Growing up in an Extraordinary World: My essay for English 304

Growing up in an Extraordinary World
Puberty happens during a person’s transformation from childhood to adulthood. This transformation is possible through the increasing function of the brain which affects the growth of the body. Puberty occurs in many stages, and at different times for each individual. Lewis Carroll and Phillip Pullman’s female heroes Lyra and Alice have to deal with the unfamiliar and often uncomfortable process of puberty. Both girls do so with more freewill than the average adolescent. Both characters are ultimately forced to ponder their identity and self while confronting the changing world around them in extraordinary circumstances.
Both Carroll and Pullman show the difficulties of growing up but add a new dimension by showing a surreal world which is only possible in fantasy. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Carroll depicts a strange world of wonder that Alice enters and travels through during her journey from childhood to adulthood; from innocence to experience. Everything is very curious to Alice. She goes through her wonderland meeting many interesting creatures without questioning their origin or their means of existence. In Pullman’s Dark Materials he presents Lyra, who begins as an innocent girl who is protected by scholars at Jordon College in Oxford. However, Lyra quickly realizes the complexities of the world around her, and goes through adolescence unlike other girls her age.
Alice is portrayed by Carroll as a logical, dauntless, and curious girl who refuses to read a book without pictures. Although her adventures happen in a dream, Alice’s vivid imagination is what spurs her outrageous thoughts in her unconscious state. Throughout her adventures, Alice fails to leave a stone unturned. She is in a constant hunt for strange company; anything to keep her curious mind sharp and satisfied. Alice does not segregate or judge, but simply accepts anyone or anything that comes across her path. She never knows in which direction to go, which thrusts her into a constant whirlwind of ambiguity. We find Alice’s unstable idea of herself quite evident when she finds the Caterpillar’s question of her identity difficult to answer; after continually growing smaller and taller due to her pill consumption.
To contend with Alice, Lyra Belacqua is portrayed as a wiry, ruthless, and fearless girl that has been raised as an orphan at Jordan College. She does not let her orphan-status affect her happiness. She spends hours running around the neighborhood playing with children of a lower class without the slightest disdain. One day she eavesdrop on a complex conversation involving dust that soon affects those living around her, and has no choice but to act. She is sent into a whirlwind of events that she must participate in, in order to survive. Lyra goes through many trials and seems to manage every difficult situation she receives triumphantly.
One trait Lyra and Alice share is their ability to put complete trust in the people or beings they come in contact with. As both stories progress and the girls go through more experiences however, they learn to be more cautious of the company they keep. Lyra happily goes to live with Marisa Coulter, who turns out to be a conniving woman who wants power at any cost. Lyra takes this experience, learns from her trusting ignorance, and goes on to meet many noble creatures along her journey that help her succeed. Alice uses sincerity with the Queens she meets, but soon realizes that some Queens are cruel, and being polite will not get her anywhere in the wonderland of her dreams. She becomes aware of her blind trust and goes on to conform, ultimately becoming a Queen by playing by the rules of the adult world.
Ultimately, what sets Lyra apart from Alice is her amazing ability to manipulate the adults around her. Initially, the adult figures in Lyra's life do not give her any credit as she begins her journey to the North. Alice avoids the Queen of Hearts chopping off her head, but that is the extent of her control of the adults in her world. As Pullman’s Dark Materials develops, the adults that come in contact with Lyra grow to protect her, fight alongside her, and ultimately respect her. Lyra is slow in understanding the reason for her tasks that continually put her life in danger. Eventually Lyra becomes successful in using the tools and company she has been given to her benefit as well as theirs. Lyra reappoints the polar bear king to his throne and shows her cruel mother how to love. She gives Mary Malone the strength to stand up for herself and make new scientific discoveries and frees millions of ghosts from the Land of the Dead.
One experience that stands out in Pullman’s Dark Materials is love. Although Alice loves her cat Dinah and Lyra loves her daemon Pantalaimon, Lyra falls in love with a boy named William Parry. Throughout the story Lyra continually builds a bond with Will. Their relationship begins in strictly work-related terms; to save the world. Lyra is loud and ruthless while Will is quiet and strong. Lyra and Will build a trust and are willing to risk their lives for one another. After the heroes have completed their faithful mission together they recognize and embrace their love for one another openly and relentlessly. A few days after their indescribable discovery they are forced to part. Lyra has to make the ultimate sacrifice which is losing her first love in order to preserve safely in the world for the rest of time.
Lyra and Alice deal with the unfamiliar and uncomfortable process of puberty under extraordinary circumstances. In the end of Alice’s story she becomes a Queen while Lyra saves the world. Both girls realize that they have accomplished quite a bit in their childhood. Whether the events happen in reality or in dreams, both girls must cope with the next stage in their lives that is adulthood. Lyra and Alice go through many stages in their detailed journeys and learn a lot about themselves. Their adventures turn Lyra and Alice into young women who apprehensively have new experiences to look forward to, while looking back on their fond memories of the childhood that all adults are forced to leave behind.

Father Gomez and The Ancient Mariner

Throughout His Dark Materials there is quite evidently an environmental undertone. The subtle knife had been used carelessly, opening many windows which caused dusk to leak out of some worlds in to others, thus destroying the balance of nature. In The Amber Spyglass Father Gomez is on the hunt for Lyra Belacqua. He enters the world of the mulefa and discovers huge white birds. He takes out his shotgun and shoots one of the birds without thinking twice. This action reminds me of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, when a boat sailing the high seas is cursed after a mariner shoots an innocent albatross who has been following the boat for a number of days without reason. I have provided an excerpt of the long poem which shows the seen of senseless murder, and ultimately, man's unwarranted abuse of nature.

"And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen :
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came ;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;
The helmsman steered us through !

And a good south wind sprung up behind ;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo !

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine ;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'

`God save thee, ancient Mariner !
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !--
Why look'st thou so ?'--With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

PART II

The Sun now rose upon the right :
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo !

And I had done an hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe :
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch ! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow !

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist :
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free ;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be ;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea !
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean."
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

After this excerpt the the Albatross begins to be avenged through a number of events that that makes the Mariner realize his woes but in vain, because his actions have already been done and there is no turning back.

Interpretations of Dark Materials characters

After looking at a number of images of different characters from Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials, I came across quite an ecclectic mix. From characters in the movie, to a fan's illustration of Lyra, to two fans that decided to impersonate the characters themselves, enjoy!

Nicole Kidman plays Marisa Coulter in The Golden Compass movie. She is a stunning woman and I believe she is a good person for the role.

In The Golden Compass, the movie, Daniel Craig plays the role of Lord Asriel. Craig is well known in his roles in the recent James Bond movies.


A Sketch of Lyra that I partiularly enjoy:


LORD ASRIEL, LYRA, and PAN:

My Daemon, a butterfly

According to Quizilla.com my Daemon would be a: BUTTERFLY - Your daemon may be a butterfly. It is ironic that the butterfly traditionally represents the psyche, yet it is one of the least emotive physical forms that your daemon can take. It is very hard to tell what a butterfly is feeling, and perhaps that is why you feel so comfortable with this form. You have many, many friends and a beautiful soul, but you don't like to reveal what your innermost feelings are. You aren't afraid to be yourself - you are vibrant and colourful. But at the same time, you don't like to wear your heart on your sleeve.

Asriels proclamation

"Few as we are," he went on, "and short-lived as we are, and weak-sighted as we are-in comparison with them, we're still stronger. They envy us, Ogunwe! That's what fuels their hatred, I'm sure of it. They long to have our precious bodies, so solid and powerful, so well-adapted to the good earth! And if we drive at them with force and determination, we can sweep aside those infinite numbers as you can sweep your hand thorugh mist. They have no more power that that!" -Asriel, (The Amber Spyglass 823)

Lord Asriel has been fighting to protect dust from the Authority and his Regent, Metatron thorughout "His Dark Materials." I found this quote to stand out because Asriel knows what it means to be human and how the amount of power one possesses is not what should be respected and cherished. What is most important and sought-after but being alive and enjoying life on earth. After Asriel's praise of life and being human, he realizes that Lyra must have a chance to experience life like he has, and becomes a martyr so save the human race.

ignorance is bliss

"Lyra wandered away on her own, and went to the reedy bank to sit and throw mud into the water. She knew one thing: she was not pleased or proud to be able to read the alethiometer-she was afraid" (109). Lyra, being a small child has no idea what power she possesses or what is in store for her. It is no accident that she was given the alethiometer by the processor at Oxford. As she continues with the childish act of throwing mud she begins thinking about ideas and technology way beyond her once-childish mind. Like all humans, Lyra is beginning to realize that growing up is inevitable. William Blake's innocence experience is something that comes to mind when I read these lines. With the alethiometer Lyra begins to question authority with more confidence. Soon she realizes that size doesn't neccesarily constitute power. Although she is a growing girl, Lyra still has quite an influence on many people around her. She is successful in leading the Gyptians North, and greatly responsible for Iorek's reign as polar bear king. Although her friend is lost, Lyra realizes that in life mistakes will be made, LARGE and small. She must take the death of her friend in her memories and live her life with that painful mistake made forever. Although she lost one friend, she saved tons of other children, and is one step closer to finding out what her father, Lord Asriel is up to. Nobdody can figure it out-not even the witches! Something tells me Lyra will overcome her ignorance of her father's intentions, and might just be there in case his intentions are anything but good.

The Auroras of Autumn

The Auroras of Autumn
Wallace Stevens

I

This is where the serpent lives, the bodiless.
His head is air. Beaneath his tip at night
Eyes open and fix on us in every sky.

Or is this another wriggling out of the egg,
Another image at the end of the cave,
Another bodiless for the body's slough?

This is where the serpent lives. This is his nest,
These fields, these hills, these tinted distances,
Ans the pines above and along and beside the sea.

This is form gulping after formlessness,
Skin flashing to wished-for disappearances
And the serpent body flashing without the skin.

This is the height emerging and its base
These lights may finally attain a pole
In the midmost midnight and find the serpent there,

In another nest, the master of the maze
Of body and air and forms and images,
Relentlessly in possession of happiness.

This is his position: that we should disbelieve
Even that. His meditations in the ferns,
When he moved so slightly to make sure of sun,

Made us no less as sure. We saw in his head,
Black beaded on the rock, the flecked animal,
The moving grass, the Indian in his glade.

II

Farewell to an idea...A cabin stands,
Deserted, on a beach. It is white,
As by a custom or according to

An ancestral theme or as a consequence
Of an infinite course. The flowers against the wall
Are white, a little dried, a kind of mark

Reminding, trying to remind, of a white
That was different, something else, last year
Of before, not the white of an aging afternoon,

Whether fresher or duller, whether of winter cloud
Or of winter sky, from horizon to horizon.
The wind is blowing the sand across the floor.

Here, being visible is being white,
Is being of the solid of white, the accomplishment
Of an extremist is an excercise...

The season changes. A cold wind chills the beach.
The long lines of it grow longer, emptier,
A darkness gathers though it does not fall

And the whiteness grows less vivid on the wall.
The man who is walking turns blankly on the sand.
He observes how the north is always enlarging the change,

With its frigid brilliances, its blue-red sweeps
And gusts of great enkindlings, its polar green,
The color of ice and fire and solitude.

III

Farewell to an idea...The mother's face,
The purpose of the poem, fills the room.
They are together, here, and it is warm,

With none of the prescience of oncoming dreams.
It is evening. The house is evening, half dissolved.
Only the half they can never possess remains,

Still-starred. It is the mother they possess,
Who gives transparence to their present peace.
She makes that gentler that can gentle be.

And yet she too is dissolved, she is destroyed.
She gives transparence. But she has grown old.
The necklace is a carving not a kiss.

The soft hands are a motion not a touch.
The house will crumble and the books will burn.
They are at ease in a shelter of the mind

And the house is of the mind and they and time,
Together, all together. Boreal night
Will look like frost as it approaches them

And to the mother as she falls asleep
And as they say good-night. Upstairs
The windows will be lighted, not the rooms.

A wind will spread its windy grandeurs round
And knock like a rifle-butt against the door.
The wind will command them with invincible sound.

IV

Farewell to an idea...The cancellings,
The negations are never final. The father sits
In space, wherever he sits, of bleak regard,

As one that is strong in the bushes of his eyes.
He says no to no and yes to yes. He says yes
To no; and in saying yes he says farewell.

He measures the velocities of change.
He leaps from heaven to heaven more rapidly
Than the bad angels leap from heave to hell in flames.

But now he sits in quiet and green-a-day.
He assumes the great speeds of space and flutters them
From cloud to cloudless, cloudless to keen clear

In flights of eye and ear, the highest eye
And the lowest ear, the deep ear that discerns,
At evening, things that attend it until it hears

The supernatural preludes of its own,
At the moment when the angelic eye defines
Its actors approaching, in company, in their masks.

Master O master seated by the fire
And yet in space and motionless and yet
Of motion the ever-brightening origin,

Profound, and yet the king and yet the crown.
Look at this present throne. What company,
In masks, can choir it with the naked wind?

V

The mother invites humanity to her house
And table. The father fetches tellers of tales
And musicians who mute much, muse much, on the tales.

The father fetches negresses to dance,
Among the children, like curious ripenessess
Of pattern in the dance's ripening.

For these the musicians make insidious tones,
Clawing the sing-song of their instruments.
The children laugh and jangle a tinny time.

The father fetches pageants out of air,
Scenes of the theatre, vistas and blocks of woods
And curtains like a naive pretense of sleep.

Among these the musicians strike the instinctive poem.
The father fetches his unherded herds,
Of barbarous tongue, slavered and panting halves

Of breath, obedient to his trumpet's touch.
This then is Chatillon or as you please.
We stand in the tumult of a festival.

What festival? This loud, disordered mooch?
These hospitaliers? These brute-like guests?
These musicians dubbing at a tragedy,

A-dub, a-dub, which is made up of this:
That there are no lines to speak? These is no play.
Or, the persons act one merely by being here.

VI

It is a theatre floating through the clouds,
Itself a cloud, although of misted rock
And mountains running like water, wave on wave,

Through waves of light. It is of cloud transformed
To cloud transformed again, idly, the way
A season changes color to no end,

Except the lavishing of itself in change,
As light changes yellow into gold and gold
To its opal elements and fire's delight,

Splashed wide-wise because it likes magnificence
And the solemn pleasures of magnificent space.
The cloud drifts idly through half-thought-of forms.

The theatre is filled with flying birds,
Wilde wedges, as of a volcano's smoke, palm-eyed
And vanishing, a web in a corridor

Or massive portico. A capitol,
It may be, is emerging of has just
Collapsed. The denouement has to be postposed...

This is nothing until in a single man contained,
Nothing until this named thing nameless is
And is destroyed. He opens the door of his house

On flames. The scholar of one candle sees
An Arctic effulgence flaring on the frame
Of everything he is. And he feels afraid.

VII

Is there an imagination that sits enthroned
As grim as it is benevolent, the just
And the unjust, which in the midst of summer stops

To imagine winter? When the leaves are dead.
Does it take its place in the north and enfold itself,
Goat-leaper, crystalled and luminous, sitting

In the highest night? And do these heavens adorn
And proclaim it, the white creator of black, jetted
By extinguishings, even of planets as may be,

Even of earth, even of sight, in snow,
Except as needed by way of majesty,
In the sky, as crown and diamond cabala?

It leaps through us, through all our heavens leaps,
Extinguishing our planets, one by one,
Leaving, of where we were and looked, of where

We knew each other and of each other thought,
A shivering residue, chilled and foregone,
Except for the crown and mystical cabala.

But it dare not leap by chance in its own dark.
It must change from destiny to slight caprice.
And thus its jetted tragedy, its stele

VIII

There may be always a time of innocence.
There is never a place. Or if there is no time,
If it is not a thing of time, not of place,

Existing in the idea of it, alone,
In the sense against calamity, it is not
Less real. For the oldest and coldest philosopher,

There is or may be a time of innocence
As pure principle. Its nature is its end,
That it should be, and yet not be, a thing

That pinches the pity of the pitiful man,
Like a book at evening beautiful but untrue,
Like a book on rising beautiful and true.

It is like a thing of ether that exists
Almost as predicate. But it exists,
It exists, it is visible, it is, it is.

So, then, these lights are not a spell of light,
A saying out of a cloud, but innocence.
An innocence of the earth and no false sign

Or symbol of malice. That we partake thereof,
Lie down like children in this holiness,
As if, awake, we lay in the quiet of sleep,

As if the innocent mother sang in the dark
Of the room and on an accordion, half-heard,
Created the time and place in which we breathed...

IX

And of each other thought-in the idiom
Of the work, in the idiom of an innocent earth,
Not of the enigma of the guilty dream.

We were as Danes in Denmark all day long
And knew each other well, hale-hearted landsmen,
For whom the outlandish was another day

Of the week, queerer than Sunday. We thought alike
And that made brothers of us in a home
In which we fed on being brothers, fed

And fattened as on a decorous honeycomb.
This drama that we live-We lay sticky with sleep.
This sense of the activity of fate-

The rendezvous, when she came alone,
By her coming became a freedom of the two,
As isolation which only the two could share.

Shall we be found hanging in the trees next spring?
Of what disaster in this the imminence:
Bare limbs, bare trees and a wind as sharp as salt?

The stars are putting on their glittering belts.
They throw around their shoulders cloaks that flash
Like a great shadow's last embellishment.

It may come tommorow in the simplest word,
Almost as part of innocence, almost,
Almost as the tenderest and the truest part.

X

An unhappy people in a happy world-
Read, rabbi, the phases of this difference.
An unhappy people in an unhappy world-

Here are too many mirrors for misery.
A happy people in an unhappy world-
It cannot be. There's nothing there to roll

On the expressive tongue, the finding fang.
A happy people in a happy world-
Buffo! A ball, an opera, a bar.

Turn back to where we were when we began:
An unhappy people in a happy world.
Now, solemnize the secretive syllables.

Read to the congregation, for today
And for tommorow, this extremity,
This contrivance of the spectre of the spheres,

Contriving balance to contrive a whole,
The vital, the never-failing genius,
Fulfilling his meditations, great and small.

In these unhappy he meditates a whole,
The full of fortune and the full of fate,
As if he lived all lives, that he might know,

In hall harridan, not hushful paradise,
To a haggling of wind and weather, by these lights
Like a blaze of summer straw, in winter's nick.

Theism

Theism
Theism is the belief in a god or gods. Classical theism affirms the existence of one god, and ascribes to this god certain attributes, e.g. omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, and impassibility. The aim of this site is to define these attributes, and explore the difficulties that arise when one tries to explain them.

There are many different positions concerning the existence and nature of God; theism is just one of many alternatives. Rival positions include atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, and deism.

Atheism and Agnosticism
Those without belief in God may be either atheists or agnostics. Atheism may be defined either weakly as the absence of belief in God, or in a stronger form as active disbelief in God.

Agnosticism too comes in weaker and stronger forms; agnosticism may be understood as simple uncertainty, indecision concerning God’s existence, or it may be understood as the view that the question as to whether God exists is one that in principle can never be

Theism

class questions for the second exam (11/12/08)

1. Illustrator of "Alice" books..Tenniel
2. Last word in Beauty and the Beast..Virtue
3. Who wins after death? Worms
4. We triumpth over worms through..Art
5. Oscar Wilde: Art intiminates..Art
6. White Knight is..Carroll
7. 5 themes in class: mystery, history, dream, art, coincidence
8. Parody counterpart to Alice: Crocodile
Moral counterpart to Alice: Bee
9. Food moci turtle sings of: soup
10. Mad Hatter's answer to Raven and writing desk riddle..no idea
11. After Shakespeare..Carroll..is the most quoted writer in english lit
12. myth..is a depersonalized..dream..and..dream..is a personalized..myth
13. portmanteau: Jabberwocky, Humpty Dumpty
14. whose the rudest of all the flowers?
15. The word animated contains which word which means soul?..Anima
16. who is the volcano? Alice
17. Where does Alice live in all of us? our unconcious(dust)
18. When Alice first shrank how tall was she? 10 in.
19. Deleted ch. of "Looking Glass" The Wasp and the Whig
20. Why was mouse offended by Alice? Mentioned cats
21. Protestant Reformation lit. to teach..moral values
22. 1st USA Bible published in.. Algonquin
23. 2 animals to spark curiousity in evolution: monkey and mammoth
24. invention to impact Protestant Reformation: printing press
25. Mercury making Hatters mad in what? misplaced fairytale
26. create anagram from.. ex.Plain-Palin
27. What does White Rabbit drop? White gloves and fan
28. What do Beauty's tears turn into (in movie)? Diamonds
29. When reading a story truth the..tale..and not the..teller.
30. Carroll's nickname inspired by what character? Dodo (stutterer)
31. What rhetorical form is "interesting because its interesting"? Talology
32. Goody-two-shoes is an emblem of..perfection
33. Tweedles: if Alice is part of King's dream than they are..ditto ditto ditto
34. What Alice image appeared in Rebbecca's dream: Flying Pigs
35. We often look at the..dark side..of things
36. Most prolific serial killer in 19th c. Mary-Anne Cotton
37. 2 ghosts appeared throughout Sunderland book? Sid James and White Lady
38. Jabberwocky based upon Sunderland legend: Lampton Worm
39. Life, what is it but a dream?
40. Acrostic: Alice's name in "which do you think it was?"
41. Walter Peter said: All art aspires to the condition of..music
42. The text informs..reality
43. Tweedle Dee says: contrariewise

Also, things to focus on for the test:
Endings to focus on in Tartar's book: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin.
Talbot pages (look at Sam and Lynn's blogs)
My Book and Heart Should Never Part

The Carpenter and the Walrus

"The Carpenter and the Walrus" is my favorite story, told in poetic form by Tweedledee in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass." The illustrations by John Tenniel are absolutely brilliant.. Disney movies often give us a much different picture than we imagine the characters to look like. However, Tenniel offers such intimate and accurate illustrations to Carroll's words that I constantly see direct parallels between Tenniel and Disney's illustrated portrayal of Alice and her adventures. The story of two sobbing characters, the walrus and the carpenter, confronted by adorable oysters that they fool into becoming a delectable meal is great! I read the poem spoken by Tweedledee with absolute delight. It definitely made me feel like a giddy-kid again!

A Facsimile

Facsimile according to the many authors of Wikipedia is:
(From Latin fac simile, "make like") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print or other item of historical value that is as true-to-the-original source as possible using, normally, some form of photographic technique. They differ from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale, colour, condition, and other material qualities. For books and manuscripts, this also entails a complete copy of all pages; hence an incomplete copy is known as a "partial facsimile". Facsimiles are used, for example, by scholars to research a source that they do not have access to otherwise and by museums and archives for museum and media preservation. Many are sold commercially.

John Tenniel

SOME ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ALICE IN WONDERLAND


THE ILLUSTRATOR HIMSELF


"John Tenniel, who best known today for his illustrations to the Alice books, was born in London in 1820, the son of a dancing master and fencing instructor. He studied at the schools of the British Royal Academy and at the Clipstone Street Art society, but was largely self-taught as a book illustrator and periodical cartoonist.

At the age of 16, he exhibited his first oil painting at the Society of British Artists. In 1840, while fencing with his father, he was blinded in one eye, according to his biographer, F. Sartzano in Sir John Tenniel (1948). In 1845, he was awarded a premium for a sixteen-foot cartoon of The Spirit of Justice, although the Fine Arts Commission awarded Daniel Maclise £250 for the oil painting which sits behind the Strangers' Gallery in Westminster's House of Lords. There in "The Hall of Poets" one may still see Tenniel's fresco illustrating John Dryden's Saint Cecilia.

Some three years younger than Punch regular and Dickens Christmas Book illustrator John Leech (1817-64) and considerably younger than Clarkson Stanfield, R. A. (1793-1867), by the time of his work on Dickens's The Haunted Man Tenniel had already exhibited at the Society of British Artists in 1836 and at the Royal Academy (1837-42). He had also contributed illustrations to The Book of British Birds (1842), his friend Charles Keene's Heath's Book of Beauty (1845), and, most recently, Thomas James's Aesop's Fables (1848).

Since Dickens's usual engraver, L. C. Martin (whose firm was responsible for seven of the 17 Haunted Man plates) was married to Tenniel's sister, it is surprising that Dickens and Tenniel had not met sooner. The year after illustrating The Haunted Man, Tenniel replaced gifted illustrator and fairy-artist Richard Doyle on the staff of Punch when the latter left because as a Catholic he objected to the magazine's attacks on the papacy. At the outset of The Haunted Man project in October 1848, Dickens, not yet aware of Tenniel's capabilities, confined him to ornamental subjects (the frontispiece, the title-page, and the fire-side scene that opens the story proper), and gave over to him what Leech had not the time for, resulting in the extremely wooden renditions of Mrs. Tetterby and her brood, a muffled Redlaw, and "The Boy before the Fire" in "The Gift Diffused" (Ch. 2).

He was a member of Dickens's amateur theatrical troupe in 1851, acting in Bulwer-Lytton's Not So Bad As We Seem. He married in 1852, but became a widower only two years later. In 1861, he illustrated Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh, and succeeded Leech as head Punch illustrator upon that artist's death in 1864, and the following year illustrated Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; the forty-two illustrations had involved Tenniel in much acrimonious debate with Carroll, who insisted that the first edition be withdrawn because he was displeased with the reproductive quality of the prints. Reluctantly, Tenniel agreed to work on Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1872), his last book illustration.

His most successful political cartoon was his caricature of German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark's resignation as "Dropping the Pilot" (Punch, 1891). He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1893, and continued his life-long association with Punch until 1901. See Michael Hancher's The Tenniel Illustrations to the "Alice" Books (1985)."

OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS By John Tenniel

A Mad Tea-Party

My favorite chapter in Alice and Wonderland is Chapter VII, "A Mad Tea-Party." Alice always seems to get angry when a story seems unrealistic, while accepting a bizzare world which she has been meeting talking animals and growing taller and smaller. The chapter begins when alice sees a large table with three characters crowded around one corner of it. They see Alice coming and immediately cry "No room! No room!" When the Hatter speaks, Alice observes that "The Hatter's remark seemed to her to have nor sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English" (107). The Hatter and the March Hare speak of riddles with no answer and speak of time which they find no concern or purpose for. They are afraid of the Queen who threatened to cut of their heads. Of course nothing ever came of it. Alice gets frustrated as she always does in this world of make-believe. The third character at the table, the Dormouse plays a very liminal role considering he spends most of the scene asleep. The imagery is fantastic, and Alice walks out of the scene enraged by such unrealistic animals!

dreams

Last night I had the most odd dream. It was very fairy-tale oriented. The character that stalked my friends and I was a wolf. Right before I went to bed I was reading a hiking book of the greater Los Angeles area. It recommended wonderful hikes, and many involved camping. So in this dream, my friends and I-a large group of about fifteen people went camping up in the San Gabriel mountains. Now in Los Angeles it is rare to camp. Not many people in the metropolitan area treat themselves to such pleasures. We had set up camp around an abandoned building in the woods. My friend Duncan warned us that there was a specific wolf in the area that I nor any of my fellow campers had heard of. While setting up camp it got dark quickly which reflects the shorter days we have been having lately. As soon as the sun settled behind the San Gabriel mountains, Duncan warned us all that we must be quiet. Just as the victims in fairy tales, we ignored this statement and continued to talk excitedly. Soon we heard howling which Duncan identified as the feared and famed wolf. Fear ran through the crowd. We all decided to sleep close together. Duncan told us if we woke up with the wolf next to us the best defense was to run as fast as we could. This would be not easy feat, considering the rough and rocky terrain in the dark. Everybody wanted to be nestled close to another. Nobody wanted to be at the end of the big sleeping mess of people. Why we stayed I do not know. In a dream, looking in and not being able to do anything about the situation happening to you or your close friends, all I could do in my dreaming state was to stick around and find out what happened. Soon as all ran into the house when we saw the huge wolf come along on two feet. There happened to be abandoned kittens strewn around the house and the wolf killed two in front of us. The boys all had shotguns with no ammo. They all took shots anyhow but nothing happened. We all stood, paralyzed in fear. Finally one of the outdoor-oriented males among us took a knife and stabbed the villain to death. I had to go outside in the dream because I couldn't bare the brutality. Everyone in my camping party was unharmed physically, but it caused personal mental discomfort after the terrible event happened.

*My Book and Heart Shall Never Part*

I thouroughly enjoyed My Book and Heart Shall Never Part. Stuart Weber did a wonderful job with the music which was wonderfully incorporated into the content of the movie. It was a wonderful way to contemplate the origin and the purpose of literature for chilren which is also literature for the adults who provide these stories for their impressionable kids. The allusion of reality is shaped by these stories for children. In the little books shown in the movie, people would color in the pictures and decorate the covers. They would mend any rips on the pages, showing the significance these little books had on the family or group of people that read them. The children in the movie did a wonderful job of acting. The main character transformed herself from a girl into a character in the stories she read which brought back fond memories of my childhood. I was in Kindergarden when Disney's The Little Mermaid came out in theatres. I made my mother put salt in my bathtub. I was under the allusion that I was the Little Mermaid. I think my red hair may have had something to do with it. The narration was something that was also pleasing to me. There was a man, a woman, and a child which gave lots of diversity and fun. The movie was a nice break from the busy world us grown-ups live in. It was a nice time to meditate and think of the wonderful stories that have shaped our lives as we know them. For years people have been reading fairytales and have been shaped by these stories. They are all-encompassing in our society whether we recognize them in our adult lives or not. The movie was great. Good job Colin, McWilliams, Stuart Weber, Michael Sexson, Lynda Sexson, and the cast!

The Portal

Alice in Wonderland begins wonderfully. Alice is a small girl who is bored with her sister reading a book. She abandons her sister all together when she sees a rabbit hopping around with a clock. Curiosity leads her to a hole that happens to be big enough for her to enter. Upon entering the whole, she falls down into a land that will bring many incredible adventures. The rabbit hole acts as a portal. Portals are common in fairy tales. In the Little Mermaid, the exit from the ocean onto the land represents a portal. In Jack and the Bean Stalk, the Bean Stalk acts as a portal for Jack. In,Rapunzel, Rapunzel's hair acts as a portal for the prince. Portals are everywhere in fairy tales. It gives children the chance to easily imagine transcendence from the normal world into a world of make-believe. It lets children easily accept abstract ideas once the character has entered the portal into the realm of "the make-believe.

questions for the test

Q. What is the Archetypal woman's name in Finnegan's Wake that we discussed in class?
A. Prank Quean

Q. multilevel world invented by Lewis Carol used by Joyce (combining several meanings in a word)
A. Portmanteau

Q. Privileged #s in fairy-tales
A. 3 & 7

Q. All marriage is _____.
A. Rape

Q. What is misplaced concreteness?
A. Rapunzel's hair, a fallacy

Q. #333 fairytale
A. Little Red Riding Hood

Q. Collective unconcious manifests itself as _______
A. archetypes

Q. "If you're really crafty you'll get them both"
A. Little Red Riding Hood (grandmother and grandaughter)

Q. 3 parts of the universal quest (according to Joseph Cambell)
A. separation/ irritation/ return

Q. Triple Goddess
A. maiden, mother, crone

Q. Why is there no such thing as the original?
A. everything is a displaced myth

Q. one bows or gives recognition to ______
A. to the divine

Q. Genie from Alladin (the Disney version): "I'm not history, I'm___"
A. "...mythology"

Q. Difference of Grimm than Perot's in Cinderella
A. Cinderella's called "Ashgirl" in the Grimm version

Q. Motif index: Hans My Hedgehog, Beauty and the Beast, East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
A. The search for the missing husband, Beast group

Q. Parent's aren't trying to concieve in:
A. Bluebeard

Q. Mythological mother daughter duo
A. Demeter and Persephone

Q. Write a haiku for one of the stories

Q.What is the significance of Blue in Bluebeard's beard
A. All of the above

Q. What causes the transformation of the Beast in Beauty and the Beast?
A. love

Q. Archetype of the talking animal, shown in____.
A. The Golden Ass

Q. Why did Cupid wake up when Psyche was looking at him?
A. one drop of hot oil hits him

Q. What is spoonerism?
A. siste uglies

Q. We aleading know everything there is to know, just a matter of discovering it.
A. Wordsworth

Q. Where did the mythical story of Beauty and the Beast come from?
A. Cupid and Psyche

Q. Who wanted to marry Little Red Riding Hood?
A. Dickens

Q. First novel ever written
A. Don Quixote or The Golden Ass

Q. What phrase begins most fairy-tales?
A. "Once upon a time,..."

Cupid and Physche/Cinderella/Snow White

The story of Cupid and Physche is can be seen as a variety of displaced fairy tales. These stories include Cinderella and Snow White. In Cinderella evil step sisters get in the way of the beautiful maiden and her prince. Physche's sisters tell the girl to go against her husbands wishes which only puts her into a world of trouble. The moral in both stories is never listen to your rotten sisters. In Snow White, the beauties step mother disdains the fact that her step daughter is more beautiful than she. Physche's future mother-in-law Venus is equally jealous of Physche's beauty and wants her killed. The moral of this story is to try and avoid crones that are over the hill and bitter that there is a new and more fair damsel in the land.

Cinderella

In the end of the tale "Cinderlla" in Tatar's book, Cinderella's shoe fits! The prince will now marry the woman who has been identified. Her sisters are shocked and Cinderella, being the nobel, "goody-two-shoes" that everybody hates to love, has a big deciscion to make. Should she forgive her evil step-sisters who have been nothing but cruel to her. If I were Cinderella I would have a hard time justifying a nice way to go about this. I would flee my rags and run for the riches soon to be given to me by the gorgeous and gentle prince. I would leave my step-sisters in the dust. I might make them wait on me hand and foot. I would make them do my laundry and all the other dirty work I could think of. However, Cinderella takes the nobel path and lets her step-sisters live in the palace with her and her prince. I denounce her good-hearted decision which makes every other mortal look bad.
<--Would you really want THEM living in your palace?

NATURE, BOOKS, CHILDREN

Following this post, I pose three questions which all hold similar relevance to one another. Nature, books and children all are very different mediums. However they are similar in the fact that they teach. When a person is having a bad day and needs somewhat of an escape, they can delve into a good book, take a hike, or watch children, who show them the simple pleasures that life has to offer. A person doesn't need money or fame to be happy. Joy and pleasure are easy to find. Nature, literature and children are reminders and great producers of joy...

What is nature?

Nature is anything in the natural world that brings you joy.

Nature is all around you.

Some people travel far and wide to enjoy nature.

Others go as far as their front door.

Some people go through their whole lives unappreciative of the amazing wonders surrounding them.

I feel very lucky to appreciate nature each and every day.





As the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth says:"Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher."

What is a book?

After looking on the internet I came across a website,http://www.artistbooks.com/editions/wiab.html, where many people put in their two cents about what they think constitutes a book:

A book is something you pick up and read."
Richard Seibert
"What is a book? A series of little printed signs--essentially only that. It is for the reader to supply himself the forms and colors and sentiments to which these signs correspond. It will depend on him whether the book be dull or brilliant, hot with passion or cold as ice. Or, if you prefer to put it otherwise, each word in a book is a magic finger that sets a fiber of our brain vibrating like a harp-string, and so evokes a note from the sounding- board of our soul. No matter how skillful, how inspired, the artist's hand; the sound it wakes depends on the quality of the strings within ourselves."
Anatole France

"...All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been...is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books."
Thomas Carlye

"While many viewers may not think of books themselves as works of art, the idea that art books contain works of art is not foreign. To take the next step and experience an artist's book as the sum of its part; binding, text and visual imagery is not that difficult."
David Edlefsen

"In a book the artist controls the combinations and ordering of different bits of information."
David J. Henry

"Paper will stand anything you write on it."
Lenin

"In theory, there are no limits upon the kinds of materials that can be put between covers, or how those materials can be arranged." Richard Kostelanetz

"To understand something, is to understand the structure of which it is a part and/or the elements forming the structure that that something is.
Ulises Carrion

"No mode of creation is more direct or naturally arrived at than the accumulation and agglomeration of materials found close at hand." William C. Seitz

"There are three things which the public will always clamor for, sooner or later: namely, novelty, novelty, novelty."
Thomas Hood

"When you sell a man a book you don't just sell him 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue. You sell him a whole new life."
Christopher Morley

What an author likes to write most is his signature on
the back of a check. ~~Brendan Francis

What is a child?

A child is anyone who is willing to have fun and live life to the fullest. When I was younger I would run around the yard for hours without a care in the world. Sure I would wonder what my sister and her friends were up to, and if they happened to be plotting an attack. After all, they were older and had complete authority over me. As I got older I acquired responsibilities that I did not necessarily want but were unavoidable. Now that I am in college I have to devote a lot of my time to studying. A child is someone who still gets excited about the simple and easy things in life. My friend Bradford, 21, personifies the child. , September 29, Bradford called me asking if I wanted to hang out. I asked what he had in mind and he said he wanted to go get big pieces of paper and then trace each others bodies. I said I was pretty busy, but I might be able to stop by and let him trace me after he bought the supplies. He said I had to commit to the whole process. I unfortunately had too much homework and had to pass. I really admired the random activity Bradford wanted to partake in. I cannot think of anyone else our age who would have thought of such an interesting idea.

Displaced Fairy Tales

After two days of my classmates reading their short stories that are fashioned after a fairy tale of their choice, I have laughed and I have sometimes been a little appalled by the connections. Most of the stories read are of fiction, but a few of my classmates have used historic events and tied them to fairy tales.

Adam Bensen
"Three Little Pigs"
Speaks about the different houses he has lived in

Dustin Cichosz
"Beauty and the Beast"
Fluffy the beautiful little puppy and a pound dog fall in love

Cassi Clampitt
"Hansel and Gretel"
Jake gets lost in LA and is attracted to a cellphone store

Samantha Clanton
"The Little Matchgirl"
Samantha sang a lovely song connected to this story

Katey Crystal
"Sleeping Beauty"
A little girl gets kidnapped and taken across the border, only to be awakened by her unexpected "prince charming"

Aaron Danno
"Hansel and Gretel"
Pat and Chris from Florida come to Butte and get a rude awakening when they go down into the mines

Erin Doherty
"The Little Mermaid"
Read from a journal column where a girl gives everything she has for a thankless male

Lynn Doyle
"Beauty and the Beast"
Tells about a woman in a windowless cubicle who falls in love with a intelligent but unstylish man in town

Montana Duncan
"Little Red Riding Hood"
Connects story with the life of Anne Frank

Ashley Dunigan
"The Little Mermaid"
Connects story with the life of Princess Diana

Chris Clark
"Goldy Locks and the Three Bears"
Gary, a theif makes three attempts before he finds the Golden bowl he is after in a child's room

Ryan Early
"Bluebeard"
A man falls to his death leaving a bloody rope behind while wearing blue

Julie Federer
"Beauty and the Beast"
A girl goes to prom with an unattractive but fun boy who she ends up adoring

Stephanie Findley
"Rumpelstiltskin"
After going to lawschool at Yale her damsel gets distressed when she meets a mysterious and no-good male

Aaron Hansen
"Beauty and the Beast"
Talks about a slighty non-fictitious martial arts event that led him to love by candlelight (all night long...)

Danielle Hawley
"The Frog Prince"
After two clumsy highschool kids break enough of one another's belongings, they become more acquainted through a frog dissection

Kalli Hendrickson
"Beauty and the Beast"
She tells a medical account of "a broken heart"

Lisa Hiller
"Hansel and Gretel"
A story about a reckless teen who gives up her children who are then abused and eventually put into child services

The Triple Goddess in Rapunzel

In Rapunzel, the Triple Goddess, which can also be seen in Greek mythology, is depicted. The Triple Goddess is historically portrayed as the Crone(elderly woman, Mother and Maiden(virgin). This idea was popularized by Robert Graves in the 20th century. In Rapunzel, the mother and the witch play the other two legs of the Triple Goddess that Rapunzel's father and prince are forced to reckon with. It is no easy task dealing with this "triple threat." When the prince has his virgin alone he is able to show strength and confidence. However, when the witch comes along the prince does not show the same poise and grace.

RAPUNZEL

William Blake "To See a World" Fragments from "Auguries of Innocence"

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.
A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fiber from the Brain does tear.

He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.
The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.
The Gnat that sings his Summer song
Poison gets from Slander’s tongue.
The poison of the Snake and Newt
Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the World we safely go.

Every Night and every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night.

Patty Hearst

Fairy tales are often anything but fiction. Whether they were based on fact or become fact after they are written, again and again themes from some of our favorite childhood fairytales appear in our lives. Patty Hearst is one example. A very rich girl was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symionese Liberation Army and eventually brainwashed. After her compliance with her kidnapper, Heast robbed a bank with her abductor.




Symbionese Liberation Army
Kidnapped Berkeley, CA (4-Feb-1974)
Ransomed
Tortured
Raped
Bank Robbery Hibernia Bank, San Francisco, CA (15-Apr-1974)
Assault Mel's Sporting Goods, Inglewood, CA (16-May-1974)
Robbery Mel's Sporting Goods, Inglewood, CA (16-May-1974)
Unlawful Possession of a Firearm
FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Took the Fifth
Granted Immunity
Pardoned (Jan-2001)
Hearst Family

This age old story can be related to the story of Peresphone who was kidnapped by Hades in Greek mythology. When she was taken to the underworld, she enjoyed being the Queen.

http://www.nndb.com/people/363/000025288/
Persephone would have stayed in Hades if it weren't for her concerned mother, Demeter.

In fairy tales portals are used to transcend a child living a normal, everyday life into a secret and unfamiliar world. This world is full of magic, mystery, and often times danger. There are many types of portals. One is a rabbit hole.
Another is a bean stalk.

In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy is taken from her mundane life in a tornado to the land of Oz. Although she must go through many trials and tribulations while in Oz, in the end of the story she would not trade her experience for anything.

In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a closet acts as a portal.

All literature is displaced myth. In one way or another portals come into a fairy tale. Children are little creatures of repetition so they are thrilled when they see a similar theme come into a different stories again and again. Fairy tales become canonized by using a similar equation that is easy to follow. There is usually a moral and a little bit of magic. Realism doesn't have any place in fairy tales. After all, why would someone want to read a dry story when they could my magnetized by adventure and lore that is impossible in everyday life?

Fairy tales are responsible for shaping lives. By hearing these canonized stories again and again in childhood, we cannot help but remember these make believe masterpieces in our adult lives. Even if one's mind flashes back subconsciously when they hear any type of reference to a Red cape or a glass slipper, fairy tales are still very prevalent and will be for years and years to come.

A clean slate for Little RED Riding Hood? I think not...

Little RED Riding Hood




I chose this photo because Little Red Riding Hood has always been depicted wearing a RED cape over her small and vulnerable frame. Some have come to see this colored cape to represent sin. Little Red Riding Hood does go against her mother's wishes in more ways than one. She not only talks to a DANGEROUS stranger, but tells him where she is going. Then she stops for a while to pick flowers when she was suppose to specifically go to her Grandmother's house. This story shows children that simple directions are made for a reason. Disobeying one's parent's can lead to the death of a family member or death of one's self.

I like the black and white illustration because it gives Little Red Riding Hood a second chance. She can still obey her mother, ignore the wolf, and go straight to her Grandmother's house. She most likely will not. If she ignores the wolf, what kind of fairy tale would that be? BORING, that's what kind.

reflections of my initial brush with fairy tales

When I was growing up my favorite fairy tale was that of The Little Mermaid. After all I have red hair, and I first saw that movie when I was in kindergarden. I used to make my mother put salt in my bathtub and my father made me a big shell and painted it turqouise, which became the head-board of my bed. My hair was to be envied by all the little girls in my kindergarden class. That is my first vivid memory of fairy tales, and how they affected me. To this day I still could sing all the songs sung my Ariel in the Disney movie. I can still remember and how dreamy I thought Eric, the prince was to me back then. Fairy tales have a way of enchanting little girls and boys alike. This summer I had a conversation with my co-worker who is a few years older than me. He told me the last Disney movie he saw before he was "too old" was The Lion King. It is a shame that one thinks that after a certain age they are too old to imagine and bask in the idea of the unreal. I still enjoy watching and reading stories of fairy tales to this day, and cannot wait to pass on stories to my children and their children.