Get up and sing

          I really enjoyed Song of Solomon because of the way the book was written. I felt like reading this novel was like putting a puzzle together on hard mode. Every time I felt like I had an idea of what I was looking at, the next chapter will either shuffle around some of my old pieces or add some  that look like they should be part of another puzzle. For example, when Macon is explaining that his harsh behavior towards Ruth are because of what he saw between her and Dr. Foster, I thought I knew what was going on and my puzzle was starting to take shape. Then a few chapters later the book comes back and scrambles up the puzzle again when we find out about Ruth's part of the story. I hate puzzles but I like how the book kept changing from chapter to chapter, it kept the novel interesting because there was always a possibility that a crucial bit of information was being kept away to be revealed later.
         As for the characters, I think they all really fall under two categories: Crazy or Will be crazy in a chapter or two. Now to be  fair, my definition of crazy is when a character does something that just makes me think "What the heck is he/she doing?'. The only exception that I found was Guitar because  earlier on in the book he looked like the normal person we were supposed to understand in the novel. He wasn't related to Milkman's crazy family and was more involved in political activism than upper-middle class parties. But of course I'm always wrong and should have expected a man named Guitar to be part of a secret society called The Seven Days and just like Hagar, becomes determined to kill Milkman by any means necessary. All jokes aside however, the relationships between the characters in this novel are really unique, with Milkman as the focal point of everyone's emotions. He seems to be responsible for the happiness of characters in one chapter while also being the cause of a lot of grief in the next. Whereas in other novels we've read so far, such as The Sun also rises everyone was too drunk to know what was going on  so we don't really have a reliable narrator.
   I haven't actually finished the book at the time I'm posting it but from what I've read so far, the book is really enjoyable. The novel had a feeling of absurdity in the beginning when they were explaining Not Doctor Street but as the book progressed it seemed to become serious when Hagar is out to kill Milkman. Then all bets are off when the main character runs off to Virginia and gets into bar fights over dong shapes. The book was unpredictable, kept messing up my puzzle, and I liked every chapter of it.

No Sympathy

          I don't think marrying someone solely for their money is ever going to end well but I guess that's just my opinion. When we discovered that the only reason he traveled to the West Indies was to secure the wealth of a single woman it really kinda hurt my sympathy for Rochester. My view of the situation went from the story a man that was getting picked on by the people of this community during his honeymoon to the story of a man getting what he deserved.
          Now there was a moment during the second part where he goes from just being with her for the money to trying to connect with Antoinette. She's explaining to him everything that she had to go through before they met and its nice because we see Rochester try to comfort her (even if it was with a strange song). This little bit of compassion between the characters is immediately ruined when Rochester has an affair that was completely uncalled for. When you get drugged the first thing you do shouldn't be to run off with the nearest maid. Also I'm gonna go out on a limb  here and say that drugging your man is on the Cosmopolitan's Top 100 sex tips.
          At this point my feelings for these two is like being on a roller coaster, it has its ups and downs and by the end of the whole ordeal I'm left confused and looking up asking "What just happened?". The only person character that comes to mind that wasn't driving me crazy by the end of the novel was Christophine who tried to split Antoinette's inheritance 50/50 and tried to convince Antoinette that drugs aren't good (stay in school). I enjoyed this novel as a whole because using two narrators really lets us get a different perspective that would've been entirely different books on their own. Although there was one thing that I didn't like but can't change, which was the ending. Antoinette was doing alright on her own just to have everything flipped upside down by a gold-digging British man and nothing seems to really happen to him at the end of all this. I don't think its fair but I guess its the feeling of injustice that I had which made this novel so compelling.

The man who wasn't there

           The Man Who Wasn't There is the story of a barber named Ed Crane who tries to blackmail his wife's employer in order to finance a new business venture, dry cleaning. Since Ed is just a barber and has no prior experience in extortion, the plan goes horribly wrong and he has to get out of more trouble as the movie goes on. As far as movies go, I really enjoyed The Man Who Wasn't There and really recommend it to people whether or not they've read The Stranger.  The Coen brothers wrote this film in a way which  some points mirror those of The Stranger, while the plot as a whole is totally different. It's strange, but think about it like the story of Little Red Hood and the movie Hoodwinked. In both versions I felt that the movie adaptations seemed to be parodying the its written version and they were willing to take "artistic liberties". The biggest difference however is that looking back at both movies, one is about a barber and the other is flaming garbage.
            I'm not gonna lie, when I saw Ed on-screen I thought he was creepy. His deep monotonous voice followed by the dead look on his face while he was cutting hair made me think he was going to secretly be part of the mafia. Strangely I was wrong and he was telling the truth when he tells the audience that all he does is cut hair. The way he responds to people around him is very Meursault-like being he doesn't really show emotion. I think this was really apparent when there's a "dialogue" between him and a the lawyer he's hired when they meet at a diner. I put quotations around dialogue because in the entire scene, Ed might've said about 10 words. With everything that's going on in the movie so far Ed should have a lot more to say to his lawyer than "Yes" and "No, I'm not hungry". From what we read in The Stranger, I think I could replace Ed with Meursault and have very similar actions in their plots occur because they very much alike.
           I think the Coen brothers did a great job telling such a unique story. Thee thing that I really liked about the film is that the Coen brothers wrote it in a way that I felt as if it was going to end every time it faded to black. Instead however, they took what seemed to be the end of the movie and suddenly opened it up so the plot could continue.  [SPOILER ALERT] The one that I honestly didn't see coming was at the end when he was waiting in the prison. He somehow manages to walk outside and see a spaceship flying overhead and instead of getting onboard, he just looks up and walks back inside like it didn't happen. [SPOILER END] It's the crazy twists that made me laugh and overall I thought it was just an enjoyable movie.

Understanding Meursault

          Meursault is a man that committed a crime but I believe he was punished for the wrong reasons. He admitted to killing the Arab and in his story gave an honest reason for why he went through with the act and was laughed at because they thought it was ridiculous. Instead, the jury believed that he had some built up psychological issues, the claims of which were backed  by him not crying  at his mother's funeral. I feel that people were too quick to judge Meursault as a sociopath and the reasons that they gave just weren't fair.
          First off, during his mother's funeral he didn't really express any feelings towards his mothers passing and as readers we get the passenger seat on Meursault's view of things. I think it's strange that he didn't cry because if I lost someone who was that close to me I would be a mess, but the thing is I'm not Meursault. He's dealing with his loss by drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette and I think that is just fine. He's not crying his eyes out because he doesn't care but more because he knows it won't bring her back. The one thing that I sympathized with the most was him not wanting to see his mother in the open casket. It's hard to really grasp that you'll never see someone again, so he probably didn't want that last image of her to be one in a casket.
            I think Camus was trying to make Meursault a coin on its edge, neither heads nor tails.  Loss is handled differently by everyone and I think when people see the Meursault coin on its side, they want to call it for being on a side that it's not. He presents himself as neutral/indifferent and the people around him are supposed to decide which extreme he's leaning towards. In this case he's not rolling around crying and at the same time him attending showing that he cares.  When you take him at face value, he's just a guy that doesn't express his feelings outwards. For example, he doesn't really react to Marie's marriage proposal because he feels that  it won't change their relationship at all. Again, I think he's just a coin sitting on its side waiting for the people around him to tell him whether he's heads or tails.

A Bug's Life

       Is it wrong that I can almost relate to Gregor's situation? To be clear I've never been a roach, beetle or any other type of arthropod but the way he reacts to the transformation doesn't feel too far off from how I feel on an terrible bad day. The feeling when you wake up and you can't get out of bed but you gotta start moving because you're about to miss the bus. Meanwhile, everyone in the house seems to be storming the doors complaining about this or that. It's a terrible feeling of despair where you feel powerless but I don't think people should be feeling this way all the time.  There's days when I wake up and feel like a majestic lion I'm the king of my domain and nothing I do can go wrong. Gregor doesn't have days like this, its just a submissive bug working day in and out. Since the reason behind the transformation hasn't been explained yet I've come up with a theory. If Gregor wasn't going to put his foot down like a normal person and just let people walk over him like a bug, then he might as well become one. It's like for some reason he became so identical with his spirit animal that he subconsciously and then physically transformed into it. Now I'm not saying that everyone should just go turning into peacocks over night when they're feeling beautiful but Gregors situation is the result from bug-like behavior. As we discussed in class, he has completely submitted himself to his job and family so he’s basically already a hardworking drone like an ant before the actual change takes place. At the same time he's working everyday and studying timetables to pay off his father's debt, his dad is just sitting there eating massive meals and reading newspapers. A quote from Jonah in class pretty much sums up what's happened to Gregor: “He was a roach before he became a roach”.

It's time to move on Jake

At the beginning of Chapters 15, Jake and the crew seem to be having a great time, dancing and drinking to their hearts content. The following morning the group decides to watch a bull-fight where they meet a fighter named Romero who is the "best-looking boy" Jake has ever seen. Its around here I got worried because if Jake is thinking this, it's only a matter of time before Brett gets hold of him. I wonder who'd win in a fight, the middleweight boxing champion of Princeton or an upcoming bullfighter, because it looks like this may be some set up for a possible confrontation between the two.

Jake in this reading really shows us his love for bullfighting, going into detail about Remero's skill and telling Montoya not to deliver the message from the American Ambassador which may end up being a distraction from his bullfighting. I think Jake messed up tho when he went on and on about how attractive and skilled Romero is to a girl who has a history of going from relationship to relationship without a second thought. Brett later on asks if he still loves her and like every other time she's asked, he says yes. But the next words that come out of her mouth is Brett saying that she loves Romero. She's only seen him for like three days for crying out loud! The next part really confuses me because it goes against his love for bullfighting and Brett when he sets her on a date with Romero. This is what he tried to avoid earlier with American ambassador and setting up your love on a date with someone else isn't helping your chances. During that date he's acting as a translator for their drunk flirting and when he leaves for 20 minutes they're no where to be seen. Not the best choice of actions.

These two chapters seem to be setting up for some big conclusion with the addition of a super hot and talented Romero to an already complex group. I don't think Jake really has any chance if its this easy to sway Brett to a new target but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Jake's going for the long con by allowing Brett to be with every attractive guy in Spain and France so she finally realizes she needs him or maybe Jake just doesn't care enough to stop her.

The Hours-Richard

              In The Hours, Richard displays multiple parallels to Septimus, such as as their death by jumping from a window and how they're aren't understood by the people around them. In addition to  parallel between the two characters, they also have key differences that make their stories different like their backgrounds and what exactly pushes them over the edge.

               I really sympathized with the Richard in the early timeline because he seemed like a happy child who just wanted to make a cake with his mom. It goes from that to her mom kissing Lilly which I think would be a really strange thing for someone to see when they're so young. But the thing is he doesn't even really ask what or why she did that, he just sits there silently not knowing what to make of what happened. I think childhood Richard was there to more or less represent the audience in these scenes. He's very quiet in the car ride except when he tries to tell his mom he loves her. Then he gets extremely vocal trying to stop his mom from driving away, because he knew and we knew that something was wrong and she shouldn't be left alone. Overall I feel childhood Richard is such a good character in how he gets me to feel like I'm in the movie because he reacts to a lot of things the same way I probably would.

              Lastly we have present day Richard which is a lot like Septimus. They're background experiences cause them to perceive the world differently from others and have the ones they love for seek outside help. Septimus was in a war and is dealing with PTSD while Richards mother turns out to have left him and he became fatally ill, both of which has lasting effects that is too much for Lucrezia/Clarissa to help fix. The spectacle (thanks Film Studies) would definitely be Richard's suicide. It was a really shocking event, even though we read about a similar event in Mrs. Dalloway, reading  it doesn't have the same feel as watching someone take the leap.

               If you haven't seen this film, I'd highly recommend it. It really depicts the novel Mrs. Dalloway amazingly and leaves the audience thinking about what they just experienced.