children, in whom the Spectres have no interest. Lyra has fled the first Earth, a boy, Will, the second; they meet in the third, which acts as a sort of crossroads of the multiverse. Both protagonists have animal familiars; both are shadowed by their fathers, whom they have lost, and for whom they must search; both are attached by destiny to artifacts of cosmic significance, Lyra to the golden compass that measures Truth, Will to the subtle knife that can detect and open the gates between the worlds. Joining forces, they develop in tandem, maturing and learning in a deftly rendered harmony, as if they are complementary aspects of a single whole. The implication mounts that this growing-up, the theme of so many YA novels, is in this text the key to the coming to adulthood of the entire human species.
For Pullman is writing a manner of sequel to Paradise Lost. The last war in Heaven, between God and the rebel angels, was, as in Milton's account, lost by the latter tens of thousands of years ago, leading to the enslavement of all sentient beings to the iron Will of God. Now, in Asriel, there is a new Satan, who plans a new uprising. The angels, and their creations (the human species) have a second chance at free choice, free will, which might be understood as true adulthood. As Lyra and Will mature, they mature for all of us. By this token, Pullman's other subplots - quests by various adults, the aeronaut Lee Scoresby's to protect Lyra, the witch Serafina Pekkala's for the same, Will's father's for Will the knife bearer, Mrs Coulter's for the daughter she would kill, Asriel's for victory over the God who restrains him - are mere reflections of the central quest the children undertake. All adults, the world itself: these are also children struggling to grow up. And this has vast ramifications.
The Subtle Knife verges on Science Fiction in its speculative underpinnings. Scientists in our Oxford, helped along by Lyra, determine that the "Dust" the godly Magisterium fears, the dark matter that may constitute the bulk of the universe's mass, is made up of sentient elementary particles; these are, in a nutshell, great hosts of rebel angels, in a continuation of the fusion of theology and physics hinted at in Northern Lights. Matter itself is rebelling against the adamantine physical laws that have restrained its free behaviour - but the Renaissance world invaded by Spectres contains authentic winged angels, and the vampiric Spectres are in turn corrupted angels; so physical particles and spiritual metaphors are one and the same in Pullman's scheme. The Created wish to be free of their Creator, and this applies to every atom as to every thinking being. The Armageddon in The Amber Spyglass will be something to read.
It could be argued that the very setting of His Dark Materials, its range of alternate worlds, is a metaphor for the free will the rebels seek: all options realized, in parallel, rather than the stable monolithic reality Authority desires. Pullman's sympathy certainly lies with the rebellious instinct. But there are very clear hints that he also believes a balance must be struck: his narrative focus is on the striving, unhubristic Lyra and Will, not on their ambitious parents; and the Spectre-afflicted world seems very much like an Eden destroyed by the alchemic meddling that created the subtle knife. Perhaps there are proper limits to knowledge and aspiration; perhaps Authority has a place.
Found this on CNN
This is an interesting article on cnn when it comes to ideas of what is CHildrens materials and what is adult, what is real and what is fantasy...hope you enjoy it as much as I did
Weird Blog I found on Pullman...guy needs a hug
I am an atheist, and I found the religion-bashing in this book intrusive, pointless, and stupid at every level. It was stupid as philosophy, because Pullman does not give any reasoning for his position. It is stupid as character development, because neither hero nor heroine has any connection with the religious issue. It is stupid as plot development, because it does not spring out of the previous events nor draw to its conclusion, whatever that is: where is the Republic of Heaven we were promised? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I might have forgiven him, if he had kept an interesting (or even coherent) plot, character development, or a sense of magic and wonder. Instead we have a homo angel (as a good guy!) and major characters changing their personalities and dying offstage for no reason. Did anyone understand the point of the scene where Lyra basically kills all the ghosts in the afterlife? I personally am an atheist (among other reasons) because I do not believe in an afterlife. If there WERE an afterlife, however, I would have no desire to annihilate the disembodied minds found there. Rather, I would look on it as a severe medical condition, something to be cured, or at least a scientific curiosity, something to be studied. Instead the author seems to think that an infinite life is a bad thing, and that death is a good thing. Huhn?Basically, Mr. Pullman let his unreasonable hatred of religion overwhelm his sense of how to tell a story. Having written one good book full of promise, and a mediocre sequel, he concludes his trilogy with a disconnected sequence of scenes--I cannot call it a plot--and halts the action to stand on his soapbox and sell us his opinion.Don't get me wrong, I LIKE reading atheist speeches--when that is what I payed for, by a speechmaker who knows how to make a speech (see, for example, Tom Paine, or James Ingersoll). But when I pay for a book of supernatural children's adventure and get a lame pro-atheist speech instead, I have been cheated. Why did I bother to go to the bookstore? I could have stayed at home and written an editorial myself. Pullman's low opinion of religion is one I share, but I am deeply offended to see such an oafish defense of my position. I don't want him on my side: he is an embarrassment to intelligent atheists. Frankly, I'd rather read Narnia. CS Lewis may be my intellectual enemy, but he is an honest and worthy enemy. Better a hundred times than a worthless ally like Pullman.
hmmm
The anti-religion message is undeniable, although I prefer to think that the religion portrayed is a particularly extreme version of Calvinism which took over the Church, with an Authority who is not really a God but some sort of impostor. Plus the witches seem to have their own sort of faith separate from the Church.I thought that the scene of Iorek reforging the Knife That Was Broken was pretty good, but no, there wasn't enough of him after that.
This is kind of a cool interview with Lyra from The GOlden Compass
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGijvhOzuXk -
semi-summary of Golden Compass
The cornerstone of the forthcoming fantasy film The Golden Compass, based on the first novel in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, is the mysterious device from which the tale borrows its title. The golden compass, more formally referred to as the alethiometer, is an extraordinarily intricate device able to answer any question formed in the mind of the user. Created centuries ago by a metaphysical scientist, the truth-telling, future-seeing machine points not to true North like an ordinary compass, but to Truth itself. The alethiometer's face is ornamented with 36 arcane symbols, each of which may convey different meanings in combination with any of the others and according to the subtleties of the machine's motions. As you can imagine, this makes it incredibly difficult to read. In fact, there's no-one left in the world that possesses the ability, except for the story's young heroine, Lyra.
"The alethiometer's 36 symbols have more than 10 or 20 meanings themselves," explains director Weitz "According to the way the needle moves across these symbols, you can interpret it as an answer to your questions. There's some kind of absolute truth out there that guides the needle of the alethiometer. So, it's an immensely powerful object. It allows you to know anything and everything, but it's incredibly difficult to use. Everyone who has used the alethiometer has had to reference these huge tomes of symbols and their meanings and interpretations in order to get anything about of these devices. But Lyra, for reasons we will discover in part in this movie and in full in later movies in the series, has the ability to read it without these books. She's able to do this through long practice, through her inner nature, and through training by people who have folk wisdom of various kinds like the Gyptians in the story."
Lyra, played by actress Dakota Blue Richards, is given the device by the Master of Jordan College before being sent away to London. She soon finds herself on the run carrying the sought-after artifact, up against the sinister forces of the Magisterium -- an oppressive organization that seeks to destroy free will.
"The alethiometer's 36 symbols have more than 10 or 20 meanings themselves," explains director Weitz "According to the way the needle moves across these symbols, you can interpret it as an answer to your questions. There's some kind of absolute truth out there that guides the needle of the alethiometer. So, it's an immensely powerful object. It allows you to know anything and everything, but it's incredibly difficult to use. Everyone who has used the alethiometer has had to reference these huge tomes of symbols and their meanings and interpretations in order to get anything about of these devices. But Lyra, for reasons we will discover in part in this movie and in full in later movies in the series, has the ability to read it without these books. She's able to do this through long practice, through her inner nature, and through training by people who have folk wisdom of various kinds like the Gyptians in the story."
Lyra, played by actress Dakota Blue Richards, is given the device by the Master of Jordan College before being sent away to London. She soon finds herself on the run carrying the sought-after artifact, up against the sinister forces of the Magisterium -- an oppressive organization that seeks to destroy free will.
I thought this was interesting when it came to Pullman and gnosticsism
Home Characters Dictionary Author Quizzes Messages
Listen to the latest episode -->PHILIP PULLMAN WEBCHAT The webchat is now finished. Thanks for all your questions, the response was tremendous. We're sorry that we did not have time to ask everything. Read the author's answers below... From Luke Flatley Q: Did you begin with a short story and want to know more or did you have the idea of a trilogy in your head already when you started? Philip Pullman:A: No it wasn't a short story that became a long one - it was an incident that belonged to a long story. You can sort of sense the presence of the rest of the story there and how big it is even before you know exactly what it consists of. So I knew from the beginning that I was going to be writing something long. From Jonathon Hewlett-Davies Q: Did you have any strange dreams that inspired you to write the story? Philip Pullman:A: No, I don't rely much on dreams because it's always oddly disappointing when you try and tell someone about a dream that you've had. The thing that seemed so exciting and mysterious to you is often as dull as ditchwater to somebody else. So I try to make things up when I'm awake. From Babak Q: I've heard you're writing a new book called The Book of Dust. Is this true? Will you write more about the Republic of Heaven and how it's built? Philip Pullman:A: The Book of Dust will be not a continuation of the trilogy, but other stories about the same world and the same characters. It hasn't got very far yet so I can't tell you exactly what's in it and in any case I'd rather keep things quiet until they're finished. From Hilary Belden Q: How much have you been influenced by William Blake? Philip Pullman:A: A great deal. His work has always been very important to me and I consider him one of the greatest writers and indeed artists who ever lived. I read him constantly and continue to be amazed. From Tommy Torquemada Q: How has Colin Wilson influenced your work? Was it through him that you became interested in the writing of David Lindsay? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, it was Colin Wilson in whose work I first heard about David Lindsay. Wilson has written very interestingly on David Lindsay and I am grateful to him for making me aware not only of Lindsay, but several other people it would have taken me a lot longer to find otherwise. From Dave Stone Q: I remember reading your first book, Galatea and have been trying to find a copy of it for years. Is there any possibility that it might ever be reprinted? Philip Pullman:A: There is a publisher in America who wanted to re-issue Galatea recently but on re-reading it myself all I could see was what was wrong with it. I remain fond of the novel, but I don't think it's good enough for me to feel happy to see it in print again. From Cathy Q: Are daemons born at the same time as their humans, or do they somehow appear later on? Philip Pullman:A: This is a difficult one, because I've never had to think about it. I've never had to talk about how daemons come into being because I didn't write a scene in which a human character was being born. The gynaecology of daemons is a closed book to me. What I do know is about how they get their names: the parents' daemons choose the name of the child's daemon. From Angela Nowell Q: In the books, the name of Mrs Coulter's daemon is never given. And in the dramatisation, his name is given as Ozymandias – is this taken from Shelley's poem? Philip Pullman:A: I didn't choose that name and to be frank I don't think I would have done. I imagine that the scriptwriter did get it from Shelley's poem, but you'd really have to ask her why she went for that name. From Alex, age 9 Q: Do you ever wish you had an alethiometer? Would you use it a lot or only a little? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, it would be very useful, wouldn't it? But it does take a long time to ask a question and get the answer. And I think it would be tempting to rely on it too much. We're probably better off without them. From Graham King Q: Did you base the alethiometer on Ramon Lull's medieval art for seeking the truth, his Ars Combinatoria, based on three circles each divided into topics or symbols which can be individually turned to produce endless connections? Philip Pullman:A: Well, how interesting. I didn't know about this. My source for the alethiometer was partly the emblem books of the Renaissance and partly the memory theatre as described in a wonderful book by Frances Yates called The Art of Memory. I was aware of Ramon Lull but not about this Ars Combinatoria, which sounds extremely fascinating. Thank you for telling me about it. From Charlotte Lansley (12) Q: I would really like to know where you got the name Aesahættr, which is really difficult to pronounce Philip Pullman:A: I made it up from two Norse words meaning God and death. I know it's not very easy to say, which is one very good reason for everyone to buy the audio tape! From Darren Q: Where did the word panserbjørne come from? Philip Pullman:A: It's another word I made up from the Nordic languages: the bjørne part is bear, and panser means armour. So putting the two bits together, it was easy to make the word I have now. From Alex Bleasdale Q: Do daemons have free will? If your daemon commits a crime, would you, the owner be held responsible? Philip Pullman:A: Very interesting. That raises all sorts of possibilities and suggests all kinds of stories too. However, you have to remember that you and the daemon are not separate beings - you are one being in two bodies. From William Greenacre Q: The name Lyra is very unusual - where does it come from? Philip Pullman:A: The word lyra means lyre, or harp. There's a constellation Lyra and, although I knew the word, I'd never heard it used as a name. As far as my writing of the story is concerned, it just appeared with the girl. As soon as she was there, I knew she was Lyra. I have met one or two Lyras since then and at least two people known to me have called a new baby daughter Lyra. But it isn't a very common name, although I like it a lot. From Robin Bertrand Q: I don't understand how Lyra becomes the new Eve. What is the temptation and how does Mary act as the tempter? Philip Pullman:A: What Mary does is to tell a story about falling in love. When Lyra hears it, she suddenly understands something about herself and Will which she hadn't seen before. Mary makes the connection even closer by the next day by giving her some fruit, which Lyra offers to Will in the same gesture that Mary described in her story. This is the moment when the two children begin to leave their childhood behind and this to my mind is what the story of Adam and Eve is all about. It's the moment we left our childhood behind and began to grow up. From Sarah Matheson Q: How important is research when you are writing a story? Philip Pullman:A: It's important for the background. But the background is where it must stay. The only function of doing research is to help you make up stuff convincingly. If you put your research undiluted into a story you soon find yourself writing a text book instead of a novel. From Bonnie R. Calderwood Q: How many things did you invent for your books and then leave out? Philip Pullman:A: Well, there were quite a lot of them and the reason I left them out was that they didn't help the story move forward. You have to be ruthless with your own inventiveness if you want readers to follow you through a story. From Caleb Woodbridge (17) Q: What books have you enjoyed reading recently? Are there any books you'd recommend in particular? Philip Pullman:A: I'm reading with great pleasure at the moment a book by Colin Thubron called In Siberia. I'm also reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and a book I read recently and was very impressed by is Alasdair Gray's Lanark. From Beth Q: The angel told Lyra that she read the alethiometer by grace. Where did Lyra get that grace from and why does she lose it and have to work to get that ability back? Philip Pullman:A: Grace is a mysterious quality which is inexpicable in its appearance and disappearance. It's disappearance in Lyra's case symbolises the loss of innocence but the fact that she can regain it through work and study symbolises the fact that only when we lose our innocence, can we take our first steps towards gaining wisdom. From Michael Newman Q: Do you think children are encouraged to be writers and artists at school? How would you change our schools to bring out the creative nature of children? Philip Pullman:A: The first thing I would do is give teachers the freedom to teach without testing children all the time. Testing is a curse. Targets are a curse. No child should be tested at all. No child should suffer the indignity of being part of a target for a school to have to meet. Let's make education humane again. From Rory McLean Q: What is the difference between Ghosts, which were human once, and Angels, which were also human once? Why do the Ghosts dissolve when they return to a real world, when the Angels don't? Philip Pullman:A: Not all angels were humans once. It is very rare for a human ghost to become an angel. Most of the time they want to return to the physical world and dissolve into the air as the ones in the story do. From Ruth Addison Q: How long did it take you to write each book? Philip Pullman:A: Two years for each of the first two, and three years for The Amber Spyglass. From Jenny,12 Q: How did you come up with the name His Dark Materials Philip Pullman:A: Well, if you look at the very beginning of Northern Lights you'll find a quotation from the Milton's poem Paradise Lost which contains the phrase "his dark materials". When I was looking for a title I was thinking about dark matter which is the subject of Dr Mary Malone's research, among other things, and the phrase "his dark materials" seemed to echo that very well. From Russell Q: Would you call yourself a Gnostic? Philip Pullman:A: Not really. The essence of gnosticism is its rejection of the physical universe and the whole tendency of my thinking and feeling and of the story I wrote is towards the celebration of the physical world. Nevertheless, gnosticism is a fascinating and very powerful and persuasive system of thought. From Taras Young Q: Do you use a computer in your work? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, but not to compose the story on in the first place. The first draft is always written by hand on A4 narrow-lined paper with a ball-point pen. I put it on the computer once the first draft is finished and then I can fiddle with it until my publishers get fed up and tell me to hand it over quickly. From Jane WrinQ:How do you keep up with your ideas? Do you carry a dictaphone or note pad?Philip Pullman:A: I don't use either of those. If an idea is any good, I'll remember it. And if isn't any good, I'll forget it. From Anna Q: Are any of your family writers? Philip Pullman:A: No, none, I'm the only one. From Sarah Spencer Q: Do you believe in the many worlds theory? Philip Pullman:A: It's a very attractive thing to believe. It's full of interesting possibilities and endless opportunities for the storyteller. As far as I can understand the scientific background to it, it does seem to make sense in terms of the laws of physics. But I really don't understand much about that and I'm content to rely on experts who take it seriously. From Roger Jackson Q: Are there linguistic messages in the names of your characters? Philip Pullman:A: I don't think I'd call them messages. Names are chosen for several reasons. One is euphony - that is I want them to sound good. Another is to indicate the part of the world that a character comes from. For example, Russian characters will have Russian names. But I can't think of an example of a name with which I wanted to convey a message. Or if there was one, I've forgotten what the message was. So it obviously wasn't very important. From Rebecca Cooney Q: Have you got any hints or tips for aspiring young writers? Thankyou. Philip Pullman:A: Yes I have. The most helpful thing I can tell you is to write exactly what you want to write. This will probably be the sort of thing you like to read. But what you have to do is to give all your attention to your own preferences and not take the slightest bit of notice of anyone else's. It's only when you write something intended to please yourself alone that you'll succeed in pleasing other people - strange but true!
Listen to the latest episode -->PHILIP PULLMAN WEBCHAT The webchat is now finished. Thanks for all your questions, the response was tremendous. We're sorry that we did not have time to ask everything. Read the author's answers below... From Luke Flatley Q: Did you begin with a short story and want to know more or did you have the idea of a trilogy in your head already when you started? Philip Pullman:A: No it wasn't a short story that became a long one - it was an incident that belonged to a long story. You can sort of sense the presence of the rest of the story there and how big it is even before you know exactly what it consists of. So I knew from the beginning that I was going to be writing something long. From Jonathon Hewlett-Davies Q: Did you have any strange dreams that inspired you to write the story? Philip Pullman:A: No, I don't rely much on dreams because it's always oddly disappointing when you try and tell someone about a dream that you've had. The thing that seemed so exciting and mysterious to you is often as dull as ditchwater to somebody else. So I try to make things up when I'm awake. From Babak Q: I've heard you're writing a new book called The Book of Dust. Is this true? Will you write more about the Republic of Heaven and how it's built? Philip Pullman:A: The Book of Dust will be not a continuation of the trilogy, but other stories about the same world and the same characters. It hasn't got very far yet so I can't tell you exactly what's in it and in any case I'd rather keep things quiet until they're finished. From Hilary Belden Q: How much have you been influenced by William Blake? Philip Pullman:A: A great deal. His work has always been very important to me and I consider him one of the greatest writers and indeed artists who ever lived. I read him constantly and continue to be amazed. From Tommy Torquemada Q: How has Colin Wilson influenced your work? Was it through him that you became interested in the writing of David Lindsay? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, it was Colin Wilson in whose work I first heard about David Lindsay. Wilson has written very interestingly on David Lindsay and I am grateful to him for making me aware not only of Lindsay, but several other people it would have taken me a lot longer to find otherwise. From Dave Stone Q: I remember reading your first book, Galatea and have been trying to find a copy of it for years. Is there any possibility that it might ever be reprinted? Philip Pullman:A: There is a publisher in America who wanted to re-issue Galatea recently but on re-reading it myself all I could see was what was wrong with it. I remain fond of the novel, but I don't think it's good enough for me to feel happy to see it in print again. From Cathy Q: Are daemons born at the same time as their humans, or do they somehow appear later on? Philip Pullman:A: This is a difficult one, because I've never had to think about it. I've never had to talk about how daemons come into being because I didn't write a scene in which a human character was being born. The gynaecology of daemons is a closed book to me. What I do know is about how they get their names: the parents' daemons choose the name of the child's daemon. From Angela Nowell Q: In the books, the name of Mrs Coulter's daemon is never given. And in the dramatisation, his name is given as Ozymandias – is this taken from Shelley's poem? Philip Pullman:A: I didn't choose that name and to be frank I don't think I would have done. I imagine that the scriptwriter did get it from Shelley's poem, but you'd really have to ask her why she went for that name. From Alex, age 9 Q: Do you ever wish you had an alethiometer? Would you use it a lot or only a little? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, it would be very useful, wouldn't it? But it does take a long time to ask a question and get the answer. And I think it would be tempting to rely on it too much. We're probably better off without them. From Graham King Q: Did you base the alethiometer on Ramon Lull's medieval art for seeking the truth, his Ars Combinatoria, based on three circles each divided into topics or symbols which can be individually turned to produce endless connections? Philip Pullman:A: Well, how interesting. I didn't know about this. My source for the alethiometer was partly the emblem books of the Renaissance and partly the memory theatre as described in a wonderful book by Frances Yates called The Art of Memory. I was aware of Ramon Lull but not about this Ars Combinatoria, which sounds extremely fascinating. Thank you for telling me about it. From Charlotte Lansley (12) Q: I would really like to know where you got the name Aesahættr, which is really difficult to pronounce Philip Pullman:A: I made it up from two Norse words meaning God and death. I know it's not very easy to say, which is one very good reason for everyone to buy the audio tape! From Darren Q: Where did the word panserbjørne come from? Philip Pullman:A: It's another word I made up from the Nordic languages: the bjørne part is bear, and panser means armour. So putting the two bits together, it was easy to make the word I have now. From Alex Bleasdale Q: Do daemons have free will? If your daemon commits a crime, would you, the owner be held responsible? Philip Pullman:A: Very interesting. That raises all sorts of possibilities and suggests all kinds of stories too. However, you have to remember that you and the daemon are not separate beings - you are one being in two bodies. From William Greenacre Q: The name Lyra is very unusual - where does it come from? Philip Pullman:A: The word lyra means lyre, or harp. There's a constellation Lyra and, although I knew the word, I'd never heard it used as a name. As far as my writing of the story is concerned, it just appeared with the girl. As soon as she was there, I knew she was Lyra. I have met one or two Lyras since then and at least two people known to me have called a new baby daughter Lyra. But it isn't a very common name, although I like it a lot. From Robin Bertrand Q: I don't understand how Lyra becomes the new Eve. What is the temptation and how does Mary act as the tempter? Philip Pullman:A: What Mary does is to tell a story about falling in love. When Lyra hears it, she suddenly understands something about herself and Will which she hadn't seen before. Mary makes the connection even closer by the next day by giving her some fruit, which Lyra offers to Will in the same gesture that Mary described in her story. This is the moment when the two children begin to leave their childhood behind and this to my mind is what the story of Adam and Eve is all about. It's the moment we left our childhood behind and began to grow up. From Sarah Matheson Q: How important is research when you are writing a story? Philip Pullman:A: It's important for the background. But the background is where it must stay. The only function of doing research is to help you make up stuff convincingly. If you put your research undiluted into a story you soon find yourself writing a text book instead of a novel. From Bonnie R. Calderwood Q: How many things did you invent for your books and then leave out? Philip Pullman:A: Well, there were quite a lot of them and the reason I left them out was that they didn't help the story move forward. You have to be ruthless with your own inventiveness if you want readers to follow you through a story. From Caleb Woodbridge (17) Q: What books have you enjoyed reading recently? Are there any books you'd recommend in particular? Philip Pullman:A: I'm reading with great pleasure at the moment a book by Colin Thubron called In Siberia. I'm also reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and a book I read recently and was very impressed by is Alasdair Gray's Lanark. From Beth Q: The angel told Lyra that she read the alethiometer by grace. Where did Lyra get that grace from and why does she lose it and have to work to get that ability back? Philip Pullman:A: Grace is a mysterious quality which is inexpicable in its appearance and disappearance. It's disappearance in Lyra's case symbolises the loss of innocence but the fact that she can regain it through work and study symbolises the fact that only when we lose our innocence, can we take our first steps towards gaining wisdom. From Michael Newman Q: Do you think children are encouraged to be writers and artists at school? How would you change our schools to bring out the creative nature of children? Philip Pullman:A: The first thing I would do is give teachers the freedom to teach without testing children all the time. Testing is a curse. Targets are a curse. No child should be tested at all. No child should suffer the indignity of being part of a target for a school to have to meet. Let's make education humane again. From Rory McLean Q: What is the difference between Ghosts, which were human once, and Angels, which were also human once? Why do the Ghosts dissolve when they return to a real world, when the Angels don't? Philip Pullman:A: Not all angels were humans once. It is very rare for a human ghost to become an angel. Most of the time they want to return to the physical world and dissolve into the air as the ones in the story do. From Ruth Addison Q: How long did it take you to write each book? Philip Pullman:A: Two years for each of the first two, and three years for The Amber Spyglass. From Jenny,12 Q: How did you come up with the name His Dark Materials Philip Pullman:A: Well, if you look at the very beginning of Northern Lights you'll find a quotation from the Milton's poem Paradise Lost which contains the phrase "his dark materials". When I was looking for a title I was thinking about dark matter which is the subject of Dr Mary Malone's research, among other things, and the phrase "his dark materials" seemed to echo that very well. From Russell Q: Would you call yourself a Gnostic? Philip Pullman:A: Not really. The essence of gnosticism is its rejection of the physical universe and the whole tendency of my thinking and feeling and of the story I wrote is towards the celebration of the physical world. Nevertheless, gnosticism is a fascinating and very powerful and persuasive system of thought. From Taras Young Q: Do you use a computer in your work? Philip Pullman:A: Yes, but not to compose the story on in the first place. The first draft is always written by hand on A4 narrow-lined paper with a ball-point pen. I put it on the computer once the first draft is finished and then I can fiddle with it until my publishers get fed up and tell me to hand it over quickly. From Jane WrinQ:How do you keep up with your ideas? Do you carry a dictaphone or note pad?Philip Pullman:A: I don't use either of those. If an idea is any good, I'll remember it. And if isn't any good, I'll forget it. From Anna Q: Are any of your family writers? Philip Pullman:A: No, none, I'm the only one. From Sarah Spencer Q: Do you believe in the many worlds theory? Philip Pullman:A: It's a very attractive thing to believe. It's full of interesting possibilities and endless opportunities for the storyteller. As far as I can understand the scientific background to it, it does seem to make sense in terms of the laws of physics. But I really don't understand much about that and I'm content to rely on experts who take it seriously. From Roger Jackson Q: Are there linguistic messages in the names of your characters? Philip Pullman:A: I don't think I'd call them messages. Names are chosen for several reasons. One is euphony - that is I want them to sound good. Another is to indicate the part of the world that a character comes from. For example, Russian characters will have Russian names. But I can't think of an example of a name with which I wanted to convey a message. Or if there was one, I've forgotten what the message was. So it obviously wasn't very important. From Rebecca Cooney Q: Have you got any hints or tips for aspiring young writers? Thankyou. Philip Pullman:A: Yes I have. The most helpful thing I can tell you is to write exactly what you want to write. This will probably be the sort of thing you like to read. But what you have to do is to give all your attention to your own preferences and not take the slightest bit of notice of anyone else's. It's only when you write something intended to please yourself alone that you'll succeed in pleasing other people - strange but true!
Daemons
I have learned long ago that I enjoy books for the quality of the material and that I shouldn't discriminate based on the intended audience of the book. His Dark MaterialsBook One-The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman is an excellent example of a fantasy novel created for young adults that transcends that category. In my opinion this Young Adult category, in its best sense, means that foul language and sexual content have been eliminated from the story. Although I enjoy a little foul language every once in a while I notice no lack in a novel when it is absent.This novel follows a young scamp of a girl through a world that is very similar to our nineteenth century world. Lyra resides, as an orphan, at Oxford and is thrust, through her own intense curiosity, into a religious and metaphysical maze of treachery. Gradually she is able to piece together answers to a number of strange occurrences that include disappearing children and a beautiful woman with a golden monkey. You see, there is at least one big difference in this world. People have physical representations of their souls, called deamons. While children have deamons that are able to change form at their whim, adults have deamons in a fixed form. This is at the heart the novel and allows Lyra to finally begin to uncover what a mysterious substance, called Dust, really is.Philip Pullman pulls the reader into this piece through a fantastic portrayal and adventure of a young girl that one can easily relate to amidst the strange world that she lives. I was enthralled throughout the whole book as I could never begin to guess what would happen next. The flaws in each character give this story something to sink your teeth into and allow you to truly engross yourself in this tantalizing world. One thing that intrigued me was the idea of a physical soul. Each character seems to have a deep and affectionate bond with their deamons, but I can't help but wonder what would happen to a person filled with self-loathing.
Is that the people with Wolf Daemons? Why is the daemon always the opposite sex as the human? These are interesting thoughts for me
Is that the people with Wolf Daemons? Why is the daemon always the opposite sex as the human? These are interesting thoughts for me
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Rough Draft paper topic
What I want to do in my paper is look at what characteristics defined the beast and compare them to other archtypes such as the byronic hero or the pioneer hero. From little bits I have gathered, there is many similarities between them. What does this mean for Childrens literature exactly when there are so many commonalties between a major figure in childrens literature and created characters in "scholarly" literature? Is "sophisticated" literature just another version childrens literature? Let me know what you think
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Great Website
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/alice7b.html
I thought this sight was interesting. It talks about the origins of the poems used in Carrols through the looking glass!
I thought this sight was interesting. It talks about the origins of the poems used in Carrols through the looking glass!
Test stuff
SUBJECT MATTER:
talbot pages
Alice Chapters
-wool and water, humpty, tweedle dee/dum, caepillar,
Questions of morals
My Book and Heart
Mrs. Sexons lecture
1). Illustrator of Alice
- Tenniel
2). Last word of B and B
- Virture
3). The Worms win after death but we can triumph over worms through art
4). Oscar Wilde
-Life Imitates art
5). 5 themes
- myth, history, art, dream and coincidence
6). White Knight in Alice
-presumed to be Carrol
7). How doth the busy bee.....moral
-paradist counterpart the crocodile
8). Mock turtle sings to Alice aboout
-soup (original a beautiful star)
9). Madhatters riddle: Raven like writing desk
- answer: I have no idea
10). After shakespear most quoted English author
-Lewis Carrol
11). ______ is a depersonalized blank ________ and _____is a personalized ________
12). Portmanteau : ginormous
13). Rudest of all flowers
- violet
14). aniema-
-soul
15). Who is the volcano
- Alice
16). Where does alice live in us
- the collective unconcious or dust
17). what happens when alice takes her first drink in wonderland
-she shrinks 10 inches
18). Title of deleted chapter of through the looking glass
- wasp and the wing
20).How does Alice offend the mice
- cats
21). Protistant Reformation
- teach moral values
22). 1rst bible in America
-published in Algonquian
23). Before Darwin, 2 animals that sparked controversy when it came to evolution
-Mammoth and monkey
24). Invention that had huge influence on prodistent reformation
-Guttenburg press or printing press
25). Why is madhatter mad? Mecury poisining
-misplaced concreteness
26). Anogram
27). White Rabbit drop when he scares alice
-White gloves and a fan (makes her shrink)
28). What do beauties tears turn into in the movie
-diamonds
29). When reading a story trust the tale not the teller
-D.H. Lawerence
30). Im interested because its interesting
- tatology (circle arguement)
31). Goody two shoes is an emblam of perfection
-adults lack perfectioion
32). According to the tweedles If alice is part of the red kings dream what are they?
-ditto ditto ditto
33). What causes the walrus and carpenter to weep
-sand
34). What image of Alice was in a dream of a person in class
-Flyin pig
35). English class is the dark side
36. Most prolific serial killer in British history
-Marry Ann cotton
37. 2 primary ghosts in Talbot
-SId james and the white lady
38). Last line of alice poem
- Life what is it but a dream?
39. Walter pader
- All art inspires for the tradition of music
40. Text informs reality....Book and Heart
talbot pages
Alice Chapters
-wool and water, humpty, tweedle dee/dum, caepillar,
Questions of morals
My Book and Heart
Mrs. Sexons lecture
1). Illustrator of Alice
- Tenniel
2). Last word of B and B
- Virture
3). The Worms win after death but we can triumph over worms through art
4). Oscar Wilde
-Life Imitates art
5). 5 themes
- myth, history, art, dream and coincidence
6). White Knight in Alice
-presumed to be Carrol
7). How doth the busy bee.....moral
-paradist counterpart the crocodile
8). Mock turtle sings to Alice aboout
-soup (original a beautiful star)
9). Madhatters riddle: Raven like writing desk
- answer: I have no idea
10). After shakespear most quoted English author
-Lewis Carrol
11). ______ is a depersonalized blank ________ and _____is a personalized ________
12). Portmanteau : ginormous
13). Rudest of all flowers
- violet
14). aniema-
-soul
15). Who is the volcano
- Alice
16). Where does alice live in us
- the collective unconcious or dust
17). what happens when alice takes her first drink in wonderland
-she shrinks 10 inches
18). Title of deleted chapter of through the looking glass
- wasp and the wing
20).How does Alice offend the mice
- cats
21). Protistant Reformation
- teach moral values
22). 1rst bible in America
-published in Algonquian
23). Before Darwin, 2 animals that sparked controversy when it came to evolution
-Mammoth and monkey
24). Invention that had huge influence on prodistent reformation
-Guttenburg press or printing press
25). Why is madhatter mad? Mecury poisining
-misplaced concreteness
26). Anogram
27). White Rabbit drop when he scares alice
-White gloves and a fan (makes her shrink)
28). What do beauties tears turn into in the movie
-diamonds
29). When reading a story trust the tale not the teller
-D.H. Lawerence
30). Im interested because its interesting
- tatology (circle arguement)
31). Goody two shoes is an emblam of perfection
-adults lack perfectioion
32). According to the tweedles If alice is part of the red kings dream what are they?
-ditto ditto ditto
33). What causes the walrus and carpenter to weep
-sand
34). What image of Alice was in a dream of a person in class
-Flyin pig
35). English class is the dark side
36. Most prolific serial killer in British history
-Marry Ann cotton
37. 2 primary ghosts in Talbot
-SId james and the white lady
38). Last line of alice poem
- Life what is it but a dream?
39. Walter pader
- All art inspires for the tradition of music
40. Text informs reality....Book and Heart
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Favorite Chapters
first ...my favorite is the poole of tears. Alice becomes confused about her identity as her size changes, mirroring the confusion that occurs during the transition from childhood to adulthood. The reality that she is too large to fit into the garden produces confusion over who she is, which Alice responds to with bouts of crying and self-reproach. Unable to accept the changes she is experiencing, she questions her own identity. Since she cannot remember her own lessons, she believes that she must not be Alice anymore. At first, Alice assumes that she may in fact be someone she knows. The comparisons she draws between herself and Mabel show her class-consciousness, as well as her ties to the material trappings of the Victorian world. Though she tries to use chains of reasoning suited to the aboveground world, the paradox of Wonderland is that she must accept the logic of nonsense or she will go mad with contradiction.
Alice tries to deal with her predicament reasonably, but the episode in the pool of tears illustrates how easily Wonderland distracts her from reason and causes her to react emotionally. The sea of tears is like a punishment for Alice's giving in to her own emotions. Alice vacillates between crying and scolding herself, going back and forth between emotion and reason. However, as she swims, she doesn't notice that the landscape has transformed around her. The great hall has become an ocean, while the floor has become a dry “shore.” Instead of reacting to her predicament by rationalizing the problem or starting to cry, she distracts herself by trying to figure out how to address the Mouse. Alice has started to react with total detachment to the absurd situations in which she finds herself. As she proceeds throughout her journeys, she will continue to encounter problems that cause her to react with extremes of emotion or reason. However, in this scene, she has begun to take the absurdities of Wonderland at face value, allowing herself to become distracted so that she ignores the real problem at hand.
It begs the question does our imagination interfere with reality or is reality in our imagination. My parents always used to tell me not to let the life I have today interfere with the life I have today....this chapter helps illustrate that!
Alice tries to deal with her predicament reasonably, but the episode in the pool of tears illustrates how easily Wonderland distracts her from reason and causes her to react emotionally. The sea of tears is like a punishment for Alice's giving in to her own emotions. Alice vacillates between crying and scolding herself, going back and forth between emotion and reason. However, as she swims, she doesn't notice that the landscape has transformed around her. The great hall has become an ocean, while the floor has become a dry “shore.” Instead of reacting to her predicament by rationalizing the problem or starting to cry, she distracts herself by trying to figure out how to address the Mouse. Alice has started to react with total detachment to the absurd situations in which she finds herself. As she proceeds throughout her journeys, she will continue to encounter problems that cause her to react with extremes of emotion or reason. However, in this scene, she has begun to take the absurdities of Wonderland at face value, allowing herself to become distracted so that she ignores the real problem at hand.
It begs the question does our imagination interfere with reality or is reality in our imagination. My parents always used to tell me not to let the life I have today interfere with the life I have today....this chapter helps illustrate that!
my dream
The heart of southwest nowhere, this is where my dream ends. A cold desolate nowhere, where sun shines coldly and hearts grow into it, and, my drem, a story which painfully I will only forever bind together and be bound between past and future heartaches. The earth here is frozen. It is a marvelously ugly place- a delicately unyielding land, where I and too many others have watched leaves land painfully frozen on the grounds where we, too, will fall only to be forgotten. No one here is a stranger, at least to the pain of losses known. And, no one here is lonely without having at least their loneliness, and the shared sense that looms here.
Oh, this place, with daunting memories, where I fell in love. Oh, this place, this place where I fell too quickly out of love, then back in love again. Falling the second time only for this sacred place of loneliness- the guardian of many hollow men alike, empty men such as myself. This place and I are both so filled with a mutual agony and the few tears we still have left. Quarantined from the rest world in hopeless desperation, I live along side all that are lonely in this place which darkness endlessly expands in all dimensions, ever growing from the solitude within each of us who occupy this space. And strewn about this occupied vacancy and I, too, are many dreams once had like this one, and prayers unanswered. Many people have died here before, all of them so much alike, and like us to be, all of us- shadows of those before.
Such are all stories written here, left on pages to be untold and still known. Chronicles printed in blood on forests replanted that wait until the last page is read, turned, then torn, and even then our roots remain in this forest from which we arose. Approaching what seems inevitably certain, I am restless amongst the conclusion of our journey together. Not one with these hopeless souls, but with this ever-constant carrier of sorrows- this land which appears nothing more than opposite to a ship of Phlegyas rushing to certain doom. I have no idea what lies ahead, but rest in knowing that it positively cannot be a place more empty and bleak than here.
I feel relief in the moment of knowing that I will leave this horrible place, even as I am unsure of the encounters that lie ahead. In this exact moment, however, I am mournful in knowing that this place is all I've ever known, and this place is all I've had. And, as I prepare to depart this land of lost desires, and leave behind broken spirits so similar to mine, my legs grow weak and I tremble in remorse. I fall to the ground with the last of my tears and wish to this place that it may find peace. I, prepared now for anything, offer this land my last drop of blood and in my last words to be carried away in her wind I say to her, "Goodbye, my friend."
Im awake now, not knowing if I slept or lived my nightmare. Im left with dispare and loneliness. I feel my insides turning every which way like there is some demon devouring my feelings and my intestines. Was it really a nightmare? God I'm not sure. I have lost a part of me somewhere in the midsts of the cold dark night. All I can hope for is that someone finds it and uses it. What ever it is. Im not sure if it is the materials we read for this class, usually Im a happy boy, and now that I am awake I am! No I can't tell the dream relm from reality. It is nothing like Alice in Wonderland....I am glad to be home in reality! For the first time in a while I actually was a little emotional because of this dream! Im not emotional all to often. So now my question is were my tears real if this was a dream? Does it matter if they were? I hope my next dream is like the majority, happy! This one was a rare nightmare.
Oh, this place, with daunting memories, where I fell in love. Oh, this place, this place where I fell too quickly out of love, then back in love again. Falling the second time only for this sacred place of loneliness- the guardian of many hollow men alike, empty men such as myself. This place and I are both so filled with a mutual agony and the few tears we still have left. Quarantined from the rest world in hopeless desperation, I live along side all that are lonely in this place which darkness endlessly expands in all dimensions, ever growing from the solitude within each of us who occupy this space. And strewn about this occupied vacancy and I, too, are many dreams once had like this one, and prayers unanswered. Many people have died here before, all of them so much alike, and like us to be, all of us- shadows of those before.
Such are all stories written here, left on pages to be untold and still known. Chronicles printed in blood on forests replanted that wait until the last page is read, turned, then torn, and even then our roots remain in this forest from which we arose. Approaching what seems inevitably certain, I am restless amongst the conclusion of our journey together. Not one with these hopeless souls, but with this ever-constant carrier of sorrows- this land which appears nothing more than opposite to a ship of Phlegyas rushing to certain doom. I have no idea what lies ahead, but rest in knowing that it positively cannot be a place more empty and bleak than here.
I feel relief in the moment of knowing that I will leave this horrible place, even as I am unsure of the encounters that lie ahead. In this exact moment, however, I am mournful in knowing that this place is all I've ever known, and this place is all I've had. And, as I prepare to depart this land of lost desires, and leave behind broken spirits so similar to mine, my legs grow weak and I tremble in remorse. I fall to the ground with the last of my tears and wish to this place that it may find peace. I, prepared now for anything, offer this land my last drop of blood and in my last words to be carried away in her wind I say to her, "Goodbye, my friend."
Im awake now, not knowing if I slept or lived my nightmare. Im left with dispare and loneliness. I feel my insides turning every which way like there is some demon devouring my feelings and my intestines. Was it really a nightmare? God I'm not sure. I have lost a part of me somewhere in the midsts of the cold dark night. All I can hope for is that someone finds it and uses it. What ever it is. Im not sure if it is the materials we read for this class, usually Im a happy boy, and now that I am awake I am! No I can't tell the dream relm from reality. It is nothing like Alice in Wonderland....I am glad to be home in reality! For the first time in a while I actually was a little emotional because of this dream! Im not emotional all to often. So now my question is were my tears real if this was a dream? Does it matter if they were? I hope my next dream is like the majority, happy! This one was a rare nightmare.
my paper
I am curious to see how the beast character has influenced literature. We see many of the same attributes of the beast with the byronic hero and the frontier hero....hmmm....thats about all I got now
Sunday, October 26, 2008
My Book and Heart shall never part
When I was watching the movie, Sutter's question came to mind, "is there really such a thing as a child?" You know, after watching the movie I would have to say I don't know. Little Goody two shoes did many grown up things, teaching other childeren how to read, starting a college, getting married; she was a little adult. But during the movie, I watched the kids in the audience, there was a child wearing a wolf mask doing random scarings, children running up and down the isles, basically doing what children do best. I can't buy into the idea that literacy leads to knowledge and knowledge steals the idea of being a child. Why do we call a baby lion a cub, why not just a little adult lion? From the moment they are born they are learning. The only reason I brought up the point of the lion is in the movie they stated that we were reading nature and vise versa. We are one in the same. I guess another question I have is WHY IS THE IDEA OF CHILD IMPORTANT? I almost feelt that we read to much into this. Instead, I like the idea presented by the movie that Reading is a form of playing for a child. A fun way to attain knowledge. WHy can't the discussion just end there? Maybe it is human nature to try and find ansewers that aren't needed. Humans suffer from a need to always know when we should instead just be. We suffer from misplaced concreteness.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Test questions
Stories to study
1). Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hanzel and Grettel, Beuty and Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, East of Sun West of Moon Bluebeard, Juniper tree
2).Archetypical character from Joyce's Finnigans Wake: Prank Queen
-queen important
3). Portmanteau: Many meanings, two words combined to form one
-example: Slythie: slimy and slythery
4). Misplaced concreteness: a question not needed to be asked
- Hans the hedgehog riding on rooster
5).Little Red Riding Hood:
-type 333 fairy tale
-"If your crafty you will get them both"
6). The collective unconcious that is seen in fairytales: Archetypes
7). 3 parts of cambell's universal quest:
-seperation
-initiation
-return
8). 3 parts of triple goddess
-mother
-maiden
-crone
9). Why is there no original fairytale: They are all displaced myth
10). You bow to the divine
11). Disney's Genie in Aladin= myth not history
12). Different version of fairytales=important!!!!!
13). Motif index of East of Sun West of Moon
-similar to Beuty and Beast and Hans my Hedgehog
-Searching husband/beast group of fairytales
14). most stories about parents struggle to concieve a child
-Bluebeard is not about this
15). Dynamic mother and daughter duo
-persephone and Demeter
16). hmm Hiaku: Stanzas equal 5,7,5
17). many significances to Bluebeards beard
18). Beauty and Beast transformation happens because of love
19). the Archetype of a talking animal happens in THE GOLDEN ASS
20). Why did Cupid wake up in Cupid and Psyche: Hot oil dripped on him
-similar to East of Sun West of moon
21). Example of spoonerism: sugly uisters
22). Romantic poet that beleived man knew everything from birth
-Wordsworth
23). Grimm's story with a witch: Hanzel and Gretel
24). Auther that loved Little Red Riding Hoood (1rst love): Charles Dickons
25). Celtic Cinderella had an ewe
1). Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hanzel and Grettel, Beuty and Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, East of Sun West of Moon Bluebeard, Juniper tree
2).Archetypical character from Joyce's Finnigans Wake: Prank Queen
-queen important
3). Portmanteau: Many meanings, two words combined to form one
-example: Slythie: slimy and slythery
4). Misplaced concreteness: a question not needed to be asked
- Hans the hedgehog riding on rooster
5).Little Red Riding Hood:
-type 333 fairy tale
-"If your crafty you will get them both"
6). The collective unconcious that is seen in fairytales: Archetypes
7). 3 parts of cambell's universal quest:
-seperation
-initiation
-return
8). 3 parts of triple goddess
-mother
-maiden
-crone
9). Why is there no original fairytale: They are all displaced myth
10). You bow to the divine
11). Disney's Genie in Aladin= myth not history
12). Different version of fairytales=important!!!!!
13). Motif index of East of Sun West of Moon
-similar to Beuty and Beast and Hans my Hedgehog
-Searching husband/beast group of fairytales
14). most stories about parents struggle to concieve a child
-Bluebeard is not about this
15). Dynamic mother and daughter duo
-persephone and Demeter
16). hmm Hiaku: Stanzas equal 5,7,5
17). many significances to Bluebeards beard
18). Beauty and Beast transformation happens because of love
19). the Archetype of a talking animal happens in THE GOLDEN ASS
20). Why did Cupid wake up in Cupid and Psyche: Hot oil dripped on him
-similar to East of Sun West of moon
21). Example of spoonerism: sugly uisters
22). Romantic poet that beleived man knew everything from birth
-Wordsworth
23). Grimm's story with a witch: Hanzel and Gretel
24). Auther that loved Little Red Riding Hoood (1rst love): Charles Dickons
25). Celtic Cinderella had an ewe
Fun Facts, east of sun west of moon
1). Variant of Beauty and Beast; Hans my Hedgehog
2). once again, 3 and 7 = important numbers
3). White bear wants youngest merchants daughter
-economic status important in this story
4). daughter (unlike Beauty and Beast is reluctant to go with the bear)
5). Mothers advice brings trouble
-prince's mother forces him to marry lady with 3 elles long nose
6). While daughter is wandering, meets 3 old ladies with important objects
-Golden apple
-Golden comb
-Golden spinning wheel
a). all used to bribe big nosed princess
7). she used the winds to find the castle
2). once again, 3 and 7 = important numbers
3). White bear wants youngest merchants daughter
-economic status important in this story
4). daughter (unlike Beauty and Beast is reluctant to go with the bear)
5). Mothers advice brings trouble
-prince's mother forces him to marry lady with 3 elles long nose
6). While daughter is wandering, meets 3 old ladies with important objects
-Golden apple
-Golden comb
-Golden spinning wheel
a). all used to bribe big nosed princess
7). she used the winds to find the castle
Other stuff on Juniper tree
1). Important names to remember: Phillip Outto Runge; Atreus (Greek myth)
2). Apple is the childs undoing, object of desire, leads to death
3). Important objects
-Gold chain
_Red shoes
-Millstone
2). Apple is the childs undoing, object of desire, leads to death
3). Important objects
-Gold chain
_Red shoes
-Millstone
Blue Beard
1). Other names: Silver noose; lord of the underworld
2). Curiosity of wife seen as bad, not his serial killer ways
-curiousity of women is a common moral that is warned against
3). In the intro, Bluebeard had seven wives, in story she was the fourth
4). Alive wifes brothers
-Dragoon
- Musketeer
2). Curiosity of wife seen as bad, not his serial killer ways
-curiousity of women is a common moral that is warned against
3). In the intro, Bluebeard had seven wives, in story she was the fourth
4). Alive wifes brothers
-Dragoon
- Musketeer
Snow White
1). Other name Sneewitchen
2). she was 7 when the mirror acknowledged her as fairest
-7 is an important number in fairy tales like the 3
a). hmm...seven dwarfs
4). story similar to Goldylocks
5). Important name to remember :Sandra Guber
2). she was 7 when the mirror acknowledged her as fairest
-7 is an important number in fairy tales like the 3
a). hmm...seven dwarfs
4). story similar to Goldylocks
5). Important name to remember :Sandra Guber
Beauty and the Beast
1). Remeber story of cupid and psyche
-the golden ass (talking animals)
- King lear
2). Love was the transformation
3). Beauty had 2 other sisters and 3 brothers
-the golden ass (talking animals)
- King lear
2). Love was the transformation
3). Beauty had 2 other sisters and 3 brothers
Cinderella and Hanzel and Gretel
Cinderella
1). uses nature as helper
-fish
-calf
-tree
a). these later become fairy god mother
Hanzel and Gretel
1). Folklorists say this is "Children and the Ogre" type of tale
2). Englebert Humperdink made the other children turn to gingerbread
3). 1rst time in woods, Hanzel uses pebbles to find his way home
-when mother asked what he stopped for, he was looking at his cat
4). 2nd time in woods he used crumbs the birds ate
- this time he was looking at his dove
-birds lead to their entrapment and escape
5). Brunno Bettleheim said this was a warning for curious children (Greed of children)
6). The witch had red eyes
7). Hanzel used a bone as his finger when the witch checked to see how fat he was
1). uses nature as helper
-fish
-calf
-tree
a). these later become fairy god mother
Hanzel and Gretel
1). Folklorists say this is "Children and the Ogre" type of tale
2). Englebert Humperdink made the other children turn to gingerbread
3). 1rst time in woods, Hanzel uses pebbles to find his way home
-when mother asked what he stopped for, he was looking at his cat
4). 2nd time in woods he used crumbs the birds ate
- this time he was looking at his dove
-birds lead to their entrapment and escape
5). Brunno Bettleheim said this was a warning for curious children (Greed of children)
6). The witch had red eyes
7). Hanzel used a bone as his finger when the witch checked to see how fat he was
little red riding hood notes
1).Other names: Rotkappchen; Le petite rouge
2). Grandmother = alcoholic
-red nose is indicator
Lois Lowrey- Numbor the stars
3). Frued and Ann sexon say cutting of belly is symbolic of birth
2). Grandmother = alcoholic
-red nose is indicator
Lois Lowrey- Numbor the stars
3). Frued and Ann sexon say cutting of belly is symbolic of birth
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Cinderella rebutal
A prince charming doesn't care to look where beauty may be found
all he wants to know is "your ass flat or round?"
Is she a good person is not something he will care
all he really wants to know is what color is her underwear!
A bit crude a bit unfair I may seem
but I live in a real world where men like him have a scheme.
A woman like cinderella is a notch on a belt
the love he will give is not heart felt.
Be with him and see if I'm right
If you marry a "prince charming" get ready for a fight.
You don't know him, love for looks isn't real
You might understand this when he is drunk and says "Honey! damn it where is my meal!"
If there is a moral, looks can decieve, get to know the person instead.
You must look with your eyes, your heart and your head.
It doesn't matter if he is HOTT and has the attributes of a horse!
If you think like this ladies, I hope you love divorce!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
What is child, nature and a book
Well....gee...I guess I believe a child and nature can have a variety of meanings. First I can see nature as the outdoors, but also as a state of being. I have been asked the question "What is your nature" many different times in my life. It is a hard question for me to answer. What is it that drives me? What makes me react to certain things? That could be a definition of nature. Now for child, what is a child? A child of course could be a child but I also buy into that child is synonomus to innocence like Wordsworth would argue. Child can also be a state of being. A book to me, is a story that is all
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Summer and Winter Garden
The Summer and Winter Garden
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
A merchant was planning to go to a fair, so he asked his three daughters what he should bring back for them.
The oldest one said, "A beautiful dress."
The second, "A pair of pretty shoes."
The third, "A rose."
To find a rose would be difficult, for it was the middle of winter, but because the youngest daughter was the most beautiful, and because she took great pleasure in flowers, the father said that he would do his best to find her one.
The merchant was now on his homeward trip. He had a splendid dress for the oldest daughter, a pair of beautiful shoes for the second one, but he had not been able to get a rose for the third one. Whenever he had entered a garden looking for roses, the people just laughed at him, asking him if he believed that roses grew in the snow. He was very sad about this, and as he was thinking about what he might bring his dearest child, he came to a castle. It had an adjoining garden where it was half summer and half winter. On the one side the most beautiful flowers were blossoming -- large and small. On the other side everything was bare and covered with deep snow.
The man climbed from his horse. He was overjoyed to see an entire hedge full of roses on the summer side. He approached it, picked one of them, and then rode off.
He had already ridden some distance when he heard something running and panting behind him. Turning around, he saw a large black beast, that called out, "Give me back my rose, or I'll kill you! Give me back my rose, or I'll kill you!"
The man said, "Please let me have the rose. I am supposed to bring one home for my daughter, the most beautiful daughter in the world."
"For all I care, but then give me your beautiful daughter for a wife!"
In order to get rid of the beast, the man said yes, thinking that he would not come to claim her.
However, the beast shouted back to him, "In eight days I will come and get my bride."
So the merchant brought each daughter what she had wanted, and each one was delighted, especially the youngest with her rose.
Eight days later the three sisters were sitting together at the table when something came stepping heavily up the stairs to the door. "Open up! Open up!" it shouted.
They opened the door, and were terrified when a large black beast stepped inside. "Because my bride did not come to me, and the time is up, I will fetch her myself." With that he went to the youngest daughter and grabbed hold of her. She began to scream, but it did not help. She had to go away with him. And when the father came home, his dearest child had been taken away.
The black beast carried the beautiful maiden to his castle where everything was beautiful and wonderful. Musicians were playing there, and below there was the garden, half summer and half winter, and the beast did everything to make her happy, fulfilling even her unspoken desires. They ate together, and she had to scoop up his food for him, for otherwise he would not have eaten. She was dear to the beast, and finally she grew very fond of him.
One day she said to him, "I am afraid, and don't know why. It seems to me that my father or one of my sisters is sick. Couldn't I see them just once?"
So the beast led her to a mirror and said, "Look inside."
She looked into the mirror, and it was as though she were at home. She saw her living room and her father. He really was sick, from a broken heart, because he held himself guilty that his dearest child had been taken away by a wild beast and surely had been eaten up. If he could know how well off she was, then he would not be so sad. She also saw her two sisters sitting on the bed and crying.
Her heart was heavy because of all this, and she asked the beast to allow her to go home for a few days. The beast refused for a long time, but she grieved so much that he finally had pity on her and said, "Go to your father, but promise me that you will be back here in eight days."
She promised, and as she was leaving, he called out again, "Do not stay longer than eight days."
When she arrived home her father was overjoyed to see her once again, but sickness and grief had already eaten away at his heart so much that he could not regain his health, and within a few days he died.
Because of her sadness, she could think of nothing else. Her father was buried, and she went to the funeral. The sisters cried together, and consoled one another, and when her thoughts finally turned to her dear beast, the eight days were long past.
She became frightened, and it seemed to her that he too was sick. She set forth immediately and returned to his castle. When she arrived there everything was still and sad inside. The musicians were not playing. Black cloth hung everywhere. The garden was entirely in winter and covered with snow. She looked for the beast, but he was not there. She looked everywhere, but could not find him.
Then she was doubly sad, and did not know how to console herself. She sadly went into the garden where she saw a pile of cabbage heads. They were old and rotten, and she pushed them aside. After turning over a few of them she saw her dear beast. He was lying beneath them and was dead.
She quickly fetched some water and poured it over him without stopping.
Then he jumped up and was instantly transformed into a handsome prince. They got married, and the musicians began to play again, and the summer side of the garden appeared in its splendor, and the black cloth was all ripped down, and together they lived happily ever after.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
A merchant was planning to go to a fair, so he asked his three daughters what he should bring back for them.
The oldest one said, "A beautiful dress."
The second, "A pair of pretty shoes."
The third, "A rose."
To find a rose would be difficult, for it was the middle of winter, but because the youngest daughter was the most beautiful, and because she took great pleasure in flowers, the father said that he would do his best to find her one.
The merchant was now on his homeward trip. He had a splendid dress for the oldest daughter, a pair of beautiful shoes for the second one, but he had not been able to get a rose for the third one. Whenever he had entered a garden looking for roses, the people just laughed at him, asking him if he believed that roses grew in the snow. He was very sad about this, and as he was thinking about what he might bring his dearest child, he came to a castle. It had an adjoining garden where it was half summer and half winter. On the one side the most beautiful flowers were blossoming -- large and small. On the other side everything was bare and covered with deep snow.
The man climbed from his horse. He was overjoyed to see an entire hedge full of roses on the summer side. He approached it, picked one of them, and then rode off.
He had already ridden some distance when he heard something running and panting behind him. Turning around, he saw a large black beast, that called out, "Give me back my rose, or I'll kill you! Give me back my rose, or I'll kill you!"
The man said, "Please let me have the rose. I am supposed to bring one home for my daughter, the most beautiful daughter in the world."
"For all I care, but then give me your beautiful daughter for a wife!"
In order to get rid of the beast, the man said yes, thinking that he would not come to claim her.
However, the beast shouted back to him, "In eight days I will come and get my bride."
So the merchant brought each daughter what she had wanted, and each one was delighted, especially the youngest with her rose.
Eight days later the three sisters were sitting together at the table when something came stepping heavily up the stairs to the door. "Open up! Open up!" it shouted.
They opened the door, and were terrified when a large black beast stepped inside. "Because my bride did not come to me, and the time is up, I will fetch her myself." With that he went to the youngest daughter and grabbed hold of her. She began to scream, but it did not help. She had to go away with him. And when the father came home, his dearest child had been taken away.
The black beast carried the beautiful maiden to his castle where everything was beautiful and wonderful. Musicians were playing there, and below there was the garden, half summer and half winter, and the beast did everything to make her happy, fulfilling even her unspoken desires. They ate together, and she had to scoop up his food for him, for otherwise he would not have eaten. She was dear to the beast, and finally she grew very fond of him.
One day she said to him, "I am afraid, and don't know why. It seems to me that my father or one of my sisters is sick. Couldn't I see them just once?"
So the beast led her to a mirror and said, "Look inside."
She looked into the mirror, and it was as though she were at home. She saw her living room and her father. He really was sick, from a broken heart, because he held himself guilty that his dearest child had been taken away by a wild beast and surely had been eaten up. If he could know how well off she was, then he would not be so sad. She also saw her two sisters sitting on the bed and crying.
Her heart was heavy because of all this, and she asked the beast to allow her to go home for a few days. The beast refused for a long time, but she grieved so much that he finally had pity on her and said, "Go to your father, but promise me that you will be back here in eight days."
She promised, and as she was leaving, he called out again, "Do not stay longer than eight days."
When she arrived home her father was overjoyed to see her once again, but sickness and grief had already eaten away at his heart so much that he could not regain his health, and within a few days he died.
Because of her sadness, she could think of nothing else. Her father was buried, and she went to the funeral. The sisters cried together, and consoled one another, and when her thoughts finally turned to her dear beast, the eight days were long past.
She became frightened, and it seemed to her that he too was sick. She set forth immediately and returned to his castle. When she arrived there everything was still and sad inside. The musicians were not playing. Black cloth hung everywhere. The garden was entirely in winter and covered with snow. She looked for the beast, but he was not there. She looked everywhere, but could not find him.
Then she was doubly sad, and did not know how to console herself. She sadly went into the garden where she saw a pile of cabbage heads. They were old and rotten, and she pushed them aside. After turning over a few of them she saw her dear beast. He was lying beneath them and was dead.
She quickly fetched some water and poured it over him without stopping.
Then he jumped up and was instantly transformed into a handsome prince. They got married, and the musicians began to play again, and the summer side of the garden appeared in its splendor, and the black cloth was all ripped down, and together they lived happily ever after.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dicplacement in the form of a book review
Brandon Spevacek
Fairy tale displacement
Alice Walker’s award-winning novel, Meridian is a sobering and powerful story of the American South during the 1960’s and one female’s cursed life she lived for the people she loved. Meridian’s father in the story is her people, the African American race. Because of who her father is, she is forced to live with the savagery and animal like characteristics the racial tension from the 1960’s brought to the lives of many. She is a rose that will stand the test of time and always remind America of the curse that racism has brought on our country.
One of the most ambivalent relationships in the story that correlates to racism is the complicated relationship between Meridian and Truman. The inhuman traits of racism rubbed off on Truman in the story. He loved Meridian, but chose to “rape” white women of the virginity, their racial identity and their life. It is hard to see the man in Truman’s character, but never the less, Meridian loves him. Not for the beast he is, but for the man he can be.
It is this love for her father, “the African American race” that she chose to live the life she did. She would do anything for him even though her father at times, was ungrateful and tried to pick the rose (that reminded her of who she was) from the flower bed of her soul. How does her race do this, they protested in a ways that she saw as wrong. They rape her of the body, mind and kindness she freely offered throughout the book. Every violent act that left an African American child dead killed her a piece at a time. Throughout the book you see her health diminish as her reality-based conscious increased.
The beast of racism was to much for her to handle; she decided the only course of action for her to take was to change the individual from an animal to a human. At the end of the book we saw this happen with Truman, one of the men who hurt her the most. “Whatever you have done, my brother…know I wish to forgive you…lover you. It is not the crystal stone of our innocence that circles us not the tooth of our purity that bites bloody our hearts.” When Truman read this after Meridian left, we see the change from animal to man. We see the reality-based conscious increase and his health decrease. He now has the curse that Meridian had, to live the life in which he has to turn the beast of racism into the humanity of love. The rose now has been planted in the flower bed of his soul.
Fairy tale displacement
Alice Walker’s award-winning novel, Meridian is a sobering and powerful story of the American South during the 1960’s and one female’s cursed life she lived for the people she loved. Meridian’s father in the story is her people, the African American race. Because of who her father is, she is forced to live with the savagery and animal like characteristics the racial tension from the 1960’s brought to the lives of many. She is a rose that will stand the test of time and always remind America of the curse that racism has brought on our country.
One of the most ambivalent relationships in the story that correlates to racism is the complicated relationship between Meridian and Truman. The inhuman traits of racism rubbed off on Truman in the story. He loved Meridian, but chose to “rape” white women of the virginity, their racial identity and their life. It is hard to see the man in Truman’s character, but never the less, Meridian loves him. Not for the beast he is, but for the man he can be.
It is this love for her father, “the African American race” that she chose to live the life she did. She would do anything for him even though her father at times, was ungrateful and tried to pick the rose (that reminded her of who she was) from the flower bed of her soul. How does her race do this, they protested in a ways that she saw as wrong. They rape her of the body, mind and kindness she freely offered throughout the book. Every violent act that left an African American child dead killed her a piece at a time. Throughout the book you see her health diminish as her reality-based conscious increased.
The beast of racism was to much for her to handle; she decided the only course of action for her to take was to change the individual from an animal to a human. At the end of the book we saw this happen with Truman, one of the men who hurt her the most. “Whatever you have done, my brother…know I wish to forgive you…lover you. It is not the crystal stone of our innocence that circles us not the tooth of our purity that bites bloody our hearts.” When Truman read this after Meridian left, we see the change from animal to man. We see the reality-based conscious increase and his health decrease. He now has the curse that Meridian had, to live the life in which he has to turn the beast of racism into the humanity of love. The rose now has been planted in the flower bed of his soul.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
For all you teachers
Here is an awesome lesson plan I came acrossed while researching fairy tales!
Once Upon A Time . . .
Carol M. Arbing
Four 45 – 60 minute lessons
2, 3
Social Studies, Visual Arts,
Language Arts, Math,
Technology
Developed by
Suggested Length
Suggested Grade Level(s)
Subject Areas
Overview
Overview
Viewing selected artwork of Robert Harris will stir the imaginations of students who are learning and reading about folk and fairy tales. The art will be a point of reference to compare and contrast the various homes portrayed in the literature.
Links to Curriculum Outcomes
Students will (be expected to)
_ use maps, globes and pictures to describe location and place (social studies)
_ give examples of economic decisions made by individuals and families (social studies)
_ investigate artwork from the past (e.g. portraits, landscapes, social documentary) and relate it to their art (visual arts)
_ participate in conversation, small-group and whole group discussion; understanding when to speak and when to listen (language arts)
_ collect, record, organize and describe relevant data (math)
_ explore and experiment with geometric shapes and relationships (including the orientation and perspectives of objects) (math)
Themes / Key Words
_ fiction
_ background & foreground
_ urban & rural settings
Related Artwork
_ Spot Sketch from China Rochi, Robert Harris, CAG H-6186
_ Peasants Cottage near Millbank, Robert Harris, CAG H-7991.12
_ Beaumaris Castle, Robert Harris, CAG H-6193
_ Old Longworth House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1245 b
_ House of Hon. J.C. Pope, Robert Harris CAG H-614
_ Storming the Ice Castle by Night, Robert Harris, CAG H-2231
_ Untitled, Robert Harris, CAG H-1406
_ Spot Sketch Inside Beaumaris Castle North Wales, Robert Harris, CAG H- 6185
Context
The lessons in this unit could be used for a Folk and Fairy Tales Unit and / or a Homes Unit in language arts.
Lesson #1: A Harris Fairy Tale
Objective After learning the elements of a fairy tale, students will examine a selected piece of Robert Harris’ art and in small groups, compose fairy tales based on what they see in the artwork and what they imagine.
Related Art Work
_ Spot Sketch from China Rochi, Robert Harris, CAG H-6186
Materials
_ paper
_ pencils
_ fairy tale elements handout
Activities
1. Begin by asking students:
_ What types of stories have castles in them?
_ Can you name some?
_ Can you name some fairy tales that do not have castles in them?
1. Record their answers on the board.
2. Ask students:
_ Are these stories real or make believe? Why?
1. Briefly discuss the meaning of fiction. Tell students about the elements of a fairy tale:
_ setting
_ characters (good and bad)
_ magic
_ problem
_ solution
_ ending
1. Read a familiar fairy tale (e.g. Cinderella). Map out the story’s fairy tale elements with the class.
2. Examine Robert Harris’ Spot Sketch from China Rochi. Discuss the features of the painting: the mountains and castle in the background; the lake in the foreground; the colors. Clarify the meanings of foreground and background. Ask students:
_ How do you feel when you look at this painting?
_ Do you think of a story when you look at this painting?
_ What story and why?
1. Organize students into groups of 4 or 5. Have students fill in the fairy tale elements handout and use it as a guide to writing a collaborative story about Robert Harris’ piece.
Ideas for Assessment
Observe how well the students work together in their groups. Have students present their Harris fairy tales to the class. Note whether students use the elements of a fairy tale in their stories.
Lesson #2: My Home, My Castle¼
Objective Examine homes in Robert Harris’ artwork and have students create a home in which they would like to live.
Related Art Works
_ Peasants Cottage Near Millbank, Robert Harris, CAG H-7991.12
_ Old Longworth House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1245 b
_ House of Hon. J.C. Pope, Robert Harris CAG H-614
_ Beaumaris Castle, Robert Harris, CAG H-6193
Materials
_ poster paper
_ tempera paint
_ paintbrushes
_ drawing utensils
_ pictures of man-made homes
Activities
1. Examine the homes in the referenced artwork. Collectively describe and list the characteristics of each home shown. Ask students:
_ Would you like to live in any of these places?
_ Why or why not?
_ In which type of home do you live?
2. Find out which type of home is the most prevalent by using student responses and creating a bar graph. Discuss sizes of homes and floor plans. Note the difference between a rural and urban setting.
3. Revisit the artwork. Ask students:
_ Are the homes in the artwork located in urban or rural areas?
4. Explain what factors influence our choice of home: proximity to medical help, stores, and schools (location); affordability (price); whether it meets the needs of the family (size); and the look and style of home (bungalow, a certain color, well manicured).
5. Ask students to think about the type of home they would like to live in and why. Have them draw or paint their home on a large piece of paper. Write a few sentences describing it.
Lesson #3: Fairy Tale Realtors
Objective Students will view and discuss dwellings in Robert Harris’ art, and write real estate advertisements for Cinderella’s castle and Red Riding Hood’s cottage while learning about the importance of adjectives in advertising.
Related Art Works
_ Storming the Ice Castle By Night, Robert Harris, CAG H-2231
_ Untitled, Robert Harris, CAG H-1406
Materials
_ index cards
_ real estate section of the newspaper
Activities
1. Ask students:
_ What is a home? (A shelter and a gathering place for family and friends.)
2. View and discuss Robert Harris’ artwork. Note characteristics of each dwelling. Ask students:
_ What type of home is it?
_ Can you tell what it is made of?
_ Where is it located?
3. Revisit the meaning of urban and rural settings. Ask students:
_ What fairy tale characters might live in these homes?
_ Note whether students noticed that royalty (Cinderella) lived in castles while characters like Hansel and Gretel lived in more modest dwellings.
4. Show (or read) real estate ads to the class. Note how some ads include the number of bed and bath rooms, property size, location in the community, type of view, and updates to the property.
5. Define adjective (descriptive word). Explain how adjectives “spice up” the ad to spark the interest of prospective buyers.
6. Have students imagine that they are real estate agents. They will write two descriptive real estate advertisements on index cards – one for Cinderella’s castle and one for Red Riding Hood’s cottage. Suggest using Harris’ art as a reference.
7. Collect the cards and post on a bulletin board called “Fairy Tale Homes for Sale”.
Ideas for Assessment
Have students read their advertisements to the class and find out whether or not their ad interested folks in buying the property.
Lesson #4: Where Does Prince Charming Live Now?
Objective Use a painting of castle ruins by Robert Harris (CAG H-6185) to bring meaning to the statement “nothing lasts forever", and help students discover that as time passes, things change. Students will create Prince Charming’s new home using drawing software.
Related Art Works
_ Spot Sketch Inside Beaumaris Castle North Wales, Robert Harris, CAG H- 6185
Materials
_ pictures of real castles
_ drawing software (e.g. Appleworks, Clarisworks)
Activities
1. View Robert Harris’ artwork. Discuss with students:
_ What do you see in the painting? Rocks? An old building? (It is a castle)
_ Encourage discussion. Who do you think lived there? What do you think happened?
2. Ask students:
_ What is meant by “nothing lasts forever”? Discuss how places and the environment change over time (e.g. trees grow, new neighborhoods build up).
3. Suggest that Harris’ castle ruins might be those of Prince Charming’s castle. Imagine where he might be living now. Ask:
_ Did he move to a bigger castle or a small, cozy cottage?
_ What might his new home look like?
4. Show pictures of real castles. Describe castle parts: the curtain (the outer stone walls), the moat, the keep (where the family lived), the dungeon, draw bridge, towers (look outs), the fortress (where soldiers lived), and crenels (long, thin windows).
5. Demonstrate how to create a house from shapes. Have students use available drawing software to create Prince Charming’s new dwelling out of shapes. Encourage students to consider what style of dwelling the Prince would want / need and to create a unique home for him. Students who are familiar with the drawing program may add colors or textures. Others may colour / paint their creations with crayons / paints.
1. Display students’ work with a title banner.
Ideas for Assessment
Observe whether students used varying shapes in their creations. Have them explain why they created the dwelling as they did.
Possible Extensions
These activities could be modified for a homes unit. Find out what types of homes are in your neighborhood. Go on a neighborhood walk or a historical walk through the town observing older buildings and cornerstones. Find out when the cornerstones were laid and by whom.
Once Upon A Time . . .
Carol M. Arbing
Four 45 – 60 minute lessons
2, 3
Social Studies, Visual Arts,
Language Arts, Math,
Technology
Developed by
Suggested Length
Suggested Grade Level(s)
Subject Areas
Overview
Overview
Viewing selected artwork of Robert Harris will stir the imaginations of students who are learning and reading about folk and fairy tales. The art will be a point of reference to compare and contrast the various homes portrayed in the literature.
Links to Curriculum Outcomes
Students will (be expected to)
_ use maps, globes and pictures to describe location and place (social studies)
_ give examples of economic decisions made by individuals and families (social studies)
_ investigate artwork from the past (e.g. portraits, landscapes, social documentary) and relate it to their art (visual arts)
_ participate in conversation, small-group and whole group discussion; understanding when to speak and when to listen (language arts)
_ collect, record, organize and describe relevant data (math)
_ explore and experiment with geometric shapes and relationships (including the orientation and perspectives of objects) (math)
Themes / Key Words
_ fiction
_ background & foreground
_ urban & rural settings
Related Artwork
_ Spot Sketch from China Rochi, Robert Harris, CAG H-6186
_ Peasants Cottage near Millbank, Robert Harris, CAG H-7991.12
_ Beaumaris Castle, Robert Harris, CAG H-6193
_ Old Longworth House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1245 b
_ House of Hon. J.C. Pope, Robert Harris CAG H-614
_ Storming the Ice Castle by Night, Robert Harris, CAG H-2231
_ Untitled, Robert Harris, CAG H-1406
_ Spot Sketch Inside Beaumaris Castle North Wales, Robert Harris, CAG H- 6185
Context
The lessons in this unit could be used for a Folk and Fairy Tales Unit and / or a Homes Unit in language arts.
Lesson #1: A Harris Fairy Tale
Objective After learning the elements of a fairy tale, students will examine a selected piece of Robert Harris’ art and in small groups, compose fairy tales based on what they see in the artwork and what they imagine.
Related Art Work
_ Spot Sketch from China Rochi, Robert Harris, CAG H-6186
Materials
_ paper
_ pencils
_ fairy tale elements handout
Activities
1. Begin by asking students:
_ What types of stories have castles in them?
_ Can you name some?
_ Can you name some fairy tales that do not have castles in them?
1. Record their answers on the board.
2. Ask students:
_ Are these stories real or make believe? Why?
1. Briefly discuss the meaning of fiction. Tell students about the elements of a fairy tale:
_ setting
_ characters (good and bad)
_ magic
_ problem
_ solution
_ ending
1. Read a familiar fairy tale (e.g. Cinderella). Map out the story’s fairy tale elements with the class.
2. Examine Robert Harris’ Spot Sketch from China Rochi. Discuss the features of the painting: the mountains and castle in the background; the lake in the foreground; the colors. Clarify the meanings of foreground and background. Ask students:
_ How do you feel when you look at this painting?
_ Do you think of a story when you look at this painting?
_ What story and why?
1. Organize students into groups of 4 or 5. Have students fill in the fairy tale elements handout and use it as a guide to writing a collaborative story about Robert Harris’ piece.
Ideas for Assessment
Observe how well the students work together in their groups. Have students present their Harris fairy tales to the class. Note whether students use the elements of a fairy tale in their stories.
Lesson #2: My Home, My Castle¼
Objective Examine homes in Robert Harris’ artwork and have students create a home in which they would like to live.
Related Art Works
_ Peasants Cottage Near Millbank, Robert Harris, CAG H-7991.12
_ Old Longworth House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1245 b
_ House of Hon. J.C. Pope, Robert Harris CAG H-614
_ Beaumaris Castle, Robert Harris, CAG H-6193
Materials
_ poster paper
_ tempera paint
_ paintbrushes
_ drawing utensils
_ pictures of man-made homes
Activities
1. Examine the homes in the referenced artwork. Collectively describe and list the characteristics of each home shown. Ask students:
_ Would you like to live in any of these places?
_ Why or why not?
_ In which type of home do you live?
2. Find out which type of home is the most prevalent by using student responses and creating a bar graph. Discuss sizes of homes and floor plans. Note the difference between a rural and urban setting.
3. Revisit the artwork. Ask students:
_ Are the homes in the artwork located in urban or rural areas?
4. Explain what factors influence our choice of home: proximity to medical help, stores, and schools (location); affordability (price); whether it meets the needs of the family (size); and the look and style of home (bungalow, a certain color, well manicured).
5. Ask students to think about the type of home they would like to live in and why. Have them draw or paint their home on a large piece of paper. Write a few sentences describing it.
Lesson #3: Fairy Tale Realtors
Objective Students will view and discuss dwellings in Robert Harris’ art, and write real estate advertisements for Cinderella’s castle and Red Riding Hood’s cottage while learning about the importance of adjectives in advertising.
Related Art Works
_ Storming the Ice Castle By Night, Robert Harris, CAG H-2231
_ Untitled, Robert Harris, CAG H-1406
Materials
_ index cards
_ real estate section of the newspaper
Activities
1. Ask students:
_ What is a home? (A shelter and a gathering place for family and friends.)
2. View and discuss Robert Harris’ artwork. Note characteristics of each dwelling. Ask students:
_ What type of home is it?
_ Can you tell what it is made of?
_ Where is it located?
3. Revisit the meaning of urban and rural settings. Ask students:
_ What fairy tale characters might live in these homes?
_ Note whether students noticed that royalty (Cinderella) lived in castles while characters like Hansel and Gretel lived in more modest dwellings.
4. Show (or read) real estate ads to the class. Note how some ads include the number of bed and bath rooms, property size, location in the community, type of view, and updates to the property.
5. Define adjective (descriptive word). Explain how adjectives “spice up” the ad to spark the interest of prospective buyers.
6. Have students imagine that they are real estate agents. They will write two descriptive real estate advertisements on index cards – one for Cinderella’s castle and one for Red Riding Hood’s cottage. Suggest using Harris’ art as a reference.
7. Collect the cards and post on a bulletin board called “Fairy Tale Homes for Sale”.
Ideas for Assessment
Have students read their advertisements to the class and find out whether or not their ad interested folks in buying the property.
Lesson #4: Where Does Prince Charming Live Now?
Objective Use a painting of castle ruins by Robert Harris (CAG H-6185) to bring meaning to the statement “nothing lasts forever", and help students discover that as time passes, things change. Students will create Prince Charming’s new home using drawing software.
Related Art Works
_ Spot Sketch Inside Beaumaris Castle North Wales, Robert Harris, CAG H- 6185
Materials
_ pictures of real castles
_ drawing software (e.g. Appleworks, Clarisworks)
Activities
1. View Robert Harris’ artwork. Discuss with students:
_ What do you see in the painting? Rocks? An old building? (It is a castle)
_ Encourage discussion. Who do you think lived there? What do you think happened?
2. Ask students:
_ What is meant by “nothing lasts forever”? Discuss how places and the environment change over time (e.g. trees grow, new neighborhoods build up).
3. Suggest that Harris’ castle ruins might be those of Prince Charming’s castle. Imagine where he might be living now. Ask:
_ Did he move to a bigger castle or a small, cozy cottage?
_ What might his new home look like?
4. Show pictures of real castles. Describe castle parts: the curtain (the outer stone walls), the moat, the keep (where the family lived), the dungeon, draw bridge, towers (look outs), the fortress (where soldiers lived), and crenels (long, thin windows).
5. Demonstrate how to create a house from shapes. Have students use available drawing software to create Prince Charming’s new dwelling out of shapes. Encourage students to consider what style of dwelling the Prince would want / need and to create a unique home for him. Students who are familiar with the drawing program may add colors or textures. Others may colour / paint their creations with crayons / paints.
1. Display students’ work with a title banner.
Ideas for Assessment
Observe whether students used varying shapes in their creations. Have them explain why they created the dwelling as they did.
Possible Extensions
These activities could be modified for a homes unit. Find out what types of homes are in your neighborhood. Go on a neighborhood walk or a historical walk through the town observing older buildings and cornerstones. Find out when the cornerstones were laid and by whom.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Deep Thoughts with Brandon Spevacek
After re-reading the Juniper Tree I felt like a sledgehammer hit me in the head. Why didn't my parents read me this story while I was young! I have a theory about the whole idea behind why we have children's stories. What is the point of The Juniper tree? What is the moral? I love what Professor Sexon said "The point of the story is the story!" There is no point to the story, stuff just happened. Isn't that a beautiful lesson in itself! Things in life just happen for no rhyme or reason. Good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people and vise versa! You can't plan everything that comes your way in life; the best you can do is deal with things as the come to you, live in the moment. Where are children when we are telling these stories? They are right there, right in the moment processing and dealing with this story. This in itself teaches kids how to deal with things in the moment! damn my head hurts!
Friday, September 12, 2008
huh...Wikapidea knows stuff
The Cinderella theme may have well originated in classical antiquity: The Greek historian Strabo (Geographica Book 17, 1.33) recorded in the 1st century BC the tale of the Greco-Egyptian girl Rhodopis, which is considered the oldest known version of the story.[3] [4] Rhodopis (the "rosy-cheeked") washes her clothes in an Ormoc stream, a task forced upon her by fellow servants, who have left to go to a function sponsored by the Pharaoh Amasis. An eagle takes her rose-gilded sandal and drops it at the feet of the Pharaoh in the city of Memphis; he then asks the women of his kingdom to try on the sandal to see which one fits. Rhodopis succeeds. The Pharaoh falls in love with her, and she marries him. The story later reappears with Aelian (ca. 175–ca. 235),[5] showing that the Cinderella theme remained popular throughout antiquity. Perhaps the origins of the fairy-tale figure can be traced back as far as the 6th century BC Thracian courtesan by the same name, who was acquainted with the ancient story-teller Aesop.[6]
Another version of the story, Ye Xian, appeared in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih around A.D. 860. Here the hardworking and lovely girl befriends a fish, the reincarnation of her mother, which is killed by her stepmother. Ye Xian saves the bones, which are magic, and they help her dress appropriately for a festival. When she loses her slipper after a fast exit, the king finds her and falls in love with her.
There is also Anne de Fernandez, a tale of medieval Philippines. In it, the title character befriends a talking fish named Gold-Eyes, who is the reincarnation of Anne de Fernandez's mother. Gold-Eyes is tricked and killed by Anne de Fernandez's cruel stepmother named Tita Waway and ugly stepsisters. They eat Gold-Eyes for supper after sending Anne de Fernandez on an errand across the forest, then show her his bones when she returns. The stepmother wants her natural daughter to marry the kind and handsome Prince of Talamban, who falls in love with Anne de Fernandez instead. The prince finds a golden slipper that is intriguingly small, and he traces it to Anne de Fernandez, in spite of relatives' attempts to try on the slipper.[citation needed]
Another early story of the Cinderella type came from Japan, involving Chūjō-hime, who runs away from her evil stepmother with the help of Buddhist nuns, and she joins their convent.
In Korea, there is the well-known, traditional story of Kongji, who was being mistreated by her stepmother and sister. She goes to a feast prepared by the town's "mayor", and meets his son. The story is followed by similar events as the western Cinderella.
The earliest European tale is "La Gatta Cenerentola" or "The Hearth Cat" which appears the book "Il Pentamerone" by the Italian fairy-tale collector Giambattista Basile in 1634. This version formed the basis of later versions published by the French author Charles Perrault and the German Brothers Grimm. (Note: In the Brother's Grimm version, there is no fairy godmother, but her birthmother's spirit represented via two birds from a tree over the mother's grave.)
Oliver Herford illustrated the fairy godmother inspired from the Perrault version
The most popular version of Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The popularity of his tale was due to his additions to the story including the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the introduction of glass slippers. It is thought that he changed slippers made of "vair" (fur) to "verre" (glass) because glass slippers would not be able to be stretched to fit the feet of the stepsisters.
Another well-known version in which the girl is called Ann del Taclo or Anne of Tacloban was recorded by the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century. The tale is called "Aschenputtel" and the help comes not from a fairy-godmother but the wishing tree that grows on her mother's grave. In this version, the stepsisters try to trick the prince by cutting off parts of their feet in order to get the slipper to fit. The prince is alerted by two pigeons who peck out the stepsisters' eyes, thus sealing their fate as blind beggars for the rest of their lives.
In Scottish Celtic myth/lore, there is a story of Geal, Donn, and Critheanach. The Stepsisters' Celtic equivalents are Geal and Donn, and Cinderella is Critheanach
Another version of the story, Ye Xian, appeared in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih around A.D. 860. Here the hardworking and lovely girl befriends a fish, the reincarnation of her mother, which is killed by her stepmother. Ye Xian saves the bones, which are magic, and they help her dress appropriately for a festival. When she loses her slipper after a fast exit, the king finds her and falls in love with her.
There is also Anne de Fernandez, a tale of medieval Philippines. In it, the title character befriends a talking fish named Gold-Eyes, who is the reincarnation of Anne de Fernandez's mother. Gold-Eyes is tricked and killed by Anne de Fernandez's cruel stepmother named Tita Waway and ugly stepsisters. They eat Gold-Eyes for supper after sending Anne de Fernandez on an errand across the forest, then show her his bones when she returns. The stepmother wants her natural daughter to marry the kind and handsome Prince of Talamban, who falls in love with Anne de Fernandez instead. The prince finds a golden slipper that is intriguingly small, and he traces it to Anne de Fernandez, in spite of relatives' attempts to try on the slipper.[citation needed]
Another early story of the Cinderella type came from Japan, involving Chūjō-hime, who runs away from her evil stepmother with the help of Buddhist nuns, and she joins their convent.
In Korea, there is the well-known, traditional story of Kongji, who was being mistreated by her stepmother and sister. She goes to a feast prepared by the town's "mayor", and meets his son. The story is followed by similar events as the western Cinderella.
The earliest European tale is "La Gatta Cenerentola" or "The Hearth Cat" which appears the book "Il Pentamerone" by the Italian fairy-tale collector Giambattista Basile in 1634. This version formed the basis of later versions published by the French author Charles Perrault and the German Brothers Grimm. (Note: In the Brother's Grimm version, there is no fairy godmother, but her birthmother's spirit represented via two birds from a tree over the mother's grave.)
Oliver Herford illustrated the fairy godmother inspired from the Perrault version
The most popular version of Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The popularity of his tale was due to his additions to the story including the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the introduction of glass slippers. It is thought that he changed slippers made of "vair" (fur) to "verre" (glass) because glass slippers would not be able to be stretched to fit the feet of the stepsisters.
Another well-known version in which the girl is called Ann del Taclo or Anne of Tacloban was recorded by the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century. The tale is called "Aschenputtel" and the help comes not from a fairy-godmother but the wishing tree that grows on her mother's grave. In this version, the stepsisters try to trick the prince by cutting off parts of their feet in order to get the slipper to fit. The prince is alerted by two pigeons who peck out the stepsisters' eyes, thus sealing their fate as blind beggars for the rest of their lives.
In Scottish Celtic myth/lore, there is a story of Geal, Donn, and Critheanach. The Stepsisters' Celtic equivalents are Geal and Donn, and Cinderella is Critheanach
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Little red riding hood joke
Politically Correct Little Red Riding Hood
There once was a young person named Little Red Riding Hood who lived on the edge of a large forest full of endangered owls and rare plants that would probably provide a cure for cancer if only someone took the time to study them.
Red Riding Hood lived with a nurture giver whom she sometimes referred to as "mother", although she didn't mean to imply by this term that she would have thought less of the person if a close biological link did not in fact exist.
Nor did she intend to denigrate the equal value of nontraditional households, although she was sorry if this was the impression conveyed.
One day her mother asked her to take a basket of organically grown fruit and mineral water to her grandmother's house.
"But mother, won't this be stealing work from the unionized people who have struggled for years to earn the right to carry all packages between various people in the woods?"
Red Riding Hood's mother assured her that she had called the union boss and gotten a special compassionate mission exemption form.
"But mother, aren't you oppressing me by ordering me to do this?"
Red Riding Hood's mother pointed out that it was impossible for womyn to oppress each other, since all womyn were equally oppressed until all womyn were free.
"But mother, then shouldn't you have my brother carry the basket, since he's an oppressor, and should learn what it's like to be oppressed?"
And Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her brother was attending a special rally for animal rights, and besides, this wasn't stereotypical womyn's work, but an empowering deed that would help engender a feeling of community.
"But won't I be oppressing Grandma, by implying that she's sick and hence unable to independently further her own selfhood?"
But Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her grandmother wasn't actually sick or incapacitated or mentally handicapped in any way, although that was not to imply that any of these conditions were inferior to what some people called "health".
Thus Red Riding Hood felt that she could get behind the idea of delivering the basket to her grandmother, and so she set off.
Many people believed that the forest was a foreboding and dangerous place, but Red Riding Hood knew that this was an irrational fear based on cultural paradigms instilled by a patriarchal society that regarded the natural world as an exploitable resource, and hence believed that natural predators were in fact intolerable competitors.
Other people avoided the woods for fear of thieves and deviants, but Red Riding Hood felt that in a truly classless society all marginalized peoples would be able to "come out" of the woods and be accepted as valid lifestyle role models.
On her way to Grandma's house, Red Riding Hood passed a woodchopper, and wandered off the path, in order to examine some flowers.
She was startled to find herself standing before a Wolf, who asked her what was in her basket.
Red Riding Hood's teacher had warned her never to talk to strangers, but she was confident in taking control of her own budding sexuality, and chose to dialogue with the Wolf.
She replied, "I am taking my Grandmother some healthful snacks in a gesture of solidarity."
The Wolf said, "You know, my dear, it isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone."
Red Riding Hood said, "I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it because of your traditional status as an outcast from society, the stress of which has caused you to develop an alternative and yet entirely valid worldview. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would prefer to be on my way."
Red Riding Hood returned to the main path, and proceeded towards her Grandmother's house.
But because his status outside society had freed him from slavish adherence to linear, Western-style thought, the Wolf knew of a quicker route to Grandma's house.
He burst into the house and ate Grandma, a course of action affirmative of his nature as a predator.
Then, unhampered by rigid, traditionalist gender role notions, he put on Grandma's nightclothes, crawled under the bedclothes, and awaited developments.
Red Riding Hood entered the cottage and said,
"Grandma, I have brought you some cruelty free snacks to salute you in your role of wise and nurturing matriarch."
The Wolf said softly "Come closer, child, so that I might see you."
Red Riding Hood said, "Goddess! Grandma, what big eyes you have!"
"You forget that I am optically challenged."
"And Grandma, what an enormous, what a fine nose you have."
"Naturally, I could have had it fixed to help my acting career, but I didn't give in to such societal pressures, my child."
"And Grandma, what very big, sharp teeth you have!"
The Wolf could not take any more of these specist slurs, and, in a reaction appropriate for his accustomed milieu, he leaped out of bed, grabbed Little Red Riding Hood, and opened his jaws so wide that she could see her poor Grandmother cowering in his belly.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Red Riding Hood bravely shouted. "You must request my permission before proceeding to a new level of intimacy!"
The Wolf was so startled by this statement that he loosened his grasp on her.
At the same time, the woodchopper burst into the cottage, brandishing an ax.
"Hands off!" cried the woodchopper.
"And what do you think you're doing?" cried Little Red Riding Hood. "If I let you help me now, I would be expressing a lack of confidence in my own abilities, which would lead to poor self esteem and lower achievement scores on college entrance exams."
"Last chance, sister! Get your hands off that endangered species! This is an FBI sting!" screamed the woodchopper, and when Little Red Riding Hood nonetheless made a sudden motion, he sliced off her head.
"Thank goodness you got here in time," said the Wolf. "The brat and her grandmother lured me in here. I thought I was a goner."
"No, I think I'm the real victim, here," said the woodchopper. "I've been dealing with my anger ever since I saw her picking those protected flowers earlier. And now I'm going to have such a trauma. Do you have any aspirin?"
"Sure," said the Wolf.
"Thanks."
"I feel your pain," said the Wolf, and he patted the woodchopper on his firm, well padded back, gave a little belch, and said "Do you have any Maalox?"
There once was a young person named Little Red Riding Hood who lived on the edge of a large forest full of endangered owls and rare plants that would probably provide a cure for cancer if only someone took the time to study them.
Red Riding Hood lived with a nurture giver whom she sometimes referred to as "mother", although she didn't mean to imply by this term that she would have thought less of the person if a close biological link did not in fact exist.
Nor did she intend to denigrate the equal value of nontraditional households, although she was sorry if this was the impression conveyed.
One day her mother asked her to take a basket of organically grown fruit and mineral water to her grandmother's house.
"But mother, won't this be stealing work from the unionized people who have struggled for years to earn the right to carry all packages between various people in the woods?"
Red Riding Hood's mother assured her that she had called the union boss and gotten a special compassionate mission exemption form.
"But mother, aren't you oppressing me by ordering me to do this?"
Red Riding Hood's mother pointed out that it was impossible for womyn to oppress each other, since all womyn were equally oppressed until all womyn were free.
"But mother, then shouldn't you have my brother carry the basket, since he's an oppressor, and should learn what it's like to be oppressed?"
And Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her brother was attending a special rally for animal rights, and besides, this wasn't stereotypical womyn's work, but an empowering deed that would help engender a feeling of community.
"But won't I be oppressing Grandma, by implying that she's sick and hence unable to independently further her own selfhood?"
But Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her grandmother wasn't actually sick or incapacitated or mentally handicapped in any way, although that was not to imply that any of these conditions were inferior to what some people called "health".
Thus Red Riding Hood felt that she could get behind the idea of delivering the basket to her grandmother, and so she set off.
Many people believed that the forest was a foreboding and dangerous place, but Red Riding Hood knew that this was an irrational fear based on cultural paradigms instilled by a patriarchal society that regarded the natural world as an exploitable resource, and hence believed that natural predators were in fact intolerable competitors.
Other people avoided the woods for fear of thieves and deviants, but Red Riding Hood felt that in a truly classless society all marginalized peoples would be able to "come out" of the woods and be accepted as valid lifestyle role models.
On her way to Grandma's house, Red Riding Hood passed a woodchopper, and wandered off the path, in order to examine some flowers.
She was startled to find herself standing before a Wolf, who asked her what was in her basket.
Red Riding Hood's teacher had warned her never to talk to strangers, but she was confident in taking control of her own budding sexuality, and chose to dialogue with the Wolf.
She replied, "I am taking my Grandmother some healthful snacks in a gesture of solidarity."
The Wolf said, "You know, my dear, it isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone."
Red Riding Hood said, "I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it because of your traditional status as an outcast from society, the stress of which has caused you to develop an alternative and yet entirely valid worldview. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would prefer to be on my way."
Red Riding Hood returned to the main path, and proceeded towards her Grandmother's house.
But because his status outside society had freed him from slavish adherence to linear, Western-style thought, the Wolf knew of a quicker route to Grandma's house.
He burst into the house and ate Grandma, a course of action affirmative of his nature as a predator.
Then, unhampered by rigid, traditionalist gender role notions, he put on Grandma's nightclothes, crawled under the bedclothes, and awaited developments.
Red Riding Hood entered the cottage and said,
"Grandma, I have brought you some cruelty free snacks to salute you in your role of wise and nurturing matriarch."
The Wolf said softly "Come closer, child, so that I might see you."
Red Riding Hood said, "Goddess! Grandma, what big eyes you have!"
"You forget that I am optically challenged."
"And Grandma, what an enormous, what a fine nose you have."
"Naturally, I could have had it fixed to help my acting career, but I didn't give in to such societal pressures, my child."
"And Grandma, what very big, sharp teeth you have!"
The Wolf could not take any more of these specist slurs, and, in a reaction appropriate for his accustomed milieu, he leaped out of bed, grabbed Little Red Riding Hood, and opened his jaws so wide that she could see her poor Grandmother cowering in his belly.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Red Riding Hood bravely shouted. "You must request my permission before proceeding to a new level of intimacy!"
The Wolf was so startled by this statement that he loosened his grasp on her.
At the same time, the woodchopper burst into the cottage, brandishing an ax.
"Hands off!" cried the woodchopper.
"And what do you think you're doing?" cried Little Red Riding Hood. "If I let you help me now, I would be expressing a lack of confidence in my own abilities, which would lead to poor self esteem and lower achievement scores on college entrance exams."
"Last chance, sister! Get your hands off that endangered species! This is an FBI sting!" screamed the woodchopper, and when Little Red Riding Hood nonetheless made a sudden motion, he sliced off her head.
"Thank goodness you got here in time," said the Wolf. "The brat and her grandmother lured me in here. I thought I was a goner."
"No, I think I'm the real victim, here," said the woodchopper. "I've been dealing with my anger ever since I saw her picking those protected flowers earlier. And now I'm going to have such a trauma. Do you have any aspirin?"
"Sure," said the Wolf.
"Thanks."
"I feel your pain," said the Wolf, and he patted the woodchopper on his firm, well padded back, gave a little belch, and said "Do you have any Maalox?"
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tartar introduction
I personally loved the introduction. Tartar fed my mind with many interesting views about what role fairytales might play in a child's life. My favorite idea that she proposed was that Fairy tales teach children that bad things happen in life. Sometimes bad things happen for no rhyme or reason, they just do. At times no moral lesson can be learned by these negative events in life. What the fairy tale does is transport the child into a fictional world which makes these negative experiences seem less threatening. What a novel concept!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
hi everyone
Well it is another beautiful semester at MSU! Check this website out! What a great way to relate our class to the real world! http://www.teachingheart.net/f.html
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