So much homework!

I've been so busy since school started! All of my teachers seem to be piling on tests, quizzes, and homework.

But, fortunately, I can still manage to be happy because fall is coming! Leaves are beginning to turn orange, the wind is beginning to crisp up, and the temperature is going down. I don't particularly like any one season, but I do love that few weeks of transition every 3 months or so!

Remember me

Remember Me

Remember me when the years have passed,
when wretched aging has taken course
Oh how on rocky banks we’d danced
until our calloused feet were sore.
Laughing in the garden’s perfume,
far away from the bronzed sun.
While admiring the moon kissed tulips bloom,
the quiet calling of the clocks were shunned.
And now, as my ancient flesh decays,
withering into the unknown abyss
I vow to never forget the days,
of which I cannot help but reminisce.
Please, forget me not when I have passed,
for earthly flesh our memories will outlast.

It's been a while

It has been about a month since my last post. AP exams, school, and the thought of finals has kept me most preoccupied. I can't believe that school is ending next Thursday. That's under 2 weeks! Though many are excited for vacation, I am nervous; I only have 2 weeks to bring up my grades. Unfortunately, this semester's grades fall heavily on finals for me. Fantastic.

My Fair... Pygmalion?

I took on the challenge of reading Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw. It seemed short, easy, and relatively stress-free, so I read it last Saturday. In the middle of Act I, got the brilliant idea of watching My Fair Lady while following the play along in my book. So I opened up My Fair Lady on youtube, hooked my computer up to the TV, and watched. I was surprised by how much of the play was incorporated into the movie. The makers of My Fair Lady really brought Pygmalion to life. However, though there many similarities, some major changes were made to make the movie more continuous and... exciting.

The first major discord appeared in the second act. After Higgins accepts Eliza as a pupil, the movie shows the tedious and rigorous boot camp that poor Eliza is forced to endure. Surprisingly, however, the play does not show her training. Instead, it jumps from Higgins's and Pickering's bet to Eliza's first showcase. I really dislike the play for this. There are random jumps between acts where large chunks of time almost randomly disappear in a void.
This brings me to the next difference. In the movie, Eliza is first tested in high society at the derby. In the play though, Eliza is actually taken to Higgins's mother's house, where she meets Freddy. I personally prefer the derby, for it is far more exciting than tea at the Higgins's. However, it would be rather difficult for a theater to put on a full derby scene on stage. So, for practicality's sake, his mother's house will have to do.
Eliza's second debut also is portrayed differently in the movie than it is in the book. My Fair Lady shows Eliza at a grand ball, dancing with foreign princes. In the play however, Eliza is simply taken to the opera. Oh, and that entire scene where the linguist believes that Eliza is Hungarian royalty? It's not even portrayed in the play. In fact, that entire scene is cut out in the play, which really shocked and disappointed me.
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, Eliza's choice of men is not the same in both stories. In My Fair Lady, Eliza ends up with Higgins. She comes to love his rude and stubborn ways and ultimately chooses him over Freddy. However, in the play, Shaw informs the reader in the epilogue that Eliza in fact marries Freddy because she does not want to compromise her feminine independence. As Shaw put it, Eliza would "rather have Freddy pick up her slippers than have to pick up Higgins's slippers." I think that the makers of My Fair Lady chose their ending to simply make the viewers happy. To be truthful, I would be angry if Eliza and Freddy ended up together.

In the end, I really liked the movie better. Apart from the catchy show tunes, My Fair Lady had a continuity to it that Pygmalion lacked. The play had major time lapses that made the story seem to lack something important.
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading Pygmalion while watching My Fair Lady. It was fun. (:

Blogging White Noise: Part 1 Questions

1. How does Jack's Hitler Studies help him cope with his fear of death?
2. How is Jack's struggle to gain authority shown in this section?
3. What's the significance of Wilder's temper tantrum?
4. How does the motif of white noise appear in part 1?
5. Explain the significance of the scene at the burial plot.

Hamlet Monologue Parody

I came across this cute parody of Hamlet's monologue in Act III, scene i. Sorry it's in an odd formatting.

To eat, or not to eat, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the stomach to suffer the slings and arrows of hunger, or to take mouths and by digesting end them.

To bloat, to eat, no more, and by eating we say we end the stomach ache and the thousand natural pangs that digestive systems are ere to. Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

To bloat, to eat, to eat. Perchance to fulfill? Ay, there’s the rub. For in that meal of nourishment what fulfillment may come must give us pause. There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long bulimia.

For who would bear the hunger and malnutrition of time? The food corporation’s wickedness, the proud anorexic’s contumely, the pangs of despis’d hunger, the law’s delay, and the spurns that a good appetite by the unworthy takes when you yourself your acquaintance could make with a perfectly good stingray.

Who would fardels bear to suffer under the veil of famine, but that the dread of something after the meal, the undiscovered course from whose satiation no feeder returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather eat those fish we have, than swim to others that might not taste as good.

Thus conscience doth make dolphins of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution to feed is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought. And meals of great pith and moment with this regard, their ocean currents turn awry and lose the name of action.

Thus conscience doth make dolphins of us all

And thus the native hue of vegetarianism is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.

Soft you now, fair Lionfish! — Nymph, in thy orisons. Be all my sins remembered.

Blogging White Noise: Discussion Question Response

3. Final Countdown: Is there some sort of irony regarding the main character's odd title on campus? There are many ironies to Jack’s title of chairman of the department of Hitler studies. One is the notion that a man clearly terrified of death is fascinated by a leader who systematically murdered thousands. This discord in Jack’s interests highlights his flawed logic, forming him into a quite unreliable character. Another irony is the general enthusiasm of Jack’s department. The Hitler studies division, Jack’s brainchild, was founded in 1968, around twenty short years after WWII. Rather than being shot down by skeptics, the subject thrived, and a Hitler conference is said to take place the following fall.

4. Quarter Rose: Why would any mother in their right mind force their children to spend their Friday night free-time watching television that upsetted them? Contrary to Quarter Rose, I have to agree with Babette’s unconventional parenting. In addition to encouraging family togetherness (or, regrettably, the lack thereof), the Friday TV ritual dampens the children’s love of television. Thus, the custom strips the false magnificence from TV programs and makes them rather mundane and ordinary. By making TV “unglamorized” and a “domestic sport,” the children lose interest in the “brain sucking” nonsense that TV can broadcast. In short, Babette is preventing her children from wasting away in front of the TV, desiring a false reality that TV so readily presents.

9. Fettuccini Alfredo: Why is the school evacuation played off as not too serious? There is little discussion of it... why? It is odd that only two brief paragraphs are reserved for an event of this magnitude. For one who is overwhelmed by the omnipresence of death, Jack seems strangely nonchalant about this mysterious, and perhaps lethal, happening. I believe that this snippet concerning the disaster serves to enhance the palpable reality of death that begins to pervade Jack’s life. Before this incident, Jack’s life seemed relatively harmless; his anxiety over death seemed almost like a childish delusion. However, compounded with other seemingly inconsequential events such as the toxicity of gum chewing, the school evacuation hints at the ominous truth behind Jack’s qualms. As the novel progresses, this truth becomes frighteningly apparent, ensnaring Jack in a shroud of fatal and infinite darkness.