Today’s Date: December 21. 2012..

This blog still exists haha? Well if any of you still check this out, get a load of this.

You know that feeling you get when you just know something is going to go wrong? That sense that everything is not as it seems? I didn’t until today.

I ran into my two friends from Speculative Fiction: Apocalyptic Literature and los amigos were Sam and Paul. The three of us decided that we should grab a coffee to laugh about old times, talk about future plans, and fill in the gaps in between; however the campus Tim’s was long since closed so we decided to hop in the car and go for a little drive. To say the sky looked beautiful on this day is an understatement. The spectrum of colours rocketed from horizon to the peak of the sky to clash against the darkness that sought to overtake the day as the sun dipped, ever so slowly, behind the trees in the distance.

We arrived at Tim Hortons (shoutout to my sponsor) or was it second cup? I cannot recall. We grabbed our snacks and beverages and grabbed a seat next to the window in order to watch the day’s last activity outside before the night took over. We sat there for about an hour or so until the shapes of cars faded into simple headlights in the distance and the people outside looked no more like people, rather silhouettes. We decided to leave as the three of us piled into Paul’s 1998 alero and headed off in a direction that i was unsure of with Paul behind the wheel steering us to our fate.

And that brings you all up to speed to the present; a present in which Sam, Paul, and I are currently witnessing the downfall of human existence over a couple extra large double-double coffees within the cabin of my Jetta.

I could sit here and tell you what author’s were right and what were way off in their apocalyptic literature; although, i am sure you will all be here someday to witness this first hand. I could sit here and explain to you exactly what is going down so you can try to survive it, but all survival attempts i have seen have been in vain. I could write about how the once living earth inching closer and closer to death, but i would rather just sit and enjoy each and ever moment until the conclusion of human life. That and Paul took my phone to check Facebook or to text someone or someone… i guess texting and driving isn’t illegal during the apocalypse.

Essay Update (Final)

Whew long night. I probably won’t be making it to class today for two reasons: i am tired from staying up all night writing this paper, and i have to go to work for 2. At least i am done. Hope you guys all are done too

The final shape of my essay is :

Body 1- Swift’s Modest Proposal analysis as a satire
Body2- Samuel Boyse’s The Deity: A Poem analysis as a sarcastic poem

Body 3- Comparison and contrast of the two works in order to differentiate between satire and sarcasm.

The sources i used for this work include the ones listed above as well as Pope’s Essay on Man and a secondary source i have found online.

The argument i seek to raise through this Thesis is that although Satire and Sarcasm are similar, the two are significantly due to their inherent intentions. Satire seeks to bring fourth change, while Sarcasm has more simplistic intentions.

I just eclipsed the 2100 word mark so i am coming into the closing stages of this work. Can’t wait to click print on this one that is for sure

Essay Update

Just a quick update about my essay.

My thesis statement is shaking out to be something along the lines of : Despite satire and sarcasm being similar and quite often confused with one another, they are significantly different due to their inherent purpose and aim. Sarcasm aims to ridicule for sport, while satire criticizes for change.

Body – Analysis of Swift’s A Modest Proposal as a satirical work

– Analysis of Samuel Boyse’s The Deity: A Poem as a sarcastic work.

– Comparing and contrasting the differences of satire and sarcasm between the two.

This is probably my last update because i am going the spend the rest of my time writing, sleeping, waking, eating, showering, driving, listening to music-ing, printing, eating again, and submitting. In that exact order.

Thanks Everyone

Just checking up my stats for my blog and noticed something. Check out my all time views.

 

Happy 316 Everyone

I know you are all still awake slaving away at the papers. If any/all of you want to get together and say a virus took down specifically our computers so we all lost our papers i will lead the charge.

If not then just keep writing and i will see you everyone, dark circles under the eyes and all, tomorrow at 130. Actually i am late for everything (Just ask anyone, even professor Noble) so more like 136ish.

Economic Apocalypse?

I just got thinking.. what is going to be the next big thing in apocalyptic literature? I mean we have blown through comets, diseases, nukes, vampires, zombies, and even robots so what is next for society?

I think it is the concept of the economic apocalypse.

Everyday you hear in the news “the economy is the worst it has ever been” and then the next week you hear “the economy is recovering nobody panic” and then after that you hear “the economy is unpredictable so we don’t know what is coming next” and it is just a constant rotation from we are fine, to things are sketchy, to we are f’ed. This is a really interesting concept to me not because i love the economy, frankly i am tired of hearing all the flip-flopping and discussion when none of it seems to be relevant (kind of like a weather prediction in Saint John…zing).

This is a fairly new concept which i would like to read a book about the world post-economic failure. What would the new currency become? How would things run? Would currency or our way of life even matter anymore?

It is hard to imagine a way of life that isn’t centred around this combustible and unstable thing called currency. Currency is the nuclear physics of the economy. it has the potential to make great things happen, but is dangerously close to bringing fourth the downfall of society. Which make it quite a nice tie-in with apocalyptic literature.

Every generation has its apocalyptic scare. The plague, nuclear wars, etc. is ours going to be the economic collapse that changes society, and the world forever?

Hopefully Homer Simpson isn’t right.

Major Paper Blog

 

Just saw that we should be blogging about our major paper we have to write. Since i am a little late on the blog then this is going to start in Medias Res. I have gathered my sources together which is a mixture of texts and secondary sources and i have written a couple pages based on the direction i want this paper to take. i will post another blog once i settle into the direction i want to take this thing at which time i will reveal the thesis and the major points. Can’t wait for it eh? Me either.

Poetic Classes

I was looking forward to next weeks reading and i noticed there was a question there that states, “Does poetry have a class” and i saw this as a perfect opportunity to get at something i tried to get at early in the semester.

I have a blog questioning the “literary merits” of John Wilmot’s works. After reading this question it gives me a better insight into what i was thinking. Writers like Shakespeare, Tennyson, etc. are ones that you traditionally find in most classrooms so these are the writers and consequent texts that i have my most familiarity with; therefore, these classroom texts are what i base my evaluation on. This question allows me to take that dim-witted comment i made previously and put it into a better context. To answer the original question, yes, i believe that poetry does in-fact has a class and i also believe that classes have poetry. Wilmot, being the first really rapid departure from traditionally classroom literature that i have read, was being evaluated, in my mind, in the same pedigree as the Shakespeares and the Tennysons when really; Wilmot is in a completely different field. It would be like grading a hockey player on how well they can figure skate the classes are just significantly different with neither being better or worse than the other, just different.

In our modern society there are many class divisions; however, these divisions feel less diverse due to the manor which society exits today. Most opportunities in life are provided across the board and not just to one class. In the 18th century this would have been significantly different as these divisions would have been much larger. A common person of the 18th century wouldn’t have access to the things we have today so looking up Socrates or ancient writers wouldn’t be as easy as typing it into the internet, while the upper class of the 18th century would have likely grown reading these ancient texts. Also quite often the published poems that the upper classes would have spent their time with were often ridiculed and responded to within the street poems.

I guess what i am trying to work out here is that as long as their are social classes then poetry is going to have a place in each class as well. If a poem is full of allegories and allusions then a common farmer who worked on the fields his whole life isn’t going to appreciate it for what it is, while a poem about the happenings of a marketplace wouldn’t exactly be fully understood by the upper classes. Like the upperclass of the 18th century i was being narrow-minded and basing my evaluation of a poem not on the poem itself but on the poems within my understanding.

I believe that poems do in fact have classes; however, this is simply because people have classes. A poem is written with an intent and an aim so a writer like Shakespeare writes for upper classes, but his poems are available to all classes to be appreciated by each one.

 

It is a tough topic to tackle but i believe that poetry is written in a class and therefore has a class but is available to be interpreted, potentially differently, by each and every class that exits.

Sweet Satirical Music

Figured since this was the topic of my project i should post about it.

I think that satire is one of the most important things within literature and art because it allows people to comment on reality in a complex sort of way that isn’t as direct as saying  “there is a problem” rather Satire takes a route that is less travelled in order to convey its point.

This technique is demonstrated in probably one of the most widely known satire’s, “A Modest Proposal”. In this essay, Swift proposes that in order to solve the hunger crisis in Ireland all that needs to be done is to begin eating the children. I can remember the first time i read this satire and it was before i was taught what satire actually was and i can just remember the effect it had on me. I was reading along and i felt like i had misread or was reading the wrong story or something. This gripping effect is what satire has the potential to do when it is done well because it inches the reader close and closer to the edge until the point where it pushes the reader off which is the point where the reader learns they were being lead down this path for a purpose. Obviously there are some satirical works that make this push much more clearly and abruptly than Swift does, as well there are works that take much longer. Satire is a significant part of literature and modern culture as a whole and re-reading Swift reminded me of this gripping effect it can have upon the reader.

Sweet Comet Music

 

Pretty crazy that we watch this movie then like a week later a comet is supposed to fly right close to the earth.. i know where i will be sleeping that night!!

I actually really liked this movie and i usually hate old movies. (for those of you that were wondering how i felt about old movies)

The best part of the film was the end when the rain came and it washed away all of the red dust aka the human race. This purging moment is one that a lot of apocalyptic films miss. Most movies either over emphasis this moment or just completely disregard it all together but i feel like this movie got it just right. This was a very symbolic scene because it signified the cleansing the earth underwent from old earth to what can be referred to as new earth. I felt that this movie played this part really well because it was just a subtle scene and once it occurs the tone of the movie changes for the remainder of the film.

Also.. just noticed i posted this as a draft not a post… so here it is