Final Blog Post!

Throughout the year, I have viewed blogging as a form of reflection and discussion. Blogs have allowed me to think through the texts we have read and really get an understanding of the themes of CORE. Specifically identity - each work has had some form of searching for true identity and blogging has provided an outlet for discovering these identities and struggles.

I have definitely reflected a lot in these posts. The blog has been an extension of the classroom. We can continue our discussions and theories with each other on our own time.

We have made a lot of connections with these blogs. References to movies, other works, other classes, and other subjects has really allowed our discussions to become much more in-depth and varied.

All in all, blogging, though a little hard to remember to do, has been a very interesting learning tool for me.

Persepolis 2

I wonder how the author felt while growing up during all this - there were so many shocking and disturbing things going on around her. Dealing with seeing her friend dying because of the bombs, being harassed and called a whore for wearing tight jeans, the stories of torture and horror that she listens too.

This story is her reflection on her experiences - but how did she feel during these experiences? I can't even imagine how she felt...

Persepolis 1

The images in this book are sometimes overwhelming. Actually, at most times, the images are extremely disturbing and scary. It makes the story so much more powerful.

However, it makes the reader feel so uncomfortable. It's hard to look at. You want to turn the page or look away - but you can't really fast-forward through a book that well. The images are always going to be there.

This book as been really hard to read - but it really sticks in your head.

Sue

"I wanted to find a girl, any girl at all." Nice, David. Really nice. "Then I saw a couple of girls, French whores, but they were not very attractive." Again, REAL NICE.

David really bothers me. His decision making skills are absolutely dreadful. And he seems to know that the decisions he makes will hurt both himself and the others around him.

The whole business with Sue is just a mess. Poor Sue. She gets loved and left...hmm...Ring any bells? That is the story of David's life. He loves people. And then leaves them. Exhibit A - Joey. Exhibit B - Hella (sort of). Exhibit C - Sue...I'm sure the list goes on.

Side Note - David

I was talking to one of my hall-mates about this book and we were discussing how we liked it - except for the main character.

David = Complete jerk. As my friend said: "He is too busy being sexually frustrated to be nice to anyone."

Understandably, being sexually confused is a large burden to bear. But David is really going about it horribly. He has succeeded in alienating basically everyone he knows and cares about (if he actually cares about them at all). I find that very annoying. It's almost as if he knows that he's being a rude jerk and just doesn't care enough.

Did something happen...

I could never tell whether or not David really loved Giovanni. I was too distracted by the sexual tension between them. There could not possibly be more sexual tension between them - and eventually it had to surface.

While looking for quotes for my essay, I stumbled across page 64 - where David and Giovanni go back to Giovanni's apartment after getting really drunk on white wine and oysters (an aphrodisiac, I might add)...

"I was trembling. I thought, if I do not open the door at once and get out of here, I am lost. But I knew I could not open the door, I knew it was too late....He pulled me against him...and slowly pulled me down with him to that bed. With everything in me screaming No! yet the sum of me sighed Yes."

So. There we go. David and Giovanni are certainly more than friends. But are they really in love? Is David even capable of love? Because he goes back and forth all the time...

"Someone came out of the shadows towards me..."

The description on pages 38 and 39 of the person coming out of the shadows towards David is incredibly dark. We were talking in class about how the portrayal of the gay bars and David's situations are so foreboding...this is a perfect example. The entire description of the "mummy"/"zombie" reveals a dark, menacing, scary undertone:

"thin, black hair was violent with oil"
"The face was white and thoroughly bloodless"
"the shirt was covered in round, paper-thin wafers...which stormed in the light"

That is one of the most intense descriptions of a person that I have ever read. Ever.