"Vagabond in France and Belgium" -- Roberto Bolano

I must say that this was one of the most simply written yet intriguing short stories I have read in quite some time. This story takes a glimpse into the life of a man simply named B, who we find out towards the end of the story is a "...thinnish, middle-aged man..." The story follows B as he travels to France from Spain just because "France is not as dangerous as Spain." He then ends up in Paris, and while at a second-hand bookstore finds a magazine called Luna Park, number 2. While reading this, he comes across the name of Henri Lefebvre. This name goes off "like a match struck in a dark room," inside B. All of a sudden he begins searching, trying to find out just who this man was because he had never heard of him before. B ends up travelling to Brussels to meet up with a friend of his, named M. B and M then spend much time together, talking about their lives, as well as investigating into B's mystery man. Eventually they travel to Lefebvre's hometown and try to find the house where he lived, but are unable to. B leaves the next morning to go back to Paris. It seems to me that B's quest to find this man, this man that "he's so interested in..... because nobody else is," is a quest to find a part of himself as well. This middle-aged man has just traveled to France and Belgium in search of a man whose name he saw in a magazine just because he felt like doing it, makes me feel as though B was searching for some sort of confirmation for himself. I really enjoyed this story, and though I'm not quite certain of the meaning of this story, I really enjoyed the writing style and the simplicity of the writing.

Vagabond --


–adjective

1.

wandering from place to place without any settled home;nomadic: a vagabond tribe.

2.

leading an unsettled or carefree life.

3.

disreputable; worthless; shiftless.

4.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a vagabond: vagabond habits.

5.

having an uncertain or irregular course or direction: avagabond voyage.

–noun

6.

a person, usually without a permanent home, who wandersfrom place to place; nomad.

7.

an idle wanderer without a permanent home or visible meansof support; tramp; vagrant.

8.

a carefree, worthless, or irresponsible person; rogue.

The Lazarus Project -- Aleksandar Hemon

This section of the story starts off with a violent assault on Lazarus's family. Lazarus gets beat up severely, and everyone else in the family gets beaten as well. Olga blacks out, and when she awakens, she thinks that everyone is dead. Roza then gets up and resets the table with any unbroken dishes she can find, and sits down at the table. Olga thinks this is odd considering what had just happened. The next section begins with Brik conversing with a woman, Iuliana. They talk about where maybe Iuliana would go if she left, and then about the pogrom. Brik then recalls a time when Mary had had a gunshot victim die on the table during surgery. Brik questions her about what it was like when he died and how she felt. Mary doesn't respond and gets angry. Finally the apologize to each other, and Mary comments that "'When a patient dies,' she explained, rather unhelpfully, 'I feel that he is dead.'" Towards the end of that section, Brik and Rora beat up their chauffeur in the bathroom, and Brik breaks his hand.

Clemson Literary Festival

Last Friday, I was able to attend a reading by Mark Halliday for the Clemson Literary Festival. I actually enjoyed the event much more than I expected to. I am generally a fan of most poetry, and I thoroughly enjoyed the poems that Mr. Halliday selected to read. He started off by reading a poem called "The Case Against Mist", which envisioned his struggle with the mystery of reality, the fact that we really are here in this world, not just a "mist." The next poem was called "Parkersburg" which is a self encouragement poem written about a town 35 miles east of where he lives in Athens, OH. Mr. Halliday really showed his enthusiasm and spirit by singing a little bit of a Randy Newman song for this poem which really got the crowd cheering. Then a little bit of a funny thing happened; the speaker system and microphone being used for the event in McKissick Theater started picking up the frequency from the concert being held on campus, so there was a bit of a delay while that got sorted out. We finally got started again, and he went on to read some poems entitled "No Rescue Squad," "First Wife," and "The Beloved." These poems had the theme of love between men and women. Then he read several other poems, including my favorite called "Pathos of a Momentary Smile." This poem captures the feelings felt by two strangers whose eyes meet for a split second, and the awkwardness associated with that fleeting moment of connection. Overall I really enjoyed hearing Mark Halliday speak, and I would definitely be interested in hearing him again. It's amazing how much more meaning the poetry has when you actually hear the author read it exactly how it was supposed to be read.

The Lazarus Project -- Aleksandar Hemon

This is an interesting novel in that it follows two separate narratives that are at different points in time and run parallel to each other, never intersecting. Reading between pages 87-121, we read about Olga upset over the death of her brother Lazarus. Throughout this "chapter" she attempts to write a letter to her mother explaining that Lazarus is dead, but can't seem to find the right words to say. There is a huge storm outside, and Olga finds the dictionary Lazarus would read in the outhouse. While out there she finds her other brother Isador in the sewage under the outhouse. She is angry at her brother, saying his is the reason Lazarus is now dead. She eventually helps her brother out, and Isador spends the night in the outhouse. The next part of the novel goes to the more present time story. Brik and Rora find a taxi driver to drive them across the country. Along the way, Brik strikes up a conversation with Andriy about America and how wonderful it is. Andriy seems interested in this American life, but asks about the problems: "If you have family and house, you want to protect them. But this world is crazy. Homosexuals, crazy Muslim terrorists, problems." Brik avoids this questions and begins talking to Rora.

"She turns to the side, slips her right hand under the pillow, hears straw crepitating in it." --Page 95

crepitate -- verb (used without object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

to make a crackling sound; crackle.

The Same River Twice -- Chris Offutt

Now towards the end of the novel, this chapter starts out with the narrator hitchhiking his way down to Florida for a job that he was hired for. He finds a sign on the side of the rode claiming that Florida is the worst place to try to catch a ride and how long he had been waiting for. Etched under this is a list of several other names and the times that they had waited. The narrator begins to wonder what he was thinking trying to make his way down to Florida. He finally makes his way to the Everglades and begins working at his new job. He befriends a man named Captain Jack, who pilots the boat that he gives tours on. One day, a French boy falls into the Everglades, and the narrator jumps off the boat after him. Captain Jack comments that that was a "damn foolish thing to do." Later, after eating dinner at Captain Jack's, he shows the narrator the room he will  be staying in. There is a picture of his son, a Marine, and Jack tells the narrator how he died trying to save three of his friends, and again that it was a "damn foolish thing to do." After this, the narrator comments on how a rift has formed between him and Jack, and that their relationship is never quite the same. A hurricane soon comes through, and everyone survives the storm. The narrator soon meets a woman, Rita, and they get married. The narrator finally applies to grad school and gets accepted at the University of Iowa. The book ends with the birth of the narrator's son, and the stressful time leading up to his birth. Three months later, the father takes his son out to the woods, and thinks of all the things that he wishes to tell him; he settles with realizing that he can't let his soon learn from his father's mistakes, but rather, must experience things on his own.

The Same River Twice -- Chris Offutt

This novel is a very interesting novel that details the life of the author back through his youth. Through all the things that he went through, he finds himself surprised that here he is, married, and about to be a father. I find it very interesting the way that this novel fluctuates between the past and the present, giving a good sense of what is actually going on in the author's life at the time, and then actually feeling him remember his past. To me, this is a very powerful and visual writing method. I found it very interesting that the novel starts off with such a vivid passage of how he and his wife struggle to get pregnant. But then again, it does a good job of displaying the very strong emotions that are felt by a couple when struggling with the difficulty of becoming pregnant, as well as highlighting the fact that this is actually a very big commitment.

Guest Blog: Will Hopkins

America

The land of the free, maybe too free
Home of the brave, unless the gun is pointed towards them
At one point in time this held true
But now the meaning of "free" and "brave" have been mangled up and beaten down

"Crying of Lot 49" Chapter 4 -- Thomas Pynchon

The Crying of Lot 49 is a book like no other I have read before. It possesses a sense of humor that I have not often read in books, yet is still extremely confusing and difficult to follow. Oedipa Maas is a very strange character as well. In this chapter, Mrs. Maas goes to a stockholder meeting for the company Yoyodyne. During a tour in this meeting, she becomes a little lost and meets Stanley Koteks. Mr. Koteks is a very interesting character, and seems to me to be a little mentally unstable. He goes on this crazy talk about a perpetual motion machine; but what interests Oedipa is that he was drawing the same mysterious symbol that she found in the stall at the bar. She also finds the symbol on an old signet ring shown to her my an old man named Mr. Thoth, who also tells her about strange dreams he has about his grandfather, who fought against some mysterious "Indians." Oedipa then goes back to Mr. Fallopian in order to try and piece together the mystery of this symbol, and it is then that she realizes she may be uncovering a very old conspiracy. This novel has a lot of satire in it, as well as some odd humor. I look forward to discussing it in class tomorrow and diving deeper into the underlying themes and motifs that are present in this work.

"A Supermarket in California"; "America"; "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound" -- Allen Ginsberg

All three of Allen Ginsberg's poems, "A Supermarket in California", "America", and "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound" seem to give an overly depressing tone as to what the typical American feels everyday. "A Supermarket in California" gives a very descriptive, yet odd, representation of an average supermarket; the narrator seems to tell of this trip as if he is in a dream, and it seems that he must fantasize his world to stay out of depression. The final paragraph of the poem gives the reader a sense that the narrator feels that his world is a living hell as he alludes to Charon, who was the ferryman to the underworld, and also the waters of the river Lethe, one of the five rivers of the underworld. "America" just seems to be an odd poem outlining the many problems of American society, its government, and its workforce. This poem did not interest me that much. "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound" gives a depressing look into what an American with a low-paying job had to deal with. It talks about the hardships of the job and how poorly the employee was taken care of. All of these poems have a depressing tone to them, and I wonder if the author had struggles with depression and drug use based off the way he jumps from topic to topic in his poems.

"Howl" -- Allen Ginsberg

This poem, if you could call it a poem, was a very graphic representation of self-gratification and a euphoric way of life. Personally I found this to be very disturbing and I did not enjoy reading this at all. The whole point of this "poem" seems to be to talk about drugs, sex, alcohol, as well as many other socially disturbing ideas. I was also very irritated with the lack of grammar in this, considering the majority of the writing is a series of run-on sentences and fragments. It appears to me that this work was written mostly while the author was either high or drunk, and if I had to guess, I would say this author had some serious issues. Again, I was rather appalled by this reading and feel I would have been better off not having to read this.

"Sonny's Blues" -- James Baldwin

In the introduction of this story, another author compares a moment in his life with Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" story. The narrator of the story uses vivid imagery when describing the "ice" he feels flowing through his veins after learning his brother Sonny had been arrested in a raid for using heroin. He teaches algebra to children at a school in Harlem, and comments how Sonny had always been a good boy compared to most boys who grow up in Harlem. Later on there are comments about Sonny's relationship with his father. He says "he was the apple of his father's eye," and because of this he was always fearful for him, which led to them fighting all the time. This goes to show how sometimes when parents are too protective of their children that the children can become very confrontational and argumentative. When Sonny begins practicing the piano at Isabel's, the author describes this relationship in a very unique way; first Isabel enjoys and admires Sonny's perseverance and practice of the piano. But then she begins to describe it as "not living with a person, but rather living with sound." They describe him as if he is god, coming in and out of their house as he pleases, not being rude, but just as if it is his own place.

"Birches" -- Robert Frost

This poem starts off with the narrator commenting about birch trees that have grown bent out of shape, rather than straight up like most trees. He then discusses in great detail the difference in the way the trees become bent due to ice build up compared to how they look when they were used to swing on. 

"Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen."

I found this section of the poem to be very visual and gives me a clear image of what the trees look like after a heavy snow and ice storm. The narrator then goes on to reminisce about when he was younger and the poem seems to go into a stage of contrasting the realism of life that comes with age and the imagination of youth. He describes in detail the act of swinging on the birches, indicating the he himself likely swung on birches as a child. He also seems to want to go back to his childhood days and relive his youth.

Vocabulary:

A. bracken (line 14) -- noun

1.

a large fern or brake, esp. Pteridium aquilinum.

2.

a cluster or thicket of such ferns; an area overgrown with ferns and 

shrubs.

Letter of Introduction -- First Post

So today is my first time using a blog and I am beginning by writing my first assignment. In high school, I had a fairly general education; this included specific classes in British Literature, as well as American Literature. I also had four years of French, in which I did read a couple of French poems and short stories. I am a senior in college now, and I have not had an actual English class since my freshman year, so most of my reading has been limited to text books for class and labs.

In high school, both my British and American Literature teachers were amazing. Probably my favorite part of British Literature was reading, writing, and studying about Shakespeare. I know that a lot of students are not big fans of Shakespeare, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading his plays, and still like learning about him. In my AP English class, my favorite experience was a poetry project that I did with one of my classmates. We did our project on Edwin Arlington Robinson; in our project, we were required to do a detailed history of the poet, as well as select three poems and do an analysis of them. I did the analysis for the poems, during which I wrote about one of my favorite poems, "The Flying Dutchman." We then had to lead a class period discussing our poet and the poems with our classmates. This was my English teachers final year, and in all the years she had been doing the poetry project, my classmate and I were the only group to ever receive a perfect score for our presentation and our analysis.

I have never written a blog or anything online before, but I see this as a way to describe things as I see them. I feel that what I am writing is real, rather than a way to express myself in a different way. I am really looking forward to being able to keep up with this blog and use it to further understand the literature we will study this semester.