End of 'Salem's Lot

I just finished reading Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. My Lit X paper focuses on fear and I figured starting with a horror novel would be the best, easiest place to start. Throughout the book, fear is a feeling that builds. It is often referred to as a growing feeling, an overwhelming sensation, or an undefinable nervousness and aprehension toward the unknown.
What I found to be most interesting in terms of plot progression was that fear was mentioned so much around the middle of the book where the plot was still growing, but very little at the end when the climax actually occured. I think this has something to do with the fact that King has to be descriptive while the story is being explained, but when fear is felt in extreme circumstances, like in the end, it almost disappears and is sidelined by adrenaline.

fear in 'Salem's Lot

"She had always consciously or subconsciously formed fear into a simple equation: fears = unknown. And to solve the equation, one simply reduced the problem to simple algebraic terms, thus: unknown = creaky board (or whatever), creaky board = nothing to be afriad of. In the modern world all terrors could be gutted by simple use of the transitive axiom of equality. Some fears were justified, or course... but until now she had not believed that some fears were larger than comprehension, apocalyptic and nearly paralyzing... insoluble." (306)

Susan Norton perfectly explains fear and preconceived notions of fear that many people associate with the feeling. Fear can be explained so logically and linearly when in a calm setting. Even reminiscing about fear does not allow a person to feel the extreme, paralyzing, larger than comprehension affect that Susan puts into words in this section of 'Salem's Lot.

I think this quote will be very helpful for me in my lit x paper because whether or not i use this quote, it allows me to get passed my preconceived notions that I associate with fear. It is so easy to look for fear in text or even to feel fear, but it is extremely difficult to explain or define the feeling. Throughout Stephen King's novel, fear is constantly referred to: a rising emotion "overpsilling logic" (284), "oppresive weight" "welling into her consciousness from a part of her brain that was usually silent" (282), "shaken fear" (225), etc.

Where to go from here? I am going to finish the book this weekend and then make a list of all of the quotes having to do with fear or fright. I want to look at trends and figure out what i want to read next and see if the paper starts to take shape on its own.

the start of 'salem's lot

I recently started my first lit x book 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. The reason i chose it is because it is known for being particularly scary, and i need to find books that somehow incorporate fear (either to the main character or the reader? I still haven't figured it out).
Anywayy... not that i expected the book to start out scary right away, but i am noticing some important things in terms of the build up to when the book will get scary. In scary movies (which i am very scared of) the music is what i think initially and throughout the whole movie gets the anticipatory fear started in the viewer. In books, however, the setting is described in depth and the ends of sections are ended in a very foreboding way.
So far, the town of Jerusalem's Lot is the stereotypical country town in Maine with places to get milkshakes and people referred to as the constable, etc. The only way one would know that it was a horror novel is the fact that the cover is somewhat disturbing and the main character is a writer who has disappeared for four years after the death of his wife in a motorcycle accident. He wants to write a book out of a house that seems a little creepy and his old aunt's house apparently burned down in a notable fire when he used to live with her.

NOTICEABLE:
-setting is important in building the anticipatory fear in the heart of the reader
-foreboding is out of control

Writing abot writing... My drafting process of SATF

Erin Ogilvy

What are the major content/critical thinking/writing issues that you were confronted with on this draft?
• I could not figure out how to incorporate quotes into the paper without turning the essay from exploratory to a regular lit analysis paper
• I don’t think I accomplished the task of finding a major point, but instead almost ended with a thesis?
• The first page or so of the essay went well and I was able to explore what family is to me, but then I think it all went downhill when I tried to assess the Compsons. My one focused topic that I was exploring seems to split into absolute chaos when I attempt to analyze the Compsons.
How well do you understand the content/substance of what you are writing about?
• My understanding of family is strong. I think my only problem with writing about family is the fact that there are so many various topics to possibly explore. My first draft had too many ideas, and when I tried to narrow it down in this second draft, I think I still strayed too much from one central issue.
• My understanding of The Sound and the Fury is very strong. Although I read the book over a month ago, through class discussions I have figured out the main themes and expanded how I originally perceived the characters when I read the book on my own.
What was your plan or strategy that you used to address these issues for this draft? Was this plan similar to the plans you have used in the past? How did you go from blank page to finished copy? How, and why, did you know those steps would work?
• I reread my paper twice before I started to rewrite and tried to pick one main theme to explore when I started writing again. Then, I read my paper out loud until I found a place in my first draft where my new theme started to deviate from what I now wanted to write. I usually read my papers out loud because I don’t always see that things don’t make sense or are unclear unless I hear them and physically have to pause because it doesn’t sound right when I read them. I usually resave my original draft and then start moving things around instead of starting with a blank paper. I knew these steps would work out for me because I have done them many times, however with this paper, I reached a point where I no longer knew where I should go with what I was writing.
What advice did you solicit for this draft? What was/were the source(s) of this advice? What advice were you given on this draft?
• I solely based by second draft off of suggestions made during writing group and from the few comments made by Mr. Chiappetta on my first draft. I wish I had gone in for a meeting, for although I sat down to write with the mindset that I knew exactly what I was doing, I reached a point where I wish I had thought through the entire paper more. Having a conference would have verified that I was going in the right direction, especially with a new type of essay style I do not know whether I fully encompassed (robo’s word of the day!) the full exploratory aspect.

Evaluation/Reader's Response

* Is Briony credible? Could she actually be a living, breathing human being? How does McEwan make the character seem so real?
* What, then, is McEwan’s opinion of Briony?
* What is your reaction to Briony? Are you sensitive to her and to her situation? Do you feel empathy toward her? Does she deserve what she “gets” in the story, or is her fate undeserved?
* Does Briony say anything to you personally? How do you relate/respond to her? Why do you respond the way that you do?

I think that Briony is credible in her mind, but in reality she is just making stories up to keep herself occupied. She is just like any other 13 year old girl trying to figure herself out but she has such an overactive imagination. In real life, i think Briony could exist, but for the most part, if her mother was more active in her life and taught her differently i think Briony wouldn't be as unbelievable. McEwan makes the character seem real by giving Briony the childhood sense of curiosity while still being able to keep a proper tone.
McEwan's opinion of Briony is the readers, i think. He portrays her to be slightly hated and disliked by the reader, while at the same time being the main character and needing to somehow connect to the reader.
I personally like Briony, but she doesn't seem to change much from her teenaged years to when she grows up. Yes, she is remorseful about what she did, but at the same time she still writes the book and could potentially be spreding mistruths.
I related to Briony a little in the sense that when I was little i had an active imagination, but i could always tell the difference between reality and what i wish were real.

Chapters, points of view, and comparing SATF to Atonement

Although I am only a few chapters into Atonement, I just realized that the story is interesting for me to follow because the chapters are written through different people's perspectives, and although they do not always overlap, it is extremely helpful to know the thought process of different characters. I also like how there is no rhyme or reason so far to the order in which characters are in charge of chapters, for there is no pattern.

The Sound and the Fury was also written in sectioned chapters through different charaters points of view. The mother in both stories seems bed ridden and vacant most of the time, although in Atonement the mother is at least given a chapter (of what i have read so far) to explain her love for her children. And regardless of whether or not she is able to be with them all the time, it is obviously that she cares for them.

Had Mrs. Compson been given a chapter in SATF, would the way the family is portrayed been vastly different? Like Briony's mother, would we find out that Mrs. Compson is actually loving, too?

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" is a short story which we read to assess character and character development. Dina is a young black woman studying at Yale who is originally from Baltimore. Dina has a major attitude and is sarcastic because she builds up walls around her to keep people from getting too close. And from really truly listening to herself. Dina starts to hang out a lot and fall in love with what seems to be her first friend. This girl later turns out to be a lesbian. I think what is interesting about this short story, although there are many parts that I found quite odd, is the fact that Dina never has to say she is straight or gay. It doesn't really seem to matter. She observes everyone and judges them and sterotypes the people around her because she is so bitter and lonely that she won't open up. Which is ironic since the last phrase in the story is "open up".

While trying to take note of character and character development, I noticed something in terms of deconstruction. Is it possible to really truly hate the main character of a story? Because MOST stories are written through the main characters voice or about the main character, as the reader, we are accustumed to associate their opions, feelings, and actions as "right". Is it possible to love a story if you are unable to relate to the main character?

Dilsey's Section, its overrrrrr!

What is the source of the tension in Dilsey's section?
What is Faulkner asking us to consider here?

Dilsey's section is different than any other section of the book because she herself does not narrate it, it is in third person and rather follows Dilsey through her day. The Compson family has slowly been disinigrating, however with Miss Quentin's escape, the family seems to altogether seem in ruins. I think the main thing lost is hope, for with Quentin's suicide and Caddie's permiscuous nature, Miss Quentin was almost like the last hope. Though she showed signs of being like her mother, the rest of the family looked the other way because she was supposed to be different. But she let the family down, and with her escape from the family came a rupture in the rest of the dwindling families ties that were left in the Compson household.
-I think Benjy longs for Caddie how she use to be and stability.
-I think Quentin longs for escape and to go back and fix wheat he believes has ruined his life in the past.
-I think Jason longs to be noticed. He was the normal child, but with that came him being left behind, still living with his mother in the town he grew up with. I think he harbors so many jealous feelings toward his siblings that he longs for a totally different life. And the only way he saw getting out was getting rich off stealing Quentin's money from Caddie.
Quentin and Jason both seem to base their identity off of their sisters loss of virginity and her slutty ways. They are both consumed with the fact that what she did impacted their lives in such a drastic way, but in fact if they had just moved on they would have been so much better off.
The source of tension in this section seems to be change and how none of the family members seem capable of dealing with change.

Why does Fauckner end with Dilsey's section? Of all the sections it is easiest to understand, but seems to leave the reader with the most questions asking why...

First thoughts on Atonement

I just started reading Atonement. Briony is an extremely intense young girl with such a strong character that it is almost overwhelming. I would not want to have to be her parents! She seems neat to an extreme, smart beyond her years, and starved for attention. Although her mother reads her new story with great interest, the fact that she is the youngest and cannot wait for her older brother to come home or her cousins to come visit in order to show them the play makes it almost seem as though she is lacking something in her childhood. Although I think its amazing that such a young girl is writing about such profound topics, it is strange that she is such an old soul in a young person's body. I love that quote on page 7 which i think perfectly describes Briony's oddness and age beyond her years. She says "beauty, she had discovered, occupied a narrow band. Ugliness, on the other hand, had infinite variation."

Did something happen to make Briony the mature adult that she is at such a young age?

Quentin and time

Quentin's relationship to time may seem at first to be majorly different than Benjy's but after skimming the chapter again I noticed that they are in fact rather similar. Benjy is completely controled by his inability to judge time, and Quentin is obsessed with clocks and time (More specifically the passing of time). The chapter is constantly interupted by Quentin referring to the ticking of a nearby clocktower or watch that he broke in his pocket. Quentin has a very abstract thinking of time, and although he is slightly more chronological than Benjy, he still has flashbacks to memories of life at home with his family. The only difference though is that when Quentin flashes back, he seems to consciously know what is the present time.

The tension between the passing of time and Quentin seems to be that he is taken over by it. He refers often to the growing shadows and the bells tolling, then remembers a time from his past. This alludes to the fact that although he is able to gage time better than Benjy, he is just as controled by past events. I think this is why he eventually kills himself because he cannot get away from his past and how things have changed with time.

Chronology in The Sound and the Fury

Reading Benjy's section both the way it was published and in chronological order are the same story, but read so completely differently. The first time I read Benjy's chapter in the book i was lost. I did not understand it and only really started to get it after rereading and moving on to figure out what happened around his story. The way the story is published really shows Benjy's inability to have power toward time and events. He flows in and out of periods of time. In the chronological order of the story, Benjy seems as though he is an observer, and although as a reader I could still tell he had developmental issues, having his writing flow better gave him a more powerful voice as a narrator. I think his descriptiveness really shown through better when I read the story in chronological order.

Family

The past few days in class we have been discussing families and the questions surrounding how families enact with one another and what effects families have on each individual member. On a basic level, I think that it's interesting that human nature makes people strive to be close to people and be loved, while at the same time there is always the subconscious push to reproduce, and really only find a mate for that sole purpose. I think that the roots of a family are formed because there is usually an extremely close connection between parents and their ofspring. Then, as the children grow and reach the age where they start forming relatationships with their potential mates (the horrible teenaged years, AH!) there is usually a period of separation between parents and their kids. However, there will always be the connection (in most families) where parents are reliable, supportive influences which are the basis for how their children have formed their own personalities and way they act in their own families. Someone brought up a very interesting point in class by saying that people learn values from their families, which may or may not be good values, but because we are constantly surrounded by them before starting school or whatnot, we believe them to be what is "right".

How does a person who is brought up in a family with parents who don't have good morals live and function in society? And furthermore, who gets to decide that a particular moral is bad? Elementary school teachers? Government?