One more thing that I have found in Mr. Pip that I noticed in my notes while studying for the test. Mr. Dickens, Pip and Mr. Watts are all orphans who don't know who their parents are. Matilda relates to all these people because she thinks she is an orphan and also she finds Mr. Watts and Pip as more understanding people than her own mother.

Charles Dickens=Mr. Watts=Matilda=Me=someone else

We are all connected and we will always be connected in reality or imagination!

The timing of this week could not be worse. I am 20 minutes away from the final and I have had minimal sleep, about 3 hours, because I am in the process of moving. My check out of my house was today at 11:45. I have spent all week moving and cleaning. But like the theme of this class, we have hard times and we suffer so we can write about it and learn and help other people learn how to be strong. I have had a wonderful time in this class. In the course of my college career I have been really disappointed with my teachers at MSU. In high school I had some memorable teachers, ones that have changed my life and that I will never forget. I can honestly say that Mr. Sexson has been one of the best teachers I have had at MSU. Even though he is a bit on the old side and my first impressions were that he was going to be old fashioned in his teaching, he has proved to be very "with the times" and hip as a teacher. He taught us the classics but integrated modern techniques, such as the blogs for example to mesh with the technological generation.

This class has helped me further understand the power of stories. All we are are the stories we have. Sometimes the funnest part of an adventure is the aftermath and the opportunity to tell that story to other people. Some of the most enjoyable moments of my life is not partying or doing extreme activities, but its sitting with a few friends exchanging stories with them. The story is a powerful tool. It can teach, inform, entertain, enlighten, and save us from the trials and tribulations in our lives. Mr. Dickens knew this, Mr. Watts knew this, Matilda Knew this, Mr. Sexson knew this and now I know this. I am a storyteller.

I finally received a reply from Jennifer. The girl who helped me in my time of need in a storm. I sent the Sonnet to her not through the mail but I set it on her doorstep. She emailed me back saying that she appreciated the poem but didn't understand some of it. She also said she was in South Dakota and her car died and someone helped her out when she needed help and she is all about good Carma and helping others. 

The whole time after that even happened you realize that there are good people out there. Ones with compassion and good intentions. We live in a society where grown men are afraid of looking at young children for fear they will be labeled something or other. I had a friend who for his photography assignment photographed children on a playground. He had no ill intentions at all but in the public eye, he looks like a pedophile. Its great to have people to help you. A could have a shitty day and the whole time I am just miserable and depressed and all it takes is one smiling face and one good person to turn it all around. Thank you Jennifer.

In my paper I talked about Anne Frank and Neil Peart. Two completely different people living in two different times. They both have experienced loss and they both wrote about it. As a filmmaker, I write scripts and stories of my own, but it was only possible through reading other scripts and watching other peoples movies and stories. First a writer must sit back and "Listen" to a story or several stories before he/she can gain a story voice. Just as Matilda did in the novel Mister Pip, She found her voice and wrote her story. Mr. Watts helped her find the storyteller in her by reading her the story of Great Expectations. Mr. Watts showed Matilda the power of the story and the power of reading stories and hearing stories. That was Mr. Watt's legacy to Matilda and that is the legacy many authors give to us through books. They teaching us about their stories, but also we can learn to tell our own stories through others.

Ryan Coombe           

08 – 04 – 08

ENGL 123

 

The Novel is Dead?

The Great Expectations of Matilda

The Booker Prize author V.S. Naipauls was once quoted saying “The Novel is Dead”(Conversational Reading). This country as well as the world is more literate than ever, but society chooses to read magazines, newspapers, and blogs instead of books. Many people believe that classic literature is irrelevant to modern day culture and it has no meaning in their lives. Perhaps there is an alternative reason why these books are called literary classics and have stood the test of time. Mister Pip is a novel about a girl named Matilda living on an island in Bougainville who begins to read Great Expectations with her class. The novel itself was written in 1860 and its story content takes place in 1812, but Matilda finds this book to be more relevant than anything in her whole world even her friends and family. Novels and stories can be more real, powerful and meaning than reality itself and this idea is expressed thoroughly in Mister Pip.

Mister Pip explores a large variety of themes including the institution of family, the intensity and power of imagination and finding ones identity. Literary characters from Oedipus to Jack Worthing from The Importance of Being Earnest have beseeched the question “Who am I?” Matilda seeks the same answer in her own life on the island, but cannot discover her identity. It took the help of a fictional character named Pip to help her through her identity crisis. Pip is raised poor in the marshes, but then comes into much wealth but at the cost of forgetting who he is and who his friends are.  Matilda draws on Pips experiences and suffering and relates it to her life. She feels a connection to Pip and admits to feeling more of a relation to the character, Pip, than to her own ancestors (p.76).  

Great Expectations not only helps Matilda find herself, but also helps her survive and get through the darkest time in her life. Stories often serve as survival devices to those who face sever hardships.  In 1001 Arabian Nights, Shahrazad uses the power of story to keep her and her sister alive for over 3 years telling a story every night to the ruthless king Shahrayar (p.16).  Matilda with the help of her teacher, Mr. Watts, establishes that when everything is gone in ones life, one still has an imagination.  Mr. Watts said, “We have all lost our possessions and many of us our homes, but these losses, severe though they may seem, remind us of what no person can take, and that is our minds and our imaginations” (p. 123).  Matilda discovers that listening and reading about Pips hardships makes her hardships a little bit more bearable because she feels she’s not alone and that everyone suffers.

Not only are reading about character’s hardships helpful, but personally writing about ones experience is just as therapeutic and also a survival technique in itself. Ghost Rider is a book about the Rush Drummer, Neil Peart, who within 6 months looses his daughter in a car accident and looses his wife to cancer. He choose to embark on a yearlong motorcycle journey around North America and decided to write about it. Peart used the experience of the journey to get past the death of his family but more importantly writing about the healing process saved his life. The Diary of Ann Frank is another example of a young Jewish girl going through great adversary who discovers the saving power of writing and telling the tale about their struggles and sacrifices in hopes that their stories might help someone suffering somewhere else.

The Diary of Ann Frank and Ghost Rider are true stories about life and loss, but Great Expectations and Mister Pip are works of literary fiction. There are those who believe in storytelling as pure forms of entertainment and not educational. Matilda’s mother would have approved of her reading Ghost Rider or The Diary of Ann Frank because those stories actually occurred, but she would have no regard for fiction because it was “made up.” Dolores, Matilda’s mum, believes in only one book, the Bible. However the Bible is a story. It has real people and factual events but it is a story nonetheless. The same lessons can be extracted from the bible as can be taken from any novel. Pip never existed along with Matilda, but does that make the story and the message any less meaningful? If The Diary of Ann Frank was discovered to be farce and without truth, does it make the book worthless and irrelevant? Matilda will remember the name Pip long into her life and perhaps will never forget that name. Even though Matilda is a fictional character, hundreds of thousands of people have read Great Expectations and the novel has largely impacted many of their lives.

At the end of Mister Pip, Matilda finally realizes the awesome power of storytelling. She has survived the island and the redskins and has coped with the deaths of her beloved friend, Mr. Watts and her mother with the help of Mr. Dickens. She now must become a storyteller herself and become the voice that saved her from the island.  Mr. Watts said to Matilda “No one in history of your short lives has used the same voice as you with which to say your name…your special gift that no one can ever take from you. This is what our friend and colleague Mr. Dickens used to construct his stories with” (p. 124). Matilda realizes her connection with Charles Dickens. Matilda believes she is an orphan of sorts and relates to Pip is also an orphan who also is somewhat of a bio-character of Mr. Dickens. Mr. Dickens went through some tough times in his life and wrote a story about his endeavors through a novel that has touched thousands of lives including hers. Now she knows she must share her experience and tell her story to the world. Matilda will come full circle a storyteller. One who has listened to stories and one who can tell her own.

Matilda and Pip along with other literary characters taught people the fact that whether a story is true or completely designed and created is irrelevant and inconsequential to the message and the power it has over people. Imagination separates the human race from any other species on the planet. Stories have the power to inspire, to shelter, to free and to save. Just because the story was created doesn’t mean it wasn’t made real by the reader from the impact it had. Kyle Brofloski, a character from the animated sitcom, South Park, in an episode entitled Imagination land said this about the power of imagination; “ Hadn’t Luke Skywalker and Santa Claus affected your life’s more than most real people…they had more of an impact on the world than any of us. Same as bugs bunny and superman and Harry Potter. They’ve changed my life, changed the way I act on the earth. Doesn’t that make them real? They might be imaginary but, their more important than most of us here and they’re going to be around long after we’re dead. In a way those things are more realer than any of us” (South Park) Today’s culture has forgotten their voice as Matilda did.  If it is not remembered then the novel is dead.

  Works Cited

 

·      Jones, Lloyd. Mister Pip.  New York; The Dial Press, 2006.

·      “Conversational Reading.” The Novel Is Dead. 3 Aug. 2008. http://www.conversationalreading.com/2004/10/vs_naipaul_the_.html

·      Hadawy, Husain and Muhsin Mahdi. The Arabian Nights. New York; Norton, 1990.

·      Peart, Neil. Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. Toronto; ECW Press, 2002.

·      Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York; Doubleday, 1967.

·      “Imaginationland Episode III.” South Park.  Tray Parker and Matt Stone. Comedy Central. 31 Oct. 2007

In writing my paper, I found more too the book Mister Pip than I ever saw before. I took a quote from my paper. "Mister Pip is a book about what we can learn from books." There are many people who don't believe in stories and books and this country is slowly becoming illiterate. No one reads anymore, especially the classics such as Great Expectations. I believe Mister Pip is a must read because it is the story of Matilda and how when in a messed up world under messed up circumstances, she survived through a story, through a character that didn't exist Just as Shahrazad survived in Arabian Nights, But it did exist to her. It was at times more real that reality itself.

The power of literature is timeless and its relevance never ceases. people can read a book when they were young and not get into it that much and then revisit it again later in life and discover things they never saw before. A good analogy is a young child listening to a love song. They do not know what love is yet but they can appreciate the music. Its not until the experience love that that song has more relevance than they ever realized. 

Outline for Final Paper

I. Intro to stories and education

a. Stress is put on formal education 

b.  Literary Masterpieces are considered irrelevant

Thesis: Fiction may be more relevant and informative to someones life that academic material such as math or science

II. Self Identity

a. Great Expectations is about pip becomeing someone else and fogetting who he is.

b. Mister Pip is about Matilda finding out who she is through the character of Pip

c. Mister Pip is about about learning from other books

III. Connection Between Real and Imaginary

a. Dickens writes about being orphaned

b. matilda becomes, she things, an orphan

c. An imaginary character learns from a character created by a real person. who ever reads Mister Pip will learn too

IV. Representation

a. Matilda's mom represents those who don't believe in the art of storytelling

b. The bible is a story and the children learn from their parents through stories

c. why does a nonfiction story have any more power than a fiction story

V. Matilda learns to create

a. Matilda has survived through the power of being told stories and relating to characters.

b. Matilda will tell her own story and will find her voice.

I re-read the ending of The Importance of Being Earnest and it is strikingly Oedipus Rex in reverse. Oedipus doesn't know or think he knows who he is and finds out. It is a tragic event that leads to much suffering. Jack finds out who he is and it brings everybody in his live together and connects them where in Oedipus is tears them apart. I guess that is the quintessential difference between comedy and tragedy. There is a line in The importance of Being Earnest that I really enjoyed and here it is...

"I hope it did not end happily? I don't like novels that end happily. they depress me so much." -Cecily

"The good end happily. the bad end unhappily. That is what Fiction means." -Miss. Prism

I believe this is a good reference to my statement above and the difference between the two stories. Comedies end happily and Tragedies end unhappily. I liked Cecily's line earlier because it means that there is much to learn about tragedies. That even though they are unhappy endings, we can constructively learn from them as well as comedies.

One of my personal favorite lines in Literature is one from the book Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis.

- "And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back. If we did not know that everyday in a life fills the whole life with expectations and memory and that these are that day."

 

I finished Mr. Pip on Friday night and now realized why everyone called the book an ADULT read. It was brutal. It happened so fast, the killing of Mr. Watts. I spent the whole book slowly getting to know someone and in less than a page he is decapitated and fed to the pigs. I will take a lesson from Wallace Stevens and live life to the fullest.

I am still unsure of the direction I want to take in my essay. I have written the beginning but I am still unsure if I want to take that approach. Here are my quotes taken from Mr. Pip.

"...I do not know what you are suppose to do with memories like these. If feels wrong to want to forget. Perhaps this is why we write these things down, s we can move on." (p. 209)

"...No one in the history of your short lives has used the same voice as you with which to say your name. This is yours. Your special gift that no one can ever take from you. This is what our friend and colleague Mr. Dickens used to construct his stories with." (p. 124)

"...I could sit on the beach in the shade of a palm tree and see the moment clearly: Joe offers a hearty farewell. Biddy wipes her eyes with her apron. But Pip has already moved on. He is looking forward. It was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on..." (p. 153)

There was another quote where Matilda is forced to write her family names in the sand and her mother yells at her that Pip is not blood. Matilda states that she feels closer to Pip than any of her family. 

I want to talk about the themes of the power of storytelling and personal experiences. One does not have to be in England to experience a rimey morning and people can experience anything through a story. Also I wanted to touch on extraordinary people and how people are made through there experiences. I am not sure how to approach in again but it is still a work in progress.

On another note, I have finished reading Oedipus Rex and a quote came to mind. "Ignorance is Bliss." Everyone from Jocasta to the messenger urged Oedipus to stop looking for the truth because it would be painful and life altering, but he continued to persist for it. Can we really ignore the truth or do we naturally always strive for it. We can pretend not to know but we really do even though it will destroy us. There are things we just must know in life. It reminds me of the story of the matrix and how Neo wants to know what it is even though Morpheus is telling him he wont like it. and once he knows he can never go back like Oedipus. I also read in Medina's blog the theme of fate and destiny. I want to believe that we are not help to a standard by a designer and we can choose to change, but I just don't believe it. He are who who are because of who we meet and what we do. We are who we are and we could be nobody else

Calm During the Storm

Know the verity of summers quisling,

Swallow and descry the weatherman's lie.

Grothar has sallied in the month of July

Asphalt of this road, rimey and sizzling.

Pedal forward toward tepid quarter

Hermes and Harpies begin to wage war

And Edward grinds gears to level the score

Under the bough, begging "Storm be shorter!"

A voice cries out in the thick of the screams

This mind may find tranquility it seems

Into the abode, a dry and sere sojourn

She left at havocs end and in my stay

saw debris fixed in my prior delay

indebt for her ward, she"ll never learn.

I began reading master Pip and am stunned. Its been a long time since I have read such a captivating and easy book. I cannot put the book down. The book seems to me a blueprint of the entire class thus far. Mr. Watts, AKA Pop Eye, mirrors Mr. Sexson with his melodic reading of the first chapter of Great Expectations by "Mr. Dickens." Also I found some relation to Ex Libris where Matilda admires the "reading Aloud" of the book much  as Anne Fadiman noted in her essay "Sharing the Mayhem." Another connection of Matilda and Anne Fadiman is when Matilda comes home with new words to impress her mom, like rimey, much the same as Fadimans use of sesquipedalians. I will finish the book tonight or early tomorrow and can't wait to do it.

On another note, I have a story to tell. I'll set you, the reader, with everything you need to know that is relevant. I am in a transitional period with my living situation. I live in a four bedroom house with my friends with the lease expiring on August 17. I had a friend who lived in a studio penthouse with a rooftop deck who was moving out. I couldn't pass it up. I signed the lease for the studio apt and I'm slowly moving in...

That being said, I work at Taco Del Mar, and I share my boring stories and daily events with my co-workers including the events that happen in English class. I told a coworker, Reed, about my new rooftop apt.  Just to give you some details about what kind of guy he is, he loves lewd humor and has a taste for the scatological jokes. I told him I had to write a sonnet about and for a loved one. He told me I should Poo Dollar someone. For those who don't know what this is,.. well... click here! http://www.poodollar.org/playvideo1.html.  Anyway I said I probably not do the nasty task but he did challenge me to write a poem about it. I accepted the challenge. It will be called "A Dollar Well Spent." Coming soon to the CoombeJournal Blog July, 2008. Look for it this summer.

ALASKA

Eagles extend, exploring the summer sea for summer salmon.

It manages and maps 200 mile of mountains

And tours through the timber and the temperate Tongass.

Examining, Exploring, Focusing for the ideal natural resource.

SEE! The rich fisheries of the sea!

The Eagle sees…CONTACT!

Substance harvested from the home.

The wilderness permits a course.

The Alaska Sea Aids and extends subsistent living to the eagle

a poem by Ryan Coombe

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens deals with two powerful motifs; perception and weather. In his poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, weather is referenced much in the thirteen stanzas. Among the snowy mountains, the blackbird whirled in the autumn winds, Icicles filled the long window, It was snowing and it was going to snow; I struggled to find meaning in all these references to winter. I discovered in my research that the blackbird has a beautiful bird call in the spring and summer months, but has a ghastly call in the winter months. I gathered that the poem is about perceptions and how they can do us much good ( the beautiful call of the blackbird) but can also do us wrong as well (a blackbirds call in winter).

A man and a woman are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird are one.

We all have different perceptions about all things because we are individuals. The one experience that two people"s perceptions are as close as ever is with love. When a man and a woman are in romantic love, they both share the same feelings for each other.

Icicles filled the long window with barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird crossed it, to and fro.

The mood traced in the shadow an indecipherable cause.

The icicles represent foul perceptions but also tell the reader that it is a prison setting. We can be so involved in our set perceptions that we can be incarcerated by them. One should always be about to change the way we look at things.

When the blackbird flew out of sight it marked the edge of many circles.

The who poem refers to winter and how it can hinder us. The line above means that the blackbird has flew away from winter and going to warmer pastures representing that we can always redefine ourselves and change the way we look at anything.

In the poem, Wallace Stevens writes about how we perceive love, religion and our lives. He is even talking about the very poem he has written. I interpret this poem differently that anyone else and tomorrow I will read it and interpret it differently from today.

Much like the Arabic tales...Wallace Stevens is talking about everything in his poems and he is also talking about nothing.

Source Material

Chapman, Jeremy. " Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: An Analysis." 13 July 2008.

Vendler, Helen. Modern American Poetry. "On 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.' 13 July 2008.

The Medieval Bestiary. "Blackbird." 13 July 2008.

Redemption

Last class period we were discussing important thoughts and criticisms about the book Great Expectations. One that was never mentioned was the strong theme of redemption. Some people found Pip not to be a favorable character because he turned his back on his friends and forgot who he was. This makes Pip human! All people deceive, lie, abandon and take for granted the things we cherish.

Many characters in the book and not favorable characters, but are given a chance to make amends for what they have done. Pip is a young and innocent boy who helped Magwich when he needed it. Pip treated Magwich not as a criminal, but as a regular person which caused Magwich to give him all the money to make Pip successful. The most important part of the book is when Magwich reveals he is Pips benefactor. In this single moment of time, Pip realizes what his life has become. This is the point in time where pip strives for redemption and want to make things right.

Mrs. Joe was a malicious character who never took pleasure in anything and suppressed Joe and Pip but right before she did she asked for forgiveness.

Miss Havisham wanted to corrupt and break all the hearts of man, but in the end learned the errors of what she has done and asked for forgiveness.

Even the convict, Magwich who has committed a crime has some qualities of redemption when he becomes Pips benefactor.

It is an important theme that everyone is capable of doing awful things and in the same way everyone is capable of doing great things

Intertextuality

Just before my completion of Great Expectations, I was watching comedy central and came upon a South Park episode entitled "Pip." The episode only contains fragments of the morals and lessons to be taken from Mr. Dickens novel. The episode takes the story and adapts it into a ludicrous tale of Miss Havisham teaching her adopted daughter Estella to capture and break the hearts of men to put them into a powerful Genesis device fusing her and Estella's body into one. The episode also contains robotic apes that fight Joe and Magwich with swords.

The South Park writers chose to parody Great Expectations not because they admired the literary work but because everyone else does. Nonetheless, it is Dickens Intertextuality in contemporary popular culture. This novel has been made into several movies and referenced in TV shows and books for many years.

The reason the book is so highly respected is because it contains so many themes and morals that are universal in literally every generation since it was written. The importance of holding friendships high and not the root of all evil, money and greed. Another theme is kindness and genuineness. To value people for who they are and not what they can do for you financially. These themes and stories are evident in so many works of literature and art and will will be seen for many more.

The last blog published responded to the question of a book that captivated ones interest thoroughly. An author must hit a central nerve that can be found in every single person on the planet. Everyone has experienced greed and everyone has taken someone or something for granted. We are all connected in these universal truths.

To view the south park episode www.allsp.com

select season 4 and scroll down the episode list till you come to pip.

Fearing Introductions

July 1, 2008

The anxiety of the first day of class has never dwindled and I'm sure it never will. I am always afraid because I never know what to expect. When Mr. Sexon entered the room and began reading my first reaction was skepticism. This must be a test. Throughout the duration of the day he would randomly pick out people and question them. I was given introduction to the juggler, Medina who didn't kill her kids, and Dominic, daughter of Monique. After a while, I stopped being afraid and learned of the professors method. Its a day of introductions which acts as the foundation of the rest of the course. I can tell this class will be a calm relaxing class not without its work loads but it will be one in a low stress environment.

I will be honest when I say I do not read for pleasure as much as I should but I feel this class will provoke me to begin positive reading habits. Greg has mentioned a single book which engaged him to the point of being lost in the story. I had to think hard about this question because it has been some time. The book is called Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. It's a story about a runt goblin named Jig who lives in a goblin village in the cave dwellings of a mountain. He is not big enough to carry out the normal tasks of the other large goblins so he is required to cook and clean for the rest of the village. One day Jig is captured by a group of crusaders in suite of killing the evil dragon in the depths of the mountain. Its an adventure story with great moments of action and humor.

Goblin Quest kept me entertained and interested on every page. One element that really turned me on about the novel was the main character. There are so many stories where the main character is the perfect model citizen, who is a hero and always does right. Jig is a coward and a wimp who goes on this journey against his will which I believe is very true to reality. We as humans usually do great good not because we are bold and heroic but because me must or are guided toward it by forces we do not agree with. It has been a long time since I read a book which has engaged me as well as Goblin Quest. I hope to find another one soon