LITR ROCKS

Theoretical Understanding of Modernist World Literature

noreply@blogger.com (tamsterg) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:20:00 +0000

From Andre Breton's "The First Manifesto of Surrealism"
" Among all the many misfortunes to which we are heir, it is only fair to admit that we are allowed the greatest degree of freedom of thought. It is up to us not to misuse it."

"It is perhaps childhood that comes closest to ones 'real life'; childhood beyond which man has at his disposal, aside from his laissez-passer, only a few complimentary tickets; childhood where everything nevertheless conspires to bring about the effrective, risk-free possesion of oneself. Thanks to Surrealism, it seems that opportunity knocks a second time."

From Victor Shklovsky's "Art as Technique"
" Art is thinking in images."

"If we start to examine the general laws of perception, we see that as perception becomes habitual, it becomes automatic. Thus, for example, all of our habits retreat into the area of the unconsciously automatic; if one remembers the sensations of holding a pen or of speaking a foreign language for the first time and compares that with his feeling at performing the action for the ten thousandth time, he will agree with [us]. Such habituation explains the principles by which, in ordinary speech, we leave phrases unfinished and words half expressed. In this process, ideally realized in algrebra, things are replaced by symbols. Complete words are not expressed in rapid speech; their initial sounds are barely percieved.... By this 'algebraic' mentod of thought we apprehend objects only as shapes with imprecise extensions; we do not see them in their entirety but rather recognize them by their main characteristcs... We know what it is by its configuration, but we see only its silhouette.... The object percieved thus...fades and does not leave even a first impression; ultimately even the essence of what it was is forgotten."

"Art exists that one may revoer the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stoney... to impart the sensation of things as they are percieved and not as they are known.... Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important."

" A work is created 'artistically' so that its perception is impeded abd the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception. As a result of this lingering, the object is perceived not in its extension in space, but, so to speak, in its continuity."

From Ezra Pound's "A Retrospect"
"What the expert is tired of today the public will be tired of tomorrow"

48 Hour Sit-Down

noreply@blogger.com (tamsterg) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:02:00 +0000

Well, I have finished the series with the final book Specials in 48 hours. Not my record time for finishing a 372 page novel but a good mark for me none-the-less. But I must stress the point that I wasn't trying to beat a record; the style of writing and action in it keeps the pages turning without a conscious effort. But let's pick up where I left off:
Tally Youngblood gets the operation. We are let into the Pretty world as she has just began experiencing the perks and excitement she witnessed from across the river. But as luck, and Scott Westerfield would have it, her fun doesn't last more than a month. A surprising visitor comes to fulfill the second half of the plan to cure the Pretties and Tally Youngblood.
Again with all the twists and turns you would expect, the reader is led through a maze of emotions and obstacles and new romances as Tally learns that there was no cure that changed her in the beginning and no cure was needed to change her as a Pretty: she was the cure. Her ability to change from within was visible to all but herself. Meeting up with old friends and making some new, Tally recruits other Pretties in her attempt to free everyone from the dangerous results of the operation. Tally's new love interest, Zane, pays the unfortunate price of getting the wrong end of the cure. Tally must get him to the New Smoke for any hope of saving him. Special Circumstances seems to beat her yet again when they manage to use Zane as a tracking device to chase off any hope of saving him. Tally is shocked when her captor is none-other than Shay, but she's all to different. Shay has become a Special herself. Now one of the main leaders in a Special Circumstance division known as Cutters, Shay's appearance has been drastically altered. Her bones are made of indistructible ceramic, her eyes sharpened, skin tatoos covering her body, her teeth and nails filed down to deadly weapons. By the novels end, Tally shares her fate.

The third and final installment, Specials, begins with Tally and her new transformation. Senses hightened and strength intensified, she has become a Special, a Cutter. Tricked out with the highest forms of technology, she is equipped with infared vision, an internalized network of communication with the other cutters and the city interface making her a living computer. She has been recruited to capture any run-a-ways and left over smokies infiltrating the city and dispensing the cure to pretties and uglies alike. Their first attempt leads them into an ambush and into the onset of chaos that would become the rest of the novel. Shay and Tally vow a secretive revenge upon the New Smokies and to rescue their kidnapped friend Fausto. In the midst, Tally also finds out that Zane was back in New Prettytown but was helping the Cure spread. In an attempt to save his slowly deteriorating brain as a result of taking the wrong pill for the cure, Tally and Shay send him as bait yet again. The only problem is that Zane has been fitted with an interface necklace that keeps him from leaving the City. Tally and Shay break into the City's armory to retrieve a special alloy cutter to free zane. In the process, they manage to single handedly destroy the entire armory in one hour. Racing back to Zane, freeing him, and setting him off into the wild with his crew of Crims, Tally and Shay cloak themselves and follow. After a debate and argument, Shay goes on ahead towards the New Smoke as she had found a new lead. Tally stays behind to keep an eye on Zane. Getting to close to camp, Zane realizes he's being watched and realizes it's Tally. Trying to get her to change herself yet again, Zane kisses Tally leading to her physical convulsion of disgust (a side effect of being Special). This is the last time Tally is with Zane. They eventually reach the New Smokie only to learn that it is in actuality a City. The City had always been open to Run-a-aways and when they began to spread the cure, the city turned in on itself and was a safe haven for pretties, uglies and run-a-ways all together. Tally's haunting and deformed appearance sends fear into none of the residents as they are not under the same braind damage as the Pretties in New Prettytown. Tally is relieved when she sees Zane going to the City Hospital to hopefully be finally cured and brought back to his old self. She is also relieved to see Fausto racing towards her. But there is something different about him, he is no longer Special. They cured him to. As she realizes this, she realizes that they are about to ambush her again and cure her. She manages to escape but is captured by City Wardens and taken to the hospital. When she re-awakes she is locked in a padded cell. The doctors inform her that she will have to undergo an reversing operation to take away everything that made her Special. While lying on the operation table, she is abrubtly awaken by Shay racing in and injecting her with adrenaline. They run out of the hospital and when her senses are fulling regained, Tally notices that there is something horrible wrong. The city is under attack. But there is something else wrong as well, Shay is different- no longer Special. After struggling to free herself from Shay's grasp, she is informed by Shay and all of the other once-Specials that their old city has started a war on the new City (which is named Diego by the way), blaming them for the destruction of the Armory (the one Shay and Tally destroyed). Shay also explains that they will not turn Tally back into a non-special because they need her to explain to Dr.Cable (The head of the Special Commitee) that it was she who started this non-war. Tally agrees and is only motivated to do so when she rushes into the hospital (after the bombarment and war has ceased for a moment) and sees Zane in the hospital bed, dead.
Racing back to New Prettytown to confront Dr.Cable one last time, she is surprised to recieve a message from David. He is waiting for her in the ruins. In his hands is an injector with the cure for herself. He tells her to take it, she may need it. Placing it in her pocket he lets her leave back to the city telling her that she's never alone. Making it back into the city, she is surprised to learn that Dr.Cable had known all along that it was Tally and Shay that destroyed the armory but used it as an excuse to attack Diego. Dr. Cable was tired of its open mindedness and constant threat to her mission. Tally's quick thinking successfully led Dr.Cable to believe that Tally was transmitting Dr.Cable's admission of this all over the Cities by means of a little transmitter (the injector in her hand). With one lunge, Dr.Cable is stuck with the cure, unbeknown to her of course. Captured yet again, Tally is trapped into a cell. She slowly witnesses Dr.Cables transformation; she sees that Dr.Cable's attempts have failed as the city has dismissed the allegation of Diego being an enemy and the cure being spread to all.
Tally is told then, that every dangerous operation performed under Dr.Cable's care must be reversed, including Tally. As they fill her cell with sleeping gas, a voice comes over Tally's wireless network telling her to pretend to pass out and let them take her out of the room. Tally obeys and is led to the operating room; placed on the table; stuck with needles; forced to breathe through a breathing tube and engulfed in a viscous vat of clear liquid filled with congealing nano's to keep the bleeding during the operation minimal, Tally is left waiting for her savior. Finally emerging and pummeling the doctors, Tally frees herself and surprised to learn that her savior is not David or Shay but Dr.Cable herself. The cure fully changed Dr. Cable and has led her to save Tally so that her creation would not be extinct. Tally was the last Special. Escaping from the hospital and back to the Ruins, Tally waits for David. Upon his arrival she makes the decision not to go back to Diego to help Shay and the rest of the New Smokies. She and David decide to stay in the wild and make sure that what led to the destruction of the world 300 years ago (our century) would not happen again now that the haze had been taken from the people. Her Manifesto ends the book with a warning to them all and effectively to us. As the last Special she warns:
So from now on, David and I are here to stand in your way. You see, freedom has a way of destroying things. You have your New Smokes, your new ideas, whole new cities and New Systems. Well... we're the new Special Circumstances. However hungry the human race becomes now that the pretties are waking up, the wild still has teeth, Special teeth, ugly teeth. Us. Be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly. -Tally Youngblood

In all, an excellent excellent series. There is another book printed as a supplement but from the POV of another girl in which we see Tally through her eyes. I think that I know who this girl is seeing that there is an appearance of such a girl in this novel.

I highly suggest you all looking into it and reading it for yourselves.

Alright..... That's all for now. 40 mins of typing hurts! Even for an English Major!

Mad Genius

noreply@blogger.com (tamsterg) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:17:00 +0000

It has been quite a while, I realize this and for it I will not offer whiny excuses regarding no time because that would be.... not far from the truth but just too common. I will not excuse my absence and neglect due to lack of interest or to dis adhere to my aforementioned promise as to the intention of this blog. Instead, I will Carry On!

Most recently I have become engrossed in a certain Scott Westerfield series. The series begins with a novel entitled Uglies. Set some 300 foward years from our present day, we are introduced to a way of life and civilization based upon the reformation and reconstruction on the outward appearance of individuals. Doesn't seem far stretched from the society we live in today and that is the overall concept and theme of the novel and in effect the series. Our Point of View is through the vision, although in 3rd peson limited style, of an eager to be Pretty- Tally Youngblood. 3 months from turning 16, the year in which the operation takes place, Tally's friend Peris (boy) is taken for his operation. Their bond as best friends forever is left as a scar on her palm and a goal in her mind. Sneaking across the lake seperating Uglyville from New Pretty Town, where all the Pretties live, Tally goes to find Peris after his operation. Successfully doing so, we the reader are given the first glimpse into what the operation exactly does. Loosley speaking, has anyone seen or read the original Stepford Wives? Well, there you go. The individuals are modeled after an agreed upon appearance (agreed upon by a Committee from all Cities World Wide). Perfect skin, high cheekbones, peircing eyes, pouty lips (both girls and boys), indistructible teeth, enhanced muscle performance and almost concrete bones. The operation as described in the novel was not a far cry from what can be seen on any Doctor 90210, Nip/Tuck, Most Extreme Makeover show. So you ask yourself, How far from the truth is this?
We read on as Tally befriends a fellow Ugly, Shay, who is just as daring. I should introduce an important element of the novel(s): Uglies are infamous for performing tricks. Silly things really such as sneaking into New Prettytown, stealing hoverboards, going to the ends of the City limits, jumping from tall buildings with Bungee Jackets, etc. These seperate Uglies from Uglies. As Pretties, there are a rare select few known as Crims- short for Criminals- who also perform such tricks but they are known as Bubbly. Pretties are permitted to do almost anything they so desire- their inlies the desire to be Pretty- an inherent sense of Freedom or illusion thereof.
Tally and Shay become friends instantly as Shay teaches Tally how to trick out the hoverboards so that they can not be traced. All individuals are given interface rings that are used as trackers. Part of performing any trick is to leave your tracker in your room or one place to go seemingly undetected. Shay teaches Tally how to be virtually invisible within the City- and beyond.
The first glimpse into the un-naturalness of this civilization is when Shay takes Tally to the Ruins. The Ruins are basically the skeletal remains of once looming buildings and sky scrapers. Cars are rotted and stacked lining bare and ghostly streets. Students are taken to the Ruins on school trips as illustrations and examples as to the failing of the predacesory generations. Shay then lets Tally in on a little secret: there are people living beyond the Ruins- non pretties.
The novel being some 200+ pages in length would be far to much to try a summary in one sitting. In short, there are twists and turns- quite literally, as Shay escapes from the City to live in the Smokies whicha are run by, Run-a-ways and a special group of people who have some troubling secrets regarding the Pretty operation.
Tally is blackmailed into betraying her friend and leading Special Circumstances (FBI or CIA if you will) to the Smokies. After falling for the leader, David, and learning what is exactly done during the operation, Tally changes and her mind but it is too late.
They are all captured and Tally's secret is exposed. But Tally won't have it.
The closing line of the first novel is, "Yes, I'm Tally Youngblood. Make me Pretty."

The second installment is entitled, Pretties, and one can only guess what will occur. But there is the special lure into the series- You can't guess. There are blindspots produced for the reader by the wonderful Mr. Westerfield. Things that you could only "A-ha" after reading.

In the next blog I will capitulate on Pretties as I am eager to finish the final installment, Specials.

I hope you all will look into this captivating series. For more information go to Westerfield's site:
http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/

____On the music side, in case you are not aware of this gift to music lovers, http://popapocalypse.blogspot.com/ is a haven for indie-rock and pop album releases featuring Conor Oberst (bright eyes), Noah and the Whale, The Faint, Moscow Olympics and many many more! Subscribe to the site and keep your ears open!

Sincerely,

ListenWrite

First One

noreply@blogger.com (tamsterg) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:33:00 +0000

Hey how are you all doing? So, I am pretty new to this. Not blogging but to this "blogger" in particular. The reason for creating this account is simply because I am starting to Podcast. I need a host, so here we go.
My Podcasts are going to include but are not going to be limited to Literature and Music. In particular, I want to go through certain pieces of literature and break them down to their core. I also want to expose you all to new and upcoming artists; but also maybe bring some already known artists into my topics.
It's not going to be "scripted" but I plan on having points to go through.
I am open to any and all suggestions, so feel free to check out what I'm talking about for yourelves and put in your two cents!

Alright, keep yourself updated for new posts!

Tammy G

LITR ROCKS

Archive

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Theoretical Understanding of Modernist World Literature

48 Hour Sit-Down

Mad Genius

First One