Patricia Ford

How is it decided which of today’s modern literature will become tomorrow’s classics?

2009-11-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

The New York Time’s has one. Barnes and Noble has one. Just about every place that has to do with books wither it be publishers, book sellers, critics, they all have a Best Sellers List. They could range from books bought most often to books that are published most. There is a term for the list that we speak of and it is called a Literary Canon.

I had never hear the term until I started doing research for this blog. Wisegeek.com defines a Literary Cannon as " refers to a classification of literature. It is a term used widely to refer to a group of literary works that are considered the most important of a particular time period or place. For example, there can be a literary canon comprised of works from a particular country, or works written within a specific set of years, or even a collection of works that were all written during a certain time period and within a certain region. In this way, a literary canon establishes a collection of similar or related literary works.”
George P Landow said in his article titled the Victorian Web literature, history, and culture in the age of Victoria

Belonging to the canon confers status, social, political,economic,aesthetic, none of which can easily be extricated from the others. Belonging to the canon is a guarantee of quality, and that guarantee of high aesthetic quality serves as a promise, a contract, that announces to the viewer, "Here is something to be enjoyed as an aesthetic object. Complex, difficult, privileged, the object before you has been winnowed by the sensitive few and the not-so-sensitive many, and it will repay your attention. You will receive pleasure; at least you're supposed to, and if you don't, well, perhaps there's something off with your apparatus." Such an announcement of status by the poem, painting, or building, sonata, or dance that has appeared ensconced within a canon serves a powerful separating purpose: it immediately stands forth, different, better, to be valued, loved, and enjoyed. It is the wheat winnowed from the chaff, the rare survivor, and it has all the privileges of such survival.

This statement almost implies that the cannon knows more about literature than the reads ever will. The cannon will tell you the best books to read so you will not waste your time wanting to read anything else. But what about the books that don’t make the “cut”? Who is to say that they are not worth reading? Is it possible to do away with such a thing as the cannon? No because then we would not have a standard to hold anything up against.

George Landow closed his article with the following comment.

One cannot simply proclaim the end of canons and hence do away with their bad effects, since they can no more be done away with or ended by proclamation than the laws of perception or the laws of gravity. Grandiose announcements that one is doing away with The Canon fall into two categories, resembling either the announcements, doomed to failure, that one is no longer going to speak in prose or those of the censor that in totalitarian fashion tell others what they cannot read. Doing away with the canon leaves one not with freedom but with hundreds of thousands of undiscriminated and hence unnoticeable works, with works we cannot see or notice or read. We must therefore learn to live with them, appreciate them, benefit from them, but, above all, remain suspicious of them. (Landow)

Who decides which literary works make the cut and end up on the canon? Is there a board of directors sitting somewhere reading everything that was printed and compiling the list? Who actually started the list and why? When I was looking for information regarding these very questions the answers were very vague. The only real answer that I could find dated back to the 30’s and the conception of the canon. In “The canon in the classroom: students’ experiences of texts from other times.”by MARK A. PIKE he talks about how in England back in the 1930 there was a small circle of critics in Cambridge that developed the cannon. They were Leavis, Richards, and Eliot. These three men decided that only the intellectual elite should make the judgment of which books we should read.

While they were in England starting the canon here in the US they were trying to start a canon for the public schools. They wanted to make sure that the texts that were on the reading list held up to the Christian values they were trying to uphold. Even today in our schools there are reading lists and while most people don’t think about it, what books the schools order or the teachers assign as reading material has a lot to do with the canon.

The question that is was foremost in my mind as I did this research is can we change which books belong on the canon? How much influence does the general book buying public have? Books make it on to the cannon by how often it is recommended and read. Schools have an influence when they order text books and assign reading lists. The media influence the canon every time a well know spokesperson recommends a book or puts in on their book club. If we as a literary community decided to put a book that was passed by or overlooked by the “Literary elite” on the cannon could it be accomplished simply by buying enough copies?

Works Cited

The canon in the class room by Mark A Pike. J. CURRICULUM STUDIES, 2002, VOL. 35, NO. 3, 355–370
George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University, The Victorian web literature, history, & culture in the age of Victoria. http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/canon/litcan.html
wisegeek.com
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-literary-canon.htm

quote response

2009-11-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

"Othello: An honorable murderer, if you will, For naught I did in hate, but all in honor." (Shakespeare 1035)

He is trying to justify murder. He loved her and he didn't want to lose her.

Blog 20 Quote Response

2009-11-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

"Othello: Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again." (Shakespeare 984)

I like this line because it shows how much he loves her. It shows that he thinks that there is chaos everywhere when he is not with her. She keeps his life peaceful.

Internet Search Process Affects Cognition, Emotion blog 19

2009-11-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

That's a catchy title. Internet Search Process Affects Cognition Emotion. I ran across this article while conducting a search to see how the Internet affects reading habits. This article stopped me because it made it wonder.

In the article they talk about how your emotions change based on if you are using a search engine to find something vs. just surfing the web.

"Nearly 73 percent of all American adults use the Internet on a daily basis, according to a 2009 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey. Half of these adults use the Web to find information via search engines, while 38 percent use it to pass the time. In a recent study, University of Missouri researchers found that readers were better able to understand, remember and emotionally respond to material found through "searching" compared to content found while "surfing."(Science Daily (Nov. 5, 2009.

The article goes on to talk about how advertisers could use this information to better utilize the ad space on the Internet. They brought up a valid point that it would make sense to place their ads on websites that get the most hits. But then the question becomes was this really a study regarding your emotions and the Internet or just another way for companies to push their products into consumers line of vision?

Blog 18 Act I-II Quote response

2009-11-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

"Brabantino:
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter? Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her? For I'll refer me to all things of sense, If she in chains of magic were not bound Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy so opposite to marriage that she shunned the wealthy curled darlings of our nation," (Shakespeare 947)

This quote stood out to me the most because I have two nieces and I know that no matter whom they choose to wed their father would not think they are good enough. It seems that in order to justify the choice that his daughter has made Barbantino thinks that she is under some sort of spell. That there is no way that she would make such a decision on her own. He is almost telling them that she is too young to know her own mind on such a matter.

Blog 16 O- scene response

2009-11-20T21:43:00.000-08:00

I chose the scene at the end of the movie. The one where is O is standing on the porch looking at Hugo and all the pieces finally fall into place. He figures out that he had been played. He lost sight of what he knew to be true and instead followed what others were telling him were true.

In life we all face those times. Times when we are torn between what we know to be absolute and the information we get from outside sources. Sometime those outside influences make us doubt what is right in front of us. It makes us question ourselves.

It is those times holding steadfast to your moral compass and to what you know logically, make the difference between a right decision and one you could come to regret later.

Blog 17.

2009-11-14T23:12:00.000-08:00

Mrs Hale: I could've come. I stayed away because it weren't cheerful - and that's why i ought to have come. I-I've never like this place. Maybe because it's down in a hollow and you don't see the road. I dunno what it is but it's a lonesome place and always was. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now-

When ever something unexpected happens we all sit down with a lot of could have and should have's. Mrs Hale when she was referring to the woman, she used her maiden name. She used the name of the girl she used to know and was close to. It was almost as if she could bring back her childhood friend just by using her name.

Freestyle 15

2009-11-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

To be honest I have not had a lot of time to do extra reading this week. What I have been reading is mostly research for our blog party that is coming up. I have always known about the New York Times best sellers list and things of that nature but I had never heard of the Canon until now.

The Merriam-Websters online Dictionary defines a canon five different ways. The way I use the canon is definition number 3. [Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin, standard[ a: An authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture b: the authentic works of a writer c: a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works

I found it interesting that number 3a describes the list as being accepted as Holy Scripture. That is very interesting to me and I will have to dig into a little deeper.

14- Quote Response

2009-11-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

After Marji's uncle is executed she is laying on her bed when God shows up.
"Everything will be alright,
Marji, what seems to be the problem?
Shut up you! Get out of my life! I never want to see you again!" ( Satrapi 70).

I chose these few frames because in the beginning of the book God played a prominent figure in her life. Then as her life changed, as the things around her changed, her thoughts and faith changed. In these captions it's as if she has given up all her hope and her faith after her uncle's death and she is mad at God. That is why she is telling him to get out.

Siren Song - Quote Response 13

2009-11-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

In the poem Siren Song by Margaret Atwood (755) she talks about the sirens song and how it is irresistible. How it is "the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beached skulls" (Atwood 755). I have always wondered what the song would be. You hear about it in myths and legends all the time. To find the one thing that you have always longed for. to be the hero that saves the girl. It is the stuff of novels but the last stanza of the poem is what caught my attention when I read and reread this poem. " This song is a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique at last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time." (Atwood 755).

I can't decide if it is meant that people are gullible or if that most people only see and hear what they want.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

2009-10-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

Dylan Thomas wrote Do not go gentle into that good night.

He discusses how different people view death. He starts out by saying that we should all live to be old. "Old age should burn and rave at close of day." (Thomas 606.) He shows that everyone has regrets and as their time comes close they view their life and some wish that they could do things differently or if their mark on this world will be enough.

"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay," (Thomas 606)

At the every end he is talking to his father and telling him not to die. He wants him to fight to live.
"And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray,
Do not go gently into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Thomas 606)

Poetry Quote response

2009-10-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

Poetry by Marianne Moore.

I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in it after all, a place for the genuine. (Moore 795).

To be honest I chose the line above because at the moment I'm frustrated with poetry. The rhythm and meter are giving me problems.The line out of this poem that I found important is
"when they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the some thing may be said for all of us - that we do not admire what we cannot understand." (Moore 795).

I agree with this statement. I think that if something is hard or is hard to grasp most of us will walk away from it. I know I have walked away from the meter and rhythm assignment a few times and came back to it. Poetry that is not straight forward and clear is hard to understand and for that reason it is not appreciated as it should be.

Song Quote response

2009-10-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

"Would you Let Me Be Myself Coz I'll never find my heart Behind someone else I'll never see the light of day Living in this cell It's time to make my way Into the world i knew And take back all of these times That I gave in to you "(3 Doors Down)

What strikes me about this particular verse is when he says "And take back all of these time that I gave in to you." (3doors down). We have all at one time or another been this person. We have been in a relationship or a friendship where we have changed something of ourselves to fit with what we thought the other person wanted us to be.

He wants to break out of the mold that he is in. He wants to be himself. His real self, not the person they want him to be. It really shows where he is when he referred to the relationship as a prison. And he was taking back all the times that he gave in.

In essence he is going to take his life back.

Haiku

2009-10-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Words from the pen do flow
to other eyes to read
smiling enjoyment given

Blog 8 Poem paraphrase

2009-10-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

I chose Shunk Hour by Robert Lowell.

He is standing on his back patio in the dark of night. He is lost in thought about things that have happened on the island where he lives. Somethings that he is remembering are things that happened maybe years before. Then as the poem go on it draws to the night that he is standing on the patio.

Blog 7 Freestyle

2009-10-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

Have we taken the fight against child obesity too far?

This week I didn't have a lot of time to read. But something I did read really caught my attention.

My family is very involved with cubscouts. My husband is a Cubmaster, I am a tiger den leader and the pack's committee chairman. My middle son is a Tiger and my oldest is getting ready to bridge over to Boyscouts.

What does this have to do with reading, you ask?

We get a monthly Scouting magazine called Souting. Go figure. And while I was looking through the articles in it I came across an article regarding child obesity.

"The Annual Health and Medical Record, which takes effect in January 2010, restricts participation in high-Adventure activities based on standardized height/weight ratios. For wilderness outings where health care is 30 minutes or more away, Scouts deemed too overweight won't be allowed to participate." (Scouting 46)

I don't know if I agree with that. Yes I think we should watch what our kids eat. I think they should be healthy kids but I also want my kids to be happy. I fortunately don't have to worry about this with my boys because most days I can't keep them still. But what about the kids whose parents have just realized there is a problem and have started to do something about it. Should those kids not have the opportunity to participate?

Who is to say they can or cannot do something based on weight? I know people that are heavy that can out hike me. They have better outdoor skills than I do. Shouldn't we take that into account also. Not just their BMI? (Body Mass Index)

Kids go to school all day. In some counties in here in So Cal. even Kindergartners go all day. Then they get a bunch of homework and they have to read twenty minutes every night. Now I am all for reading, I love to read, but they want our kids to be physically fit also. Something has to give.

Some schools have done away with recess that way kids get more study time. Isn't that defeating the purpose?

Well that is what I read this week. The article both concerns me and irritates me at the same time.

Blog 6 - Quote response

2009-10-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

"Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Something fine and rare and sterling- something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim." (O.Henry 166)

I read this story and loved it. To me it shows what we do. We sacrifice for the one's we love. Our spouse, our children, even sometimes our friends.

Reading this story I knew that I would do my quote response about it. There is just something about it. It touches you the way they both sacrificed their most prized possession to buy something for the other.

I find it hard to explain which is rare for me. Normally I can find words for just about everything but this was hard to put my finger on so to speak.

In any marriage or relationship there are good times and bad. This story shows the good times. The moments that we keep with us always. The moments that get us through the bad times. The story showed that even though they didn't have a lot of money they still managed to make the other happy.

To me that is what it is all about.

FreeStyle Blog

2009-10-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

"You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?" (Gilman 290)

That is a quote from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I ran across it when I was going through our text book. I found this passage very interesting.
To me it shows its age. She was asking the question what could she do if her husband said it is so. Through the story she does what her husband thinks is right. She was suffering but because her husband couldn't see it or feel it, it didn't exsit.
There are many people that feel that same way. It could be supernatural or medical. If they can't see it, touch it, feel it, it doesn't exist.

"I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal- having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. (Gilman 291)

After the story the author writes about why she wrote the story. In the story the woman loses her mind. Gilman writes " Now the story of the story is this: for many years I suffered from a severe and continous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia- and beyond" (301) She went to see a doctor and he told her to only have two hours of intellectual life a day.
Could you imagine not being allowed to do anything all day. She followed the doctors orders for three months. "and came so near the boarderline of utter menatl ruin that I could see over. Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again."

I really liked this story and her reason for writing it. There are still medical mysteries that exist that can't be easily explained, but they still exist. I think we should all be our own advocates. If there is something wrong and we know it keep talking to people to get your self heard and hopefully helped.

Quote Response

2009-10-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

"She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives for a minute while they talked around her." (Wolff 85)

"They wern't only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday. No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the performance after all." (Wolff 86)

I chose these two passages out of Miss Brill because they are the two that spoke to me the most.

I have lost count of the times that I have sat somewhere, either at a coffee place, or the park and just let other people's conversations flow around me. It gave me a glimse into that single moment in their lives.
I know that sometimes I get caught up in the day to day business and forget that I'm part of a bigger whole. That even though at times my part may seem insignificant every choice we make and every kind word we utter makes up parts of someone else's whole as well as our own.
Even though we are the central characters in our own plays, it is sometimes hard to remember that we have different roles as well. We play supporting roles, we play the good guy or the vilian. Sometimes we have only minor roles. Every part we play is almost as important as the others.

It gave her such joy when she realized that she was part of a bigger whole. I think it gave her a sense of belonging. She sums it up in the second quote. " No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the performance after all." (Wolff 86)

FreeStyle Entry

2009-10-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

When I was reading John Updike's Why Write a passage caught my attention.
"Most writers teach, a great many teach writing; writing is furiously taught in the colleges even as the death knell of the book and the written word is monotonously tolled" (John Updike pg 20.)

I don't know if I would agree that the book is dying. I know that most people that are gadget friendly love the new Kindle. They love that it stores a bunch of books. I like the fact that it stores a bunch of books and therefor I don't have to.

I just like to feel the physical books. I like to actually pick the book up and flip through the pages. Some how it feels soothing to me.
I am not the only one that feels that way. In an article in the Denver Post written by John Wenzel called "Will electronic devices make book obsolete?" he interviewed Kimberely fields. She also mentioned that even though she likes her new Kindle she loves to flip the pages of an actual book.

There is a lot of debate out there about the new book readers. Some love it, some not so much. In the same article in the Denver post they noted that "This year, electronic books sales are up 150 percent and analysts predict the number could triple by December. That comes in a year when sales of traditional books are down four percent."

I know that alot of schools and colleges have gone to ebooks. It makes it more cost friendly. I just can't see sitting in front of a computer reading text all day. I prefer to take the book outside or just to a comfortable chair and read.

Quote Response

2009-10-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral; the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of a curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservent-a combined gardener and cook- had seen in at least ten years." ( William Faulkner. pg 29.)

I chose the opening line of A rose for Emily because it struck me. Even today it seems that most people have a morbid curiosity about people that seem to be out of reach. Be it a celebrity or just some neighbor that keeps to them selves.
I find that a lot of people fall into cliques. They like to gossip about other peoples business or feel sorry for the other person when in all reality they are just feeling left out.
Take for example the women in the story. They go back and forth. They go from feeling sorry for Emily to liking her to thinking she has gone crazy. All of this because she was aloof.
I find it incredable that not much has changed since when Faulkner wrote this.

Introduction

2009-10-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

My name is Patricia Ford but everyone just calls me Tricia. I am attempting a double major. My first is in English Lit with a minor in interdisciplinary writing and rhetoric. My second major is in Business admin.

I am also a wife and mother of three little boys. Most of my hobbies are things that we do as a family. We are very active in cubscouts and so we do a lot of hiking and camping. We also enjoy taking the quads out to the sand.

I have always had a love of reading. Growing up I read mostly romance but as I grew up I found that I really like suspense and mystery novels also. Even though I have always loved to read I really found my love of writing in an english class I had in junior high. I had the best teacher and she just made it fun.

When I had to decide who to interview for my three people I immedietly thought of my friend and her husband. They are both avid readers.
Christina reads almost anything. Like me she has always had a love of reading. She is the only person I know that can be reading multiple books and not lose her train of thought in any of her books.
Ron mostly likes to read Dan Brown. Ron loves the way that he writes. He likes that Dan Brown while being completely fiction still teaches you some history.
Tim is their son. When I interviewed him I found that he and I have a few things in common. right now Tim is reading Alchemical Phychology. He finds it interesting that it might be possible to change ones life by changing his out look. I also found this interesting while I was reading the Alchimest.