HTRLLAP: The deep intertextuality of it all...

We as readers always have the tendency to wonder at the astounding creativity and originality of authors, or at least we did. Without a doubt, authors are still master storytellers, but Foster makes clear in chapter five of How to Read Literature Like a Professor that authors, like everyone else, pull details, plots, and story lines of past "greats" to make a whole new work of literature, a masterpiece in itself. The technical name of this art is intertextuality, or the ongoing interaction between poems and stories which brings multiple layers of meaning to the text, some of which readers may not even consciously notice.

One of the main examples intertextuality that pops into my mind is Shakespeare's tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet. Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, parent's don't see eye to eye, boy and girl plan escape, confusion, tragedy, death/separation. When put in these simple terms, this has become the standard plotline of almost every tragic romance published to this day.
Another work that is very frequently referenced is Tolkien. Almost every story of overcoming one's own evil self for the greater good of the whole can be linked back to Tolkien's works.

HTRLLAP: How to Read for "QUESTS"

"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

These first words, of Tolkien's first book in his Epic Lord of the Rings world of Middle Earth, started the story that would capture the hearts and minds of people a world over for decades.

The eternal battle between good and evil rages on in a world beyond our comprehension in a time long ago. The battle has been quiet for generations, until a hobbit named Bilbo finds a ring, goes on an assortment of journeys, comes back home, and passes the ring on to his young relative, Frodo Baggins, and with that, a journey began that won't soon be forgotten by anyone for years to come.

Our Quester - Frodo and Samwise

Place to go - Mordor
Reason to go - To destroy the Ring of Power and save Middle Earth
Challenges - orks, Saurman, Sauron, Witch King of Angmar, She Lob
Real reason to go - To overcome his personal evil to grow as a person and bring about the greater good of Middle Earth

Style Anslysis

Fitzgerald's reflective and epiphanic tones communicate his ultimate realization that in human life, no matter the scenario, our nature causes us to lose sight of what will truly make us happy. Happiness doesn't always rest in success, in achieving our dream, happiness is rooted not in the resolution, but in the dream.

As the narrator is watching the scene around him, as the "moon rose higher" and the "inessential houses began to melt away," Fitzgerald immediately jumps into an obvious extended metaphor of our human condition. When the true and pure light of the moon shone down on the world, the unimportant, and extra things that humans had added faded away from the narrator's sight. He saw the "old island" that was once there, the "fresh, green breast of the new world." When the push comes to shove, when the hard times and the piercing, yet subtle light of the truth pokes through to our innermost thoughts and emotions, the useless material things fade away, revealing the original base outline of our happiness, unclouded by materialism.

As the narrator broods, he thinks of Gatsby who "could hardly fail to grasp" his "dream," when all along, he had already moved passed his dream. That it lied in the past. His goal, his happiness, lied not in the accomplishment of his dream, but the mere concept of having a dream. The concept of hope, of having something to move toward is what Fitzgerald proposes is the true root of having happiness. Humans must always have a dream, a goal to work towards. A dream that lies "back in that vast obscurity beyond the city." The happiness that consists not of accomplishing our dream, but the happiness is in the concept of the dream itself.

My Wood

I reacted very well to the work "My Wood." It was a great work, and made the point very clearly. We have sunk ourselves into a world of consumerism. Once we get what we want, we only want more, and we want change. It's not actually that we personally want more, our society has just molded us to think that's the only thing that can make us happy.

The point that the author is trying to make is that humans are not necessarily designed to be like we are now, that our society has molded us into these morphed, transmogrified, mutated beings that we are now.

Reading List

I have read 3 books, an equivalent of 5 books.

-Camelot, 145 pgs (3 books)

-The Great Gatsby, 180 pgs (1 book)

-If I Stay, 272 pgs (1 book)

I enjoyed reading Camelot because it has a great plot with some small bit of historical accuracy buried somewhere deep within the faeries, witches, and incest. The book tells the story of King Arthur, and obviously Camelot, of the rise and fall of the system of chivalry thought up bravely by King Arthur. This book was very interesting, because it combines all of the great elements of a comedy, a tragedy, and drama all in one play.

Consumerism Quote

There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

-G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

This quote speaks volumes about the solution to our main problem. Our mindset. We as consumers, will never solve our problems of over-consumption without spending ourselves dry, unless we train ourselves to want less. This quote is from many years ago, and it's obvious that the idea of reducing our consumption is going to improve our lifestyles. And this was written even before the big problem of overconsumption that we know today came out.

This quote has hit me very well, and it's kind of like a duh moment. This quote seems totally profound, yet when looked at in its simplest concepts, it is one of the most obvious, yet most overlooked things in our society.

www.walmart.com

This advertising slogan, by Walmart, "Save money, live better," was Walmart's strategy to reach out to customers during the recession. Walmart used this new slogan to tell customers that they are looking out for their basic needs, they realize that money is tight, and they want customers to know that they can, for the best price, give customers the best value on the best products to get them through this recession.

This strategy is using a lot of pathos, they are appealing to the desire of consumers to have a solution, to have something that will make them happy, and will come at a price they can afford in this time of recession.

I react well to this advertising technique used by Walmart, they are not giving out false information, they really do have great prices, and with all of the different items in their stores, there must be something that would make someone's life easier. Whose to say that I can't find something in there that will make my life easier, and help me "live better."