HTRLLAP: The Garden Party

What does the story signify?
"The Garden Party" focuses on social classes. Laura's class throws lavish parties as members of poorer classes perish outside. Her class sends scraps to members of that poorer class, looking condescendingly on them as if they were dogs. Is it the thought that counts? Laura faces this gap between her life and the lives of others, not quite understanding how to handle it. The story shows one debutante's coming into glory, though she often has second thoughts.

How does it signify?
Laura's discomfort with her social situation is shown mainly through dialogue. She hopes to stop the party to honor the dead man, but her counterparts laugh this idea off as improper. The proper socialites seem to be given bird-like qualities: Jose is called "the butterfly," Laura goes to meet the workers and "away she flew," then she "skimmed" back to the house. Birds do resonate in society as elegant and graceful, flying above all else. Perhaps Laura's mother is the mother bird pushing her chicks out of the nest and into the socialite world around them. That woman and Laura's sisters were a bit flighty. (Haha! Yes!) Laura's slight disconnect from her world is shown multiple times in her appreciation of nature. She comments on the beautiful day and the lovely air. She admires the work man who stops to smell the lavender. On the other hand, her family only worries about material things like the marque while Laura worries about the trees it will cover up.

So, I thought I did pretty well! I picked up on the meaning of the story, and sort of got how the author did it. My response was very similar to the examples.

Foster points out the similarities between Laura and Persephone. Those similarities are very, very close. I was pretty amazed. It added a new understanding to Laura's character and a timeless feel to the story. I personally am not up on my Greek myth knowledge, so I didn't recognize the similarity myself.

HTRLLAP: Chapter 21- Marked for Greatness

(You all know what book I'm going to pick for this)

The Phantom of the Opera. Love. Passion. Operas. Masks. As soon as I read this chapter about physical imperfections, Gaston Leroux's classic novel flooded my mind. Following musicals, movies, and sequels also feature the main character with a physical imperfection, but we need to go to the original. The original Phantom (his name is actually Erik) wears a full black face mask. Erik has deep, deep set yellow eyes that can only be seen in the dark giving him the look of a person with no eyes. His skin is pale, deathly white and slightly translucent. His lips are paper thin as though they are not there at all. Creepiest of all, the cartilage of his nose is absent leaving only two holes in his face. The same situation applies to his ears. He has about three long hairs sprouting from his otherwise bald head. Not quite the sunburn-looking, not that bad, forgettable next to Gerard Butler's beauty deformities of the 2004 movie. Anyway, Erik was born with his deformities, causing his mother to cast him aside and society to reject him. That's what led him to the Paris Opera House and the catacombs underneath.

Not only do his deformities cause his living situation, but, as previously suggested, they alter his relationships. Those who seem his are frightened. Those who are not frightened become his only allies. When his falls in love with the young Christene Daae, she is initially drawn to his lies about being an angel and his voice. Once she realizes what he looks like, she tries to run. Still, she's drawn to his musical power and deep sadness. But the Phantom is frightening, and Christene is naive and scared. Trouble ensues as the Phantom becomes obsessed with the girl who cannot stay away.

Marred from birth, the Phantom was cursed to a lonely existance. His story is troubling and depressing. All I want to do is give him a hug. The sad part is, I don't know if I could.

HTRLLAP: Interlude- One Story

Once again visiting the concept that no stories are wholly original, Foster throws in the word archetype. An archetype appears over and over in literary works. It is a basic "story component" (pg 191) that simply cannot be put to rest. They excite or interest us so much, that even archetypes found in modern books can provide the same desired reaction.

Here's am example: a race against time to save to world/human race/someone in danger. Our hero battles something or someone with a time limit, be it a bomb or a serial killer waiting to strike or a meteor heading towards earth. If he or she doesn't win, people die. The story creates suspense and that squirmy feeling readers get when they know this will end well but can't help doubt.

Surely countless works and stories are popping into your head. One I can remember? Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. In this first installment in the chronicles of Robert Langdon, the college professor/sybologist/adventurer must help the Swiss Guard find a small canister of anti-matter that simply awaits detonation. When the battery pack for the canister runs out, the anti-matter will hit the side of the canister and blow Vatican City and surrounding Rome off of the map. For the next 500 pages, Robert runs around the Vatican reading clues from ancient artwork and literature. The suspense is intense (That rhymed. Unintentional.) and readers are taken on a roller coaster journey. This is just one modern example of an ancient archetype.

HTRLLAP: Chapter 17- ...Except Sex.

*Guess what! More spoilers.*

When I first read the prompt for this assignment, I thought "there is no way that I have ever read or seen anything that even remotely suggests sex without saying it." Eventually, I realized that sexual allusions are everywhere, especially in movies like Moulin Rouge that want to keep a PG-13 rating. Then, I re-watched the mother lode of sexual suggestive-ness: Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Anyone who's seen RHPS knows that it's.... crazy. There's no other words. With a plot that is all over the place, a transvestite alien scientist, and raunchy inappropriate-ness everywhere, viewers must be warned. There are four major "almost sex" scenes. Each involve different characters and add immensely to characterizations and plot.

1. The first scene is between Dr. Frankenfurter and his sex toy creation, Rocky. After singing a lovely song about muscles and sweat, a curtain pulls back revealing a bed chamber as the marriage march plays. Rocky and Dr. Frankenfurter walk into it and as the curtain closes, Frankenfurter jumps on top of Rocky, straddling Rocky's chest with his legs. And we all know what happens next. What this shows is that Frankenfurter is infatuated with his creation, and Rocky has a rampant libido and no idea what's going on, making him easy to manipulate later in the movie.




2. Second, we see an interesting encounter between the heroine Janet Wise and Dr. Frankenfurter. Frankenfurter comes into Janet's dimly lit room and seduces her while disguised as Janet's fiancee Brad. When she realizes that her lover isn't Brad, she freaks out, but Frankenfurter convinces her to play along. Behind a screen, the two start kissing and we hear laughing as the screen goes dark. We see that Frankenfurter has a libido worse than Rocky and that he is very persuasive.But we also realize, that Janet isn't as uptight as she seems. She is gradually falling into the castle's decadence.




3. The third scene is almost verbatim to the second. This time however, Dr. Frankenfurter preys on Brad. Once again, using the same words, Frankenfurter convinces Brad to play along and the screen again goes black. It seems Brad has a weak will as well. Janet sees the two men (if you'd like to call Frankenfurter that) together on the camera screen, and she is driven straight into the arms of...




4. ...Rocky! She finds him crying after being chased by some very big dogs, and she just goes for it because she feels betrayed by Brad. Janet sings a very suggestive song and the two are last seen laying together in a box. Later, they're found holding cloth up to hide their naked bodies. This infuriates Frankenfurter and Brad, though both eventually forgive their partners.

From all this suggested sex, viewers clearly see that there is something erotic and strange going on in the castle. Well, they don't clearly see it, but it's understood. Straight up sex scenes would make RHPS just too much to handle. Suggested sex scenes make it awkward, but fun.

HTRLLAP: Chapter 15- Flights of Fancy

*Caution: Spoilers...? I think.*

In chapter 15, Foster elaborates on the effect of human flight in literature. He does leave out on category of character: characters that not only have wings, but are full-blown birds. Why would an author choose a bird as his main character? Or in the case of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, (What can I say? It's very symbolic and such.) why would the author choose a seagull, the most boring of birds?

I don't know much about seagulls, but from this novel, I learned that seagulls don't do much crazy, impressive flying. They just fly low in order to capture food. So, Jonathan Livingston's special flight isn't just a spurt of uneasy flying. His achievement consists of beautiful, majestic flight: high, fast, and dangerous. He uses it to metaphorically break free of the restrictions usually placed on low-flying seagulls and to literally break free of his binding bird clan when they exile him for being ridiculous.

Even when exiled, Jonathan Livingston continues to experiment with flight and the mental freedom he feels during it. This leads him to a fall from a great height to a rocky death. But then, Jonathan Livingston finds himself in a new dimension of higher existance where he can teleport. Each level of existance allows him to shed earthly boundaries and to experience greater freedom. Pretty trippy, right?