Anyone who has read Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon is aware that the main character, Aurora, along with her husband and several other characters in the novel, are infatuated with horses and the lucrative business that surrounds these four-legged beauties. Aurora and her husband don't withhold their funds when it comes to purchasing horses, training them, and betting high stakes on races. So, I'm sure they would've never considered the possibility of eating one of their own horses, or any kind of horse for that matter. Do you think if one of their horses became ill or lame that they would've killed it for meat? Hmm, I'm going to go with 'no.' Yet, there's a huge fuss in the UK right now concerning that same matter.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said:"For the four weeks ending 17 February, frozen burger sales were down by 43%
and frozen ready meals declined by 13%, clearly demonstrating a change in
shopping habits." I can comprehend why. I don't forsee myself buying any horse burgers in the near future, either. Hundreds of thousands of items have been removed from store shelves, only adding fuel to the already-chaotic attitudes of the people in the UK.
Andy Harrison, the boss of Whitbread (the group behind the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub chains), was baffled why more pub and restaurant chains did not appear on a list of
co-operating companies published at the back of a weekly
FSA horsemeat crisis bulletin. "The suppliers who supply us [Whitbread] also
supply many of our competitors," he noted. "There are very many well-known names
that are not there [on the FSA's list]." Well, isn't that comforting to know...there are numerous people who supply horse meat but aren't being charged for it just yet. I'm wondering how many companies will be discovered in the end of all of this mess, and hopefully penalized for distributing these products to their customers.
What I continue to ask myself through this whole scandal is: why horse meat? Yet, other cultures might be looking at America and asking: why cow meat? Why turkey meat? Well, I don't see the possibility of training any cows to be capable of riding people around, like we are able to do with horses, or having turkey races, like we do with horses, so maybe it's because we view cows and turkeys more 'impersonally' that we find it okay to eat them and not horses? If it sounds like I'm condoning eating horse meat, I'm not by any means (because that's disgusting), but I also feel like it's because of our culture and the way we have been raised for hundreds of generations (Aurora Floyd was published in 1863) that we live the way we do today and find it okay to eat only certain meats..
I think the major emphasis of this scandal rests on the fact that people weren't aware they were consuming horse meat. That being said, it must have tasted acceptable, if not delicious then, right? I mean, if no one noticed a change in taste, it couldn't have been that bad. The truth is, humans don't like to be tricked or taken advantage of, and with the horse meat situation, society has clearly been dooped. In a few decades or centuries, who knows, we may be consuming horse meat after all.
Sorry Ms. Floyd, not all of us are as crazy about horses as you are.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Whose "Getting" Who: Examining "The Icarus Girl" by Oyeyemi
As I finished reading The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi, I kept coming back to the two same probing questions: 'What purpose(s) does Tilly serve for Jessamy?' and 'What purpose(s) does Jessamy serve for Tilly?' After I asked myself these two questions, it was like a snowball effect occured, and I found my questions spiraling out of control.
There were moments in the book where I felt Tilly was the spirit of Jessamy's dead twin, but then, why was Tilly doing evil things to Jessamy and 'getting' people? What does it even mean to 'get' someone? Is Tilly Jessamy's dead twin? and is she alive now because of her connection to the Nigerian culture, or was Tilly just an imaginary friend? Who is Tilly, truly? Does Oyeyemi give any definitive conclusions to this question? I don't believe she does. In an interview with Oyeyemi I think this ambiguity within the novel gives an accurate representation of Jessamy's character, who is so confused and unconfident. Jessamy struggles with her own identity, being brought up in a family of two different cultures (her mother, Nigerian, and father, British), discovering that she had a twin who died as a baby, and clearly not adhering to the standards of normal eight-year-olds.
From the moment the audience meets Jessamy, they are aware that she's unique. She has an extremely extended vocabulary for her age and has these random outbursts of panicking, crying, and shouting. Anyone knows that this is not normal. So when Jessamy meets Tilly and readers discover that only Jessamy has the capability to see Tilly, they know something strange is going on. Will Tilly be able to 'fix' Jessamy and cure her from all her problems, or will Tilly be more trouble for Jessamy than anything else?
In the beginning of the novel, I would've gone with my initial instinct: that Tilly would help Jessamy come out of her shell and gain some confidence in the world. This did happen, for example, when Jessamy stood up to a snotty girl at school, but then her actions turn a little violent. It's when this occurs that I discovered Tilly wasn't so 'goody-goody' after all.
Half way through the novel, it's almost as if Oyeyemi completely shifted her style of writing. The increasing horror of TillyTilly's visits and the chronicling of the breakdown of Jess's family life under her malicious influence become almost too much to bear, and the author's style sometimes veers from her normal mature and delicate poise to a younger-sounding voice, although this may be an intentional effect.
Going back to my first two questions that I posed initially in this post and attempting to answer that, I'd have to assert that Tilly first functions as Jessamy's friend, then later on becomes a controlling, dangerous influence in Jessamy's life and doesn't want her to have any friends but Tilly herself. As poisonous as Tilly can be at times, she really is the primary reason for Jessamy rediscovering her Nigerian heritage and figuring out that she had a twin, and also, for Jessamy gaining more confidence in herself. By the end of the novel, Jessamy was able to communicate better with people her own age, instead of hiding from them. So then what does Jessamy do for Tilly, if anything? Well, giving a lot of thought to this, I'm led to believe that Jessamy ultimately proves to Tilly that Tilly is not real. The things that Tilly can do throughout the novel are mystical and impossible, like flying through staircases and being the cause for Jessamy's father to become terribly sick and non-functional. I'm still wondering if these things happen because Jessamy believes them to be real, because Tilly wants her to, which then encourages Tilly to keep doing what she is doing and 'getting' people. If this is true, then Jessamy is giving even more power to Tilly, and that is why it was so hard for Jessamy to overcome Tilly at the end of the novel. Or does Jessamy really 'win' against Tilly? In the end, I think both characters are destructive towards each other, but Jessamy is the last one to do the 'getting.'
There were moments in the book where I felt Tilly was the spirit of Jessamy's dead twin, but then, why was Tilly doing evil things to Jessamy and 'getting' people? What does it even mean to 'get' someone? Is Tilly Jessamy's dead twin? and is she alive now because of her connection to the Nigerian culture, or was Tilly just an imaginary friend? Who is Tilly, truly? Does Oyeyemi give any definitive conclusions to this question? I don't believe she does. In an interview with Oyeyemi I think this ambiguity within the novel gives an accurate representation of Jessamy's character, who is so confused and unconfident. Jessamy struggles with her own identity, being brought up in a family of two different cultures (her mother, Nigerian, and father, British), discovering that she had a twin who died as a baby, and clearly not adhering to the standards of normal eight-year-olds.
From the moment the audience meets Jessamy, they are aware that she's unique. She has an extremely extended vocabulary for her age and has these random outbursts of panicking, crying, and shouting. Anyone knows that this is not normal. So when Jessamy meets Tilly and readers discover that only Jessamy has the capability to see Tilly, they know something strange is going on. Will Tilly be able to 'fix' Jessamy and cure her from all her problems, or will Tilly be more trouble for Jessamy than anything else?
In the beginning of the novel, I would've gone with my initial instinct: that Tilly would help Jessamy come out of her shell and gain some confidence in the world. This did happen, for example, when Jessamy stood up to a snotty girl at school, but then her actions turn a little violent. It's when this occurs that I discovered Tilly wasn't so 'goody-goody' after all.
Half way through the novel, it's almost as if Oyeyemi completely shifted her style of writing. The increasing horror of TillyTilly's visits and the chronicling of the breakdown of Jess's family life under her malicious influence become almost too much to bear, and the author's style sometimes veers from her normal mature and delicate poise to a younger-sounding voice, although this may be an intentional effect.
Going back to my first two questions that I posed initially in this post and attempting to answer that, I'd have to assert that Tilly first functions as Jessamy's friend, then later on becomes a controlling, dangerous influence in Jessamy's life and doesn't want her to have any friends but Tilly herself. As poisonous as Tilly can be at times, she really is the primary reason for Jessamy rediscovering her Nigerian heritage and figuring out that she had a twin, and also, for Jessamy gaining more confidence in herself. By the end of the novel, Jessamy was able to communicate better with people her own age, instead of hiding from them. So then what does Jessamy do for Tilly, if anything? Well, giving a lot of thought to this, I'm led to believe that Jessamy ultimately proves to Tilly that Tilly is not real. The things that Tilly can do throughout the novel are mystical and impossible, like flying through staircases and being the cause for Jessamy's father to become terribly sick and non-functional. I'm still wondering if these things happen because Jessamy believes them to be real, because Tilly wants her to, which then encourages Tilly to keep doing what she is doing and 'getting' people. If this is true, then Jessamy is giving even more power to Tilly, and that is why it was so hard for Jessamy to overcome Tilly at the end of the novel. Or does Jessamy really 'win' against Tilly? In the end, I think both characters are destructive towards each other, but Jessamy is the last one to do the 'getting.'
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Fluff or Futuristic: What's the significance of Wordsworth?
What's up with Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?" Does it represent beauty or just some 'fluff' written by a man who reminisced about time spent with his sister in the Bay District? Well, I'd have to declare this poem 'inspirational.' It's not 'fluff' (entirely), it's really more 'futuristic'.
Wordsworth once stated that, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This quote might sound far from profound when said to people of our culture today, since we are taught to write and create projects from personal experiences like Wordsworth says, but to people of his time, this was a breakthrough idea. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" was written in 1804, when people didn't typically write things that related to their ideals, dreams, our sensory intakes. It sounds preposterous, I know, but it just proves how different our style of writing today is from centuries ago.
In Wordsworth's twenty-four line poem that's composed of six, four-line stanzas, Wordsworth creates a beautiful but simple message about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. The images that he uses to describe the scene are like an artist painting a scene vividly so the reader can see it with his mind's eye. He writes in lines three through six that,
Wordsworth once stated that, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This quote might sound far from profound when said to people of our culture today, since we are taught to write and create projects from personal experiences like Wordsworth says, but to people of his time, this was a breakthrough idea. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" was written in 1804, when people didn't typically write things that related to their ideals, dreams, our sensory intakes. It sounds preposterous, I know, but it just proves how different our style of writing today is from centuries ago.
In Wordsworth's twenty-four line poem that's composed of six, four-line stanzas, Wordsworth creates a beautiful but simple message about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. The images that he uses to describe the scene are like an artist painting a scene vividly so the reader can see it with his mind's eye. He writes in lines three through six that,
"When all at once I saw a crowd, 3
A host, of golden daffodils; 4
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." 6
As a reader, I can picture the color of the flowers, their location, and the way their movements. The image of these flowers "fluttering and dancing" added more rhythm to the poem, which is written in a strict, but melodious, rhyme scheme (ABABCC; DEDEFF, etc.). By giving these flowers human-like characteristics, Wordsworth is personifying them.
It is apparent that by looking at these examples, readers can see that what Wordsworth was writing about held meaning to him personally, but also that the text was rich with poetic devices. It's not simply a 'cutesy' poem with cheery, plain language. Or, is it? What makes this poem so futuristic is that Wordsworth was advanced for his time by writing in this type of style. You won’t find any earth-shattering revelations of truth within this poem. Wordsworth felt that the little moments in life could be the most profound, and readers see proof of that in this poem. I mean, he's writing about some dancing daffodils and how is heart is made so glad by seeing them. Many people can relate to what he's writing about, and that's why it's one of the most beloved poems of all time. "I wandered lonely as a Cloud" describes an experience numerous people have probably had: they're bummed out, maybe because of something that happened in a relationship or maybe because it’s an unpleasant day outside, and suddenly they see something that just makes them smile and feel cheerful again. I think its popularity has something to with how unabashedly joyful it is. Fluffy or not, Wordsworth had the right idea when he 'wandered lonely as a cloud'.
- He also uses personification in the first two lines, when the poem says, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," drawing a simile between the wandering speaker and the single lonely cloud.
- There's also personification going on here in addition to the simile, since clouds don't possess the capability to be lonely.
- Looking at lines three and four, Wordsworth then moves to personifying the daffodils as a crowd of people.
- In the end of the first and beginning of the second stanza, lines seven and eight capture a simile comparing the shape and number of the daffodils to the band of stars that we call the Milky Way galaxy.
- When readers reach line nine, they meet the example of a hyperbole (or exaggeration) in the poem. The speaker says that the line of daffodils is "never-ending," but we know this can’t be strictly true: all good things come to an end.
- The first line of the third stanza (line 12) again personifies the daffodils, giving them "heads," allowing them to bob in the breeze. In the proceeding two lines, the waves are then personified, making them dance.
- Lines 21 through 24 is the location where Wordsworth imagines the daffodils in his spiritual vision, for which he uses the metaphor of an "inward eye." His heart dances like a person, too.
It is apparent that by looking at these examples, readers can see that what Wordsworth was writing about held meaning to him personally, but also that the text was rich with poetic devices. It's not simply a 'cutesy' poem with cheery, plain language. Or, is it? What makes this poem so futuristic is that Wordsworth was advanced for his time by writing in this type of style. You won’t find any earth-shattering revelations of truth within this poem. Wordsworth felt that the little moments in life could be the most profound, and readers see proof of that in this poem. I mean, he's writing about some dancing daffodils and how is heart is made so glad by seeing them. Many people can relate to what he's writing about, and that's why it's one of the most beloved poems of all time. "I wandered lonely as a Cloud" describes an experience numerous people have probably had: they're bummed out, maybe because of something that happened in a relationship or maybe because it’s an unpleasant day outside, and suddenly they see something that just makes them smile and feel cheerful again. I think its popularity has something to with how unabashedly joyful it is. Fluffy or not, Wordsworth had the right idea when he 'wandered lonely as a cloud'.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils)
I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Queen of Sensation Novels Was A Sensation Herself
As I venture into the world of Aurora Floyd via Mary Elizabeth Braddon, I'm struck with feelings of wonder and pleasure. As seductive and secretive as the main character, Aurora, is, I find myself curiously drawn to the author, Ms. Braddon herself. When an author, and a women nonetheless, can publish such a number of lucrative novels (approx. 90) in the 19th (and into the 20th) century, I'm left considering how and where she achieved such inspirations from. Could it be possible that she drew from personal experiences? With that thought circulating in my mind, I decided to see if the "queen of sensation novels" had any skeletons in her own closet.
It's come to my realization that Braddon was a radical all of her life. Ah, ha! The queen of sensation was actually a sensation herself---maybe. She grew up in a house where her father was unfaithful to her mother and also financially irresponsible. The two separated and Braddon received homeschooling from her mother in London where she spent the rest of her childhood.
The real scandal happened when she was 25 years old, after meeting John Maxwell, a magazine publisher. The two were instantly attracted to each other, despite Maxwell already being married and having 6 children. While his wife lived in an asylum due to mental instability, Braddon set up home with her publisher and became a stepmother to his six children. (Side note: I'm feeling a bit of awkwardness toward this situation, although I feel like this is definitely something that would happen now in the 21st). The two would eventually become married, but it was not until 1874 when Maxwell's wife died. (Wow, okay, so now that she passed away it's okay to get married even though Maxwell and Braddon had been living together for 14 years, had 6 children together of their own, and Braddon also step-mothered 6 children; that's 12 kids total...that'd drive me into an asylum).
Braddon eventually become editor to Maxwell's magazine, Belgravia, the vehicle for most of her novels in the next 10 years. Many of her novels came to be published in newspapers and magazines, despite her scandalous past.
Coming across this new-found information, I'm certainly inclined to interpret and analyze Aurora Floyd with an entirely different approach. No wonder Mary Elizabeth Braddon was capable of creating such intense and seductive novels of mystery, passion, and pleasure-- it was because that was her life.
It's come to my realization that Braddon was a radical all of her life. Ah, ha! The queen of sensation was actually a sensation herself---maybe. She grew up in a house where her father was unfaithful to her mother and also financially irresponsible. The two separated and Braddon received homeschooling from her mother in London where she spent the rest of her childhood.
The real scandal happened when she was 25 years old, after meeting John Maxwell, a magazine publisher. The two were instantly attracted to each other, despite Maxwell already being married and having 6 children. While his wife lived in an asylum due to mental instability, Braddon set up home with her publisher and became a stepmother to his six children. (Side note: I'm feeling a bit of awkwardness toward this situation, although I feel like this is definitely something that would happen now in the 21st). The two would eventually become married, but it was not until 1874 when Maxwell's wife died. (Wow, okay, so now that she passed away it's okay to get married even though Maxwell and Braddon had been living together for 14 years, had 6 children together of their own, and Braddon also step-mothered 6 children; that's 12 kids total...that'd drive me into an asylum).
Braddon eventually become editor to Maxwell's magazine, Belgravia, the vehicle for most of her novels in the next 10 years. Many of her novels came to be published in newspapers and magazines, despite her scandalous past.
Coming across this new-found information, I'm certainly inclined to interpret and analyze Aurora Floyd with an entirely different approach. No wonder Mary Elizabeth Braddon was capable of creating such intense and seductive novels of mystery, passion, and pleasure-- it was because that was her life.
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