15 minutes of infinite fame or 100 years of solitude?

I would personally choose a long life with no fame. Although fame is extremely tempting, when I plunge into my head I realize I would much rather live a long life than a short one, regardless of my fame. I think that I could do a lot in a long life, and not get famous for it. I wouldn't really care either way, although it would really be awful if I wrote a great book or something, in the making my whole life, and then I couldn't even get famous for it. But it would also suck to write a great book then die the next day, even if your legacy lasted for thousands of years.

stranger than oedipus rex

Harold Crick's life comes to an abrupt change when he starts hearing someone narrating everything he does and tells him is fate. Imminent death. His life becomes a mess. He can't tell whether he's making his own decisions, whether he can do something to change his fate, or how to cope and live with all of these uncertainties and unknowns. Do we know if we are really making the choice? Harold Crick doesnt know whether he's making the choice to count the strokes of his toothbrush, or the steps he takes to work. He doesn't know whether he's making these choices because fate defines him, and he defines his fate. His fate is just now catching up with him, only he isn't sure if the narrator is making him do these things or whether he is actually choosing. The truth is, fate and human choice must coexist in order for fate to carry out and for his life to follow fate. Harold Crick's life IS his fate, therefore, he is making his decisions, but fate meant for this to happen. Harold must live his life with these unknowns and uncertainties the exact way he always wanted. He does things he left undone; he takes up the guitar, he gets the girl he wants, and he stops going to work. He also doesn't have to count brush strokes anymore, because he knows his fate and he can live with it. Harold can change his fate in the end, because he confronts the decider of his fate. The decider of his fate has sympathy, unlike the case for Oedipus. For Oedipus, the gods are not in his favor, therefore they do nothing to help him. However, Harold, who is completely innocent, is given back his life by the "god" (writer).

Haunted..

So.. I'm kind of new at this, you could say..

Haunted passage:

"This was supposed to be a writers' retreat. It was supposed to be safe. An isolated writers' colony, where we could work, run by an old, old, dying man named Whittier, until it wasn't."

This passage is a complete foreshadow to the chain of events that will tear apart the group of characters in this book. This passage tells the reader what will happen, and pulls them into the book. What will happen to the writers? Where are they going? Will it be dangerous(it was supposed to be safe)? Who is Whittier? Is he the antagonist of the story? Are the writers going to get any work done?

I also just read a short story in this book, and it was very disturbing. It is about a boy who goes to sit on the water pump on the floor of his family swimming pool. His large intestine gets pulled out through his anus and he has to bite through it to swim to safety. This character's nickname is...wait for it... GUTS.

haha.

DO YOU BELeeeeeVE?

determinism, complete free will, and destiny...

As much as people would like to believe they have complete free will to do as they please, they will be unpleasantly awakened when they realize that sometimes, they just don't have control over a situation. They will continue to enforce the fact that they have control, but we all know that they don't. They will be taken over by determinism, the steering wheel of their lives heading in the complete opposite direction of where they would like it to go. Then, they will be destined to do another thing, they may or may not like. All three control life as we know it, sometimes all three equally, sometimes one more or less. I think that peoples' lives are destined to a certain fate, then, determinism changes certain things around by the environment we live in and the people we interact with. Finally, we all have complete free will over certain aspects of our life, but what we think is free will may be, after all, fate.

Battle Royale

Part deux: How does the title illustrate the story?


The title "Battle Royal" illustrates the story perfectly. Throughout the entire story, the main character is battling one thing or another. In the beginning, he is battling his nerves for the speech. When the young men are put face to face with the young naked woman, he is battling many urges. He is fighting the urge to both "love her and murder her", "to cover her from my eyes and theirs with my body". When he is literally put in the boxing ring, he is fighting against the problems whites have given him "the white blindfold" and fellow African Americans. When he is trying to collect fake money from an electrified carpet, he fights the pain to get money, and also fights the urge to pull the white man down onto the carpet with him. Finally, when he gives his speech he is battling the problems he has been faced with; the blood pouring down his throat, the pain in his body, the thick smoke lingering in the room, and the tough crowd that he is not sure whether or not they appreciate his speech. The battle the title is referring to is the overall battle African Americans were facing during this time, because of white men.

the man with enormous wingz

in the story, "a very old man with enormous wings", i believe that the man with wings is more than just that. he is an angel, sent down to carry the dying baby up into heaven when the time is right. unfortunately, the rain withers away at his wings and he tumbles down to earth. he symbolizes a good and bad omen for pelayo and his family. good, because the baby will be going to heaven. bad, because the baby will be dead. because of the bad omen of rain on the family, the angel can not take away the baby; hence the baby gets better.

KatheeDruLL

4)
Why is this the perfect ending to this story?

The best part of the story Cathedral is the ending. Carver found the perfect ending for his short about long lost blind friend of a man's wife staying in the couple's home. Throughout the entire story, the man cannot find a connection or a reason to like the blind man. "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (274). As they are watching a TV program about Cathedrals, after smoking a joint, the man finds himself feeling bad for the blind man. He realizes that there is so much that the blind man has not seen and so much he will never experience. The man decides to show the blind man what it looks like by drawing a cathedral with the old man's hand clutched around the pencil. The blind man orders the man to close his eyes as they draw the cathedral. Neither of them can see what they are doing; the blind man never can, but the man who can see is drawing without looking. When the blind man asks how it looks, the man says it is "really something"(283). The both of them can see the cathedral without actually seeing it. This is the perfect ending, because ultimately, the man and the blind man are both blind and they have something in common.