“Pain Is A Wild Mirror”

Reflection of the scarring

As deep as the soul it runs

Smile frozen in the long gone past.

Present, Future, held only with turmoil

The mirror screams

You! You are no one—your reflection evaporates

Nothing of you, who you once were has stayed

The mirror as wild as an untamed vine has swallowed you entirely

You are gone, pain has taken you

In the image of the mirror, you see only regret

By: Chelsey Dillard

Changing Description of Blog

UPDATE:

I am changing the description of the blog. This is the first semester than I am not having to read a novel almost every week for classes. We are mostly reading short stories or theories and essays. And writing many essays, so I do not have enough to write about for the blog. So I figured I would just write what comes to mind having to do with books I have read and maybe books I am interested in reading. Plus I might add some of my creative writing and poetry into the blog. And if I do that then I might as well put a few photos up that I have taken!
Hope you enjoy!

Bah Humbug!

I am betting you recognized the phrase from the title, at least heard it before. "Bah! said Scrooge Humbug." Yes this quote is from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. One of the most famous Christmas stories of all times.This story has many, many different versions that have been remade into movies, rewritten, radio broadcast, etc, but since there are many different versions of A Christmas Carol: movies, books, radio broadcast, etc. people do not realize that these adaptations all have inimitable differences about them. The Mercury Theatre sponsored The Campbell Playhouse, which aired many classic novel versions, as radio broadcast, in one, which Orson Welles directed and starred in is the radio broadcast of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  Both Dickens and Welles presented The Christmas Carol during trying times, Dickens wrote the novel during the hungry forties of London, while Orson Welles presented the broadcast during The Great Depression. There are many reasons that writers or film directors rewrite and change A Christmas Carol, but they never completely change the main concept. Welles had to modify the story, so that it fit into a radio broadcast and to fit more definite themes that suited his wishes.  His changes included: bringing more depth to certain themes, such as: religious, the joy of Christmas themes and also shortening certain scenes for the specified time span of the broadcast.

I just finished writing an essay about A Christmas Carol, comparing Orson Welles radio broadcast to Charles Dickens novel. My class has been working on this project for the past 2 months, having to do one thing or another and just maybe this essay will get published to along with the redo of Orson Welles radio broadcast play that WCU is going to present in December. Wish me luck! 

Charles Dickens
http://robertarood.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/charles-dickens.jpg

Orson Welles
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/orsonwelleswaroftheworlds.jpg

Below is the link if you want to listen to the broadcast: 

http://www.mercurytheatre.info/ 

Scroll down to Campbell's play house and click on MP3.

Focus

A key word to life, especially the life of a college student. My life.  One thing that I have to do is stay focused, even when I am ready to just quit doing what has to be done, writing a uninteresting paper, or reading something that I completely disagree with. I have to keep myself focused on the matter, which is much harder than it seems. It is really easy to get distracted within a second. Right now maybe I should be working on one of the four essays I have to get finished here soon, but I could not stay focused on any of them or n reading, so decided maybe if I took a break my focus would be reset and I would be able to get it all done quicker. Maybe this will work. Focus is very difficult, but just as important to getting anything completely in life. I am hoping this break of mine works, but for now I better get back to doing my school work!

Goblin Market

"Goblin Market" is a poem by Christina Rossetti. Written during the victorian age, some people believe it is a poem for feminism power, while others still say its just for children. I read this poem earlier in my college career, but have decided to write an essay about it using feminist critisism for my literature theory class. 

I personally really like this poem. It is about two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, who are tempted by the Goblins to eat thier fruit. One sister, Lizzie resists, but the other, Laura, pays for the fruit with a golden lock of hair. She is satisfied by the fuit only momentaringly. She soon craves more, but when she goes back the Goblin men do not return, so she starts to pine away. Her sister can't stand to see this, so returns and finds the Goblin Market. They returned only for a new customer. However became very angry when Lizzie only wanted to buy fruit and take it home, in stead of staying with them. So the goblin men: 

"...trod and hustled her,

Elbow'd and jostled her,

Claw'd with their nails,

Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking,

Tore her gown and soil'd her stocking,

Twitch'd her hair out by the roots,

Stamp'd upon her tender feet,

Held her hands and squeez'd their fruits"

Still she resist, finally got away and ran home as quick as possible. To find her sister and give 

her the left over juices from the fruit. Finally both sisters were healthy again. And in the end, 

lived to have a life of their own, never thinking of the Goblin Market again.

This poem is about sisterhood and involves a heroine, which is something that many writers

from that time didn't even think about (because most writers were men). I enjoy reading it, I don't agree with all of the articles I have read about it. Some researchers believe it is about rape and evil, but like I stated before, some think is for children. I like reading it from the point of view that Rossetti wrote to get a point out, maybe she wanted children to enjoy it to, but it does have points of feminism in it. It should be an interesting essay to write. 

Original Fairytales: Ruining Childhood Memories!

This semester I am taking fairytale literature. It is the first time that I have really read the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Josephy Jacobs, Le Prince De Beaumont, etc. In class we have watched movies like, Mutzmeg, a folk-tale based off Molly Whuppie, a Joseph Jacobs fairytale, or the Appalachian version of Ashenputtel (Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella). These movies are much different than disney films.
My favorite childhood movies, have been completely altered and I probably can never watch them with the same feeling again. In Ashenputtel, the step-sisters cut their heel and big toe off, then at the end birds poke their eyes out. But my favorite movie as a kid was, Snow-white and The Seven Dwarfs. And yes, the Grimm brothers version is much more gore. Snow-whites mother dies (as in most of these fairytales), then the step-mother thinks that the huntsman killed her, and brought back her heart (really a wild boar's heart), still she actually eats it thinking it was human. As the end when Snow-white gets married they have "red-hot iron shoes, in which she had to dance until she fell down dead" ready for the evil step-mother. Let me say, original fairytales are: sad, evil, full of cannabilism, tricksters, and gory (some versions even have bestiality), nothing like the happily ever after disney portrays.

The Class Text

Now don't get me wrong I actually like these versions. I like reading them, trying to figure out the differences, why they are so. different. It is just such a surprise. I am so happy that I am in this class though, considering diving deeper into these old fairy-tales. I know I have to write an essay for the class, I am leaning either cannabilism or gender inequalities, how women are portrayed.

Why Books?

As of right now, my life revolves around books. Books of all types, some leisure reading, some tough classical, some interesting literature. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1. I like to read, all different kinds of books. 2. I am attending college to get my BA in English Literature, with a minor in professional writing. So reading and writing are pretty much required. At times its overwhelming, but really l like what I do, so I can't complain. I may not be good at it, the writing that is, but at least I try. And practice does improve skills. Right?