Alice in Wonderland

This is the first time I've ever read Alice in Wonderland. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever even seen the movie all the way through. The funny thing is though, even without ever having read the book or seen the movie, I could have told someone the entire story. How or why I know the story, I'm not sure, but I feel safe guessing it has to do with the fact that everyone knows the story and eventually I would have to hear it. Alice in Wonderland is one of those stories that is so popular it's hard to remember when or where you first heard it. Like knowing that boiling water will you burn you. I don't remember ever learning such a thing, but I know I've known it since I can remember. So my knowledge of Alice in Wonderland is very similar to my knowledge of burning water.

Funny Halloween Joke I Got In An Email

Term Paper Ideas

At this point I plan to write my paper on vanity in fairy tales, focusing on the impact that the vision of beauty portrayed in these stories has on the self esteems of young girls.

Some other ideas:
religious impacts on the creation of fairy tales
the meaning behind the stealing of children in fairy tales

Link to Bryan Talbot's Biography

http://www.bryan-talbot.com/biog.html

The Connections of Reading

The discussion in class yesterday made me think about the adults' role as a reader. We were talking about how children not only read a book, they put themselves in a book. I think adults do this as well. When I read a good novel I often place myself into the story. Rather I am one of the characters or a ghostly figure hovering above, watching, I find myself involved in the story. I think this is one of the connections that still strongly exists between children and adults. Even as you grow up, you still hold the ability to place yourself into another world. One is still able to enter a portal at any age.

My Book and Heart Shall Never Part

I like how the film discussed why children's books were made. Today we read books to children for entertainment and enjoyment, but that is not how it has always been. Of course every story has a lesson, but that lesson is found through a character's adventure versus a single sentence pointing out the threat of falling down stairs. Most of the books for children written in the 18th century and discussed in the movie, however, were simply ways to formalize children. I think the formality of these books made them tools in disguise instead of toys. I'm probably belittling the importance of the lessons these books taught, but I've always been one to value exciting stories over common sense lessons about drinking hot tea. It is also interesting how Euro-American colonizers used the same techniques (literacy and thus books) to convert children into adults as they used to convert Native Americans into civilized people. It is sad to me that such a wonderful thing like literacy is used as a weapon of control by those who already possess the gift of reading and writing. This leads to the idea that literacy ends a child's childhood which is definitely an interesting concept. It is true. The more you read, the more you learn, the more developed your brain becomes, and the more adult like you become. In every story there is some piece of information or idea you have never thought of before. In every story there is a situation or experience you have never gone through before. In every story, no matter how trivial, there is some lesson to be learned. And it is the accumulation of lessons that lead to adulthood.

Is a child ever really a child?

In class on Monday we discussed rather a child is ever really a child. I like to think so. I think it comes down to simply believing a child is a child. If you truly believe something than to you it is real. I think this is one of those topics that need no evidence or justification, you just believe it to be true or you don't. I know from my own personal experience as a child that I was nothing like I am today. When I was a child my mind set, my views on life and people, my attitude were all different. When this transition occurred, I could not tell you, but I can assure you it did occur. Even though adults are "building" children the second they are born, a young child is still naive to the things that make an adult an adult. A child has that raw way of looking at the world based soly off of the nature they were born with instead of the experience that drives the way adults think. No doubt there are exceptions to this, like there are in anything and everything else, and maybe there are people out there who have never experienced childhood, but I refuse to believe that childhood as a whole does not exist, so it does.

Grimm Fairy Tales

I searched Grimm fairy tales in Google Images and about 90% of the pictures found were of provocative women dressed as some fairy tale character. I assumed pictures found in Tatar's book would come up or other drawings from stories written by the Grimm brothers, but my assumption was obviously wrong. I guess this is a simple way to keep adults, primarily men, still interested in fairy tales. Here is one of the pictures that popped up.

The White Goddess

I googled white goddess, and after finding sites involving witch craft, pagan religions, and even naked women, I found a site that is not only interesting, but also relevant to this class. The site is Genesis of Eden (http://www.dhushara.com/book/diana/diana.htm) and it states, "Just as the Great Goddess frequently comes in a trinity of phases, the virgin of sexual love, the mother of nurturing and the crone of death..." These three "trinity of phases" are what makes up the Three Part Goddess.

Review Test Questions

What is the archetypal ladies name in Finnigan's Wake? The Prank Quean
What is an example of a portmanteau word? Quean
What is misplaced concreteness? asking a question about a fairy tale that shouldn't be asked
What numbers in fairy tales are considered privileged? 3 & 7
According to Arney Thompson which story is #333? Little R. R. H.
How is the collective unconscious revealed in fairy tales? through archetypes
Which story is this quote from? "If your really crafty you'll get them both." L. R. R. H. (wolf)
What are 3 parts of the universal quest (Joseph Campbell)? separation, initiation, return
What are the 3 parts of the triple goddess? maiden, mother, crone
Why is there no such thing as an original? lit. is displaced myth
What are you recognizing in someone when you bow to them? their divinity
Genie: "I'm not history, I'm _______." mythology
According to Thompson Arnie which category are E. of the Sun..., Han's My Hedgehog, & B. & B. grouped into? search of the missing husband or beast groom
Name the mythological mother/daughter duo. Demeter and Persephone
What causes the transformation in B & B? love/feeling
Who is an archetypal for a talking animal? The Golden Ass
What woke Cupid up as Psyche looked at him? hot wax
What is an example of spoonerism? sisty uglers, flop the moor
Which romantic poet thinks man already knows everything, they just need to remember it? Williams Wordsworth
What mythical story is B & B based off? Cupid and Psyche
Which gender is most often involved in morals? Female
In which of the Grimm's fairy tales is the witch a main character? Hansel & Gretel
Who wanted to marry L. R. R. H.? Charles Dickens
What is a clue you're reading a fairy tale? Once upon a time or Long, long ago
Know the differences between the Grimm Brothers' versions and Perrault's versions.

My Rebuttel For The Moral of Cinderella

To get your dude
Don’t worry 'bout being lewd
Just wear a short skirt
And be a flirt
It has nothing to do with grace
Just the prettiness of your face
For it is the fairest one of all
Who is chosen to attend the ball

Cupid and Psyche (Anthoney Van Dyck)

What is Nature?

It is no easy task defining something like nature, in fact I don't think it should confined by definition. But since this is an assignment, I guess I'll give it my best shot. If you really think about it, nature is everything. Of course the land and the trees and the mountains and the animals are all parts of nature, but so are the buildings humans have constructed, for it is the nature of man to build. So I guess it is all these parts of nature bundled together that make nature itself. However, the good nature, the raw and natural nature, is the little bit of land tucked away from human civilization. Being that I was raised in Big Timber, Montana I have been, and still am, fortunate enough to be able to frolic in these tucked away pieces of nature. Nature is something everyone needs.