You Got Mail

Right now as I am sitting staring at my computer screen, my desk is vibrating wildly due to messages from friends of mine that live in England, Italy, Miami, Spain, and the US. In less than a second, their thoughts are transported almost magically across the air and are expressed to me on my small cellphone's screen. With these modern tools, I am able to check up with my friends that are thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds. In a society that is so advanced technologically and so interconnected, it is difficult to imagine how the Bennets lived. How should it feel to be isolated and alone in the world with the company of a flimsy paper and pen? Would it be possible to nowadays escape from all the viral information we are suffocated with in our everyday life? I think not...

It is incredible to read about how the Bennets' only way of communication was through letters. When Lydia decides to run away with Wickham, I think that the way that Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, and all the Bennet sisters reacted was absolutely amazing. I think that if I decided to run away with some girl, my parents would go absolutely insane. I think that the society in which we live in has become accustomed to being fed information constantly. Had I lived in 19 century England, then my parents would have just hoped that I would be off getting married in some random town.

Zuleta's Hands

I really enjoyed Zuleta's blog about "Hand Gestures." Believe it or not, I have never watched the movie "Pride and Prejudice." For now, I've preferred to stay away from the movie in order to make my own little movie inside my head. Zuleta's blog, however, showed me a crucial aspect of the novel which I hadn't really focused on. Prejudice in the novel is a very shrouded theme in the novel and personally, in my own little movie I was making in my head prejudice hadn't come up as clearly as it did in the movie "Pride and Prejudice." It's really interesting to see how body language can show so much about inter human relationships. Soon after I finish my reading of Pride and Prejudice I will check out the movie myself!

Men Men Menly Manly Men Men Men....

HELP:

DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW A MAN SHOULD ACT NOWADAYS?

Should I wear a "thug life" t-shirt and be a straight up gangsta-homie with everyone I meet?

Should I wear a nicely trimmed tailormade three piece suit with a bowler hat and use big fancy words?

Or how about I just wear a nice tie-dye shirt with some rice-picking purple pants with a big-ass peace sign hanging around my neck and give out only peace and love?

Men have always been evolving. I don't understand, but it seems to be that we have gone through hundreds of fashions and mannerisms in the past century! What is the obsession with showing off and trying to always be the "newer" more "modern" man? Why has it gone from talking about "fancy looking madams in quaint carriages" to "get'n me sum bOaTz & hOezz"?

As a male member of society, it's difficult to know what it is exactly I am supposed to do in order to fit in.

Reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice honestly makes me sort of sad....

I would absolutely love to be alive during this epoch where it is the norm to be a nicely dressed gentlemanlike person. Nowadays, I would just be called a fag for having the audacity to use words like "piqued" or "panegyric" or even the velvety "acquiesce." Characters like Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Bennet all make me extremely jealous because I would be more than happy to live like them without getting shot today.

No, but really... I find it really interesting that people have changed so much and it really makes me wonder where we're all going as a people? How might we look in two centuries?

Delicate Diction

Ok so here we were reading about incest, family murders, apocalyptic cannibals, satanic music, prostitutes, and alcohol and suddenly now we begin to read about some poofy-dressed, fancy speaking, english women??? Ok.... so either Mr. Tangen is going through some type of personality crisis or he misspelled the name of the book we were supposed to be reading...

I am really enjoying this novel although the macho misogynist inside of me is telling me not to. I like the fact that in Pride and Prejudice I do not have to dig for any hidden messages. I am simply falling in love with all of the characters and taking their superficial problems and issues and making them mine for the time that I read the book. I love the way that Jane Austen presents all of the characters to us. As readers, we are being spoon fed all of the information and honestly, it is quite lovely. Austen makes it very easy to follow her story and uses very elegant and intricate yet simple language to do so.

For now, I do not have absolutely any criticism. I am enjoying the book and am interested in seeing whether Jane Austen will be able to maintain this effortless grasp on me as an effeminate reader.

Death and Skull

In Act V Scene I of Hamlet we see the appearance of two very important objects that have a great effect on Hamlet's mental reasoning. I am referring to Yorick's Skull and Ophelia's corpse in Act V Scene I. In this scene, Hamlet is exposed to two lifeless bodies that make him value the unavoidability of death. Throughout the whole play, Hamlet deals with the inner conflict about whether he should or should not kill his uncle and avenge his father's death. Most of the play is made up of Hamlet's long intricate soliloquies in which he expresses his thoughts towards death. Watching David Tennant's version and reading the play, I feel that it is not until this part of the play where Hamlet sees and interacts with Yorick's and Ophelia's dead bodies that heactually decides that he must do something in order to avenge his father. The corpses instigate a certain change in Hamlet's mind and remind Hamlet of the frailty of life. It is because of this that I am convinced that if Hamlet had not been exposed to these emotionally upsetting stimuli, then he would have probably not been able to so aptly kill his uncle.

Philip H. Calderon. The Young Lord Hamlet, 1868.

I found this work very interesting because it depicts Hamlet as a young child. In the highly imaginative scene, Hamlet is actually riding on the back of Yorick. This helps us imagine the relationship that Yorick and Hamlet had and how the encounter with his skull may have affected Hamlet emotionally

Crazy

Ok so here I am reading Hamlet and watching David Tennant's Hamlet on YouTube and once again I'm faced with the same question that has been bothering me from the beginning of the whole play.

Is Hamlet going crazy?

I have absolutely no idea whether I should trust in Hamlet as a reader or whether I should pity his condition. In all of ACT III we can see a Hamlet that shows illogical and nonsensical traits although there is a certain "method to his madness." An example is when he is with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and begins to randomly talk about the recorders. At first I thought, "Oh lord, here we go again with his foolish behavior" but then out of no where, Hamlet actually turns the whole recorder business into a way of insulting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Also, the whole play that Hamlet decides to put on is very curious with all the absurd players with absurd dialogs. To most of the people in the court, Hamlet has gone crazy. They think that his actions are completely irrational when the truth is that Hamlet is actually thinking quite clearly through it all. His lucidity contrasts greatly to his odd behavior.

I am interested in hearing all of my classmates' opinions on this subject and I hope that in the play we may pick up more clues that might help me answer this question of Hamlet's sanity.