Author: admin

I have had a wide variety of experiences writing about literature between high school and college. High school demanded the 5-paragraph model or the 8-paragraph model, although the former was always the preferred structure. They stressed the use of evidence, requiring us to use multiple pieces of evidence from the literature we were writing on, and at times, other scholarly sources. We were often allowed to pick our own arguments about the texts we had to choose from. They usually wanted these papers to sit anywhere between 3-5 pages, which meant the paragraphs had to be quite beefy typically.

College was a very interesting and unexpected change. Many of my papers and essays have been significantly shorter in college. Professors demand brevity, clarity, and specifics. Instead of pushing us to use more evidence, many professors have focused on choosing the right and best kinds of evidence for our arguments. Essays and papers may be five paragraphs, but most professors have emphasized a word count or page count over requiring a particular structure.

Overall, I felt that my AI of choice (Copilot) was able to provide a fairly comprehensive summary of Jame’s article, especially when asked for a shorter, more concise summary. The summary hit on key points such as the associations made between hysteria, redundancy, and menopausal woman, where menopause is seen as a period in which hysteria is most prone and the point at which women become redundant, losing social significance and value, which is reinforced by medical discourse about older women. It was fairly effective at getting at the key ideas of the article, but I would be hesitant to use it for evidence gathering in academic articles. In longer summaries, it had trouble hierarchizing what was worth summarizing, and thereby what quotes were worth including to make its point. Granted, I did not use very specific prompts, which may have affected its performance. I used very simple prompts asking Copilot to summarize without any guidelines, except to make a shorter summary after its initial summary.

I would use AI in my research primarily for ensuring the sources I am finding are relevant to my topic of research. Tools like these make it easier to parse through innumerable journal articles related to your research topic that may or may not have information relevant to your specific question or interest.

Winterson’s Written on the Body ended tragically in such a way that left me significantly dejected after putting the book down. Winterson had successfully set up one of the most passionate and dramatic romances I have read between two characters and then ripped them apart. Going into my initial reading, I was under the impression that, upon hearing of Lousie’s cancer diagnosis, the narrator would stay with her and care for her through her illness, which is where the book would then carry into a conversation about women’s bodies when they’re sick and how the meaning of their bodies’ changes. Instead, the narrator explored Lousie’s body in a way which was separated and isolated from reality. The narrator would repeatedly fantasize about Lousie’s body, sick or healthy, in a grief-stricken haze. The use of a medical textbook as a backdrop for the narrator’s fantasies creates the impression that their imagined representations of Lousie are grounded in some kind of objective facts, that the picture is guided by science. In reality, being separated physically by hundreds of miles, the narrator has no capacity to accurately imagine Louise’s body as it actually is. The moment the narrator left Louise was the moment Louise became a memory for good. This leaves me with the question: What does this thereby say about a woman’s body when it is sick or dying? If the only representation we are provided is one which is a memory of a healthy body suspended in time, inaccurately modified by medical textbooks and speculation, does the body cease to exist in any meaningful way when it becomes sick?

The two poems about motherhood, “the mother” and “Motherhood” stuck out to me particularly because of the way they explore the topic of abortion and childbirth through the perspectives of mothers. They both provide a very nuanced perspective about abortion, one that appears difficult due to modern discourse and political circumstances. Perspectives on abortion appear to be heavily polarized today as they are tied to legislation which dictates the legality and thereby right of a woman to have an abortion if she chooses. I feel as though this heavy polarization masks the diverse perspectives women can have about abortion which exist within a spectrum between “pro-life” and “pro-choice”. The poems capture the deep chasm of uncertainty which these women had to and continue to traverse, the areas they feel to be oppressively grey in their morality. Despite the fact that perhaps these women decided to do what they felt was right, they still revisit their decisions in these moments with considerable thoughtfulness. They remind me of a thoughtful video essay I had heard, “Abortion vs. infanticide: is there a moral difference” from a content creator called oliSUNvia. In this video essay, the creator explores the various perspectives on abortion that exist along the spectrum from “pro-life” to “pro-choice”, creating a clear case for either side to illustrate the complicated philosophy which underpins any conversation about abortion.

Chapters 16-28 had me significantly more enthused than the earlier chapters had. I believe the stories complete overhaul of Edna’s naming demonstrates the stark change in her character which is elaborated further in these chapters. She is no longer Mrs. Pontillier; she is Edna. Yet her failed attempt at destroying her wedding ring conveys one of the larger questions that still remains unanswered: what will come of Edna and Mr. Pontillier’s marriage? If both the Edna and the story itself consider her to be effectively unmarried, what does that make the very real legal marriage, paired with gendered social obligations, that bind Edna to Mr. Pontillier? While the marriage does not seem to stifle Edna’s ability to explore this new chapter and mode of living, there appear to be hints of Mr. Pontillier’s encroaching grip on Edna’s life. A prime example is the doctor, who he tries to make suspicious of Edna and her behavior. A man of Mr. Pontillier’s status and wealth could easily have Edna thrown into an asylum or diagnosed with all the conditions ascribed to women in previous generations to maintain patriarchal domination and control. Surprisingly though, the doctor is a little less than interested at Mr. Pontillier’s request and concerns, though I am still not entirely relieved since it has been made clear that Mr. Pontillier is ready to resort to the authority of his modern medicine to affect a normalizing brutality upon Edna.

I wasn’t entirely enthused by the first 15 chapters of Chopin’s The Awakening. It reminded me intensely of Brontë’s work Jane Eyre which lost me in its long descriptions of scenes which often appeared monotonous and unimportant. But, I do appreciate both works for how they will often intentionally subvert my expectations in these scenes, as they are often some of the most meaningful upon a close reading. One such example occurs in Chapter 3 where Pontillier and Mrs. Pontillier have a short argument about their kids. Even in just the first 3 chapters, the relationship between the two characters is relatively apparent: they coexist in a disjointed, partially fragmented marriage. Mr. Pontillier expects Mrs. Pontillier to adhere to a kind of stereotypical womanhood he has witnessed elsewhere, and he expresses this dissatisfaction and frustration with his wife’s character often. Mrs. Pontillier, on the other hand, feels obligated to her husband despite his constant criticism against her. He offers her a luxurious, comfortable life while being perhaps more attentive than most to both her and their children. This obligation is in a battle with her dissatisfaction and frustration on account of his constant criticism against her, which has driven her to sobbing alone and quietly in the dark of her room in Chapter 3. Her husband is revealed not to be a partner, a friend and source of comfort, but a provider and reluctant caretaker, consumed by a preoccupation with his and his wife’s “ideal societal roles”. This exchange particularly reminds me of the “Tradwife” phenomenon appearing on various social media platforms between 2024 and now. While the community it facilitated is likely quite nuanced in their politics and thoughts about themselves, the phenomenon was often successfully co-opted by political and religious ideologies notorious for explicitly reproducing systems and social dynamics which produced marriages like the one between the Pontilliers. In these circles of the movement, strict adherence to past historical gendered marital roles was rewarded by others in the community and adjacent to it, but one can only wonder if the appearances of happy traditional families are all authentic, or if a sinister and grim reality persists beneath the surfaces of many of these traditional families plastered on the internet.

I really enjoyed reading the excerpts from Liz Prince’s Tomboy. The tone, paired with its graphic novel form, made it easily digestible and a very relaxed read. It was cute, honest, and relatable, posing deep controversial questions while being seamlessly able to subvert any tension that might generate from conversations about gender and identity. I felt Prince provided quite a few compelling examples of how gender works in the world, particularly against woman whether they act according to their gender expectations or not. It made me think about some other instances in which themes of gender and identity were explored in literature that isn’t typically imagined as the “proper” vessel for serious conversations. One such example is the Japanese manga Inside Mari, which deviates from Tomboy in its tone, which is often quite serious, confused, and uncomfortable. It appears to tell the story of a man in his early 20’s suddenly waking up as a woman. What ensues is an exploration into defining womanhood and manhood, with an exceptionally interesting and unexpected twist at the end of the story. One thing the two stories have in common is their use of graphics, a choice which is effective at exploring difficult stories in ways which are more accessible and enjoyed by a wider audience.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ending of Girl, Woman Other which found a way to nicely tie up the number of individual stories going on within into a rather relaxed ending. Every character was related to another by some happenstance, by blood, social relation, or some other meeting. I was surprised to be given the only male perspective in this part of the book, which was told by Amma’s friend and father to her daughter Yazz. I was also pretty touched and surprised by the epilogue which answered one of my biggest questions about the only perspective of a white woman in the story: Penelope. I was very confused about why her perspective was included in a book which explicitly explored the experiences of many different black women. Evaristo generated a uniquely bitter-sweet irony by telling the story of how Penelope, an explicitly bigoted and racist woman, came to find that her birth mother is a black woman. Penelope’s reactions to her initial DNA results were disheartening as she attempted to imagine herself in connection to these offensive racial caricatures she describes, but when she comes face to face with her mother at the end, finding the one person she has longed for perhaps the last 70 years of her life, her hatred disappears. 70 years melt away and she becomes a child once again that can clearly recognize her mother when she sees her. It creates a unique question for the reader to chew on: Why does race no longer matter to Penelope when she is face to face with her mother? What is different between reading ancestry data and meeting a relative or ancestor that may reflect that data?

I had already read Goblin Market in my previous British Literature class, where we picked the poem apart, analyzing its rhyme scheme, meter, form, and content. From what I remember, it had a mixed reception after Rosetti had it published, with many critics not recognizing the clearly coded topics of sexual assault and lesbianism. Reading it for the second time, I was even more startled by hope blatantly suggestive the language and imagery of the poem was, and it makes me all the more surprised that literary critics of Rosetti’s time would be unable to identify any of the subtlety the poem had to offer.

Me!

My name is Ian and welcome to my blog! I am an English Education major aiming to preferably teach at public high schools once I have earned my degree. I chose English because, while I may not love reading, I feel that literature is incredibly important and meaningful. Literature is art using language, and I am in support of all expressions of human creativity and self-exploration. Books both relay and are related to human experiences and knowledge, and thereby often explore these experiences and the questions that they leave for us to answer. We learn to live by stories passed on to us, and I wish to pass on these stories to the next generations.

I have many more interests that extend beyond English Education. I’ve always enjoyed video games, movies, philosophy, and so much more. I love learning new things and appreciated what I experience as the vast ocean of human knowledge and expertise. I love hearing people who are passionate about their work, or their interests.

I have two cats: Biggie Smalls and Pearl respectively, and both are the sweetest little snuggle bugs I have ever met. I have an older brother who I enjoy talking about video games, anime, and Magic the Gathering to. My favorite book I have ever read, perhaps the most influential as well, was Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

Ideally, I would like to gain the skills necessary to write something which could be considered professional. I have often thought about becoming an English professor later in life, and I have a feeling this class will give me a small taste of the work I would have to put into such an endeavor. I am excited to explore our topic for the semester and pick up on literary patterns. I would like to improve my writing skills and my attention span which has been severely weakened by overusing social media and the internet. I do some of my own creative writing as a hobby, and I am sure that the writing I do in this class will improve my ability to write in my personal life. I hope to have really interesting and thoughtful discussions about the topic of research for the class.

Welcome to my strange and wonderful blog where I will yap unnecessarily long about all sorts of topics within the subject of literature!