Smooth Talk

After wathcing bits and pieces of the movie Smooth Talk in class, I now have the urge to go out and rent it to see how the whole story plays out. I must say, I didn't really enjoy the movie as much as I thought I would. Maybe it was the unsatisfying ending, but it just didn't feel right. The beginning part that we watched strayed from the actual short story, but it was well-done. The last part that we watched, however, seemed to be scripted word for word from the short story. It felt as if the last portion we watched was the whole short-story, and made me wonder what the rest of the movie consisted of. In the movie, Connie was portrayed well. She captured the coyness and innocence of the character in the story. At first, when she was talking to Arnold friend, she appeared to enjoy the attention, leading him on, teasing him, and making it seem like she enjoyed this unknown-man coming to her. After a while, though, the fright kicked in. The scene with Arnold took a long time to play out, and at times I wanted the story to hurry up and finish, but it was effective. As in the book, Arnold had a way of talking and persuading which required no physical force, only effective words.
Recently, I went to the movie The Lovely Bones, and it seemed like a retelling of Connie's story. In the movie, the murder meets his young female victim in a field, and uses his "smooth talk", and appeals to her innocent nature in order to lure her to her death. Both stories involve the snatching of innocence through means of effective and convincing language.
The ending of the movie was dissapointing. In the book, I got a much different impression of what happened. To me, the ending of the book implied that Connie drove with Arnold, and he took her to some bare piece of land where he stole her innocence. Then, maybe it's my dark tendencies, but I got the impression that he killed her and buried her in the same field where he stole her innocence. The movie ended much differently, with Connie and her sister dancing...an almost happy ending that disappointed my perspective on the story. Still, despite this final dissapointment, I think I'll still go rent the movie to see how the entire story plays out.

To His Coy Mistress

In class Prof. Sexson mentioned and talked about the poem "To His Coy Mistress". The overall point of the poem is a man asking or convincing a woman to sleep with him. He talks about how if he had all the time in the world, he would take eternity to admire every part of her, but unfortunately time is always moving forward and before long death will come, so therefore they should make love sooner rather than later. This poem made me realize the power of words and how language is used. The way the language in the poem is used is very fluid, romantic, and convincing. The poet uses beautiful phrases like:
"The last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate."

"The youthful hue sits on they skin like morning dew."

"Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day"

The language can't help but draw you in and make you want to listen to more. However, reflecting back on the subject of the poem, I can imagine how the same idea/question might be posed in a horrible, unthoughtful manner in modern day language. If a man were to use a much different form of language to convey the same idea, perhaps using casual slang or innapropriate terms, he would likely not be very succesful in getting what he desires. The poem, however, would likely generate a much different response for the woman. The simple way in which a man speaks to a woman can prove highly effective in love. She would see that the man actually cares about her, instead of thinking about her as something unvaluable.

Also, Prof. Sexson mentioned modern pick-up lines. Most of them are hilarious and many guys would fail at winning a girl's affection with such lines. I'm interested in if any of the boys in class are going to do the assignment on reciting a Shakesperean love poem to a lady, instead of a pick-up line. I wonder if it will actually work. It probably has the potential to work, but the guy has to appear sincere, honest, use a soft gentle voice, and be convincing, otherwise it could be a complete disaster.

How do we know what we think until we see what we say?

In class on Friday, we discussed the meaning behind these words. The main point behind this saying is that we must write down our thoughts in order to truly discover what we think. Without writing down our thoughts, life can become very comfusing. However, when we write down our thoughts, we are organizing our ideas. Then, we can look back on these written ideas and see what we believe. In my own life, I often write down my thoughts. Especially at this point in my life, I'm unsure about how I want my life to play out, the direction in which I want it to go, and what steps I need to take to reach my goals. So, I've often kept a diary or just written down my plans on paper. This has helped me to look back on my thoughts and try to organize my ideas and figure out the person that I am. I've found that once I write down my thoughts and look over them, it is then easier to discuss them with other people. Going through life without writing things down makes me feel lost and unsure, but once I have written ideas, it is easier to make decisions and know myself better.

Retellings

After "perusing" our Lit. class textbook, I've decided that I'm going to likely enjoy this book. I've always been a fan of fantasy, fairy tales, and mystical stories, and this book appears to be filled with those types of stories. The first story I noticed was Cinderella by the Grimm brothers. My little sister actually has a book filled with the original versions of the Grimm brother fairy tales, and they are surprisingly dark, shocking, and even gruesome- certainly not the Disney "retellings" of the tales. For example, I recall that in the version of Cinderella, the evil step-sisters cut of part of their toes to make the glass slipper fit. I'm not sure if this is the Grimm version of the tale, but it is certainly different than the child-friendly versions. I've always had an interest in learning the origins of fairy tales and how they have changed and been adapted over the years, so I look forward to exploring them. On a similar note, versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Peter Pan also caught my eye. Being a visual person, the pictures in the text clearly jumped out at me. There weren't many, but I recognized many of the visuals used, such as the painting Starry night and the movie cover of "Home Alone." Also, I noticed that every chapter began with a photo of the Mona Lisa, and I wonder if this has any significance as an overall theme of the book.
The book is filled with a wide variety of genres of writing. Poetry, drama, essays, fiction stories, etc. are all included. I was interested in the poetry sections specifically. I find longer stories can easily bore me, but compact poetry forces me to decipher each word, line, and phrase as if it were some type of secret code. I also noticed a section of the book with music written in it, maybe relating poetry to music, which I found intriguing because I play the piano. Going through the book, I recognized many of the stories from high school, such as The yellow wallpaper, the poem Daddy, and a few others.
Finally, there were some items in the text which I wanted to examine deeper and certain sections of the text that intrigued me more than others. Being a fantasy fan, The section about Monsters and Heroes, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde caught my attention. Towards the end of the book, there were biographies of each author which I believe could me understand each authors writing style. The final thing that struck me about this text was a section called To his coy mister: A seize of the Gay poem. It seemed like an odd name, so I'm curious as to what it entails. Overall, this text promises to be an intruguing and enjoyable read. :)

Where are you Going, where have you been

I remember reading this story freshman year of high school, and here I am a freshman in college reading the same story. Even though the words are the same, it is a completely different experience reading the text. I found myself reading slower and really absorbing every detail of the story. There's something about the tale of Connie that grabbed my attention. Here is this young girl, more concerned with her beauty and social status than anything else, and she is about to be taken advantage of by an older male. I felt myself relating to the story and acting out what I would do if I was Connie. I wanted to reach into the text, shake her and tell her to run! I wanted to make her do more than just standing in the doorway, give her a chance to survive. In the story, it felt as if the moment Arnold drove up to Connies house, she had already decided her fate. She already knew that she was going to die. Even though I was not very fond of Connie's character to begin with, I still thought she should at least put up a fight and get a chance to escape unharmed. The end of the story was shocking and sad. In the tale, I despised Arnold Friend, and the fact that he was actually a real person made it even more unbearable to imagine. His physical appearance didn't seem to be intimidating, but the ease and tone in which he spoke seems much more menacing. It was as if even if she tried, Arnold knew that there was no way she could escape. Overall, this story was frightening and made me think twice about people like Arnold.

January 13

Yesterday was the first day of class for Lit.110. After only a few minutes, I could tell that the class was going to be fun and entertaining- and I hope I'm right! The professor seems joyous, and even taking roll turned out entertaining and funny. The only part of the class that Im slightly worried about is the 700 page book we have to read, but hopefully I will make it through alive. I've never blogged before, so this is a new experience and hopefully it works :)