Circuses, Carnytowns & Sideshows

Samantha Carrick's INTD 100 Fall 2015

[glitterghoul]

did you know theres a whole database just for carnival photots??

[chadwickb-deactivated20160522]

7 years of Christmas

[generally]

this year was really hard … I’m tired

[tscsource]

Emeraude Toubia Lights Up a Set in Spanish

(via Shadowhunters TV)

[rooncymara]

[jillian-amy]

There’s literally no better quote from a show ever.

[carnivale2015]

[timewarp2015]

Sam’s email is down

Hey guys, Just a heads up: my email is down right now, so I might not be able to respond to you very quickly today. Ideally it will be back up soon. 

[carnivale2015]

The Circus in Winter

Cathy Days way of creating a simple and easy background  story for each character. The much appreciated setting aside of a chapter for a characters backstory was helpful for comprehension. In Billhook we are with Ollie the retired clown. His choice to retire was because of the death of his best friend JoJo the clown. When Mildred gave Ollie the bullhook I really thought that she was changing for the better but her attitude really leveled out back down to the salty old hag she is. But then again after Ollie dies Mildred says to the Jenny “Ill miss the old coot”. Some people try to hide their feelings deep down because of the fact that they want to be seen as a tough persona in order to  not get pushed around. We see a slight glimpse of her and her real feelings or how do I say this.... her real self comes out a couple times in order to show us that she can still be welllllll not a old salty hag. Jenny comes back into Lima and contemplates life and how different it would have been. But I think another theme of this story that pops up is that no matter what you do there could have been another option with a different outcome, some good and some bad. 

[carnivale2015]

Brutal, Man

     This was the only pulp fiction I’ve ever read, and I can honestly say that I liked it. I tried to watch the movie, but couldn’t get more than 20 minutes in without getting bored.

     Anyways, many of the stories didn’t seem too relevant to me until the end, and it seemed like it was just poorly trying to tie itself together. I was also disappointed by how you really got to know a character and then they’d just die.

     At least for some, there’d be another origin story later in the book, like with Mr. Bowles. Also, this book has so much death in it. Mass hordes of people and animals die throughout the book. Why must authors go to this. I mean, it’d be pretty unpredictable if that didn’t happen in ALL THE OTHER BOOKS that we read. Hell, this book even has the death of children. I think every chapter I’ve read in this book has at least one death.

     One thing I did like though was how everyone was more rational than in nights at the circus or geek love. Yes of course people are still doing dumb things, but I can at least see the reasoning behind said decisions. This book did have more developed characters than all the other ones, but that is mainly because each person got their own story, and it just threw itself together at the end.

[carnivale2015]

The King

In the chapter "The King and His Court" the story revolves around Laura. Ethan, who is Laura's boyfriend, is part of a fast-pitch softball team. He is about to go to college but his parents want him to take over the family business. Who knew owning a mortuary would be so lucrative? Ethan's family is rich while Laura's family is not. Not a lot is mentioned about Ethan's family but since the story follows Laura we learn that she and her mother have a rather bitter relationship. Because I guess the italics on page 174 were the meaning or something that they were thinking. When Laura gets pregnant she decides not to tell Ethan. Because she thinks it would interfere with his goals. So I guess she is a nice person. When Ethan finds out because Laura's mother tells his mother and Ethan he proposes and decides not to go to college. They said they are keeping this away from the fathers, why? Why would you not want the fathers to know. Also the last half of the last paragraph what is going on? What is she talking about?

[carnivale2015]

In the final chapters of Circus in the Winter, we see how some of the important symbols in the book are further made important. For example with the symbol we have been having in this book with elephants, how people are mean and beat the elephant but they really don’t realize that they can be pretty smart animals.  I think that is also links to the characteristic this book has and how it shows the perspectives of not just one age group but a variety from related family members throughout generations of the family.    I thought the last chapters also showed us more about Jenny.  Her mom motivated her to be the person she is and not the unhappy person that her mom became.  As it said in the book her mom told her, “find a city with a good radio station” (249), which I think means move to a big city where there is radio and lots of good music.  Another themes I thought I saw from Jenny moving back to Lima is that she is still herself, and just because you change the place you live, you are where you came from.  All in all, the last two chapters of the book were good.

[carnivale2015]

The Circus In Winter!!!!!

First and for most I would like to say that after reading this book I personally liked how well Cathy Day broke up each character  by giving their back story within each chapter of the book. In doing so, it made readers get a good understanding on each character and also find out the character’s differences and similarities among each chapter of the book. But in the last chapter, we focus on Ollie, son of hand who was a clown within a clown act with his friend Jojo to an owner of a dry cleaners named Clown Alley Cleaners. Within the chapter, we see the life story of Ollie, started from being born in a barn and progressing there. He did face some many tragedies such as not really knowing his father and also the sad death of his mother. Although, the book includes his life of adulthood. Some good time with Jojo as they go out into town and have sex with line up girls. In addition, as he started to get older, he feel in love with Mildred and married her when she was sixteen. The relationship again was a good one but they still keep together going through the ups and down of the circus and their lives.

[carnivale2015]

I can't think of anything witty for my title this time

I sit there reading the last few chapters and then there was an EXPLOSION like the Death Star with in my head because my mind was blown. I enjoyed the book the full way through but those last chapters really made it for me. Specifically the second to last chapter going over ollies life I had so many revelations and was like "oooh " and "I get it now " and "ahhh" (mainly cause I'm stupid and didn't get it until layer out in front of me ). Then I think that ollies main problem was his inability to let go of things mainly the past and that good damn bullhook. Like I get it , your past sucked and hurts but like if he would have let that the hook and his past go in the beginning of it all he would have been a better person and not a coo coo person by the end. He was just so caught up on being like his father and looking at his life as like a guide and then got so lost after passing the age his father died at. Yet again another book where I am left utterly confused with how to feel for the main character at the end of the story cause they are put through a lot of shit through their lives in the book but then they also do a lot of shity things so it's like "I feel bad for you but like you kinda sucked " I give this book a "yea I mean it was good" which is like a 7.8756 out of 10 ALSO SADNESS this is the last post that's why this ones extra ranty and good. #lastpostoftheclass #artyisdick #samisaboss

[carnivale2015]

The Circus in Winter

I want to talk about The Bullhook chapter. Nettie is going into labor and screaming from the pain and nobody is paying her any attention. Cathy Day goes to state that the neighbors chose to ignore her shrieks as they’ve grown accustomed to Nettie’s and Hans late night scuffles. That’s just savage, if i was Nettie, i would be so upset with everyone that once the child came out of my body, i would leave and take care of my own damn self. I don’t care if i may be struggling in life, at least i know i have myself to care for me. Also, can someone clarify for me what happened to Ollie’s parents? From what i understand, they drowned? i am probably way off, but there was a sections within this chapter where it is stated “sound of water rushing into lungs.” He also stated they were looking not at him, but through him. Some sort of angel or elephant. I’ve come to the conclusion that the elephant within this story is someone who is constantly misunderstood. The elephant comes off as someone who appears domineering and is inclined to a violent lifestyle. However, getting to know the elephant, people will see they are truly harmless creatures. I think this idea of an elephant appearing like this can be related back to the people who own the circuses. When they are under the circus tents, they need to assert their dominance to the rest of the crew to minimize any chance of the circus being overthrown by performers. However, when the owner goes home to their significant other, they are sweet and loving and would die to please and keep their partner more than happy. 

[carnivale2015]

The Circus in Winter

After reading this section of the book we learn the back story of Ollie the son of Hans. To me it seems like his wife, Mildred hates him. She wants nothing to do with him. Mildred seems very shy and reserved toward Ollie but I feel that it is the age difference between them. Mildred is only sixteen years old at the time Ollie first meets her. Another thing that was confusing was the ending scene where Ollie is in the Hospital and he keeps talking about the angels are trying to get him. I feel this has a connection with the scene where he is on the frozen river and is making a snow angel. “Ollie lay down over his father’s body and flailed his arms and legs. And the Ollie was gone, leaving a perfect angel pressed into the snow.” And what the heck is a bullhook? Throughout the whole chapter Ollie was obsessed with it. Why would he keep something that has a horrible story behind it?

[carnivale2015]

last tumblr post

This book went by so fast! I guess that’s the glory of finals approaching. anyways this book has so many different themes! I don’t think much of us saw in the beginning how important the elephants are in this book. We first saw the battered and maimed elephant in the first few chapters, then we saw the abused elephant that ended up retaliating, and now we have this elephant that has like some kind of magical powers I guess? I don’t mean that literally but the whole like “touch him and live forever” (well 100 years) was pretty magical in a sense. I don’t know what to make of it to be completely honest. I would say the theme behind the elephants can be something like “animals have feelings too”. it sounds kind of elementary but I mean the actions of the people reflect on the animals too. One thing I kept on wondering was what if Jenny did stay. She mentions it in the chapter, she asks ‘what would it be like if I stay” and honestly I think things would have been so uneventful. sometimes you need to explore and find what’s out there. I also agree with the others when they say they enjoy the outline and layout of the story. I didn’t realize it was an anthology sort of book in the beginning, but gosh did I love it. the thing I found most interesting is that if you read the like acknowledgements at the end of the book, Cathy Day explains each chapter and her inspiration for each chapter. most of them were real things that happened in her life or her family’s life and I think it’s amazing how she turned it into a book. 

[carnivale2015]

The Circus People

I believe this was the perfect story to end the book on.

I find it so interesting how there are two kinds of people: circus people and town people. I think a lot of the times it’s really hard for people to leave their hometowns, because it’s all they know. Jenny got an extra push from her mom to leave, and I think that is a BIG reason she was actually able to leave. I think that Jenny didn’t really leave only because she was ambitious, but because she saw her mother’s unhappiness. Maybe seeing her mother have an affair and be unhappy at home motivated her. She didn’t want her future to look like that. 

I think it is a pattern in the book that people take each other for granted. Like in the previous chapters when Wallace wants to drown his wife with material things, I believe people continue to ignore the actual needs of their loved once. I think a main reason that Laura left was because she was always taking care of people. Sometimes you have to just focus on yourself and leaving allowed her to start fresh. I think it’s a very prominent theme in the book. I also kind of saw that in Jenny’s dream when she lead David out of the party; she was taking care of him instead of enjoying herself. People tend to explode and get tired of caring for others.