Progress on Lovecraft 4/25 - 4/29

This week, I continued my research of the personal life and writings of H. P. Lovecraft. I also derived from my guiding questions what I consider to be a reasonable thesis, and I even have the very rough workings of an outline.

A few of my notes from reading the introduction to a collection of his works by S. T. Joshi:
-"...cosmic horrors that bleakly underscored the insignificance of humanity and all its works in a blind, godless universe."
-Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island
-father died (of syphilis); mother was crazy; liked his grandfather
-interested in chemistry and astronomy
-started writing at 7 years old; encountered [the writings of] Poe at 8
-dropped out of high school because of psychological problems

My original guiding questions/guiding ideas:

-Philosophy of Lovecraft?
-Influence on (American) literature?
-Relation to Poe?
-Influence on the Horror genre?
   ^--how is this significant to American literature?
-Supernatural horror as opposed to other horror
-Lovecraft's importance to the horror genre/influence of horror genre on American literature

(For the record, I really liked the idea of coming up with guiding questions instead of trying to define a thesis when we barely know anything about our subject. It worked much better.)

Thesis:

Based on some reading I did on and by Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King, I have reached the following point that I will attempt to defend:
H. P. Lovecraft has had more direct influence on the horror genre as it exists today that any other writer.

The biggest obstacle in defending my thesis will, of course, be arguing that Lovecraft has had even more influence on modern horror than Poe, but I believe I will be able to claim that because Lovecraft's horror is more based on cosmic and science fiction-type events and phenomena, it is more pertinent to the present than Poe's more archaic style.

Progress on Lovecraft 4/18 - 4/22

This week, I read a few of Lovecraft's short stories, taking meticulous notes as I read. I also have my guiding questions more or less established. Some excerpts from my notes of a few of the works I read:

---"The Beast in the Cave" (1905)
-written when Lovecraft was 14
-no actual experience in caves (just went off what he read)
-Mammoth Cave in Kentucky
-p1: "Yet indoctrinated as I was by a life of philosophical study, I derived no small measure of satisfaction from my unimpassioned demeanor..."
-darkness of the cave has transformative property
   -devolves man into simian creature
-ending implies that narrator could/would have turned into this creature
-the fact that the "Beast" is/was human means that it could happen to anyone
   -people can personally relate to this

---"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" (1919)
-takes place in the Catskill Mountains near New York
-anticipates some features of "The Shadow out of Time"
-mountain folk = primitive, almost subhuman people
   -comparable to "white trash" of the South
   -no social or familial structure - no committed relationships
-vague, cosmic, undescribed "oppressor"

---"Memory" (1919)
-inspired by Poe's prose poems - "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion"
   -also Poe's "The Valley of Unrest" ("the valley of Nis")
-ruins of an unknown civilization
-post-human world
   -apes, toads, Genie, and Daemon present
   -Man has practically been forgotten

The End of Macbeth

Macbeth does not end on a happy note. To say the least. We find Macbeth in his castle at Dunsinane with the forces of Macduff and Malcolm encroaching. He is arrogantly unafraid of the armies, assure of the witches' prophecies that "none of woman born” can harm him and that he will stay in power "[t]ill Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane.” Little does he know, Malcolm has instructed the members of his army to carry boughs from trees in the surrounding forest as they approach Macbeth's castle. When Macbeth realizes that the witches' prophesy is coming true, he loses a bit of his self-assuredness, but still fights viciously against the invaders. Somewhere in the chaos, Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth gives his famous "She should have died hereafter" speech. Soon after, Macduff encounters Macbeth, reveals that he was not actually born from a mother, and kills Macbeth. Malcolm then becomes king. The end.

--Wald der Hitzig

Research on Lovecraft

Our blog assignment tonight was to talk about some of the research we have done on our projects. As I mentioned previously, I have already accumulated a decent collection of sources, comprising of books, articles, and a documentary. To begin my research, I have already read a few short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, including "The Call of Cthulhu," "Dagon," and "The Outsider." I have also begun reading one of my articles on Lovecraft that discusses him from a philosophical standpoint. All in all, my research is going well so far.

--Wald der Häuslich

Planning of the Project

We we instructed in class today to blog about the planning of our projects. So far, I have, of course, made my calendar outlining the different due dates of things. I have also already obtained several good sources on my topic, H.P Lovecraft, including a complete collection of his fiction; several articles concerning Lovecraft's life, philosophy, and work; and a documentary on him. I also may schedule an interview with Matthew Banther, who knows a great deal about my topic. I may not necessarily be able to cite him as a source, but I will at least get a lot of information from such an interview. Hopefully, by being able to plan out when parts of the project are due myself, I will be able to complete this paper without too much stress.

--Wald der Hemmungslos

The Emotions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. 

After Macbeth has killed Duncan, he is horrified at both the literal and figurative blood on his hands. He declares that not even all the water in the oceans can wash the the blood off: if he were to try, he would only turn the oceans red. Lady Macbeth nonchalantly dismisses his concern, stating that "A little water clears us of this deed: / How easy is it, then!" This exchange once more emphasizes the contrast between Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth is timid and utterly wracked with guilt, yet his wife is blasé and merely interested in eliminating the immediate evidence that might result in them getting caught.

--Wald der Kampfbereit

The Dagger of the Mind

The "dagger of the mind" speech is given by Macbeth right before he kills Duncan. He describes seeing a floating dagger before him, with the blade pointed toward Duncan and the handle toward him. Macbeth tries to reach out and grab the dagger, but he cannot touch it, stating that "...[his] eyes are made fools o' the other senses." He also observes blood on this imaginary dagger, a motif that will recur throughout the rest of the play. As he draws his real daggers, Macbeth fearfully and reluctantly follows through with the murder, beginning his slow descent into madness.
I watched a version of this section of Macbeth on YouTube where Ian McKellen gives the speech, and it certainly gave me more of an idea of what was actually going on than just reading the script. Macbeth is in the dark, grasping for a nonexistent dagger before pulling out a real one, all the while ranting about whether or not he should believe what he is seeing. The gravity of the scene is difficult to understand from just words on a page, but when watching a live rendition, one can clearly see Macbeth's transition into madness. As he is giving his monologue, his voice gets higher and faster until he is in a frenzy. It is in this state that Macbeth kills Duncan.

--Wald der Schartig

Continuing Macbeth and the Project Calendars

Today in class, we read a section of Macbeth in which the nature and character of Lady Macbeth is explored. Unlike her husband, who is cautious to the point of being meek, Lady Macbeth is vehemently power-hungry and brash. She is very myopic in her desire to overthrow King Duncan, and eventually taunts her husband into actually going through with the murder. She famously tells Macbeth to "unsex me here," and demands that he not view her as just a female. Lady Macbeth tosses aside her femininity in order to carry out the brutalities of homicide and treason.

We have also begun to work on creating our own calenders for when different parts of our projects are due. My calender is done. I have arranged it in a way that encourages me to do the initial reading, research, and thinking relatively early, leaving me with a lot of time to actually write the paper itself, as this is the part of the process that typically takes me the most time by far. I have picked H. P. Lovecraft for sure, and I have already acquired several good resources on him (partially with the help of Ms. Walton, as per your recommendation).

--Wald der Trotzig

The Beginning of Macbeth

Today in class we began our reading of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. So far in the play, the three witches have cast a spell, Macbeth has fended off some Irish invaders and won the title of Thane of Cawdor, and Macbeth has met the witches, where they told him that he would on day be king. Macbeth is rather apprehensive about receiving this information, faced with the ambivalence of the current king, Duncan, being a good friend of his and the implanted seed of desire for power. I am very glad that we are reading this work aloud in class. I find that it is nearly impossible to get anything out of Shakespeare with reading it aloud. I myself have the joy and honor of reading the part of Macbeth. So far into the story, it is not my favorite Shakespeare work, but it is not my least favorite either. It is difficult this early in the plot to detect the overall themes of the play, but so far, I see potential themes possibly including the dangers of greed, hunger for power, female domination, and/or corruption.

--Wald der Kahlköpfig

The New Project Assigned

Today in class, we were assigned a long-term research project of our choice. Or so I've heard. Unfortunately, due to my having missed this class to perform at the WCU Spanish conference. As I understand it, we are allowed to pick any topic of our choosing, so long as it relates to American literature in some way. The subject of our paper can be an author, a poet, a genre, or even a book if it is heavy enough. At the moment, I think I would like to do my project on H. P. Lovecraft, Charles Sanders Peirce, Pragmatism as a school of thought, or William James. I hope to do considerably better on this paper than the last one.

--Wald der Pragmatisch

My Experiences with Diigo

This weekend, we were assigned to sign up for a Diigo account and try it out and take some notes. The sign up process was simple, however, I was a bit irked that I had to install an extension into my browser to be able to use it--a minor inconvenience, but worth mentioning. The site itself is well-designed and easy to navigate and use. To test out Diigo, I took notes on an article about Frederick Jackson Turner. I found that there are four different colors that one can use to highlight things, so I decided to use yellow for general note-taking and blue for words I do not know the meaning of. I find the sticky note feature particularly useful for attaching definitions to such words as I encounter them. All in all, I like Diigo so far.

--Wald der Haarig

Impressions of Impressions of an Indian Childhood

"Impressions of an Indian Childhood" is a work by a Native American woman named Zitkala-Sa. It contains several anecdotes from the author's childhood that stood out particularly in her mind. The first part of the piece is comprised of a description of the author's mother. As a child, Zitkala-Sa help her mother in the highest esteem. She had absolute respect for the women, and loved her immensely. Zitkala-Sa's mother was a kind and patient woman who was very respected in her community, but she had a deep sadness because of the "palefaces" who invaded her village and killed her family. From a young age, Zitkala-Sa is taught to respect all living things, yet is infused with a deep hatred of the palefaces by her mother. She loves to hear stories from the village elders when they all come to eat at her home, and she reminisces about how the village women would practice beadwork and her education in that discipline. The last story in the work is about Zitkala-Sa leaving her mother and going east with the palefaces. She is enticed by stories of apples and beautiful land, and these tales combined with the fact that her brother had previously left with the palefaces and returned unharmed drives her to beg her mother to let her go. Zitkala-Sa's mother is very reluctant to release her daughter, but finally concedes. The recountal ends with Zitkala-Sa watching her mother fade into the distance and being filled with regret.

--Wald der Indianisch

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was an open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. to his fellow clergymen while he was in a Birmingham jail cell. King had been imprisoned there because of his nonviolence protests against segregation in Alabama. In his letter, King responds to criticism he has received because of his law-breaking. He makes very clear his belief that laws should only be upheld if they are just in accordance with the law of God. King asserts that laws demanding segregation can never be just because they are used by a majority to harm and oppress a minority that has no power to change the laws. King also expresses deep disappointment in the White moderate: any White citizen who claims to support the Blacks ideologically, but fails to do anything to actually help them. He states that the greatest danger to justice is not evil men doing evil things, but rather good men doing nothing. This disappointment is also extended to churches in the south, particularly "do nothing" White clergymen. King expected to be supported in his pacifistic fight for freedom by his Christian brothers, regardless of race, but he was sorely disappointed. King even goes on to admonish organized Christian religion for its promotion of the status quo, regardless of whether or not present conditions are just or unjust. He expresses this disapproving sentiment in my favorite quote from the work: "In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society." The "those days" he is referring to is the time when the Christian church was much stronger and had a great deal more influence on the actions and principles of the communities in and around it. Unfortunately, according to Dr. King, the Church has lost this noble position of a moral beacon, and instead sunk to go with the flow of the world.

--Wald der Gebildet

Views on Black Suffrage and the Racism of the Wealthy

Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and Frederick Douglass had varying views on the issue of Blacks' suffrage. At one end of the spectrum was Washington, who believed that Blacks should not protest for or even actively try to get equal civil rights or suffrage. He believed that they should just work hard and hope that eventually Whites would recognize them as equals. Frederick Douglass held views that were antipodal to Washington. He believed that Blacks deserved to get all of their rights immediately. He adamantly declared that if the Negro could be tolerated by the White man as a slave, then he could be tolerated as a free man. W. E. B. DuBois fell somewhere in the middle between Washington and Douglass. He disagreed with Washington's position on how Blacks should get their rights, but to a less extreme degree than Douglass. DuBois was more specific and intellectually logical about his disagreement with Washington, pointing out discrepancies in Washington's plan and referring to them as a "triple paradox."
As for the idea that racism was promoted by the upper classes in order to increase their wealth, I believe that this situation could be possible, but I do not think that it was a widespread, well-organized practice among the wealthy. It seem a bit conspiratorial to claim that the entire upper class in America was (or even still is) working together to "keep the Black man down" simply to amass some sort of profit from doing so. I do however, believe that wealthy people were/are generally more prejudiced than poorer people, but I think these prejudices are more directed towards anyone in a lower social standing than towards one particular race.

--Wald der Reich

The Frederick Douglass Impersonator

In class today, we watched a video of a Frederick Douglass impersonator, named Michael E. Crutche. He was performing a reenactment of one of Douglass's speeches. In this speech, he argued for the necessity of equality in civil rights and suffrage for Blacks. He also complained about the unfair charges levied against the Black community. In particular, he indignantly denied the accusation that Black men cannot be trusted around White women. He asserted that this slanderous charge had absolutely no basis in fact, and that is was extraordinarily dangerous to the reputation of the Black community.

--Wald der Obdachlos

W. E. B. DuBois and the Triple Paradox

W. E. B. DuBois wrote a criticism of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise in his collection Souls of Black Folk. Most of his criticism was based around DuBois's belief that a triple paradox existed within Washington's ideas. According to to DuBois, the triple paradox was as follows: First of all, Washington encourages Black merchants and artisans to become affluent landowners, yet this is impossible without them having the right to vote. Secondly, Washington wants the Negro race to have dignity and respect, but at the same time, he encourages them to act socially inferior to other races. Finally, he suggests that Blacks only worry about getting a basic education and don't concern themselves with college and higher learning, and yet the teachers trained in Negro colleges are necessary for society to function.

--Wald der Chinesisch

Naturalism Presentations: Day 2

Today in class, the groups that did not get a chance to give their Naturalism projects yesterday presented them today. After watching two other groups, Georgina and I gave our report. I spoke mainly during the first half of the presentation. I discussed the definition of Naturalism according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), the significance of Naturalism as a philosophy, Darwin's influence on the development of Naturalism, and how Naturalism is connected to the Realist literary movement. I also spoke specifically about Jack London, and analyzed his short story, "To Build a Fire," and how it exhibited features of Naturalism and Realism. Georgina talked about Émile Zola, George Becker, and the Gilded Age. Our presentation went well.

--Wald der Begeistert

Naturalism Presentations: Day 1

Today we began presenting our naturalism projects. My group did not present, so I spent the duration of the class listening to other people's presentations. There were a few presentations that stood out in particular. First, Ryan's group emphasized naturalism's influence on and connection to atheism, a connection that had not explicitly occurred to me. They also discussed Stephen Crane's The Open Boat, which details the experiences of four men on a boat at sea. Apparently, three or all of them die by the end. Another presentation that I found particularly notable was the first one. As much as I would love to go on a multi-page tirade on the finer points of this... exceptional performance, I will simply say: lol.

--Wald der Geschmackvoll

The Return of Cook

At last, after what feels like many ages, our dear teacher Mr. Cook has returned. This comes as a great relief to most of us, many of whom believed that he had abandoned us forever. The reign of the mysterious Mrs. Jones has come to an end, and I imagine she will never be seen again. Today in class, we made our powerpoint for our naturalism presentation. Georgina and I divided up the speaking between us: I will primarily take the first part, and she will primarily take the second part. As a class, we discussed features of an oral presentation/powerpoint that improve the overall quality. One of those features was color, so we made sure to incorporate that into our slideshow. Based on our group number, we will probably not present tomorrow, but Wednesday.

--Wald der Komisch

The Second Day of the Substitute

Today, our class was once again left Cookless. Mrs. Jones substituted again. All in all, today and yesterday were remarkably similar. The course of my actions was as follows: First, Georgina and I went to the library and logged onto computers. Next, we pulled up information about naturalism and related material, and read that for the rest of the class. In particular, we read about the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a period of rapid economic and technological growth in the United States after the Civil War. It was named for the process of gilding objects with a superficial layer of gold, which was meant to make fun of the era's ostentatious self-admiration.

--Wald der Ruhig

The First Day of the Substitute

Today in class, we had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Jones, for Mr. Cook was not with us. Before today, I had never seen Mrs. Jones, and I am a bit curious where she came from. I am also curious as to where Mr. Cook was. By now, the inane, rambling nature of this blog entry is surely evident. This is a combination of two factors. First of all, it is currently very late at night, rendering me very tired and hardly capable of coherent though. Secondly, there is not a whole lot to talk about that took place in class under the substitute. We were basically left to our own devices to work on our naturalism presentations, which is what we did. To make up for the meagerness of this post I shall leave the reader with an unrelated, but nevertheless interesting fact: When going to battle, Indian kings would make their horses wear trunks. The other side's elephants would refuse to attack the horses thinking that the horses were baby elephants.

--Wald der Trübe

Naturalism Project 2

Today in class, we were chastised for our idiocy and mortally threatened for our failure to blog. Fear was struck into our very hearts and souls as we were told that we were all going to fail. And probably die. In spite of our terror, however, Georgina and I managed to make a bit of progress on our project. During the class, we primarily reviewed what we had already researched and examined. Georgina summarized some of what we had gone over the previous day, and I discovered that the Norton textbook contains a very helpful section about the exact years in American history that our projects are supposed to be about. Naturally I spent the remainder of the class looking at that.

--Wald der Sportlich

Naturalism Project

Mr. Cook assigned us a project on Naturalism today. We are required to THINK. Unfortunately, this process is foreign to many of us, and might actually require some effort to be put forth on our parts. I am in a group with the charming Miss Georgina Meyer. We have already made a decent amount of progress on this assignment. I have been reading about the philosophical definition of Naturalism, as well as how it differs from other philosophies of the time. I have also been reading about American history from 1865 to 1914. Georgina has been researching Naturalism specifically as it applies to American literature. She has also been studying the Gilded Age. We have already compiled a number of reliable, peer-reviewed sources and amassed some information about our subject.

--Wald der Shrecklich

"An Episode of War"

Stephen Crane's short story "An Episode of War" is a brief account of a lieutenant getting shot and the reactions of the people around him. Crane is very meticulous in his explicit description of the situation. We were required to read his piece because of its alleged usage of Realism and Naturalism. The Realism in this work is not difficult to notice; at no point in the story is anything described in a particularly subjective way. Moreover, none of the characters attempt to extrapolate upon or find greater meaning in any of the sparse events. The only Naturalistic aspect that I notice about this piece, however, is in the lack of "higher power" philosophies. In a way, I suppose that could be considered Naturalism, but I'm mainly taking Mr. Cook's word for it. On an unrelated note, I found the ending darkly hilarious.

--Wald der Gemein

Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James published in 1878. It tells the tale of a young girl named Daisy and her adventures in Europe, and more importantly, how she and her actions are viewed a young Swiss man named Winterbourne. Despite the disapproval of Mrs. Costello, Winterbourne quickly falls in love with Daisy, noting that her spunkiness and spontaneity set her apart from the more formal and uptight European women. However, Daisy moves to Rome and becomes involved with an older man named Giovanelli. Winterbourne travels to Rome and tries to warn Daisy to change her ways for the sake of her reputation, but she doesn't listen. Eventually, Winterbourne gives up on Daisy, deciding that she isn't worth worrying about. Daisy dies shortly after.
Daisy is representative of a young, naïve America. She personifies a lot of Americans at the time, who had never been to or been educated about Europe. A running theme throughout Daisy Miller is innocence. Winterbourne is continually debating whether or not Daisy is innocent, and in the end, it is because he believes that she has lost her innocence that she dies. Had Winterbourne believed her to still be corrigible, he would have saved her  from the malaria she contracted at the Coliseum in the night air. Finally, another theme that underlies James' work is the stability versus the misfortune of an unlived life. Winterbourne, because he plays it safe, outlives Daisy, and possibly avoids more heartbreak than he already suffered, but at the same time, he never pursues the girl he thought he loved, so he never really knows what could have happened.

--Wald der Sterbend 

Realism and Naturalism

American Realism was a literary movement around the mid to late 1800's characterized by a focus on the realities of everyday life. As opposed to depicting fanciful, unrealistic protagonists with unbelievable strengths, abilities, and situations, Realist literature focused on the relatable common man. Famous realist authors included Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair, and William Dean Howells.
Naturalism was a movement that took Realism a step further. It focused on the realistic, ubiquitous aspects of life, but also suggested that these aspects exist for a greater, universal reason. In other words, hierarchy, social structure, and natural instincts all exist because of predetermined meaningful purpose. Naturalist writers included John Steinbeck, Abraham Cahan, Edith Wharton, and Jack London.

--Wald der Unklug

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story with a very interesting twist by Ambrose Bierce. The first thing one notices when reading this story is the gratuitous amount of detail devoted to describing everything from the scenery to the physical states of the characters to the actions that the characters perform. It is divided into three parts. The first part, simply a snapshot of a situation, describes a setting where a man is about to be hanged. The second part gives the back story of Peyton Farquhar and why he is being hanged. The third part is where most of the action in the story takes place and consists of Farquhar's apparent escape and journey to meet his family before it is revealed that everything just took place in his imagination. The actual events that make up the third section of the story really only take up an instant as Farquhar falls to his death. The ending where this fact is revealed hit the reader as hard as the rope hits the protagonist's neck in a cruelly ironic twist that is can even be very darkly humorous. Just as Farquhar truly learns to love and appreciate every single aspect of life, he dies. On a personal note, this is one of my favorite short stories of all time.

--Wald der Ausgeruht

"The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"

Among many other controversial views, Mark Twain is well known for holding very strong views against Western imperialism. He often expressed his contempt for such practices through satire, a tactic of which he was a master. Two of Twain's more notable works condemning imperialism are "The War Prayer" and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." "The War Prayer" details a church service wherein the attendees pray for success in battle. As the prayer progresses, the speaker describes increasingly violent and grotesque things, all the while keeping a cheerful and pious tone. The work leads the reader to ponder the implications of asking a holy, benevolent God for aid in war. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" is an essay that sarcastically censures America's involvement in China and the Philippines, the Boer War, and imperialism in general. The piece refers to foreign invasion as a Game, and names certain political figures such as William McKinley and Joseph Chamberlain as masters of the Game. Twain describes war crimes and atrocities in a flippant, matter-of-fact tone that leads one to reflect on how terrible our actions in less developed countries actually were.

--Wald der  Faul 

"They shut me up in Prose" - Emily Dickinson

They shut me up in Prose –

As when a little Girl

They put me in the Closet –

Because they liked me “still”   –

Still! Could themself have peeped –

And seen my Brain – go round –

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason – in the Pound –

Himself has but to will--

And easy as a Star

Look down opon Captivity –

And laugh – No more have I –

   "They shut me up in Prose" seems to provide almost something of an origin story to Emily Dickinson's poetic career. The poem itself is fairly straightforward: it describes how when Dickinson was a child, she was often put in a closet to keep her quiet, and this is what led her to start writing. Aside from the obvious though, "They shut me up in Prose" also presents the idea of physical versus metal captivity. Even though young Emily was physically locked up in a closet, her captors had no control over the freedom of her mind, which manifested itself in her "Prose." It is not unlikely even that she only came to this realization because of her time trapped in a closet, which doubtless gave her a great deal of time to think and reflect.

--Wald der Frei

The Turn of the 19th Century

The period of time in America around the late 18th century and early 19th century was one of tremendous change, in both the structure of society and the ideas of thinkers and philosophers. Much of the change was due the the Industrial Revolution, which unleashed a flood of new ideas and inventions upon the people of the United States. Suddenly, once difficult tasks and chores could be done in much less time using much less work. These technological advents allowed much more time for people to think and philosophize. Furthermore, many important and revolutionary scientific breakthroughs were made during the 19th century, arguably the most notable being Darwin's work on evolution. The publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 completely changed the way that people looked at life, religion, and nearly everything about the world around us. Secularism become more prominent as people were forced to rethink their own existence. In short, the zeitgeist of the 19th century might best be described as simply: change.

--Wald der Asiatisch

On Time Again! Amazing! (1/6/11)

In "Another View of Hester" the character of Hester Prynn in reexamined seven years after her crime is committed. At this point, almost all of the common people and many of those in positions of power have stopped hating Hester. Most of them have even forgotten what her scarlet A stands for; many have come to believe that it stands for "Able" instead of "Adulterer."
Meanwhile, Hester has undergone a total change in personality. She seems to have lost a lot of her humanity after nearly a decade of relative isolation. She is very cold, impersonal, stoic, and rational. However, despite all of the good deeds she has done, she is still plagued by guilt for continuing to withhold Roger's identity from Dimmesdale.

--Wald der Hypokoristische

The Amazing On Time Post of Forrest Baker (due and completed 1/5/11)

I did my page Chapter 10, "The Leech and His Patient." In this chapter, Dimmesdale's health continues to deteriorate under the "care" of Chillingworth. Dimmesdale becomes increasingly suspicious of Chillingworth, who relentlessly presses him about any unconfessed sins that might be contributing to his affliction. At the end of the chapter, Chillingworth sneaks up on Dimmesdale while he is asleep and looks under his shirt to see something, which remains unrevealed to the reader, on his chest.
My beautiful illustration of this chapter consists of Dimmesdale asleep on his bed with Roger Chillingworth observing something on his chest. The artistically educated viewer will notice the piece is characterized by a subtle blend of Dada and Minimalism. The colors--red, gray, black, green, and blue--represent the diverse symbolism seen throughout The Scarlet Letter. The red represents the scarlet of the title letter. The gray represents the color of the pencil I had within convenient reach. The meaning of the other colors is so deeply philosophical and symbolic, that the avant-garde concepts cannot even be expressed in mere words. Furthermore, as one observes the facial expressions of the subjects, powerful and abstruse emotions can be seen just teeming beneath the surface. Chillingworth can be seen pondering his dilemma; each masterfully placed stroke of the pencil is a separate though running through his tortured head. Dimmesdale has his eyes closed, a simply ingenious representation of him being asleep.

--Wald der Künstlerisch