Collected Poems by E.E. Cummings

Collected Poems by E.E. Cummings. (Originally published together in 1959. The Edition: Harcourt, Brace & World 1963).   I got to say it’s nice to read this when you are relaxing after a bad day.  His writing style is very easy to read and even though you could say there are more advanced poems later in the book, a majority are easy to understand and even more easy to fall in love with.

Usually I would say that there are spoilers ahead at this point, but because it is a collection of Cummings poems I don’t feel the need too.  Plus this one probably won’t be as long, seeing as I have nothing collectively to say about all the poems, but I thought that I would mention some of my favourite lines from some of my favourite poems.

Section: Tulips and Chimneys

2 “(though love be a day)”  - Reading this poem makes me want to fall in love all over again.  I couldn’t help but see myself read these as my vows on my wedding day.  Some would say it is weird, because near the end it talks about death, but to me it is saying “till death do us part” (if you want my honest opinion).  I love the way that he describes the other lover “thy hair mostly the hours love:/a smoothness which/sings”.  I can’t help but sigh whenever I read this poem.

Section: &

89 “I occasionally feel vague how/vague i don’t know”  -  This poem makes me think about an adventurous life that I could be living.  I don’t know if it is the poem that I am fond of, or maybe just the line.  There’s another from this one that I enjoy which is “let’s live suddenly without thinking/under honest trees”. 

Section: XLI Poems

121 “who’s most afraid of death?”  - To be completely honest, this poem is kind of morbid, but I find that I love the writing style.  Well, its morbid till the end, when he goes “and drawing thy mouth toward/my mouth, steer our lost bodies carefully downward” I can’t help but think of intimacy.  Between the man and death himself.  What did you think I was talking about??

Section: Is 5

180 “for life’s not a paragraph”  - One of my favourite lines that he has ever written, but I need to write what is around it.  So here goes: “we are for each other: then/laugh, leaning back in my arms/for life’s not a paragraph/And death i think is no parenthesis”.  LOVE IT!  I love this poem, just because you can feel the emotion, or maybe I can’t and I just love the last two sentences.  If that is the reason then I have no trouble saying that I enjoyed this poem to all the angry masses. 

Section: W

237 “i wear your dearest fears beyond their ceaselessness”   - I think that I love this poem just because it reminds me of my friend who is having a rough time at the moment.  Plus the last line makes me think about literature living through the air and going everywhere and being everything.  That line is “one poem yet shall swim”.

Section: No Thanks--> This is my least favorite section of poems.  They are more abstract and don't make sense a lot of the time.  Some were also very hard to read, so beware!

287 “be of love(a little)”  - This poem makes me think of freedom and being protected by the one you love.  If that makes sense. 

Section: New Poems

312 “may my heart always be open to little/birds”  -  This poem is one of the last poems that Cummings has written (in this set of poems), but it is amazing.  I mean I can say I don’t really have the words that are needed to describe this poem.  But because it is the last one that I am writing about, and it is short, I’m going to write it out for you so you can think for yourself.

“may your heart always be open to little

birds who are the secrets of living

whatever they sing is better than to know

and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry

and fearless and thirsty and supple

and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong

for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully

and love yourself so more than truly

there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail

pulling all the sky over him with one smile” 

Happy reading!

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  (Originally published in 1902.  Page 126 - 186 The Edition: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction)   How to begin with the story.  Well first I'll say that it is in a storytelling framework, where the narration is about a person telling a story that another person has told them.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

I:  This is the easiest part of the story, and that is probably because it is the start of the story and you haven't met Kurtz yet.  It starts off with a narrator describing his trip down the Thames river.  When the sun sets and the boat is completely pitch black, Marlow (another man on the boat) says "And this also has been one of the dark places on the earth" (129).  Marlow is the one who tells the story of his adventure down the Congo River.  Looking back at this part of the story the only thing I really want to write about is the women knitting black wool.  Right away this made me think back to when he said "tolerant of each other's yarns" (127) and my English Drama class and Greek Mythology. 
Background information needed:  In Greek Mythology it is believed that people have a Moira (the personification of fate) which cannot be changed that is made by two woman who are knitting it.  I would get more into the idea of Moira, but even after the class ended no one understood what it was suppose to do entirely. Read Oedipus the King if you want to read about how it was applied in plays.

II: This part was really boring so I don't really want to write anything about it.  All I remember is Marlow breaking down because he thought Mr. Kurtz died and he never had the chance to meet him. I don't even want to look at it really.

III: The conclusion. Yay! It's almost over!  At this point I started counted down pages till I would be done.  18 to be exact.  Finally we meet Mr. Kurtz.  And guess what! He is CRAZY!  Woohoo! Well most of the times.  Anyways, you meet him and its about their meeting and all that stuff. Blah blah, then he runs away, goes psycho? then Marlow carries him back?.  There are questions when I say this because I honestly have no idea what happened.  At one point they were in the trees, and Marlow is just talking, then Marlow is putting him on the couch, then he's back in London...? Kind of questioning what just happened.  Marlow does go and visit Mr. Kurtz "intended" and lies to her telling her that he said her name as his last words, when really it was "The horror!"(186). 

I have to be honest, I liked the first part.  I was really quite easy to get through and I was enjoying it.  If the entire book had been like that, maybe I would have read it faster than I had.  But alas, that never seems to happen.  Personally I kind of enjoyed it, there's just places where I keep questioning what is going on, and how something like that just happens.  Maybe it was the time period.  Oh.  Another thing about the time period being an influence on the writing, Marlow is a racist.  Legit.  But I don't think Conrad was.  That's what I love about authors.  They make up insane characters for you!

Happy Reading!

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. (Originally Published in 1930. The Edition: Penguin Classics 1996) This book is a very slow and hard read.  I found that there was no point in reading it, and that it was just all around pointless.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story surrounds Adam Fenwick-Symes.  At least, I think it does.  Well. By the end after the beginning on the train it starts to surround Adam's life.  The very beginning was very confusing.  I didn't understand why Mrs. Ape was in the story at all, or the "angels".   The names Faith, Charity, Fortitude, Chastity, Humility, Prudence, Divine Discontent, Mercy, Justice, and Creative Endeavour were odd.  But so were many of the other names in this story.  Like Mr Outrage, Lady Throbbing, and Mr Chatterbox to name a few.  (Yes, I realize that Mr Chatterbox was just a name that what-ever writer at the time wrote under for the newspaper.)  I think that the amount of names, and oddity of the names made me turned off from the story itself.  But I tried to give it a chance.

It wasn't worth it.  It was only written about all these young people going to parties and following their lives, and had no plot line.  Except maybe the on-and-off again engagement between Adam and Nina Blout.  That was the only thing that was consistent, until the end where she ends up marrying Ginger and pretty much has an affair with Adam while he works.  Well, that's what I thought.  Maybe they didn't have an affair, but it was at the end that I really thought they did because she says something in her letter to Adam along the lines of "Ginger has quite made up his mind that it is his"(186).  Who knows.

The one character that I did like was Miss Runcible.  She was funny and was one of those people that are always in the newspaper, either good or bad.  And then Waugh killed her off.  At first he made her crazy and then killed her off.  Upsetting!  I kind of secretly wanted her to end up with Adam after he found out about Nina and Ginger's engagement, but it didn't happen.  She just ended up getting more crazy.  The one thing that bothered me about her death was the way they just nonchalantly say "Did I tell you I went to Agatha's funeral?" (177).  Like really? That's all that you can say?  I mean I should have known that Waugh would just leave the death alone after meeting Simon for maybe ten pages before he ends up dying, NOT killing himself.  It's just frustrating when deaths like that happen.  Sometimes I wish for closure more than suspense.

I would never want to read this again.  Because I did not like it and if there is a point, which there isn't, I don't see it.  Or a moral.  Or a meaning.  There's nothing but words there, that are constantly repeating themselves, which has to have some point, but it was just slow and long.  My advise if you are going to read this, make sure you are in the most uncomfortable positions or chairs then read it.  You are bound to stay awake than.

Happy Reading!

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.  (Page 386-418 The Edition: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction) So I decided to check on my blog, and it just looked so lonely without a new post.  Maybe I am procrastinating.  Who really knows.  So.  This short story is different.  And I'm about to tell you how I feel about it.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

When I first read the words "he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" (386) I automatically think of a cockroach (sorry for the page number, but I need to practice MLA somewhere).  It kinda disturbed me and then I didn't really want to read it.  I think what most bothered me is that he wasn't at all fazed by it.  He was kinda like, "Oh I'm a gigantic insect, I have to get to work..."  If I woke up to find that I was an insect I think I'd freak out.  Big time.  But after the initial shock of the whole insect thing, Kafka is able to draw you in to see the real message behind the story. The family dynamic. 

At first, his sister Grete was really good about getting him food and cleaning his room.  But after time went on she just didn't want to have to deal with him any more.  If I were at first to take my sister (or brother) turning into an insect well, I wouldn't turn my back on her (or him).  Or it... just because it couldn't bring in money for the family.

The father in this story pissed me off.  I mean he makes his son go get a job so that Gregor (funny story about his name I'll mention it at the end) can pay off their debt, and yet he lives a lavish lifestyle all because of his son.  Gregor allows this abuse just because he believes that his father cannot work and then suddenly after Gregor is an insect his father can work.  It is hypocritical and hypocrisy. 

On another note, the housekeeper at the end who finds Gregor after he dies and does something to his body, is weird.  I mean just some of the things that she says to Gregor like "Look at the old dung beetle, then" and crap.  I mean, it's all because of the class system in this story that she believes that she has the right to treat him like this.  But she has no right! I would never in my right mind call someone that, even if they had turned into an insect.  Okay, I'll be honest, it was kinda hard to keep a straight face while typing that sentence.  But still!

Otherwise, I liked the story but just thought it was really really weird.  Now, the random note about the name Gregor.  Well, I had another paper due this week about this story, and I was typing away blah blah blah and then after I finished went to class and handed it in.  However it was during our discussion on some random topic that my friend starts talking about Gregor.  it was then I realized that I had written in George instead without really realizing my mistake.  Yeah.  I had a good laugh.  But I am kinda scared to get my mark back now because of this mistake.  Joy.

Happy Reading!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  (Published in 1847.  Written under the fictitious name of Currer Bell.  The Edition: Penguin Classics (2006)) For one thing, I am in love with this book.  I mean its no continuous happy story like say Pride and Prejudice is, but overall the ending is what I wanted.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

Reading about Jane's upbringing made her a more relate-able character even though it seems like many would not be able to say that they have been in the same situation.  Because Jane was related to the Reeds, I see the reason behind telling the "autobiography" that way,  but at times I was upset with how she was treated.  I should expect it though, seeing as many people then (and now) still have issues about abuse in the families.  The best thing that Mrs. Reed could have done was send Jane to Lowood, even though in her mind she was sending her away just to get rid of her.  When Jane finally spoke her mind to Mrs. Reed I truthfully gave a little fist pump in the air, being so happy with her (it would be later when she was talking to Miss Temple that I changed my opinion on the way she handled things).  Jane herself was very independent and wasn't afraid to let others now what she was thinking, and I think that is why so many women find Jane Eyre as a book that has been passed on through the ages.  Other books during this time era that were considered Romances didn't have a man trying to get married to a woman, when in reality he was already married to another.
That, in turn, brings me to talk about Mr. Rochester.  I loved this man right from the very beginning, and I (for some strange reason) could tell that he loved Jane as soon as he met her.  It was heart-wrenching watching him struggle to hide his feelings for Jane and there were lots of times that he would slip up before stopping dead in his tracks or stopping his thought entirely.  I felt like he was a man of secrets however, and it was soon apparent that he was indeed.  I couldn't seem to understand why Mr. Rochester would keep Grace Poole as one of his servants after she tried to burn down his bed (little did I know...).  At that point in time, I felt that he was just a kind hearted man looking for the best, or didn't want to turn someone out who had been with him from the very beginning.  It was after finding out that he was married that my ideas of him changed dramatically.  I couldn't see him the same way anymore, but at the same time I wasn't sure that I wanted too.
Now, the next man in Janes life was St. John.  I probably wont talk a lot about him, and that was just because I thought he was a pompous ass.  There are times when you are right to say "Do this for your heavenly father because that is what he wished you to do" and there are times when you are wrong.  And the majority of times that St. John was wrong when saying that are far more heavier then the times he says it right.  I know that the ideas about marriage were different during that time, but I don't think that you needed to marry someone you didn't want to when you were independent.  Especially not your cousin who you just found out about and have been treating him like a brother.  And I believe that Jane had every right to say no to him.  All the ten times she did.  I missed talking about a majority about St. John just because I think the is so self-centered that he can't get his head out of his ass.  I mean he wasn't one of those in your face, all controlling men, but the way that he treated Jane was just rude and inconsiderate.

There are a lot of other characters in this book that play minor but important parts that I haven't named but it may just be because I don't feel the need too.  The book is a love story between Jane and Mr. Rochester and slightly the dreaded St. John (shudder).  But mostly between Jane and Mr. Rochester.  One thing about their relationship that bothered me, was the way that Jane continually called him sir even though they were engaged.  And after everything.  That's one thing that I didn't really like.  I felt as though by her saying that, that she would be part of Mr. Rochesters property.  But I feel that because Jane left and made her own way through the world changed her perspective drastically so she didn't feel like she needed to depend on him.  And, when Jane came back and then Mr. Rochester had to depend on her for seeing because of the accident where he lost his eyes.  I felt that because of that change I realized that their love was more than what I thought it would be.

On a random note about this book, when I first heard about Mr. Mason and how he had this big gaping hole in the side of his head and that "someone" had bit him, I had this strange sense that it was Grace Poole and she was possessed.  And Mr. Mason was a priest coming to get rid of the demon.  Yeah, I watched The Exorcist a lot as a child.  Maybe that was just me though... Now, after hearing about how it was Mr. Masons sister who went crazy, I still think that she did the whole exorcist thing and her head turned around and she tried to eat him.  I don't know why, seeing as I don't even know if demonic possessions are even real, but I just want it to be in a book to say, "oh yeah, I read that in blah blah blah".

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  And maybe that is just because I love reading 19th century literature or the way that they lived, but still.  It was a fantastic book, but if you are going to try to read the Bronte sisters, I would so suggest reading this one first and just burning Wuthering Heights (I still haven't got over it).

Happy Reading!

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. (Published in the years of 1901 and 1902 in Strand Magazine.  The Edition: I forgot to get it before I returned it to the library... I was trying to get ahead for school, but then ended up dropping the class)  Whenever I read anything about Sherlock Holmes I have the strange urge to dress as a detective and start solving mysteries.  Maybe that is the large appeal to the readers at the time, for it did become very popular.  However, it was Doyle himself who did not love the character Holmes as much as his readers, and had wrote that Holmes died only to find his readers petrified.  He then began the stories again saying that it was a false death.  At least that is what I have heard.  If it is wrong, please correct me.  For now, I will state that I will not give away the ending in this story, just because I enjoy mystery novels for the thrill of trying to solve it before the detective does and I have a feeling that many others do as well.  But still...**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Sherlock Holmes to me is not my favorite character of the stories.  And he is not always the most appealing.  The first story that I read of Sherlock Holmes was The Man With The Twisted Lip and when we first meet Holmes he is in disguise and doing opium.  There was something that Holmes told Watson that I took to heart and it is "My eyes have been trained to examine faces and not their trimmings".  People have got so attached to accessories that if something were to look exactly the same could you tell the difference? Holmes is one who also uses a large majority of disguises in order to solve many of his mysteries, however, in this story Holmes apparently takes a step back from this case and stays back in London for another.  Or so we believe.  Instantly, I knew that he would be using a disguise to see the case from another angle, and when Watson sees the man on the cliff, I imagined through the description of the way he was standing that it was indeed Holmes himself.  And my observations were correct.  The last chapter of this story, or any Sherlock Holmes mysteries, always seem to shed some light on the way that Holmes mind actually works and that is when he is describing how he solved the crime.
Watson, is definitely my favorite, most relate-able person and that may just be because he is the one who is narrating this mystery. (He does narrate almost all of the Holmes mysteries except for three)  I was rooting for him, as he was searching through the mess of information that seemed to follow him as soon as he got there, to solve the crime himself.  But, of course this isn't a novel about Watson, but Holmes.  The one thing I did not like about the narration was the lack of information given about the solving of the crime, but looking back I realize that Watson wasn't the one with information and he too did not like that.

At the beginning of the novel, I did not think anything of the boot being stolen, only because I did not think that it would be a real hound.  Maybe that is because I grew up with Scooby Doo and thought that it would some how be a contraption that would break down or something after/during the chase of Sir Henry.  I really have no idea why I would think that, since this was published when the three wheeled car was still a popular motor-vehicle.  However, after Holmes re-entered the story, it soon became apparent to me that yes there was a hound on the lose.  I do though regret not looking at the title with more interest, just because Sherlock Holmes titles always seem to have a real meaning that you should be on the look out for.  Once again in The Man With The Twisted Lip I never took another thought after reading about the man with a twisted lip, until hearing Holmes show the truth behind the disguise.  Therefore, the next time that I read a Sherlock Holmes story, I will pay more attention to what the title is itself.

Otherwise, the story itself I quite enjoyed.  I did read it within a day, and I even took a break to watch a couple hours of Supernatural to feel the thrill of a more modern Sherlock Holmes/horror mish-mash.  I would say that most Holmes stories (short stories) are quite an easy read, and would encourage many to read them.  They are, though, a little bit more harder to solve before the end then say a Scooby Doo episode or one of those Clue books.  Now that I think about it, I enjoyed trying to solve those Clue books even though I was terrible at it.  So maybe you will have better luck at solving the crime before I did, but then again not many people do.  (By the way, sorry for continuously using TMWTTL but I felt the need too.  Maybe one of these days I will do a review on that short story.)

Happy Reading!

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.  (Published in 2002. The Edition: Harper Perennial (2002)) I'll be honest.  When I first started reading this book I was confused and frustrated by the way that it was written.  However, I soon realized that the authors purpose was for the readers to feel as though they themselves were Alex's friend.  I felt as though I were Jonathan himself reading the letters and stories that Alex wrote to me.  And what Jonathan wrote himself was what Alex was talking about and criticizing.  So for the most of it, I will say that I enjoyed reading it after a while.  But it was hard for me to understand a majority of what was happening because I am not Jewish or know much about the Jewish language and culture.  However, it explained itself as the novel goes on and I soon grew attached to the characters, Alex and Jonathan, and to see what had happened to their friendship and their lives, when they were together and apart. **SPOILERS AHEAD**

Now at this point I would mostly talk about the major and minor characters, but there are way to many characters in this one to talk about the minor ones.  So I have decided to talk about three major ones.  Alex, Grandfather, and Jonathan.
Alex to me is living a lie most of the book.  When I first started reading, I was under the impression that he was this handsome ladies man, but then through reading his letters you see that he is just a normal guy.  I understand the need for this lying as it makes you want to be like this man, and it is only when you found out that he is just like you that you can completely fall in love with his character.  His relationship with his young brother, Little Igor, was heartwarming and made me wish that I had a younger brother who could look up at an older sister.  However through reading Grandfathers first and last letter to Jonathan, I believe that Little Igor was shown in a little bit more light and it also showed the larger picture of Alex's family life which he deemed necessary to leave a majority out. 
Grandfather to me seemed like a crazy old man, much similar to my own.  It was very easy for me to fall in love with his character.  I could tell that he had something to hide about the war, as he was so reluctant in the first place to be the driver for Jonathan.  I did not think that what had happened would have been his reason behind secrecy, and when I was reading through it,  even though he had already said "And I murdered him", I secretly wished that there would be a turn of events and he would just say "they are all in the synagogue".  But of course (much to my and Alex's dismay) we had to read about his sell out of his best friend.  It did make a lot of sense to his character and how he does not talk much throughout the novel.  I would have enjoyed learning more about Lista and his conversation that day.
Now Jonathan plays a very major role, even though besides what we have read from Alex's description we know nothing about him.  He is the one who has written the stories about his great-great-great-great-great-grandmother (I hope that is enough greats) and all those who came before him.  Also he is the reason this story has began, because he is searching for this woman Augustine who saved his Grandfather.  There's not a lot to say about him and how I feel, but I need to mention how I was only getting half of the conversation between him and Alex, and I most definitely am, and wanted to read more into what was really being said.  But I believe that he wrote it this way in order for the story to speak for itself.

Now, even though the story is written and about one named Jonathan Safran Foer, does not mean, in anyway, that they are the same person.  This story is not at all based on his relatives lives, even if there are names that are somewhat similar, and even as writing that I don't believe they are.  He originally started writing this as thesis for Princeton, which only continued to grow into the size of a novel.
The title I was a little confused about, but then I read of people making love during Trachimday and how they light up when they are in love.  I loved reading the part about seeing the lights from space, and I constantly throughout reading it would look out for the oh-so-subtle words of "everything is illuminated".

In the end, it's not my favorite novel, but I did quite enjoy reading it and I believe that when I read it a second time, that I will be more open at the beginning and find more meaning throughout the entire novel and hopefully will soon find more enjoyment when reading it.

Happy Reading!