Questions to ask while analysing literature

I've been cleaning out my room lately, and found a few cards containing lists of questions that might help when analysing literature (as in prose and poetry, not scientific literature). I'm going to type up the questions here so that I can throw out the cards and get rid of yet another piece of junk from my room :)

Plot / Structure

• What part of the story is this?
• What happens?
• If an exposition, who/what is introduced?
• What conflicts? How developed?
• What is foreshadowed?
• How is the narrative organised?
• Are there shifts in perspective, time or character? What effect?
• Can we read the plot/structure as a representation?
• What are the conflicts developed/presented/introduced/foreshadowed?
• How does it start? How does it move between ideas/time periods/foci?

Characters

• How constructed? Description, action, dialogue, point of view
• What social groups/ideas might these characters be representing? (Ideas, values, positions etc.)
• What ideologies underpin these representations?
• How are we positioned to respond?
• Who and what do we feel sympathy for?
• Minor characters- how do they push against or reinforce other ideas?
• What are the characters' names? Are they left unnamed?
• How are characters developed?

Language / Style

• How formal is the narration? How does this position/distance the reader?
• How are people, places etc. described?
• Figurative language and devices?
• Are there elements that function symbolically?
• Describe the structure of sentences- is there variety/changes? What effect?
• Imagery
• What tense? Does this shift?
• How are sentences constructed? For what effect?
• What is the tone? Does it change? How does this contribute/construct meaning?
• What symbols? Can we read the story on a symbolic level?

Setting

• Where and when?
• How does the setting establish a context?
• Does the setting contribute to an underlying atmosphere or mood?
• How does the setting function as a representation? (e.g. of city, suburbia, countryside, night, summer, etc.)
• What ideologies underpin these representations?
• Is the setting important to the story?
• Are characters comfortable in or alienated by the setting?
• Is the setting familiar/obscure/strange/fantastic etc.? How does this position you?

Narrative POV

• What point of view? 1st, 2nd or 3rd person (limited or omniscient)?
• Who is the narrator?
• How distant is the reader from the narration?
• Whose perspective is privileged? Whose is marginalised/silenced?
• Who do we feel sympathy/empathy for?
• Are there deliberate gaps and silences?
• How does the narration position you with relation to the characters/events/settings/ideas?

The Lit Formula: Playing the Game of Lit- Part 2

(Part 1 can be found at http://year11misadventures.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-lit-formula-playing-game-of-lit.html)

In Part 1, I talked about answering the question and structuring your essay. Now I'm going to talk about a few other little details that you might need to know.

A Very Quick Word on Course Concepts

Course concepts are all hidden in the educational waffle in the syllabus. Yes, that thing that hardly anyone reads. If you do read it, I'd recommend that you only read the 3B one or the condensed one with both units- the 3B syllabus has a couple more dot points than the 3A one and, apart from that, there's only a one word difference between the two so it's not worth wasting your time reading both.

The long and short of it is, there's only a limited amount of stuff that they can ask you about. This helps when studying, because then you could just look at how each text addresses each course concept. Of course, not every text is geared to address every single one, but it's nice to see how many different ways you can look at a text (or at least I find that it helps me to feel reasonably confident in the exam room).

Some more reasons why you'll need to know the course concepts are a) because they give you something to write about in your thesis statements and b) they give you something to look for in your Close Readings. If you can't find anything to write about, just think, "Hmm, is there any way I could tie this to genre? Context? Intertextuality?"

Anyway, without further ado, here is a condensed list of course concepts that could be thrown at you. Make sure to get yourself familiarised with them.

• Genres and generic conventions
• Language
• Context- social, historical, cultural, reader's own context
• Values and ideologies
• Aesthetic functions
• Reading intertextually
• Discourses- different ways of thinking and talking about the world
• How nations recognise themselves through their literary texts (an example of a question that asks this is "How might literary works help us to recognise ourselves as Australians?")
• Reading practices- feminism, Marxism, new-historicism, post-colonialism etc.

More Big Words

Sometimes the idea that you want to talk about involves some other big word, like postmodernism, determinism and so on. If you are going to use these words, make sure that 1) you make sure to tie your reading to those course concepts and 2) you ensure that you fully understand whatever term that you're trying to use. I tend to stray away from big words so my advice here would be to write some practice essays and show your teacher so that at least you know whether you're on the right track or whether you should avoid using these terms until you learn more.

Using Quotes, or "[Making] Strategic and Cticial Use of Supporting Evidence Including Quotes and/or Examples"

As I've stated previously, you need to back up all your points with evidence. To assist you there, I'm now going to explain how to integrate your evidence.

Most of your evidence will probably come in the form of quotes. Therefore, it helps to use quotes fluently. It's a bit hard to explain this, but I'll have a go. Basically, only use the part of the quote that you really need, and try and make it flow into the sentence as much as possible, such that the sentence would make sense even without the quotation marks. You shouldn't have to use the word "quote" to talk about quotes. In a take-home essay, you need to put the page number of the quote in brackets (parentheses for any US folks out there reading this) after the quote. If you're referencing a scholarly article, you need to put the author's surname in the brackets too. Here's some examples of using quotes:

• Huberto initially "[scratches] a living through hustling and petty thievery" (62), and Eva is tossed from employer to employer to earn money for her madrina.
• He refers to Claudius, his uncle who has become king so soon after his father's death, as "a little more than kin, and less than kind."
• Not knowing what to do or say, to have lines "not simply forgotten but never learned" is an "actor's traditional nightmare" (Zeifman 205).

You might also notice that I've used square brackets in the first quote. Square brackets are used if you need to alter a verb tense or a pronoun to fit your sentence. They can also be used if you need to change a lowercase letter to uppercase (but I don't think it's absolutely necessary to use square brackets here). In the first quote, I think that it was originally "scratching," but it wouldn't make sense to say "Huberto initially scratching a living." Thus, I had to change the verb tense to let the sentence flow.

Another use of square brackets in quotes that you might have seen is the word [sic]. You probably won't have to use this yourself, unless you're quoting something from the first part of Flowers for Algernon or another text with deliberate spelling and grammar errors. Simply put, if what you're quoting has spelling or grammatical errors, you can use [sic] to show that you are simply keeping the original spelling and grammar intact.

We're nearly there. Just one more quick point!

Expression of Ideas

Expression of ideas isn't something that I can just explain. Everyone has their own unique writing styles and it is up to you to develop yours. Reading and writing are probably the two best ways to help you achieve this. Your teachers will probably also be willing to help if you show them essay drafts.

I wish you luck on your adventures studying Lit!

For fellow Year 12s: Just two more Lit exams EVER (unless you fail and have to sit the sup- apparently the sup's really easy though, which is good). Yay! No more timed Lit essays EVER after these two last exams!

The Lit Formula: Playing the Game of Lit- Part 1

I'm one of those people who just wants to pass Lit, but I seem to be doing pretty well in it lately so I think I might actually be in a reasonable position to give pointers to other people who just want to pass.

One of the most frustrating things with Lit is that it's not that obvious what it is that you need to do to pass and what you can do to improve. With maths and science subjects, you can always just do more questions to help build your understanding and in some cases just rote-learn the content that you need (the latter doesn't really work for me as I'm blessed with a terrible memory for rote-learning- yes, I mostly see it as a blessing- but it might work for some other people). Lit seems rather subjective, though, and sometimes the comments you get only really seem relevant to that one particular essay. So how does one improve their Lit marks?

Well, in Lit, just like any other subject, if your aim is simply to pass, then it helps to just learn the rules of the game and work from there. Normally I condone this somewhat reductionist approach to learning- you should be learning to learn, not just for the Curriculum Council's stupid little game- but an approach like this might be what you need to jump-start your understanding and increase your capacity to learn this subject.

That's enough waffling. Now for actual content.

First up: what are the rules of the game?

Let's look at the marking key. It's divided into 5 sections: quality of reading, engagement with task, expression of ideas, use of key concepts/literary terms and use of supporting evidence.

• Quality of reading is all about "[presenting] a detailed and critical reading of the text" and " [commenting] astutely on language and/or generic conventions and/or context." This is where the bulk of the marks lies. I'm not 100% sure what all this educational gobbledygook means (wow, Google Chrome doesn't mark "gobbledygook" as being incorrectly spelled), but I think it's all about content: how detailed and insightful is your response, and how much does it tie to relevant features of the text, like language, generic conventions and context?
• Engagement with task: This one is kind of weirdly worded. I think all they want here is for you to answer the question, or, as my maths teacher puts it, ATBQ (Answer The Bloody Question). Your essay also needs to have "focus and direction" to get a good mark in this category- I guess this means that your entire essay needs to be relevant (focus) and well-structured (direction).
• Expression of ideas: This is basically about how well you can get your ideas onto paper and how clear you can make them. You can get the full 6 marks of this category if you can write in a "sophisticated and lucid style" but if you, like me, like to play it safe and just be clear and simple, you can still net 4-5 marks here. Structure also helps here too.
• Use of key concepts/literary terms: This is where you get marks for using fancy terms. But you can't just use fancy terms- you have to use them well, and at least look like you know what you're talking about. (Unfortunately, it's not so easy to bluff in Lit if you don't know what you're talking about. English teachers are very good at reading between the lines. That's why they're English teachers.)
• Use of supporting evidence: Quotes! Quotes galore! And also other relevant examples and stuff too. When you use supporting evidence, however, you need to make sure that it fits in to what you are talking about and that the quote kind of "flows" in with everything else you are writing.

So to recap: Answer the question with the most insightful response you can muster, put in some quotes and literary terms and try and express all your ideas clearly if not in a "sophisticated and lucid manner" and then you'll be on the road to some good marks in Lit!

Of course, it's not that easy, which is why I'm going to break things down even further.

Engaging with the Task: Answering the Bloody Question

Answering the question sounds like such a simple task, but it's something so often forgotten about in the quest to write a good essay. Remember that you're not just writing an essay: you're providing an answer or a response to whatever's being asked of you. Sometimes, though, the question isn't all too easy to understand, or it's written in such academic gobbledygook discourse (a key Lit term!) that the question is obscured. Let's take a look at how to dissect these questions.

The first step is finding the 2 or 3 main parts to the question. Nearly all questions have a few main parts: one relating to course concepts like genre or intertextuality, and another relating to ideas. Normally the questions are broad- the exam writers don't know what texts you've studied, after all. Normally the question will point to a specific convention, or a specific idea, or occasionally both. (Of course, some questions don't point to anything specific, but most questions of this type that I've seen are better left avoided unless you have a text that really matches the question.)

The first sample question in my course handbook is "How can knowledge of the context of a text's production help readers to make meanings from it?" This question relates to the specific course concept of context, and then points towards the broad idea of the making of meaning. In answering this question, you would have to talk mainly about context, but then you would be able to (read: have to) push context towards whatever meanings you want to make. When planning, you could perhaps go paragraph by paragraph according to different meanings made, or you could go paragraph by paragraph according to different contextual influences on the text.

A question in my course handbook of the opposite type is "Literature may be read as a form of social and/or cultural history. Discuss, referring to one or more literary texts you have studied." Here, course concepts aren't mentioned at all, but remember this- you ALWAYS have to talk about them, regardless of whether the question mentions them or not. In other words, while you must talk about the social and/or cultural history, you cannot just talk about the social and/or cultural history on its own without talking about how it relates to the text, otherwise what would be the point of Literature as a subject?

And of course sometimes you get questions that specify both course concept and idea, like, "How do intertextual readings contribute to the circulation or construction of value systems in a society?" Here you have your specific course concept- intertextuality- and your specific idea- the circulation or construction of value systems.

(And then there are horrible questions like the 2012 paper's "Works of literature invite us to experience the lives of others. Discuss with reference to one or more works you have studied." My suggestion is to run far away from these questions as it's pretty iffy. Whatever you do, though, don't do what the weakest students did, which was simply write essays fantasising about themselves as handmaids or whatever.)

So, in a nutshell: find out what 1 or 2 specific things they're asking you to address, and make sure you address those things all throughout your essay. Also, make sure that you talk about course concepts like genre, intertextuality, language and generic conventions, regardless of whether the question specifically asked for them or not.

Structure and Logic: They Have Their Place in Lit Too

Structure is pretty important in an essay. It helps organise your ideas and make your essay easier for your marker to follow, which in turn leads to better marks. Yay!

Essays are pretty structured pieces of writing, and they're all held together by a single thread: your thesis. A thesis statement is a sentence or two that sums up pretty much everything that you're going to talk about. In your body paragraphs, you expand on whatever it was that you were talking about in your thesis. Finally, your conclusion reiterates what you were talking about in your essay. Yes, it sounds like you're repeating yourself a lot, but it helps to get your point across.

Here's a brief stupid example to explain the structure of an essay. Let's say that I want to argue that clarinets are wonderful musical instruments. To do so, I'd have to come up with a few reasons why clarinets are so amazing:

1. They have a large pitch and dynamic range.
2. They are versatile and can play a wide variety of musical styles.
3. They are very portable.

Then I would incorporate all of this into my thesis: "I believe that clarinets are wonderful musical instruments due to their large pitch and dynamic range, their ability to play a wide variety of musical styles and their portability."

The thesis would normally be part of an introduction paragraph rather than just a stand-alone sentence, but if you are struggling to find something to write in a 60 minute close reading, or if you are writing an extended response for another subject that doesn't require a lot of eloquence, writing the thesis alone might suffice. (You can always write a proper introduction later if you have time- just make sure that it's clearly marked.) An introduction paragraph should just introduce what you are talking about, including uncommon key terms (i.e. not in the course syllabus) relevant to your subject matter. For example, in this particular non-essay about clarinets, you could introduce the clarinet by providing basic facts (e.g. it's a woodwind instrument, it has a single reed, it came into use in the Classical period) before launching into the thesis. I personally like to have the thesis at the end of the introduction paragraph because it comes as a sort of "climax" to the intro, but you can always have the thesis at the beginning if that floats your boat. Just make sure your thesis statement is obviously a thesis statement.

In each body paragraph, I would then expand on each of the points. For example, for the first point, I could provide the following expansion:

1. Clarinets have a large pitch range. They can play from a low E below the treble stave to a high G on several leger lines above the treble stave (standard range). It is possible to make the clarinet play even higher.
2. Clarinets have a large dynamic range. They can go from being very soft such that they can be used in "fading away" effects like in Frank Ticheli's Sanctuary, or they can be loud enough to play solos in orchestral music.

Note that for each point, I've provided my statement, plus some evidence and explanation. There's an acronym for this: SEE, or Statement, Evidence, Explanation. An alternative acronym is PEE, or Point, Evidence, Explanation. As one of my Year 10 English teachers put it, "Try and PEE several times in each paragraph!" (And make sure you have a basin or something beneath you. Umm.) Seriously, though, just make sure that you go into as much detail as need be, and back up everything you say with concrete evidence.

So how does this tie into a Lit essay? Well, that's easy. Your thesis will obviously be different because it'll be all about generic conventions and how they do this or that or the other, and then all throughout your body paragraphs you'll be breaking down your argument and providing evidence and explanations for everything. I'm not the best Lit student so I feel kind of tentative providing a Lit example of my own, but here's an example from my Close Reading on the Semester 1 exam.

Remember what I said before about each question having 2 parts: generic conventions and ideas? Well, make sure to address both of those parts in your thesis statement, even if the question was as vague as the good ol' Close Reading "present a reading." Here is the thesis statement from my Close Reading:

"The extract from Bereft can be read as a Romantic text exploring the beauty and power of nature as well as a Realist text that provides the truth "as it is" and comments on different societal issues through the use of imagery, structure and intertextuality."

Yes, it's kind of long-winded and maybe I should have broken it down into two sentences. But hey, it does the job... somewhat.

Stuff to notice here:

• "can be read"- in this Lit course you have to use words like "can be read," "may be read," "can be seen" etc. as a way of letting the markers know that you know that there's more than one correct way to read a text, because there is. (Why else would people complain about the subjectivity of English so much?)
• Generic conventions- as you can see, I pointed my thesis directly towards imagery, structure and intertextuality.
• Ideas- the ideas I pointed towards are Romanticism and Realism.

So basically, when you write your thesis statement, you have to make sure that you make your reading contingent (for lack of a better word) and you have to include both generic conventions and ideas. Try and tie your reading to one of the course concepts because the markers like that.

As for the body paragraphs, you can divide them up in different ways: you might choose to have a paragraph on each of the generic conventions, or a paragraph on each idea, depending on what best fits your argument. Sometimes it might even be best to talk about the text chronologically (e.g. stanza by stanza in the case of a poem). No matter which structure you choose, however, you have to stay close to the text and talk about those generic conventions! After all, this is an essay primarily about literature and not an essay primarily about determinism or Romanticism or whatever ideas you're talking about.

In this particular case, I divided my essay up by ideas, writing a couple of paragraphs about Romantic ideas and a couple of paragraphs about Realist ideas.

Which reminds me. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that sums up what that particular paragraph is going to be about. (Yes, you do a hell of a lot of summing up stuff in essays.) Making a topic sentence is just like making a thesis statement except it's a bit narrower because you're only talking about one of the points that you made in your thesis. For example, in my first paragraph about Romantic ideas, my topic sentence is "The extract can be read as a Romantic text portraying the beauty and power of nature through imagery and structure." Once again, it's tying to generic conventions and ideas- but only one particular idea in this case, since we're trying to narrow things down a bit so that we can go into further detail.

That topic sentence was my statement. Now I need some evidence and explanation for how structure and imagery help to portray Romantic ideas about the beauty and power of nature. Here is an example of evidence and explanation for each point:

• (Structure)
  Evidence: A whole paragraph near the beginning of the extract is dedicated to simply discussing the myriad of creatures that live in the ocean.
  Explanation: This highlights the importance of nature through this paragraph's prominent place in the text.
• (Imagery)
  Evidence: Visual imagery- "Birds [bathing] in the rainbows"
  Explanation: This is a peaceful and beautiful image as bathing is a calming task, as well as one that cleanses and makes one more beautiful, while rainbows have connotations of beauty and happiness.

I have several other examples in my paragraph. What ties them together is, of course, the way I choose to express my ideas- I'll briefly talk about this later.

After writing several body paragraphs detailing pretty much everything you wish to say, it's now time to write a conclusion summing up everything that you have written. I'll be honest with you here- I have no idea how to write conclusions. They always end up looking like my introductions. I think what you're meant to do is mainly just sum up everything that you've said, but at the same time you could hint at how your argument could be applicable to the real world (e.g. if you're talking about the patriarchal society as portrayed in Ibsen's A Doll's House you could argue that some elements of this society can still be seen in parts of the world today). You just have to be careful that you don't introduce too much new stuff. In any case I'm not very good at writing conclusions so I can't give too much advice here.

This post is getting quite long, so I'm going to round it off here and write a Part 2 about key terms and how to use quotes, among other things.

Lit notes - The Turning by Tim Winton

I have a Lit exam on Wednesday next week and I sure as hell don't feel prepared. I've done a couple of close readings (or rather, I've done a couple of half close readings- an intro and a body paragraph on poetry and an intro and a body paragraph and a bit of another body paragraph on prose) and I started trying to organise my notes on the texts that we've done this year. (Note- this was at the time that I started writing this post, which I think was on Thursday.) My organisation is pretty shoddy though, just like my room where everything kind of has its place but really doesn't.

Anyway. Here are my notes for The Turning (the only reason I'm typing them up here is because I'm procrastinating over writing practise essays...). Bear in mind that I'm not that great a Lit student, so don't take my word as gospel. Or actually, maybe you can, since half my notes are taken from handouts and class powerpoints and whatnot.

ANYWAY...

The Turning by Tim Winton

Context
The Turning is set in Australia.

• Long, wide spaces- Australia is supposed to be one of the most sparsely populated countries so we get lots of space which is nice. There's a lot of times during the novel (or during the 17 short stories, if you prefer) where characters have to cross these long, wide spaces, like when Vic goes to find his dad in "Commission," when Vic is coming home after his cadet camp in "Immunity," or when Gail and Vic are going to visit Daisy and Fenn in "Defender." And then there's a chapter titled "Long, Clear View" which kind of adds to this because you wouldn't really be having a long, clear view if it wasn't for the long, wide spaces available. And then I guess you could also kind of argue that there's a long, wide space between Vic and Gail in terms of their relationship. Especially since Gail's continually visiting Angelus and even going out with some other guy there to boot.
• The outback- Well, it's pretty wild and interesting and unique to Australia, which is why there's always been lots of poems and stories and whatnot dedicated to it (bush rangers, anyone?). Sure enough, there's a few stories in here in which the wildness of Australia's outback is important- stories like "Aquifer," for instance, where Alan Mannering drowns in a swamp, as well as "Fog" where Bob Lang and Marie are stuck in the bush overnight.
• Connection between people and place- particularly important to Aboriginal culture, but it can still be seen in this book even though there aren't that many Aboriginals. For example, the swamp is a big part of the children's life in "Aquifer" and then there's the whole idea of returning to one's hometown to search for answers just as Frank does in "Family" and Gail kind of does in "Damaged Goods" (but not really since Gail's trying to find answers about Vic's life).
• Mainly secular society, but there are still many people who practise a religion of some description. The Turning has several characters who are Christians, such as Sherry and Dan in "The Turning" and Agnes' family. Christianity certainly helps Raelene in her time of need.
• There are a lot of immigrants but sometimes there's still a sense of who's "Australian" and who's an immigrant. Agnes' family is British, and Agnes refers to herself as "fresh off the boat."
• Notion of the "underdog" eventually gaining superiority: Frank was the "underdog" in his younger years- bullied by Max and never quite able to walk among the men just as Max could. However, he eventually becomes a professional footballer (though not for long).
• Archetypal Australian men and women: apparently men are meant to be all tough and independent and  masculine and whatnot and women are meant to be "stoic," which (according to Google) means "a person who can endure pain and hardship without showing their feelings or complaining." Now, there are characters that naturalise these ideas, as well as other characters who challenge them. There are whole bunch of characters who are, well, not quite as tough and independent as the "ideal" male figure. Max, for instance, is a violent alcoholic and we're pretty much set up to hate him through the point of view (we mainly see him from the point of view of the characters who he victimises- more on this later), Frank walks off the football pitch after a rather short career, Vic is so absorbed in his past that nothing in the present holds his attention, and so on. On the other hand, though, there are other characters that might be considered as upholding the ideals of dependability and so on such as Dan who recovers from alcoholism and I think Dyson from "Small Mercies" as well for being able to be relied on by Fay and her parents (if I remember correctly- it's been a while since I read that story. In fact it's been a while since I read the book). There are then also characters that represent the "stoic woman," such as Carol Lang, who doesn't buckle under that other woman's accusation that Carol stole her earrings, and Raelene, who puts up with Max's abuse for a while without complaining. I'm not so sure about which characters challenge this ideal. Maybe Fay? I don't know. As I said, I haven't read this book for a while, and I've only read this particular chapter/story once.

Genre

• The Turning can be considered to be Realist fiction, which is a less ornate style which uses verisimilitude (a very cool term which I think means that the story is made to be as realistic as possible) to illuminate truths about political and social elements of society, such as class differences. Realist fiction also often has individuals raging against the world rather than any massed effort to change the system. You can see a lot of individuals raging against society across the stories- Bob Lang leaves Angelus because there is something about the police force that makes him feel uncomfortable (potential corruption?), Rae is locked in an abusive relationship but undergoes spiritual growth to become internally stronger than Max, Frank is still struggling with being victimised by Max which results in him walking off the football pitch, and so on. You can also kind of see class differences being illuminated, such as in "On Her Knees" in the contrast between the unnamed home owner and Carol and Vic Lang who are left to clean it (after receiving empty accusations about stealing the home owner's earrings), though I don't recall seeing any huge differences.
• The Turning can also be considered to be Romantic fiction, using Romantic themes such as the power of nature as restorative, a lone man against society and freedom of the individual. (I wrote a little bit about the Romantic period on my post about music and society during the Romantic period.) As I said above, there are quite a few times where there are lone people against society. There are also quite a few instances throughout the novel where there are people alone in nature, using nature's restorative power to heal themselves. Raelene in "The Turning" often uses her walks along the beach to think, which leads her to come to revelations which eventually lead to her finding her own internal freedom from Max. Complementing this is language that revels in the beauty of nature through various kinds of imagery, such as in "Fresh-mown grass felt good beneath her feet and over the green smell of it you could almost taste the sea." Nature is green and fresh and feels good, contrasting with the horrors of the abusive relationship that Raelene is locked into. Another character who can be said to heal in nature is Bob Lang, because in his new home tucked away in the bush, he becomes the trustworthy, honest character known as "Honest Bob"- a character who he wasn't quite able to be when in society. As well as nature having the power to heal, nature is also powerful and dangerous as can be seen through Alan Mannering drowning in the swamp and Vic becoming injured on a hook when their fishing boat is overtaken by a wave.
• Finally, The Turning can be considered to be a series of parables- stories that are meant to teach us moral and/or spiritual lessons. For example, Max is a pretty mean character who eventually gets eaten by a shark. Also, before his death, Raelene became stronger than him through finding God. And then of course there's Carol Lang upholding the virtue of dignity by her actions in "On Her Knees." (I don't really have many more notes on how this book is a series of parables though.)

Language and Generic Conventions

I'm just going to put a few points down here because, well, a novel has lots of words and thus lots of conventions and stuff to write about. It really depends on how close you want to look. (For me- not very.)

• Possibly the one generic convention that will hit you the hardest in this book is the constantly changing point of view. The point of view moves between 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person, the character in focus changing between stories. "Big World" is told through the 1st person perspective of an unnamed narrator who's just graduated from high school, "Abbreviation" is told through 3rd person limited focusing on Vic Lang, and so on. So what's so important about these points of view? Well, point of view in a novel really affects the way that we see characters and events in the story. It's just like how in class someone else might get a mark that doesn't seem so bad to you but it might seem devastating to the person in question. Now, let's look at Max's character. We're pretty much set up to hate Max through the point of view. The three stories in which Max is involved- "The Turning," "Sand" and "Family"- are through 3rd person limited perspective focusing on Raelene and Frank, two characters who are badly treated by Max, so we sympathise more with Raelene and Frank and the struggles that they have to endure against a seemingly tyrannical character. If one of the stories was told with a greater focus on Max, though, perhaps a slightly different story might be told. I'm not sure that a focus on Max would make us like him given all the other stuff that he's done, but if, say, Max actually felt remorseful for what he does, and the story was told from his point of view so that we could see his remorse, we might hate him less. Vic Lang is another character who is described from multiple points of view, but unlike Max, we can see both sides of the story. "Long, Clear View" allows us to see Vic's side of the story, but in 2nd person, which perhaps makes us closer to the raw emotion within the story. On the other hand, you have Gail talking about Vic's obsession with the past in "Damaged Goods," as well as 3rd person limited focusing on Gail in "Defender" in which Gail outright tells Vic about her frustration.
• Just like pretty much every other book, there are objects that can be read as symbols. Unfortunately I don't have many notes on the symbols in this book and I'm pretty bad at telling what can be considered as a symbol and what's best just left alone. Anyway, fire, water and sharks are all (possibly) symbols that recur throughout the novel. Fire is seen as damaging but cleansing, like the destruction of an old life and the start of a new one... oh wait! The novel title is, after all, "The Turning," "turning" also suggesting such radical changes! And I don't know about the cover of your copy, but the cover on mine has a burning car... okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, because Lit doesn't really have visual analysis in it. But still. Now, where do we see fire in The Turning? Well, there's Agnes, who may or may not have burnt her "dead inside" house down at the end, causing the family to have to start anew. Then, at the end of "Big World," the narrator tells about all the changes and stuff that happens in the future after he talks about how the car "[smouldered] and [hissed]." As for water, well, pretty much all the people live near beaches, like a lot of people in Australia. Quite a few significant events happen in the water too, like Vic's injury in "Abbreviation," Alan Mannering's death in "Aquifer," Boner McPharlin is found with broken legs at Thunder Beach, and so on. And, where there are beaches, there are sharks. Boner McPharlin must have a thing about them because he catches and kills a shark at the bonfire party at Massacre Point and he gives a shark sticker to Jackie (well, according to my notes he does anyway). Then there are symbols only relevant to one story, like Raelene's snow globe in "The Turning" which reminds her of Jesus and gives her the strength to keep fighting Max.
• And, of course, like pretty much every other book under the sun (except for maybe some crazy postmodern book out there) has characters in it. These characters can then be read as representations of class, cultures, gender and so on. Like I guess you could say that Max is a representation of a violent drunk and that Carol Lang is a representation of an archetypal Australian stoic woman. Vic Lang's characterisation can be read as examining the effects of the past on the present. Etcetera. Oh, and don't pay too much attention to what I just said because I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.

Intertextuality

• The epigraph is part of a verse from T.S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday." According to my notes, Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lent season, so it symbolises repentance, loss and waiting for salvation. And, sure enough, you see a hell of a lot of characters repenting stuff they've done before (like Bob Lang), going through some kind of loss (like Dyson in "Small Mercies) or waiting for salvation (like Raelene in "The Turning). In the epigraph, however, Winton removed the first and last line of the verse- the first line being "And pray to God to have mercy upon us" and the last line being "May the judgement not be too heavy upon us." Removing these lines means that Winton has, in essence, secularised the poem a bit, possibly to reflect that Australian society is considered to be a relatively secular society. He has also secularised concepts such as redemption and forgiveness suggesting that these concepts are universal to all, not just those who practise a religion. Another point of interest is the word "hope" in the line "Because I do not hope to turn again." "Hope" suggests a lack of control, because if you had control over doing something, then you would make it happen, rather than crossing your fingers and hoping that it might happen.
• Although not really intertextuality per se, the short stories that The Turning is comprised of are all interconnected. Obviously, there are characters that appear in multiple stories: Vic Lang, for instance, appears in "Abbreviation," "Damaged Goods," "On Her Knees," "Long, Clear View," "Reunion," "Commission," "Immunity" and "Defender." Max appears in the middle three stories: "The Turning," "Family" and "Sand." Apart from just characters, though, there are other themes that crop up constantly. Symbols such as fire, water and sharks are mentioned in multiple stories. Although the society is mainly secular, there are religious messages in some stories, like "Cockleshell" and "The Turning." The power of nature is also alluded to in many stories throughout the novel. There are also similarities between different characters in different stories, just like how Vic's infatuation with Strawberry Alison in "Damaged Goods" is somewhat mirrored by an unnamed girl's infatuation with Vic. Finally, there are the ideas of being stuck in the past- like Vic Lang, or like the unnamed narrator of "Aquifer"- and of needing to escape, like the many characters who seek to get out of Angelus and the several others who seek escape through alcohol like Max does.
• There are several other allusions to other texts. Biblical stories get mentioned a couple of times, as do some other books, such as Catcher in the Rye (Jackie briefly mentions it in "Boner McPharlin's Moll"). Unfortunately, even though I've actually read Catcher in the Rye, that was a while ago and to be honest I had a hard time getting my head around what was going on. (I'm a pretty poor reader. Get over it. Or maybe I'm not that bad a reader but I have to read something a few times for the words to sink in? I dunno.)
• Finally, the chapter "Family" starts with a poem by Chuang Tzu. I guess the main idea in this poem- that the need to win a prize drains an archer of his ability to shoot- is reflected in the story by how Frank's desire to prove people wrong eventually leads to him walking off the football pitch, which really doesn't help matters much.

Ideologies and Discourses

This is probably my shakiest point. Never mind the fact that Lit is already a shaky subject for me. Recipe for disaster much?

• Romantic ideas about escape via nature and the confinement of society are all throughout the novel. Although I've mentioned quite a few Romantic ideas back in the section about genre, I've got a few more to add on here. First of all, being in nature means that you don't have to worry about all the complex and cultural values that you have to encounter in society so you can act a bit more freely, like Max and Frank do in "Sand." Also, although this isn't really glorifying nature per se, small towns (which are a bit closer to nature due to their smaller size) are favoured over big cities, as can be seen through the way that the small towns like Angelus and White Point are named but the city is not. Society is also seen as confining through setting such as Raelene and Max's claustrophobic caravan home. Vic's dad also breaks down as a result of stuff happening in the police force, and his breakdown causes his relationship with his other family members to become more strained until at last he can't handle it any longer and he leaves.
• There are some ideas about masculinity and patriarchy. In "Sand," Max and Frank are becoming men, or rather, Max walks among the men while Frank hasn't quite become a man yet. In "Cockleshell," Brakey gets stung by a catfish but he refuses to tell his mother, believing that he is man enough to take it on by himself. Also, male figures are important to Raelene, so much so that in order to reject one man (Max), she has to accept another in his place (Jesus). Of course, some ideas about masculinity are challenged by some of the other characters, like Bob Lang who resorts to drinking for a while.
• Finally there are lots of ideas about family. Although there are lots of dysfunctional families in this story, like the Langs after Bob left, Raelene's family, and Frank and Max, there is still some sort of importance attached to family. For example, Frank and Max depend on each other.

I might expand this bit later. But I'm tired and I should probably get around to practising clarinet before my sister comes home (she's not a huge fan of Poulenc). TTFN.

T. S. Eliot- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock- Marxism, Feminism and So On

Pretty sure there's a term for all of these things, but I don't know whether it's "reading practices" or something totally different. But here's some brief info anyway, half of which is leeched off my classmates' powerpoints.

Information

Marxist criticism: Marxism is a way of seeing the world through economic terms. For example, Marxists see history as a series of class struggles between whatever the upper and lower classes of the period happen to be, whether they be slaves and masters or workers and capitalists. Marxists believe that systems of production of goods exist until they are no longer sufficient and are replaced by a new system. They are often critical of capitalism as they believe that, while the idea that capitalists have to produce what people want to maintain profits might mean that resources are distributed well, it can also go the other way, because it could mean that capitalists are then producing more for people who can afford it to the detriment of those who cannot, as well as to the detriment of the environment. There's a whole bunch of other ideas that are related to Marxism, which you can read about at http://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/Marx.html.

Psychoanalytic criticism: This is mainly to do with Freud's ideas about how the mind works. Freud believed that the mind could be divided up into the id, the ego and the superego. Now, I'm not sure what the ego did, but what I do remember is that the id is basically the unconscious desires and the superego is the mind's means of regulating these desires. A significant number of these desires, according to Freud, have something or other to do with repressed sexuality. I mean, he even divides our life into the oral, anal, phallic and genitals stages. If you don't believe me, go look up the case about Freud and Dora.

New Historicist criticism: I think this is mainly to do with how attitudes at the time influenced a text, as opposed to just looking at context which is where the concrete events themselves influence the text? I'm not entirely sure, and I'm probably completely wrong here. Maybe you can just put down the stuff that I wrote on my Context page after all.

There's other ways of reading, like Feminist criticism, but I've been procrastinating all day and it's now 9pm so I'd better hurry up and get this over with. (I swear I started writing the first article at about 9am this morning... shows how much I procrastinate.)

Reading Prufrock Through These Lenses

Marxist Criticism: My powerpoint was "Prufrock can be read as an exploration of the Marxist idea that the relentless pursuit of profits in a capitalist society advantages the upper classes while disadvantaging lower classes and the environment through poetic devices such as imagery, similes and intertextuality." On my first slide, I wrote about the representations of the advantaged upper classes. There are consistent references to upper-class goods and lifestyle, such as the "taking of a toast and tea," "tea and cakes and ices" and "porcelain." There are also references to the aesthetic qualities present in upper-class life, such as "arms that are braceleted" and people who "prepare a face" to meet each other. Also, the word "time" is used constantly, giving the sense that the upper classes have plenty of leisure time to spare- and who doesn't like leisure time? There's "time for you and time for me," before they even get to have some delicious upper-class tea! What more could you want? Oh, and there's also that saying that "time is money" as well, which only serves to make the upper-classes look even wealthier. Brilliant.

The disadvantaged lower classes are shown through the imagery in the poem as well as through the juxtaposition between the upper- and lower-classes. "Cheap hotels" and "sawdust restaurants" give the impression of poverty and dirtiness, the aural imagery of "the muttering retreats of restless nights" make the city seem unpleasant and unsafe (see my post on Context) and the visual/ kinesthetic imagery of the yellow cat/smoke makes the streets seem forbidding and almost poisonous due to the way that it has been described as "yellow fog" and "yellow smoke" rubbing itself against window panes. I mean, you have poisonous gases rubbing themselves up against your house, for goodness' sake. Isn't that a bit too close for comfort? The "lonely men in shirt sleeves" mentioned later in the poem can be read as a representation of disconnected workers in capitalist society. All of this is juxtaposed against the "tea and cakes and ices" and porcelain of the upper-classes, a stark contrast which is accentuated by the constant swapping between the two scenarios.

The damaged environment is shown through kinaesthetic imagery, similes and visual imagery. In the kinaesthetic imagery category, we have "let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys," "the yellow fog that rubs its back" and "the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle." The pollution's EVERYWHERE, rubbing against us and everything, and that ain't pretty. And then there's my favourite simile, "when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table." Etherisation is an old anaesthetisation technique in which the patient cannot move but still has his or her mental faculties intact. Comparing the sky to an etherised patient makes it seem as though we have made nature helpless. Finally, the visual imagery of "where wind blows the water white and black" possibly shows the effects of pollution: why is the water black? Is it because of the pollution from the factories?

Freudian criticism: Finding stuff to say about this one is fun because it means you get to look for innuendos. On the other hand, it might not be fun for the same reason.

At the moment I'm just looking at two of my classmates' powerpoints. One of them has split up her analysis into symbols of desire, symbols of repression and symbols of impotence. Another group has split up their analysis into representations of the id (which I guess could correspond to "desire" in the other powerpoint), the superego (which I guess could correspond to "repression" and "impotence" in the other powerpoint) and where the two come to a head in what they term "the battle."

I remember hearing somewhere that you can copy 10% of someone else's work without it being deemed plagiarism, so that's pretty much what I'm going to do. (Actually the real reason why I'm being brief here is not because I care about plagiarism but because I'm too lazy to write a lot.) So here goes:

Okay. Symbols of desire: "Do I dare to eat a peach?" His wanting to symbolises desire, but his questioning about it symbolises his restraint (superego). The mermaids are a reference to the sirens in Homer's Odyssey. Look it up because I'm too lazy to explain. (Okay, I might write it in some other time, but not now.) Arms- symbolises his desire for women. Once in class we were talking about how referring to people as "arms" is an example of synechdoche, in which a part represents the whole (guess I could have talked about that in my "fragmentation" part of my post on Context). Wow, that was a random point that doesn't really fit here. Anyway, perfume is another symbol of temptation and desire.

Symbols of repression: "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'"- never says his overwhelming question because something is stopping him. Damn. Then there's the "preparing a face" to almost construct a false identity and the prudent and respectful characteristics of the "attendant lord" which this classmate of mine reckons is Prufrock's excuse for not showing strong emotion.

Symbols of impotence: The mermaids- "I do not think that they will sing to me." Not knowing whether he will "have the strength to force the moment to it crisis." References to growing old symbolise his physical and sexual impotence. Then there's "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels," which I guess symbolises impotence if you associate "one-night cheap hotels" with that kind of behaviour because if you do then "restless nights" sort of symbolises an inability to do that kind of thing.

Okay, that's enough from me. I'm tired and I can't be bothered doing anything else. Good night to you all.

T. S. Eliot- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock- Imagery

This is my second post about this oh-so-annoying-to-analyse-for-Lit poem. My first post is on context: http://year11misadventures.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/ts-eliot-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock.html.

Imagery: Information

I'm not really sure what the correct definition for "imagery" is but I guess it's just words that build up really strong mental images of stuff. There are different kinds of imagery that appeal to (not sure if that's the right word) different senses. Some images may not fit neatly into one category, but into multiple categories.

Visual imagery: Imagery related to sight.
Olfactory imagery: Imagery related to smell.
Kinesthetic imagery: Imagery related to movement.
Tactile imagery: Imagery related to touch.
Aural imagery: Imagery related to sound.
Gustatory imagery: Imagery related to taste.

There's probably other types but those are the categories that I know of.

Imagery in Prufrock

I'll do visual imagery last because much more imagery fits into that category than any other category.

Kinesthetic imagery: There's the yellow smoke/fog that "[rubs] its back," that "[curls] about the house" and "slides along the street." There's also a bit where Prufrock says that he is "pinned and wriggling on the wall."

Aural imagery: There's the "muttering retreats," the "music from a farther room," and the singing mermaids.

Visual imagery: The "yellow smoke" and "yellow fog," the overall image/metaphor/whatever of the cat or whatever domestic animal that is in that stanza, "lift and drop a question on your plate," Prufrock's description of himself, "arms that are braceleted and white and bare," "water white and black" and so on.

Now, where do we go with this imagery? Well, imagery's one of those generic conventions that you can use to help back up your statements in an essay. Also, you might have a question asking how imagery achieves desired effects, and then you can ramble on about the imagery above. If you don't know what to say, just pick an image and make stuff up. Okay, maybe you shouldn't do that if you want good marks. If you're really stuck though, it's better than writing nothing at all. You'd probably get something for at least writing down what type of imagery you're referring to, though I'm not sure because I'm not the one marking these things.

T.S. Eliot- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock- Context

Right, so I have a Lit essay tomorrow that I'm meant to study for, but I really can't be stuffed writing practise paragraphs or essays or anything so I figure writing a blog post about Eliot instead might suffice- at the very least, it's better than just sitting there with a blank page and procrastinating.

The essay tomorrow's on Eliot's poetry, more specifically the two poems we've studied in class: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Preludes," but chances are, I'm probably going to write more on Prufrock because a) it's longer and therefore has more material to work with and b) we've discussed it more in class. We've also been told that the 3-4 questions can be on lit techniques and devices, context, genre and generic conventions, language, discourse and ideology or reading strategies. I'm going to write some notes on some of these things, as normally the bit I find hardest is planning my essay. Once that's done, the writing normally takes care of itself.

Most of the stuff here is probably from class discussions, including from other people's notes (they were put on the J drive to be shared between us...). Yeah, it's plagiarism, I know, but a) I gave them my notes on Marxism and b) I'm not passing any of this stuff off as my own, I'm just putting it all here as a means to organise my thoughts. But if you really feel that strongly, I can get rid of some of the stuff here.

Context: Information

The socio-historical context: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was written in the early-ish 1900s (according to Wikipedia, Eliot started writing it in 1910, but it was published in 1915). This is a time of rapid change and turmoil- I mean, WWI happened at this time! Suddenly the whole world was plunged into a war, the likes of which had never been seen before, since the advent of new, powerful weapons as well as the usage of old, outdated tactics (i.e. charging in a straight line, which would have been useful for knights on horseback but not for modern soldiers in the face of machine guns) meant that loads of people were dying in the trenches pretty quickly. Also, as well as modern weaponry, other new inventions were changing the world: communications were improving via phones and TV, and transport was also improving.

Other trends present at this time were urbanisation and secularisation, though both of these kind of continue from previous times. During the Industrial Revolution of around 1760-1820, as well as afterwards, heaps of people began moving to the cities to find work, leading to crowded and busy cities which were sometimes dirty and polluted as greener technology had not yet been invented. The busy life in these crowded cities led to people becoming more disconnected from nature, and maybe even from each other too, despite the many advances in communication technology. The increase in secularisation at this time is simply yet another stage of a gradual increase of secularisation since the Renaissance period, but this time it was largely fuelled by all of the death and devastation caused by the World War which led people to challenge their faith.

T.S. Eliot: Okay, I must admit that I know hardly anything about this guy apart from the fact that he didn't discriminate; he hated pretty much everybody. But I do have a handout here about Eliot. Let's see what it says.

It says here that T.S. Eliot was born in St Louis (a city in Missouri, USA) in 1888, but his parents originally came from New England, which, believe it or not, is also a city in the USA (sort of shows just how overly patriotic those Brits were when they colonised half the world). It sort of ties in to how my Lit teacher was saying that Eliot is American but he likes pretending that he's British.

Anyway, Eliot grew up, discovered that he liked poetry, attended Harvard and studied some high-brow works by people like Omar Khayyam, Charles Baudelaire and Jules Laforgue. He also spent some time wandering around "the poorer and seedier parts of Boston" (yes, that's what the handout says). Apparently Charles Baudelaire is sometimes considered the father of Modernism, and from him, Eliot learned that he could write poetry on rather un-poetic material like industrial cities. From Jules Laforgue, a follower of Baudelaire, he learned about the French symbolist movement in poetry, as well as other random stuff like interior monologues which can be dialogues between rival aspects of the self, ironic voice, ironic mockery of society and self, irregularly placed rhymes, abrupt changes of setting, and more.

Your own context: ...

Context: How Prufrock is shaped by context

Socio-historical context: Industrialisation and its effects are seen in the way that the city has been portrayed as dilapidated, dirty and polluted as well as being pretty damn unwelcoming through word meanings and imagery. The streets are "muttering retreats," the word "muttering" suggesting discomfort because it's as if though there is some secret that you're not being let in on, and nobody likes not being let in on a secret. I guess you can also say that the muttering and the idea that there's something that you're not being let in on also hints at the idea of disconnection between humans. Further adding to this is the "insidious intent," that word "insidious" hinting that there really is something suspicious and unpleasant going on. The nights are also "restless" and uncomfortable, and the portrayal of the city with its "one-night cheap hotels" and "sawdust restaurants" (restaurants where the ground is covered with sawdust and all your rubbish is just dumped on the floor to be swept up with the sawdust at the end of the day) makes the city seem dirty and uncared for. And, of course, there's the imagery "yellow fog" and "yellow smoke," which hints at pollution and disease. Yellow is normally a happy colour, but when related to fog and smoke, it sounds almost diseased. Likewise, the smoke "rubs its back" and "rubs its muzzle" (kinaesthetic imagery! Yay, big words) like a cat or some other domestic creature, but unlike cats and dogs, when these descriptions are used to describe smoke, it makes the smoke seem almost too close for comfort. Oh, and this is kind of going back to what I said before about disconnection but there's also some other line about "lonely men in shirt sleeves," and that very word "lonely" creates a sense of disconnection, because isn't loneliness pretty much a lack of connection with other humans?

Fragmentation is another common theme of this time period because everything, including people's ideas, are all challenged to the limits with all the crazy stuff that's happening, like the World War, and, sure enough, there's a hell of a lot of fragmentation in this poem. First of all, there's all the crazy conflicting imagery, like "when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table." (Apparently there's a fancy word for abrupt transitions in style- "bathos." Unfortunately, I don't really know how to use it in a sentence.) I mean, look at that line (or rather, two lines). Just look at it. "When the evening is spread out upon the sky" sounds all Romantic-esque with its emphasis on nature and evening (which is when 90% of romantic scenes take place, I swear), but then it abruptly turns to that poor patient. The word "patient" suggests sickness and pain- a big difference from the romance of the evening and the sky. There's also sudden transitions in settings- one line Prufrock is "at dusk through narrow streets" and three lines later he is talking about how he "should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Even the word "ragged" sounds fragmented and disjointed in itself since it does mean "uneven" or "jagged." The structure of the poem is also pretty fragmented with its breaks (I'm not sure how to describe them- the dots or whatever that divides up sections of the poem).

Hm what else? I came up with some other idea when I was in the shower, but I've forgotten it now. Damn. Guess I'll have to revisit this part.

(10 minutes later...) I've remembered now. One thing that I didn't put in the information section above is that there were still pretty big divisions between the upper- and lower-classes, even during the World War. I remember reading some Horrible Histories book that said something about how the upper classes were complaining that they had to downgrade to having parlourmaids, while soldiers were being killed by the thousands in the trenches! Such class divisions are also pretty apparent in the poem- while the city, home of the working classes, is depicted as being dirty, unpleasant and possibly unsafe, the upper class life is much different. They have "tea and cakes and ices" while the lower classes have to make do with their "sawdust restaurants," and they have "sunsets and dooryards and sprinkled streets" while the lower classes have "streets that follow like a tedious argument." The juxtaposition between the two classes is also amplified by the constant switching between lower-class scenery and upper-class scenery.

T.S. Eliot's context: Okay, first of all, everything that my handout said that Eliot learned from reading Jules Laforgue can be found in this poem. "Interior monologues which are really ironic dialogues between rival aspects of the self" are found EVERYWHERE. In fact, you could almost argue that the entire poem is an "interior monologue which [is] really [an] ironic dialogue between rival aspects of the self." We can see this in all of his incessant questioning: "Do I dare?" "Do I dare disturb the universe?" "How should I presume?" "Should I then presume?" Most of these questions are probably directed towards himself, because normally "Do I dare?" is a question that you ask yourself, not other people. Also, the use of that stanza of Dante's Inferno at the beginning of the poem, which basically means "I can tell you my story only because I know you'll never return" suggests that this poem and its questions are not to be heard by anyone, and if they are to be heard, then only to a select audience chosen with care. There's also the bit about "time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions" which also creates an air of uncertainty. The very word "indecision" speaks for itself- there's not enough certainty to make a decision, and any decisions then have to face "revisions." Further examples of Prufrock's divided self appear in lines 39-45, where Prufrock initially makes a decision to "turn back and descend the stair" but then worries that other people will comment on "how his hair is growing thin," and then describes his attire as "rich and modest" before worrying that other people will comment on "how his arms and legs are thin." Here Prufrock is divided by his own judgement: one aspect of himself believing that he is prepared and ready to go, and the other rival aspect of himself only able to see his faults.

I don't really have too much to say on the next three dot points here- "air of worldly fatigue," "wry, ironic voice" and "ironic mockery of society and self." Now, the reason I don't have much to say is because there is nothing to say, because I know that there's lots to say, but because I don't know how to say it. I sort of get the "worldly fatigue" and "wry, ironic voice" in this poem, but not quite enough to provide solid examples. I guess the "wry, ironic voice" and "ironic mockery" might be in all that conflicting imagery with the evening being a "patient etherised on a table," as well as in some of the other random lines like "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (I dunno, that just felt "wry and ironic" to me), but I'm not sure how to explain how any of that stuff contributes to a "wry, ironic voice." In fact, I'm not sure if I really know the word "ironic" all too well. I mean, I know what the word means, but I don't know what it means... okay, maybe I should stop, I'm probably just confusing you. As for the "worldly fatigue," I guess that comes in when Prufrock asks if stuff "would be worth it" and talking about himself growing old. Maybe. I'm not sure.

The next two dot points here are "vers libre: reflecting the free flow of human consciousness as it attempts to come to terms with a complex reality" and "occasional, irregularly placed rhymes." Well, I can give examples for "occasional, irregularly placed rhymes." The first two lines rhyme, then the third line has no rhyme, then the next two lines rhyme, then "hotels" and "shells" sort of rhymes, then the next two lines rhyme, then there's a line which doesn't rhyme with any other line, then another two rhyming lines. Then there's that two line couplet thingy that rhymes. Likewise, there's some rhyming lines in the next stanza, but there's also some lines which inexplicably do not rhyme, like "licked its tongue into the corners of the evening," "and seeing that it was a soft October night," and so on. As for the vers libre thing, well, I'm not too sure on what the exact literary definition of "vers libre" is but I can see that this poem does appear to be a bit more "free" (I'm pretty sure that's what "libre" means) from most of the traditional rules of poetry and it is a reflection of the human consciousness. It leaps from topic to topic, a bit like how we can move from one train of thought to another (or maybe that's just me). It compares stuff to other random stuff ("patient etherised upon a table" anyone? Oh, wait, I've used that example about 3 times already), which I do too, and although I could be unique in that, I doubt it. It also has irregular line lengths, no fixed meter, irregular rhymes and random breaks (those dividing thingos- as I've said before I don't know what to call them...), because the human consciousness doesn't have a fixed meter, regular rhyme patterns and regular line lengths, not as far as I know anyway.

Next dot point- "abrupt changes of setting, timeframe and voice." Hm. I wonder where we can find those things in Prufrock? Here's a hint: everywhere. Abrupt changes of setting? "Streets that follow like a tedious argument" vs. "In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo." "Gone at dusk through narrow streets" vs. "Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Abrupt changes of timeframe? Not so obvious, but there is that bit that Prufrock randomly starts saying "I grow old... I grow old," and I doubt that he was old before because in the next line he says "I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled," the word "shall" indicating that he hasn't grown old yet. Abrupt changes in voice? Should I pull out my favourite quote again? Nah, you're probably all sick of it by now.

Now for the dot point that sprouts several dot points: "Laforgian symbolism." First up is "A kind of poetry which would be psychology in the form of a dream... with flowers and scents and wind... complex symphonies with certain phrases (motifs) returning from time to time." Now, that language is too flowery and poetic for my puny brain, but I do understand the bit about certain phrases returning from time to time. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" has some of these, such as "In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo," "Do I dare? and "And would it have been worth it, after all." Now, we could dissect these further by talking about the effect that this repetition has on our readings of the poem and whatnot, but I can't be bothered doing that now. The next dot-point-within-a-dot-point is "Images which are absolutely precise in physical terms but endlessly suggestive in their meanings," which I think is just like that patient... You probably know that quote by now, even if you've never read the poem before. There's also the "pinned and wriggling on the wall" thing, which is pretty precise, but it can also mean other stuff like being trapped. Trapped by what? That's up to you to decide. "Building up of patterns of meaning through juxtaposition and accumulation of images," the third dot point, is seen through the juxtaposition between the upper- and lower- classes' descriptions, as I've said before. Finally, there's "contrast of sublime and banal images." I originally thought that "banal" meant something along the lines of "gruesome" or "unpleasant," like that quote that I've repeated oh-so-many times, but no, apparently it means "so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring." I can't really say that much of the imagery in this poem is "lacking in originality," but I guess there is the "magic lantern [throwing] the nerves in patterns on a screen" followed by the more mundane "settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl."

That's all the dot points for that one covered now. Phew!

Now, I was going to cover multiple things in this post, but this post has been going on for quite a while now so I'm going to talk about this poem in multiple blog posts. Stay tuned...