Change of Mind: Jane Eyre

Every time we start a new book, I usually make a quick judgment about how that book will be. For example, I knew King Lear would be hellish. I knew I'd like Life of Pi, etc. When I picked up Jane Eyre from my bookshelf of unused books (it was next to The House on Mango Street and Rules for Writers), I knew that I was in for Lear, round two.

I kept this view untill about chapter 12, when a bit of the language made me stop, and think, 'This is great writing.' It was When Rochester reveals himself as the gypsy. Jane tells him that he was neither himself nor the gypsy woman- he was "some other countenance". I fell in love with the book.
Maybe not the book, but the writing. Charlotte Bronte's style is warmly welcomed into my growing collection.

Literary voices can be likened to the implement that writes them- Life of Pi was like a crayon, and Lear was... a chisel, and Siddhartha, a fine paintbrush, but Jane Eyre is like a exquisite fountain pen, and I'm glad to have it.

Dialectics: Conflict vs problems

First, this week, my brothers Lee and Phillip are here. In illinois. at my house. With them, there are four of us. four boys, and all three of them take medicines for varying degrees of ADHD, bipolar disorder, and other endless sources of destructive energy. Together in the same room, there's usually always a conflict. In under one hour of playing Xbox, all these conflicts were argued
(loudly):

• Someone is not a satisfactory teammate. teammate wants to switch partners.


• someone thinks that their couch space has ben encroached upon. Demands reorginization
  
• Someone finishes the ice cream. Someone else did not get to eat any ice cream.


• Someone claims a territory on the game map. others disagreed. someone kicks someone else

But, there wasn't really a problem behind any of these. just a conflict. The prolem is a group of people that can't handle conflict, and so the conflict escalates. That's a problem.
and so on.

Blogging Around

Brandon,

I did the same thing when I started looking for a story fragment- I looked at the last time I wrote. I found a vocab story from seventh or eight grade that I had liked at the time, and I took about four and a half sentences from it. However, I already had an idea, and that made expanding my fragment a lot easier.


Mitchell,

If I had to, or rather could, choose, I think I would choose the Red. Both world have pain, both have death, and neither is guaranteed to be more 'real' than another. If I stayed here, I'd die just like everyone, eventually. If I left, I might be able to help people, whereas here, all I could do is make someone feel better. I want life to be worth more than a quest for sensory enjoyment. Whether or not it is, i'm sure that I'm not achieving anything great inside the matrix. might as well see the outside.

Kyle:

After i read your blog, two possible instances of "form without meaning" came to mind. First, in 1984 (George Orwell), the people don't have enough words to choose a form- there's only one was to express one idea. They can never say everything they mean.

Also, computers. Computers can't tell if the printer it's connected to is scared or tired or lonely. Computers don't have feelings, so there's no meaning behind any content. There are only facts and instructions.