Creative writing for Dracula

Getting to basically make up our own stories for Dracula today was pretty interesting. I liked getting to hear my groups ideas on the way they thought it should end. I still have not read the end of Dracula so it will be a surprise how it really ends after the crazy story my group came up with! I am not sure the ending will be quite as good as ours.

Bella & Edward really are perfect for one another

I didn’t really pay much attention to it until I began working on Project 1 and I realized—Bella and Edward really ARE meant to be! After reading Laura Miller’s article “Touched by a vampire” where critiqued the series, a lot of the things she said made sense to me; one of those things being how Bella and Edward are actually a match made in insecure heaven. Bella is the normal, average, plain-jane teen girl who can’t believe that a gorgeous vampire such as Edward would want her. Edward, although the perfect gentleman and blah blah blah, thinks that he is a monster with no soul. Really, both of them think that they are not good enough for the other one: Bella thinks Edward is too good for her because she’s so average and he’s so gorgeous; she thinks he deserves a gorgeous vampire girlfriend, not a boring teenager. Edward on the other hand, thinks Bella is too good for him; he thinks she deserves a great guy who’s human like her, so she can live her life, grow old, and die. This is one of the reasons why Edward did not want to turn her. Besides of this, both characters lack dimension; Bella doesn’t have much of a personality, and neither does Edward, the reader only knows what Edward mightbe thinking by what Bella says. You never truly tune into Edward’s mind to fully understand how he feels.

So end the end, Bella and Edward are more perfect together than I initially thought: they are both very insecure and think they aren’t good enough for each other.

The Giaour Like Jesus?

In class Wednesday, an interesting question arose about the Giaour. In the work written by Lord Byron, the Giaour is a misunderstood being. He drinks blood yes, but he doesn’t want to. He is an outcast, and gives his life for the greater good. In a way, this is just like Jesus Christ. When Jesus was on Earth, he was not liked by most, and misunderstood. He was an outcast and hung out with the other out casters. In the end, Jesus gave his to save the ungrateful bastards who persecuted him. Although the Giaour didn’t exactly sacrifice his body to save others, in a way he did. His death was best for everyone, and he died willingly like Jesus, not even wanting his grave marked.

Linking a vampire with Jesus Christ might seem offensive or incorrect to some, but the two are obviously more alike than the skeptics might first think. They’re social circumstances and personalities made them unpopular with the rest of society, and in different ways they both died for love. The one woman that the Giaour loved died, so he died from grief of her. Jesus died for us because he loved us enough to take his own life. The Giaour might not have died to save thousands of assholes who hated him, but he did in a way die for love, because his one love died, so he did not want to live anymore. 

Nonetheless, the Giaour and Jesus are more alike and have more in common than you might think. So the comparison between the two are valid to a degree.

Ambrogio

I really enjoyed this story as well. I liked how each different God cursed him with something different. I also thought the fact that Artemis ended up feeling bad and giving him blessings. After cursing him instead of just taking it away she just gave him immortality and called it a blessing. However, I would not consider immortality a blessing. If you are truly immortal then you obviously live forever, which means you live for X amount of years and then lose all of your loved ones, possibly get more, and then lost those. I would not find immortality to be a blessing.

Cain and Lilth

I always knew that there were different versions of the first vampire however when I first read about Cain being the first vampire I was shocked. The idea of Cain being the first vampire was completely new to me because I had only ever heard the story from the Bible. This idea was completely different. I had never heard anything like it. I thought it was a really good idea because God from the Old Testament was wrathful and would be cruel enough to curse Cain like that. It was a really cool and interesting idea.

Breaking Dawn vs. The Vampyre

Yesterday I was in the Houston airport writing my the last half of my paper and I was honestly surprised at how similar the writing styles are even though there are so many years apart. I know that I picked my writing topics beforehand but I did not actually realize how similar they truly were until I started writing. I really enjoyed finding those little things that are similar.

Talking With Your Fingers

I don't know if I agree with everything McWhorter says, but this might be a helpful source for anyone who wants to write about texting in Project Four:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/talking-with-your-fingers/

Class blog #3

Today in class we compared the internet and more generically, technology, and how it can act as a vampire towards many people. Especially in today's society it is so easy to get sucked in by technology. Most people spend hours and hours a day on the computer or their cell phones just to pass the time away. But what most people don't realize is that that is not living your life. Instead of surfing on the internet and reading things that other people have discovered and other peoples opinions, why not get out and see things and make your own opinions for yourself? Instead of having a conversation with someone over texting why not make it more personal and go grab coffee with that person so you can actually meet them and get a feel for their personality. I feel like technology is why more and more people are becoming socially awkward and aren't able to act correctly in public.

Dracula

I have never read the book of Dracula or seen the movie. This week while reading the book of Dracula I am finding it not as good as I thought it would be. A lot of people talk about it like it is the best, but I am not seeing it. I think what made it so big is that it was the first vampire story that was easy to understand and had the sexual desires and other aspects that young adults like. I must say that going over the book in class discussion is helping me out, because while reading the book in the journal and diary way it is written I miss some stuff. Maybe that is one of the reasons I am not liking the book as much as I thought I would, the way a book is written is very important and I am not liking the journals and the diaries.

Similarities Between Them All

Carmilla, a novel by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, is one of the few early classic vampire novels of its time. Published in 1872, it even preceded Stoker's Dracula by over two decades. However, despite the years between the two novels, many believe that Carmilla was, in part, the inspiration for Dracula.

• Both novels involve main characters with a love interest. Laura for Carmilla and Mina for Count Dracula, though both are seemingly improper. Mina is already engaged and Laura and Carmilla's relationship is heavy with lesbian overtones.

Though Carmilla is clearly a vampire novel, it is the first novel of it's kind to explore, specifically, the sexual advances between two women that occur throughout the novel on more than one occasion. Though books involving relationships between women are no longer taboo, the novel effectively brings up what would have been seen as "shockingly perverse" in the era the novel was published.  Female sexuality was essentially feared in this time period. How funny. Anyways...

• Both families involved in the stories come from nobility or upper-class families, with distinguished ancestral history. However, most novels published in this time period, mentioned at least one noble character or often a main character was of nobility, so this seems a little like grasping for straws to me.

• Both novels have similar heroes.  It can be argued that Stoker's Van Helsing is a direct correlation to Le Fanu's Baron Vordenburg, though I won't say why and ruin it for the class. Some argue that Laura is a hero, but I have a difficult time with that notion, much like I do with Bella in Twilight. However, that's another blog post.

Apparently, Stoker took a lot of inspiration from a lot of sources.  First, Vlad the Impaler, Elizabeth Bathory (according to our symposium presentation, A Once Bloody Hell, at least), and now Carmilla. Though both novels are similar in a few ways, the plots lines and situations behind them are still largely different. Different enough to enjoy without it ever being noticed.

Source:  http://www.michaelclutton.com/vampires/Early_Vampire_Literature_Formed_Vampires.html

Bella as a hero?

Talking in class about this the other day, made me really think on whether or not Bella is considered a hero in my eyes. Of course, we all  know she saves everyone at the end by turning out to be a shield after her change, so yes, I suppose in the loosest sense, she is a hero. But I've always had a major issue with Bella's character to begin with. There were four books that took us through the story: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. Typically all four, in a sense, have Bella's mortal life in danger, with the exception of Breaking Dawn after she was turned, which put her life in danger as an immortal. Though I dislike her character nearly entirely as a whole, Breaking Dawn seems to be where the problems I have with her take a turn towards disdain. In Breaking Dawn, after the birth of Nessie, Bella  is, for lack of a better word, "perfect". She, unlike every other newborn we've heard of up until this point, is not bloodthirsty, she is in complete control of her actions in the hunt and every time else (to the point to where even Carlisle is baffled), and she turns out to be a shield (who can still block Edward if she so desires) at the perfect time where one just happens to be needed to save everyone's lives. I've heard some argue that she's earned this "easy" outcome base on every misfortune she's endured until book four. I simply think it's ridiculous. After those so called frequent misfortunes, it's disappointing to end a book with so much build up, with essentially nothing. Anyone else agree?

Expectations for Dracula

I must admit, I've never seen the movie Dracula.  *gasp* Anyway, I've waited the entire semester to be able to read it after years of wanting to and it's finally here.  Though I've never read the book or seen the movie, there are certain things I expect to be in this novel knowing as much as I do about the plot line and overall outcome; things that are expected of a mid-Victorian vampire work:  Blood, death, desire, and maybe even some classic stakes and holy water. What could be better for a Gothic vampire? Like so many others who have read this novel, I want to be gripped by the nature of this book and drown in the pages only to come up for air when necessary. There is absolutely no room for sparkles anywhere near this novel. To be honest, I get a little miffed when Twilight and Dracula are compared in any setting and "little" may be a bit of an understatement. Classic works and novels are much more...me. I know that Dracula is cunning and mysterious by nature, but I've heard that  he's also bitter throughout the novel. Perhaps I am wrong, but I'm interested to see how it plays out. I have a feeling that the book may be better than I imagine.

Class Blog #3

To all my bloggers-

So, we are finally getting down to the last couple weeks of school! Everything is getting to be super stressful, except for my Twilight class. If anyone actually reads this that ISN'T classmates or Professor Hodges then I highly recommend taking a class that you are actually interested about. Since I enjoy this class so much, I don't find it a drag to do stuff for it. Maybe the blogs can be a little annoying (no offense), but everything else about the class is just interesting to me. Ever since the first book, Twilight, came out, my friends have always known me as being the "twihard" in our group. But no one ever thought reading and kind of obsessing over the novels would do me any good. Until I enrolled for the Twilight based COMP 2 class. I love that the University of Arkansas offers classes that people actually relate to and enjoy. It might be one of my favorite things about this place. College is supposed to be all about getting an education AND having fun. But, if you don't take any classes that you actually enjoy then you aren't having any fun. And chances are, you probably don't even like the major you are in. People say that college is the best 4+ years of your life. I am just happy that I will someday be able to say that too. 

Sorry about the rant. Unfortunately, I missed class on Monday due to an unexpected illness. However, classmates told me that all we did was finish up talking about "Carmilla" and started analyzing "Dracula." I have been pretty excited to start up Dracula, because for project number 3, I talked a little about the mysterious man himself. It was hard to talk about him being a Bryonic hero because I never actually read the book. But in the end, everyone knows a little something about the all-famous Dracula. Wether you heard about him from a scary story your older siblings tried to scare you with (like me), or you just randomly heard Dracula come up while you were growing up. Either way, EVERYONE has heard about Dracula. Now I can say, or can later say, that I actually read the book! We are supposed to read up to chapter 15 by Monday so hopefully for my next blog I'll have tons of scary Dracula stories to share! 

Until then,

Haley

Morgan Braden- Newborn Vampires

One thing that really stood out to me while reading the part of Breaking Dawn when Bella is a newborn vampire is that she was very tame. The other vampires point out the whole time how Bella "should be" acting as a newborn and she turns their expectations around and is very controlled. My question is why did Meyer make Bella the exception? She's always been the ordinary one, the predictable one. I think Meyer is tired of having her heroine be too plain and wants to bring in some life to Bella's character...(about time). Also, the way that Meyer portrays time through Bella is very odd. Bella kept saying that "one fourty-fifth of a second passed" and phrases like this so that readers get the idea that this is unremarkably fast. Too fast for us to even understand exactly how fast it actually is. I'm curious to know how the movie will show this to the audience without it looking too unreal. Unfortunately, they haven't done such a great job of this in the past so I suppose we will all have to wait and see.

Midterm Essay

The article for the midterm really had me thinking about how important young adult novels are to teens and their development. For most girls, Twilight wasn't just a cheesy romance novel, it was an escape and someone that they could relate to and put themselves into the book and feel how some of the experiences really felt. While some teen novels may not by very useful and only for enjoyment, there are some that teach and grow young adults into becoming more mature and more of an adult. I never really thought about how important books were to my middle school and some of my high school years until reading that article.

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..."

The infamous twilight quote that so many read and wish that they had themselves, but is Edward REALLY that dreamy? At first read, he does seem like someone that would instantly attract many girls do to how completely flawless his looks are, how his eyes pierce through you, and how smoothly he floats through the air. Take a deeper look. He is stone cold to almost everyone he meets and doesn't interact with others in the high school, unless it is someone from his family. Does that seem very attractive? Once him and Bella become closer, she is completely consumed by just his presence, and the same for him. But you never see any true emotions come through in his actions besides protection. Is protection the only thing that a girl needs? The love between two people is something that no amount of criticism can ever break, but the Edward and Bella kind of love is not for everyone. He is a strong man, but is that the only thing that is important? Jacob allows for all of the emotions that a woman needs from a man to be displayed, but Bella's choice of Edward can taint those kind of men as not being good enough. So is Edward the perfect man that so many girls make him out to be? Not quite.

Screw Bella!

Screw Bella! Is Twilight homophobic?

Throughout this novel, there are NO references or any slight hint to anything homosexual. My question is, why? In our culture today, homosexuality is more accepted than ever before. In some states, two people of the same sex can get married if that's what they want to do. So why in a book that so many readers who are young and involved in the media is there nothing to do with homosexuality? Now, I don't think that there should be anything graphic that has to do with gay love, or even promoting it, but the fact that it is so heterosexual makes you wonder what Stephanie Meyers views on gay relations is. She can have wolves imprinting on babies and a young couple getting married and having a baby, but no gays allowed? Seems a little strange to me.

I thought our vampire symposium went really good! It wasn't the same old boring class presentation. The games and candy made it more fun and enjoyable. I liked getting to hear what the other classes and groups had learned during their research. For example Elizabeth Bathory was really strange and liked killing young girls, but it was interesting to hear about. I learned a lot of new things about vampires and had a good time.

Carlisle Cullen: The Eternal Doctor

Carlisle Cullen

The Eternal Doctor

Born: 1640; London, England

Changed: 1663

Selfish or Selfless?

Over the few years immediately following the release of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, the first novel of the extremely popular four book saga, I’ve come across multiple debates, discussions, and arguments on the subject of our beloved patriarch’s morality.  Though incredibly unorthodox, his actions of feeding only on animals and then choosing to heal humans as a doctor, rather than preying on them as a food source (normal stereotypical behavior for vampires), have brought him fascinated recognition and respect, even earning him the title of Stregoni Benefici from the Volturi. However, despite the admiration, fans and critics alike are unsure about what to think of his decision to end someone’s life or essentially, playing God in a way.  Both parties argue that it depends on the situation in which Carlisle decided to intervene, though they never come to a clear determination.

In his 372 years on Earth, Carlisle has changed or turned four other people into vampires: Edward, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett.

On the subject of Emmett, it’s seems, more than anything, simply bad timing.  Had Rosalie not been hunting in the area when he was mauled by a bear, he never would have had the “opportunity” to become a Cullen. Out of the four, Emmett is the only one that Carlisle did not find on his own and Emmett’s changing was the result of a request made by Rosalie after she carried him over a hundred miles to Carlisle. Of course, being who he is, Carlisle felt it a “waste” to let Emmett die so young and complied, hoping that it would not only give Emmett a second chance, but also hoping that it would make Rosalie happier in her forced immortality.

Speaking of Rosalie, Carlisle’s first “daughter”, she was originally said to have been changed for Edward, hoping that she would turn out to be his mate. Finding her in an alley, after she’d been raped and beaten, Carlisle again felt the need to change her to provide her with a second chance due to his compassionate nature, out of no real gain for himself.

Edward’s change, however, is somewhat different.  Like Emmett’s change, Edward’s was made at the request of his human mother, Elizabeth Masen, as they both lay dying of the Spanish Influenza. At the time, Carlisle had been alone for over two centuries. One could say, he may have been a tad bit lonely, which I believe strongly influenced his decision. He could give Edward another chance, after being given express permission from Elizabeth, and end his lonely days all at once. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have been tempted after being alone for so many years.

On the subject of doing something for personal gain, I firmly believe that Esme is Carlisle’s one most selfish act. Having met her in 1911, when she was only sixteen, after she broke her leg falling out of a tree, it is believed that he developed a profound connection with her and she with him. Despite Carlisle’s leaving a few days after treating her, it is said that Esme continued to love him and that Carlisle never forgot her.  Meeting her again ten years later, after her failed suicide attempt, he could not bear to let her die and bit her, despite the fact that she had tried to end her life.  It is said that they later married “quickly and easily.”

So which one is the worst? Knowing that Carlisle does most things out of compassion, is it possible to overlook Esme’s changing and call him selfless? Or do they all make him selfish? I would say it’s inconclusive. Too me, there are too many extenuating circumstances to definitively say one or the other. Even Carlisle seems unable to come to his own conclusion.

"I think, in most other ways, that I’ve done the best I could with what I had to work with. But was it right to doom the others to this life? I can’t decide."

                                                                 --Carlisle Cullen, New Moon

Prewriting

Today in my Comp II class we discussed prewriting. The one thing I learned other than procrastination isn't good and everyone has some form of it is that I need to start planning and organzing my paper in advance and not wait until I sit down in front of a blank computer screen to start writing. When a teacher would tell me that a paper is due in a month and gives us what to write about I will just think about stuff in my head about what I want to write about and not start writing my paper until a couples of days before it is due. The only problem with that is when I sent down to write my paper I tend to forget what I have thought about in the previous month. I have mentioned before that I am a horrible procrastinator, but this semester I am going to keep a notebook and when I think about something I want to put in my paper I am going to write it down so I won't forget it and have it available for when I sit down and start writing my paper.

Class Blog #2

Today we talked about immortality in class and if you had the choice would you chose it? I feel that as much as I'm scared to die and leave everyone I know behind I'm not sure I would accept immortality. For me I'm a Christian and I believe that we're all going to a better place and I'll be with them eventually. Why would I choose to stay in a place of hatred, regret, and sorrow. Though this world has so many beautiful and happy things there are also so many dark, sad and hard things to go through and you could never escape the devil and his temptations. Though I wouldn't choose immortality I won't deny that there aren't many things that attract me to the idea. For one you would have plenty of time to travel the whole world and live and experience all the different kinds of cultures. You could experience space and without a space suit on because you wouldn't need air to survive. You could go snorkling without an air bag and just enjoy the under water experience. But life is hard and exhausting and there are so many mistakes to be made and even though there would be tones of time to learn from your mistakes you might never stop making them.

Class Blog #1

As of last night I finished Austin's Northanger Abbey. Overall I'm just confused why she was considered a heroine? Most of the book I just saw her as an immature girl that wasn't aware of her surroundings and the hints that society was putting in front of her. This is also in the same way why I was confused why we started discussing Bella as a heroine in class. Neither one of these characters, if I was to just read these books on my own without discussions with others, would I ever consider a heroine. They are both just damsels in distress that I believe are always in need of being taken care of and protected. When I think of heros in literature I think of Odysseus from The Odyssey and Don Guixote from Don Guixote. Or on the other hand I think of heros from comic books as in Superman and Batman. Never would I believe either of these young women to be considered a heroine. But to each their own.

We had our Vampire Symposium last week! It was fun to do something different with our projects. I really enjoyed the trivia and we got candy. I also enjoyed the projects because I learned a lot of interesting facts about vampires and the history of them. All the the history has influenced how much people are so interested in vampires today. It has even got to the point where people are starting their own vampire community. It was also neat to see how vampires have turned from such ugly creatures to desired ones. I'm glad we did the third project like that, it was a good idea.

Elizabeth Bathory

I am looking up information about Elizabeth Bathory for thegroup projects. That girl was nuts! The things that I have read about her are crazy and I can't believe she lived like that. She would take baths in the blood of virgins to make her seem younger and more beautiful, which is why she is called the Blood Countess. Taking baths in blood makes her insane enough without considering all the other horrible things she had done. She killed over 600 young women. She is considered one of the most evil women in the history. She would torture the women for weeks, even making them eat their own flesh. Locking her up in a tower and letting her die was not a suitable punishment for what she had done, at least I don't think so.

Class Blog #2

Bloggers-

Thank the lord class was canceled on Monday! I was so hungry and hadn't eaten all day, so a good lunch was definetely in order. Even though class was canceled on Monday, we did still have a lot of work to do! An annotated bibliography was due yesterday and I am still not completely sure if I even did it correctly. I know the information in my bibliography was correct, but the format I am still unclear about. Hopefully Professor Hodges will be lenient while grading.

So, a fellow classmate just pulled up an article titled, "Twilight Movie Causes 13 Year-Old Boy to Bite 11 Classmates." How crazy is that???? Apparently the child bit 11 kids in the span of 2 weeks and claimed that he was an actual vampire! Maybe that kids needs some physiological help.

Have a good week, I'll be back later this week!

Haley

We are going to give our presentations this week. We have been discussing different ways to improve presentations and being able to present. We want to keep the audiences entertained and not bored. We need to make sure that our information is organized and correct. We are going to practice presenting to also improve the organization of the presentation. This will make everything feel more prepared and easier for us to present. Here is an article on how to improve your presentation skills!
http://www.inc.com/guides/how-to-improve-your-presentation-skills.html

The Giaour

We read The Giaour, a very confusing poem, awhile back that had to do with Byronic heros. Ms. Hodges translated the poem for us, thank the lord, and helped us figure out what exactly was going on. Here is what I got out of it; The Giaour was in love with one of Hassan's harlots but the Giaour and Leila's affair did not make Hassan happy. When he found out Leila had betrayed him he tied her up and threw her in the ocean to die. The Giaour decided he didn't like that very much so he chopped Hassan's head in half. Little did he know Hassan would be having a great time in the afterlife while he was miserable on earth sulking over his dead lover, Leila. The Giaour should have never taken revenge on Hassan because he had to live with the guilt, along with the pain of losing his loved one. Hassan would have eventually got what he deserved had the Giaour not killed him. As passionate as the Giaour was making the priests mad on his death bed also not a great idea. If you ask me the Giaour was setting himself up for misery and was a real Debi downer for the rest of his life.

Reading Twilight

I saw this article on the Arkansas Newswire today, and I thought of y'all. The study argues that high school students are reading books that are far below their reading level. As we've noticed over the course of the semester, Twilight seems to be a particular punching bag for those who have problems with the millennial generation overall. As the article notes,

Some examples of popular books written at a fifth-grade level include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Twilight, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

What do you think about Dr. Stostky's recommendation?

She feels that the system must increasingly challenge students in every subject they take, including the literature curriculum. Assigning books with low reading levels to upper-grade students is not conducive to this goal, even if the books have mature interest levels.

Does Twilight challenge high school students? Is it really at a fifth-grade reading level? What type of books or texts do you think high school students should read?