Tag: literature

January 20, 2021- An In-depth Study of George Orwell’s 1984

January 20, 2021 /

Wow, I have to knock the cobwebs out. And let me say, since my last entry the truth about what our future will eventually look like has been exposed. The move to silence descent against the establishment outed itself in a big way post the ‘capitol riots’. In no way do I condone or side with with the actions to break into the capitol. But, what a perfect opportunity create a tinderbox, build the fuel and when a spark eventually happens, watch it burn.

I know I have been AWOL in the last couple of weeks. Maybe I will go back to this period sometime in the future. I started writing this post on January 6, stubbing out what I thought I was going to write about January 8 before life got in the way. But for now, I want to look at the future. One of the things that has been on my mind since November of last year was the book 1984. I read it in 2019 for the first time as part of the local library reading program. I didn’t realize how much of an impact that book make in my mind.

When my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said the book. And, I got it. So I have been slowly reading it to really digest what is going on. I plan on writing about some of the real parallels in today’s culture and it’s futuristic relevance for something written seventy years ago.

If you want to read along with me, I would love it. I just want to warn you that this will be a series of articles that talk about the plot and the details within the book. So, consider the spoiler warning now and don’t be mad if we turn everything inside out when you haven’t had a chance to read the book.

This is a book that can be found in the library, audio book and purchased from $0.99 and up. It wouldn’t surprise me if every used book store has a copy. To me it appears that the average price is around $13.50 for paperback. So, if you are cheap like me you can look for a bargain or if you are just ready to get started it wont impact the budget too much. There is also a movie, of which I haven’t seen so I can’t vouch for it or the accuracy but I suppose that if you were just interested in the story and less so the implications you could check that out.

As a child, I spent a lot of time reading. My memory of summer was going to the library once a week and checking out several books. I would sometimes read two or three books a week. That has sort of diminished since college. It is not that I don’t enjoy it, I have lots of other pulls on my time as well. I am also part of the culinary book club so much of my reading time has been devoted to reading in that genre over the last couple of years. It wasn’t until I left my job that I started thinking about reading more.

Because of that, I have been tossing around the idea of an AltF4 reading list. I have been thinking about some of the books that have been really impactful in my life and building something that sort of encapsulates my brand of wackiness.

High school and college almost ruined literature for me. I can think of lists of ‘classic’ titles that I have read that I really would never care to open again. My anti-establishment streak made me suspicious of the designation ‘classic’ and the analysis to the nth degree made me question the author’s intent matched the analysis done in higher level English methodology.

I am open to being wrong here. For instance, my son’s favorite book is Oliver Twist which he has read many times. I have only read it once in AP English and that was enough for me. We both have different reactions to the title. He likes the story, enough said and I can respect that. In school there was a whole level of subtext applied that I never really bought into and wiped out of my mind.

If you really boil it down, not one title that I read in school was ever supported with evidence that a title was written with a deeper meaning in mind. I have a hard time justifying the existence of the analysis. I suppose that it is not to say that it can’t exist, but I haven’t seen evidence of such. This is not that. This isn’t a study into the subtext of 1984 but a comparison of the novel to current activity.

So, enough rambling. Now you know that I like reading and why; what presses my buttons on the subject and that I am starting a series on the analysis of 1984 by George Orwell. I hope that you will join me.

July 21, 2020 – The road not taken

July 21, 2020 /

Remember that poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost? If not, you can read it for yourself. I remember reading it several times throughout my youth. One time, I was a senior in high school in AP English and we were doing a third of a year on poetry. It was an early sign of my miswiring.

How can everything in literature have so much symbolism? We read work after work of supposed super deep and intertwined subtext. Be it ‘The Odyssey’ or ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘Moby Dick’, we spent weeks on weeks of analysis chapter by chapter. Granted, I think that some did such as Dante’s ‘Inferno’ or some Shakespeare.

I feel like there is no way all those stories can be as deep as we try to make it out in a classroom setting. It could be that the only literature deemed classic from the 1600s was Shakepeare and that only survived because his writing was brilliant from a 3D political commentary standpoint. Or it could be because very little was written and this was the best of the period. Either way, it always felt to me that much of the justification for teaching in such a manner was validation of a chosen career field rather than the confirmation of extensive symbolism.

One of my classmates wrote a response to Oliver Twist and in it had a rather insightful line. I will paraphrase by saying taking a live rabbit and cutting it up into pieces does not make a whole rabbit in the end; Something is lost in the process. I started thinking about this topic last night when I was pondering what I was going to write quickly so I could get to work before the heat set in. That is when I thought I would post project progress to keep it easy. Then I thought about “The Road Not Taken”, then I went on to bash the English profession.

This started with plugging the hole for the downdraft vent and removing the drain plumbing from the old bathroom I found several problems, the waste plumbing from the kitchen sink was broken, siding behind the kitchen was rotten. That got me going deeper into the sheathing which had termite damage. Fortunately, the framing was still solid, so all that had to be replaced.

From the bathroom standpoint, the sheetrock and finishing has been completed, it will be paint next. By the way, if anyone has any real research to prove that Moby Dick was more than a story, I would be interested in it. I have never vested the time myself to look, but I am willing to be wrong on this.