May Memo Madness

    I'm alive! I survived finals week. Dare I say I'm thankful for this past week and a half of craziness because of how nice it feels now to have time? Time? What is that?
    The weekend was busy, too, but in a good way. Yesterday, I enjoyed what I only dreamed of having while I was working fast-food: a quiet Sunday evening. Even though the sun beat down during the day, once it went down it was cool and breezy, and the trees made lofty green rustling sounds. I sat on the deck rail while the guinea pigs puttered around and ate snacks, and I did my new journal challenge. I'm calling it May Memo Madness, and it starts officially today, Monday the 12th. Every day in May I am supposed to write an entry of 50 words (no more, no less), while sitting outside, writing in pencil, about anything signature from that day.
 

      This will be a good, quick way of recording memories. And it'll be a doable daily writing that will help me with word economy.

      Hop on, if you like. Happy Monday.

Happy Dickinson

     As far as personal life goes, writers don't have a very good reputation. The ones whose names everyone recognizes had preoccupations with the morbid, were depressed and alcoholic, had relationship problems, and died young. Emily Dickinson wasn't quite 56 when she died. She wrote a lot about death, although sometimes light-heartedly ("Because I could not stop for Death" --Death personified as a footman; "I died for Beauty-but was scarce" two dead people talking in their tombs about why they died).
      For my final essay in American Lit I, I think I'll write an analysis of a few of her darker-themed works. Maybe it will give me an idea why the best are so doomy. But before I dive into the gloom, I want to share a Happy Dickinson poem (if I'm not misreading it...which is quite possible).
      "I taste a liquor never brewed" celebrates nature--a nice theme, considering it's finally spring!
[Click to listen]

I taste a liquor never brewed --
From Tankards scooped in Pearl --
Not all the Vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air -- am I --
And Debauchee of Dew --
Reeling -- thro endless summer days --
From inns of Molten Blue --

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door --
When Butterflies -- renounce their "drams" --
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats --
And Saints -- to windows run --
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the -- Sun --

King Lear: Family Reunion

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     Madness, family discord, reconciliation. They're familiar themes. One of my favorite parts of King Lear is at the end Act IV Scene 7 when the king reunites with his banished daughter Cordelia, after being betrayed by his other daughters and romping around the countryside losing his mind. It must be really emotional played out on stage. Here are lines 65-76, 83-85):

LEAR Methinks I should know you, and know this man;

Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant

What place this is; and all the skill I have

Remembers not these garments; nor I know not

Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;

For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

CORDELIA                    And so I am, I am.

LEAR Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not.

If you have poison for me, I will drink it.

I know you do not love me; for your sisters

Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.

You have some cause, they have not.

CORDELIA                                       No cause, no cause.

...

CORDELIA Will't please your highness walk?

LEAR                                                                You must bear with me;

Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.

        This is the kind of family dynamic I want between King Durim and Princess Lili. I have a huge plot revision in mind for that story, but I have hardly touched it since my revisions a few months ago. I'm a bit nervous, so I've been putting it off. I know, that's bad. I keep on telling myself sternly that there's not enough time in the world to waste being afraid of messing up, but myself doesn't always listen.

Enemy Friend

       I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I'd like to file a complain about cheesy dialogue ("Can any of you boys direct me to the Smithsonian? I'm here to pick up a fossil" --Agent Romanov). But that is a subject for another post.

       What I want to say is that I love books and movies that make me cry.

        Near the end, Rogers (Captain America) has a faceoff with the enemy, a hired assassin with a mechanical arm. He is known as the Winter Soldier, but more importantly he is Roger's best friend from the war, only brainwashed and transformed into a cold-blooded killer.
          In this scene, Rogers throws away his shield. "I won't fight you," he says to the Soldier, who just put two bullet holes in his body. "You're my friend."

        "You're my mission!" the Soldier replies.

         "Then finish it."

         The Soldier attacks. He lays punch after punch, but Rogers doesn't fight back. Bruised, cut, bleeding, broken, and with one eye swollen, Rogers says, "Cause I'm with you till the end of the line."

       

I don't know about you, but it reminded me of someone else who called his enemy friend and took all the punches.

Most Loved, Despised

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         We're up to Shakespeare in our British literature class. This is my first time reading King Lear, unless I read a children's version before. The two plays we read before now are Everyman and Dr. Faustus, and I like King Lear much better. The plot-line is more realistic, the interaction of the characters more dynamic, and the fact that they have names like Oswald and Regan etc. and not Gluttony or Good Deeds makes it feel a lot more modern. My favorite bit so far is the King of France's proposal speech to King Lear's daughter, Cordelia. Actually, it's more like an acceptance speech, or a savior's speech, because just before this King Lear disowns Cordelia and revokes both his blessing and the dowry (which was supposed to be one-third of his kingdom). Cordelia also has just been rejected by the Duke of Burgundy.

Here are birdy sounds for you to listen to as you read.

"Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;

Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!

Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:

Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.

Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect

My love should kindle to inflamed respect.

Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.

Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy

Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind;

Thou losest here, a better where to find."

--King Lear, Act 1 Scene 1

Word of the Day

       According to the Oxford English Dictionary, quiddity means "the inherent nature or essence of a person or thing; what makes a thing what it is." Example sentence: Chivalry is the quiddity of knighthood.

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         My Brit Lit professor required us to write a midterm essay over any medieval work from our reading list. I picked  "Le Roman de Tristran," Thomas of England's rendition of the story of Tristan and Isolde who are two ill-fated lovers in the days of King Arthur.  I figured that studying the chivalry and medieval hero aspect of it, as well as identity and the characterization of good and bad qualities, would be useful for writing Wynna.


If you're interested, here are excerpts from my paper: “The Code: Chivalry and Identity in Le Roman de Tristran” 

Small But Mighty: Book Review

     This is a blog about writing, not photography, so please don't notice the bad lighting or the tchotchke (definition of tchotchke here) surroundings. Please do notice the title of the book and the sticker on the cover: The Reading Promise. BARGAIN  BOOK $4.99. Actually, it was even more of a bargain, but I peeled off the big, red $1.00 sticker.

      The Reading Promise is by Alice Ozma. It is her autobiography and centers around the 1,000-night reading pact she made with her father, which ended up lasting 3,218 nights. He read to her every night for 9 years, from the time she was nine to the day she went off to college at eighteen. That kind of commitment puts a shadow over things I've neglected, like writing, and blog posting!
      Midterms and spring break kept me from posting the past two weeks, and I think that's understandable. But what made it easy was that sometimes I feel like my words fall into a cyberspace black hole. Today, though, I was reminded that people do take time out of their hectic schedules to pop in here at The Well.

     Whether you have read every post since I started or just the posts that grabbed your attention or you only look at the pictures or have only read the title of one post you are a Well-Wisher, and you give me power to write.

Thank you for visiting!

Free photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos.net

     Now, on to the book. Instead of the usual 5-star rating, pros and cons review, I am giving you my 4 favorite lines. I actually underlined them and dog-eared the pages, so I could go back to them. My before self would be horrified, but that's another story.