Please bear with me while I finish posting my school stuff...just want to keep safe (hmm...I wonder if "safe" and li.ru can be used in one sentence?) all the "creations" that have caused me so much headache during last 4 months in case something happens to my computer.

We’ve spent a lot of time this session reading pieces that are considered classic LITERATURE. Going beyond the boundaries of our textbook, what example from popular culture would you point to as literary? (It might be a popular novel, a movie, a TV show, a music album, etc.) What leads you to choose this work as something that rises above other examples of popular culture to be truly outstanding?

There are hardly many people out there who would not agree that today’s world is overabundant with information. Every single day, at any time of day and night, one can turn on a computer and learn about the latest news, gossip, music albums, or a new novel that has popped out of nowhere on the bestseller list. The creators and distributors of this information, however, seem to have stopped caring a while ago whether the material printed, recorded on video, or CD is worth paper, tape, and discs wasted. A significant number of contemporary books, for example, are written in a great hurry, which, especially in case with projects that require extensive research or deal with technical subjects, leads to numerous mistakes, hundreds of which get later listed on the errata pages of the creators of these books. Nevertheless, few publishers and authors seem to remember or care that writing a book should not take as little time as reading it: 432 pages in three months – this is pretty much the only “rogue” thing about one of the latest bestselling authors.

The rant above is not, however, to say that no decent books get published today. There are hundreds of works by many authors that offer interesting plots and good writing. But, even taking this into consideration, it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that any of these books will ever be able to replace or even to join the ranks of classics of the previous centuries. This has to do with the fact that testing boundaries of readers’ imagination is the main and only concern of the majority of popular contemporary authors (more vampires, anyone?). Appealing to people’s emotions in not a cheap tear jerking way, challenging the society and its norms by raising meaningful questions, and creating characters that are so complete that they almost jump off the pages seems to be a thing of a distant past. Taking into consideration how different the definitions of “pop culture” and “literature” are, it seems that these words simply cannot be used in one sentence without creating an oxymoron. More often than not, a work of literature is not what crowds the top spots of bestseller lists; it is something that is reserved for a selected group of people who look beyond bright covers and smart add campaigns; it something that cannot and should not be described in a 140 words tweet.

There is hardly another play in the world of literature that has enjoyed popularity as lasting as that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet has been reenacted thousands of times in theaters all over the world, and every generation, every culture attempts to find solutions to some of the most pressings problems of the day in it. A gloomy, disquieting atmosphere of unceasing conspiracies, executions, political, and social unrest prevailing in the 17th century England is among such problems for Shakespeare’s contemporaries. This state of affairs causes the discord between dream and reality that is impossible to overcome even for such an extraordinary individual as Hamlet, who faces an extremely difficult task: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!” (Shakespeare I.v.1380)

While all parts of the play work together in explaining the protagonist’s motives and actions, it is Hamlet’s soliloquies that help to better understand his inner struggles. Many scholars believe that the soliloquy beginning “To be, or not to be” is the “crux of the drama”, and this is rightfully so. This speech, in which the protagonist meditates upon how to choose between “continued existence or non-existence; consciousness or oblivion; life or death,” reveals the struggle that goes inside him (Petronella 79). It is in these lines that Hamlet admits to doubts that have been tormenting him since the conversation with the ghost of his father, whose request of revenge appeals to the prince’s sense of duty and puts him in a very difficult position.

After learning the truth, whether Hamlet wants it or not, he has no choice but to avenge family’s honor by killing Claudius, who lead by the thirst for power, has committed fratricide, and most likely to die himself. While the prince has no doubt about his uncle being an embodiment of all evil, who if given time, will cause even greater harm to his country and people, he is baffled by the fact that the only way to eradicate this evil is to sink to the level of Claudius and commit a murder himself. This contradiction is one of the main sources of the protagonist’s inner torments – on one hand, there is the King’s spirit that appeals to his the sense of duty; on the other hand, there is Hamlet’s own ideas of what is right and wrong, his humanistic beliefs. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise to the reader that he chooses to take time in order to think well about his course of actions.

Hamlet’s dilemma is further complicated by the fact that, no matter which way he chooses to go, it is very unlikely that after all that has happened in the last few months, he will be able to ever find happiness. Even if he avenges the dead King without losing his own head in the process, the prince will have no choice but to endure a life in the world that he despises, among people he mistrusts and in whose virtue he no longer believes. This raises an important question that the protagonist attempts to answer in his soliloquy: Is miserable existence that awaits him worth living for or is it better to put an end to all suffering?

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. . . .” (Shakespeare III.i.1400)

Suicide is often considered to be a lot of weak-minded people, but Hamlet is anything but weak. The unrest in his soul and disturbing thoughts that he toys with are more than understandable taking into consideration what he is going trough. “Starting with his very first soliloquy, before the ghost and Ophelia further compound and complicate his problems, the play shows that. . . . Hamlet’s troubles have already produced in him a neurotic melancholy” (Newell 40). During a very short period of time that follows, the protagonist undergoes a complete transformation from being a young man, who leads a carefree life, is in love, and believes in goodness of human nature, into a grown man, who becomes emotionally and mentally disturbed because of the knowledge about the murder of his father, growing contempt to a hasty and incestuous marriage of his mother, and the sudden aloofness of his love, Ophelia, that is caused by intrigues of Polonius and the King.

As one can clearly see, at the moment of expressing his thoughts in the soliloquy, the protagonist is conflicted by many things: he questions the veracity of ghost who might just as well be an evil spirit, tries to completely reevaluate his ideas about the world and people that surround him, but, most importantly, the prince is perplexed by his own failure to make a final decision and act on it. Because of this disturbed mental state, Hamlet sees everything in very gloomy colors. Life, in his eyes, is nothing but suffering from “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (Shakespeare III.i.1400). Profusion of words that the prince chooses to describe his existence – “troubles,” “calamity,” “wear,” “bear,” “suffer” – further emphasizes his perception of life as of a terrible burden, which makes him consider ending it (Newell 40).

Despite this moment of weakness, Hamlet is not a coward. Making a grave mistake that might give birth to even more evil and will continue a chain of injustice is the only thing he is afraid of. This is why only having received a proof of Claudius’s guilt, does Hamlet decide to go through with his vengeance. The protagonist’s determination and willingness to sacrifice his own life to avenge his father are even more impressive if one takes into consideration his obvious fear of and doubts about death:

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? (Shakespeare III.i.1400)

When Hamlet asked himself a question of whether “to be or not to be,” he thought about ending his own life. It might seem that even though he did not commit a suicide, having rebelled against the King, the prince has nevertheless chosen to not be. This is not, however, the case: “To be” for the protagonist is to make sure that his life, no matter how long, has a meaning and that he is remembered by his people as someone who was not afraid to fight the evil, which is exactly what Hamlet has chosen.

Works Cited
Newell, Alex. “The Dramatic Context and Meaning of Hamlet’s ‘To Be or Not to Be’ Soliloquy.” PMLA. 80.1 (1965): 38-50. Print.
Petronella, Vincent. “‘To Be or Not to Be’ Soliloquy: Once More Unto the Breach." Studies in Philology. 71.1 (1974): 72-88. Print.
Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 11th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2010. 1354 - 1464. Print.

It is frequently pointed out by critics that oral tradition is an integral part of African-American literature. Not surprisingly, being a part of this tradition, Black music – spirituals, shouts, jubilees, gospel songs, field cries, blues, jazz, etc. – has found its way into poems of so many African-American authors. While the varieties of African-American music are many, few other genres had impact on black literary history as significant as that of blues (Ford). Many of the poems written by Langston Hughes – the author often considered to be the founder of blues poetry (Pounce, 507) – exemplify the greatest qualities of blues as it merges on paper with traditional poetic techniques (Rampersad, 985). One of his earlier blues poems, “The Weary Blues,” in particular, serves as a great illustration of how much influence this musical genre had on the Black poetry.

Blues – music that “describes the daily experience of human oppression, while also maintaining a breath of hope” (Banes) – inspired many black writers beginning from 1920. Despite being frequently imagined as the muse of African-American poetry, blues stanza, however, was rarely employed by poets as a literary form. This had to do with the fact that, while having many different shapes, most of the classic blues songs follow a pattern, in which the first two lines are repeated and all three lines rhyme. Therefore, in written form, the poems employing the blues stanza could be seen by some as too repetitive or monotone (Ford). This is why, in order to add more variety and interest to their verses, many poets for whom blues was an inspiration combined and modified the shape of its stanza while preserving themes of the genre (Banes).

“The Weary Blues” is a great illustration of how the mood of blues can be carried through a poem in a way that does not diminish its stylistic complexity and interest. This poem is interesting for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it combines two voices – that of a narrator and that of a performer. Read independently, the words of the narrator and the words of the black singer could make up two separate poems that differ not only in their main character but also in their moods and connection to blues. While the body of the poem, where the voice of the main character narrates about an encounter with a black singer at a bar, seems to have very little to do with blues stylistically, the words of the singer, which are marked by the indented lines, most certainly possess many of the characteristics of this genre:

I heard a Negro play.
He did a lazy sway . . . .
He did a lazy sway . . . .
O Blues!
Sweet Blues!
O Blues!
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died." (Langston, 977)
As one can see, this excerpt follows the pattern of a traditional blues stanza – one line is repeated twice, although sometimes with a little modification, and all three lines rhyme: “I heard a Negro play. / He did a lazy sway. . . . / He did a lazy sway . . . .” (Langston, 3-7). Throughout this part of the poem, Hughes employs the technique used by many African-American poets, who often embellished rather simple blues stanza by providing alternate phrasing of the repeated line (Ford). The author, however, goes a step beyond that and, in addition to alternating the phrasing – “Ain’t got nobody in all this world. / Ain’t got nobody but ma self.” (Langston, 19-22) – shifts the order of the lines in the tercet – “O Blues! / Sweet Blues! / O Blues!” (Langston, 11-16). These seemingly minor changes help to create a more interesting verse while preserving the spirit of a traditional blues song.

In addition to somewhat following the traditional blues stanza, Hughes makes sure that emotions of the singer are in line with the spirit of blues. In the performer’s rather simple song one can clearly hear the notes of melancholy and sadness that are the integral part of blues songs. This melancholy is emphasized by the poem’s rather slow rhythm. Another peculiarity of the poem lies in the presence of two voices that are responsible for a little confusion as to which “I” belongs to which speaker. This creates an interesting effect: “[Through] his imaginative involvement the speaker has been transformed, he has become a blues singer himself” (Ponce, 519). Finally, “The Weary Blues” has “the interaction or call-and-response” that makes “the reader feel [as] an active participant in the ‘concert’ provided by the poet as musician, as performer” (Davidas, 267).

Langston Hughes was the first African-American poet to extensively use blues in his work. He saw the music of blues as an integral part of Black culture, as something that could be understood and appreciated by common people, something that made him, person of a different social standing, closer to the working class and his poetry more authentic. While blues inspired poems of Hughes are many, “The Weary Blues” occupies a special place among them because, in addition to being one of his first poems of this genre, it is the first work in American poetry to combine black and white rhythms and forms: “In the process [of writing it], Hughes had taken an indigenous African American art form. . . .and preserved its authenticity even as he formally enshrined it in the midst of a poem in traditional European form” (Rampersad, 985). This, among other things, helped Hughes to set his poem apart and to win, in 1925, the first prize for poetry in a literary contest sponsored by Opportunity magazine.

Works Cited
Banes, Ruth A. "Relentlessly writing the weary song: Blues legacies in literature." Canadian Review of American Studies 21.1 (1990): n.pag. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
Davidas, Lionel "'I, Too, Sing America': Jazz and Blues Techniques and Effects in Some of Langston Hughes's Selected Poems."Dialectical Anthropology 26.3/4 (2001): 267-272. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
Ford, Karen J. "These old writing paper blues: The blues stanza and literary poetry." College Literature 24.3 (1997): n.pag. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
Hughes, Langston. “The Weary Blues.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 11th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2010. 977. Print.
Ponce, Martin Joseph "Langston Hughes's Queer Blues." Modern Language Quarterly 66.4 (2005): 505-537. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.
Rampersad, Arnold. “Hughes as an Experimentalist.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 11th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2010. 985-986. Print.

I'm taking English Composition this semester, and even though, after acing Comp I last spring, I didn't have many fears about this class, I wasn't too happy to learn that we would be studying literature during the following 15 weeks. I sure like to read, but expressing my thoughts about literary works on paper has never been my favorite task. As you know, I do write occasional reviews here, but the majority of them definitely lack any of the qualities that make up for a thoughtful and worthwhile criticism. Moreover, I write these reviews not because I enjoy expressing my opinion about books so much but because, this being my least favorite part of writing, I want to challenge myself in hopes of one day getting a little better.

Right now we are almost two-thirds through the program for this semester. The first month or so was devoted to short stories by different American authors whose names (with exception of Faulkner) I have never heard before. I enjoyed to a certain degree most of the stories we have read, my favorite being "A Rose for Emily" and "Parker's Back" and, in general, would say that it was a time well spent. Next came the poetry, which, having read more poems written in English in the last month than ever before, I came to absolutely hate. Based on what we had to work with, I came to conclusion that English speaking poets do not see any sort of rhyme to be a necessary attribute of their works. I will even go so far as to say that I enjoyed reading Russian translations of Shakespeare's sonnets much more than their originals. Below, for example, is one of the poems by William Stafford that we had to read:

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
I certainly do not see how this can be called a poem and why it is worthy of being printed in a textbook. Yes, the words are very well chosen and the sentences are embellished in many ways, but, in my opinion, the same could have been much better said in prose. Our book tried to justify publishing this kind of creations by saying that it is a choice of words, not a rhyme, that is an essential component of a good poem. I most definitely disagree with it - both are equally important, and neither rhyme alone nor a choice of words make for a beautiful verse. Take classical Russian poetry, for example: the works of our greatest poets are incredibly melodious and are a joy to read due to both a subject matter and various types of rhyming. Having struggled through every single one of the poems we had to read, I once again came to a conclusion that English language is just not poetic enough. No wonder, neither Pushkin nor Lermontov are widely known here - the beauty or their work simply cannot be translated into English.

Unfortunately, my next assignment will be a poetry one, and judging from the first paper I had to write for this class, it will be a tough task. It took me forever to come up with something to say about symbols in one of the short stories we have read during this semester. I ended up choosing "Parker's Back" because it seemed to be the most symbolic one and have spent almost two weeks trying to put together 800+ words research paper basically out of a thin air because, considering that the story was hardly a groundbreaking accomplishment by an author, there was practically no information to research. I ended up just writing what I knew the teacher would want to hear and, to give it a look of a research paper, sprinkled a few of those very few suitable quotes that I was able to find in most of the paragraphs. This, to my great satisfaction, worked very well, end I ended up with an "A".

Long and boring, posted mostly for me

Месяцев 8 назад я подсела на сериал "Grey's Anatomy", что случилось совсем неожиданно и очень сильно меня удивило. Я слышала об этом шоу много раз, но никогда не обращала на него внимания, т.к. я терпеть не могу все, что связано с медициной. Понятия не имею с какого перепугу я решила посмотреть первый эпизод сериала в интернете, однако, после его завершения, я не могла оторваться следующие несколько дней, в течении которых я умудрилась пересмотреть все 4 сезона.

Вплоть до конца 3-го сезона, я была в полном восторге от увиденного. Сюжет, диалоги и игра актеров были на высоте и непременно вызывали у меня улыбку, слезы и целый ряд различных эмоций. Начало истории отношений Meredith и Derek я до сих пор считаю the cutest, hottest, and most interesting из всего, что мне довелось увидеть в сериалах за мою короткую жизнь. Последний же эпизод второго сезона вызвал у меня настоящую бурю эмоций, что мне не приходилось до этого испытывать от просмотра ни одного другого сериала, за исключинем, пожалуй, "Buffy", огромным фанатом которого я была в далеком детстве :).

Четвертый сезон был намного хуже первых трех, однако, принимая во внимание то, что я умудрилась посмотреть все предыдущие эпизоды за несколько дней, я была довольно эмоционально накручена, чтобы не обращать внимания на многие его недостатки. Разумеется, завершив просмотр последнего эпизода, я с нетерпением ожидала начала 5-го сезона, каждый новый эпизод которого я теперь могла смотреть с остальной частью Америки. Сказать, что я была разочарована этим сезоном, ничего не сказать.

К моему огромному сожалению, сериал, который я полюбила overnight, превратился в полную пародию самому себе. Каждый новый эпизод я безуспешно пыталась найти то something special, что изначально привлекло меня к "Grey's Anatomy", пока, окончательно потеряв надежду, не перестала его смотреть. Я уже давно собиралась пожаловаться на столь неприятное развитие событий, что очень помогло мне в написании моего последнего evaluation essay...

Why "Grey's Anatomy" sucks these days...

Сегодня нам, наконец, вернули второе сочинение по английскому. На этот раз задача состояла в интервьюировании любого человека, личность или жизнь которого мы считаем тем или иным образом интересными. Поскольку мой круг общения в США в данный момент очень ограничен, брать интервью мне реально было не у кого.

Разумеется, будучи находчивым украинским студентом, я не долго думая полезла в интернет. Там я нашла вот это интервью одного из участников блокады Ленинграда, которого я, не долго думая, решила выдать за соего дедушку. Разумеется не совсем честно, однако интервью, которым я воспользовалась, за исключением нескольких коротких вопросов журналиста, полностью основанно на рассказе от первого лица и не подвергалось какой-либо литературной обработке. Для облегчения совести, притворюсь, что его для меня кто-то на диктофон записал.

Комментарий преподавателя: "Mia, this is an amazing paper. It is worth publishing. What a story. I was riveted while I was reading it. You only have a couple of typos, and I put in a header for you. I'm going to grade this as a final paper. Be proud. You have a 100. Professor Orr". По идее, это должен был быть наш first draft, который препод исправляет и отправляте обратно на доработку, мне же его засчитали как окончательный вариант. Мелочь, а приятно Ж)

If you feel like checking it out

Заранее приношу извинения за нижеследующие диферамбы в свою честь ))) Начиная учебу в США я больше всего боялась класса English Composition. На это у меня было три причины: во-первых, я очень много наслышана о том, что для многих Американцев это один из самых сложных и нелюбимых классов, во-вторых, принимая во внимание то что английский не мой родной язык, я боялась, что мне будет намного труднее, чем англоговорящим студентам, в третьих, мне моя школьная училка привила мысль, что я хреновый писатель. К тому же, сколько я себя помню, у меня в школе по русскому постоянно еле натягивалась четверка, т.к., несмотря на то, что я обожаю читать и перечитала кучу литиратуры за свою довольно короткую жизнь, я не очень большая грамматейка. Представьте мое удивление, когда по своему первому сочинению написанном на не родном мне языке (в Америке) я получила 97 баллов!!!

Задание состояло из прочтение эссе "Rick" by Brad Benioff, в котором он рассказывает о своем школьном тренере, написания краткого содержание этого эссе и изложения собственных мыслей по поводу прочтенного. Перевые две части задания были довольно простым, с последней пришлось повозиться. В результате, я решила "обосрать" мою школьную училку по биологии, которая полностью отбила у меня желание изучать когда-то очень любимый мною предмет. Разумеется, я значительно преукрасила и преувеличила реальные события (только около 10% сказанного соответствует действительности) + досочиняла несколько других моментов для придачи более драматичного оттенка (факт выйгрыша мной олимпиад самая наглая ложь ))... По содержанию мое соченение вышло вроде как неплохим, однако, больше всего я горжусь тем, что я не допустила ни одной грамматической и пунктуационной ошибки (по мнению учителя), большинство моих ошибок - просто тупые опечатки. Ниже привожу свой "шедевр" с коментариями препода (красным), может кому-нибудь пригодится...

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