老陳的blog~

Today in English Literature we've done lots of things; we calculated our grades so far, decided things needs be improved in our final exam, reschedual the date of the final exam (oh now I probabaly have to take the composition, spanish and English finals in the same week, crap!) 

I though it was interesting to see one of the classmates gave his opinion on the questions in our midterm XD, it was more like an debate between professor and him during the class. But I do think there are something need to be improved in the exams; for instance, the coverage of the whole exam was huge. It was a blessing for us to read everything in the text, not even to mention memorizing some details. Narrow down the coverage more and give more concise direction of the exam would help students in preparing the finals.

I was happy that 泊蓉 shared her little advanture to Japan with us in the class. Of course I think it was brave to go abroad right before the midtern week, maybe it was a good oppotunity to go away and take a short break from the stressful atmosphere here.

However, the pictures of geisha I saw  were pretty different from what I imagine, the geishas in reality are not so perfect and elegance as those in the movie; they seem more lively when posing for tourists even with the "YA" guesture. Wonder what''s really behind their white faces, wouldn't it be nice if I can speak japanese and to have undertsand their life style more.

We discussed many poems in class today, many of my classmates choose to the poem " Easter Wings." Like the poem I did as my class assignment, Easter Wings is a patterned poem, it is made into the shape of two wings. I found it very different and interesting.

The content of the poem is religious. The poet at beginning of the poem is weaken by his desire and shame, he then praise to the God and hope that the God can be with him to the glorious victories which make his soul flies higher and higher.

After today's discussion in class, I found most of the classmates have the same feeling as I do toward Hsu Chi-mo, most of us thinks he should take more responsibility as the man of the family and the husband of Yu-i. (since third-fourths of the students in the class are girls) Though I understand his dilemma that he must marry the girl his parents picked for him, still, Hsu Chi-mo can at least treat Yu-i fairly without discrimonation. After all, leave one's pregnant wife alone at a foreign country and then go pursuit another woman is not a very nice thing to do. 

While most of us showed our sympathy to Yu-i, one of the male student shared his point of view to us " I think this is just what happened under that kind of circumstances and it has already happened; there is nothing more we can say, not even mention to judge who has done the right thing and who has not."  this opinion sounds rational, right?! Could it be an excuse made up to protect his male fellow? XD  OH~ I really don't know.

After reading all the poems which have been taught this week, I am very fond of the poem" Death, be not proud"  (sonnet10)

I don't think I have ever seen a poem like it before telling us not to be afraid of death; most of the poems are always trying to convey that how dreadful is the death and how we should  treasure every moment and not to waste our youth.  However, this sonnet of John Donne is trying to convey to us that death is nothing; it is not the ruler of lives, not the lord of living creature, instead, it is the slave of fate, chance, kings, and desperate men.

This work " Bound feet and Western dress" written by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang who was related to Yu-i Chang. Yu-i Chang, as the first wife of the famous chinese poet:Chi-mo Hsu, was a legend herself.

I have seen the TV series 人間四月天 with my family when I was a kid. This TV series was based on the life of Hsu Chi-mo(whether it's true or not ), the   program was mostly centering on the complex relationships between Hsu Chi-mo and the three women in his life, Chang yu-i, Lin Hui-yin and Lu Hsiao-man. It was this TV program that raised the curiosity in me to study Hsu Chi-mo's poems; those poems were hard for me to really understand the imagery behind them since I was only ten or eleven. Still, astonished by the beautiful lines of Hsu Chi-mo's poems I latter on studies some of his famous verse and poems on both junior high school and high school text books.

among these two authors (Thomas Campion, Richard Barnfield), I prefer Richard Barnfield's works better, his poems are much easiler for us to understand. Maybe this opinion of mine may seems shallow, but a good literature work should be understood by people, and from this understanding, people can further see the wisdom inside of it and appreciate the beauty of the work.  Richard Barnfield did that, through his poem, I can understand clearly what he was trying to tell us. Though I chose to transcribe Thomas Campion's poem, Barnfield's poems are indeed my favorite.

It was fun in Class, to listen to different people's opinion about the same poem, It was a good thing that we can understand things from different aspect.

There're something different I found in the class today; there are students from mainland China at my class!! I relaized this because both of them had to say something about their assignments in the class. Although I only see one of them, but I can tell by the accent that there are definitely TWO China students!

now back to the book Crossings; I found something strange about the story (it was told by teacher today) The fourth Jane was angry about her father's acceptance of fifth James' caucasian wife when she gives a birth to a child in the hospital, the grandson (granddaughter) of the family. Forth Jane thinks that it is unfair that her father chooses to accept the caucasian daughter-in-law but refuse to accpet her french lover.

King Lear is one of the famous tragedies written by William Shakespeare. It's a story about how King Lear lose his kingdom and respect due to his false judgement; in the beginning of the story, he has his three daughters standing in the public, each of them has to tell him how much they love their father (kind of competition??)but only the youngest daughter tells her father the true feeling (I shall love you as much as I love my husband, no more and no less, according to my bond between us) while the two older one say brag about how their love to their father is beyond measure.

The King banished his youngest daughter in rage and divides his king into two for the other two daughters; however, the older daughters treat their father as the old fool after getting what they want(the kingdom of course~) this eventually cause the old king go insane and lead him a vagrant life. Though taken care by his youngest daughter who marry to the France prince, the king still cannot stop his fate go the the sad end. He soon die from the great sorrow of the death of his dearest youngest daughter who commited suiside in despair (she was put in prison by her own nephews)

Today in class, we studied a new novel "Crossings" by Chuang Hua. This book is a semi-autobiograophical novel of Chuang Hua herself; what I  thought interesting is that the author even use her name to name the heroine. Does this suggest that the story is a journal of Chaung Hua herself? , For me, the author herself was kind mystery, she was the first modernist to address the Asia American experience; she was a great writer.However, Chaung Hua lived a very private and reclusive life, she never went on a interview or public recognition.  she died about ten years ago, leaving her life a secret for the readers.

I found myself intrugued in the story because I have never read a novel full of so much contradiction. The heroine's life was pretty much a huge dliemma; her love to her dyaday and the only man in her life- the french journalist, her different values toward her brother, James, and her love affair.