Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Anthology Project: Introduction
For my anthology I chose to make my theme poems about heaven. Heaven is defined as the dwelling place of the Deity and blessed dead but it can also be defined as a place or condition of utmost happiness. If you watch the news you have probably seen stories about people who, while temporarily dead, claim to have visited a place of peace, serenity, and happiness. Whenever these stories occur there always seems to be a team of scientists rushing to the scene to explain away the phenomenon as a simple delusion or hallucination caused by failing systems. I was always curious as to the motive behind these scientists, what reasons did they have for striving to disprove the existence of a place that by concept can't be disproved? Was it because the description given didn't seem like their idea of paradise? Even if they firmly believed this place was just a myth why did they feel they had to destroy the faith of those who did believe? Even so my fascination with this place grew. With the recent celebration of Easter I thought a lot about heaven and what it might be. I own seven songs in my iTunes library with heaven in the title and I hear about it almost every Sunday at church, but I never gave my thought to what it actually is. Instead I, like most people, have seemed more concerned about how to get there or if it even is real at all. Perplexed, I spent a great deal trying to figure out what a dimension and existence would be like without a body or constrains on my mind and what in my opinion would be a perfect existence. After much thought I tried to find out what other people thought on the matter and if it was at all similar to my ideas. Heaven is commonly referred to in popular culture in movies, songs, books and everything in between. With the greatly changing world and increased competition for resources (Jobs, colleges) it's nice to think of an escape- a constant place where existence is good and everyone's happy (well maybe everyone's happy depending on what you think on the matter). But although Heaven is referred to often it rarely is described in detail. Perhaps this is because song artists like to leave it open to interpretation or what they're idea of heaven is may be too intimate for them to be comfortable sharing with a public audience. Songs, movies, and shows always deal with getting to Heaven but that's where they usually end- right at the abyss. Perhaps this may also be due to the fact that how can we comprehend what we experience without the only thing we use to gauge experiences with in this life- our bodies. Heaven or a form of it appears in almost every religion, and it means something different to everyone. One person's vision of heaven may greatly differ from someone else's. I figured the best place to find others interpretation of paradise may be in poetry as poets often devote themselves to explaining less concrete and scientific concepts like love, hope, and enexplained human phenomenon. I discovered that poets have been writing about heaven for years- from William Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell to Dante's interpretation of heaven after the poets famous trip through the inferno. What differ's people's interpretations isn't only what heaven is, but who ends up there and it's role in their religion. In picking my poems I first tried to find a variety of different types of poems from different ages to different formats to help people think from a variety of different perspectives. By experiencing different perspectives of heaven from poems written in different styles, tones, and ages perhaps we can further our ability to understand what heaven may be to our own friends/ family. My anthology however doesn't contain just interpretations of what heaven might be- it includes anything related to the topic. Upon reading my anthology I hope my readers can begin to imagine what heaven is to them, why heaven is that way for them, and how their thoughts might differ from their friends and family.
Anthology Project: List of Poems + Poem Video
Below is a list of 10 poems about heaven:
By John Donne
Holy Sonnet VI: This Is My Playes Last
Scene
Neo-classical/Enlightenment Period- Sonnet
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
Heaven Haven
Victorian Period- Sestina
By William Shakespeare
They That Have Power To Hurt And Will Do None
Renaissance/Elizabethan Period
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Brahma
Romantic Period- Free Verse
By Robert Frost
The Peaceful Shepherd
Modernist Period
By Fay Diane Kilday
Where is Heaven?
Post Modern Period- Elegy
By Kari Morris
Heaven: A Letter to God
Epistle
By Josiah Rudder
Rapture's Light
Ballad
By Christine Phillips
About an Hour
Dramatic Monologue
By John Squires
Land Of No More Light
Villanelle
Below is a link to my poetry video:
Enjoy and thanks for reading my blog!!!!
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Magic Realism and Axolotl
Magic realism is a concept that encroaches movies, literature, paintings, etc. basically any form of art. Magic realism is when a completely mundane and normal (rational) world gets invaded by something abstract, out of the ordinary or magical (or when in an otherwise normal enviroment there is one aspect off that is treated as normal as well). A perfect example of magic realism occurs in Axolotl. The world the narrator lives in is completely normal, the zoo, everything (granted he seems to be a little different socially). But as the story progresses and his obsession with the axolotls grows his day to day routine begins to seem otherworldly. Although we can explain it as some sort of cognitive problem the ending throws us for a loop. How can he view himself as the human as the Axolotl? Did the Axolotl actually steal a piece of his consciousness, or did he actually become the Axolotl? Are all axolotls in this condition? A normal world of humans viewing marine animals in zoos is distorted and a certain kind of magic is evident. There are a lot of examples of Magic realism in literature and movies. Harry Potter introduced the concept of wizards to an otherwise normal world as did Percy Jackson with demigods. I believe a part of what makes Magic realism so common and popular among the modern culture is that it is easier to imagine one thing changed in a normal everyday world. You can see something magical happening to yourself while the world around you stays constant. The call to adventure seems way more conceivable and way more possible.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Southern Modernism
Southern Modernism is a genre of southern literature very closely related to modernism. It is a period of time in which poets/ authors begun experimenting with forms and interpreting and reacting to new technologies and ideas that were developing in the early twentieth century. Authors began moving away from traditional southern themes like community and family. Traditional pastoral (country) themes were combined with new modern viewpoints and authors reacted the souths usual traditions with modern breakaways from such traditions. Authors like Faulkner dealt with modern mans breakaway from nature and community and new forms and ideas that were very modernist. Some characteristics of southern modernist writers such as Robert Penn Warren and Walker Percy include disruption of chronological order, multiple viewpoints, and an internal thinking and brooding first person. Also the idea of time as an enemy became popular. Modernists were reacting to events of the time period such as the horrors of World War I and were also reacting to and rejecting many of the ideas of the enlightenment period. Southern modernist writers were doing the same things as modernists (implementing new forms and new ways of thinking about things such as evolution etc.) except they were reacting them with the souths strong traditions and way of life as well.
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