English 212

Presentations

2005-12-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

I would just like to say that throughout the semester, everyone's individual and group presentations were all very well done. In most classes I reallllllly destest group presentations/work but working with groups this semester was really beneficial and the presentations that were all informative and entertaining were a great way to learn about the other readings. All in all I really enjoyed this class!

Frye Backtracking

2005-12-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

As much as it pains me to once again pick up my Frye book, I realize that there are a lot of lightbulbs I found while reading that I never felt the need to touch on at the time... so- lucky me, I get to do it now....

ok so I just went back through my blog to see where I left off lightbulbing... and to my dismay- I had only actually done one... so Im aparently going pretty much back to the beginning...

here are the things that really caught my eye
1. "The authority of science is generally recognized today, though grudgingly, and often accompanied by the persecution or social isolation of dissident scientists who do not conform to approved socail anxieties. But the authority of the poet is hardly recognized at all, and may by explicitly denied.... So the question, not only of the reality of a poetic vision, but of the distinctive authority that proclaims it, can hardly be dismissed as unimportant" PG 38/9
I guess this was just something that really is obvious, but something I hadn't thought much of before. Now I recoginize the importance of kerygmatic thought and this seems so much more obvious that it would have had I encountered it before this class. The social unconcious recognition of the importance of imaginitive ideas is also very thought provoking.

2. Aparently in my reading I had also underlined the portion Dr. Sexon spoke of in class where Frye outlines the primary concerns.
"Primary concerns my be considered in four main areas; food and drink, along with related bodily needs; sex; property (ie money, possessions, shelter, clothing, and everything that constitutes porperty in the sense of what is "proper" to one's life); liberty of movement. The general object of primary concern is expressed in the Biblical phrase "Life more abundantly." PG42
We talked about this a lot in class so I won't try to expound further but that general idea has been one of the most interesting to me in this class- Im glad we found time to focus on it.

3.In reference to the previous quote, the one on the next page, 43, expounds futher and was pretty thought provoking...
"All through history secondary concerns have taken precedence over primary ones. We want to live but we go to war; we want freedom, but permit, in varyin degrees of complacancy, an immense amount of exploitation, of ourselves as well as of others; we want happiness, but allow most of our lives to go to waste."
I think these ideas are constantly at battle within everyone. Its almost as if its a battle between lazyiness or ignorance, and work, thought, pain and hardships. The second, while more uncomfortable in the moment, almost always lead to greater satisfaction but its amazing how many people, settle complacently for mediocracy. I see it now, finals week, on a much smaller scale within my own life. I could study for my tests briefly and maybe pull off a C on the finals bringing my averages down from their comfortable As only because I don't feel like studying any more tonight or giving up my Saturday out to sit at my computer and chat about Northrope Frye. Now, on my Sunday, I feel more rushed than ever, sacraficing quality, and sometimes assignments alltogether just to finish in time to watch Grey's Anatomy. It really is interesting. Obviously Frye was talking on a much larger level but I have to sacrifice the quality of his argument, and bring it down to my chaotic level in order to "grasp" it in time to move on.

4.The next thing that caught my eye during the readings was something Frye actually took from another author, D. H. Lawrence. Frye, in his paraphrase says, "We should trust no writer's beliefs or attitudes, but concentrate on his myth, which is infinitly wiser than he is, and is the only element that can survive when the ideology attached to it fades." PG 60
I think this is extreemly interesting and profound and I guess Im not exactly sure where to start. Once again, now that Im looking back at this material when class is over, I appreciate in a much different light. When I was reading this orginally, this statement probably caught my eye because it wouldn't have intially made sense; Im sure I reread it a couple of times and had to sit and think on it for a while. And now, after learning what we did this semester, it still takes me a while to grasp Frye's thought process but it just brings me back to everything is a displacement, nothing is an original and we are all plagerists. I think that concept is what Frye is addressing here, from DH Lawerence but its still odd to me, that within a person's own writing, thier own thoughts have no merit. Only the precedent, which we aparently knew anyway from somewhere before matters..... hmmmm

5. This whole thought process continues, combined with some of the previous ones on page 61. Frye says, "The point is not that myth falsifies history, but that history, the continuous record of what ascendant idologies do, falsifies primary concern." I guess his point here is that its not the seires of events that matter, its what the series of events are acting in accordance with that would make us sacrifice that which is supposedly most important to us, in order to reinact that which we know, unknowingly in myth form.

Ok well I just got a little lost in my own thought process there and thats never really a good sign so I will be done for tonight. Plus I suppose I should probably get some work done while Im at work but its nice getting paid to try to catch some of Frye's message.

wow... so maybe not procrastination?

2005-12-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ok well Im a huge procrastinator.

Due dates are my friends and blogging has obviously not been my forte this semester. Without an end in the time frame I have a really hard time getting stressed about something enough to motivate myself toward acomplishments.

That said, with the blog cutoff of Tuesday looming, I decided it was time to get started. I started perusing other blogs for motivation, inspiration, or conversation starters and I was really kind of overwhelmed. While I have always known that procratination was not necessarily the best option ever, it looks as if it was the worst by far for the whole blog situation. It seems like everyone else's blogs are amazing! You guys all did an excellent job and I guess I will just start my last second scramble with a few comments on your ideas, papers, presentations etc.

Maggi- I think your paper on knowledge within religious context is very interesting and I really enjoyed your paper... It was something that definitly made me think when I was finished and it has ended up in a lot of my conversations since. Very interesting to hear other people's views on the matter.

Mick- I wasn't even half way through your list of references within the Matrix movies before I wanted go rent and watch them immediately to expound on the importance in the movies and otherwise of the specific instances you referenced. So cool- I definitly enjoyed your paper/presentation topic. Very cool.

Danielle- Your blog on futility was very interesting. I also disagree with the idea that everything is futile and you made excellent points. My favorite was #3- we have something to learn. I think this is the biggest and most important point because, in reference to your arguement, it affects numbers 1, 2 and your kind of 4. I believe that we gain something from every interaction and without learning, like you did with your chili, that the actions and choices of other individuals and ourselves make our situation, and that it is the way we react, from lessons previously learned, that is now within out control is really important. Anyways, I liked your futility argument!

Valerie- Well you said a ton of stuff within your blog I could comment on but right now I would like to agree on the recomendation of Huxley's Brave New World. Yes it is disturbing but in a way for me it was also refreshing. Now, I read it three years ago so I apologize if I am confusing ideas but it was really nice to respect and enjoy some of the simplicities of life. Even just within the quote you show, when the Savage they encounter on the visit to the reservation, who is living without the "amenities" of technology chooses unhappiness with simplicity instead of the unthinking nature that has with their sex crazed technological advances.
Anyways, excellent book, for a mulitude of reasons.

Spencer- Your paper/presentation topic was really interesting and I liked how you tied the two traditions with the human condition. "Even though the two traditions largely represent different ideals, they inevitably have their share of similarities, and the reason they are similar is that they both come out of human experience. Nobody can devote one’s self strictly to one tradition or the other, because both have a ring of truth that echoes in real life." Very Cool- definitly agree

Claire- I really liked your reference to the poem by Langston Hughes. I am now also very curious if the proverb was the inspiration.

Ok well more to come for sure. Im attempting to catch up and don't worry, with an 8 hour Sunday shift at the hotel (whoah profane time) I should get some more done...

Paper

2005-12-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ok I haven't presented my paper yet so I want to post this with a warning. Its pretty personal, not especially well written, and not on a lighthearted topic. I apologize if it makes anyone uncomfortable but Im figuring it should be fine. Ok well here it is....

Suffering and Time

To address what new information one could take from this class, and moreover, to speak of that information’s importance is really a daunting task. So many of the ideas covered really registered with me as important and applicable to much of my reading and my life. These light bulbs, as they have been termed, are not only confined to readings of the biblical and classical traditions, but as has been learned, to all literature and life. Callasso said, “All life is displaced myth” and so I took what I learned most about my life from this class and decided that was what was important, and that was why it mattered. The ideas of suffering, in both biblical and classical traditions, are at odds with each other, and combined with demonic and sacred time, very much present in life, and in culture, thousands of years later.

My mother was first diagnosed with cancer when I was 12 years old. My memories from this time are not so great; I was really young to try to deal with a very adult situation. No one at the time told me specifically what was going to happen, but I was smart enough to realize it was not very good. They put a time limit on her life at this point and I really don’t think it was more than a week. Four long, and painful years later, she was once again happy, healthy, and my beautiful mother. But then she got sick again. This time, she had a day to live, and she did. So then, the doctors thought it would probably be within the week. They kept putting numbers on my mother’s life and she kept outliving them. I do not know a better example of demonic time. Every minute, they told you, would be her last; and although it never was, who could say when it would be. After two years they said she would not live, multiple surgeries, bouts of chemotherapy, and finally stopping treatment it finally was her last moment.

My mother passed away two weeks before my high school graduation. I was 18 and she had been sick for a solid third of my life. She had suffered so much. I cannot imagine how it would be to be ill for almost all of six years, if not from the disease, from the treatment. The pain, the illness, the entire situation has to be its own form of demonic time.

After my mother’s intense suffering and fighting, when she was finally at peace, was my family’s turn to suffer. Losing a loved one is said to be one of the hardest experiences of life and I just cannot imagine anything worse. While my own grief is hard, I look to my father and see the most incredible sadness in his eyes, and I know I cannot imagine the amount of suffering he is now doing.

My mother was so young. My mother was so lovely; so many people tried to come to her funeral they were crowded on the steps outside and in the basement as there was not enough room in Lewistown’s large Catholic Church. She had an intense faith; she was a person who believed everyone had so much good in them, all you had to do was find it, and she did. In no way can one justify her suffering in the ways Job’s friends tried; she did nothing to deserve it. And I believe the same of my father’s pain and suffering, and of the rest of my family. In no way can I believe that as Job’s friends recommend, that suffering is punishment for wrongdoings.

Homer‘s idea that we suffer so that the bards can sing about us is more applicable yet less explanatory. My mother touched many people and since her death, many art works have been done in her name, given to my family or created in memory of her. However, I cannot say that was the reason she suffered so long and in fact, I feel very disconcerted, as her suffering was not worth all the art in the world, however beautiful it may be.

Yahweh told Job that it was not human’s place to question suffering; humans are not deities and can we please just remember this. I suppose that this is what my mother must have thought, that God, or some higher power had it in their plan that she suffer and die this way, for whatever reason. It is curious to me however, that if this, or if all suffering is in the hands of the gods, or in the will of the gods, why does suffering atone such demonic time. While it does take forever to walk across campus in the bitter cold, the parking lot always seems farther away at the end of the day, class does take much longer to pass when the teacher is questioning on homework you have not done, these standstills have no comparison for sadly waiting for someone you love to die or slowly losing your grip on your own life. That seems so much more truly demonic than any other example brought up in the discussions of demonic time.

However demonic the time before and after my mother’s death, I also came away with my best, personal example of sacred time as well. In my mother’s final hour, she was at home, and just before she died, my entire immediate family surrounded her home hospital bed. I arrived home from school, my brother from work, and my sister arrived in Montana three days after giving birth to my new nephew and we were all there. As she died, there was an intense feeling of peace, serenity and love that filled the room. I honestly have no idea how long we sat in silence after she took her last breath before we started to hug and cry. I only know that this memory is of a truly sacred time.

Why do we suffer? Why does it matter? These concepts, portrayed gracefully in biblical and classical traditions address the questions of life and death. They sympathize with everyone in each personal yet universal way and give the comfort that my mother, my father and myself are definitely not the only people to suffer illness, death and loss. These concepts, if nothing else, give us comfort in the despair of the human condition. The models of time, articulated uniquely and distinctively in the way that only Northrope Frye can write, encompasses human feelings more completely than most ideologies or philosophies. The distinctions between the different traditions, together help to articulate exactly what crazy things humans experience, may they be good, bad, sad, hopeful, sacred or demonic. Biblical and classical traditions and other great literature may seemly be opposed at time, yet when combined provide a beautiful comfort, and companion to all emotion.

Time

2005-10-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

So we were supposed to write about a situation in which we felt time stood still. Well at the time, only the most obvious answers came to mind, ie high school. But as I just finished my 8 hour shift at the Comfort Inn Front Desk, and checked in maybe only 20 people, I found a better example. Work. Especially if you would rather be elsewhere and you are by yourself with not much work to acutally do. I checked my watch much to frequently; it felt like about every 30 minutes but turned out only to be about 3. Well theres my example, I assume many feel the same way but I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Study Grouping- Any one can come?!

2005-10-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Group 3 was tenativly having a study session at the library at 7:30.... Not really sure if anyone or who exactly is showing up but Laura and I are going to be there at least. If anyone wants to study group and doesn't have one you are welcome to join us- Im not exactly sure where we will be but I would check 2nd floor, the lobby area by SRO or the study rooms upstairs

Yay study grouping

Notes on Everything, Really [part 1]

2005-10-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

So I started scanning everyone else's much more ambitious e-journals and as I was skimming through class notes I was noticing slight differences on each person's page. So I decided it would be great for my own studying and also possibly helpful to others if I put my take on class notes up. They are definitely not the best, most descriptive or well organized by any means... just what I wrote down.

29 August

repetition is good, repetition is good

in illo tempore (Latin)= originary
mythos (Greek)= stories

31 August

for all ascent there must be descent

Discussion of Frye-
two types of reading- centripetal = make sense of the words
centrifugal= gathering memory from outside works

Grapes of Wrath/Battle Hymn of the Republic

2 September

perfunctory= doing only what is required

theodicy = the actions of the gods that don't make sense to mankind

anthropomorphic = attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things such as inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomenon

7 September

repetitive parallels in the Bible

4 levels of Frye discourse

descriptive
conceptual
ideological
imaginative/kerygmatic/romantic etc

kerygma= message or proclamation

Vico-
1st we spoke as gods in hieroglyphics (hiero= holy)
2nd- heroes and spoke as aristocrats (poetic)
3rd- "men"- spoke as economics (practical, descriptive)
4th- chaos- "dude", gibberish

9 September

Paronomasia= word play
torah = law
Writers of the Bible are J, E, D, P, R known by there literary signatures or styles

12 September Talmud= commentary on the Bible canonical- sanctioned as the official books
iconoclastic= "the breaking of images"
Ovid's Metamorphoses

metempsychosis= "transmigration of souls"

Sources of the canonical stories of the Greeks

Homer
Hesiod- theogony= "the birth of the Gods"
Greek Playwrights- Esceles, Aristophones, Sophocles, [one more that I apparently stopped writing that started with Ar]
Vergil
Ovid

1000 BCE
-- Fall of Troy
-- Exodus

7 Categories or the Bible- *** Know for test***

Creation
Revolution (exodus)
Law (torah)
Wisdom
Prophecy
above 5 are in the Hebrew scriptures
Gospel ("the good news")
Apocalypse (apo= to take off, Calypso [Greek goddess- veil])

I have this particular section starred which means MS made some reference to this being on the test.

"He who sows the wind, will reap the whirlwind"

13 September

misprision= mishearing [ie "one naked individual"/"one nation indivisible"]

Genesis 49:22- Jacob is dying, Joseph is a "fruitful bow"

prolix= abundant

synonymous parallelism

5 Books of the Torah (also starred... need for test)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Dueteronomy

16 September

J (950 BCE)
E
D
P [precision, dimensions, numbers (didactic= teach lesson) 550 BCE]
R

The Fall

paratatic- uses "and" frequently to avoid subordination

19 September

Abraham -> Isaac ("she laughed") -> Jacob & Esau
& Sarai & Rebecca

Jacob & Leah -> 9 sons
Jacob & Rachel -> Joseph and Benjamin ( Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin)

Jacob's new name = Israel

Ill hopefully post the second part later tonight... must study group now-

My 3 Synonomous Parallelisms

2005-09-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

Psalms 27:3 reads, "Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident."

Isaiah 44:22 reads, "I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist.

Matthew 7:7 reads, "Ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.

Lightbulb on Consciousness, well, kinda?

2005-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Im a psych major, so I really apologize to all of you who do not find this interesting.
I was rereading the first chapter of Frye, kind of to warm myself up to tackling more, but also to further my limited understanding of what he is saying, and I ran across this "light bulb" moment.

"I have mentioned the authority of the voice of reason in a hysterical society, but reason depends on consciousness, and consciousness is a defensive and filtering mechanism, excluding other forms of psychic activity, such as fantasy or dream, which are functional in literature." (pg 24)

This really reminded me of something we were talking about in my social psych class that made complete and total sense, but simply not something I would have thought about in my personal musings. The whole concept of the self, of consciousness, is something that we cannot perceive accurately. First, I looked up consciousness to clarify exactly what I was attempting to talk about.... www.dictionary.com says it is

"A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group"

So technically, follow me here, we cannot accurately perceive our own self, because, in turning our attention inward, we are simply perceiving our own perceptions, not the actual "self". More blatantly, consciousness of the self, errors the consciousness. This happens for many reason (those defense mechanisms Frye alluded to), including the self-serving bias, but I won't plague you with any more psych mumbo jumbo.

Ok so I might really not make any sense at all there. Maybe this is how Frye feels, all these ideas in his head that are too big to get out, and therefore he writes in his own, amazing yes, but entirely confusing manner. That is not to say that my own words here are near amazing but yeah...

Ok my entire point is that I very much agree with Frye here. Consciousness is errored, and therefore must be discounted especially in the imaginative mode, while fantasy and dream are somewhat separated and therefore valuable in writings.

I really hope this makes sense, and that Im getting at what Frye was trying to say-

Google Isaiah 63

2005-09-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Dr. Sesxon asked us to google Isaiah 63 in reference to our discussions on The Grapes of Wrath and the Battle Hymn of the republic. Shown here is Isaiah 63:1-6
1 Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments, from Bozrah- This one arrayed in majesty, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, I who announce vindication, I who am mighty to save."
2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like those of the wine presser?
3 "The wine press I have trodden alone, and of my people there was no one with me. I trod them in my anger, and trampled them down in my wrath; Their blood spurted on my garments; all my apparel I stained.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, my year for redeeming was at hand.
5 I looked about, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that there was no one to lend support; So my own arm brought about the victory and my own wrath lent me its support.
6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I let their blood run out upon the ground."cited from http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/isaiah/isaiah63.htm
You can easily see all the red/crimson/blood imagry that shows the
Grapes -> Wine -> Blood -> Blood of Christ that we talked about in class.
The other wording in this passage can be seen in meaning and directly in the Battle Hymn of the Republic, lyrics and music shown [here].

Documentary Hypothesis

2005-09-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Documentary Hypothesis

- (LINK) here is the documentary hypothesis site I found as I assume most people did. Like the others, it is also complete with a flow chart.

picture found at: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/Judaism/jepd.html

I was slightly confused however. In class Dr. Sexson spoke of 5 original writers of the Pentateuch, but this site only shows 4: J, E, P, D. Where, then, is the R writer? So I looked a little further... The site I found, (LINK) listed R as the redactor. Basically the R writer compiled the 4 other writers' works. This was the flow chart the second site shows, and as it was different, I was pretty interested. If I am following it correctly it shows that there may be 2 D writers that contributed to the book eventually known as Deuteronomy.

picture found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Moderndocumenthypothesis.jpg

Also, in our discussions in class Dr. Sexson talked about the difference in the writers and how, after analysis, they could be told apart. What he focused on what the different ways the writers referred to God, but there are more ways as well. One that I found quite interesting was differences in the same stories. This is what Dr. Sexson wanted us to notice in the first two chapters of Genesis. While doing this blog, I had not yet read Genesis and one site I was at referenced different creation stories. So I pulled out my Harper-Collins Study Bible and read the beginning of Genesis for myself to see if I would pick up the difference before I knew what it was I should notice. I, in fact, did find the difference and looked into it further. Genesis 1:24-25 talks about how God, on the 5th day created birds and creatures of the seas. Then, on the 6th day, created living creatures, starting with "cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind" and then later in verses 26-31 God creates mankind and called them rulers of the Earth. So that's the first version of the creation story. Then in Genesis 2 it talks again about the day that God (referred to now as Lord God) made the heavens and the earth before there was any sort of vegetation (must be the 3rd day? if it were to match with the first story). It says in verse 7 that first God made man out of the dust of the earth, then caused vegetation to grow, then formed some rivers, and then much later in verse 18 odd gave man (Adam) and wife (Eve). The discrepancy goes a bit further but I think it is easy to see how blatantly the writers' stories differ. There is another discrepancy in the flood story. In Genesis 6:19, God tells Noah to bring 2 of every kind of animal on his arc but then in Genesis 7:2 God tells him to bring 7 pairs of clean animals? I don't really understand the differences in the clean and not clean animals referenced in this passage but the 2 chapters' stories do not match perfectly.

Side note- While I haven't taken the beginning religion class here at MSU I have talked to quite a few people who did and I'm pretty sure this isn't an original flood story. Ancient Mesopotamia religions also had a flood story? Maybe- I obviously don't know the details but this just supports Dr. Sexson's argument that we are all plagiarists, including apparently the J and E writers who I believe are the contributors to these passages.

Ok well thats all the time I have for today. I hope this all makes sense and I apologize for any blatent errors (spelling etc)- I also think I am referencing Bible passages correctly but if not please let me know--

Understanding is Coming in Small Doses

2005-09-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Moments of Enlightenment

While they may be few and far between- I have encounted some points in Frye's writeing where it just all seems to come together. These tend to find me at the end of his paragraphs, exactly at the point where I am about to stop and reread the seemingly unrelated words and sentences, then all of the sudden it hits me. Modes are different varriations of interpretation of words. The different writing styles he examines is not just categorized nonsense but distinguishable techniques used in respective areas of writing. And the modes matter within the writing styles and so on and so forth. Shocking and time consuming as it is, Frye's writing is building upon itself always towards his next main point, and hopefully my next moment of understanding.

Notes on Gibberish of the Vulgate

2005-09-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Notes on Part One “Gibberish of the Vulgate” Chapter one “Sequence and Mode”
1.Vulgate The Latin edition or translation of the Bible made by Saint Jerome at the end of the fourth century A.D., now used in a revised form as the Roman Catholic authorized version. http://www.dictionary.com/

Part I

Two ways when reading:
Centripetal—makes sense of the words themselves
Centrifugal—gathering memory from outside works

Polysemous—word with many meanings

Modes—variants of structures/emphasis in meaning

Descriptive mode
Made of two structures
What is being described
The words of description used
Most recent historically
Objective truth
Clear as possible, avoids literary techniques (metaphor etc)
No descriptive meaning in the Bible
Without description we could not have “history”
Forms bulk of human communication

“Lockean Procedure”
Perception leads to relection
Reflection leads to verbal impulse
Words do not transmit into our minds nonverbally
Only transmit nonverbally in grammatical conventions
Authority of nonverbal fact is greatly lessened
Escapes from argument, blatantly here are the facts
Conceptual (Dialectic) mode
Truth is found from what is found in the words, not the words themselves or what they directly reflect

Ж“art imitates nature” –“art is the forma and nature is the content, nature being something contained by the art and not something reflected in it”(p9)

Conceptual cont.
Gives a wider perspective
Searching for objective truth of the words in the verbal ordered that is being created
Rules of logic created to ensure B follows A
Meant to exert a compulsive force, has an argument
Emphasis on power of words to coordinate the verbal elements
Splits questions in two- accept the true inference and reject the false
Emphasis can never be right or wrong
An argument, theoretically, is not more or less valid depending on the
arguer. However, there is always a glimpse of relation to a person.

Part II

Socrates and Thrasymachus on Justice

More to continue

Oh Northrop!

2005-09-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Oh goodness! So I have pretty much decided that this guy is too smart for his own good! I can definitely tell that English was not necessarily his first language; originating from our neighbors to the north, his French background seems to have given him a great understanding of how to correctly use grammar to his advantage when creating the monsters of sentences he uses. He is a pretty interesting writer, what with using words I suspected he created until I looked them up myself. Well, I guess I'll just keep hacking through and hope for more of those moments of enlightenment that were referred to in class today and notes will follow soon-