"I attended Southeastern's production of The Imaginary Invalid and watched the entire play."

I attended Southeastern's production of The Imaginary Invalid and watched the entire play and loved it! It was great entertainment and a wonderful piece of art. I came away feeling that I most definitely got my moneys worth out of the play.

To be honest, I really was not expecting the play to be that interesting or great at all. I sat towards the back of the chapel and was there only because it was apart of the assignment. As the play went on I became more and more intrigued and after the intermission I changed seats to get closer to the stage. Once I was in my new seat it seemed that I was now watching the play in High Definition; I could see facial expressions and notice details of the actors. In my new seat I was captivated by the play and story line.

There were so many elements that I really interested me about the play. The element that really drew me in was the elaborate costumes and stage. The vibrant colors and interesting stage design was so amazing to me, at one point I sat kind of awe struck by all that was taking place on the stage. Another element that I loved was the variety within the play. I personally felt that I could not possibly become bored with the play, because the play held my attention with many aspects. The characters carried the play with their dialogue and actions, but I also loved the random interjection of song and dance within the play, it was comical and artistic. I also loved the interesting character/girls who were invisible to the story line but obvious to the audience. The only down fall of the invisible character/girls or "dancers" (according to the bulletin) was at times they could be a little distracting to the story line, but I do believe they definitely added to the play by keeping my interest and attention with their comical expressions and actions.

I have seen quite a few plays performed by the theatre department here, but this one stands out as my complete favorite.

Overall I loved the play and if I would've had extra money I would have went and saw it twice, but I didn't so I will just have to enjoy the mental images that I captured from the play on Friday night. I believe the play was well worth the seven dollars I payed and a great experience I will not forget anytime soon.

hmmm

hmmm I'm not sure if we are supposed to blog tonight, and I looked at like 7 different peoples blogs earlier and saw no blogs.. so if there is i guess this is my pass.

ONLY positive!

Connections between the blogging project and the activities that take place in class come to my mind clearly and in quantity. There are many reasons why the project and activities correlate with each other. The main idea that I see both elements share is the tendency to promote further discussion which then hopefully leads to more thought provoking conversation on the text or ideas being covered. Both seem to attempt to engage the student further into the text or topic by making him or her dive deeper in to the content and not be complacent and only read the assignment but instead ponder it as well.

The blogging assignments definitely extend the reading process in many ways; it requires one to further engage, it requires one to absorb the text and ignites one's interest (well mine) to further discover the context and background of the text and author. In my opinion there are all positives towards blogging, such as extending the reading process and requiring one to further their writing skills because of the need of quality blog assignments.

I believe the blogging process and assignments have truly helped me further engage with the text than I usually would in a literature course. It makes me think about what I have previously read, reflect upon it and then write and discuss my ideas. I believe it has formed me into a better reader than I was before coming into the course and helped me progress my writing skills. Even though I enjoy blogging about our reading assignments at one point during the previous weeks I became a little complacent with fully engaging within my blogs and discussions. Although this is true, I came to the realization that I was missing out on the learning experience and immediately jumped back to work and have been doing my best to engage and learn more through the reading process and blog discussions. I now have nothing but positive feelings towards Blogs and discussions!

WHen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd PART DEUX

Once again, Walt Whitman is a very interesting writer. The lilac is used so much throughout the poem and as I read I so want to break the rules of "how to read a poem". I want to try to break the code, and figure out what the lilac symbolizes when instead I truly should just read and take in and admire the poem. How many of us started assuming all many different meanings for the lilac? I think many of us are guilty, I know everyone in my group started wondering what it truly meant. I know the rules say we should not try to read too much into the poem and I agree. Who is to say that the Whitman was not writing about a flower that he truly loved and that he happened to take notice of everywhere he went? Im not saying he didn't do that but I am saying that he must be a very interesting person to write about a flower in so much detail, but hey we all have our hobbies.

The literature reminds me of Job in some sort, I believe it is because of the poetic writing style as well as the images. I believe if you took a phrase or stanza from any point in this poem, one could paint a picture out of it, because of the supreme detail and imagery.

One of my favorite images and more gruesome lines from the poem is,

"I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,

And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them,

I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war,

But I was they were not as was thought,

They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not,"

I can just see a painting including all of these images portraying young men suffering at war for a cause, pride possibly?

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd 1-9

I thought this was a very interesting read, and a great peace of poetry. I have read Walt Whitman before when I was in high school, so I knew it would be a classic peace of literature when I saw he was assigned. Anyways, I noticed some very interesting things about the "lilacs"; it seemed that the lilac was everywhere such as the dooryard, farm-houses and not to mention the very gloomy areas, a procession, and I believe also in a swamp. It seemed that the lilac had very optimistic traits, it brightened all that it was around or it could be avery generic flower usable for any occasion, but I lean towards the first option.

My favorite quote of the assigned readings,

"Here, coffin that slowly passes,

I give you my sprig of lilac."

Of this quote, in my mind I picture Whitman looking into the darkness of death and the world and saying, "here take some love and life of lilac."

After reading the assignment I looked up a picture of a lilac.

It gave me the wish that I had a sprig of lilac to go around and brighten my day as well as others in this dark gloomy world filled with processions, dim-lit churches, swamps and old hermits.

I think we could all use some lilac in our lives, even if it is figurative, I believe there are certain things in life that can put a smile on a persons face within miliseconds, maybe thats what lilacs truly are, things that brighten lives.

Joel: apocalyptic and a DaVinci painting of the future

I had read Joel before, but I never took the time to admire the beauty of all of the descriptive images portrayed within the interesting Old Testament book of the Bible. It was both prophetic and current to the time and a call for a change.

The images covered by the book of Joel are unbelievable, as I read them I felt like I was looking at an actual painting. The more I read, the book was painting an image in my mind, that much like the word usage was beautiful. One image that really painted an image in my mind was,

"With a noise as of chariots

They leap on the tops of the mountains,

Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble,

Like a mighty people arranged for battle.

Before them the people are in anguish;

All faces turn pale.

They run like mighty men,

they climb the wall like soldiers;"

I can just see a whole field of men prepared for battle, then surging towards another rushing down a mountain. Though this is a mighty image, I do not believe that is what the author was attempting to portray but instead it seemed he was using metaphorical language.

There are so many images in this book of Joel that could be used as a painting that could be thought of a classic, a work to rival DaVinci himself.

Theme and Red Riding Hood

Wow... the writings on Little Red Riding Hood were very interesting to say the least. I never really thought of nursery rhymes and stories to be turned into stories like I read. They were pretty gruesome, and then some were quite entertaining, but as I was reading them a question came to thought, "I wonder how a kid would react if we read these versions of the stories?"

Imagine if we told children the first story by Charles Perrault, they would be very frightened I imagine. I feel like if grandmother ever caught a cold there would be no little children paying them visits anymore. I also believe it would probably give kids nightmares about the forest; I know if I was a child I would definitely be freaked out by a story of scary wolves.

Now, imagine if we told children the second story, The Girl and the Wolf, I feel like it would make a kid laugh. I personally know that my little cousins who are very young tend to love humor of people getting hurt (including BIG BAD WOLVES). Speaking of that type of humor how much different are we than children and their humor? I feel like we still have not grown out of seeing someone getting bopped in the head or falling off of a latter. I know I still love slap stick humor and the "Three Stooges."

Tying all of this blog into the idea of themes may seem odd, but work with me. Basically themes are underlining messages and ideas in a story that play very important pieces to the puzzle of a great piece of literature, well I think we should stepback and look at themes in everything, whether its in The Little Red Riding Hood or a sitcom on television, I believe there are themes behind them all.

Imagine if we knew the themes and intent of an authors literature.

Hopefully some of this made a little sense.

The THINGS They Carried

The Things They Carried was a very interesting read and seemed very different from our previous reads. Even though it seemed different, there was also the same theme of grief and tragedy all compiled together in an odd short story. Unlike some earlier reads, in my opinion it was filled with raw emotion and description that made me the audience feel as if I were one of the soldiers.

As I read the story it was hard for me to distinguish exactly what message the author was trying to convey to the audience in a message if any. I noticed the very descriptive narrating, especially when author Tim O'Brien was describing the soldiers and their gear. As I continued to read I realized that there really was a message or moral to the story. In my opinion I felt like like O'Brien was trying to capture the essence and reality of war, the grief, the unsure, the hate and the love were all things portrayed in the story.

Personally, as I read this it made my thoughts turn to the men and women who are serving in the "War on Terror" in the Middle East. Do they have these same characters? Men who are unsure what is next or what purpose they serve or if the woman they love truly loves back, I believe there are soldiers over seas dying everyday, just like Ted Lavender. I feel like this story relates very well to today, there is so much tragedy and grief carried because of war. Just like the characters in the story struggled to get accustomed to their battle lifestyles, I imagine so do our soldiers today. It really makes me feel for those men and women along with their families, they live out The Things They Carried.